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Attention

Germany sees "huge increase" in female genital mutilation

female genital mutilation
© iegfried Modola / Reuters
Germany experienced a sharp increase in the number of women who have been subjected to genital mutilation, which is illegal in the country, an advocacy group has said. There are now more than 58,000 women affected by FGM, 10,000 more than the year before.

The estimate was published Tuesday by the women's rights organization, Terre des Femmes, who said the increase was largely due to the influx of migrants from countries where female genital mutilation (FGM) is practiced.

"Due to the arrival of migrants from countries such as Eritrea, Somalia and Iraq, we have recorded a huge increase in the number of affected women and threatened girls," said spokeswoman Charlotte Weil to DPA Tuesday, as cited by The Local.

Furthermore, there are currently more than 13,000 girls in Germany who are at risk of being forced into the procedure by their families, a 4,000 increase over last year, the group said.

"We don't know of any cases where a girl was mutilated in Germany. It either takes place on a holiday back in their homeland, or during a visit to a practitioner in a city such as Paris or Amsterdam," Weil added.

Comment: FGM needs to stop. After that - or better yet, at the same time! - male circumcision. Just because our ancestors were barbarians, doesn't mean we need to be too. And religion or culture is no excuse - just a sign of moral idiocy.

More on FGM in the news:


Black Magic

Pentagon's guinea pigs: Veterans suffering debilitating health conditions demand answers about biological and chemical weapons testing

Pentagon secret chemical weapons testing on vets
© Jae C. Hong AP
The Pentagon conducted a series of secret chemical and biological weapons tests on military personnel in the 1960s and 1970s. Veterans groups and members of Congress are demanding to know exactly what happened – and who has suffered.
The Pentagon conducted a series of secret chemical and biological weapons tests involving military personnel in the 1960s and 1970s. Veterans groups and members of Congress are demanding to know exactly what happened - and who has suffered.

The tests, known as Project 112 and SHAD (Shipboard Hazard and Defense) involved some 6,000 military personnel between 1962 and 1974, the Vietnam War era. Most served in the Navy and Army. The purpose was to identify any weaknesses to U.S. ships and troops and develop a response plan for a chemical attack.

The tests involved nerve agents like Sarin and Vx, and bacteria such as E. Coli. Sarin and Vx are both lethal. According to DOD documents, death can occur within 10 to 15 minutes of exposure to a fatal dose of Vx.

After exposure to a sufficient amount of Sarin, symptoms include, "difficulty breathing, dimness of vision, confusion, drowsiness, coma, and death."
"Veterans were exposed to some of the most extreme and hazardous agents... and they now suffer from debilitating health care conditions," said Ken Wiseman, senior vice commander of the Virginia branch of The Veterans of Foreign Wars, one of the nation's largest veterans groups, at a press conference outside the Capitol Wednesday. They want to know more about the extent to which service personnel were exposed.

Comment: The CIA's human experiments


Wall Street

Let's make things worse: Wall Street lobbying for return to Enron-era accounting rules and regulations

Wall Street
© Lucas Jackson / Reuters
Financial executives have called on lawmakers to scale back securities regulations that they argue stifle the marketing for initial public offerings.

In a hearing before a House Financial Services subcommittee, officials from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the US Chamber of Commerce, and free market advocates urged Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday to loosen rules on a wide variety of areas, according to Reuters.

For years, corporations have called for scaling back a variety of rules for public companies. The main target is the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley law, put in place following the Enron-era financial scandal, which required firms to hire an auditor to review their internal controls to insure quality accounting.


Attention

More people may be charged as female genital mutilation case against Michigan physician expands to Chicago, Los Angeles and New York

Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, female genital mutilation
A federal case against a Michigan physician who allegedly performed female genital mutilation procedures on 100 girls has expanded to individuals in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City as well as Minnesota, her attorney has revealed.

Dr. Jumana Nagarwala of Northville, Michigan, was arrested in April, along with Dr. Fakhruddin Attar and his wife, Dr. Farida Attar, owners of the Burhani Medical Clinic in Livonia, where the procedures are said to have been carried out. The Attars were released on bail last month.

In court documents filed Tuesday, Nagarwala's attorney Shannon Smith said that the federal investigation in the case has widened to targets in California, Illinois and New York, and that more people might be charged, reported the Detroit News.

Comment: For more background information on the investigation, see: Child abuse: Federal prosecutors estimate up to 100 girls had genitals cut by doctor at Michigan clinic


Hardhat

Newly discovered seam of gold on 'sacred' New Zealand mountain sparks battle between mining company and environmental activists

Karangahake Gorge New Zealand gold mine
© OXS Enterprises / YouTube
Karangahake Gorge, New Zealand
A newly-discovered seam of gold on New Zealand's North Island has sparked a bitter stand-off between a mining company and environmental activists. Locals are concerned about the impact the mining will have on their "sacred" mountain.

New Talisman Gold Mines announced that it had discovered the 8,500kg (18,739 lbs) seam at its Dubbo site in the Karangahake Gorge between the Coromandel and Kaimai mountain ranges earlier this month - and after examining samples from the site, chief executive Matthew Hill is expecting a major windfall.

"The grades that have come out show 21 grams a tonne which is in today's terms one of the top five or certainly one of the top ten in the world," he said, according to Radio NZ. The seam is roughly valued at $340mn at time of writing.

Bad Guys

Minnesota sheriff calls release of 40k mink in Minnesota 'domestic terrorism'

mink
© Christian Paoli / Global Look Press
Mink
Nearly 40,000 domesticated American mink have been released into the wild by trespassers, and now a family-owned farm in Minnesota is scrambling to gather the small, semi-aquatic mammals. Authorities have deemed the incident "a disaster."

Stearns County Sheriff Don Gudmundson of Eden Valley is calling it "domestic terrorism." The FBI has joined the investigation and have concluded that an exterior fence was dismantled in three spots by more than one person at Lang Farm, according to the St. Cloud Times.

Eden Valley is roughly 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of Minneapolis.

The crime took place between 10:30pm Sunday and 5:30am Monday. The business is saying it lost $750,000 dollars due to the released mink, according to KUSA.

The farm has 32 barns and around 38,000 mink lived in 20,000 cages, the SC Times reported.

According to the sheriff, hundreds of the furry critters have already died in the area, according to the Washington Post.

Red Flag

Pennsylvania woman kills boyfriend after spat with online reptilian cult

police car lights
A woman shot her boyfriend in the head after he asked her to kill him because he thought the leader of a cult they belonged to was a reptile posing as a human, police said.

Barbara Rogers fatally shot her boyfriend, Steven Mineo, in the forehead from point-blank range on Saturday in their apartment in Coolbaugh Township, about 100 miles north of Philadelphia, authorities said.

Rogers told officers Mineo, 32, was having "online issues" with a cult and asked her to kill him, said Lt. Steven Williams, of the Pocono Mountain Regional Police. She said her boyfriend believed the cult's leader to be a "reptilian" pretending to be a human, a police affidavit said.

Rogers, 42, told police that the group centers on "aliens and raptures." Online postings associated with the cult detail a theory that a group of alien reptiles is subverting the human race through mind control.

Bullseye

We live in a world of naked lies

lies
Lying seems to be the foundation of human intelligence and civilization. Robert Fisk writes, "We do not live in a "post-truth" world, neither in the Middle East nor in the West - nor in Russia, for that matter. We live in a world of lies. And we always have lived in a world of lies."

Anyone alive today that believes we are living in a world of truth, justice and love needs to have their heads examined. We live in a world of lies and half-truths, which are really the same or worse than outright lies, because they confuse the human mind. Lies cause unmeasurable amounts of human suffering and lead people to early graves.

Sheeple

University students' epic fail at trying to explain socialism

millennials
© DisobeyArt/Shutterstock
Millennials love socialism.

The reason is simple. They dream of a world where the government takes care of their every need, work is at a minimal, and lots of free stuff is readily handed out by the government, making their university degree, in the always useful field of gender studies, worthwhile.

Zerohedge notes that while it's clear that young people increasingly view socialism in a positive light, it's also clear that many of them are uneducated about what it entails, or the impact it's had throughout history.

Comment: Dr. Jordan Peterson has a few choice words on this subject:




Dig

Monument of Native American hero Crazy Horse slowly takes shape in the Black Hills of South Dakota

Crazy Horse
A monument honoring native American legend Crazy Horse is slowly taking shape high above the Black Hills of South Dakota.

For nearly 70 years, crews have been blasting millions of tons of rock off the mountain.

Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski began construction in 1948. His work on Mount Rushmore drew the attention of Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear who invited him to design a memorial to American Indians.

"He said my fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red man had great heroes too," Ziolkowski told CBS News' 60 Minutes.