Society's ChildS


Family

'We didn't come here to kill': 1,400 ISIS wives and scarred kids stranded in UN-backed Iraqi camp

ISIS wives at UN-Iraqi camp
© Erik de Castro / Reuters
The constant fear of revenge and bleak hopes of returning home are the factors that shape the lives of former wives of Islamic State militants with whom RT met at an Iraqi army camp. Many claim they only followed their terrorist husbands along an ill-fated route.

Hundreds of women, mostly of Turkish, central Asian, Russian and European origin, and the children they bore to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS,ISIL) fighters that were killed, captured or forced to flee after government forces liberated the city of Tal Afar have been housed in a UN-sponsored camp in Iraq.

The exact location of the camp and identities of its residents are kept secret by the UN which fears that any information leaks will compromise the site's security and put hundreds of vulnerable lives at risk.

Comment: Report: Iraq Holding 1,400 Wives, Children Of Defeated IS Fighters
Reuters news agency is reporting that Iraqi authorities are holding 1,400 foreign wives and children of suspected fighters of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.

The news agency, citing security and aid officials, on September 10 said many of those detained came from Turkey, while others came from Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, and Russia.

Some were also from Asia and a "very few" were French and German citizens, the report said.

Reuters said the detainees were wives and children of IS fighters driven out by government forces from their last strongholds, including Mosul.

They women and children are being held at a camp south of Mosul. One intelligence officer said the authorities were still attempting to confirm and verify their identities with their home countries, as most did not have their original documents.

Iraqi Army Colonel Ahmad al-Taie told Reuters the army was holding families of extremists and awaiting government orders.

Reuters said its reporters saw hundreds of the women and children sitting on mattresses crawling with bugs in tents without air-conditioning in what aid workers called a "militarized site."

"I want to go back [to France] but don't know how," said a French-speaking veiled woman of Chechen origin who said she did not know what had happened to her husband, who had brought her to Iraq after he joined IS.



Brick Wall

'I'd rather kill myself': UK hacker fights extradition to American 'justice' system

Lauri Love
© TelegraphIf extradited to the US Love faces up to 99 years in prison
Lauri Love is charged with masterminding a 2013 attack by Anonymous on US government websites. Will Britain allow him to spend the rest of his days in an American prison?

In October 2013, Lauri Love was drinking coffee in his dressing gown in his bedroom at his parents' house in the village of Stradishall, Suffolk, when his mother called upstairs to say there was a deliveryman at the front door. Love, whose first name is pronounced "Lowry", like the English painter, clomped downstairs. In the front doorway was a man dressed in a UPS uniform. "Are you Lauri Love?" the man asked. "Yes," Love said. In a single motion, the man grabbed Love's arm while presenting, not a package, but a pair of rattling handcuffs.

For the next five hours, while dusk turned to evening outside, Love, then 28, and his parents sat in the front room as a dozen or so men from the National Crime Agency, which investigates organised crime and other serious offences, checked the computers in the house. In Love's bedroom, they found two laptops, and a PC tower humming on his desk. Among the bewildering Rolodex of open tabs in Love's internet browsers, the officers found accounts logged into several hacker forums and arcane internet chatrooms. Downstairs, Love, who knew that anything said in these limbo moments of investigation could be later used against him, kept the conversation to small talk about the weather and football.

Mr. Potato

The self-consuming madness of the SJW

social justice warrors
Hurricane Harvey has been an incredible disaster, and we should keep the poor and beleaguered citizens of east Texas and southwestern Louisiana in our constant prayers and do what we can to assist them. This is a moment of need that will probably continue for months.

About this immense and unprecedented natural disaster, I found it utterly unspeakable that a Leftist sociology professor at the University of Tampa, by name of Ken Storey, wrote via social media, that the folks in east Texas are getting what they deserved from Hurricane Harvey-because they voted for President Trump! He called it "karma." Although he has since apologized (and been terminated), such a display of "thoughtful" Leftwing "social justice," "peace," and "concern for the poor," demonstrates the actual depth of sheer vicious hatred and frenzied lunacy that those people exhibit.

Attention

Hookworm on the rise in America's poor 'Black Belt' due to non-existent sewage infrastructure

alabama man
Children playing feet away from open pools of raw sewage; drinking water pumped beside cracked pipes of untreated waste; human faeces flushed back into kitchen sinks and bathtubs whenever the rains come; people testing positive for hookworm, an intestinal parasite that thrives on extreme poverty.

These are the findings of a new study into endemic tropical diseases, not in places usually associated with them in the developing world of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, but in a corner of the richest nation on earth: Alabama.

Scientists in Houston, Texas, have lifted the lid on one of America's darkest and deepest secrets: that hidden beneath fabulous wealth, the US tolerates poverty-related illness at levels comparable to the world's poorest countries. More than one in three people sampled in a poor area of Alabama tested positive for traces of hookworm, a gastrointestinal parasite that was thought to have been eradicated from the US decades ago.

The long-awaited findings, revealed by the Guardian for the first time, are a wake-up call for the world's only superpower as it grapples with growing inequality. Donald Trump has promised to "Make America Great Again" and tackle the nation's crumbling infrastructure, but he has said very little about enduring chronic poverty, particularly in the southern states.

Biohazard

High levels of benzene detected near Houston refineries damaged by Hurricane Harvey

Valero Energy
© Andrees Latif/ReutersA Valero Energy refinery in Houston on Thursday. High levels of the carcinogen benzene were detected near the refinery, health officials said.
High levels of the carcinogen benzene were detected in a Houston neighborhood close to a Valero Energy refinery, local health officials said Tuesday, heightening concerns over potentially hazardous leaks from oil and gas industry sites damaged by Hurricane Harvey.

Preliminary air sampling in the Manchester district of Houston showed concentrations of up to 324 parts per billion of benzene, said Loren Raun, chief environmental science officer for the Houston Health Department. That is above the level at which federal safety officials recommend special breathing equipment for workers.

Health officials also detected high levels of volatile organic compounds, which have been linked to a variety of health problems, including liver damage and cancer.

Dr. Raun said that monitoring would continue, and that some readings showed far lower levels of the pollutants, depending on which way the wind was blowing. Still, "these are high numbers," she said.

No Entry

Power outages hit Florida as it braces for Hurricane Irma

Miami beach rain
© Saul Loeb / AFPPeople walk down the street as winds and rain begin to hit as outer bands of Hurricane Irma arrive in Miami Beach, Florida, September 9, 2017.
With extreme winds and rain from Hurricane Irma set to strike US state of Florida on Sunday, the impact of the Category 3 storm is already being felt by residents of Miami currently without power.

According to Florida Governor Rick Scott, at least 76,000 people have been left without power due to the storm as of Saturday evening. It is expected the number will grow as the hurricane hits the state.

Local authorities have urged almost 6 million people in seven Florida counties to evacuate their homes before the storm makes landfall.

Brick Wall

Microsoft says it will stick by its employees affected by any change to DACA, even in court

Microsoft building
© Mike Segar / Reuters
Microsoft responded strongly to the Trump administration's decision on Tuesday to move toward rescinding or replacing DACA within six months.

"There is nothing that we will be pushing on more strongly for congress to act on," Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith said in an interview with NPR. "We put a stake in the ground. We care about a tax reform bill," Smith said, noting that the entire business community cares about one but that this needs to be settled first.

Smith added that it won't be easy for the government to deport Microsoft employees who are DREAMers: "[The government's] going to have to go through us to get that person," Smith said.

Microsoft is the latest tech company to speak out against the move. Smith made similar comments in a public letter.

Comment: DACA uproar from left is a big facade, Obama stated the program was a temporary measure in 2012


Wolf

More than 50 animals found tethered to trees in Palm Beach County as Irma inches closer


Officials are calling it animal cruelty like they've never seen before.

As Hurricane Irma's outer bands inch closer to Palm Beach County, animal control officers said they are hustling to rescue abandoned animals.

Seismograph

More fatal casualties as Mexico simultaneously hit by hurricane Katia and 8.1 earthquake

Mexico damage katia earthquake
© Yuri Cortez / Agence France-Presse
At least two people died in the aftermath of Hurricane Katia in Mexico, local authorities report. The country has been dealing with twin national emergencies this week: at least a further 65 people had already been killed in an earthquake, the strongest in decades.

Hurricane Katia hit the mainland on Friday night, roaring onshore north of the city of Tecolutla in Veracruz state on Mexico's eastern coast.

It brought with it intense rain, as well as winds of up to 75mph (120kph).

The storm has deluged the mountainous region in Veracruz, which has a history of deadly floods and mudslides.

At least two people were killed in a mudslide in the wake of the hurricane, Veracruz Governor Miguel Angel Yunes said.

Monkey Wrench

This is a big deal: China planning to ban gas-powered cars, push electric vehicles

Beijing smog
© REUTERS/ Jason Lee
Seeking to curb some of the worst urban air pollution in the world, China will join other nations to push for only electric vehicles on its city streets, eventually banning the sale and use of internal-combustion engines powered by fossil fuels.

Currently in the planning stages of the ban, including detailing the move's completion date, China will force engine makers and car companies to pivot away from fossil fuels, speeding the implementation of electric vehicles in a bid to meet global climate standards laid out in the 2016 Paris Accords.

Government agencies in Beijing and around the country are working with regulators and businesses to set a timetable for the dramatic shift, seen to be a harbinger of world economic growth, as Chinese consumers represent the largest car-buying market on Earth.