Society's ChildS


Attention

ACT justice minister says even he was kept in dark over secret prisoner

Christopher Knaus
The Guardian
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 07:29 UTC
Shane Rattenbury
© Lukas Coch/AAPACT minister Shane Rattenbury criticises federal government over mystery prisoner in Canberra jail.
The Australian Capital Territory's justice minister, Shane Rattenbury, has slammed the federal government for the "disturbing" and "extraordinary" secrecy it imposed on the prosecution and imprisonment of a mystery inmate facing unknown charges.

Rattenbury said the secrecy was such that even he, as justice minister, had no knowledge of the case until recently.

"I am deeply disturbed by the extraordinary levels of secrecy surrounding the 'Witness J' case: secrecy that is a direct result of the commonwealth government's apparent growing disregard for the principles of open justice and a robust democracy," Rattenbury said.

"It is disturbing that Canberrans, along with other Australians, only learned about this case after the fact due to the restrictive commonwealth legislation."

"I include myself in this group - despite my role as minister in a territory government, I was not advised in relation to this issue."

Comment: See also: News Corp journalist gets home raided by Australian Federal Police in 'dangerous act of intimidation'

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Treasure Chest

Biggest heist since WW2: Treasures worth 'up to a billion euros' stolen from Dresden museum


The Guardian
Mon, 25 Nov 2019 13:11 UTC
dresden heist
© Sebastian Kahnert/dpa/AFP via Getty ImagesThe Jewel Room at the Green Vault in Dresden. German police said thieves appeared to have targeted the jewellery collection
Thieves have broken into one of Europe's largest collection of art treasures in the German city of Dresden and stolen objects worth up to one billion euros, police have said.

The Grüne Gewölbe (or Green Vault) has been stripped of hundreds of artefacts, after the thieves reportedly started a fire in the early hours of Monday that led to a breakdown in the power supply and the failure of security alarms.

Police are calling the break-in the largest art heist in postwar history.

The Grüne Gewölbe's most famous artefact is Augustus the Strong's treasure chamber. It was not known whether it had been broken into.

A police spokesman said on Monday morning: "We can confirm that there has been a break-in in the Grüne Gewölbe ... the perpetrators are on the run."
Dresden Green Diamond
© REUTERS/Mike SegarFile photo of the Dresden 'Green Diamond'
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Bizarro Earth

Foreign national killed in Kabul bombing that targeted UN vehicle


RFE/RL
Sun, 24 Nov 2019 16:37 UTC
Afghanistan
© Omar Sobhani/ReutersFILE PHOTO: Car bomb Afghanistan November 13th 2019: No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack
At least one foreign citizen was reported killed when a UN vehicle was targeted in a bombing in the Afghan capital of Kabul on November 24.

Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said five others, including two Afghan UN workers, were wounded in the attack. The vehicle was heavily damaged.

The blast targeted the vehicle on one of the busiest roads in the city, in police district 9, according to Rahimi.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but both Taliban and the Islamic State extremist group are active in the capital and have repeatedly claimed previous attacks.

Comment: See also:

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Biohazard

UK: Colchester Council to phase out use of glyphosate herbicide

Robbie Bryson
Daily Gazette
Mon, 25 Nov 2019 12:39 UTC
colchester councilor
Victory for campaigners as council moves to phase out use of dangerous herbicide.
Colchester Council is set to phase out the use of "dangerous" herbicides... but the move could cost the authority an extra £80,000 a year.


Comment: Worth it.


The authority's conservation and environmental sustainability task and finish group is recommending the council's cabinet approve plans to stop using glyphosates.

Areas where there is a high risk of human contact will be prioritised and the frequency of weed control measures could be scaled back in a bid to encourage biodiversity.

Comment: See also:

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X

'Wexit': Canada's 'Brexit' or oil industry tool to circumvent Trudeau's environmental policy?


Sputnik
Mon, 25 Nov 2019 10:16 UTC
Justin Trudeau
© REUTERS / Remo Casilli
Wexit, the combination of "exit" and "Western", is a movement in Canada calling upon the country's crude-producing regions to bid farewell to the rest of the country and live on their own. Former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps has explained what's behind the group's agenda.

Following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's re-election, the Wexit movement has been gaining momentum driven by discontent of Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada's oil-rich Western provinces, with the federal government's carbon tax, unemployment levels, delays in construction of the Trans-Mountain Pipeline expansion, and what they see as an unfair equalisation programme.

Trudeau, who is well aware of Wexit, tasked Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, a former minister of foreign affairs and "a native Albertan", to tackle the problem. While she admitted that "the election sent a message from the West" and said the federal government was ready "listening really really hard", she fell short of providing details on Ottawa's plans.

Comment: There may indeed be a top-down push behind the Wexit sentiment in western Canada. However, there is also a very real dissatisfaction with individuals in the western provinces who feel they don't really have a voice in Canadian politics. While the majority of western Canada consistently votes Conservative in federal elections, their numbers are no match for Ontario and Quebec who consistently vote Liberal. This movement can't all be blamed on 'the oil companies'.

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Music

Disturbing list of K-Pop star deaths leaves many wondering what's behind them


Sputnik
Mon, 25 Nov 2019 10:11 UTC
Goo Hara
The K-pop industry has a radiant façade, but there's a dark side to it as well. South Korean pop music is spreading fast across the continents, but its increasing popularity comes with intense pressure being exerted on the young performers.

Goo Hara

The demise of Goo Hara has become the latest in a troubling string of incidents that have put the K-pop scene under additional scrutiny.

Police are now investigating the cause of her death, which came roughly six months after she was found unresponsive at her home, following an apparent suicide attempt.
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Bullseye

Flashback Norwegian child protection agency under investigation for removing children from parents without good reason

K.V. Turley
Life Site
Wed, 17 Oct 2018 12:03 UTC
mother and daughter
© shutterstock
The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg will hear today the case of Strand Lobben v. Norway.

The case is one of a number where Norwegian authorities have removed children from their parents seemingly without any proper justification.

In Strand Lobben, a three-week-old child was removed from his mother in 2008. The justification was simply based on doubts about the mother's "parenting abilities." Subsequently, the child was placed in foster care. The mother was to be allowed to see her child for only twelve hours each year. Ultimately, however, in this case, all visitation rights were refused. The mother's parental rights were ended. The child was taken away and put up for adoption.

In April 2018, in a landmark decision, the Grand Chamber panel of five judges in the ECHR decided to refer the case to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. This followed an earlier December 2017 ECHR judgment stating no human rights had been violated. This judgment was hailed as a validation for the Norwegian system of intervention with families.

Comment: See also: British State Has Stolen Thousands of Children From Families it Deems 'Potential Risk' - Hundreds of Pregnant Women Fleeing UK Shores

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Attention

Flashback Thousands of Chilean children stolen from their mothers and illegally adopted in the US, UK and Sweden

Sara Malm
Daily Mail
Wed, 02 Jan 2019 11:49 UTC
Ms Diemar
© Ms DiemarCrimes against humanity: Judge Mario Carroza, pictured with Ms Diemar earlier this year, is investigating thousands of potential illegal adoptions in Chile carried out.
Up to 8,000 children were stolen from their mothers to be adopted by foreign couples during Chile's military dictatorship years, investigators claim.

Some 20,000 Chilean children were adopted to Western nations such as the U.S., the UK and Sweden, in the 1970s and 80s, of which the government believe a majority were illegally removed from their biological families.

A government investigation launched earlier this year has so far found that more than 3,205 babies and young children are likely to have been stolen, but this is expected to multiply as it continues.

In October this year, Justice Minister Hernán Larraín told parliament the news that children may have been illegally adopted from had made him 'feel a great shame for my country'.

'The criminal investigation cannot currently state that all cases where children have been sent abroad for adoption are illegal, but a very large part are,' the Santiago Court of Appeals said in a statement, adding that they fear it would be at least 8,000 suspicious cases.
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Roses

Dear young progressives: The white-supremacist anti-immigration anti-political-correctness free-speech fascists are your friends

Denis Rancourt
Dissident Voice
Thu, 21 Nov 2019 00:01 UTC
young progressives woke
Yup. The ruling elite are doing everything they can to divide you. They are doing everything they can to promote hate between you.

In this article, I argue that the real enemy is the ruling elite, which manipulates us all. I explain that the Western USA-based ruling elite is desperate these days, and exceptionally adversarial, which is driven by the successful rise of Eurasia (economically led by China, and supported by Russia), and by increased global abundance of extractable energy reserves. We allow ourselves to be collateral idiots and pawns in this saga.

The ruling elite and the captured media want you to be convinced that their oppression of everyone comes from either a tsunami of irrational "socialism" or spontaneous upsurges of "fascism"; that fascist cells are nucleating and growing at an unprecedented rate, and that you and all your immigrant, brown, black, LGBTQ compatriots will be deported or imprisoned or deprived of medical attention, if the said cells are not deplatformed, censored, run out of town, punched in the face, and exterminated.

Comment: See also:

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Attention

More than 60 doctors warn that Julian Assange 'could die in prison', needs urgent transfer to medical facility

Oleg Burunov
Sputnik
Mon, 25 Nov 2019 11:02 UTC
julian Assange
© REUTERS / Peter NichollsJulian Assange has been is custody he was removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London in April.
Late last week, Australian John Shipton, father of Julian Assange, said in an interview with a Norwegian news outlet that the WikiLeaks founder's extradition to the US would mean the death of his son.

In a letter to UK Home Secretary Priti Patel, a group of medics expressed "serious concerns" about Julian Assange's health, casting doubt on his fitness to stand trial at a US extradition hearing slated for February.

The letter was signed by more than 60 doctors, including those from the UK, Australia, Europe and Sri Lanka, who insisted that Assange, who is now being held in London's Belmarsh prison, requires "an urgent expert medical assessment of both his physical and psychological state of health".
"Any medical treatment indicated should be administered in a properly equipped and expertly staffed university teaching hospital (tertiary care)," they pointed out, warning that otherwise, the 48-year-old WikiLeaks founder "could die in prison".
"The medical situation is thereby urgent. There is no time to lose", the medics underscored.

Comment: Assange is serving overtime - and fading away - in a high-security prison in the UK awaiting extradition to the US because he dared expose war crimes, the instigators of which never saw a day in court. Neither those in the US nor the UK.



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