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France unemployment rate hits new record


PressTV
Sat, 25 Oct 2014 16:21 UTC
Image
© AFP
Jobless rate in France has hit an all-time high for September, with official statistics showing nearly 3.5 million people have claimed unemployment benefits, Press TV reports.

According to figures released by the French Labor Ministry on Friday, unemployment has witnessed a 0.6-percent rise since last month, hitting a new record high of 3.43 million.

The new figures came after a modest 0.3 rise in the European country's jobless rate in August.

"Let's be honest, we are failing," French Labor Minister Francois Rebsamen told Le Parisien newspaper.
Critics say the harsh austerity measures adopted by the French government have consigned many citizens to unemployment."The economic and social policies of the government not only do not work, but they directly attack the economic wellbeing and rights of the average citizens. This has also led to political crisis because the government is losing its legitimacy day after day," Pierra Khalfa, with the Paris-based Copernic Foundation, told Press TV.
France, Europe's second-biggest economy, is grappling with political and economic crises, which are seen as the worst since French President Francois Hollande took power in May 2012.
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Attention

Texas man throws dog at Starbucks window after being banned

Danielle Haynes
United Press International
Sun, 26 Oct 2014 16:35 UTC
Image
© KHOU-TV, Houston
Starbucks the chihuahua
Larry McHale charged with animal cruelty for allegedly throwing a Chihuahua against a Starbucks window, breaking its leg.

A Houston man was charged with animal cruelty after he allegedly threw a 4-pound Chihuahua at a Starbucks window.

Witnesses said the man, Larry McHale, was causing a commotion around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday outside the Starbucks coffee shop, from which he had been banned the last three months.

One witness said McHale yelled and smashed a bottle on the ground.

"He harasses customers every time. He comes in and starts chaos," Starbucks manager Jasmine Hyder told KHOU-TV, Houston.

He then allegedly picked up a Chihuahua and threw it against the restaurant's window.
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Pistol

Boy shot 9 times for laughing at neighbor

Danielle Haynes
United Press International
Sun, 26 Oct 2014 17:25 UTC
Image
© Family photo
Kobe Jones
Charges were pending for a man accused of shooting to death his 13-year-old neighbor in Gary, Indiana.

A Gary, Ind., man allegedly shot his 13-year-old neighbor nine times because the boy laughed at him.

Kobe Jones, 13, died Friday after he was shot multiple times while standing on his front porch, police said.

A neighbor, whose name wasn't released, had gone door-to-door trying to find out information about a burglary at his home while he was away. Kobe allegedly laughed at the man's misfortune when the man came to his house.

"I was told that my son was laughing and the guy shot him dead," Kobe's father, Kaunda Jones, said.

The suspect and his girlfriend were observed leaving the scene after the shooting and they were both arrested. Charges were still pending for the couple, who remain in police custody.
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Info

The truth behind America's most famous 'gay-hate' murder

Julie Bindel
The Guardian
Sat, 25 Oct 2014 04:38 UTC
flowers_Matthew shepard
© Steve Liss/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty
A basket of flowers hangs from the fence where Matthew Shepard was left tied and beaten
Matthew Shepard's horrific death at the hands of redneck homophobes shocked America and changed its laws. Now a different truth is emerging, but does it matter?

The horrific killing of Matthew Shepard in 1998 is widely seen as one of the worst anti-gay hate crimes in American history. Matthew was beaten by two assailants, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. They pistol whipped him with a gun then tied him to a fence in freezing conditions and set fire to him before leaving him to die.

The attack became a cause célèbre: it precipitated a national backlash against hyper-macho culture and tacit tolerance of homophobia. As a result of Matthew's death, many good things have happened for the gay community. The play The Laramie Project has toured the US and many other countries, telling Matthew's story and encouraging campaigns against bigotry. Politicians and celebrities pledged support and funding to combat anti-gay hate crime. The Shepard family have become campaigners for gay rights. Judy and Dennis Shepard run the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which funds educational programmes and an online community for teens to discuss sexual orientation and gender issues. There have been numerous documentaries, dramas, books and events based on the story.

The men responsible for his death were convicted of first-degree murder and given two life sentences. They were not charged with a hate crime, as that wasn't possible under Wyoming's criminal law. But after lengthy wrangling in congress, President Obama finally signed the Matthew Shepard Act in 2009, a law which defined certain attacks motivated by victim identity as hate crimes.

But the Matthew Shepard story is not yet finished. A new twist came last year with the publication of another book, this one by investigative journalist Stephen Jimenez, who has spent 13 years interviewing more than 100 people with a connection to the case. His conclusion, outlined in The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths about the Murder of Matthew Shepard, is that the grotesque murder was not a hate crime, but could instead be blamed on crystal meth, a drug that was flooding Denver and the surrounding area at the time of Matthew's death. This new theory has, understandably, caused a lot of anger.
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Evil Rays

New device tracks cop's gun usage, transmits to command in real time


RT
Mon, 27 Oct 2014 02:07 UTC
Image
© Brandfolder.com/yardarm
Amid wide concerns over US police brutality, militarization and indiscriminate use of force against suspects, a new technology has emerged that will enable law enforcement to track down when a bullet was fired from a police gun.

The latest technological marvel developed and currently being tested by a Silicon Valley startup, Yardarm Technologies, is designed to keep track in real time and send a signal to the dispatchers when a gun is drawn from its holster and when it's fired. It can also track the trajectory of the shot as well as the location of the weapon.


"These events are transmitted in real-time to CAD or RTCC dashboards, allowing command to use this information to support officers in the field," the company says.


Comment: Translation: They have the power to amend, delete any information to their benefit.


The new technology is advertised and hailed as a life saver in situations when a police officer is in urgent need of backup but can't call for it, a situation dubbed the "worst nightmare" by those involved in testing of the scientific breakthrough.

"That's the worst nightmare for any police officer in the field," Santa Cruz County Sheriff Phil Wowak told AP.


Comment: The real nightmare is the police state we are living in and the murder of innocent people:
  • Police killed 77 people throughout the U.S. just in September

The technology relies on the Internet and requires an officer to carry a small device that the company says would fit in the handle of most police guns. A small sensor equivalent in weight to a bullet connects to the officer's smartphone using Bluetooth.

Comment: Feel safe, yet? Another tactic that will be used against the real enemy in a Police State: the people.

      Read More...
Attention

US: Returning Ebola healthcare workers made to feel like criminals, prisoners


The Raw Story
Sat, 25 Oct 2014 23:02 UTC
Image
© Via MySpace
Kaci Hickox (center)
An American nurse published a scathing account of her treatment after being put in isolation in the United States following a stint caring for Ebola patients in West Africa, saying she was made to feel like "a criminal."

Kaci Hickox was the first person to enter mandatory 21-day quarantine for medical staff returning to parts of the United States who may have had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa, the epicenter of the outbreak that has killed nearly 5,000 people.

The new rules took effect in New York and New Jersey on Friday, the same day Hickox returned.

"This is not a situation I would wish on anyone, and I am scared for those who will follow me," Hickox wrote in The Dallas Morning News, saying she was showing no symptoms when she arrived back in the United States.

"I am scared about how health care workers will be treated at airports when they declare that they have been fighting Ebola in West Africa. I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganization, fear and, most frightening, quarantine."

Hickox, who landed at New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport after working with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Sierra Leone, will be monitored at a hospital for 21 days, the known incubation period of Ebola.

Her account recalled the ordeal that began with her "grueling" two-day journey from Sierra Leone back to the United States.
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Red Flag

Silicon Valley company EFI paid Indian employees $1.21/hr, posted $200 million revenue for 3rd quarter


RT
Sun, 26 Oct 2014 18:46 UTC
silicon_valley
© Michael Kovac / Getty Images for Vanity Fair / AFP
While many Americans fight for the government to increase the minimum wage across the country, one Silicon Valley company has now been penalized for paying some foreign employees dramatically lower wages.

The fine was handed down by the US Department of Labor after it discovered that Electronics for Imaging (EFI) flew eight employees in from its office in Bangalore, India, and paid them the equivalent of $1.21 an hour, the San Jose Mercury News reported this week. The foreign employees were called in to help install computers for the Fremont, California-based company, which paid them in Indian rupees.

Additionally, these employees worked extensive hours - up to 122 hours a week in some cases. They were employed inside of the United States last year from September 8 until December 21.

"We are not going to tolerate this kind of behavior from employers," said Susana Blanco, district director of the US Labor Department, according to the Mercury News.
      Read More...
Attention

China: 16 Killed in coal mine collapse

Christopher Bodeen
AP
Sat, 25 Oct 2014 04:43 UTC
china coal mine disaster
© (AP Photo/Xinhua, Zhao Ge)

In this photo provided by China's Xinhua News Agency, rescuers work at the accident site after a coal mine collapsed in Tiechanggou township, China's Xinjiang regional capital of Urumqi, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2014. China's official news agency says 16 coal miners were killed after their shaft collapsed in the country's northwest.
A coal mine shaft collapsed in northwestern China, killing 16 miners, an official said Saturday, highlighting the persistence of safety problems in the industry despite a leveling off of demand.

Another 11 miners were injured in the disaster, which struck just before midnight Friday in Tiechanggou township outside the Xinjiang regional capital of Urumqi.

Thirty-three miners were in the shaft when the accident occurred, six of whom were brought out by rescuers, said an official with the State Administration of Work Safety. The official, speaking on routine condition of anonymity, said that all of the injured were in stable condition and that the cause of the cave-in was under investigation.

State broadcaster CCTV showed footage of injured miners sitting up in their hospital beds and describing their experiences to a reporter.

A man who answered the phone at the mine's offices said he could not comment, and calls to the Xinjiang regional safety administration rang unanswered.
      Read More...
Arrow Down

The mystery of the 1,000 greyhounds who retire and then vanish

Rosamund Unwin
The Independent, UK
Sun, 26 Oct 2014 19:35 UTC
Greyhounds_1
© The Independent, UK
A new report says that self-regulation is not working.
Every year, one in eight greyhounds "disappears" at the end of its racing career, with some dogs being sold for research and dissection, a leading animal welfare charity claims.

The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) estimates that around 1,000 of the approximately 8,000 greyhounds retiring from racing annually are not rehomed and are unaccounted for.

Although the industry's governing body, the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB), requires owners to register retirements and provide information on the fate of each dog, they are not obliged to provide any supporting evidence that a new home has been found. Some unwanted dogs are known to be returned to Ireland, where the majority were originally bred.

A report to be published this week reveals that some unwanted greyhounds were sold to a university which slaughtered them and used them to teach anatomy to veterinary students.

University College Dublin admitted buying 33 dogs last year, the report by the LACS and GREY2K USA, an American greyhound protection organisation.
      Read More...
Eye 1

California police officer accused of stealing nude photos from woman's cell phone


RT
Fri, 24 Oct 2014 00:00 UTC
CA police
© Reuters / Max Whittaker
A California Highway Patrol officer has been accused of stealing nude photographs of a woman he pulled over on suspicion of driving under the influence, and investigators recommend filing criminal charges against him.

Court documents obtained by the Contra Costa Times show that investigators have learned Sean Harrington, a 35-year-old CHP officer and five-year veteran of the force, illegally forwarded various nude photographs to himself after gaining access to the young woman's phone. The investigator for the Contra Costa District Attorney is recommending that they bring felony computer theft charges against Harrington.

The incident began earlier this year on August 29, when Harrington pulled over a 23-year-old woman - who remains unidentified - for performing an illegal lane change. She ended up failing a sobriety test and registered a .29 percent blood-alcohol level, far higher than the legal limit of .08 percent.

Comment: Another example of how US police became dangerous to the people they are supposed to serve.

Cop Who Stole Nude Photos From Woman's Cellphone, Says It's A "Game" Among Police

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