A public radio host was fired on Thursday after the conservative political site The Daily Caller exposed her role as a spokeswoman for "October 2011," the faction of Occupy Wall Street movement occupying Washington's Freedom Plaza.

Lisa Simeone, the host of the nationally syndicated World of Opera show, and former weekend host of All Things Considered, is a freelancer working for WDAV, NPR's Davidson, N.C., affiliate, where "World of Opera" originates. She also was the host for the weekly D.C. show Soundprint on NPR's WAMU affiliate.

Simeone confirmed on Thursday that she had been fired from the Soundprint show; NPR is "in conversations" about her role as both World of Opera host and Occupy D.C. protester.

"We recently learned of World of Opera host Lisa Simeone's participation in an Occupy D.C. group," NPR communications SVP Dana Davis Rehm wrote in a memo to affiliates. "We're in conversations with WDAV about how they intend to handle this. We of course take this issue very seriously."

Shouting "Shame on the police!" and "Do your job, enforce the law!" a few hundred protesters cried out for the arrest of former U.S. president George W. Bush, who was here to address the Surrey Economic Summit at the Sheraton Vancouver Guildford hotel Thursday.

Derrick O'Keefe, co-chair of Stop War, said the chances of having Bush arrested are slim, but he hopes other countries take notice: "Especially the countries where Bush's policies killed hundreds of thousands of people, we hope somewhere in Iraq someone will know that here in Canada, we took a stand, we did what we could," he said.

"It's our sincere belief that these efforts will keep up and ... someday, somewhere, George Bush will either be prosecuted or it will get to the point where he just can't leave his ranch in Texas," he added.

David Ansermino , a Grade 12 student who had participated in a similar protest when former U.S president Dick Cheney was in Vancouver earlier this year, said it's unlikely Bush will be arrested.

"As Canadians we don't feel he's welcomed here at all and we just like to have our voices heard," said Ansermo, who came with a small group of classmates. "I believe that after today, Canada will think twice before ever allowing these guys here again."

• Dog 'picked up by scruff of neck and hit while small boy looks on'
• Vigilantes allegedly smashed property's windows and attacked man on his doorstep
• Woman also appears to whip animal with a cloth
• Footage quickly goes viral on YouTube and Twitter

A man has been arrested over allegations of animal abuse after he was caught on film appearing to beat a terrified dog with a pole as it desperately tried to get inside its owner's house.

The video, shot from a neighbouring window, shows what seems to be a white Staffordshire bull terrier being kicked, punched in the face and repeatedly hit while a small boy looks on excitedly.

Within hours of the footage being posted on social networking site Facebook, an angry mob is said to have surrounded the man's house in Grimsby, north-east Lincolnshire.

Police were called to the address last night and onlookers watched as a man, believed to be the dog's owner, was arrested.

As people took to the streets in a rolling action targeting 951 cities in 82 countries from Asia to Europe, Africa and the Americas ~ they are all joined spiritually by a common innate urge to unite and bring about a world cemented in Peace, Harmony and love. We are not dreamers, nothing will stop our march to true freedom and we are already too big to fail: Allen L Roland

"You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain ~ but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life; that there's something wrong with the world; you don't know what it is, but its there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?" - The Matrix - 1999

Four years ago in a Ministry of Defence Review, the Whitehall Mandarins, more astutely than any so-called Lefty, determined the following:

"The Middle Class Proletariat - The middle classes could become a revolutionary class, taking the role envisaged for the proletariat by Marx. The globalization of labour markets and reducing levels of national welfare provision and employment could reduce peoples' attachment to particular states. The growing gap between themselves and a small number of highly visible super-rich individuals might fuel disillusion with meritocracy, while the growing urban under-classes are likely to pose an increasing threat to social order and stability, as the burden of acquired debt and the failure of pension provision begins to bite. Faced by these twin challenges, the world's middle-classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest." - 'UK Ministry of Defence report, The DCDC Global Strategic Trends Programme 2007-2036' (Third Edition) p.96, March 2007

Yeah, I know, I'm always using this quote (I first used it four years ago) but it illustrates the great intellectual divide between the political class and the citizens they rule, including our Left, now made so apparent by what the pundits are now calling the 'Occupy The World' (OTW) movement. It seems that only our very own ruling class foresaw OTW.

While someone commits suicide in the United States every 15 minutes, many more think about it or even attempt to take their own lives, according to a new study showing that residents of Utah have the highest rates of such thoughts while suicide attempts are highest in Rhode Island.

A study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) looked at data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 2008 through 2009. Results showed that serious thoughts of suicide range from about 1 in 50 adults in Georgia (2.1 percent) to 1 in 15 in Utah (6.8 percent).

"Suicide is a tragedy for individuals, families and communities. This report highlights that we have opportunities to intervene before someone dies by suicide. We can identify risks and take action before a suicide attempt takes place," said Thomas M. Frieden, CDC director. "Most people are uncomfortable talking about suicide, but this is not a problem to shroud in secrecy. We need to work together to raise awareness about suicide and learn more about interventions that work to prevent this public health problem."

When the killing ended, the exotic carnage was scattered across the countryside around this town in south-central Ohio.

Eighteen Bengal tigers and 17 lions. Six black bears, two grizzlies, three mountain lions and a baboon. Two wolves.

In all, 56 beasts were set free Tuesday by owner Terry Thompson, who then killed himself. Nearly all of the animals died.

"It's like Noah's Ark, like, wrecking right here in Zanesville, Ohio," said Jack Hanna, former director of the Columbus Zoo.

Chris Hedges: "What happens is in all of these movements ... the foot soldiers of the elite -- the blue uniformed police, the mechanisms of control -- finally don't want to impede the movement and at that point the power elite is left defenseless ... the only thing I can say having been in the middle of similar movements is that this one is real, and this one could take them all down ... I can guarantee you that huge segments of those blue uniformed police sympathize with everything that you're doing." -- Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges brings his 20 years of experience as a war correspondent, having covered movements and revolutions throughout the the world, to the discussion.

Right from the very beginning there was only one possible outcome if free trade ever took hold in America. Industrial and economic collapse. Ross Perot knew it and tried to warn everybody. Very few listened. What is going on in America today, the factory closures, the unemployment, the debt, the experiment with globalism could not have come out any other way. Economic ruin was predestined right from day one when America signed on to NAFTA, GATT, the WTO and a raft of other free trade deals that have been signed in the last 20 to 25 years.

A national economy is very much like what the American family farm was at the turn of the 20th century. On the family farm mom, pop and the kids worked all year to produce as much as they possibly could to provide for their own needs for the upcoming year. Pop worked the fields and raised his livestock. Mom canned vegetables, cured meat, spun yarn and made candles. The boys chopped wood and helped pop where they were needed. The girls knitted socks, milked the cows and fed the pigs. Everyone did their part to produce the maximum amount of manufactured goods and agricultural produce they could.

A Connecticut mother has pleaded guilty to charges that she forced her 4-year-old son to drink beer and gave her 10-month-old daughter beer and cocaine.

The Connecticut Post reports Juliette Dunn, of Bridgeport, pleaded guilty Wednesday to risk of injury to a child under the Alford Doctrine, where the defendant doesn't agree to the facts but agrees the state has enough evidence to win a conviction.

A companion, 33-year-old Lisa Jefferson, pleaded guilty to the same charges.

Police say officers were waved down in June by a neighbor who complained that a woman was feeding children beer at a playground.

The Post reported that at the time of the incident, police had spotted the pair sitting in folding chairs as the children played. Police noted an empty beer bottle near the 4-year-old. Additionally, the Post report said, police said a baby bottle near the child was filled with a beverage believed to contain alcohol.