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Catalan ex-president facing trial for holding independence vote


RT
Fri, 16 Sep 2016 03:59 UTC
Artur Mas
© www.rt.com
Former Catalan President Artur Mas
Former Catalan President Artur Mas and two other officials are to testify before court for holding an independence vote in 2014 which Madrid deemed illegal. Catalonia's Supreme Court has rejected the defendants' appeals against the decision.

Catalonia's Supreme Court (TSCJ) dismissed the appeals of former Catalan President Artur Mas, former Vice-President Joana Ortega and former Catalan Minister of Education Irene Rigau which they filed against the investigating magistrate's decision to continue with the prosecution process, Catalan News Agency reported on Thursday. The defendants have been accused of disobedience to the Supreme Court and of administrative prevarication.


Comment: See also:

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People

Any hope left? Libyan rebels 'miss Gaddafi' after years of chaos created by Western intervention


RT
Fri, 16 Sep 2016 21:09 UTC
Benghazi, Libya
© Esam Omran Al-Fetori / Reuters
Libyans who mounted a revolution against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi now miss the stability provided by the old order because of the savage violence into which the country has descended, it is reported.

The testimony has emerged in a number of on-the-ground interviews carried out by the Daily Mail and comes only days after a Commons Defence Committee report placed blame for the country's collapse and the emergence of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) firmly on the shoulders of David Cameron.

The former PM, who stepped down as an MP hours before the report was published, faces calls from fellow Tories to appear before the committee to account for the "ill-conceived" 2011 war, which even US President Barack Obama is alleged to have privately written off as Cameron's personal "sh*t-show."

Comment: More reading:

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Red Flag

Obeying their masters? Japanese court approves controversial U.S. Marine base project in Okinawa


RT
Fri, 16 Sep 2016 20:14 UTC
okinawa protests U.S. military
© Kyodo / Reuters
Protesters raise placards reading"Anger was over the limit"during a rally against the U.S.military presence on the island and a series of crimes and other incidents involving U.S.soldiers and base workers, at a park in the prefectural capital Naha on Japan's southern island of Okinawa,Japan.
Continuing outrage by locals and a bid by the Okinawa governor were not enough to stop the land reclamation intended for the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma facility. The court ruled in favor of the project, but the local government isn't giving up.

Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga had campaigned together with the residents of the Japanese island to stop a landfill project that would lay the foundations for a construction of a replacement facility for the American base. The project, situated in the Henoko district, has been the focus of anger in the unfolding saga of residents trying to push the Americans out of Japan's Okinawa, where they enjoy a massive military presence.

A high court in Fukuoka on Friday ruled that the governor's attempt to cancel construction was "illegal," and has given Tokyo the go-ahead to continue construction, the Japan Times reports.

Comment: The people of Okinawa have suffered more than enough abuse from their U.S. military occupiers and aren't likely to acquiesce to this project without a continuing struggle:

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Star of David

Berkeley suspends Palestine class after complaints it was encouraging students to hate Israel (UPDATE)


RT
Fri, 16 Sep 2016 00:17 UTC
UC Berkeley
© Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
UC Berkeley
A University of California, Berkeley class, 'Palestine: A Settler-Colonial Analysis', was suspended after Chancellor Nicholas Dirks determined that the student teaching the course had not followed the appropriate procedures for its approval.

The one-credit student-taught class has become the center of a bitter debate. The class was meant to teach the history of Palestine "from the 1880s to the present, through the lens of settler colonialism," its syllabus once read, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The syllabus has since been removed.

The class was a part of Berkeley's DeCal program, or Democratic Education at Cal. The premise is not revolutionary; students teach one-credit classes to other students on a pass/fail basis.
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Hardhat

Alabama pipeline ruptures leaking 250,000 gallons of gas causing 'fuel emergency'


RT
Fri, 16 Sep 2016 18:55 UTC
Response personnel working on the pipeline that spilled gasoline near Helena, Alabama
© Colonial Pipeline
At least 250,000 gallons of gasoline have spilled following a pipeline rupture in central Alabama. Emergency responders are working to repair the spill, while Alabama and Georgia have declared a state of emergency due to possible fuel shortages.


Comment: But not a state of emergency for the possible environmental damage.


The spill, equivalent to 6,000 barrels, took place in a rural area southwest of Helena, Alabama, and was first noticed Friday. A spokesman for Colonial Pipeline said the spill has affected an area about two acres in size, Birmingham's WBRC-TV reported.

According to local media, the spill is located near Lindsey's Crossing in Shelby County, about 28 miles southwest of Birmingham.
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Camera

Convenient accident: IT workers delete one-fourth of Oakland police department's body-cam footage


RT
Fri, 16 Sep 2016 15:44 UTC
oakland police body camera
© Al Seib / Reuters
About a quarter of all police body-camera footage stored by the Oakland Police Department was deleted by accident in 2014, according to a sergeant's testimony in an East Oakland murder trial.

In the process of upgrading software for the Oakland Police Department (OPD) computer system that included dozen of terabytes of body-camera footage, city IT workers accidentally erased about 25 percent of the stored data two years ago, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The revelation came amid testimony in a murder trial this week from Oakland police Sgt. Dave Burke, the former head of OPD's camera unit.

Comment: While the deletion of files could be nothing more than accidental, it is interesting in light of the recent scandals involving the Oakland Police:

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Bullseye

Social media storm erupts after restaurant owner kicks out woman wearing a niqab


RT
Fri, 16 Sep 2016 17:20 UTC
woman in niqab
© Farid Alouache / Reuters
A restaurant owner in northern Germany has triggered a social media storm after expelling a Muslim woman who refused to remove her niqab. The man reportedly received a barrage of "negative comments" on social media for his actions.

The row started last Saturday when a Muslim woman went to the Seekrug restaurant, reportedly to see the local 'Festival of Light', according to the Rheinische Post newspaper. The event attracted over 3,000 people who gathered in and around the restaurant.

Christian Schulz, the restaurant owner, said he had asked the woman to remove the veil and show her face, but that she had refused and "immediately began to rant," leaving the place shortly afterwards.

Following the incident, Schulz was targeted with abusive comments about Seekrug on its Facebook page, with Schulz and his staff reportedly described as "racist" and "neo-Nazi," the newspaper adds.
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Handcuffs

Phoenix: Driver purposely mows down cops with his car


Fox 10
Tue, 13 Sep 2016 17:32 UTC
Marc LaQuon Payne
Shocking video: a driver targeting Phoenix Police officers -- running them down outside a valley Quik Trip gas station near 25th Avenue and Camelback Road on Tuesday morning.

It's hard to watch -- the surveillance video shows the moment a man drove his car towards three police officers at the QT. You can see his car speeding through the parking lot -- one of the officers went flying through the air.

For one of those officers, it was his first day on the job. Two of them ended up in a hospital. The third officer was able to arrest the suspect. They are all expected to be OK.

3 Phoenix police officers injured after car hits them, crashes into gas station

Comment:



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Fire

At least 21 people injured by explosion and residential building collapse in Dijon, France


RT
Fri, 16 Sep 2016 17:24 UTC
French police and firefighters
© Charles Platiau / Reuters
French police and firefighters
A gas blast in the heart of the French city of Dijon has resulted in 21 people being injured, according to Le Parisien newspaper. A residential building collapsed following the explosion.

Several of the injured were retrieved from under the rubble. Marie-Christine Tarrare, the Dijon prosecutor, said the incident may have involved "a suicide attempt that would have caused the explosion."

Two gas cylinders have reportedly been found in the rubble, which reinforces the claim, according to the newspaper.

Some victims were retrieved from under the rubble. The search for other people who may still be inside the building continues.

Earlier in the day, Dijon Mayor François Rebsamen said that eight people were injured in the blast according to preliminary information.

M6Info and France 3 TV cited nine injuries in the blast, which occurred on Rue Pierre Palliot, near a train station.

Comment: Other possible explanations and similar incidents:

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Camcorder

Footage released of Spokane cops killing a suicidal man


RT
Wed, 14 Sep 2016 16:51 UTC
spokane police
© JThom / Liveleak
Police in Spokane, Washington have released footage from an officer's body camera which shows police fatally shooting a man earlier this year.

Officers Chris Lequire, Ryan Akins and Brandon Lynch were responding to a 911 call from a man threatening suicide. The footage, some of which has been redacted by the police, shows the officers arrive at the scene on State Street and attempt to start a dialogue with the man.

"Hey partner, my name's Chris why don't you talk to me?" Lequire calls out to the man, later identified as Michael Kurtz.

Kurtz starts moving towards the officers, holding a knife to his chest and shouting "Kill me!" as police ask him to back up and put the knife down.

Comment: Aiming at a non-vital body part was out of the question?

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