Society's ChildS

Light Sabers

Russian community preparing to defend itself from spreading fascism in Ukraine

soviet ukraine rally
© Alexander Khudoteply / AFP / Getty ImagesA Ukrainian woman holds a Soviet flag during a rally in the industrial city of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, on Feb. 22, 2014
The busload of officers only began to feel safe when they entered the Crimean peninsula. Through the night on Friday, they drove the length of Ukraine from north to south, having abandoned the capital city of Kiev to the revolution. Along the way the protesters in several towns pelted their bus with eggs, rocks and, at one point, what looked to be blood before the retreating officers realized it was only ketchup. "People were screaming, cursing at us," recalls one of the policemen, Vlad Roditelev.

Finally, on Saturday morning, the bus reached the refuge of Crimea, the only chunk of Ukraine where the revolution has failed to take hold. Connected to the mainland by two narrow passes, this huge peninsula on the Black Sea has long been a land apart, an island of Russian nationalism in a nation drifting toward Europe. One of its biggest cities, Sevastopol, is home to a Russian naval base that houses around 25,000 troops, and most Crimean residents identify themselves as Russians, not Ukrainians.

Comment: It appears that the people of Crimea have good cause to be worried and turn to Russia for help.
Neo-Nazism unleashed: Eastern Ukraine synagogue hit by firebombs
Ukraine beaten and fragmented: uprising political groups once on the fringes are in the ascendancy
Democracy murdered by protest - Ukraine falls to intrigue and violence


Padlock

Crimea unites to resist Ukraine's 'anti-Russian' revolution

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© ReutersPro-Russian activists gather to form a local public guard to oppose pro-EU groups in Simferopol in the Crimea yesterday.
"There's no Maidan here," said Vitaly, a young waiter in a restaurant in Simferopol, capital of Crimea. "A few people tried it, but it didn't catch on."

"Maidan" is the Ukrainian name for both Independence Square in Kiev and the protest movement centred there that toppled President Viktor Yanukovich and his government.

Maidan and other squares across central and western Ukraine have for months been full of people Vitaly's age, who were were sick of the corruption, greed and thuggery that Yanukovich came to embody. Now they are celebrating a revolution that they hope will transform their country.

"It's not like that here," Vitaly explained. "I am against Maidan and in favour of Russia. And most of Crimea thinks like me."

Many people living on this Black Sea peninsula, twice the size of Northern Ireland, agree with Moscow's assertion that Ukraine's revolutionaries are violent, western-backed ultra-nationalists who intend to crush the rights of Russian-speakers and curtail Crimea's links with Russia itself.

Road Cone

Ukrainian city demolishes monument to Russian general who beat Napoleon

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© zik.ua
Ukraine's anti-Russian drive targeting war monuments continues. The latest victim is the Russian army commander who fought against invading Napoleon troops and chased them back to Paris.

The monument to Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov, who is praised in Russia as one of the best military commanders in the country's history, was demolished in the city of Brody in Western Ukraine, reports Korrespondent newspaper.

The bust sculpture was taken off its plinth on Monday by municipal workers with a crane. The plinth was later demolished.

Stormtrooper

City forces woman choosing to live "off the grid" to plug in

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© WBBH-TVA special magistrate ruled last week that Robin Speronis will have to hook her home up to a city water supply or face the consequences.
A Florida woman who has been living "off the grid" for more than a year will be forced to partially plug in or face consequences from the city, a special magistrate ruled last week.

In December, Robin Speronis became engaged in a dispute with the city of Cape Coral for her refusal to use modern amenities such as running water and electricity. A code enforcement officer at the time visited her home and deemed it as "uninhabitable property."

"I was exercising my First Amendment rights of free speech in discussing living off the grid," Speronis said in December.

Che Guevara

French woman Beatrice Bourges goes on hunger strike "until President Hollande quits"

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Beatrice Bourges
A woman on a hunger strike near Paris' iconic Eiffel Tower says she won't end her protest until French President Francois Hollande steps down. Beatrice Bourges, who has been on a hunger strike since Sunday, has been particularly vocal about Hollande's split from long-time partner Valerie Trierweiler, after details of an affair he was having with an actress emerged in a French gossip magazine.

She said: "For the past year and a half, the president is bringing France to ruin. He has ruined france, and a great number of French people do not want that to continue until 2017."

She went on to admonish the president for his conduct over the affair, saying: ""The way he left her, asking her through the press to pack her bags, is absolutely inadmissible. And someone who is able to do that is able to bring the country to ruins, because he has absolutely no consideration and it proves he only thinks of himself."

Bourges was approached by police around 23.00 local time (2200 GMT) Monday, and was forced to move her protest elsewhere.

Pistol

Seven Egyptian-Christians found slain 'execution-style' in 'democratic' Libya

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© Reuters/sam Omran Al-FetoriNOW Libya is undemocratic and ruled by extremists: Protesters burn a replica of the U.S. flag during a demonstration against the capture of Nazih al-Ragye, in Benghazi October 7, 2013.
Seven Egyptian-Christians were found dead in an execution-style arrangement on a beach in eastern Libya on Monday.

According to the Libyan police, the victims were found with gunshot wounds to the head.

"They were killed by headshots in execution style," a Libyan police officer told Reuters. "We don't know who killed them."

In a statement, Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Badr Abdul al-Ati denounced the crimes as "heinous" and said that Egypt "expects [Libya] to hand in the latest results of its investigation as soon as possible and bring those accused to justice," Al-Arabiya reported.

Gold Coins

California couple finds $10 million in gold coins buried in backyard

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© Kagin's Inc. / April 5, 2013A decaying metal can filled with 1800s-era U.S. gold coins is just one of those unearthed in the backyard of a California couple. The value of the treasure trove is estimated at $10 million.
For many years, John and Mary took daily walks along a trail on a section of their property they nicknamed Saddle Ridge.

But last year, as they were walking their dog, they noticed an old can sticking out of the dirt. Curious, they brushed away some moss, used a stick to dig it out and carried the heavy container home.

And that's all it took for the couple living in California's gold country to discover a cache of 19th-century U.S. gold coins that rare coin experts say is the greatest buried treasure ever unearthed in the United States.

Donald Kagin, president of Kagin's Inc., a numismatic firm that specializes in U.S. gold coins, announced the discovery Tuesday. The company represents the couple, who want to remain anonymous.

Kagin said in a statement that eight of the rusty cans were filled with more than 1,400 rare and perfectly preserved U.S. gold coins dating from 1847 to 1894. Kagin said the coins have a face value of more than $28,000 but could sell for more than $10 million.

Red Flag

It's not perfectly normal: U.S. schools teach masturbation to 8-year-olds

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US schools are teaching 8-year-olds how to masturbate, and parents are outraged. The controversy surrounds the textbook titled "It's Perfectly Normal," which contains graphic illustrations of naked people of all ages. Some drawings depict children and adults masturbating and having intercourse. Do-it-yourself instructions are included.

US Common Core standards now require sexuality education from kindergarten through grade 12. To qualify for federal grants from the US Department of Education, public schools must adopt Common Core standards. According to the independent Heartland Institute, the Affordable Care Act has budgeted $75 million for sexuality education. Much of that has been granted to Planned Parenthood. With these funds, Planned Parenthood has hired sexuality teachers for public schools.

This academic year, Common Core has endorsed "It's Perfectly Normal" for fourth-grade public schools. Parents and teachers in Tennessee have opposed it. Reporter Victoria Jackson discussed the Tennessee controversy on clashdaily.com.


Sheriff

First victim of serial rapist John Worboys brings case against Met police for ignoring her claims

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© Alastair Grant/AP
"I have lived with the guilt for 11 years. At last I no longer feel it was my fault."
These are the words of the first victim of probably Britain's most prolific serial rapist, the London black cab driver John Worboys, who went on to attack over a hundred women in five years between 2003 - 2008.

This mother has spoken publicly for the first time having brought an unprecedented case against the Metropolitan Police. She has carried on her shoulders the weight of feeling responsible for all the other victims. "The police should have done their job properly. They really convinced me it didn't happen. I don't want anybody else to go through what I've gone through."

However irrational that may sound, she's been haunted by that feeling for more than a decade. Her account would prove to be first of many similar stories in the future. But at the time it was the only one and police didn't believe it.


Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito and the nightmare of Italian justice

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Anyone following the byzantine trials of Amanda Knox, the American exchange student accused with her onetime boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito of murdering her roommate in Perugia, will have noticed that criminal justice in Italy doesn't work the way it does in other countries. First they were guilty, then they weren't, now they are again. In the United States, this is commonly referred to as double jeopardy and is barred under the Constitution. In Italy, it's pretty much business as usual.

When the pair was first arrested, more than six years ago, they were left to rot in jail and for months - in Sollecito's case in solitary confinement - before charges were brought. They didn't qualify for bail because bail does not exist in Italy. The prosecution regularly leaked information to the media but did not formally share its investigative findings with the defendants or their lawyers until the summer of 2008, by which time the public was broadly convinced they were no ordinary college students, but rather, depraved sex addicts who had forced the victim, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher, into a satanic orgy before brutally stabbing her to death.

To this day, it remains doubtful whether evidence ever existed to substantiate such a scenario.