Society's ChildS


Laptop

UK: Racist abuse derails Facebook campaign to foster child refugees


RT
Tue, 13 Dec 2016 15:14 UTC
Facebook
© Jaap Arriens / Global Look Press via ZUMA Press
A social media campaign to recruit foster parents for child asylum seekers was derailed after it attracted racist abuse and extreme anti-immigrant comments.

The Facebook campaign, run by Leicestershire County Council in October and November, was ended abruptly because of bigoted trolling by members of the public, according to the Leicester Mercury.

A councilor at Leicestershire County Council told the newspaper it was shut down because of racist abuse.

"We had a campaign, a high profile social media campaign. It was asking if people would be prepared to foster some of these refugees," Councilor Ivan Ould said.
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Book 2

Hatred cover to cover: US libraries report defacement of Korans post-election


RT
Tue, 13 Dec 2016 15:04 UTC
koran
© Adeel Halim / Reuters
The American Library Association has highlighted a spate of racist incidents, including defacement of Korans and other books about Islam, that has come to its attention since Donald Trump won the US presidential election last month.

Libraries across the US have reported incidents of hate speech scrawled on their books as well as incidents of harassment inside their premises that have now been logged by the ALA.

The ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom started tracking the incidents after it had received three reports within a couple of weeks. Prior to that it had only received notice of one instance in the year, according to The New York Times.
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Stormtrooper

New York City tax payers fork out $600K+ over police brutality


RT
Mon, 12 Dec 2016 22:39 UTC
NYPD police car
© Brendan McDermid / Reuters
The city of New York is to pay out over $600,000 in damages in a case that charged NYPD officers with using excessive force, unlawful arrest and making false statements when they arrested a teenager.

The settlement stems from a 2012 incident that started when police officers from the 42nd Precinct in the South Bronx illegally stopped and frisked Jateik Reed, then 19 years old.

The lawsuit also included wrongful arrest charges brought against the officers for the arrest of his mother, Schwan Reed, her three-year old son Jaiyer Johnson, friends Jashwan Walker, friend William Reid, and pepper-spraying Trevor Nigel when they arrived at the precinct looking for Jateik.
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Apple Green

34,000 Quest Diagnostic accounts hacked by 'unauthorized third party'


WTOP
Tue, 13 Dec 2016 14:27 UTC
Quest Diagnostics
© Cox Media Group
Medical laboratory operator Quest Diagnostics Inc. says a hack of an internet application on its network has exposed the personal health information of about 34,000 people.

The Madison, New Jersey-based company says "an unauthorized third party" on Nov. 26 gained access to customer information including names, dates of birth, lab results and in some instances, telephone numbers. The stolen data did not include Social Security numbers, credit card accounts, insurance details or any other financial information.

Quest said Monday it is working with a cybersecurity firm and law enforcement to investigate the breach, while taking steps to prevent similar incidents from recurring.

The company said it has notified affected clients by mail and has set up a dedicated number to field questions regarding the breach at (888) 320-9970.

Source: The Associated Press

Comment: Russia might get the blame for this one, too.

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Airplane

Bomb threat prompts Lufthansa jet to land at New York's JFK Airport


Fox5
Mon, 12 Dec 2016 22:49 UTC
Bomb threat at JFK airport
© Fox5
An airliner heading from Houston to Frankfurt, Germany, diverted to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York because of a threat, according to the Port Authority.

Someone called in a bomb threat to Lufthansa headquarters. The pilot of the flight made a decision to land at JFK after 8 p.m., the Port Authority said.

The plane was guided to a remote part of the airport. The passengers were off-loaded so that the NYPD Bomb Squad could search the plane.

"LH441 was diverted as a matter of precaution in coordination with the relevant authorities and the pilot," the airline tweeted in response to inquiries. "Passengers disembarked and LH staff will take care of them. The aircraft will be searched."

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Santa

Santa rushes to Tennessee hospital to fulfill dying 5-year-old's wish


BBC
Mon, 12 Dec 2016 13:27 UTC
Santa Claus
© FacebookEric Schmitt-Matzen
A US man who dresses up as Santa Claus fulfilled a dying boy's Christmas wish by visiting him at his bedside, before the youngster passed away in his arms.

Eric Schmitt-Matzen rushed to a local Tennessee hospital after receiving a call about a terminally ill five-year-old boy who wanted to see Santa Claus. The 60-year-old impersonator said he gave the child a present and a big hug before holding him as he died.

The boy's family watched on from the hallway as they cried, he told the BBC. "When I felt the life go from him, I looked up, tears running down my face, and looked over at the window and that's when [his] mom started screaming," he said.

Mr Schmitt-Matzen said he had asked family members to remain outside the room if they were going to break down in tears when he arrived for the visit. "I have to be the happy guy that makes this kid feel great and smile and forget his worries," he said. "I said, 'If you're going to lose it, you have step out in the hallway and afterwards, I'll stand out in the hall and cry with you.'"
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Cross

Leader of Opus Dei dies of pneumonia at 84


Catholic News Agency
Tue, 13 Dec 2016 13:20 UTC
Bishop Javier E. Rodriguez
© Bohumil Petrik/CNABishop Javier Echevarría Rodríguez, Prelate of Opus Dei.
Bishop Javier Echevarría Rodríguez, the Prelate of Opus Dei, died Monday evening at the age of 84 in Rome, several days after being hospitalized with pneumonia.

According to a Dec. 12 statement from the personal prelature, Bishop Echevarría was given the final sacraments this afternoon by his auxiliary, Msgr. Fernando Ocariz.
Bishop Echevarría was receiving an antibiotic to fight a lung infection," the statement added. "The clinical situation was complicated in the final hours provoking respiratory insufficiency, which resulted in his death.
The bishop was born in Madrid in 1932, where he met St. Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, an organization dedicated to spiritual growth and discipleship among the laity which teaches its members to use their work and their ordinary activities as a way to encounter God.

He was St. Josemaria's secretary from 1953 to 1975, and was ordained a priest of the prelature in 1955, at the age of 23.
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Moon

Third supermoon in a row set to 'tip people over the edge' and make Christmas a potential 'battle ground'

Hannah Crouch
The Sun
Mon, 12 Dec 2016 01:09 UTC
supermoon trees
© FOX2now.com
An upcoming Supermoon could set tensions running high this Christmas and make the festive season a "battle ground", according to one psychiatrist. Rose Smith, the head of the largest network of psychic readers in the Southern hemisphere, Absolute Soul Secrets, has said having three slightly larger moons in a row at the end of the year could result in people experiencing heightened emotions.

Australian psychiatrist Rose Smith says a third supermoon could effect people's emotions and 'tip them over the edge' Ms Smith told Daily Mail Australia: "Supermoons are not unusual, we get several a year, but it is unusual to have three in a row and to have them at the end of the year and at the end of the '9' cycle.

"There is a lot of stress in the aether, and a lot of pent up emotions built up over time. People have to tighten the reins on their tongues otherwise feelings might come out all over the place." She also warned that the third supermoon could make Christmas a 'battle ground', especially when people carry out their Christmas shopping. Ms Smith added that she had visions of people 'fighting over high heels'.

The next supermoon is expected to take place just after midnight on Wednesday and will be the third supermoon in three months.

Supermoon is the term given when a full moon is closest to earth. It appears 30 per cent brighter and 14 per cent bigger to those watching on Earth. Some myths and legends believe supermoons pushes people over the edge and into insanity. The word lunacy is actually derived from the Latin lunaticus, which means "of the moon" or "moonstruck".

Comment: A psychic and a psychiatrist are two very different career paths, neither of which have a lock on hypothetical lunar-induced behavior, except speculated upon by this one particular 'combo' woman. Since there are no statistics from studies of full or supermoons (or a cumulative effect of a consecutive three) that have produced or validated any strange or exaggerated activity, we can likely eliminate Smith's proposed phenomenon source as nil effect.

What the psychic psychologist may have been sensing is the steady uptick of unrest, agitation, and uncertainty created by existing events manifesting from accumulating economic, social, political, military and humanitarian crises around the globe, along with the annual craziness of upcoming holidays. Yup. Emotional discharge triggered by annihilation and fruitcake. The next few weeks will be interesting. Stay alert and aware.

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Heart - Black

Court rules man who raped girl, then 14, can fight to see child born out of attack

Caitlin Nolan
Inside Edition
Fri, 09 Dec 2016 18:23 UTC
child_man
© Unknown
A Massachusetts woman forced into a years-long battle against a man convicted of raping her when she was a child is once again preparing to face him after a state appeals court decided he can press his claim in family court for the right to visit the child conceived during the sexual assault.

The woman — referred to in court documents as H.T. — was just 14 years old when she was raped by then 20-year-old Jamie Melendez, whom she met at a church youth group.

As detailed in a March InsideEdition.com story on the subject, Melendez pleaded guilty to the rape in 2011 and was sentenced to 16 years' probation.

As a result of the rape, the eighth grader became pregnant. She went on to have a daughter, who is now seven.

The case was remanded to family court, where Melendez was ordered to pay $110 a week in child support. In turn, he filed for visitation rights, arguing that if he had to pay to support the child, he should be able to see her.
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Roses

Mexico's war on drugs turns 10: 100,000 dead, 30,000 missing - and counting


CBS News
Sun, 11 Dec 2016 15:31 UTC
Mexico war on drugs
CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico - Ten years after Mexico declared a war on drugs, the offensive has left some major drug cartels splintered and many old-line kingpins like Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in jail, but done little to reduce crime or violence in the nation's roughest regions.

Some say the war has been a crucial, but flawed, effort. Others argue the offensive begun by then-President Felipe Calderon on Dec. 11, 2006, unleashed an unnecessary tragedy with more than 100,000 people dead and about 30,000 missing - a toll comparable to the Central American civil wars of the 1980s.

In some places, homicide rates have lessened. In others, the killings continue unabated. The drawn-out conflict has also had a profound effect on those close to the cross-hairs of suffering: youths inured to extreme violence; adults so fed-up with poor and corrupt policing that they took up arms as vigilantes; and families who banded together in the face of authorities' inability to find their vanished loved ones.

A law enforcement official in the northern border state of Tamaulipas told The Associated Press he now routinely encounters young cartel gunmen who have few regrets about their vocation. In fact, they see killing as the best way to afford things like smartphones, cars and girlfriends.

Comment: The glaring omission from this mainstream article is what Mexico's neighbor to the north is doing; the US's twisted and corrupting role in creating drug trafficking carnage and chaos world wide:

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