Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

Pakistani woman sentenced to death for burning daughter to death in "honor killing"


RT
Sun, 15 Jan 2017 12:45 UTC
Perveen Rafique
© Rana Sajid Hussain / Global Look Press via ZUMA PressPerveen Rafique
A Pakistani woman has been sentenced to death for murdering her own daughter who decided to marry without her family's consent. The teenager was beaten and burnt alive last June in the latest gruesome case of 'honor killings' in the country.

Parveen Bibi confessed before a special court in the city of Lahore of killing her daughter, Zeenat Rafiq, saying that it was a punishment for "bringing shame to the family."

Zeenat's brother, Anees Ahmed, was also sentenced to life in prison for being an accomplice to the crime.

Earlier, the mother rejected murder allegations and claimed her daughter, 18, committed suicide by self-immolation because the family refused to accept her marriage.

The girl ran away from home in May 2016 in order to marry a man, named Hassan Khan, and lived with her future husband's family for a couple of days.

Comment: What kind of sick society is this where a mother allows herself to murder her own daughter in such a brutal fashion? There is no honor in such a barbaric act.

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Health

American health gap: Leading causes of death even more deadly for those living in rural areas


RT
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 11:46 UTC
american gothic painting, rural america
© Jim Young / Reuters
The leading causes of death in the US are even more deadly for those living in rural areas, according to a new report from the CDC. The "striking gap" with urban communities is partly due to the distribution of resources, the agency found.

Rural Americans experience "barriers to health care access" that can include "a lack of preventive and screening services, treatment of illnesses and timely urgent and emergency services," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its report, Reducing Potentially Excess Deaths from the Five Leading Causes of Death in the Rural United States, released Friday.

Cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease (CLRD), heart disease, stroke and unintentional injuries make up the top five causes of death in the US, but are being prevented at a higher rate in urban areas. In less-populated spaces, however, mortality rates are out of step with cities and are flatlining or actually increasing, the CDC found.

Comment: Not only is access to healthcare limited in many rural areas, but people in impoverished rural communities are fighting an uphill battle with loss of livelihoods and the accompanying increases in opioid addiction: Drugs and vanishing jobs strain the fabric of rural America

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V

After Trump accuses CIA Director of spreading fake news, Anonymous warns 'he will regret the next 4 years' - Anonymous on the side of the CIA?


RT
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 15:00 UTC
Trump Anonymous
© ReutersAnonymous told Trump he would regret the next four years.
Donald Trump has been threatened by Anonymous on Twitter, with the hacktivist group accusing him of having links to organized crime and told him he will "regret the next 4 years."

In a series of tweets sent from @YourAnonCentral, a Twitter account associated with the group, to the president-elect, Anonymous said: "This isn't the 80's any longer, information doesn't vanish, it is all out there. You are going to regret the next 4 years."

The group also claimed he has "financial and personal ties with Russian mobsters, child traffickers, and money launderers."

"You are implicated in some really heavy sh*t," read the warning. "Roy Cohen and your daddy aren't here to protect you anymore," it continued, in an apparent reference to his friendship with lawyer Roy Cohn, who represented Trump during the '70s when he was accused of violating the Fair Housing Act.

Comment: It's interesting that it was only after Trump responded to CIA Director Brennan's statement that Anonymous came out with this latest threat, but more interesting than the timing is how they immediately toe the CIA line by accusing Trump of having Russian ties. Makes the conspiratorially minded person wonder if someone has hacked the hackers.

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Pistol

10 killed, 29 wounded across Chicago over Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend


CBS News - Chicago
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 15:26 UTC
Chicago police MLK weekend
© NVP NewsPolice gather at the scene of a shooting in the 3300 block of West Monroe early Sunday.
At least 39 people have been shot across Chicago over the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend, leaving 10 dead.

The latest killing happened at 11:36 a.m. Monday in the West Side Austin neighborhood, where a vehicle pulled up to 24-year-old Allante Elmore on a porch near his home in the 4800 block of West Hubbard, and shot him repeatedly, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner's office. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he died.

About 1:10 a.m., 36-year-old Marlon Pollard was standing outside in the 2200 block of West Chicago in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood when someone in a black SUV opened fire, striking him in the abdomen, face and left leg. The Evanston resident died in less than an hour at Stroger, authorities said.

Early Sunday on the Near West Side, officers responded to a call of a person down about 5:30 a.m. in the 2600 block of West Van Buren and found a man in his 30s or 40s dead at the scene with a gunshot wound to the head, according to authorities, who were still working to identify him.

About 1:15 a.m., a 34-year-old man was gunned down in the Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side.He got into an argument with someone who shot him in the chest in the 4700 block of West Polk, police said. He died at Mount Sinai Hospital, authorities said. His name has not been released.
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Health

Increasing majority of Americans want government health care, new poll shows


RT
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 14:47 UTC
healthcare protests
© Joshua Roberts / Reuters
Following President-elect Donald Trump's promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, a new poll finds that more Americans want government-provided health insurance, with demand growing not only among Democrats, but poorer Republicans too.

New findings from the Pew Research Center released on Friday show that an overwhelming majority, 60 percent, of Americans agree that it is the responsibility of the federal government to make sure all Americans have healthcare coverage. These numbers have increased since 2014, when only 41 percent of Americans believed so. Last year, 51 percent held that view.

The poll divided Republicans and Democrats, however. Eighty-five percent of Democrats said the federal government should be responsible for health insurance, compared to just 32 percent of Republicans.

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Heart - Black

12yo Indian girl 'gang raped by school principal & 3 teachers' in critical condition


RT
Tue, 17 Jan 2017 14:27 UTC
A mentally challenged 12-year-old girl is reported to be in a critical condition after allegedly being gang raped by a school principal and three teachers in Bihar's Jehanabad district in eastern India.

"She is my only child," said the girl's mother, who is a physical education teacher at Kako secondary school, where the alleged attack happened. She added that her top priority was to save her daughter and then fight for justice.

The girl was found by her mother in a disheveled condition on the rooftop of the school following a thorough search. The four suspects are on the run.

Four teachers allegedly raped her on the roof of the building, the Hindustan Times reports.

The girl's mother was giving classes at the time of the incident. She said her daughter "is not mentally sound. As there is no one to take care of her at home, she accompanied me to school," the Indian Express reported.

Comment: Psychopaths in our midst: Gang-raped Indian girl commits suicide

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Ambulance

Miami, Florida: 8 people shot at a MLK Jr. parade as thousands celebrated peace

Charles Rabin, Lance Dixon, Carli Teproff
Miami Herald
Mon, 16 Jan 2017 04:41 UTC
MLK shooting
© Miami HeraldMiami-Dade Fire Rescue paramedics tend a victim.
A day of celebration was marred when eight people were shot and several others injured during a stampede to get out of Miami's Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park, on a day when the civil rights icon was honored across the country. Police had two people in custody and had recovered two weapons within an hour of Monday's gunfire. But they said it was too early to offer a narrative into why a day that was supposed to be about non-violence, erupted into mayhem.

The shooting happened at the Liberty City park at 6000 NW 32nd Ct., on a day that typically attracts hundreds, even thousands, in a celebratory mood after the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade. The parade makes its way down Northwest 54th Street, eight blocks from 62nd Street — or Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

All was calm until around 3:40 p.m. when the shots rang out, even as bikers and ATV riders roared past in celebration. Their motto: "Bikes up, Guns down."

Police evacuated and closed down the park after the shootings as investigators combed the area for clues. The festival at the park, where families gather to eat and listen to music, has become a staple of the post-MLK parade in Miami-Dade.

Terrell Dandy, who was in the park, said all was peaceful before he heard three gunshots. Then the crowd began to stampede out of the park. "It was good until you had these idiots out there shooting," said Dandy. "It was just a bunch of commotion."


Comment: A sad and terror-filled way to end a day of honor and remembrance of civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Arrow Up

Pedophilia crackdown: Philippines blocks x-rated websites


RT
Mon, 16 Jan 2017 18:06 UTC
Duterte blocks porn sites
© Naoki Nishimura / www.globallookpress.com The sites became inaccessible on Saturday.
As part of a crackdown on child pornography, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has banned a number of x-rated websites in the country, according to his communications secretary. Sites including Pornhub and Xvideos are now reportedly inaccessible.

Since Saturday, visitors from Philippines to Pornhub, which doesn't host child pornography, were redirected to a page with the message: "This website has been ordered blocked under authority of the Philippine government pursuant to Republic Act 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Law."

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar toldjournalists attending the launch of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Manila on Sunday that "these porn sites should really be banned because they are being used by pedophiles and other people who subscribe to child pornography sites."

"We don't want our youth and even the adults to be addicted to lewd videos shown in the internet," Andanar said on behalf of President Duterte.

Comment: Kudos to Duterte for taking a stand to protect children and attempting to exert a civilizing influence against this soul-destroying 'past-time'.

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Attention

DAPL effect: Protestors take aim at Louisiana pipeline that would traverse 600 acres of wetlands, 700 bodies of water


RT
Mon, 16 Jan 2017 22:22 UTC
Bayou Bridge Pipeline protest Lousiana
© Matthew Duplichan / Facebook Public hearing for Bayou Bridge Pipeline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, January 13, 2017
Environmentalist groups are mobilizing against the Bayou Bridge pipeline in the swamps of southern Louisiana, seeking to repeat the success at Standing Rock, North Dakota. They are taking on the same company that is behind the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The extension, proposed in 2015, would link up the existing portion of the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) to refineries on the Gulf coast of Texas. If approved, it would run for 163 miles between Lake Charles and St. James in Louisiana - across the Atchafalaya Basin, the largest natural swamp in the US.

Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind DAPL, seeks to begin construction on Bayou Bridge as early as March 2017, but just like in the case of Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, it requires a permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers first.

"We are a long way away from deciding whether or not to grant this permit," ACE spokesperson Ricky Boyett told the Shreveport Times.
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Snakes in Suits

Corruption leads to governmental collapse in Northern Ireland


RT
Mon, 16 Jan 2017 20:51 UTC
nationalist mural Arlene Foster RHI scheme Northern Ireland
© Clodagh Kilcoyne / ReutersA nationalist mural in Belfast depicting Arlene Foster that refers to the RHI scheme which triggered the collapse of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Northern Ireland's power-sharing government has collapsed triggering a second election in eight months as fall out from a botched energy scheme continues.

The Northern Ireland Assembly, the power sharing agreement between the region's two biggest parties, the Unionist Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin which largely draw support from the and Nationalist communities, was teetering on the brink of collapse in the wake of the so-called 'cash for ash' scandal before it succumbed on Monday.

The scandal involves significant overspending on the long-running Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) which subsidized businesses, and later homeowners, for using environmentally friendly heating methods. Subsidies paid to companies were not capped and it could end up costing taxpayers approximately £490 million ($591 million).
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