Society's ChildS


Dollar

South African inflation accelerates as food prices climb

Franz Wild
Bloomberg
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 18:32 UTC
South African inflation accelerated to a seven-month high of 5.7 percent in December as food prices rose, supporting expectations the Reserve Bank will keep borrowing costs unchanged tomorrow.

The inflation rate climbed from 5.6 percent in November, Pretoria-based Statistics South Africa said on its website today. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 23 economists was 5.7 percent. Prices advanced 0.2 percent in the month.

All 21 economists surveyed by Bloomberg predict the Reserve Bank will keep the benchmark repurchase rate at 5 percent tomorrow to support the economy while curbing price pressures from a weaker rand and rising food costs. The central bank's goal is to keep inflation within a range of 3 percent to 6 percent.
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Cheeseburger

Droughts, rising food prices predicted for 2013


advisor.ca
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 18:28 UTC
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In the dead of winter, planting crops is the last thing on most people's minds. But droughts are still raging across the American Midwest, causing consternation among farmers about their prospects for the spring.

If conditions don't improve, food prices will likely remain high this year after a record 2012 for grain futures.

The U.S. National Weather Service released its drought forecast last week, showing persistent or worsening dryness in the Midwest and the southern third of the nation.
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Bad Guys

Film exposes link between U.S. evangelicals and violent antigay Ugandan movement


Raw Story
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 18:02 UTC
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Money raised by evangelical Christians in the United States is fueling a violent antigay movement in Uganda, according to the "Gospel of Intolerance" by filmmaker Roger Ross Williams.

"American evangelicals are sending millions of dollars in donations to Africa to spread their message by funding Ugandan pastors and sponsoring missionaries, many of who do good work feeding the hungry and providing shelter to orphans," Rev. Kapya Kaoma explained in the mini-documentary, which was published online Tuesday by the New York Times. "But some of that money just goes to feed a dangerous ideology that teaches that gays, lesbians, transgender, and bisexual people do not have a place in God's kingdom and are a threat to society."
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Nuke

Fracking wastewater threatens to drown Ohio

Kate Sheppard
Mother Jones
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:52 UTC
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© billb1961/Flickr
First, the good news: Using the process known as hydraulic fracturing to create natural gas wells produces less wastewater than wells created using more conventional methods, according to a new study in the journal Water Resources Research. Scientists from Duke and Kent State universities found that fracked wells create 35 percent as much wastewater per unit of gas when compared to conventional wells. The scientists note that this upsets the common idea that fracking creates more wastewater than other types of gas extraction.

But now the bad news. Because of fracking, gas extraction is up 570 percent since 2004 in the Marcellus shale region, which means that there's a whole lot more wastewater overall to deal with.
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Laptop

Court: Sex offender Facebook ban unconstitutional

Charles Wilson
Associated Press
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:50 UTC
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An Indiana law that bans registered sex offenders from using Facebook and other social networking sites that can be accessed by children is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The 7th U.S. Circuit of Appeals in Chicago overturned a federal judge's decision upholding the law, saying the state was justified in trying to protect children but that the "blanket ban" went too far by restricting free speech.

The 2008 law "broadly prohibits substantial protected speech rather than specifically targeting the evil of improper communications to minors," the judges wrote.
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Cheeseburger

Spain's unemployed youth head to low-paying fast food jobs in the U.K.

Andrea Gerlin and Alex Morales
Bloomberg News
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:40 UTC
Mcdonalds
© Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
Carlos Hernandez Sonseca studied six years for a bachelor's degree and couldn't find a job near his home outside Madrid when he graduated in 2011. Last year, he took an increasingly well-worn path to the U.K.

The 27-year-old journalist now washes and chops vegetables eight hours a day at the Vital Ingredient salad bar in London's financial district, making 260 pounds (US$418) before taxes in a 40-hour week. Thirteen other Spaniards are among a workforce of 17, said manager Francisco "Chico" Baumle, a Brazilian.

U.K. fast-food jobs and other low-wage roles have been dominated by Poles and others who arrived after the European Union expanded eastward in 2004. Now they're joined by young Spaniards who can't find work at home, where unemployment hit 25% last year. In the financial year to April, 30,370 Spaniards registered to work in the U.K., up 25% from the previous year, and more than double the 2009-10 levels, according to data from the Department for Work and Pensions.

"We are a lost generation, for sure," Hernandez Sonseca said. "Spain has nothing to offer us, so we go abroad and we work as salad makers and kitchen porters. They are losing money and they are losing skilled people."

The newest workers have it toughest in Spain's labour market, where the jobless rate among adults under 25 reached 52% in the third quarter of 2012, according to the most recent data from Spain's National Institute of Statistics.
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Black Magic

China: Man at zoo bit an ostrich to death in elaborate suicide attempt

Alexander Abad-Santos
Atlantic Wire
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:29 UTC
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© Shenzen Satellite Television
You'd think the safest place for animals is usually a zoo. That apparently isn't the case in China. At a zoo in China's Guangdong province over the weekend, a man apparently bit and killed a large flightless bird as part of an elaborate suicide attempt. Here's the Shenzen news report:


According to the blog The Nanfang, the man slashed his wrists after police were called. "As he began to lose strength, Li lay on the ostrich's corpse like a pillow before police approached him tentatively. He offered little resistance before police dragged him away," writes Kevin McGreary.
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Hearts

Family copes with 20-year-old toddler who never grew up

Stephen C. Webster
Raw Story
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 14:25 UTC
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© Screenshot via CNN.com
Brooke Greenberg, 20, is a genuine medical mystery: she's a girl who's barely aged, despite living for two decades.

Appearing on CNN's Headline News on Tuesday, her parents explained that she's stumped doctors so badly that they call her stunted development "Condition X." There's nobody else like her in the world.
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No Entry

Florida cops Taser naked burglar who pooped and masturbated when homeowner pulled a gun

David Edwards
Raw Story
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 14:20 UTC
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© FacebookGeorge Matthew Bruni accused of burglary
Deputies in Fort Meyers say they Tasered and then arrested a naked Florida man who broke into a home to steal a television but then masturbated and defecated after the homeowner pulled a gun.

Lee County Sheriff's deputies said they were called to a home in North Fort Myers on Monday after the resident heard noises on the roof of his home, according to WTSP. The victim went outside where 21-year-old Gregory Matthew Bruni allegedly jumped from the roof and knocked him down.

"He dropped off my roof and run right in my house," the homeowner said in a 911 call obtained by WBBH.

The victims said that Bruni, who was naked, ran into the living room and broke a 72-inch television in the process of pulling it off of the wall. The suspect then spilled a the contents of a wet/dry vacuum onto the floor.
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Red Flag

Reluctant thief leaves Papa John's with pizza for his hungry family instead of cash


National Post
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 14:12 UTC
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A man who apparently summoned the courage to rob a Montana pizza restaurant changed his mind as the clerk started to hand him money, broke down crying and ended up leaving with a pizza to feed his hungry family.

Helena Police Chief Troy McGee praised the clerk's actions.

"I'd say the clerk was pretty astute," McGee said. "I mean, he knows how to talk to this person. Kind of commiserated with him a little. Talked to him about it and you know actually changed his mind about robbing the place. That was pretty good."

Just after midnight Monday, a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a bandanna on his face entered a Papa John's restaurant and handed the clerk a note demanding money.
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