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Maldives girl spared lashes after global anger

Maldives
© Wikipedia, Creative CommonsMalé, capital of Maldives.
A 15-year-old girl who was sentenced to 100 lashes in the Maldives after she was raped by her step-father has had the sentence overturned thanks to an international campaign.

Earlier this year, the girl, whose name cannot be released, was accused of engaging in premarital sex. In February she was sentenced to receive 100 lashes as punishment for "fornication", and she was put under house arrest on an island near the capital Malé. Premarital sex is illegal in the Maldives, and flogging is a legal and accepted punishment for it.

The sentence, issued by a juvenile court, sparked anger from women's rights groups in the country and triggered a global campaign, led by the Avaaz network, calling for the sentence to be overturned. Two million people reportedly signed this petition.

Bug

One million cockroaches reportedly flee farm in China

Cockroach
© University of NebraskaAmerican cockroach - Periplaneta americana egg through adult stage pictured.
At least one million cockroaches have reportedly escaped from a farm in China where they were being bred for use in traditional medicine.

The cockroaches fled the facility in Dafeng, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, for surrounding cornfields after an "unknown perpetrator" destroyed the plastic greenhouse where they were raised, the Modern Express newspaper said.

Disease control authorities have sent five investigators to the area to come up with a plan to stamp out the insects. Farm owner Wang Pengsheng invested more than 100,000 yuan ($18,100) in 102 kilograms of Periplaneta americana eggs after spending six months developing a business plan, the report said.

By the time the greenhouse was damaged, more than 1.5 million cockroaches had hatched and were being fed food including "fruits and biscuits" every day, Wang was quoted as saying. He had expected to make around $180 profit for every kilogram of cockroaches sold, according to the report, but was now facing losses of hundreds of thousands of yuan.

The cockroach is generally considered a pest but believers in traditional Chinese medicine - which uses both plants and animals, including endangered species - say extracts from it can treat diseases including cancer, reduce inflammation and improve immunity.

Bizarro Earth

Plague of wild pigs has U.S. authorities squealing

Wild Hogs
© The Birmingham News FileWild hogs, also known as feral swine, are invading Fort Benning and nearby Columbus, Georgia.
Locust Grove, Oklahoma - A few years ago, Jim Vich would not have dreamed of setting up an elaborate trap to catch wild hogs.

But that was before Oklahoma was invaded by a plague of pigs that devour crops, uproot pastures, destroy wildlife habitats, spread disease to humans and animals, kill trees and even knock over cemetery stones.

"I started trapping them more or less in self-defense," said Vich, 60, a livestock farmer in northeast Oklahoma. "They were tearing up my place."

Oklahoma is battling a wild pig problem that has spread across the United States. The pigs, evolved from introduced wild boars or from escaped domestic stock, are prevalent in 36 states and have been sighted in 47 states, according to authorities who track their populations.

They are vicious critters that typically grow to 200 pounds, can run 30 miles per hour, jump three feet high and climb out of traps with walls up to six feet high, experts say.

"They are the ultimate survivors," said John Mayer, manager of the environmental science group at the Savannah River National Laboratory in Aiken, South Carolina. "They can live pretty much anywhere, eat pretty much anything, they don't have enough predators and they reproduce faster than any other mammal."

They seldom appear in the daytime making them hard to count, but Mayer estimates there are 5.5 million feral pigs nationwide. There could be up to 8 million, up from a maximum 2 million in 1990, he said.

Snakes in Suits

Deadline for Indianapolis homeless camp Monday morning


The deadline for people living in one of the city's largest homeless camps is fast approaching.

The city has given notice and posted signs alerting the 50-plus people still living in a homeless camp beneath the CSX railroad tracks on Davidson Street to be gone by Monday.

Eyewitness News has learned many of those at the homeless camp will not move and risk getting arrested.

"I like living here because it's the only place I got to go, said homeless camp member "Carolina."

Image
"Carolina" said he's lived in this tent under the CSX railroad tracks on Davidson Street for the last year. Saturday, he packed up a few of his belongings.

"Clothes, documents and applications," said "Carolina."

"Carolina" is one of at least 50-people who call this outdoor area downtown, their home.

Last week, the City posted signs outlining that CSX needs to inspect and do work on the railroad tracks. The signs outlines that no one will be allowed to live in this construction zone.

"No, No, We are not going to move," said camp member Marcus Young.

Maurice Young said his homeless community will face that Monday morning deadline, head-on.

He said the City is trying to "hide" the homeless problem.

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"I think it time to take a stand. The hide the homeless thing is done. Not just for this camp but for all the homeless that live in Indianapolis," said Young.

Young also told Eyewitness News he believes members of several outreach communities will stand by him in protest on Monday.

Young said members of the homeless community have talked about being arrested Monday and have promised not to fight back.

"We've had that discussion. We will peacefully go where ever they want us to go. No violence," said Young.

Comment: Privatize the prison system, foreclose on 2-3 MILLION homes per year, then criminalize homelessness. Waalaa, instant slave labor force.
This is what Corporate Psychopaths call a "Good Business Strategy"


Arrow Down

'The Beast' cargo train derails in Mexico; 5 stowaways killed

La Bestia
© AP Photo/Eduardo VerdugoMigrants ride on top of a northbound train toward the U.S.-Mexico border in Juchitan in southern Mexico on Monday, April 29, 2013. Migrants crossing Mexico to get to the U.S. have increasingly become targets of criminal gangs who kidnap them to obtain ransom money.
A cargo train nicknamed La Bestia, or "The Beast," carrying at least 250 stowaway Honduran migrants, derailed in southern Mexico on Sunday morning, killing five people, officials said.

Luis Felipe Puente, national emergency service coordinator, said on Twitter that 35 people were injured, 16 seriously, Reuters reported.

Authorities have not released details about what caused the crash, which occurred around 3 a.m. local time (4 a.m. EDT) in the municipality of Huimanguillo, CNN reported.

Thousands of migrants hitch rides on freight trains heading north toward the United States. On La Bestia, they often huddle on rooftops and cram between cars, CNN said.

A photograph from the scene showed freight cars on their sides next to the tracks, Reuters reported. Officials said eight of the 12 cars overturned.

Question

4,432,880 people globally went missing, never to return, in past 20 years

Missing Persons
© Historiann.com
In the summer of 2005, an elderly woman with dementia left her residence in Medicine Hat, Alberta. No one knows why she left, or where she thought she was going. Exhaustive attempts to locate her were fruitless. She was declared dead, three years later. Her body was never recovered.

"Enid" was a missing person. She is said to have had an active social life. Numerous friends lived near her, visited her reasonably often, and a stepdaughter was in touch fortnightly. Yet somehow, she managed to disappear without anyone noticing an elderly woman walking alone through a relatively small city, surrounded by open plain and smaller towns, to a destination unknown.

She left family behind; some 25 people were directly affected by this one woman's disappearance.

"Samson's" family gave up looking for him after five years. He went out one night and never came back. His last known whereabouts was an ATM from which he withdrew a few hundred dollars. His banking and credit cards have not been used since. His whereabouts has never been discovered. No one knows if he is dead or alive. He and his wife were still raising their three children at the time of his disappearance.

Among law enforcement officials, the common wisdom is that 95%-98% of those who go missing reappear within 48 hours. While these statistics may provide some temporary comfort to those whose loved one has gone missing, it diminishes both the real numbers of those who go missing, and the emotional havoc such a disappearance wreaks upon family, friends and associates of the missing person. These statistics also conceal another: globally, 607 people go missing every single day, without a trace. Over a year, this totals 221,644 missing individuals; over twenty years, this totals 4,432,880 - more than the population of New Zealand, or almost the entire population of Ireland (2011 statistics).

Arrow Down

Zurich opens first-ever drive-in 'sex boxes' to reduce open street prostitution in Switzerland

Sex Boxes
© The Independent, UK
The city of Zurich will open Switzerland's first-ever drive in "sex boxes" tomorrow as part of a controversial attempt to reduce open street prostitution, protect sex workers and prevent organised crime.

Nine of the so-called "sex boxes", each equipped with alarm buttons, a security guard presence, and able to accommodate only one car at time, are to open in the city's Sihlqai district where residents have long complained about on-street prostitution.

Michael Herzig, a Zurich social services director who supervises the city's sex workers, defended the move: "Prostitution is a business. We cannot prohibit it, so we want to control it in favour of the sex workers and the population," he said

"If we do not control it, organised crime and the pimps will take over," he added. Just over 52 per cent of Zurich's voters approved of plans to introduce sex-boxes in a referendum held in March last year. The boxes cost the equivalent of €1.7m (£1.4m) to install and €560,000 a year to run.

Handcuffs

Volunteers threatened with arrest for feeding homeless in Raleigh, North Carolina

Image
© WRAL
A spokesman for the Raleigh Police Department says a police officer was enforcing a city ordinance when he reportedly told, without explanation, a group of volunteers Saturday that they could be arrested for serving breakfast to the homeless.

Love Wins Ministries posted on its website Saturday that the officer approached them as they were preparing to pass out free coffee and sausage biscuits to more than 70 homeless people in downtown Raleigh.

"This morning we showed up at Moore Square at 9:00 a.m., just like we have done virtually every Saturday and Sunday for the last six years," the ministry's pastor and director, Rev. Hugh Hollowell, wrote in a blog post. "Today, officers from Raleigh Police Department prevented us from doing our work, for the first time ever. An officer said, quite bluntly, that if we attempted to distribute food, we would be arrested."

Hollowell said the officers wouldn't tell the group which ordinance they were violating, but simply told them they had to leave.

Police spokesman Jim Sughrue said in an email Sunday that no one was arrested and that the group was "simply informed of a city ordinance that prohibits the kinds of actions some groups have been engaged in at the park."

"Work is ongoing with those involved, some of whom are developing alternative sites," Sughrue said. "Ultimately, the ordinance is a city issue, of course, and when final determinations are made, the police department works with everyone to handle things in the smoothest way possible."

Love Wins is one of a number of nonprofits who help feed the homeless near Moore Square on weekends.

Todd Pratt, a volunteer with Human Beans Together, said his group was also notified recently that it could no longer serve the homeless on public property. On Sunday, the group moved to a private parking lot across the street from Moore Square, but police also asked them to leave that area.

"We had lots of volunteers and lots of hungry people and nowhere to go," Pratt said.

William McLaurin, who owns the private lot, allowed the volunteers to stay, but said he was worried about liability issues in the future.

Berrie Alston and Raheen Andrews say they are grateful for meals from volunteers.

"This is the only place that some people can go for a meal," Alston said. "They are trying to push us out of the park."

Comment: The Banksters, Politicians and wealthy Elite have a simple solution to the "Homeless problem" ...starve them to death.


Yoda

S. Africa says Mandela showing "great resilience", still critical

mandela
© Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko A well-wisher takes a picture using a cell phone of a banner with the image of former South African President Nelson Mandela, outside the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital where he is being treated, in Pretoria
Former South African President Nelson Mandela, who has been in hospital since early June with a lung infection, is showing "great resilience" although he remains in a critical but stable condition, the presidency said on Saturday.

"While at times, his condition becomes unstable, the doctors indicate that the former president has demonstrated great resilience and his condition tends to stabilise as a result of medical interventions," it said in its latest update on the condition of the 95-year-old anti-apartheid hero.

"Doctors are still working hard to effect a turnaround and a further improvement in his health and to keep the former president comfortable," the presidency added in the statement.

Handcuffs

Couple charged after 40 pythons found in Brantford, Ontario, motel

ontario pythons
© Cory Ruf/CBCBrandon James, an inspector with the Brant County SPCA, holds one of the 40 pythons that were seized at a Brantford, Ont., motel on Aug 15
Snakes found in 5 cramped bins, left without water

A Brantford, Ont., couple were charged with three counts of animal cruelty after 40 ball pythons and five eggs were found unattended and dehydrated in plastic containers earlier this month.

Police found the snakes in five plastic storage bins at the Bell City Motel on Colborne Street in Brantford, west of Hamilton.

The pair both face one count of causing distress to an animal, failing to provide care necessary for an animal's general welfare and failing to provide enough water.

The snakes ranged from 30 centimetres to 1.3 metres in length.