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The Superbowl is the biggest human trafficking event of the year, says law enforcement

Aaron Cantú
Alternet
Fri, 31 Jan 2014 14:58 UTC
Human Trafficking
© ChameleonsEye/Shutterstock

Federal officials are descending on New Jersey this weekend, in anticipation of a major spike in human trafficking that is rumored to accompany the Super Bowl every year. It is believed that America's biggest game is also the largest concentration of human slave laborers of the year.

When a dense mass of humanity converges on a city like bees to a honeycomb, there are certain needs that arise.

The shrewdest of human traffickers know which ones must be fulfilled and which ones can be indulged: toilets have to be cleaned and food has to be served, but sex can also be provided for those with the money to pay for it.

Every year, many people (there are no official numbers) from within the country and abroad are seduced by the promise of paid labor to travel to the city hosting the big game. Often, these jobs do not exist, and many victims are forced to enter into slavery without any means of escape.

"Whether it be the Olympics, the World Cup, or the Super Bowl, any high-profile event that brings a large influx of visitors to a new locale can also create circumstances conductive to human trafficking and sexual exploitation," said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, to USA Today.
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Stop

Masked and radical, Ukraine protesters blockade justice ministry

Stuart Williams
Yahoo! News
Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:16 UTC
Image
© AFP/Aris MessinisAn anti-government protester walks near a road block in Kiev on January 27, 2014.
They stood like a unit from a paramilitary army, in camouflage fatigues and clutching baseball bats, their faces concealed underneath helmets and black balaclavas.

Radical activists Monday blockaded the Ukrainian justice ministry in Kiev, in a provocative move that risked derailing talks to end Ukraine's crisis and was condemned even by some within the opposition.

Activists from the Spilna Sprava (Common Cause) radical group had late on Sunday stormed the building, bursting past the token protection provided by three guards and occupying the building.

They symbolically smashed the official sign of the building, destroyed one of the ground floor windows and set up a table outside with two icons and the Ukrainian constitution.

Two barricades several metres high were set up on the adjacent roads manned by activists with motorcycle helmets whose heads peered over the sacks of snow forming the blockade.
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Newspaper

End of the affair as Francois Hollande vows to live the single life for the rest of his Élysée term

John Lichfield
The Independent
Mon, 27 Jan 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© IndependentWave goodbye: Francois Hollande and Valerie Trierweiler have officially separated.
President Francois Hollande, the man who never married, is a bachelor again.

After ending his seven-year partnership with Valérie Trierweiler with a phone call to a French news agency on Saturday, the President plans to have no more live-in lovers at the Élysée Palace for the remaining 40 months of his presidency.

Friends assume that his relationship with the actress Julie Gayet, 41, will continue but that she will remain in her own apartment with her two teenage sons.

Ms Trierweiler flew from Paris to Mumbai today on a humanitarian visit, travelling as a "private citizen".

Some hope.

It emerged that Ms Trierweiler, 48, has negotiated a financial settlement with Mr Hollande to compensate for loss of status and her loss of earnings since she abandoned part of her journalistic career when he became president 20 months ago. It is believed that part of the agreement is a "gagging clause".

The couple are said to have parted "on good terms". But even friends of President Hollande, 59, have been surprised by the business-like manner in which he has dealt with his former partner since his love affair with Ms Gayet was exposed by Closer magazine.
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Arrow Down

UK media alarmed by govt bill allowing seizure of journalists' notes, files


RT.com
Sat, 01 Feb 2014 10:01 UTC
UK Media
© AFP Photo/Saeed Khan
UK media organizations have warned that if a government bill authorizing police to seize journalists' notebooks, photos and digital files is passed Monday, it could seriously endanger press freedom in the country.

Currently, requests for reporters' notebooks and files must be made in open court, and representatives of news organizations are allowed to be present in the courtroom. However, if Clause 47 in Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Letwin's deregulation bill is passed February 3, secret hearings could authorize the seizure of journalists' files.

Under the bill, the police will be basically given carte blanche to access journalists' information without their consent.

Although the rules stating whether police can have access to material or not will remain unaltered, without media groups present at hearings judges could be more easily persuaded to authorize police seizures of journalistic material, The Guardian reported.

The voice of Britain's media, the Newspaper Society, which represents 1,100 newspapers, 1,600 websites and other print, digital and broadcast channels, has protested against the controversial bill's provisions.

"Reporters are put at risk, whether reporting riot or investigating wrongdoing, if perceived to be ready sources of information for the police and media organizations too vulnerable to police demands for journalistic material," the society warned in a statement.
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Vodka to blame for high death risk in Russian men

Maria Cheng
USA Today
Fri, 31 Jan 2014 12:24 UTC
Alcohol
© Alexei Sazonov, AP

London - Russian men who down large amounts of vodka - and too many do - have an "extraordinarily" high risk of an early death, a new study says.

Researchers tracked about 151,000 adult men in the Russian cities of Barnaul, Byisk and Tomsk from 1999 to 2010. They interviewed them about their drinking habits and, when about 8,000 later died, followed up to monitor their causes of death.

The risk of dying before age 55 for those who said they drank three or more half-liter bottles of vodka a week was a shocking 35%.

Overall, a quarter of Russian men die before reaching 55, compared with 7% of men in the United Kingdom and less than 1% in the United States.

The life expectancy for men in Russia is 64 years - placing it among the lowest 50 countries in the world in that category.

It's not clear how many Russian men drink three bottles or more a week. Lead researcher Sir Richard Peto of Oxford University said the average Russian adult drinks 20 liters of vodka per year while the average Briton drinks about three liters of spirits.

"Russians clearly drink a lot, but it's this pattern of getting really smashed on vodka and then continuing to drink that is dangerous," Peto said.
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Amanda Knox extradition attempts 'doomed to fail', say diplomats

Hannah Roberts
Mail Online
Fri, 31 Jan 2014 13:08 UTC
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Amanda Knox reacting to an interviewers questions about a Florence court upholding the guilty verdict for her and her former boyfriend during her recent interview on ABC's Good Morning America show in New York

Knox was sentenced to 28 years in prison by a court in Florence for murder. She already served four years for the crime, returning to Seattle in 2011. The U.S. Supreme Court has to confirm the guilty verdict before extradition. Critics say no Secretary of State will ever send her back to Italy.

Attempts by Rome to extradite Amanda Knox from the United States are doomed to failure, diplomatic sources have warned.

The 26-year-old American is at the centre of a diplomatic tug of war after an Italian court on Thursday sentenced her to 28 years prison for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher.
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Gem

SOTT Focus: Behind the Headlines: Into the Mystic - Interview with Laura Knight-Jadczyk

Sott Editors
Sott.net
Sun, 19 Jan 2014 19:00 UTC
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We recently interviewed author and SOTT.net founder Laura Knight-Jadczyk on SOTT Talk Radio. Laura shared some stories from her past, explained how her life's work came into being, discussed her current research interests and answered listeners questions about the state of the world and what's on the horizon for humanity.

Running Time: 02:02:00

Download: MP3


Comment: Further reading

Andrew Bard Schmookler: Moral Endo-skeletons and Exo-skeletons: A Perspective on America's Cultural Divide and Current Crisis

Bob Altemeyer: Amazing Conversions: Why Some Turn to Faith & Others Abandon Religion

Frrancesco Carrota - The Gospel of Caesar

Roger Beck - The Mysteries of Mithras - A new account of their genesis

Gary Courtney - Et tu, Judas? Then Fall Jesus!

Joseph Atwill - Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus

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Body parts found along St. Clair Township roads in Michigan

Liz Shepard
Times Herald
Thu, 30 Jan 2014 12:45 UTC
Image
© Jeffrey Smith.Officers from the St. Clair County Sheriff' Department investigate a scene Thursday where bags of human remains were discovered on Allington Road near Fred Moore Highway in St. Clair Township.
Police are looking for a woman in connection with the grisly discovery Thursday afternoon of multiple bags containing human body parts scattered along snowy roads in St. Clair Township.

St. Clair County Sheriff Timothy Donnellon said police are searching for a middle-aged white woman driving a late 90s gray or tan sport utility vehicle, similar in appearance to a GMC Jimmy or Chevy Blazer.

St. Clair County Sheriff Detective Stacy Tunich said several bags containing human body parts were discovered on Allington Road between Fred Moore Highway and Trumble Road. A bag also was found on Fred Moore Highway, Tunich said.
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Heart - Black

Poorest households in England face £80 council tax rise

Randeep Ramesh
The Guardian
Wed, 29 Jan 2014 11:05 UTC
Image
© Photograph: PAThis year will be the first that the government will not provide dedicated cash to local authorities to take the poorest out of council tax.
Dozens more local authorities say they are reducing protection for vulnerable residents, research finds

More than 270,000 of the poorest households in England face council tax hikes of £80 a year as the government's safety net is withdrawn, a survey of local authorities has revealed.

Using freedom of information requests, research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that from April another 48 local authorities are reducing protection for vulnerable residents.

Ministers cut funding for the means-tested benefit by £500m, around 10% of the total, last April and instructed local authorities to decide how the reduced benefit should be distributed.

However, to cushion the blow ministers offered £100m in subsidies to councils that designed schemes that would offer some protection to the poor. This scheme has not been renewed, with the result that this year will be the first that the government will no longer provide a dedicated stream of cash to take the poorest out of council tax.

The result of this - and further cuts to local authority budgets - is that more than a quarter of a million working-age households will see bills rise by an average of £78 a year, taking the amount of yearly council tax that they will have to pay to £176.
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Extinguisher

Armed tribesmen bomb main oil pipeline in Yemen


Press TV
Sat, 01 Feb 2014 10:12 UTC
Oil pipeline attack
© UnknownFile photo shows smoke rising after an oil pipeline was attacked in Yemen’s Shabwa province.

Armed tribesmen in Yemen have bombed a major oil pipeline in the central province of Ma'arib, halting the flow of oil, officials said.

The attack took place on Saturday in the Serwah district, oil and local officials noted.

The blast caused a huge blaze that led to the closure of the pipeline and stopped the oil flow from Ma'arib fields to the Ras Isa oil terminal on the Red Sea.

The pipeline was also attacked in the Wadi Obaida area on December 26 and was repaired on January 5.

Furthermore, on December 20, the pipeline was bombed shortly after the facility was repaired.

Officials earlier said tribesmen carry out such attacks in order to pressure the government to create jobs, release their relatives from prison and settle land disputes.
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