Society's ChildS


House

2 of 3 floors collapses in Poland apartment building; 5 killed, 4 injured, 1 missing

Poland house collapse
A pre-World War II apartment house collapsed Saturday in southwestern Poland, leaving five people dead, four injured and one missing, authorities said.

Scores of firefighters with dogs were searching the rubble of the building in the town of Swiebodzice (Shvyeh-'boh-tchi-tseh), according to Daniel Mucha, regional spokesman for the firefighters. He said the collapse of two floors of the three-floor building might have been caused by a gas explosion.

Regional governor Pawel Hreniak said the search-and-rescue operation was expected to continue through Sunday. He confirmed five fatalities, including two school-age children. Still, firefighters looking for one more missing person said there were no sounds yet coming from the building's bricks and broken wood.

Prime Minister Beata Szydlo was heading to the site, 420 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Warsaw, to be with the victims and the rescue workers. The governor of Swiebodzice, Bogdan Kozuchowicz, said the pre-World War II building was recently renovated and had been in good technical condition.

The injured were taken to hospitals in Swiebodzice and in Wroclaw. One survivor, identified only by her first name Stanislawa, told TVN24 that she was "miraculously saved". "I was in the kitchen and suddenly it was dark and full of debris and some broken wooden planks," she said from her hospital bed in Swiebodzice. "I got on top of those planks and started calling 'Help! Help!' Two firefighters came and pulled me out by the arm." She said her husband was resting on the bed at the time of the collapse. "I don't know what has happened to him," she said, her voice trembling. With her teenage son, also a survivor, at her side, she said the family had lost everything.

Health

Media's transformation: Committed jihadist becomes 'humanitarian rescuer'

Dr. Shajul Islam
© Daily MailDr. Shajul Islam and reporter
A British doctor who documented the controversial chemical weapons incident in Syria was considered a "committed jihadist" by MI6 and struck off the General Medical Council in 2016 - and an independent researcher has told Sputnik it is not the first time a figure with extremist links has been given mainstream media airtime.

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Shajul Islam, 31, posted a flurry of photos on Twitter depicting individuals allegedly afflicted by sarin gas, and was subsequently interviewed by several mainstream television networks. Paraded as the savior of innocent civilians, he repeatedly called for Western intervention in Syria, claiming the April 4 incident was merely the latest installment of a concerted campaign of gas attacks, which was "continuing every day."

What the mainstream media didn't reveal, however, is that far from a modern day Florence Nightingale, Islam, who hails from Stratford in East London, was deemed a "committed jihadist" by the UK intelligence services.

Comment: For many media outlets, 'questionable sources' means the ability to ask them a question. Likewise, 'reliable sources' means you can rely on them to give you an answer. Discernment unneeded.

See also:Germany's FM raises doubts of SOHR credibility regarding report on deadly coalition airstrike in Syria


Rose

Three children, one woman killed in Glendale, Arizona home fire

Glendale house fire
© 2017 KPHO/KTVK
Four people, three of them children, were found dead inside a home that caught fire early Wednesday morning and now investigators are trying to figure out how it started.

Sgt. Scott Waite of the Glendale Police Department said the victims are a 41-year-old woman and three children younger than 18.

The woman and two of the children, 11-year-old boys, were found first. Firefighters located the third, a teenage girl, while going through the rubble.

Neighbors had told firefighters that more people might have lived in the home in the neighborhood of 51st and Peoria Avenues, Sgt. Scott Waite of the Glendale Police Department said. That means the first priority for firefighters was to make sure everyone is accounted for.


Stormtrooper

Ukrainian nationalists block public Russian language test in Kiev

Ukrainian nationalists
© Stringer / Sputnik
Dozens of radical Ukrainian nationalists blocked the entrance to the building of the Russian cultural institution Rossotrudnichestvo in the Kiev, where a public Russian-language dictation was supposed to take place.

"The building was blocked by the far-right activists of the 'National corps' group, they called for physical violence," Interfax Ukraine quotes Svetlana Volynenko, a representative of the Russian agency - Rossotrudnichestvo - that organized the language test, as saying.

Around 50 activists came to the building, the official added, with security services preventing them from getting inside. The radicals then threw a chain on the gate to the building, and blocked the way with trash cans.

Comment: See also: Ukrainian nationalists release latest 'manifesto'


Cut

Research reveals farms could slash pesticide use without losses

pesticides
© Remy Gabalda/AFP/Getty ImagesMany farmers want to reduce pesticide use but do not have good access to information on alternatives, scientists say.
Virtually all farms could significantly cut their pesticide use while still producing as much food, according to a major new study. The research also shows chemical treatments could be cut without affecting farm profits on over three-quarters of farms.

The scientists said that many farmers wanted to reduce pesticide use, partly due to concerns for their own health. But farmers do not have good access to information on alternatives, the researchers said, because much of their advice comes from representatives of companies that sell both seeds and pesticides.

The work presents a serious challenge to the billion-dollar pesticide industry, which has long argued its products are vital to food production, especially with the world population set to grow to nine billion people by 2050.

Shopping Bag

As income drops and jobs dry up more Americans worry about hunger and homelessness

homelessness usa
While those at the top of the heap are getting richer than ever, millions upon millions of Americans are struggling more than ever before.

As a general institution, jobs for the masses increasingly feature frozen wages, evaporating benefits, part-time hours, and less than stellar opportunities.

For these people, just getting by can be very stressful.

And that is being reflected in a big way in a recent Gallup poll that has captured unprecedented levels of concern among lower-income people who are statistically terrified of losing their grip.

via Wolf Richter of Wolf Street:

Smoking

More anti-smoking hype: WHO says Japan should ban smoking ahead of Tokyo Olympics

No smoking sign
© iStock
Japan should ban smoking in all public places if it wants to successfully host the Tokyo Olympics and promote tourism, a senior World Health Organization official said Friday.

Japan, often known as a smoker's paradise, has no binding law controlling secondhand smoking and has come under pressure to institute one ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games.

The health ministry is preparing legislation to limit secondhand smoking, but faces strong opposition from smoking lawmakers and the tobacco industry. WHO and the International Olympic Committee agreed in 2010 to promote smoke-free Olympic Games, and host nations China, Russia and Brazil have since achieved that goal.

Douglas Bettcher, WHO director of non-communicable diseases prevention, said Japanese smoking restrictions are far behind global standards and need to be updated because foreign visitors expect clean air while in Japan. He said partial anti-smoking measures are ineffective and that the ministry's draft, while an improvement, should be strengthened.

"The time is right for Japan to finally catch up now with the Olympics just around the corner," Bettcher said at a news conference. He said it was a "golden opportunity for Japan to better protect its people from the deadly effects of exposure to secondhand smoke."


Comment: There are exactly NO studies supporting a causal link between the two.

The epidemic of junk science in tobacco smoking research


Candle

Retired Soviet cosmonaut, spacewalker Georgy Grechko dies aged 85

Greorgy Grechho
© Sergey Mamontov / SputnikPilot-cosmonaut Georgy Grechko
A retired cosmonaut and twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Georgy Grechko, who made three journeys into space - one of which was a record - died in Moscow at the age of 85, his daughter confirmed to reporters.

The cosmonaut died on Saturday morning "because of age and a vast number of chronic illnesses," his daughter Olga told TASS.

Grechko's wife Lyudmila was at his side when he passed away.

On Friday, he was hospitalized with suspected microinfarct, TASS reports, citing sources.

Heart - Black

Indonesia: Couple faces 100 cane strokes in Sharia court for having gay sex

canes
© DW / Reuters
Two men in the conservative Indonesian province of Aceh face up to 100 strokes with a rattan cane each after vigilant neighbors filmed them and reported them to a Sharia court for having gay sex.

Residents of the provincial capital Banda Aceh reported the two men, 23 and 20, to the Sharia police for allegedly having gay sex, according to AP.

The vigilant neighbors suspected the two men of having "too intimate" a relationship and tried to catch them at the "crime scene." The residents provided video footage to the police, which reportedly shows one of the gay suspects naked and in distress, while the other is being pushed by other locals who prevent him from fleeing. The footage also reportedly circulated online.

The men have already "confessed" to being gay, AP reported, citing the Sharia police's chief investigator Marzuki, who goes by a single name.

"Based on our investigation, testimony of witnesses and evidence, we can prove that they violated Islamic Shariah law and we can take them to court," Marzuki said.

Pistol

Northern Ireland teen charged with trying to buy Soviet-era submachine gun on Dark Web

PPS-43 submachine gun
© wikipedia.orgPPS-43 submachine gun
A 14-year-old boy has been arrested in Northern Ireland and charged with attempting to possess a sub-machine gun and 100 rounds of ammunition he tried to purchase through the Dark Web.

The boy attempted to purchase a Soviet-era PPSh43 sub-machine gun and 100 rounds of ammunition with "intent to endanger life" between March 23 and April 7 this year, the Belfast Telegraph reports.

The boy was arrested following a sting operation on Thursday.

There was some confusion about the charges brought against the boy as both the wording of the charge and the article of the law under which he was being charged were changed between the boy's arrest on Thursday and his appearance in court on Saturday morning.