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China to stop using organs from executed prisoners in transplants


The Guardian, UK
Thu, 15 Aug 2013 13:32 UTC
Organ Harvesting
© Fu Zhiyong/ImaginechinaChinese doctors perform a kidney transplant operation at a hospital in Changsha, Hunan province.
China will start phasing out its decades-long practice of using the organs of executed prisoners for transplant operations from November, as it pushes to mandate the use of organs from ethical sources, a senior official said.

China is the only country that still systematically uses organs extracted from executed prisoners in transplants, a practice that has drawn widespread international criticism.

Many Chinese view the practice as a way for criminals to redeem themselves. But officials have recently spoken out against harvesting organs from dead inmates, saying it "tarnishes the image of China".

Huang Jiefu, head of the health ministry's organ transplant office, said it would begin enforcing the use of organs from voluntary donors allocated through a fledgling national programme at a meeting to be held in November.

"I am confident that before long all accredited hospitals will forfeit the use of prisoner organs," Huang said. He did not say how many of the 165 hospitals that are licensed for transplants would be among the first batch to stop using organs from executed prisoners.
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Display

Morning sex on TV during major network news program

Rebeca Seitz
Rebeca Seitz's Blog
Thu, 08 Aug 2013 05:54 UTC
Kids sleeping
© Rebeca Seitz
This morning, I woke up with both kiddos in bed with me. Their daddy is out of town on business for a few days - giving me ample opportunity to avoid bedtime scheduling madness (guess who's the disciplinarian here) and revel in those snuffly sighs and giggles that escape just before exhaustion overtakes them and they drift into dreamland.

We slept in. School starts here in 11 days. Gotta sleep in while we can.

Eventually, Andy and I rolled out of bed and went into the living room to start our day in the customary way. A pastry. Some cereal. Flipping back and forth between Morning Express (hi, Robin Meade!) and Good Morning America (hello, GMA crew!). We love Robin's laughter and the lighthearted interaction among the GMA team, the care they seem to give each other when topics turn serious.

Ella heard the television and stirred. I watched from the living room as she sat up, wiped the sleepy from her big brown eyes, and yawned. The GMA segment went to commercial.

And then, wham.

Confusion.

Disbelief.

Did that just flash on my TV screen?
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Light Saber

Angry man confronts Republican congressman over NSA surveillance

Eric W. Dolan
The Raw Story
Wed, 14 Aug 2013 05:27 UTC
Ewbanks
© YouTubeEwbanks said. “It needs to end now.”
Republican Congressman James Lankford of Oklahoma received a verbal lashing at a town hall meeting on Tuesday from a man upset with the National Security Agency's surveillance program.

"The DEA and the IRS are getting information from the NSA and using it to frame American citizens and then lying about where they got the information," Dax Ewbank of Oklahoma City said at the event. "This is what is happening. Now, what happens if the government becomes politically against my belief system or my lifestyle?"

Ewbank was referring to documents recently obtained by Reuters that showed the NSA was providing data to the Special Operations Division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The DEA Special Operations Division in turn was sending tips to both local authorities and federal agencies, including the IRS, to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans.
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Stormtrooper

Former narcotics officer admits terrorizing families 'over a bag of pot'

Eric W. Dolan
The Raw Story
Wed, 14 Aug 2013 05:15 UTC
Barry Cooper
© HuffpostBarry Cooper, Texas narcotics officer
A former Texas narcotics officer recently sat down with HuffPost Live to explain why he turned against the drug war.

"A couple of times I raided a home and there were two kids in the home, scared, we terrorized the family, and it's for a bag of pot," Barry Cooper said Tuesday. "Searching the house, I noticed the kids had straight 'A' report cards, the parent's checkbook was balanced, and I realized that something was amiss, something was really bad."

"I put it together years later, after I started smoking pot," he confessed. "You know, a lot of people report that the use of that medication helps a person self-reflect. And, wow, the veil came off and then I started doing the real research for myself instead of believing the propaganda. And I cried for a year after I found out the truth and what I had been involved in."
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Cow

Extremely rare triplet cows born in England to stunned farmer

Trudi Bird
New York Daily News
Mon, 12 Aug 2013 14:29 UTC
Triple Cow Birth_1
© BBCJon Appleby joked that cracking open a triple-yolk egg last week must have been a sign of the awesome birth.
A farmer was stunned after one of his cows gave birth to triplets at an incredible odds of 700,000 to 1.

Despite working on the farm his entire life, Jon Appleby, from Wirral in the northwest England, had never heard of three calves being born at the same time from the same mother.

That was until one of his 74 cows at Greenhouse Farm, "number 901," did exactly that, giving birth to three male calves, the Daily Mail reports.
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Arrow Up

Rape victims' mistreatment causes overhaul of Virginia police department policy

Katie McDonough
Salon
Mon, 12 Aug 2013 12:00 UTC
Image
© Lisa Norwood via Flickr Creative Commons
A 22-year-old woman's harassment at the hands of Virginia police prompted a total overhaul of official policy

After repeat harassment and intimidation from police in Norfolk, Va., a 22-year-old sexual assault survivor submitted a written statement detailing how, after reporting her assault, investigators doubted her story multiple times and told her, "If we find out that you're lying, this will be a felony charge."

According to a report from the Virginia Pilot, in addition to verbal harassment that became so extreme that the unnamed victim was compelled to walk out of her interview with investigators, police officials failed to release a composite sketch of the woman's assailant, Roy Ruiz Loredo, a serial rapist who, after leaving Norfolk, went on to allegedly assault three other women in Virginia Beach.

The woman's mistreatment during the investigation prompted the department to update its sexual assault policy which, prior to the changes, classified all rape cases as "unfounded" as a default and had no written provision in place to ensure victims were taken to the hospital and examined following an assault.

As part of the changes, the department will now allow rape crisis advocates to sit in on interviews with victims, and mandate detectives in the Special Crimes Division undergo training about post-traumatic stress disorder related to sexual assault and enroll in an online education program from a women's advocacy group.

Basically, they will now be required to do their jobs the way they should have been doing them from the very start.
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Black Cat 2

Police savagely beat Galveston man and force his head underwater

Harvey Rice
Houston Chronicle
Tue, 13 Aug 2013 12:02 UTC
Stop Police Brutality
© Unknown
A lawsuit filed by a Texas City man accuses Galveston police of savagely beating him and forcing his head underwater as he lay in the surf.

The federal lawsuit filed Monday by Reginald Deon Davis, 34, against the city of Galveston and officers Archie Chapman Jr. and Jose H. Santos Jr. asks for damages to be determined by a jury. The lawsuit accuses the city of failing to properly train its officers. The incident was captured by a camera mounted on a patrol car.

Police Chief Henry Porretto said Davis had been convicted on two previous drug charges and was facing a possible third strike. He said Davis grabbed something from the seat of the car and put it in his pocket before fleeing. An internal police investigation completed before Davis filed a complaint determined that officers used necessary force, Porretto said.

The lawsuit alleges that on March 19 Davis was asleep in his car on the seawall, illegal in Galveston without a camping permit. Santos allegedly awakened Davis at 1:45 a.m. and asked him to place his hands on the hood of the police car. Davis ran onto the beach, was tased and tackled as he staggered to his feet, according to the lawsuit. Davis alleges that Santos, Chapman and three other officers beat him as he lay in the surf and forced his head under water.

Comment: Why have police in America turned into such ruthless thugs?

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Arrow Down

More than 700 roosters rescued from illegal cockfighting breeding operation in N.O. east

Claire Galofaro
The Advocate
Wed, 14 Aug 2013 20:28 UTC
Fighting Roosters
© John McCuskerHollie Gomill, Edward Bosch and Kerry Backsen of the Louisiana SPCA remove two to hundreds of fighting roosters from a warehouse in New Orleans East Wednesday, August 14, 2013.
A woman called the Louisiana SPCA this weekend, declined to give her name and reported some 50 cockfighting roosters in a neighbor's back lawn. But when investigators arrived at the home Wednesday morning, they found much more than they bargained for.

For hours, all day, they rescued more than 700 birds in what the organization describes at the most sprawling and sophisticated illegal breeding operation they've encountered in over a century.

They discovered a warehouse full of pens used to cage the birds next to the home in the 14000 block of Chef Menteur Highway. In the home's backyard, they found another 150 or so makeshift cages, fashioned from 55-gallon drums, filled with roosters. Hundreds more ran free, hiding from rescuers in the surrounding mud and banana trees.

But the biggest, most beautiful birds, worth thousands on the black market, were kept in spacious corrals in a climate-controlled shed, with heaters and egg incubators, mating charts and an automated watering system.

Each rooster was meticulously bred for the ancient blood sport, which pits roosters with knives strapped to their legs against each other in a fight to the death.

The homeowner, 47-year-old Trinh Tran, was booked Wednesday afternoon on cockfighting and animal cruelty charges.
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Stormtrooper

Corrupt cops caught on dash cam: DAMMIT I was still recording!

Susan Duclos
Before it's News
Wed, 14 Aug 2013 19:55 UTC
Some Oregon's Malheur County Sheriff's deputies sit on the rodeo board for the Jordan Valley Big Loop Rodeo, and two cops, after an illegal traffic stop, discuss why they stopped the victim... among other things.

Quotes from the dash camera footage include;

"I didn't want to stop the man."

"God, we're going to get sued."

'We're going to be in a world of hurt."

It's all because of that rodeo board."

"DAMMIT, I was still recording."

I am guessing at that point they realized they should keep their mouths shut!

Watch and listen below:
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Eye 1

Smartphone pictures pose privacy risks


Youtube
Tue, 09 Nov 2010 19:36 UTC
Pictures you've e-mailed or uploaded from your smartphone could leak information that can threaten your safety or that of your children.
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