Society's ChildS


Attention

Russian Olympic team fans house was robbed during the Rio 2016 opening ceremony


RT
Sat, 06 Aug 2016 12:19 UTC
Russian Olympic Team Fans House Rio
© Ramil Sitdikov / Sputnik Raising the Russian flag at the opening of the Russian Olympic Team Fans House in Rio de Janeiro.
The Russian Olympic Team's fan house has been robbed during the Rio Games opening ceremony, Russian media reports, citing officials. No one was hurt in the incident but the burglars who stole expensive electronic equipment are still at large.

"The Russian Olympic Team Fans House has been robbed during the Olympic Games opening ceremony, Three laptops and a camera have been stolen," Anastasia Grigoryeva, the head of the facility's press service, told TASS, adding that police already launched an investigation into the incident. Her words were confirmed by the head of the Fans House, Oleg Rumyantsev, who told Ria Novosti that "some equipment was stolen from a technical zone during the changing of the guard."

"None of the fans were harmed and the fans' belongings also remained intact," he added, stressing that officials toughened security after the incident and set up additional guarding posts and place some additional CCTV cameras on the facility's territory.
Read More...
Stop

Crime study shows 6 million UK adults suffered abuse as children


RT
Fri, 05 Aug 2016 16:50 UTC
Child walking alone
© Darren Staples / Reuters
Up to six million adults in the UK say they suffered emotional, physical or sexual abuse as children, a new study has found.

The crime survey study of England and Wales carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that up to half a million adult women and 100,000 adult males had been raped.

Of those individuals 33,000 had been victims of rape or attempted rape before the age of nine, the figures indicate. It was the first time a question on abuse had been included in the survey.

Comment: And this isn't helping to tackle the problem: Institutional child sex abuse inquiry loses third head and it hasn't even started yet

Read More...
Vader

Israel's commitment to peace: More Palestinian homes demolished by Israel in first half of 2016 than in all of 2015

Allison Deger
Mondoweiss
Fri, 05 Aug 2016 00:00 UTC
demolition
More Palestinian homes were demolished in the occupied territories in the first half of 2016 than in all of 2015, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.

According to B'Tselem, the group presented a report to lawmakers in July during a parliamentary conference on Israeli "efforts to expel" Palestinian villagers, including the use of "repeated demolition of the homes of the same families." The increased demolitions and displacement have also been accompanied by a rising number of new settler homes under construction. This past week Israel announced hundreds more settlements planned for East Jerusalem, prompting the U.S. State Department to issue an atypical condemnation of the Jewish state.

Record year of home demolitions

The B'Tselem report found from January to the end of June of 2016, Israeli forces razed 168 Palestinian units in the West Bank and Jerusalem, which left 740 homeless, nearly 250 more than the previous year when 125 houses were bulldozed.

The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov said in February, demolitions this year are "three times the weekly average for 2015. These actions run directly counter to the idea of peace."

Comment: Because the economies in Gaza and the West Bank have been so decimated by Israeli aggression, many Palestinians are forced to go to work in Israel where they must pass through checkpoints; herded like cattle.
Of some 100,000 Palestinians who work in Israel daily, 63,000 have permits and enter Israel via one of 11 checkpoints. In June, during the fast of Ramadan, B'Tselem again documented the rough conditions at two of the checkpoints: 300 and Qalandia. While the latter has 5 lanes only one is operational at the busiest times. Crowding is particularly bad on Sundays, the first day of the workweek. These conditions mean workers are forced to leave for work in the dead of night, wait in long lines, and often sleep where they work, seeing their families only on weekends. This is not a necessary evil but a deliberate choice by the Israeli authorities. Whatever the reasons for the choice, it is an unconscionable and unacceptable one.


Read More...
Question

Edward Snowden tweets cryptic code: Was it a dead man's switch?


Sputnik
Sun, 07 Aug 2016 03:01 UTC
Snowden
© Screenshot: Council of Europe
After posting a 64 character hex code that is believed to be an encryption key, the internet worries that the famed whistleblower may have been killed or captured resulting in the triggering of a dead man's switch and potentially the release of many more US national secrets.

On Friday night, famed NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden tweeted out a 64 character code before quickly deleting the message along with a mysterious warning earlier this week that "It's Time" which had called on colleagues of the former contractor to contact him leaving the internet to speculate that the characters could be an encryption key for a major document leak, it may be a "dead man's switch" set to go in effect if the whistleblower were killed or captured, or potentially both.

A dead man's switch is a message set up to be automatically sent if the holder of an account does not perform a regular check-in. The whistleblower has acknowledged that he has distributed encrypted files to journalists and associates that have not yet been released so in Snowden's case, the dead man's switch could be an encryption key for those files.

As of this time, Edward Snowden's Twitter account has gone silent for over 24 hours which is far from unprecedented for the whistleblower but is curious at a time when public concern has been raised over his well-being. The 64 hex characters in the code do appear to rule out the initial theory that Edward Snowden, like so many of us, simply butt dialed his phone, but instead is a clearly a secure hash algorithm that can serve as a signature for a data file or as a password.
snowden_twitter
© Twitter
The timing shortly after the "It's Time" tweet also have caused concern for some Reddit theorists such as a user named stordoff who believes that the nascent Twitter post "was intended to set something in motion." The user postulates that it is an encrypted message, a signal, or a password.
Read More...
Family

Russian boy kidnapped by gypsies found 16 years later, can't read, write or tell time


RT
Sat, 06 Aug 2016 19:21 UTC
Vasily missing boy
© Interior MinistryVasily at age 6, now 16 years later.
A boy long-thought dead was found in southern Russia, after escaping the Romani settlement which he was kidnapped in when he was a six-year-old back in 2000. The man has no formal education. His biological parents are dead, and his future remains uncertain.

In late July, a policeman found an apparently homeless man illegally sleeping in someone else's parked van in the city of Volgograd. When the man, possessing a sheaf of blonde hair, was taken to the station and asked to provide ID, he said he had no documents, and that he was a gypsy by the name of Dmitry Mikhay.

"Are you sure? Have you seen yourself in the mirror? Your complexion is way too light," said the on-duty policeman, according to daily Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, whose journalist interviewed the officers dealing with the case. The detainee immediately confessed that it wasn't his real name, and that he remembers only that he was called Vasily, when he was snatched by gypsies on his way home from an outdoor market where his mother was a trader.

Police began to scan missing persons records. As well as a name, officers had another distinctive detail to work with - a large birthmark on Vasily's chest.
Read More...
Coffee

New Jersey hopes to cash in by fining people who eat and drink while driving

Claire Bernish
The Free Thought Project
Sat, 06 Aug 2016 18:27 UTC
coffee while driving
© Getty
Drinking coffee while driving could land you in hot water if a new piece of legislation passes.

A bill in New Jersey targeting distracted drivers would levy hefty fines and a possible license suspension against those who eat, drink, groom, read, or use electronic devices while behind the wheel. In other words, drive and only drive, or else!

Although the bill's sponsors — Assemblyman John Wisniewski and Nicholas Chiaravalloti, both Democrats — claim the legislation is intended to educate, not punish, drivers, its penalties speak volumes.

"Violators could face a $200 to $400 fine for the first offense and a $400 to $600 fine for a second offense. A third or subsequent offense could mean a fine of $600 to $800 and up to a 90 day license suspension, as well as motor vehicle points," according to nj.com.
Read More...
Heart - Black

Washington: Jail staff openly mock and fail to provide treatment to dying woman

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Fri, 05 Aug 2016 18:19 UTC
Lindsay Kronberger
Lindsay Kronberger
Lindsay Kronberger was an all American girl next door who married her high school sweetheart, and began building a family. However, her life would take a turn for the worse in 2014 when she became addicted to heroin. Multiplying her problems with addiction was the state's immoral war on drugs that led to her untimely death in a Washington jail.

Kronberger's family has since filed a lawsuit claiming the jail staff failed to deliver life-saving treatment to her as she died in right front of them as officers mocked her.

Not only does the lawsuit show the jail failed to provide treatment, Karen Moore, an attorney with Brewe Layman, representing the Kronbergers, says they have a video showing the officers mock the young girl as she lay suffering and ultimately dying in her jail cell.

"Lindsay suffered tremendously at the hands of her jailers in the last few days of her life, and her death was completely preventable," said Moore.

Comment: More proof that addicts belong in treatment centers, not being mocked by heartless guards in jail.
Death by detox in American jails

Read More...
Stormtrooper

SOTT Focus: Police State Roundup: a disturbing trend of murder, home invasion and pet slaying by police

Brently Kopopolous
Sott.net
Sat, 06 Aug 2016 22:53 UTC
police brutality
© Youtube/Screen Cap
Another week, another string of police crimes being justified. This incident is truly disturbing, what was a simple instance of parents disciplining their daughter resulted in the death of the father who had committed no crime.
The incident, which was caught on video, began when Mrs. Nair Rodriguez got into an altercation with her 19-year-old daughter outside the Moore Warren Theatre in the early hours of February 15 and slapped her. A bystander who witnessed the incident reported the event to police. The mother-daughter disagreement had upset Mrs. Rodriguez so much that she had bolted for the family car. Her husband, Luis followed her to calm her down when he was intercepted by five police who arrived on the scene. However instead of confronting Nair, five cops took down her innocent husband Luis Rodriguez, beating, pepper spraying and pinning him on the road.
Important to note, this anonymous bystander, who merely thought they were doing the right thing, bears some responsibility for the death of this innocent man. We should all consider that the next time we ponder calling the cops, for any reason.
Police say their actions were protocol, though three have been suspended with pay while the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation continues to investigate.
Not only was everything done 'according to protocol' but Luis' murderers get a paid vacation during the investigation, which can be anywhere from months to years when compared with historically similar accounts.
Read More...
Cell Phone

Don't have a cell phone? - You will be locked out of Social Security

Karen Graham
Digital Journal
Sat, 06 Aug 2016 20:38 UTC
Mobile Phone
© YouTube
For some senior citizens, their lack of texting skills are locking them out their Social Security accounts online because of a new security measure added this week.

A new security measure was added this week that requires users to enter a code along with their username and password before they can access their account. But the new measure has some senior citizens up in arms, says Fox News.

Some people may be familiar with the practice. When you enter your username and password, a text message and a code are sent to your cell phone. You then enter the code in order to access your account. Social Security requires a new code is each time you access your account because the code is only good for 10 minutes.

On its website, Social Security explains that the added security measure was added to comply with an executive order requiring federal agencies to beef up their online security measures. This particular security measure is used by most financial institutions with online account activity.
Read More...
Arrow Up

Waking up? Majority of young Americans feel marginalized by both Republican and Democratic parties


RT
Fri, 05 Aug 2016 20:36 UTC
american youth protest
© Adrees Latif / Reuters
Despite the millions of dollars spent on primaries, national conventions, and hours of television coverage, the majority of young Americans are disenfranchised by both the Republicans and Democrats, according to a new poll.

Across racial and ethnic groups just 28 percent of young adults said the two major parties do a good job of representing them, according to a new GenForward poll.

While 72 percent of young Americans felt disenfranchised by the two-party system, the Democratic Party still had an advantage in appealing to young people of color. Large majorities of black voters, 66 percent; Asians, 65 percent; and Latinos, 58 percent, believe the Democratic Party care about people like them.

On the other side of the aisle, a majority, especially among young people of color, thinks the Republican Party is too extreme.
Read More...