Society's ChildS


Wedding Rings

Jordan votes to abolish law allowing rapists to escape punishment by marrying their victims


Sputnik
Tue, 01 Aug 2017 17:47 UTC
jordan protests victim rape marriage
© AP / Reem Saad

The lower house of the Parliament of Jordan on Tuesday voted to abolish Article 308, which allows sexual assault perpetrators to escape punishment by marrying their victims, local media reported.

According to The Jordan Times newspaper, the lower house of parliament voted to repeal the law following a heated debate.

The announcement of the abolition of Article 308 was reportedly met with cheers by over 200 men and women who were present at the session to state their objection to the law.

According to the outlet, Prime Minister Hani Mulki said that the government was ready to support the repeal of the law to help protect family values.
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X

Claremont McKenna College: Five students suspended for blocking speech

Scott Jaschik
Inside Higher Ed
Tue, 18 Jul 2017 00:00 UTC
Claremont McKenna
© Daily Herald News
Claremont McKenna College announced Monday that it is punishing seven students -- five with suspensions -- for their role in blocking an audience from hearing a speech by Heather Mac Donald in April.

The Claremont McKenna protest is among those highlighted by many observers who say that some students in American higher education have become intolerant of views with which they disagree. In the case of Mac Donald, those protesting say that her views on criminal justice are racist -- a charge that she denies -- and that her views justified their protest.

As was the case at Middlebury College, where Charles Murray was prevented from speaking in March, a public appearance (with a scheduled question-and-answer period) turned into a live stream without an audience after the protests blocked the original events from going on as scheduled.
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Magic Wand

Harry Potter author JK Rowling slammed on social media for claiming Trump snubbed disabled child - Update: Rowling apologizes to child but not Trump


RT
Mon, 31 Jul 2017 18:28 UTC
Author J.K. Rowling
© Carlo Allegri / ReutersAuthor J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter author JK Rowling has been slammed on social media for claiming that US President Donald Trump snubbed a disabled child despite video evidence to the contrary.

The incident in question occurred when Trump met a group of young people at the White House.

Rowling later claimed that Trump had been "looking deliberately over a disabled child's head, ignoring his outstretched hand."

Footage released later showed that Trump did in fact shake hands with the wheelchair user and bent down to talk to him during the visit.

Comment: Update: JK Rowling apologizes for wrongly accusing Trump of ignoring disabled boy
Harry Potter author JK Rowling has apologized over her scathing comments about US President Donald Trump's meeting with a disabled child - but not to the tycoon himself.

Rowling took to Twitter to savage the US leader on Monday, alleging he had ignored a small disabled boy who tried to shake hands with him during a visit to the White House.

Full footage of the incident was later released which exonerated the president and showed he interacted with the boy.

"How stunning, and how horrible, that Trump cannot bring himself to shake the hand of a small boy who only wanted to touch the president," Rowling had tweeted.

On Tuesday, she returned to social media to acknowledge she had misfired, but stopped short of apologizing to the president.

"Re: my tweets about the small boy in a wheelchair whose proffered hand the president appeared to ignore in press footage.

"Multiple sources have informed me that that was not a full or accurate representation of their interaction.

"I very clearly projected my own sensitivities around the issue of disabled people being overlooked or ignored onto the images I saw and if that caused any distress to that boy or his family, I apologize unreservedly."


The boy's mother had criticized Rowling for her comments, saying: "If someone can please get a message to JK Rowling: Trump didn't snub my son & Monty wasn't even trying to shake his hand."

Rowling has since deleted her original tweets.


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Attention

UN mission reports over 240 civilians killed, 273 injured in Iraq in July


Sputnik
Tue, 01 Aug 2017 15:07 UTC
Baghdad car bomb attack
© REUTERS/ Khalid al-Mousily
The civilian death toll in Iraq has reached 241 people, while another 273 Iraqi civilians were injured in terrorist attacks, violence and armed clashes throughout July, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said in a statement on Tuesday.

Over the last month, the Nineveh governorate suffered the largest number of civilian casualties, with 121 people killed and 112 injured. The second most severe civilian death toll was registered in the Baghdad governorate, where 38 people were killed, and 85 more were injured. Over the same period of time, Iraq's western governorate of Anbar lost 33 civilians and saw another 49 become injured, according to the region's Health Directorate.
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Sheriff

Trump administration scores immigration win in Texas, seeks deals with other states in crack down on sanctuary cities


RT
Tue, 01 Aug 2017 08:41 UTC
Trump border wall protest
© David Ryder/ Reuters
The Trump administration has chalked off a win Texas by persuading state and local authorities to perform the functions of federal immigration officials. The administration is seeking similar deals with other jurisdictions to crack down on sanctuary cities.

Under the negotiated agreement, which 18 Texas counties have signed on to, local agents in sheriff's offices will be trained to check if the people they have in custody may be in violation of US immigration law, and then notify federal authorities of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

"There's no doubt that arresting removable aliens in a jail is safer for the officers, safer for the community and even safer for the alien himself," Acting ICE Director Tom Homan said.

Since last year, ICE has doubled the number of such agreements with counties in Texas, Reuters reported.

Yet the majority of Texas' 254 counties do not have similar agreements with the federal government.

Comment: Attorney General Sessions threatens sanctuary cities with federal grant cuts

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Gold Coins

Bitcoin users propose splitting into two separate currencies


RT
Tue, 01 Aug 2017 14:26 UTC
bitcoin
© Benoit Tessier/Reuters
After years of debate, the Bitcoin community could not come to an agreement about the future of the cryptocurrency. Now, the currency is set to split into two, leading to the creation of an entirely new currency called Bitcoin Cash.

Bitcoin users have found themselves in the middle of a fight between developers, who want to retain the blockchain that protects the cryptocurrency from hackers and miners who want to double the blockchain size to make the network faster.

The disagreement might lead to a "user-activated hard fork" of Bitcoin Tuesday, which would create a brand new cryptocurrency out of the Bitcoin blockchain - the publically shared ledger that stores all bitcoin transactions and protects the currency from manipulation.

The new currency, Bitcoin Cash, would share the same blockchain history with the original bitcoin currency. However, it would also increase the blocksize from a maximum limit of 1MB, or about three transactions a minute, to 8MB. The new currency would also have upgrade rules that miners claim would allow it to grow and scale.
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Document

Pentagon should declassify report on 'child sex abuse' by Afghan forces


RT
Tue, 01 Aug 2017 14:14 UTC
Afghan security forces
© Goran Tomasevic / Reuters
The Pentagon should declassify a report on alleged sexual abuse of children by Afghan security forces, a US government watchdog said, adding that Washington should not provide further security assistance to Kabul if there is "credible" information on the claims.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a US government authority aimed at providing independent oversight of reconstruction projects and activities in Afghanistan, made the statement in a quarterly report.

The document mentions the body's evaluation report, released to the US Congress in June, which concerns "allegations of sexual abuse of children by members of the Afghan security forces." It also discusses "the extent to which the US holds Afghan security forces accountable" for the alleged actions.
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Stock Up

Russian economy saw manufacturing growth in July

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Tue, 01 Aug 2017 13:27 UTC
russian manufacturing
Manufacturers' Purchasing Managers' Index points to continued manufacturing expansion despite continued high interest rates

This article first appeared on Russia Feed.

Further confirmation that the Russian economy is now in a condition of steady growth came from the latest survey by IHS Markit, which showed manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index) in July rising to a six month high of 52.7.
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Bizarro Earth

Russian athletes competing at London World Championships banned from singing national anthem at hotels


RT
Mon, 31 Jul 2017 18:02 UTC
2017 World Championships in London
© Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) will not allow Russian athletes competing as neutrals at the 2017 World Championships in London to sing their national anthem at any venues associated with the event.

As 19 Russian athletes prepare to participate under a neutral flag at the World Athletics Championships in London from August 4 to 13, the IAAF has warned them to not display any identity with their country at the tournament.

The regulations for the neutral athletes, which were modified on July 5, were published on the IAAF website.

"The national anthem of the country of the Neutral Athlete shall not be played or sung at any time within the vicinity of any venue associated with the event including but not limited to the competition venue, warm-up area, call room, training grounds and hotels," says the official document.
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Hardhat

Labour MP McCabe hit in the face with a brick by attacker on motorcycle


RT
Tue, 01 Aug 2017 14:01 UTC
Steve McCabe
© stevemccabe-mp.org.uk
Labour MP Steve McCabe has been left with facial injuries after being hit with brick by a "thug" on a motorcycle in his constituency.

The MP for Birmingham, Selly Oak, said he was suffering from a "very sore & swollen face" after being attacked on Greenford Road in Kings Heath on Monday night. He says he has reported the incident to police.

McCabe, 61, posted a picture of his injured face on Twitter and the people he believes are responsible.

"Tonight nursing a very sore & swollen face," he tweeted. "I was struck with a brick by a motorbike thug in Greenford Road. Have given a full statement to police."
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