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Egyptian crackdown on LGBT community leaves many asking if it's time to leave

Alexandra Zavis
Los Angeles Times
Thu, 19 Oct 2017 16:51 UTC
Lebanese rockers
© Hussein Malla / Associated Press
Hamed Sinno, left, lead singer with the Lebanese rock band Mashrou' Leila, and guitarist Firas Abou Fakher in Beirut in April 2016.
For Mostafa, a gay Egyptian man in his mid-20s, seeing rainbow flags flying at an open-air rock concert in the Arab world's most populous nation was thrilling. But he had a feeling it wouldn't end well.

Dozens of people have been arrested and put on trial in Egypt in the ensuing crackdown. Some were also beaten and subjected to invasive physical exams, spreading panic in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender circles.


Comment: HRW & Amnesty International demand Egypt end 'crackdown' on gay men


Many of Mostafa's friends are deleting their profiles on cellphone dating apps and scrubbing their social media accounts, which police have long used to ensnare people suspected of being gay or transgender. Some who were at last month's concert have gone into hiding. There has even been talk of fleeing the country.

"The problem is that no one can tell the limit of this crackdown and how far it might go," said Mostafa, a community activist who asked to be identified by one name, for fear that he too might be swept up by police. "There was an incredible amount of hate speech by the media and by people on social media. Everyone I know is depressed and fearful."
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Black Cat

'This is about a shy cat': Fake plane bomber defies Sweden ban to rescue feline friend


RT
Sun, 22 Oct 2017 15:32 UTC
Cat rescue
© Imagebroker / Digfoto / Global Look Press
Deportation from Sweden for making a plane bomb threat did not stop a Russian man from attempting to re-enter across the border. His lawyer claims the man came back solely for his beloved cat, stuck in a pet hotel and by nature scared of strangers.

The 52-year-old man, whose name has not yet been revealed, was detained October 12 in the Lernacken suburb of the city of Malmö, Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan reported on Saturday.

The man had apparently been banned for life from Sweden after making a bomb threat on board a flight from St. Petersburg to Helsinki. As a result, the plane was diverted to the Swedish capital Stockholm.
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Eye 1

'Like a college campus': Facebook security chief slams company's safeguards in leaked internal phone call


RT
Sun, 22 Oct 2017 08:27 UTC
Facebook
© Global Look Press
Facebook faces the same cyber threats as a large defense contractor but runs its own security "like a college campus" - that's the judgement of the company's top security chief, according to a leaked internal phone call.

Alex Stamos, the social media giant's chief security officer, made the remark during an internal discussion with employees on the threat to the company's network posed by hackers.

A recording of the call was later leaked to the website ZDNet on Thursday.

"The threats that we are facing have increased significantly and the quality of the adversaries that we are facing," Stamos said. "Both technically and from a cultural perspective, I don't feel like we have caught up with our responsibility."
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Cult

Barbara Walters tells child sex abuse victim "you're damaging an entire industry" for speaking out on Hollywood pedophilia


After Action Reporting
Sat, 05 Apr 2014 00:00 UTC

'I was molested and passed around': Corey Feldman describes his ordeal at the hands of Hollywood pedophile ring and says Corey Haim was just eleven years old when he was first raped

Corey Feldman has shared shocking details about the rampant sexual abuse he and other young actors were forced to endure during their years in Hollywood.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Feldman discusses how he was repeatedly molested by adult males in the industry, saying these men would pass many young stars 'back and forth to each other.'

He also reveals that his closest friend, Corey Haim, was raped when he was just 11 by a producer, the start of a long cycle of sexual abuse that Feldman believes led to his friend's problems with drugs and alcohol later in life.

Haim would struggle with drugs up until his death in 2010 at the age of 38, a death that Feldman blames on the men who abused the actor.

Feldman's comments come just days after another former child star, Elijah Wood, also gave an interview talking about the pedophilia problem in Hollywood.

Comment: See also:

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Pistol

Hostages taken by gun at Nuneaton bowling alley - local reports


RT
Sun, 22 Oct 2017 15:35 UTC
Nuneaton bowling alley
© Google map
A man reportedly armed with a sawn-off shotgun has taken people hostage at a bowling alley in Nuneaton in England's Warwickshire, according to local media.

Police tweeted that they are attending an incident at Bermuda Park and asked people to keep away from the area.
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Newspaper

'I felt that I couldn't show fear - that would have been a big mistake': A Saskatchewan woman's nearly two hour ordeal with a killer in her home

Chris Purdy
National Post
Sun, 22 Oct 2017 15:22 UTC
'You are lucky your grandkids were here, because I would never hurt a child,' he told her

Police Car
© Fotolia
A file photo of a police car.
After John Strang shot and killed his wife in their Saskatchewan home, he drove his Jeep - packed with guns, ammunition, handcuffs and duct tape - to the home of a female friend for a chilling conversation.

He told Lynn Larsen that she haunted him and he fantasized about raping her. He said he thought about killing a lot of people and that he had killed his wife earlier that day.
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Handcuffs

Deserter Bergdahl says Taliban captors more 'honest' than US Army


FOX News
Sun, 22 Oct 2017 15:12 UTC
Bowe Bergdahl
© AP
Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. Army sergeant who pleaded guilty Monday to deserting his post in Afghanistan in 2009, says his Taliban captors were more "honest" with him than the Army has been since his release three years ago.

"At least the Taliban were honest enough to say, 'I'm the guy who's gonna cut your throat,'" Bergdahl tells British TV journalist Sean Langan in an interview with the Sunday Times Magazine of London headlined "The Homecoming from Hell."

Langan, too, is a former Taliban hostage.
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USA

Virginia democratic party pulls black candidate off campaign flyers 3 weeks before election and blames him for it

Jason Johnson
The Root
Thu, 19 Oct 2017 14:48 UTC
Justin Fairfax

Justin Fairfax
In political campaigns, white candidates can always find a black guy. It's literally Campaign 101: Most successful white American candidates know that in order to show that you are an open-minded progressive candidate-or to signal that you're a horrible racist but some black people still like you-you have to find a black guy.

After centuries of black erasure, today's white candidates know that you must be seen talking to, shaking hands with, dapping or dabbing with some random black person in a commercial, at a rally or in a poster for symbolic purposes.

Even Donald Trump knows that.

Apparently Democrats in Virginia don't. The state party agreed to snatch African-American lieutenant-governor candidate Justin Fairfax off of a campaign flyer and to feature only the white statewide candidates. Then the party turned around and blamed Fairfax for his own removal. Proving once again that no matter how supportive black people are of them, these Democratic pols ain't loyal.
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House

'The police just f**ked my life': Alabamians outraged as civil asset forfeitures soar

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sat, 21 Oct 2017 14:33 UTC
Rick Hightower
The morning of June 29, 2010, began much like any other day for Frank Ranelli, the owner of FAR Computers in Ensley, Alabama. Ranelli, who had owned his computer repair business just outside of Birmingham for more than two decades, was doing some paperwork in his windowless office when he heard loud banging on the front door. Within a matter of moments Ranelli was placed under arrest and all of the computer equipment in his store, much of which belonged to customers, had been confiscated by Alabama police never to be returned. Per AL.com:
Within moments, a Homewood police sergeant had declared a room full of customers' computers, merchandise and other items "stolen goods," Ranelli recalled. He ordered his officers to "arrest them all," according to Ranelli, who was cuffed and taken to the Homewood jail along with two of his shop employees.

The police proceeded to confiscate more than 130 computers - most of which were customers' units waiting to be repaired, though some were for sale - as well as the company's business servers and workstations and even receipts and checkbooks.

"Here I was, a man, owned this business, been coming to work every day like a good old guy for 23 years, and I show up at work that morning - I was in here doing my books from the day before - and the police just f***ed my life," he said.
Nothing ever came of the case. The single charge levied against Renelli of receiving stolen goods was dismissed after he demonstrated that he had followed proper protocol in purchasing the sole laptop computer he was accused of receiving illegally. That said, despite no official charges and no jury trial, Ranelli has been trying, to no avail, for nearly 7 years now to recover the items the officers took from his business.
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Attention

UK crime rates surge by 13%; London now more dangerous than New York City

Thomas Mackie
Express
Sat, 21 Oct 2017 14:20 UTC
london police
© Getty
London is now more dangerous than NYC.
Figures released earlier this week uncovered the crisis facing British police forces as crime rates across the country surged by 13 per cent.

The last decade has seen London's Metropolitan Police move away from neighbourhood patrols which criminal justice experts have blamed for the rise in crime.

The damning figures come amid increased pressure on the capital's police force to save £400 million before 2020, with the number of officers expected to fall below 30,000 for the first time in more than a decade.

Last year there were almost 70,000 burglaries in Greater London, of which 43,000 happened in peoples' homes.

The number of robberies has also heavily increased due to the rise in mobile phone theft.

According to the statistics London has almost three times the number of reported rapes than New York City.
      Read More...
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