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Liberia students all fail university admission exam

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© Unknown
Liberia's education minister says she finds it hard to believe that not a single candidate passed this year's university admission exam.

Nearly 25,000 school-leavers failed the test for admission to the University of Liberia, one of two state-run universities.

The students lacked enthusiasm and did not have a basic grasp of English, a university official told the BBC.

Liberia is recovering from a brutal civil war that ended a decade ago.

'Dreams shattered'

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel peace laureate, recently acknowledged that the education system was still in a "in a mess", and much needed to be done improve it.

Handcuffs

Mumbai gang-rape: Indian police arrest fifth man

mumbai rapist
© Danish Siddiqui/ReutersPolice officers escort one of the men arrested in connection with the gang-rape of a photojournalist at a court in Mumbai on Sunday.
Police say charges will be filed soon as last of five men wanted in connection with assault on photojournalist is picked up in Delhi.


Police have arrested the last of five men wanted in connection with the gang-rape of a photojournalist in Mumbai.

They said charges would be filed soon in a case that has caused public outrage and renewed the debate over whether women can be safe in India.

The victim, a 22-year-old Indian woman, said she was anxious to return to work after Thursday night's assault, in which five men repeatedly raped her while her male colleague was beaten and tied up in an abandoned textile mill in the country's financial capital.

A statement from Jaslok hospital, where the woman has been since the attack, said her condition was being monitored but that she was "much better" and is being visited by her family. Indian law forbids identifying rape victims by name.

Police arrested the fifth suspect on Sunday in Delhi, the capital, after rounding up the other four in Mumbai.

Attention

Transgender Harlem woman dies days after being assaulted in hate crime attack

Islan Nettles, 21, was brutally assaulted early Saturday morning on Frederick Douglass Blvd., cops said.


A bigoted thug brutally beat a transgender woman to death in Harlem just moments after realizing his friend was actually born a man, the victim's family and officials said Friday.

It was the latest in a series of troubling bias attacks in the city, which is on pace to double the number of crimes against the gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual community in 2013 compared with last year.

In the most recent assault, Paris Wilson, 20, repeatedly punched Islan Nettles, 21, in the face after he and a group of friends spewed slurs at the victim, cops said.

Nettles had two Facebook profiles - one identifying himself as man and using his birth name, Vaughn Nettles, and another as a woman.

Wilson was friends with Nettles' "female profile," the victim's family said.

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Delores Nettles said her son was walking with two transgender friends on W. 147th St. near Frederick Douglass Blvd. early on Aug. 17 when the conflict began in front of a police stationhouse.

"As Islan turned around and started arguing, (Wilson) beat him and he knocked my baby on the floor," she said. "And he kept beating and beating and beating my baby."

Cops said Wilson - about to enter his senior year at Buffalo State University - continued the beatdown, even after Nettles fell backward and struck his head on the pavement.

One of Nettles' friends ran inside and alerted cops, who found the victim "unconscious on the ground with a swollen shut eye and blood on her face," according to a criminal complaint.

Police arrested Wilson on a misdemeanor assault charge after Nettles' friend identified him.

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© Susan Watts/New York Daily NewsNettles was on life support at Harlem Hospital.

Comment: Recently, alleged "Pot Mom" Andrea Sanderlin was released on $500,000.00 bail after being arrested for growing weed in NY. A homophobic neanderthal beats a transgendered woman to death directly in front of the Police Station, and he is released on $2000.00 bail.

When your government considers growing a plant to be a more serious crime than taking a human life, it's wayyyy past time to replace your government.


Sheriff

Police attack-dog mauls innocent man during warrantless search of private property

"Hey puppy," he said when he saw a strange dog in his workplace after-hours. Then it lunged at him and gnawed on his leg.

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A kitchen manager visiting his place of work after hours was mauled by a police attack dog, which was released into the property with the purpose of seeking out and attacking anyone it found. Police defend the actions of the dog, saying "He did what he was supposed to do."

Mark Demaline manages the kitchen of Park Place Tavern in Livingston, and on August 22, was visiting the business at 2:00 AM, which he often does, to eat before going home. His routine visits are brief, as he makes a quick salad, grabs his laptop, and leaves. He does not lock the door while in the tavern, reports the Livingston Enterprise.

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© Shawn Raecke, Livingston EnterpriseMark Demaline shows off his wounds.
Unbeknownst to Demaline, police had decided to perform a "standard downtown security check," which involves entering a private business without probable cause or a warrant, snooping around inside and releasing an attack dog to sniff out intruders, without permission from the owner.

Mark had prepared himself a take-home salad and prepared to exit the building, with food and drink in hand. A strange black dog approached him.

Being a dog lover, Demaline greeted the dog, "Hey puppy." The dog lunged at him and sank its teeth into his leg, gnawing his flesh with repeated bites. Mark dropped everything and began screaming and trying to restrain the attack dog.

Comment: The Police train a poor dog to be a vicious killer, then release the animal they've turned into a lethal weapon onto any private property they find to be unsecured. No warning call, no effort to insure there aren't any innocent (and legal) occupants, even children, on the property. They are not charged with any crime for their grossly irresponsible behavior, nor disciplined in any way.

This is the new normal in the United Police State of America.


Penis Pump

North Carolina agrees to compensate sterilization victims for 45-year eugenics program

Eugenics North Carolina
© (Reuters / Adrees Latif)The Charlotte, North Carolina
After a ten-year deliberation process, North Carolina is set to be the first state to offer monetary compensation to victims of government-sponsored sterilization.

Between 1929 and 1974, the state sterilized an estimated 7,600 people by choice, force or coercion under the authority of the North Carolina Eugenics Board program.

The North Carolina General Assembly in late July approved compensation for the remaining victims of the sterilization program. State Governor Pat McCrory signed into law the $10 million compensation package -- to be distributed among living victims -- as part of the state's $20.6 billion budget shortly after the General Assembly's vote. Verified victims will be issued a share by 2015.

The number of victims alive in 2013 is unknown. However, the state Center for Health Statistics estimates that 2,944 victims may be living as of 2010. Less than 200 people have come forward with sterilization claims, Charmaine Fuller-Cooper, former director of the North Carolina Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation, told CNN.

Info

Maldives girl spared lashes after global anger

Maldives
© Wikipedia, Creative CommonsMalé, capital of Maldives.
A 15-year-old girl who was sentenced to 100 lashes in the Maldives after she was raped by her step-father has had the sentence overturned thanks to an international campaign.

Earlier this year, the girl, whose name cannot be released, was accused of engaging in premarital sex. In February she was sentenced to receive 100 lashes as punishment for "fornication", and she was put under house arrest on an island near the capital Malé. Premarital sex is illegal in the Maldives, and flogging is a legal and accepted punishment for it.

The sentence, issued by a juvenile court, sparked anger from women's rights groups in the country and triggered a global campaign, led by the Avaaz network, calling for the sentence to be overturned. Two million people reportedly signed this petition.

Bug

One million cockroaches reportedly flee farm in China

Cockroach
© University of NebraskaAmerican cockroach - Periplaneta americana egg through adult stage pictured.
At least one million cockroaches have reportedly escaped from a farm in China where they were being bred for use in traditional medicine.

The cockroaches fled the facility in Dafeng, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, for surrounding cornfields after an "unknown perpetrator" destroyed the plastic greenhouse where they were raised, the Modern Express newspaper said.

Disease control authorities have sent five investigators to the area to come up with a plan to stamp out the insects. Farm owner Wang Pengsheng invested more than 100,000 yuan ($18,100) in 102 kilograms of Periplaneta americana eggs after spending six months developing a business plan, the report said.

By the time the greenhouse was damaged, more than 1.5 million cockroaches had hatched and were being fed food including "fruits and biscuits" every day, Wang was quoted as saying. He had expected to make around $180 profit for every kilogram of cockroaches sold, according to the report, but was now facing losses of hundreds of thousands of yuan.

The cockroach is generally considered a pest but believers in traditional Chinese medicine - which uses both plants and animals, including endangered species - say extracts from it can treat diseases including cancer, reduce inflammation and improve immunity.

Bizarro Earth

Plague of wild pigs has U.S. authorities squealing

Wild Hogs
© The Birmingham News FileWild hogs, also known as feral swine, are invading Fort Benning and nearby Columbus, Georgia.
Locust Grove, Oklahoma - A few years ago, Jim Vich would not have dreamed of setting up an elaborate trap to catch wild hogs.

But that was before Oklahoma was invaded by a plague of pigs that devour crops, uproot pastures, destroy wildlife habitats, spread disease to humans and animals, kill trees and even knock over cemetery stones.

"I started trapping them more or less in self-defense," said Vich, 60, a livestock farmer in northeast Oklahoma. "They were tearing up my place."

Oklahoma is battling a wild pig problem that has spread across the United States. The pigs, evolved from introduced wild boars or from escaped domestic stock, are prevalent in 36 states and have been sighted in 47 states, according to authorities who track their populations.

They are vicious critters that typically grow to 200 pounds, can run 30 miles per hour, jump three feet high and climb out of traps with walls up to six feet high, experts say.

"They are the ultimate survivors," said John Mayer, manager of the environmental science group at the Savannah River National Laboratory in Aiken, South Carolina. "They can live pretty much anywhere, eat pretty much anything, they don't have enough predators and they reproduce faster than any other mammal."

They seldom appear in the daytime making them hard to count, but Mayer estimates there are 5.5 million feral pigs nationwide. There could be up to 8 million, up from a maximum 2 million in 1990, he said.

Snakes in Suits

Deadline for Indianapolis homeless camp Monday morning


The deadline for people living in one of the city's largest homeless camps is fast approaching.

The city has given notice and posted signs alerting the 50-plus people still living in a homeless camp beneath the CSX railroad tracks on Davidson Street to be gone by Monday.

Eyewitness News has learned many of those at the homeless camp will not move and risk getting arrested.

"I like living here because it's the only place I got to go, said homeless camp member "Carolina."

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"Carolina" said he's lived in this tent under the CSX railroad tracks on Davidson Street for the last year. Saturday, he packed up a few of his belongings.

"Clothes, documents and applications," said "Carolina."

"Carolina" is one of at least 50-people who call this outdoor area downtown, their home.

Last week, the City posted signs outlining that CSX needs to inspect and do work on the railroad tracks. The signs outlines that no one will be allowed to live in this construction zone.

"No, No, We are not going to move," said camp member Marcus Young.

Maurice Young said his homeless community will face that Monday morning deadline, head-on.

He said the City is trying to "hide" the homeless problem.

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"I think it time to take a stand. The hide the homeless thing is done. Not just for this camp but for all the homeless that live in Indianapolis," said Young.

Young also told Eyewitness News he believes members of several outreach communities will stand by him in protest on Monday.

Young said members of the homeless community have talked about being arrested Monday and have promised not to fight back.

"We've had that discussion. We will peacefully go where ever they want us to go. No violence," said Young.

Comment: Privatize the prison system, foreclose on 2-3 MILLION homes per year, then criminalize homelessness. Waalaa, instant slave labor force.
This is what Corporate Psychopaths call a "Good Business Strategy"


Arrow Down

'The Beast' cargo train derails in Mexico; 5 stowaways killed

La Bestia
© AP Photo/Eduardo VerdugoMigrants ride on top of a northbound train toward the U.S.-Mexico border in Juchitan in southern Mexico on Monday, April 29, 2013. Migrants crossing Mexico to get to the U.S. have increasingly become targets of criminal gangs who kidnap them to obtain ransom money.
A cargo train nicknamed La Bestia, or "The Beast," carrying at least 250 stowaway Honduran migrants, derailed in southern Mexico on Sunday morning, killing five people, officials said.

Luis Felipe Puente, national emergency service coordinator, said on Twitter that 35 people were injured, 16 seriously, Reuters reported.

Authorities have not released details about what caused the crash, which occurred around 3 a.m. local time (4 a.m. EDT) in the municipality of Huimanguillo, CNN reported.

Thousands of migrants hitch rides on freight trains heading north toward the United States. On La Bestia, they often huddle on rooftops and cram between cars, CNN said.

A photograph from the scene showed freight cars on their sides next to the tracks, Reuters reported. Officials said eight of the 12 cars overturned.