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Ambulance

Killing continues in E. Ukraine despite calls for cease-fire

ukraine civilians
Two relatives hold their hands up to their faces in the aftermath of the shelling attack. At least 20 residents are said to have died
At least 20 civilians have been killed during fighting in eastern Ukraine today despite calls from the international community for a ceasefire.

Just hours after flight MH17 was shot down, the eastern city of Lugansk was hit by shelling leaving hundreds of residents wounded.

Pictures show bodies lining the streets covered in blankets in the wake of the attack which was reportedly carried out by Ukrainian forces.

Vladimir Putin has called for both sides to lay down their weapons after the Malaysian Airlines plane carrying 298 passengers was hit by a surface-to-air missile yesterday, but the request seemed to fall on deaf ears.

The UN and their international leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel also called for an end to the fighting so an investigation into yesterday's events can take place.

Fighting is also said to have carried on to the north of the city, in the village of Metallist, 10km from Lugansk, and in the west, in Yubileynoye settlement.

It also emerged that the The Lisichansk Oil Refinery has also been attacked and set on fire.


Apple Green

Sick! New Jersey teacher and former councilman asks boy students to bring semen-stained tissues to school for art projects

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© Courierpostonline.com
A teacher and former councilman in Camden County faces prison after admitting he engaged in inappropriate sexual communications with 17 male students.

Charles Reilly is scheduled to be sentenced Friday after he pleaded guilty to official misconduct, child endangerment and attempted child endangerment.

The boys ranged in age from 12 to 16 years old and were students at Pine Hill Middle School. Reilly was an art teacher, boys' soccer coach and a Pine Hill councilman.

Prosecutors say Reilly asked the boys to bring semen-stained tissues to school so he could make art projects with them.

Prosecutors will seek a 15-year prison sentence and he would have to serve at least five years before he'd become eligible for parole.

Heart - Black

Palestinian child death toll rises to 70 - 50,000 are now homeless as a result of Israel's air and ground attacks

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Relatives carry the the bodies of children during the funeral of eight members of the Abu Jarad who were killed overnight in an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza strip
A total of 50,000 people in Gaza have fled their homes as Israel steps up its ground offensive on the Gaza strip. The refugees are seeking sanctuary in 34 UN shelters in the strife-hit region, relief workers said. At least 60 Palestinians are thought to have been killed since Israel launched the ground offensive in Gaza on Thursday.

Israeli troops battled Hamas militants in Gaza on the second day of the operation as the Palestinian death toll from the 12-day offensive topped 340, according to officials in Gaza. 70 of those killed are children.

Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra said overnight airstrikes killed 12 people while the the death toll from the offensive has gone up to more than 340 Palestinians. An Israeli soldier was killed after the start of the ground operation, probably by friendly fire, and an Israeli civilian was killed earlier this week.

The sound of tank fire and heavy machine guns mixed with the mosques' morning call to prayer along the Gaza-Israel border. The Israeli military said three soldiers were wounded in overnight fighting, one seriously. Israeli troops were staying close to the border and have yet to enter heavily populated areas. Today Israeli bulldozers demolished more than a dozen tunnels in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian authorities reported intensified airstrikes and shelling.

Additional images

Family

Australian family loses family in both Malaysian Airlines disasters

mh17
© Reuters / Maxim ZmeyevWreckage from the nose section of a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 plane which was downed on Thursday is seen near the village of Rozsypne, in the Donetsk region July 18, 2014.
An Australian family, who lost their son and daughter-in-law in the disappearance of Malaysian flight MH370, has suffered another stroke of fate, with their loved ones being aboard the Malaysian jet shot down over Ukraine.

Irene and George Burrows' son Rodney and his wife Mary vanished together with Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 this March, leaving their family in grief.

But just a few months later, the couple from Biloela in Queensland State took another blow, with their step-granddaughter, Maree Rizk, and her husband Albert being among the passengers of the crashed MH17 flight.

"It's just brought everyone, everything back," Rodney's brother Greg Burrows told AP. "It's just ... ripped our guts again."

Despite the double tragedy, Burrows stressed that he holds no grudges against the Malaysia Airlines. "Nobody could predict they were going to get shot down," he said. "That was out of their hands."

Comment: It is doubly odd that the disappearance of MH370 happened right as the situation in Ukraine was escalating, and now MH17 is shot down over Ukraine. What is the universe saying?


Ambulance

Florida dad catches pedophile abusing his son and beats him black and blue

Raymond Frolander
© Volusia County CorrectionsPedophile Perp: Raymond Frolander
A Daytona Beach father who walked in on a man sexually battering his 11-year-old son Friday said he did what he had a right to do when he beat the suspect unconscious, leaving him in a puddle of blood, according to a 9-1-1 call.

"I just walked in on a grown man molesting ...," the upset father told a dispatcher. "And I got him in a bloody puddle for you officer."

The father was acting like a dad, said Daytona Beach police Chief Mike Chitwood.

Comment: It's so unfortunate that this was going on for years and even close family friends can't be trusted. Kudos, Dad, for standing up for your son in the end.


Airplane

Malaysia Airlines offers refunds on all tickets for flights this year

Malaysian airlines
© Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha Would you ever get on a Malaysia Airlines plane again?
Following the destruction of Malaysia Airlines flight 17, which is believed to have been blown out of the sky over eastern Ukraine, shares in the airline's stock closed down 11% at the end of Friday. The airline has now said that it will offer anyone with a ticket to fly this year a refund - regardless of when it was purchased - if they call before July 24. A kind gesture for their customers, but perhaps not so good for the bottom line. Over the past five years, the airline has lost 92% of its value.

This is the second tragedy to befall the airline in the same year. In March, flight 370 went missing - and has yet to be found, with the biggest toll on the families of the victims. One family from the tiny town of Biloela, Australia, the Burrows, lost close relatives on both flights.

Light Saber

Hundreds of demonstrators flood streets of Detroit over water shutdown

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© Reuters/Rebecca CookPeople hold a banner against the mass water shut-offs to Detroit citizens behind in their payments, during a protest in downtown Detroit, Michigan July 18, 2014.
Hundreds of demonstrators paraded through Detroit, protesting the city's decision to terminate water supplies to thousands of residents with delinquent accounts.

"Fight, fight; water is a human right," the protesters chanted as they marched the city on Friday. Media estimated their number at 300-1,000 people.

The protest was organized by the group National Nurses United, which says the termination of water supplies, in the middle of summer, could turn into a public health emergency. The group's co-president, Jean Ross, called the shutoffs an "attack on the basic human right of access to safe, clean water."

"What's happening here is inhumane," Ross told WWJ news radio. "We know that you need water to sustain yourself and no one, no one should shut off the water to the people."
Detroit Must Stop Shutting Off Water To People Who Cannot Afford To Pay http://t.co/VpJP2EXKeShttp://t.co/zz66i9B0mH#DetroitWater
- AmnestyInternational (@amnesty) July 18, 2014
Between March and June, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department suspended service to 15,200 customers, Greg Eno, a department spokesman, told the New York Times. About another 92,000 customers, who are at least 60 days late on their utility bill or more than $150 behind remain at risk of losing water supplies.

Hearts

Several thousand people attend Pro-Palestinian rally in New Zealand

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© Photo posted by Rashed Al Shaya on Facebook.com
Several thousand people are estimated to have marched through central Auckland to protest the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza, which, along with previous airstrikes, have resulted in over 300 deaths in under two weeks' time.

Marchers with umbrellas, placards and Palestinian flags in hand took to the heart of New Zealand's most populous city to show solidarity with the people of Gaza on Saturday. Estimates range between several hundred and several thousand attendees, though footage posted by OccupyNZ indicates the latter figure is likely more accurate.
Big turnout for Free Gaza protest in central Auckland pic.twitter.com/EVKZypFXUk
- Katie Bradford (@katieabradford) July 19, 2014
Chants of "Free, free Palestine!" and "One, two three, four, we don't want your bloody war!" rang out through the streets as a large black and white banner with the phrase 'Free Palestine' headed up the procession down Queens Street.


Eye 1

Fascist France become first country in world to ban pro-Palestine demonstrations

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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators take to the streets of Paris on Sunday. France's socialist government has sparked uproar after it banned protests against Israeli action in Palestine


* Move follows violence at protests in Paris last weekend

* Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said there was a 'threat to public order'

* Thousands across France were set to march again this weekend

* Anyone who breaks the ban faces a year in prison and a 15,000 euro fine.

* If they hide their faces the sentence can be increased to three years jail, and a 45,000 euro fine

France's Socialist government provoked outrage today by becoming the first in the world to ban protests against Israeli action in Palestine.

In what is viewed as an outrageous attack on democracy, Socialist Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said mass demonstrations planned for the weekend should be halted.

Mr Cazeneuve said there was a 'threat to public order', while opponents said he was 'criminalising' popular support of the Palestinian people.

Thousands were set to march against the ongoing slaughter in Gaza, calling for an immediate end to hostilities in which civilians including many children have been killed.

Heart - Black

Israel bombs el-Wafa hospital to rubble as staff evacuates all patients

gaza hospital bombed
el Wafa Hospital, struck by missile on July 11
The Israeli military has destroyed el-Wafa rehabilitation hospital in the Gaza Strip, after first targeting the facility with five missiles on July 11, 2014. The Israeli military began striking the building around 8:00 pm this evening [July 17] and within two hours all hospital staff and patients had evacuated the only rehabilitation center in the Gaza Strip. As they departed what remained intact from the medical center burned to the ground.

"It's already destroyed," said Basman Alashi, director of el-Wafa, continuing, "I don't know how much is left of it, but we have evacuated all of our patients. We lost power, there was a fire in the building."

Alashi spoke to me via telephone from his house in Gaza, unable to cross the Israeli shelling to reach the hospital. "I left the hospital at seven and within two hours they had bombed the hospital." Shells hit every floor of the building, and a fire spread throughout.

After the Israeli army began striking the hospital, Alashi and el-Wafa's 25 nurses made desperate arrangements to relocate the last 17 patients. Many of those in el-Wafa's care are paralyzed and are connected to oxygen support. Some of the nurses left the building to seek help, braving Israeli fire on the streets in order to track down an ambulance with an oxygen tank.

Comment: But only the 'terrorists' are targets right?