Society's ChildS


Attention

No robbery? New tape challenges allegations of Ferguson police in shooting death of Michael Brown


RT
Mon, 13 Mar 2017 09:31 UTC
protests michael brown shooting
© Mario Anzuoni / Reuters Demonstrators march in the street while protesting the shooting death of black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
A new tape showing Michael Brown hours before his death in a store, apparently exchanging pot for cigarillos, challenges police accounts of the incident. The black teen's killing for suspected robbery triggered mass protests against police violence worldwide.

The documentary 'Stranger Fruit' by filmmaker Jason Pollock premiered Saturday in Austin, Texas. A short clip of the documentary was first uploaded by the New York Times.


Comment: See also: Mike Brown Shooting - Darren Wilson Lied

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Attention

Riot police clash with Palestinian protesters in Ramallah


RT
Mon, 13 Mar 2017 15:20 UTC
palestinian demonstrators
© Ruptly
Riot police have used tear gas, batons and sound grenades to disperse a rally in Ramallah on Sunday. The protest was prompted by the death of an anti-occupation activist during an Israeli raid, linked by protesters to security cooperation between Israel and Palestine.

Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside a courthouse in the occupied West Bank capital of Ramallah on Sunday as it was about to pronounce a decision in the case of six Palestinians, charged with possessing weapons and plotting attack against Israel.
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Light Saber

Pedophile priest jailed after dying victim gives evidence using revolutionary eye-tracking technology


Sputnik
Mon, 13 Mar 2017 00:00 UTC
eye tracking technology, eyegaze edge
A former priest has been jailed in Britain for sexually abusing a choirboy almost 40 years ago, after his dying victim gave evidence using revolutionary eye-tracking technology, which turned his blinks into words.

Cyril Rowe, 78, was jailed for four years on Friday, March 10, after a trial at Bournemouth Crown Court in Dorset, England, which was the first of its kind.

Michael Kelsick, who suffered from motor neurone disease which meant he was paralyzed and unable to speak or write, was able to give evidence using ground-breaking eye-tracking technology called Eyegaze Edge.

Communicating using only his eyes and interacting with a computer keyboard Kelsick, 47, was able to describe how the vicar had locked the church door, pinned him down and sexually abused him, before apologizing and giving him £1 ($1.20).

Tragically, a police officer was on the way to Kelsick's deathbed to tell him his abuser had been found guilty when he was informed that he had just passed away.
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People

Sick world: Finnish foundation promotes the use of child-like sex dolls to prevent pedophilia


Sputnik
Mon, 13 Mar 2017 14:41 UTC
sex dolls
© AFP 2017/STR
Earlier this month, Norway was shaken by a mass seizure of sex dolls designed as children by the country's customs service. As if the debate on child abuse was not hot enough in Scandinavia, a Finnish foundation added fuel to the fire by defending the child-like sex dolls as a remedy against pedophilia.

Earlier in February, dozens of sex dolls with child-like appearance were seized in Norway, which triggered grave pedophilia concerns among customs authorities, police and sexologists alike. In late 2016, equally morbid seizures were performed by Swedish customs. Likewise, Finnish customs authorities expressed their concern for their fellow Finns' growing passion for child-like sex dolls.

The Finnish Sexpo foundation, which by its own admission has promoted sexual well-being in Finland since 1969, defended the morally dubious sex dolls in an open letter, arguing that concerns over the dolls is based on false assumptions, Finnish national broadcaster Yle reported.
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Pirates

Thailand zoo forces orangutans to fight in boxing matches, wear bikinis

Leah Bitsky
New York Post
Fri, 10 Mar 2017 17:13 UTC
Orangutan boxing
© Getty Images
This place isn't monkeying around.

A Thailand zoo recently hosted an event featuring orangutans boxing as other apes stood outside the ring banging on drums and dancing in bikinis.

The wild display at Safari World has gotten mixed reviews over the years, but some argue it should be shut down.


"[Orangutans are] extremely intelligent, and the zoo was exploiting that," said Samantha Fuller, a teacher from Boston living and working in Thailand. Fuller saw the show on a recent school field trip.

"They're smart and can tell when they're being laughed at," she said. "It upset me so much I had to come home and shower just to wash it all off."
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Apple Red

'Literacy' test for teachers may be axed

Danika Fears, Kirstan Conley, Selim Algar
New York Post
Mon, 06 Mar 2017 10:17 UTC
Literacy test
© Shutterstock
State education officials plan to scrap a literacy exam given to prospective teachers and allow certification for some applicants who fail a performance assessment test — moves that critics warned will weaken the pool of candidates.

The state Board of Regents will likely vote early next week on whether to ax the Academic Literacy Skills Test, one of four exams that teacher wannabes have to pass for certification, officials said Monday.

The Regents will also consider changes to one of the other three prerequisite exams for would-be educators, the Teacher Performance Assessment, or edTPA.

Under that proposal, applicants who just barely fail the edTPA could still be certified based on other factors, including teacher recommendations.
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Handcuffs

Turkish forces arrest man allegedly connected to attack at Berlin Christmas market


Sputnik
Mon, 13 Mar 2017 12:53 UTC
Turkish police Turkey Ankara
© REUTERS/ Osman Orsal
Turkish police officers have detained a man with alleged ties to Anis Amri, who carried out a truck-ramming attack at a Berlin Christmas market.

Turkish police officers have detained a man in Izmir city with alleged ties to Anis Amri, who carried out a truck-ramming attack at a Berlin Christmas market in December, and to the Islamic State (Daesh) terrorist group, local media reported Saturday.

According to the Anadolu news agency, the suspect is believed to be a German citizen of Jordanian descent, who entered Turkey illegally to prepare further attacks in Europe.

Comment: Further reading: How German authorities allowed well-known terror suspect Anis Amri to attack Berlin

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Camcorder

Unseen surveillance footage disputes allegation Michael Brown robbed Ferguson convenience store

Jesse Bogan and Christine Byers
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Sun, 12 Mar 2017 12:50 UTC
Michael Brown surveillance footage
© Via Stranger FruitNewly disclosed surveillance video showed Michael Brown making an early-morning visit to a Ferguson, Mo., convenience store on the day he was shot by a police officer in 2014.
Citing previously unseen surveillance footage, a documentary that debuted Saturday at a popular film festival in Austin, Texas, claims that Michael Brown didn't rob a Ferguson convenience store moments before he was fatally shot by police Aug. 9, 2014. It instead asserts that Brown's altercation with the shop was part of a misunderstanding tied to a possible drug transaction he had with store employees on a prior visit.

The new surveillance video used in the film, "Stranger Fruit," suggests Brown first showed up at Ferguson Market and Liquor about 1 a.m., many hours before he and police faced off.

Filmmaker Jason Pollock argues that Brown first exchanged a small amount of marijuana with store clerks for two boxes of cigarillos in his early morning visit that day, according to a clip of the documentary included in a story by the New York Times. At the last second before leaving the store, Brown gave the cigarillos back to the store clerks who put them behind the counter, according to the clip. The documentary asserts that Brown left the merchandise at the store to retrieve at a later point.

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People 2

The World's Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society - Pew Survey


PEW Research Center
Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:38 UTC

Comment: The following is the Executive Summary from a survey of Muslims carried out by the US-based Pew Research Center in 2013. Full report


muslim population map
© Pew Research Center
A new Pew Research Center survey of Muslims around the globe finds that most adherents of the world's second-largest religion are deeply committed to their faith and want its teachings to shape not only their personal lives but also their societies and politics. In all but a handful of the 39 countries surveyed, a majority of Muslims say that Islam is the one true faith leading to eternal life in heaven and that belief in God is necessary to be a moral person. Many also think that their religious leaders should have at least some influence over political matters. And many express a desire for sharia - traditional Islamic law - to be recognized as the official law of their country.

The percentage of Muslims who say they want sharia to be "the official law of the land" varies widely around the world, from fewer than one-in-ten in Azerbaijan (8%) to near unanimity in Afghanistan (99%). But solid majorities in most of the countries surveyed across the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia favor the establishment of sharia, including 71% of Muslims in Nigeria, 72% in Indonesia, 74% in Egypt and 89% in the Palestinian territories.
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Biohazard

Deadly trash: 50 people killed in landfill landslide at Ethiopia's biggest dump


RT
Mon, 13 Mar 2017 12:24 UTC
Koshe landfill
© Zacharias Abubeker / AFP
At least 48 people, mostly women and children, died, while dozens are feared to be buried under piles of waste after a colossal rubbish dump outside Ethopia's capital, Addis Ababa, collapsed on Saturday night, devouring makeshift homes and waste pickers alike.

What triggered the landslide at the Koshe landfill that for over 50 years has served as the city's main garbage dump has not been yet determined. However, local residents suspect the tragedy can be blamed on the recent restart of dumping at the site following a pause that lasted for a few years.

"We told them not to dump waste at the top. I think the decision by city officials to resume dumping some months back was the main reason for this accident, which has so far buried at least 20 houses," Assefa Teklemahimanot, a local resident, said, as cited by Euronews.
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