South Carolina inmates will continue to be given solitary confinement for accessing Facebook and other social networking sites, but the number of days they serve there will be reduced, South Carolina Department of Corrections Deputy Communications Director Stephanie Givens told Sputnik.

"Prisoners will now receive 60 days of solitary confinement for accessing social networking sites through contraband," Givens said on Monday.

Givens confirmed reports of harsher solitary confinement punishments, but said the lengthier sentences were because of "stacking of charges," where the accessing of social networking sites is compounded with other charges.

Being an antiwar activist in Israel is dangerous. Israelis who protested against the 2014 Gaza offensive were threatened, harassed and attacked. Some even lost their jobs. Yoav Eliassi, also known as "The Shadow," is a right-wing rapper and driving force behind a movement to stamp out dissent in Israeli society.

A shocking video uploaded to YouTube on Sunday shows an elderly gentleman with his hands up, posing no risk or threat to the officers, get tased in front of horrified witnesses.

The video, taken by a witness who was with his family on their way to Key West, shows officers yelling at people to get out of their vehicle. The elderly man exits the passenger side and an officer grabs and twists his arm. Another officer comes around to the other side of the vehicle yelling "let him go." As the officer lets go, the man puts his hand back in the air, and the second officer tases him for no reason.

The man drops to the ground as the witnesses gasp in horror and question whether or not he is alive, noting that his body is limp.It is a sad shame that the mistrust of police is so high, rightly, that we cannot even feel safe to film their wrong doing.

Florida officers have a deadly history of taser deployment. In December, we conducted an investigation into the death of Charles Elmers. Video from the officer's taser captured officer Gary Lee Lovette bragging about stomping a man into the sand as he tasered his head.

We often ask "why didn't that cop use a taser instead of his gun?" However, it is important to remember that while a person is less likely to die from a taser shock than a gun shot, they are still an often fatal weapon, and should be treated as such. This man was posing no threat to the officers and this use of potentially lethal force is horrific and unjustifiable.

An Oakland artist is ingeniously battling homelessness in Oakland, California: he builds small houses out of materials he can find in the streets, with each edifice costing around forty bucks.

The tiny homes are made of pallets, bed boards, washing machine doors, and other bizarre objects that catch Greg Kloehn's attention. Mr Kloehn first noticed that homeless people built shelters from whatever they find in the street, and he wanted to make a house like this.

He jokes that he constructs "illegal homes out of illegal garbage." The cost of one house is "$30 to $40," Kloehn told RT.

"The real cost is just in the wheels: I buy large casters for the bottom, so that they are mobile, and then nails, and screws, and paintbrushes. But everything else I get for free," he said.

The houses are just comfortable enough to lie down in a warmer place than a cardboard box, and the homeless in Oakland are "so happy," Kloehn told the Independent. "One cried and got on his knees to thank me. They think I should make them bigger and suggest improvements. They like to decorate them themselves."

An elderly man was recently visiting Alabama from India when he found himself beaten by police who left him paralyzed.

Madison, Alabama police brutalized the 57-year-old Indian citizen who had committed no crime, he was only going for a walk on the sidewalk outside of his son's home. Now, one officer is being charged for leaving Sureshbhai Patel temporarily paralyzed and hospitalized with fused vertebrae, as a result of the severe beating he received from the police.

"He was just walking on the sidewalk as he does all the time," Chirag Patel, the son of Sureshbhai said. "They put him to the ground." No crime had been committed. Madison Police on Monday issued a statement saying the department had suspended the officer and were investigating the use of force in this case. The police statement wished the man a "speedy recovery."

Chirag Patel is an engineer who had just flown his father to America from the small Indian town of Pij. Sureshbhai Patel was trying to help his wife care for Chirag's 17-month-old son, so that Chirag could finish graduate courses for his masters degree in electrical engineering at the University of Alabama. "This is a good neighborhood. I didn't expect anything to happen," Chirag said.

Madison police blamed the elderly man in a statement Monday, saying that they received a call that a man was "looking in garages." "The caller, who lives in the neighborhood did not recognize the subject and thought him to be suspicious," the police statement on the incident stated.

Hank Sherrod, the attorney for the Patel family, said "this is broad daylight, walking down the street. There is nothing suspicious about Mr. Patel other than he has brown skin." Sureshbhai Patel speaks no English. The Madison police acknowledge a "communication barrier." Sherrod explains, however, that Sureshbhai told the police officers "no English" and told them his son's address. But that didn't stop the officers from beating the man to the point of paralysis.

Muslims in Oslo formed a human chain around the city's main synagogue, chanting "No to anti-Semitism, no to Islamophobia." Over 1,000 people took part in the rally to show solidarity with Jews just a week after a fatal shooting in a Denmark synagogue.

Muslims in Norway, many young women, formed what they called a ring of peace, as the small Jewish congregation filed out of the synagogue after Shabbat prayers on Saturday.

The Muslim message to the Jews in Norway was simple - they mourn and stand in solidarity with the victims of increasingly instances of violence against Jews in Europe, including the terror attacks in France in January and in neighboring Denmark last week.

"This shows that there are many more peacemakers than war-makers," Zeeshan Abdullah, one of the organizers told the crowd. "There is still hope for humanity, for peace and love across religious differences and background."

Almost 900 child abductions were reported in the UK during 2014 alone. Statistics gathered from police forces indicate the numbers of cases are on the increase.

The study has shown kidnappings and abductions of kids and teenagers under 18 increased by 13 percent between 2012-2013 and 2013-2014. Kidnappings, if taken alone, soared by 18 percent over the same time, according to the research.

The figures were collected from the police and analyzed by the charity Parents and Abducted Children Together (Pact), the Independent reported.

Between 2013 and 2014, 401 were abducted by people other than their parents (for instance, when a stranger lures a child in with sweets), 158 by an aggrieved parent, and 321 children were kidnapped.

A community is rallying around a Toronto family after their 3-year-old boy -- who wandered into the cold Thursday night, wearing nothing but a diaper, T-shirt and boots -- was found dead near his home.

Elijah Marsh, 3, was pronounced dead shortly after authorities located him. He was reportedly huddled up to an air conditioner unit just 1,000 feet away from where he got locked out of his family's apartment. He may have spent up to six hours in frigid temperatures.

Surveillance footage shows a boy who looks like Elijah leaving the home at about 4:05 a.m.

Recently I interviewed Rob Richardson from Off Grid Survival. One of the main topics we explored was the out-of-control police state in this country and the impact it is having on our neighborhoods and psyche. In doing the research for that interview I came across several very disturbing articles regarding SWAT attacks perpetrated against citizens. Most of the situations did not call for a SWAT attack. Believe it or not a lot of the alarms were sounded by disgruntled gamers! Yes, one person sitting at home playing a video game and calling the police, telling them a story that may or may not be true and the police's response is to send out a SWAT team to investigate!

It appears the police officers in this country should be held up as the reason for gun control. On the one hand we have Moms demanding gun control like it's the ordinary law abiding citizen that is the problem when they should be, in fact, looking at the local police department and demanding action. The police, as the awake and aware have known for some time, are completely out of control. No need to revisit any of the recent high-profile murders at the hands of the local police. Instead lets review what other criminal, murderous activities the gangs in blue have been conducting.

Translator's note: The columnist leaves the letter-writer anonymous, for obvious reasons, and thus gives us the point of view that any one of the thousands of men aged 25 to 60 might have, who have been given their notification. The jail time prescribed for draft-evasion is five years. On January 24, 2015, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry revealed that 7,500 were facing criminal charges. The author might be one of them -- if they caught him.

I'm just an ordinary Kievan. No draft dodger, and I'm no fan of Putin. A call has come from the War Commissariat. Here is a simple question for the president of Ukraine:

Why should I go to war?
Have we declared war?
No.
Are we at war with Russia?
No.

Are we in an undeclared war with Russia? But then, why are Poroshenko and Putin shaking hands? That is, between the two, all is super, but I, I should sort out it with the separatists, about who gets to come back home, and who doesn't?

Maybe it's a civil war? But then, why is there no declaration? Why no state of war? No state of emergency? Is it because then the IMF wouldn't give any loans?

Well screw this! What is it to me if the loans come in or not? 90% of them will just go to cover the interest on loans already taken. As far as I'm concerned, screw it! Maybe they'll use the loans to buy natural gas? No. Meaning my family is going to freeze this winter while I have to go fight?