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Heart - Black

Police hunt for killer after three swans found beheaded near Milton Keynes, UK


The Telegraph, UK
Mon, 21 Apr 2014 15:37 UTC
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The severed heads of three swans were found in front of a pub near Milton Keynes

Police are searching for the person who cut the heads off three swans and left them lying opposite a pub.

The severed heads of the three birds were found by anglers close to Mount Farm Lake near Milton Keynes, Bucks. Steven Cooper, the club's fisheries officer and secretary, discovered the first head lying on the lakeside.

He said anglers had noticed swans had been "disappearing" from the waterway in recent months.

He said: "I've been a member of the club for 10 years, but have never known anything like this. I was out one afternoon and the head was just lying there by the waterside opposite The Inn On The Lake pub.

"Anyone could have come across it - a runner, someone walking their dogs, a small child. It was horrible. We have found three heads, and one of them had the body close by it. It doesn't look like it was done by an animal, it was a sharp blade that took the heads off.
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Star of David

Israeli police clash with Palestinians at Jerusalem holy site


Reuters
Sun, 20 Apr 2014 06:30 UTC
Al Aqsa Mosque
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Israeli police arrested 16 Palestinians at one of Jerusalem's most revered and politically sensitive holy sites on Sunday as they dispersed protesters opposed to any Jewish attempts to pray there.

A police spokesman said officers used stun grenades to disperse dozens of rioters, who threw rocks and firecrackers at them at the site revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and by Jews as the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's walled Old City.

Two officers were slightly injured and treated at the scene in the brief clash, the spokesman added. Five Palestinians were also slightly hurt, a Muslim clergyman said.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the plaza near the al Aqsa mosque had remained open to visitors during the clash, which was confined to a small area. Police did not enter the mosque, he said.
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Eye 1

Big Brother in Compton: How police spied on an entire city

Conor Friedersdorf
The Atlantic
Mon, 21 Apr 2014 07:18 UTC
A sergeant in the L.A. County Sheriff's Department compared the experiment to Big Brother, even though he went ahead with it willingly. Is your city next?
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This is the future if nothing is done to stop it.

In a secret test of mass surveillance technology, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department sent a civilian aircraft* over Compton, California, capturing high-resolution video of everything that happened inside that 10-square-mile municipality.
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Pistol

Chicago craziness: At least 9 dead, 32 injured in shootings over weekend


RT
Mon, 21 Apr 2014 09:24 UTC
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© AFP Photo / Justin Sullivan
Nine people have been killed and a further 32 injured in weekend shootings in Chicago which started on Friday afternoon and lasted until Monday morning. Five of the injured are children.

The kids were victims of a drive-by shooting in the city's southern Park Manor district. A group opened fire from a car.
"I thought it was firecrackers but I saw everyone running," eyewitness Kimyana Bryant told NBC Chicago.

"My mom ran over to us. I was trying to get all the kids from the park. I brought them over here so they could be in the house with us."

However, police did not confirm the witness' claims.
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Book

Stay home! Michele Obama hit with 1,000-signature petition against speaking at high school graduation 'because it would overshadow the students' big day'


Daily Mail
Fri, 18 Apr 2014 08:56 UTC
Brown v. Board of Education
© GoogleA high school senior started a petition against Michelle Obama speaking at Topeka High School's graduation
  • Taylor Gifford, 18, started an online petition on Thursday with over 1,200 signatures asking that Michelle Obama not speak at Topeka High School graduation
  • Obama's speech is tied to the 60th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education outlawing segregation in schools
  • Some students feel that the speech would overshadow student accomplishments and others feel limited seating will be a problem
If expanding the guest list to include Michelle Obama at graduation for high school students in the Kansas capital city means fewer seats for friends and family, some students and their parents would prefer the first lady not attend.

A furor over what the Topeka school district considers an honor has erupted after plans were announced for Obama to address a combined graduation ceremony for five area high schools next month an 8,000-seat arena. For some, it was the prospect of a tight limit on the number of seats allotted to each graduate.

For others, it was the notion that Obama's speech, tied to the 60th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education outlawing segregation in schools, would overshadow the student's big day.

A high school senior started a petition against Michelle Obama speaking at Topeka High School's graduation
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Arrow Down

Warrantless bag searches become ubiquitous for Boston subway, bus travelers


Police State USA
Sun, 20 Apr 2014 21:08 UTC
Transit Police
© Bay State Examiner/YouTubeTransit police conducting a warrantless checkpoint in Boston.
Massachusetts - Warrantless bag searches at have become commonplace at travel checkpoints in Boston as concerns for Homeland Security have overridden citizens' right to be free of unreasonable searches. Travelers are forced to "security inspections" of their handbags, briefcases, and other personal possessions.

Large signs indicate that public spaces under the authority of the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) are void of privacy rights. The first bullet point on one of the signs displayed the following:
For the protection and the security of the riding public, all persons choosing to use the MBTA transit system will be subject to security inspections of their handbags, briefcases, and/or other carry on items.
The signage goes on to claim that all persons will be stopped and searched and that declining a search will result in an order to leave the station. Those who object will be arrested and charged with trespassing - on public property - which could result in a $100 fine and up to 30 days in jail.
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Life Preserver

U.S. Special Forces' suicide rates hit record levels

Cheryl K. Chumley
The Washington Times
Fri, 18 Apr 2014 19:15 UTC
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© AFP/Don Emmert
The suicide rates for U.S. military members who serve in special forces, like the Navy SEALs and the Army Rangers, have hit all-time highs, said Adm. William McRaven, the head of Special Operations Command.

The rate's been high for two years, he said, Newsmax reported.

"And this year, I am afraid, we are on path to break that," he went on at a conference in Tampa. "My soldiers have been fighting now for 12, 13 years in hard combat - hard combat - and anybody that has spent any time in this war has been changed by it. It's that simple."
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People

Climate change in the American mind: 1 in 4 think global warming isn't happening


Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Sun, 20 Apr 2014 18:40 UTC
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© Yale
The most recent national Climate Change in the American Mind survey found that 1 in 4 Americans think that global warming is not happening, and half say they are "worried" about it.

Other highlights include:
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Black Cat 2

Pets no longer just part of furniture in France

David Chazan
The Telegraph
Wed, 16 Apr 2014 15:34 UTC
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© Alamy
Pets in France will no longer be considered as pieces of furniture, after parliament voted to grant them new rights.

This should make it easier to prosecute cases of animal cruelty and help courts to decide who gets custody of cats or dogs when couples divorce, campaigners said.

The vote in the national assembly on Tuesday night followed a long campaign by animal welfare groups, but it still has to be approved by the Senate.

MPs decided to review the status of pets after 678,000 people signed an online petition. Among them were a number of French scientists, academics and a former education minister.

Reha Hutin, head of the animal protection society, 30 Millions d'Amis (30 Million Friends), which started the petition, said it was "ridiculous to see pets as pieces of furniture that can walk by themselves".
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Pistol

BNP banker, his wife and nephew murdered in Belgium

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sun, 20 Apr 2014 09:55 UTC
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In the beginning it was banker suicides. Then about two weeks ago, suicides were replaced by outright murders after the execution-style killing of the CEO of a bank in otherwise sleepy (and tax evasive) Lichtenstein by a disgruntled client. Then on Friday news hit of another execution-type murder in just as sleepy, if not so tax evasive, Belgium, where in the city of Vise, a 37-year-old Director at BNP Paribas Fortis was murdered alongside his wife and a 9 year old nephew in a premeditated and orchestrated drive-by shooting.

L'venir reports:
According to Marcel Neven, Mayor of Vise, nothing can yet explain what caused the violent shooting that rocked the neighborhood sports hall of his town this Friday, April 18, late at night. A man of 37 years, Benedict Philippens, bank manager Ans-Saint-Nicolas, was shot. A little 9 year old boy, living in Dolhain, was also killed. A lady, the wife of the man and the boy aunt and godmother, Carol Haid, 37 also died of his injuries on Saturday, in the morning. She was hit by three bullets in the back, said a judicial source.
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