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German migration boss: Only 35% of migrants qualify for asylum


RT
Sun, 24 Mar 2019 19:02 UTC
German police officers check the passports of bus passengers on the highway from Austria.
© Reuters / Michaela Rehle
German police officers check the passports of bus passengers on the highway from Austria.
Only 35 percent of migrants arriving in Germany qualify for asylum, while the remainder lack valid reasons, have no documentation or use forged IDs, the head of the country's migration service said.

"Too many people without a reason for asylum" arrive in the country, Hans-Eckhard Sommer, who is in charge of BAMF (Federal Office for Migration and Refugees), complained in an interview with the Welt am Sonntag paper.

With its lavish welfare programs, Germany had been the dream destination for refugees from the Middle East and North Africa since the massive migrant crisis broke out in Europe in 2015. The country took in around one million refugees that year, with influx still remaining high for years later.
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Handcuffs

Russian tourist arrested after attempting to smuggle drugged orangutan in airline luggage

Toyin Owoseje
Independent
Sat, 23 Mar 2019 18:32 UTC
orangutan
© AFP/Getty Images
A rescued two-year-old orangutan resting inside a rattan basket, after a smuggling attempt by a Russian tourist at Bali’s international airport.
A Russian tourist has been arrested in Bali after attempting to smuggle a drugged orangutan home in his luggage.

Quarantine officials at Ngurah Rai International Airport detained Andrei Zhestkov on Friday after he passed through a security screening before a planned flight back to Russia.

According to authorities, the two-year-old primate was found sleeping in a rattan basket. Mr Zhestkov prepared for the trip by packing baby formula and blankets for the orangutan.

"We believe the orangutan was fed allergy pills which caused him to sleep. We found the pills inside the suitcase," Bali conservation agency official I Ketut Catur Marbawa said in a statement.
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Footprints

Four students kicked out of fraternity after racist video surfaces

Phil Helsel
NBC News
Sat, 23 Mar 2019 17:37 UTC
Park Hall
© John Greim / LightRocket
Park Hall on the University of Georgia campus in 2015 in Athens, Georgia.
The Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity said it has expelled four members at a chapter at the University of Georgia after video surfaced appearing to show men using a racial slur about black people and talking about picking cotton.

"Tau Kappa Epsilon is disgusted, appalled and angered by the remarks shown in a video of four expelled members," the national fraternity said in a statement. "TKE will not tolerate any actions such as these that would be defined as racist, discriminatory and/or offensive."

The video, which has not been verified by NBC News, appears to show one white man using a belt to slap another who is under covers in bed, and someone saying "pick my cotton" followed by an expletive. The person being hit says, "I am not black."

In the video, when someone else says "you're not using the right words," a racial slur can be heard.

A spokesman for Tau Kappa Epsilon said the video shared on social media is the video in question. The fraternity said it was made aware of the video on Friday, and the event was not a Tau Kappa Epsilon function.

Comment: The video in question:



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Question

His 'sexual needs were his sexual needs': Twitter appalled by Barbra Streisand's comments on Michael Jackson pedophilia claims [Update]


RT
Sat, 23 Mar 2019 19:36 UTC
Streisand
© Danny Moloshok / Reuters
Barbra Streisand has unleashed a firestorm of outrage for saying Michael Jackson's alleged molestation of boys "didn't kill them," and that Jackson's "sexual needs were his sexual needs."

Streisand's controversial statements appeared in an interview with the Times, where she was asked about the Leaving Neverland documentary in which Wade Robson and James Safechuck detail allegations of sexual abuse by Jackson.

The singer and actor said she "absolutely" believes the two men, but when asked how she reconciles the man she knew with the man described in the documentary, she said, "His sexual needs were his sexual needs, coming from whatever childhood he has or whatever DNA he has."

Comment: Babs backtracks:
Barbra Streisand has apologized for her controversial comments about Michael Jackson's alleged abuse victims that ignited an outrage tsunami on Saturday.

The singer sparked anger when she said in an interview with the Times that while she "absolutely" believed Jackson's abuse accusers, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, the alleged molestation "didn't kill them," and that Jackson's "sexual needs were his sexual needs."

Streisand posted an apology on her website Saturday, writing she was "profoundly sorry for any pain or misunderstanding" she caused by not choosing her words more carefully, "because the words as printed do not reflect my true feelings."

"I didn't mean to dismiss the trauma these boys experienced in any way," she continued. "Like all survivors of sexual assault, they will have to carry this for the rest of their lives. I feel deep remorse and I hope that James and Wade know that I truly respect and admire them for speaking their truth."

Streisand's earlier comments saw her receive a deluge of criticism and mockery on social media; even the director of the Leaving Neverland documentary, Dan Reed, tweeted her over her remarks.

The singer also released a statement to Variety, in which she said, "To be crystal clear, there is no situation or circumstance where it is OK for the innocence of children to be taken advantage of by anyone."

She also walked back her comments about blaming the boy's parents. "It's clear that the parents of the two young men were also victimized and seduced by fame and fantasy."


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Gear

Attack-dog SPLC imploding as president & legal director resign amid sexual misconduct scandal

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Sun, 24 Mar 2019 02:55 UTC
SPLC sex allegations, morris dees, richard cohen, rhonda brownstein

Morris Dees, Richard Cohen, Rhonda Brownstein
The Southern Poverty Law Center - the "vicious left-wing attack dog" used by the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Google and Amazon to identify "hate groups" - is unraveling.

A week after co-founder Morris Dees was ousted over sexual misconduct claims - with two dozen employees signing a letter of concern over "allegations of mistreatment, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and racism," the head of the SPLC, Richard Cohen, as well as the organization's legal director, Rhonda Brownstein, resigned on Friday.

Cohen had been with the organization 33 years and was one of its most prominent figures.
At 5:03 p.m. Friday, Cohen sent a message to staff, with the subject line "Stepping Down," announcing that he, too, would be leaving the organization that he and Dees had turned into a research and fundraising juggernaut.

"Whatever problems exist at the SPLC happened on my watch, so I take responsibility for them," Cohen wrote, while asking the staff to avoid jumping to conclusions before the board completes an internal review of the Montgomery, Ala., organization's work culture. -LA Times

Comment: More on the scandal and the SPLC:

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Star of David

Gaza pepares for 1 million at the fence on March of Return anniversary, as Israel kills two more men

Ahmad Kabariti
Mondweiss
Sun, 24 Mar 2019 13:27 UTC
march of return protest Gaza
© Mohammed Asad
Demonstrators headed to the Gaza fence, March 22, 2019.
At the end of nearly 1,000 yards of newly-grown spring grassy turf, a renewed barbed-wire border fence rises three meters up, in anticipation of a million person march next week between Gaza protesters and their well-known antagonist snipers.

A week before the first anniversary of the great March of Return, organizers have pledged larger than usual demonstrations. However, their preparations appeared powerless in yesterday's renewed protests at Malaka, eastern Gaza City, when hails of Israeli live ammunition and gas canisters killed two Palestinian men and wounded 26 others taking part in weekly demonstrations along the fortified Israel-Gaza border.

Comment: RT on the latest round of protest:
Jehad Harara was shot in the head east of Gaza City and Nidal Shatat was shot in the chest near the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, the Gaza Health Ministry reports.

The Ministry said the IDF targeted medical personnel and ambulances with tear gas at least three times. Video taken at the demonstrations captures the chaos of the protests and the injuries suffered.


Also on Friday, the UN Human Rights Council condemned Israel's "apparent intentional use of unlawful lethal and other excessive force" at Great Return March protests which started on March 20, 2018. It followed a UN enquiry that found the IDF may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity for killing 189 Palestinians at the demonstrations in 2018, including 35 children, three paramedics and two journalists.

It determined Israel wounded over 6,100 with live ammunition, while over 3,000 others were injured by rubber coated bullets, bullet fragments and tear gas canisters.


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Attention

134 Fulani herders killed by gunmen in Mali

Tiemoko Diallo
Reuters
Sat, 23 Mar 2019 13:00 UTC
Malian Army
© AFP
Members of the Malian Army patrolling on Saturday in Anderamboukane.
Gunmen killed at least 134 Fulani herders in central Mali on Saturday, a local mayor said, the deadliest such attack of recent times in a region reeling from worsening ethnic and jihadist violence.

The assaults on the villages of Ogossagou and Welingara took place as a U.N. Security Council mission visited Mali seeking solutions to violence that killed hundreds of civilians last year and is spreading across West Africa's Sahel region.

Moulaye Guindo, mayor of the nearby town of Bankass, said armed men, dressed as traditional Donzo hunters, encircled and attacked Ogossagou at about 4 a.m. (0400 GMT).

"We are provisionally at 134 bodies recovered by the gendarmes," Guindo told Reuters by telephone from Ogossagou.

He said another nearby Fulani village, Welingara, had also been attacked, causing "a number" of deaths, but he did not yet know how many.

Comment: More details on the deeper roots of the conflict here: Ethnicity, politics, land, religion and deadly clashes in Jos, Nigeria

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Ambulance

Syria: Militant attack using poisonous gas sends 21 people to hospital


Sputnik
Sat, 23 Mar 2019 12:50 UTC
Syria
© AP Photo / Pavel Golovkin
Following shelling by militants in the Syrian province of Hama, 21 people have been delivered to the Al-Suqaylabiyah hospital with gas poisoning symptoms, Syrian TV reported.

A reported 21 people were delivered to the Al-Suqaylabiyah hospital in Hama, suffering from asphyxia, thought to be caused by the use of poisonous gas by militants who fired several shells at the city, the Ikhbariya broadcaster reported, citing a head of the local hospital.

Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with government forces fighting numerous opposition groups as well as militant and terrorist organizations.


Comment: Civil war? Comon', Sputnik. You can do better than that: Independent US peace delegation: Stop calling the Syrian conflict a 'civil war' - it is a state-sponsored war of aggression against a democratically elected gov't


Comment: Reality Check: No sarin gas used by Assad in Syria

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Mr. Potato

Russiagate skeptics rightly boast about being proven 100% correct

Caitlin Johnstone
caitlinjohnstone.com
Sat, 23 Mar 2019 00:01 UTC
Jimmy Dore
There is nothing more epic than a Youtube video by Jimmy Dore immediately after he has been proven right about something. It's thunderous. It's unequivocal. And it happens a lot.

"Now, I've gotten Russiagate right here," Dore said in a new video following revelations about the finalized Mueller report that there will be no further indictments, leaving the grand total of Americans charged with Russian conspiracy at exactly zero.

"I did that in my garage," Dore added. "Those other stations didn't do that. Not because they don't have the resources I have. They did that 'cause they didn't want to. They did that 'cause they weren't interested in the truth. They did that because what they wanted to do was fuckin' get Donald Trump so bad they were willing to turn off their critical thinking skills and just listen to their lizard brains. And they wrecked America in the process. And we stood up against it, and we got smeared for standing up against it, and we still get smeared."

Comment: See also:

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Георгиевская ленточка

Five years on and Crimeans still strongly prefer Russia over Ukraine - poll

Eric Zuesse
The Saker
Sat, 23 Mar 2019 21:14 UTC
crimea five year celebration join russia
© Sergei Malgavko/TASS
Whereas the U.S. regime and its allies demand that Crimea be returned to being ruled by the Ukrainian Government, as it had been during 1954-2014 (but Russian at all other times), all polls, ever since at least 2013 (when the U.S. Government started polling this) have shown that approximately 90% of Crimeans want to be ruled instead by Russia's Government, and the latest of these polls was issued on March 14th.

Here is the opening of the Tass report on this poll:
Overwhelming majority of Crimeans would again vote to reunite with Russia, says poll

According to the poll, Crimea's confidence in President Vladimir Putin's is higher than in the rest of Russia, viewed positively by 90% of the respondents

SIMFEROPOL, Th. 14 March 2019 /TASS/. Crimea remains positive about the peninsula's reunification with Russia and if the referendum was held today, 89% of Crimeans would support joining Russia, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center announced in Simferopol the results of a poll on Thursday.

"The attitude towards Crimea's reunification with Russia remains decisively positive. Eighty-nine percent would cast their votes to reunite with Russia if a referendum were held next Sunday, and 93% view the reunification in a positive light. The level of negative attitudes and support for an Autonomous Republic of Crimea as part of Ukraine are minimal (3% each), the data says. The survey also noted that across Russia, 85% of respondents support the reunification. ...
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