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Greece's mystery girl's mother found: DNA tests confirm Bulgarian Roma woman is blond child's biological parent

Mystery girl
© AP/Greek Police
Sofia, Bulgaria -- DNA tests have confirmed that a 35-year-old Bulgarian Roma woman is the mother of a mysterious girl in Greece known as Maria, authorities said Friday.

Genetic profile of Sasha Ruseva matched that of the girl, said Svetlozar Lazarov, an Interior Ministry official.

Ruseva has said she gave birth to a baby girl four years ago in Greece while working as an olive picker, and gave the child away because she was too poor to care for her.

Maria has been placed in temporary care since last week after authorities raided a Roma settlement in central Greece and later discovered that girl was not the child of the couple she was living were not her parents.

Costas Yannopoulos, director of the Greek children's charity "Smile of the Child" which has been looking after the girl said he had no comment on her fate.

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Hundreds of thousands lose insurance due to 'Affordable' Care Act

Affordable Care Act
© AFP Photo / Joe RaedleAffordable Care Act navigator Nini Hadwen speaks with clients as they shop for health insurance.
The ongoing issues with President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act don't end with the insurance mandate's awful website: new reports suggest Obamacare is driving the cost of coverage up for some, and eliminating it entirely for others.

Almost one month after launch, the websites for the president's hallmark health care plan continue to be riddled with issues that have opened up entirely new opportunities for opponents of so-called "Obamacare" to pounce upon. Perhaps more damaging to the reputation of the administration, however, are preliminary reports suggesting that the insurance program is failing to meet the promises made by the president.

Specifically, investigative journalists say the Affordable Care Act is already causing long-time policy holders to be kicked off of their insurance plans, and in some areas others only the have the option of one or two providers - and not at a pretty price.

Anna Gorman and Julie Appleby write for Kaiser Health News that hundreds of thousands of United States citizens who had purchased policies already are having their plans cancelled by health insurance companies because the Affordable Care Act mandates that providers offer customers specific policies that some groups currently don't offer.

Che Guevara

Best of the Web: Actor Russell Brand reduces BBC newsman to stunned silence with scathing critique of the global corporate oligarchy

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Actor and comedian Russell Brand is calling for a political and philosophical revolution in his guest editorship of the New Statesman magazine, and he explained what he wants to see in a passionately argued interview on BBC's "Newsnight."

Combative host Jeremy Paxman asked the British actor, who's known for his past drug use and his brief marriage to pop singer Katy Perry, what gave him the right to promote his political beliefs, particularly since he's never voted.

"I don't get my authority from this preexisting paradigm, which is quite narrow and only serves a few people," Brand said. "I look elsewhere for alternatives that might be of service to humanity."

He continued, issuing reams of prose even as the veteran TV reporter challenged him to defend his arguments.

"I am not not voting out of apathy," Brand said. "I am not voting out of absolute indifference and weariness and exhaustion from the lies, treachery and deceit of the political class that has been going on for generations."


Star of David

After handshake, Jewish squatter child stones six-year-old Palestinian

The children of Israel's land-thieving squatters learn hatred at an early age, as this report by Mairav Zonszein, published by +972 Magazine shows.


In the above video (watch from about 1 minute, 30 seconds), filmed by Amir Bitan, an Israeli Ta'ayush activist,
Thamer Ibrahim Alayan, a six-year-old Palestinian child from the Umm-al-Ara'is village in the South Hebron Hills, is seen going up to shake the hand of a settler child from the illegal outpost of Mitzpeh Yair. Thamer is first seen being escorted away from the settlement by a Border Policeman, presumably to prevent a confrontation between the two. However, Thamer returns to the settler and, after the two shake hands in an almost moving moment, the settler child picks up a rock and throws it at Thamer.
One doesn't have to try too hard to imagine what this settler child - and tens of thousands of others like him - will grow up like.

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Massachusetts student charged after teacher's body found in woods

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A well-liked teacher was found slain in woods behind this quiet Massachusetts town's high school, and a 14-year-old boy who was found walking along a state highway overnight was charged with killing her.

Blood found in a second-floor school bathroom helped lead investigators to the body of Colleen Ritzer, a 24-year-old math teacher at Danvers High School who was reported missing when she didn't come home from work on Tuesday, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said.

"She was a very, very respected, loved teacher," Blodgett said.

The suspect, Philip Chism, was arraigned on a murder charge Wednesday and ordered held without bail. The teenager, described by classmates as soft-spoken and pleasant, also did not come home from school the day before and was spotted walking along Route 1 in the neighboring town of Topsfield at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Officials didn't release a cause of death and haven't discussed a motive in the killing.

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Motorcycle road rage: New video emerges

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A group of motorcyclists encircle Lien’s SUV
Eyewitness News has obtained new video of the assault on an SUV driver by a group of motorcycle riders last month.

The video, obtained by Eyewitness News reporter Darla Miles, comes from a witness to the incident. Police have seen the video, which we warn you is violent and graphic.

The expletive-laden video could answer key questions about the case of road rage.

The assault lasts about 20 seconds and shows shows bikers gathered around Alexian Lien, stomping on him and beating him.

Sources tell Eyewitness News that 40-year-old Jason Brown is the man seen beating Lien with his helmet, hitting him so hard the visor broke.


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South Carolina soup kitchen director bans atheist volunteers, saying they would be a 'disservice to this community'

You may recall that the Upstate Atheists from Spartanburg, South Carolina attempted to volunteer at the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen this past spring:
Upstate Atheists
© Patheos.com
Unfortunately, their efforts were thwarted by the group's director. She said the soup kitchen was a "place of God" and atheists weren't welcome. The members still offered to volunteer without wearing their group-identifying shirts - it's all about helping people, not about publicity, after all - but that idea was also rejected.

The atheists then decided they would help people in a different way. They would get a permit from the city, create care packages for the homeless, and give them away across the street from the soup kitchen.
Each care package costs about $15 to assemble. They have socks, gloves, toothpaste, hand sanitizer, snacks, mini flashlights, lip balm, ponchos, etc.

We are hoping to help the homeless prepare for the winter and give them thing they will be able to use.
They wanted to raise $2,000 and you all helped them surpass that goal. (Great job!)

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At least 3 sea lions that washed ashore In Malibu died of gunshot wounds


  • Malibu - At least three sea lions that washed ashore in Malibu earlier this month died of gunshot wounds, according to wildlife rescuers.

    Jonsie Ross with the California Wildfire Center said sea lion shootings happen every year in October when squid fishing season begins.

    "When the fishing season starts, October 1, yeah, we actually have documented more sea lion shootings," she said.

    The process to attract the squid to the surface of the water, which involves switching on a light, also attracts sea lions.

    The coast off Malibu is a popular area for squid fishing.

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    Dog shot and killed by police officer in front of owner and her 2-Year-old son

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    © Gabrielle Stropaki
    A pet dog was shot dead in front of its owner and her two-year-old son by a police officer in Boise, Idaho.

    Owner Gabrielle Stropaki and her son Hayden loved the dog, named Kita, dearly and are heartbroken that she was killed. Police say that they were responding to a report of theft in the neighborhood when the dog ran up to them. They say they felt threatened.

    "In about five seconds he pulled his weapon, asked whose dog it was, and shot her in the back of the head," said Stropaki.

    Neighbors who witnessed the incident also claimed that the dog gave a couple of barks at the officer, but that the dog wasn't trying to attack him. Stropaki maintains that she had let the dog out of the house to go to the bathroom without a leash and that she was watching him, along with her 2-year-old son. She says that her son witnessed the shooting as well.

    Now the family is outraged and says that the officer acted irrationally.

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    Revealed: Mafia's prime role in human-trafficking misery

    Mafia and Human Trafficking
    © The Independent, UK
    The role of Italian mobsters in human trafficking - of the kind that saw more than 350 African migrants perish off the coast of Lampedusa in a single boat disaster earlier this month - has been laid bare by police.

    Members of Mafia organisations work with crime syndicates in Egypt to charge would-be illegal immigrants for the dangerous voyage from Africa to Italy - and then hold them prisoner in horrendous conditions, to extort more money from the migrants and their families, according to police reports carried by La Repubblica.

    Dramatic video evidence has emerged of one of the worst cases, which occurred on 23 September 2011. After paying an Egyptian crime clan to be taken by boat to Sicily, 22 Egyptian men were seized when they landed in the port of Rutta e Ciauli, near Syracuse, and locked in a dark basement for eight days without food or water. Their captors refused to release them until their families wired more money to their captors.

    After police freed them on 30 September, the migrants said they had only managed to survive by drinking rainwater that dripped into the dungeon.

    In video footage of the moment in which police break into their prison, one policeman told the reporter: "They were herded like rats... the smell was nauseating."