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He's sad and too hot: Polar bear continues to suffer in Argentina


RT
Wed, 23 Jul 2014 16:49 UTC
Image
© getty
A polar bear in an Argentinian zoo will remain in the hot South American country despite a petition requesting he be moved to Canada. The appeal was signed by more than half a million people.

The petition on the Change.org website asks that Argentinian President Christina Fernandez allow the bear, who is called Arturo, to be relocated to a zoo in Canada. As of Tuesday, it had more than 600,000 signatures.

Arturo's friends include former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

"If you love animals the way I do, please sign the petition to help the Argentinian polar bear, Arturo. His current living condition is very sad, and he deserves to be saved," wrote Gingrich on his Facebook page.

The bear paces nervously in his concrete enclosure and animal rights advocates say he suffers from depression.

Campaigners have dubbed Arturo "the world's saddest animal," and have found him a new home at a zoo in Winnipeg, Mantitoba, Canada.
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Chess

France defies US and UK by agreeing to deliver Mistral warships to Russia


RT.com
Tue, 22 Jul 2014 14:56 UTC
mistral warship
© Reuters / Stephane Mahe
The Mistral-class helicopter carrier Vladivostok is seen at the STX Les Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard site in Saint-Nazaire, western France
France will go ahead with the delivery of the first of two Mistral warships to Russia - despite protests by the US and UK, prompted by Moscow's stance in the Ukrainian crisis. The ship is nearly completed and will be presented in October.

French President Francois Hollande said the plan to deliver the two Mistral helicopter carriers was made in Paris and will go forward despite calls from the US and UK.

"The Russians have paid. Should we repay 1.1 billion euros if the boat was not delivered to the purchaser?" he asked while speaking to reporters late on Monday - the night before EU foreign ministers are to meet in Brussels to discuss tougher sanctions on Russia over the Ukrainian crisis.

"For the time being, a level of sanctions has not been decided on that would prevent this delivery," he said. "The contract was signed in 2011, the boat is almost finished and should be delivered in October."
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Attention

Children escape unhurt from bus that crashed in ditch in Norfolk Virginia


Rt.com
Tue, 22 Jul 2014 19:47 UTC
A10 closure Norfolk
© Reuters / Regis Duvignau
A coach carrying 42 school children crashed into a ditch in Norfolk on Tuesday morning, overturning on the A10.

Although there were no casualties, the driver sustained back injuries and had to be cut out of the vehicle. He was subsequently taken to Kings Lynn Hospital.

Another child was also transferred to hospital as a result of an ongoing medical condition, according to East England Ambulance Service. Emergency services were alerted of the accident at 11 a.m. local time, following reports of a coach crashing at Hilgay in Norfolk.

The passengers were on a day trip to the Norfolk coast.

The children, all of whom were protected by seat belts, are pupils at William Westley Primary School in Whittlesford, Cambridgeshire. All passengers except for the bus driver were able to leave the vehicle immediately, according to local police.
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Pistol

Uhhh, duh! Texas man shoots self hitching up shorts in store: 'It's dangerous to stick a gun in your pants'

Travis Gettys
Raw Story
Tue, 22 Jul 2014 09:30 UTC
gun in pants
© Shutterstock
A Texas man was wounded Friday afternoon after accidentally shooting himself during a trip to a convenience store.

Police said Jason Bryant, who held a concealed carry permit, went into the store in Orange, where the gun discharged as he pulled up his shorts, reported the Longview News-Journal.

"He walked maybe six feet in the door when he pulled his shorts up, something caught the trigger and the gun discharged into his leg," said Chief Jim Vanover, of Orange police. "People immediately rushed over to help."

Another customer fashioned a tourniquet from a belt by the time emergency crews arrived, and Bryant was taken to an area hospital for treatment.

Vanover said the shooting could have been prevented by proper gun safety.

"If you're going to carry a gun it needs to be in a safe holster," Vanover said. "It's dangerous to stick a gun in your pants."

No one else was injured during the incident, which remains under investigation.

Bryant has not been charged in the negligent discharge.
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Pirates

Weapons from Vietnam detained in Finland were en route to Ukraine Kiev junta


ITAR-TASS
Thu, 24 Jul 2014 09:12 UTC
Finnish police officer
© EPA/MAURI RATILAINEN
A police officer in Finland (archive)
A large shipment of weapons from Vietnam which Finnish customs officers detained last week was en route to Ukraine for guarantee maintenance, Vietnam's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Hai Binh said on Thursday.

"The weapons were dispatched as part of Vietnam's military technical cooperation program with Ukraine. That was in full compliance with international laws," the Vietnamese officials explained refusing to elaborate on what types of weapons were discovered in the arrested container.

Le Hai Binh, however, said that representatives of Vietnam's competent bodies were trying to settle all the customs formalities due under Finnish laws.

Comment: The Kiev junta has got money for weapons but no money for buying gas or for looking after the people of Ukraine, who are going to suffer big time under the new IMF imposed austerity measures.

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Airplane

Another plane disappearance: Algiers Flight AH5017 has left the building

Hamid Ould Ahmid
Reuters
Thu, 24 Jul 2014 07:18 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Xavier Larossa
Authorities have lost contact with an Air Algerie flight en route from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso to Algiers with 110 passengers on board, Algeria's APS state news agency and a Spanish airline company said on Thursday.

APS said authorities lost contact with flight AH 5017 an hour after it took off from Burkina Faso, although other officials gave other timings, adding to confusion about the fate of the flight and where it might be.

Spanish private airline company Swiftair confirmed it had no contact with its MD-83 aircraft operated by Air Algerie, which it said was carrying 110 passengers and six crew.

The company said in a notice posted on its website that the aircraft took off from Burkina Faso at 0117 GMT (2117 ET) and was supposed to land in Algiers at 0510 GMT but never reached its destination.

Comment: Not to mention the fact that Malaysian Flight MH370 is still missing. March wasn't that long ago for them not to mention it in this context. We are not in Kansas anymore folks!

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Airplane

Flight GE222 Crash: At least 42 killed in Taiwan plane crash

Amber Wang
Yahoo! News Singapore
Thu, 24 Jul 2014 08:09 UTC

At least 42 people were killed in a plane crash in Taiwan on Wednesday, officials said, with witnesses and local media reporting the flight came down in a storm after an aborted landing.

TransAsia Airways flight GE222 was carrying 58 people on a domestic flight when it crashed into houses near Magong airport on the Penghu island chain after requesting a second attempt to land there, local media reported.

The ATR 72-500 twin turboprop was flying from the southwestern city of Kaohsiung to the islands off the west coast and had been delayed due to bad weather as Typhoon Matmo pounded Taiwan, according to the authorities.

"We have found 42 bodies and some body parts so far," an official surnamed Tsai at the Penghu county fire department told AFP early Thursday.
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Airplane

Algeria airliner missing on Sahara route from Burkina Faso


BBC News
Thu, 24 Jul 2014 05:50 UTC
Algeria's national airline, Air Algerie, says it has lost contact with one of its planes flying from Burkina Faso to Algiers across the Sahara.

Image
Contact was lost about 50 minutes after take-off from Ouagadougou, the airline said.

The passenger airliner was last seen at 0155 GMT, it added. It should have landed at 0410.

Flight AH 5017 had 110 passengers and six crew on board, Spanish airline Swiftair, which owns the plane, said.

"In keeping with procedures, Air Algerie has launched its emergency plan," Air Algerie officials, quoted by APS news agency, said.
'Poor visibility'

The plane is operated by Air Algerie and chartered from Swiftair.

In a statement (in Spanish), Swiftair said that the aircraft was an MD83 and that they were unable to establish contact with the plane.
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Arrow Down

Fox News hosts mock and chastise citizens for filming the police


Police State USA
Wed, 23 Jul 2014 00:42 UTC
Megyn Kelly and Bill O’Reilly
© Fox News/The O’Reilly Factor
Megyn Kelly and Bill O’Reilly.
It is helpful to examine how the American media subtly influences audiences toward tolerating oppression when they should be resisting it. Illustrating this point, two major cable news hosts devoted airtime toward denigrating citizen activists' efforts to hold the government accountable.

The topic of discussion earlier this week on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor was the subject of filming police officers during on-the job duties. Or, as host Bill O'Reilly describes it, "spying on the police."

Mr. O'Reilly and guest commentator Megyn Kelly proceeded to attempt to marginalize a group known as Cop Block, which has dedicated a great deal of effort toward seeking accountability among police officers through the use of cameras.

The two hosts showed nothing but contempt toward the concept of filming police and the individuals who spend effort to do it.

"There's enough stress on police, without these clowns chasing them around," Mr. O'Reilly sneered.

"You're riding down the road, trying to do your job, suddenly, its like, Paul Bunyan is after me!!" Ms. Kelly mocked, in reference to a clip of an activist who had a beard.

The loud-mouthed host shared the objection to the Texas activist's appearance, saying, "the guy with a beard, he looks like a biker."
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People

Social Media is neutralizing Israeli propaganda: Israel's crumbling media war

Deepa Kumar
Salon
Wed, 23 Jul 2014 23:21 UTC
Image
© MSNBC
Israeli propaganda has hit a new low. While the world was still trying to come to terms with the mass deaths in Shejaiya, Benjamin Netanyahu went on CNN to state that Hamas uses the "telegenically dead" to further "their cause." He added that for Hamas: "The more the dead, the better." Even while Netanyahu followed the propaganda script, which is to first show sympathy and express remorse, by reducing dead Palestinians to a photo-op he showed how his own mind works.

There is a standard script for how to deal with Palestinian casualties. After Israel killed four boys on the Gaza beach on July 16, the U.S. establishment media fell in line behind Israel's PR framework: acknowledge the tragedy but blame Hamas. This is exactly what Israeli spokesperson Mark Regev said on Channel 4 News when grilled by the anchor Jon Snow. It is also how the U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki responded, using the same word-for-word talking points.

This framework, developed in 2009, can be found in The Israel Project's 2009 Global Language Dictionary. The Orwellian manual provides a detailed outline on how to "communicate effectively in support of Israel."

One of its first instructions is that pro-Israeli propagandists need to show empathy. The manual insists that they should "show empathy for BOTH sides" (caps in original) as a way of gaining credibility and trust. To make sure that the point is understood, the manual repeats again (in bold, and underlined this time) the instruction "use Empathy" - the suggestion being that empathy is an important tool to be used in the propaganda war.


Comment: It's very revealing of the state of the souls of Hasbara foot-soldiers when they have to be instructed on how to demonstrate empathy. And Netanyahu still struggles to show any empathy, which is clearly an alien concept to psychopaths like him.

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