Society's ChildS


Pistol

2 gunmen open fire at Chicago basketball court, at least 13 wounded, including 3-year-old


RT
Fri, 20 Sep 2013 21:48 UTC
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© Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFPPolice investigate the scene in Cornell Square Park on the Southside where 11 people including a three-year-old child were shot on September 19, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois.
Chicago police say two gunmen attacked a crowd on a park basketball court, with at least 13 people injured in the shooting, including three-year-old, their conditions from serious to critical. The gunmen haven't been taken into custody yet.

Chicago Fire Department officials report the child is in critical condition.

"They hit the light pole next to me, but I ducked down and ran into the house," Julian Harris, uncle of the wounded child, said. "They've been coming round here looking for people to shoot every night, just gang-banging stuff. It's what they do."

A witness at the scene told the Chicago Tribune that three police officers carried the child to an ambulance.

"I didn't hear any sounds from the child," the witness said.
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Info

China's smallest ethnic group seeks new future in Himalayas

WangXin、Yao Chun
PeopleDaily, China
Fri, 20 Sep 2013 21:26 UTC
Lhoba People
© ChinaTibetNewsLhoba people in traditional costumes.

Wearing beaded necklaces and traditional wool costumes, members of the Lhoba people dance around the Yin-Yang tree, a real-life version of the Tree of Souls from the movie Avatar.

Unlike the mysterious Na'Vis, the Lhoba people, with a total population of more than 3100, are performing a traditional sword dance to entertain visitors to the forest-concealed area in the southeast of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

"The costume has been listed as the nation's intangible cultural heritage," said Dawa Chodron, a 31-year-old local tour guide who has returned to her hometown after graduating from a high school in a second-tier city in southwest China.

The sword dance is a Lhoba tradition celebrating harvest, hunting or the practice of becoming sworn brothers, according to Chodron.

"Visitors from home and abroad are also attracted by our ancestral customs and religious practices," she said.

The Lhoba, one of China's smallest ethnic minorities in terms of population, live mainly in Mainling County of Nyingchi Prefecture in Tibet.

Located near the Brahmaputra River, Chodron's hometown of Qionglin Village in Nanyi Lhoba Ethnic Township is the largest inhabitation for the ethnic group.

Chodron's ancestors were the first cultivators in the Himalaya mountains, but they led a primitive life even as late as 1950.
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Camcorder

Bashar al-Assad interview with Fox News: 'We did not use chemical weapons', says Syrian President


Fox News
Thu, 19 Sep 2013 15:41 UTC
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Syrian President Bashar Assad, in an exclusive interview with Fox News, claimed he is fully committed to carrying out a plan to turn over and destroy his government's chemical weapons -- while continuing to deny responsibility for last month's deadly chemical weapons attack despite new evidence that officials say implicates the Assad regime.

Assad acknowledged that his government has chemical weapons. "It's not a secret anymore," he said, referencing his government's decision to join the international Chemical Weapons Convention.

Assad also said that the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack, in which more than 1,000 people reportedly died, was a violation of international law. "That's self-evident," he said. "This is despicable. It's a crime."

Yet Assad adamantly denied that his government was behind the attack, continuing to push the theory that the opposition was behind the strike.

"We have evidence that terrorist groups (have) used sarin gas," he said. "The whole story (that the Syrian government used them) doesn't even hold together. ... We didn't use any chemical weapons."
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Che Guevara

Tens of thousands of Tunisians rally against Islamist government


al Jazeera
Sun, 08 Sep 2013 15:01 UTC
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© AFP / Fethi BelaidTunisians chant slogans in front of the National Constituent Assembly on August 6, 2013 in Tunis.
Tens of thousands of Tunisians have taken to the streets to renew their demands that the Islamist-led government step down and end a political deadlock threatening the North African country's fledgling democracy.

Saturday's rally was the largest protest since Tunisia's crisis erupted over the killing of an opposition leader in July, increasing pressure on the ruling Ennahda party to make way for a caretaker government before proposed elections.

Waving red and white national flags and pictures of slain opposition leader Mohamed Brahmi, protesters packed streets around a building where a national assembly had been drafting a new constitution until its work was suspended due to unrest.

Protesters gathered at Bab Saadoun, on the outskirts of Tunis, before marching to Bardo square, the scene of regular protests after the killing of Brahmi.
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Pistol

Greek prime minister calls for calm after leftwing musician murdered by Golden Dawn fascist

Helena Smith
The Guardian
Thu, 19 Sep 2013 05:26 UTC
Antonis Samaras says differences must not be settled with violence after Golden Dawn member is accused over killing.
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© John D Carnessiotis/AP Pavlos Fyssas, known as Killah P, performing in 2011.
Link to video: Greek PM calls for calm after stabbing of leftwing musician

The Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, has appealed for calm, urging people to settle "differences democratically" after the murder of a leading leftwing musician allegedly at the hands of a member of the far right Golden Dawn party unleashed a wave of violent clashes overnight.

As thousands gathered in Athens to attend the funeral of the anti-fascist hip-hop artist Pavlos Fyssas, the conservative leader said his ruling coalition would not tolerate neo-Nazis destabilising the debt-stricken country.

"This is not a time for internal disputes or tension. We all know our country is at an extremely critical point," he told Greeks in a televised addressed referring to the bankrupt nation's worst financial crisis in modern times.
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Heart

Dairy Queen employee standing up for a blind man

Oliver Darcy
The Blaze
Wed, 18 Sep 2013 05:05 UTC
A Minnesota Dairy Queen has been swarmed with dozens of phone calls, hundreds of comments and an influx of business after a story about their 19-year-old manager's courageous defense of a blind man went viral on Reddit.

Joey Prusak, who has been working at the popular fast-food restaurant for nearly five years, told TheBlaze Wednesday he was "shocked" and "sickened" by what he saw happen to a blind man at the hands of an elderly lady.
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© FacebookJoey Prusak, 19.
Prusak said that last Tuesday, one of his frequent guests, a man who is blind, walked into the local Dairy Queen. When the blind man took out his wallet to pay, a $20 bill slipped out of his pocket. An elderly woman behind the blind man then quickly snatched the bill off the floor and put it into her purse.

Prusak took matters into his own hands.

"She walked up to the counter and I asked her to please return the $20 bill to the gentleman. She looked at me like 'what are you talking about,'" Prusak said, recounting the incident to TheBlaze. "I asked her again to return it and she said, 'No, it's mine I just dropped it.' I told her I'm not going to serve you if you are going to be disrespectful as you are stealing someone's money like that."
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Better Earth

Best of the Web: This three minute commercial puts full-length Hollywood films to shame

Neetzan Zimmerman
Gawker
Thu, 19 Sep 2013 16:14 UTC

It certainly says something about the state of Hollywood today that a three minute ad produced at a fraction of the cost of most movies is more moving and poignant than almost anything the big studios have to offer.

The Thai telecommunications conglomerate True is getting rave reviews worldwide for its latest spot, "Giving," which tells the story of a man unexpectedly rewarded for a lifetime of good deeds he performed without expecting anything in return.

TrueMove too says it "believes in the power of giving without expecting a return."

Which would probably be more meaningful if they were to, say, give away their services and devices for free. Which they are not. But what the company lacks in commitment to its own philosophy, it more than makes up for in inspirational advertising.
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Black Cat 2

Mutilated and decapitated cats found in Florida County


Maimi Herald
Thu, 19 Sep 2013 20:00 UTC
Lynn Haven -- Bay County investigators are trying to find out who - or what - is behind a series of cat decapitations.

Two decapitated cats were found in the Panhandle neighborhood of Lynn Haven this week and another cat was found earlier this month.

The News Herald of Panama City reported an investigator from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation says it appears the first cat was killed in an intentional manner.

But Lynn Haven Police Chief David Messer told the newspaper that a coyote is the prime suspect.

Martin Main, a wildlife researcher, believes further testing will confirm that the cats were not killed by a coyote, adding that a coyote would not have left any of the cat's remains behind.

Investigators are waiting further testing.

Source: The Associated Press
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Blackbox

Mystery fever grips Moradabad, India - over 26,000 sick


TimesofIndia.com
Thu, 19 Sep 2013 16:19 UTC
A mystery fever has affected more than 26,000 people in Bhojpur area of Moradabad.

Taking cognizance of the matter, the health department had sent a team of experts to the affected area to take stock of the situation. The team, headed by director communicable diseases and epidemic control, Dr MK Gupta, submitted a status report to the health department on Thursday. The team also took the blood samples of some patients and sent them to the National Center for Disease Control lab in Delhi for analysis.

Dr MK Gupta has attributed the mystery fever to high pathogen burden in Bhojpur. Pathogens are disease causing micro organisms, such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses, commonly found in sewage, rotting household waste, run-off water from farms and open drains. "The main source of pathogens in Bhojpur are illegal slaughter houses which feed the big ones in the main city. A visit to the affected area explains why people are taking ill," he said.

He added that almost every second household in the affected ghetto is into scrap dealing of e-waste. This means that there is no dearth of spots for rainwater to collect and facilitate the breeding of mosquitoes. Since Moradabad is an industrial area the general suspended particulate matter volume in the air is high. This makes the heat index or the levels of humidity and heat of the place high, said the expert.
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Bizarro Earth

Two-headed calf born in Oregon


KBOI2
Wed, 18 Sep 2013 12:00 UTC
Two Headed Calf
© Heidi Kirschbaum
Jamieson -- Heidi Kirschbaum didn't believe the details of the phone call were real.

Or, maybe it was a joke.

But Heidi's sister-in-law, Charlan, who was down at the family farm, wasn't joking.

"It wasn't alive when we saw it," Kirschbaum said. "But it had one neck, two ears and four eyes."

Kirscbhaum told KBOI 2News that a two-headed calf was born on the family farm in Jamieson, Ore., in Malheur County on Monday. When Heidi and the rest of the family arrived in the field, the calf was already dead. The calf's mother is doing fine.

"You do a double-take and say, wait a minute, whoa," she said.

Word has spread throughout the farming community about the two-headed calf -- especially after kindergarten class. Heidi's daughter, Holly, asked if she could share the calf for show and tell.

"We brought pictures to her class -- the kids and the teacher really enjoyed it," she said.

The family isn't sure what it plans to do with the head. It's now ice cold in a freezer at the family farm.

"We know it doesn't happen very often, but it happened to us," she said.
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