Society's ChildS


Boat

Lake Victoria disaster: many dead after Ugandan pleasure boat capsized near to shore


The Guardian
Sun, 25 Nov 2018 11:18 UTC
Boats on Lake Victoria
© ReutersRescuers search for bodies after a cruise boat capsized in Lake Victoria off the Ugandan coast.
At least 30 people have died in a boat accident on Lake Victoria in Uganda.

Diving teams were retrieving bodies from the lake on Sunday after the boat overturned and sank at about 7pm on Saturday night.

Senior police officer Zurah Ganyana said 27 people were rescued overnight. More than 90 passengers were onboard, leading officials to believe the death toll will rise.

Ganyana said the boat was in poor condition, had been grounded for some time and did not have a valid licence to operate.

Comment: See also: Captain arrested in Tanzania ferry disaster as death toll climbs to 209

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Footprints

Pedestrian crossings reopened after 4-hour closure on the US-Mexico border

Mike Freeman
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Sun, 25 Nov 2018 03:10 UTC
Migrants San Ysidro crossing
© fox5sandiego.comMigrants rush US border crossing, causing prompt shutdown, engaging customs and border protection guards.
The U.S.-Mexico border at the San Ysidro Port of Entry was closed in both directions Sunday after hundreds of migrants rushed the area, prompting federal authorities to launch tear gas in an effort to get the group to disperse.

The confrontation highlights the escalating tensions along the border as thousands of migrants from Central America poured into Tijuana in recent weeks seeking asylum to enter the U.S. President Trump has pushed to keep any migrants in Mexico as they await the immigration process.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials closed southbound vehicle and pedestrian crossings around 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Northbound vehicle traffic processing at San Ysidro also was suspended, and the pedestrian crossings at the San Ysidro port of entry were closed.

The pedestrian crossings were reopened about 3:45 p.m.

The San Ysidro border crossing is one of the busiest ports of entry in the world, with more than 90,000 people crossing between San Diego and Tijuana on a daily basis, and the closures snarled traffic for miles in the area.


Comment: See also:

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Attention

20 or more killed in Taliban ambush of Afghan police convoy


RFE/RL
Mon, 26 Nov 2018 09:12 UTC
Afghan convoy
© AFP
At least 20 Afghan police officers were killed when their convoy was ambushed in the western province of Farah, officials say.

A spokesman for the provincial police, Muhebullah Muheb, told RFE/RL that the newly appointed police chief of the Lash-e Juwayn district were among those killed in the November 26 attack, which was claimed by the Taliban. A deputy provincial police chief was also said to be among the dead.

A spokesman at the provincial hospital was quoted as saying that a total of 22 bodies were brought in from the assault.

Two members of the provincial council, Dadullah Qaneh and Shah Mahmood Naeemi, said at least four officers were also wounded.

The convoy came under fire as it was heading to Lash-e Juwayn for the introduction of the newly appointed district police chief, according to a third council member, Abdul Samad Salehi.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi claimed that four vehicles were destroyed in the assault and large quantities of weapons were captured.

Comment: See also:

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Boat

First Russian Arctic LNG shipment to arrive in Northern Europe


RT
Mon, 26 Nov 2018 12:52 UTC
Yamal LNG
© novatek.ruYamal LNG
Independent Russian gas producer Novatek has announced the first delivery of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Yamal project in the Arctic to an area near the port of Honningsvag in northern Norway.

"The Arc7 ice-class LNG tanker Vladimir Rusanov successfully reloaded an LNG cargo delivered from the Yamal LNG facility at Sabetta to the lower ice-class designated tanker Pskov, which will deliver the reloaded cargo to customers in North-West Europe," Novatek said.

The first ship-to-ship LNG transshipment is a very important commercial milestone for us," said Novatek's Deputy Board Chairman Lev Feodosyev. He explained that it allows for the optimization of transport costs "by decreasing the travel distance of the Arc7 ice-class tankers and to ensure timely offloading of LNG from Yamal LNG project."

Novatek earlier announced future large-scale LNG transshipment projects in Kamchatka and the Murmansk regions.
Yamal LNG facility
© novatek.ruYamal LNG facility
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Attention

UAE pardons British academic Matthew Hedges accused of being MI6 spy

Joshua Taylor
Mirror
Mon, 26 Nov 2018 09:27 UTC
Matthew Hedges and Daniela Tejeda
© PAMatthew Hedges and his wife Daniela Tejeda
British academic Matthew Hedges has been pardoned by the UAE after being jailed for allegedly being an MI6 spy.

A presidential pardon was issued in Dubai with "immediate effect".

It came after British outrage over the jailing of one of the UK's citizens.

He was arrested in May during a two-week research visit with Durham University.

His imprisonment prompted academic institutions to cut ties with the United Arab Emirates.

Matthew's wife Daniela Tejeda said: "The presidential pardon for Matt is the best news we could've received. Thank you friends, family, media, academics, and the wider public for your undivided support - I've been brought back to life."

Comment: Previously:

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USA

Leftist censorship rages on: Conservative Iraq War vet gets booted from Twitter


RT
Mon, 26 Nov 2018 15:58 UTC
Tucker Carlson, Jesse Kelly
© Fox News
Iraq War veteran and former Republican congressional candidate Jesse Kelly has been banned from Twitter for unclear reasons, becoming yet another conservative personality to be kicked from the platform.

Kelly's account on Twitter was disabled on Sunday, drawing anger from many conservative commentators, as the ban was apparently affected with no prior notice.

A guessing game started about what might have prompted Kelly's suspension, while liberal Twitter welcomed the move, accusing the Marine Corps vet of stoking violence.

Kelly was deployed to Iraq before retiring from the Marine Corps in 2004. In 2010, he ran as a Republican for the US House of Representatives seat in Arizona, losing to Democrat and gun control advocate Gabrielle Giffords by a single point.

In 2012, he attempted to secure the same seat in the Arizona special election, also without success.
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Laptop

Changes to Russian social media regulations pending: Facebook & Google could face huge fines over future legal violations


RT
Mon, 26 Nov 2018 15:47 UTC
Facebook Russia
© Reuters / Dado Ruvic
Moscow may start imposing hefty fines on tech giants, including Google and Facebook, over failing to comply with Russian legislation. The new fines will reportedly be equal to one percent of a firm's annual revenue in the country.

Russian authorities are planning to amend the current legislation to implement the measure, according to unnamed sources and a copy of the document reportedly seen by Reuters.

Under the current regulations, Russian authorities may impose fines of just a few thousand dollars or block the online services that violate the rules. This option is sometimes fraught with technical difficulties. Under current legislation the maximum fine Google may face in Russia is 700,000 rubles ($10,595). If the proposal is pushed through, Russian telecoms watchdog will be able to impose fines of at least $7 million.

Comment: Google is already on the hotseat:
Russia's telecom watchdog, Roskomnadzor, has launched an administrative case against Google as the IT giant refuses to connect its search engine to the federal database of banned websites.

The case will be considered in December by Roskomnadzor itself as the agency has the authority to issue fines without going to court.

The new law, which came into force in October, obliges all operators of search engines to exclude terrorist, extremist and other illegal websites from their search results.

To do so, they must link up with a database of around 120,000 banned URLs, compiled by the Russian authorities.

Google and Roskomnadzor held several meetings, in November, in an attempt to resolve the situation, but the search engine still doesn't filter the illegal content, the watchdog said.

The tech giant reportedly filed a letter in which it outlined what prevents it from complying with Russian law, but its contents remain undisclosed.

Google may face a penalty of between 500,000 and 700,000 rubles ($7,500 and $10,500) for the wrongdoing, the watchdog said.

The fine doesn't seem too painful, considering that Alphabet holding company, which Google is part of, earned almost $110 billion last year.


If the regulatory changes outlined in the article above go into effect, its fines will rise considerably.


In September, Roskomnadzor mulled blocking Facebook in Russia as the company violated the law which bans the storing of Russian citizens' personal data on servers located outside the country.


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Ambulance

Helicopter crash in Turkey kills four soldiers


Daily Sabah
Sun, 25 Nov 2018 15:47 UTC
turkey helicopter crash
© DHA Photos
Four soldiers were killed and another was wounded after a military helicopter crashed in a residential area in Istanbul's Sancaktepe district on Monday.

The Bell UH-1 helicopter crashed onto a street between apartments in the Asian district of Sancaktepe, where a military base is situated, after colliding with the roof a building.

Images of the wreckage in an empty yard between buildings showed that a potential disaster was diverted thanks to the heroics of the pilots.

"A military helicopter crashed in Samandıra district while performing a training flight. Four soldiers were killed and another was injured," Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya said.

Yerlikaya arrived on the scene of the crash along with National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar.

Akar told reporters that the flight took off at 10:32 a.m. from the base but lost contact with the base around 11:02 a.m.

"The crash happened at that time and we have four martyrs. We have a sergeant who is in intensive care unit now," Akar said while examining the scene of the crash.

He said pilots sought an emergency landing for a yet unknown reason.
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Star of David

Jewish racism: Anti-Arab slogans scrawled in Palestinian village

Yotam Berger
Haaretz
Sun, 25 Nov 2018 15:42 UTC
anti-arab slogan
Slogans sprayed on a wall in the village of al-Mughayyir.
Several cars were vandalized and graffiti was sprayed in a Palestinian village in the central West Bank on Sunday in a suspected hate crime

Palestinians from the village of al-Mughayyir reported inscriptions were spray-painted on some village walls, saying "Price Tag," "revenge," and "Enough with the administrative orders," the latter referring to edicts issued by the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security service against right-wing activists to keep them out of the West Bank.


Comment: From NBC:
The phrase "price tag" is notorious in Israel, associated with a string of violent attacks on Arabs and Israeli government forces over the past decade. It refers to a loosely organized movement of extremist Israelis protesting the evacuation and demolition of illegal settlements in the West Bank. The name refers to the price the extremists seek to extract for the loss of each outpost.

The Israel Police have opened an investigation.

On Friday, several cars were vandalized and graffiti was sprayed on houses in the West Bank town of Asira al-Qibliya near Nablus. A similar incident, in which more than ten cars were damaged, was reported in an adjacent community.
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Heart - Black

Washington Post: Human smugglers give big discounts to illegal migrants bringing children to the border

Neil Munro
Breitbart News
Sat, 24 Nov 2018 15:32 UTC
migrants us border
© Getty Images/Spencer Platt
Human smugglers slash their $10,000 per-person price when migrants bring children up to the U.S. border to exploit asylum loopholes, says the Washington Post.
Reached by phone in Kansas City, [Denys Adelmo] Mejia said he saved thousands of dollars by traveling with a child. His smuggler would have charged $10,000 if he had been traveling alone, he said; with Elizabeth Dayana, it cost $4,500 for both of them. He has three years to pay this off - in monthly installments - or his mother could lose her house.

"When you come with a child, [the smuggler] only delivers you to the Border Patrol," said Mejia. "When you're coming alone, they have to take you all the way across the desert."
The loopholes have been created, cheered, and widened by American progressives, including lawyers at the ACLU and many elite legal firms, activists at pro-migration groups, Democrats in Congress, and reporters in many media outlets. The resulting inflow of illegal immigrants is cheered on by business groups because it delivers new wage-cutting workers and more consumers to their doors.

Comment:

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