RTSun, 25 Mar 2018 15:23 UTC
© Neil Hall / Reuters /File
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is seen on the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London
In the fallout from the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica data mining scandal, Julian Assange has reminded his followers that it is highly unwise to trust all their personal data to a "megalomaniac" who calls his users "dumb f**ks."
Assange recalled an exchange with an unnamed friend immediately after the beta version of the social media giant was launched in 2003. He spoke of how Mark Zuckerberg was surprised that the first "dumb f**ck" users immediately trusted the newly-launched platform with their private data.
On Thursday, the residents of Saginaw County looked on as dozens of police officers raided two Catholic Diocese of Saginaw properties and the home of Bishop Joseph Cistone. The raids were carried out as part of an ongoing investigation into apparently rife sexual abuse in the church-and their history of covering it up.
According to Saginaw County Assistant Prosecutor Mark Gaertner, the police raids were necessary because the church was refusing to cooperate with the ongoing investigation into a torrent of sexual abuse allegations.
"Contrary to the statements of the diocese and the bishop that they would fully cooperate with law enforcement, they did not," Gaertner said. "Therefore it was necessary for law enforcement to use other investigative tools, including search warrants."
As MLive
reports, Gaertner said search warrants were executed at the bishop's home on Corral Drive in Saginaw Township, the rectory at Cathedral of Mary of the Assumption, 615 Hoyt in Saginaw, and the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw offices in Saginaw Township.
© Courtesy of the Diocese of Saginaw.
Bishop Joseph Cistone.
On Thursday, police in Saginaw, Michigan raided the home of Bishop Joseph Cistone, as well as the diocesan chancery and its cathedral rectory, as part of an ongoing investigation into sex abuse allegations against several diocesan priests.
CNA has reached out to the Diocese of Saginaw, Michigan for comment but did not receive a response by press time.
There is a new development in the Facebook data case.
A Maryland woman is now suing Facebook over the release of personal information that made her a target for political advertisements.
Marylander Lauren Price is taking Facebook to court with what she hopes will become a class action lawsuit over privacy data that ended up in the hands of political advertisers trying to influence votes.
Video Link:
RTSun, 25 Mar 2018 10:14 UTC
© Carlo Allegri / Reuters
A South Korean passenger ship ran aground off the country's south-western coast on Sunday, injuring at least six people, local media report.
The passenger vessel found itself on the rocks at about 3:47 pm local time (06:47am GMT) in South Jeolla province, local broadcaster YTN reported.
The incident that occurred some 400km south of Seoul, near Sinan County, has left at least six people injured.
RTSun, 25 Mar 2018 14:00 UTC
© che.sovitina / Instagram
At least four people - including three children - died in a shopping center in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, where a huge fire broke out Sunday. Emergency services continue working to rescue those trapped inside the building.
The fire broke out on Sunday afternoon local time
. Rescuers have managed to get some 120 people out so far, according to the regional emergencies ministry.
The victims were in the mall's playroom, according to the Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko."Some 26 people have also sought medical help or been taken to hospitals," she added.
Meanwhile, the number of injured has risen to 15. Two of them remain in a serious condition.
Comment: UPDATE from RT:
37 dead, dozens of children missing after tragic mall blaze in Russia's Kemerovo
As rescuers continue to search the burned-out shopping mall in the city of Kemerovo, many have been frantically trying to reach their relatives, including children who were in the mall's cinema or play area when the fire started.
Some 37 people were killed in the blaze, the Russian Investigative Committee has confirmed. At least 11 children were among the victims.
Amid conflicting reports, some have described the source of the fire as the children's playground, suggesting that the trampoline there caught fire after a child allegedly misused a lighter. Another version suggests that electrical wiring at the playground had short-circuited.
Reports from witnesses have described panic as people realized there was a fire spreading, with many saying on social media that there were no fire alarms or loudspeaker warnings, and that people had to find their own way through the top floor of the mall, which was already filled with smoke. Several hundred people, including many children, were in the mall at the time.
Tragically, some reportedly had left their children unattended in one of the mall's cinema halls or at the playground.
The fire, which broke out on Sunday afternoon, was finally contained some 12 hours later, after engulfing some 1,600 square meters. The building sustained severe damage, its roof and floors partially collapsing.
Some 43 people were injured in the blaze, according to the emergency services, and 37 remain hospitalized. Some 69 people, including 40 children, were said to be missing after the fire.
Fears are growing that almost an entire class of primary school children may have perished in the blaze. Eight kids from a school outside Kemerovo were visiting the city on an excursion with a teacher, who led them to watch a cartoon show at the shopping mall. Russian media reports suggest that she chose to have a stroll through the mall and left the children at the cinema, from which they apparently couldn't find their way out.
© AP
Sergei Skripal was freed in a 2010 deal which saw 10 Russian sleeper agents expelled from the United States.
'Many people shunned him. His classmates felt he had betrayed the Motherland,' says Vladimir Timoshkov
Former Russian double agent
Sergei Skripal had written to
Vladimir Putin asking if he could return to his home country before he was poisoned in Salisbury, a friend has said.
The former Russian intelligence officer, who came to Britain in 2010 as part of a spy swap, regretted being a double agent and wanted to be pardoned so he could visit his family in Russia, Vladimir Timoshkov told the BBC.
Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain in a critical condition after they were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok on 4 March.
Comment: The fact that Skripal may have tried to reconcile with Russia, wanting to go back to see family, suggests he was a bigger threat to the UK than to Russia. Throughout this entire affair, no clear motive has been put forward for Russia, or indeed Putin himself, for the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter. The entire affair has "piss-poor attempt to frame Russia" written all over it.
See also:
RTSun, 25 Mar 2018 13:33 UTC
© John Gress / Reuters
A record number of smugglers have been arrested in Sweden since late 2017, according to a report. Investigators seized record quantities of illegal drugs, including nearly 1 ton of cannabis, 330 kg of cocaine and 40kg of heroin.
The report concerns Sweden's Region South, which consists of the Skane, Blekinge and Kalmar counties. Customs officers have made as many as 973 confiscations since the end of 2017, Swedish news agency TT
reported.
The massive seizures of narcotics were made from a record number of smugglers, with 58 criminals currently facing charges.
"Most [of the confiscations] are drugs, but we had large confiscations of spirits too," department leader Lars Backstrom told
Sydsvenskan newspaper.
© Wikimedia Commons
It happened again in Florida.
The failure of high school officials, local police and the FBI to act on reports of a deeply disturbed teen cost another young life. In the early morning of March 12, a 13-year-old boy was stabbed to death while he slept.
Seventeen-year-old Corey Johnson of Jupiter, Florida, was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder for killing Jovanni Brand and for stabbing Elaine Simon and her son Dane in their Palm Beach Gardens home.
According to police, Johnson said he killed Brand because of his Muslim faith. Johnson converted to Islam and was radicalized by watching ISIS videos online.
Comment: The fact that there was another murder by a mentally unstable teen IN THE SAME STATE as the Parkland shooting, yet which did not involve guns, should be a wake-up call to the nation that the liberal's focus on gun control is misguided. Clearly, America has a murder problem, not a gun problem.
See also:
RTSun, 25 Mar 2018 08:01 UTC
© Ajay Verma / Reuters
Sweden will offer compensation to transgender people who were forced to undergo sterilization before being allowed to change their sex. The decision was approved by the country's parliament on Wednesday.
The Nordic nation required forced sterilizations for people who desired a sex change from 1972 to 2013. Gay and transgender rights group RFSL
estimates that between 600 and 700 people will be eligible for compensation following the "historic decision."
"Money can't undo the harm of unwillingly losing your reproductive abilities, but the monetary compensation is an important step for the state to make amends to all those subjected to this treatment," RFSL spokesperson Emelie Mire Åsell said in a statement.
Comment: