Society's ChildS


Blackbox

Japanese scientist involved in stem-cell research commits suicide

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© Reuters/KyodoYoshiki Sasai, deputy director of the Riken's Center for Developmental Biology.
A Japanese scientist who believed he had helped create revolutionary advances in stem-cell research, which were later discredited, has committed suicide. Yoshiki Sasai, who thought he could replace damaged cells or grow human organs, hanged himself.

The 52-year-old, who was the deputy chief of the Riken Institute for Developmental Biology, had been suffering from stress and exhaustion for months, ever since holes began to appear in his research in March, Reuters reported. The material had initially been published in January in the British journal Nature. He was found at the Riken Institute early on Tuesday in the city of Kobe.

A security guard found him suffering from a heart attack, with a rope around his neck, according to the Riken Institute. Sasai was rushed to hospital, but was pronounced dead two hours later, AP stated.

"It is very unfortunate that this happened," said the government's top spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. "Mr. Sasai contributed greatly in the field of developmental biology and was an internationally renowned researcher."

Boat

I'm a rabbi in mourning for a Judaism being murdered by Israel, an Israel that breaks my heart

I've always been proud of Israel, but the brutal Gaza assault requires Jews worldwide to be honest, not nationalist
palestinians injured
© Reuters/Suhaib SalemA Palestinian boy comforts his father, who medics said was wounded by Israeli shelling in Shejaia, at a hospital in Gaza City, July 30, 2014
My heart is broken as I witness the suffering of the Palestinian people and the seeming indifference of Israelis. All my life I've been a champion of Israel, proud of its many accomplishments in science and technology that have benefited the world, insistent on the continuing need for the Jewish people to have a state that offers protections from anti-Semitism that has reared its head continuously throughout Christian and Islamic societies, willing to send my only child to serve in the Israeli Army (the paratroopers unit-tzanchanim), and enjoying the pleasures of long swaths of time in which I could study in Jerusalem and celebrate Shabbat in a city that weekly closed down the hustle and bustle of the capitalist marketplace for a full 25 hours. And though as editor of Tikkun I printed articles challenging the official story of how Israel came to be, showing its role in forcibly ejecting tens of thousands of Palestinians in 1948 and allowing Jewish terrorist groups under the leadership of (future Israeli Prime Ministers Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir) to create justified fears that led hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians to flee for their lives, I always told myself that the dominant humanity of the Jewish people and the compassionate strain within Torah would reassert itself once Israel felt secure.

That belief began to wane in the past eight years when Israel, faced with a Palestinian Authority that promoted nonviolence and sought reconciliation and peace, ignored the Saudi Arabian-led peace initiative that would have granted Israel the recognition that it had long sought, an end to hostilities, and a recognized place in the Middle East, refused to stop its expansion of settlements in the West Bank and imposed an economically crushing blockade on Gaza. Even Hamas, whose hateful charter called for Israel's destruction, had decided to accept the reality of Israel's existence, and while unable to embrace its "right" to exist, nevertheless agreed to reconcile with the Palestinian Authority and in that context live within the terms that the PA would negotiate with Israel.

Comment: And let us together come to understand that the rulers of these countries who cause the most suffering around the world are cold blooded psychopaths without conscience who care not about the well-being of those who represent but only for their own greedy, ego-maniacal profits, and to hell with everyone else. And let us take upon ourselves the responsibility of instituting true human beings in charge of our nations, once we have imprisoned all those current rulers for all the crimes they committed against humanity.


Stop

Another case of unstable behavior? CNN reportedly sued over drunken, violent, biting correspondent

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An incident at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq last month has reportedly led to a lawsuit claiming that CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon became "seriously intoxicated" and then assaulted two EMT workers who were attempting to give her assistance. The two EMTs are each suing the network for $1 million.

TMZ reports:
Authorities arrived and according to the suit ... EMTs Tracy Lamar and Charles Simons were trying to help Damon when the correspondent bit both on their left arms. Simons also claims his knees and elbows were injured. Lamar says she was also bruised.

The suit claims while the EMTs were providing assistance ... Damon played the famous card, saying she was a "major reporter for CNN."

The suit claims CNN knew Damon had a history of becoming drunk and abusive, and had a penchant for violence, even when sober.
We have reached out to CNN for comment and will update this post accordingly.

Stormtrooper

NYPD arrest leaves Brooklyn woman nearly naked

nYPD
© Spencer Platt / Getty Images / AFP
A Brooklyn grandmother says she's traumatized as a result of a recent incident in which a dozen New York Police Department officers forcibly removed her from her apartment while she was half-naked.

The New York Daily News has obtained video footage of the ordeal recorded by a neighbor of the woman, 48-year-old Denise Stewart of Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood, who spent nearly two-and-a-half minutes in the hallway outside of her apartment last month, topless, while the NYPD responded to a 911 call in the building.

According to the Daily News, around 12 cops showed up at Stewart's apartment building just before midnight on July 13 after a neighbor called the police to report what they believed to be a domestic disturbance occurring in an unknown residence. As the cops walked through the building, they came upon loud noises from Stewart's unit and soon demanded entry.

Stewart "cracked the door wearing only a towel wrapped around her body and underpants - and was yanked into the hallway by cops over the screams of her family and neighbors," the paper reported last Friday.

At that point a scuffle between Stewart and the police began to ensue as they forced themselves into her apartment, during which the woman's towel was misplaced, leaving her in only her underwear as a barrage of cops attempted to place her in handcuffs.

V

Courageous UK protest group 'shuts down' factory that supplies Israel arms

A group of pro-Palestine activists have allegedly shut down operations in a Staffordshire factory that they say supplies arms to Israel.
Uk arms factory shut down
© Reuters/Steffi Loos
@PSCupdates PLS RT: Activists from LPA shut down the Elbit factory in Shenstone #StopElbit#StopArmingIsrael#Gazapic.twitter.com/sDWcuUoox0
- LDNPalestineAction (@LondonPalestine) August 5, 2014
Around 10 activists from the London Palestine Action Group have taken to the roof of Elbit systems, an Israeli company with a subsidiary based in Shenstone, near Birmingham.


Comment: Grass-roots actions are, and have always been the most effective way to change the world. Kudos to these brave people.


Bomb

Update: Qatar Airways drama - bomb hoax man arrested

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© Reuters/ Andrew Yates
A man has been arrested on suspicion of making a hoax bomb threat after military jets were called to escort a passenger plane to Manchester Airport.

The Qatar Airways plane was escorted in to land by the Royal Air Force (RAF) following information received by the pilot.

Greater Manchester Police said it was treating it as a "full emergency".

Armed police boarded the Doha to Manchester plane and arrested a passenger on board.

All flights in and out of the airport were suspended for about 25 minutes.

Airplane

Breaking news: Jets escort Qatar Airways plane to Manchester airport over possible 'device'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar_Airways
© en.wikipedia.org
(Reuters) - British fighter jets escorted a passenger plane into Manchester airport on Tuesday after the pilot reported that a suspect device was possibly on board, police said.

"An incoming plane has been escorted into the airport by the Royal Air Force as a result of information received by the pilot about a possible device on board," Chief Superintendent John O'Hare said in a statement.

"We don't know how genuine this threat is but it is absolutely vital we deal with the situation as a full emergency," he added.

The Ministry of Defence declined to comment.

A spokesman for the airport said the plane was operated by Qatar Airways.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle and Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Arrow Down

U.S. border patrol shoots unarmed Mexican teen in the back from across border fence

"I want to know who these people were who assassinated my child. Why were there so many bullets in my son's body?"
Araceli
© MCT via Getty ImagesJose Antonio Elena Rodriguez’s mother Araceli poses next to a shrine for her son.
Nogales, Arizona - While walking on a sidewalk on the southern side of the border, a Mexican teen was shot to death by U.S. Border Patrol from atop a border fence. After two years, the U.S. government has still not released the identity of the shooter(s), nor any details of its secret investigation.

On the evening of October 10th, 2012, after playing basketball with friends in his neighborhood of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez was walking home alone along Calle Internacional, a main road that runs parallel to the border fence on the Mexican side.

At approximately 11:30 p.m., with no official explanation given, gunfire erupted from the U.S. side of the border fence into Mexican territory. According to various reports, anywhere from 14 to 30 shots were fired; all shots came from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Rodriguez collapsed in a pool of blood on the sidewalk. He was unarmed, carrying only a cell phone, a police report stated.

According to a Mexican medical examiner's report, Rodriguez was shot approximately ten (10) times with a rifle. Reportedly, the teen took two fatal shots to the head, then collapsed and was shot eight more times as he lay on the sidewalk, mostly in the back.

Stormtrooper

Kiev 'gave up on us': Ukrainian commander tells why 400 troops escaped into Russia

Ukrainian servicemen at a tent camp
© RIA NovostiUkrainian servicemen at a tent camp in the Rostov region
The command in Kiev has blatantly abandoned a group of more than 400 soldiers encircled by the self-defense forces, the senior Ukrainian officer who requested sanctuary in Russia with his men has revealed.

Lack of ammunition, food, fuel and clear orders from the command on how to act in the condition of encirclement has made the Ukrainian troops cross the border, Major Vitaly Dubinyak, a battalion commander, told Itar-Tass news agency.

"For two weeks, we were fighting back without ammunition and fuel. I didn't have the opportunity to feed my men for almost two weeks. We even ran out of first strike ration. The personnel were more exhausted by despair than by the actual shelling," Dubinyak said.

"Other than giving us a command to 'hold on,' Kiev provided us with no other assistance. And during the last week, they've aborted all communication. They've simply given up on us," he added.

A total of 438 soldiers, including 164 Ukrainian border guards, were allowed into Russia on Sunday night.

The troops have been housed in a tent camp deployed near the checkpoint via which they entered Russian territory.

V

Anonymous hacks IDF, Mossad

anonymous israel
© AFP Photo / Abbas Momani
Worldwide hacker collective Anonymous has unleashed another wave of attacks against Israel's government websites over their military incursion into Gaza, taking down "hundreds" of portals, including those run by Mossad and the IDF.

Among the scalps claimed by the group were the Ministry of Justice website, the state archive portal, and even the national advertising agency. Most of the attacks were repelled within hours, with all agencies currently back online.

"We are attacking the government of Israel more .. Israel you're weak! :(" said a tweet from one of the branches of the dispersed network of online activists, known as AnonymousGlobo.

Anonymous generally uses DDOS (distributed denial of service attacks) that overload a website with fake requests, making it unavailable for legitimate users.

The group announced its latest operation #OpSaveGaza at the beginning of last month, but the intensity of attacks was ramped up a week ago, when a Palestinian man was shot dead, while wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, which serves as a symbol of the movement.