Society's Child

'Tactical Contact': London police have new strategy to tackle moped criminals

Lizzie Dearden
Independent
Fri, 23 Nov 2018 17:48 UTC

Police have released dramatic footage showing officers ramming cars into criminals riding mopeds and sending them tumbling into the road.

Scotland Yard said the newly adopted "tactical contact" strategy is in widespread use in London after a rise in robberies, phone snatches and acid attacks using scooters.

Moped-enabled crime has plummeted by 36 per cent in the capital year-on-year since the methods were rolled out.

Officers feared being jailed or sacked if moped riders were injured during high-speed chases in the past, while criminals have taken their helmets off in the belief it will prevent a pursuit.

U.S. judge oversees first federal case in Monsanto weed-killer litigation

Tina Bellon
Reuters
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 04:34 UTC

A U.S. judge overseeing the federal litigation against Bayer AG's (BAYGn.DE) Monsanto unit over glyphosate-based weed-killers allegedly causing cancer on Tuesday selected the first case to be tried in federal court in February 2019.

U.S. District Judge Vince Chaabria in San Francisco in an order said the case of California resident Edwin Hardeman will be the first out of more than 620 cases pending in the federal litigation to go to a jury.

Hardeman's case will mark the second trial in the U.S. litigation over glyphosate, after a California state court jury in August awarded $289 million to a school groundskeeper, finding Monsanto liable for the man's cancer.

Damages were later reduced to $78 million, and Bayer, which denies the allegations, said it would appeal the decision.

US bombs continue to kill innocent lives in Laos 50 years after Vietnam War

Padraic Convery
Al Jazeera News
Wed, 21 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC

© Padraic Convery/Al Jazeera
A HALO Trust UXO clearance team member works a hillside, metre by metre. The forested gully in the background is feared to contain a high concentration of UXO.

US dropped two million tonnes of bombs on Laos at height of Vietnam War. Why are cluster munitions still killing?

This year's Thanksgiving celebration marks 50 years since the American military embarked on the biggest bombing campaign in history, decimating the small Southeast Asian country of Laos by dropping more than two million tonnes of bombs on it at the height of the Vietnam War.

Half a century on, innocent lives are still being lost as the country struggles with the leftovers of the conflict.

On Thanksgiving Day in November 1968, the United States escalated its war against North Vietnam in Laos.

Then-US President Lyndon B Johnson had ordered traditional turkey dinners to be helicoptered in to US troops who were secretly deployed in the quiet, landlocked country to sever the North Vietnamese supply lines that ran through the east.

Profiting off the opioid crisis: Drug company hikes the price of overdose treatment medication by 600%

Evie Fordham
Daily Caller
Sat, 24 Nov 2018 17:16 UTC

© Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Justin, a participant in a class on opioid overdose prevention held by non-profit Positive Health Project, practices with Naloxone on teacher Kieth Allen on August 9, 2017 in New York City.

A U.S. drug company hiked the price of its opioid overdose treatment over 600 percent since going to market in 2014, but the number of prescriptions filled for the drug skyrocketed.

Now the link between the drug's price jump and drugmaker Kaleo's ability to rake in cash from Medicare and other entities has been detailed in a Senate subcommittee investigation released Sunday evening.

Virginia-based Kaleo makes Evzio, an opioid overdose reversal drug containing naloxone. Naloxone is used in several kinds of opioid overdose treatments.

But Evzio is different for two reasons. The first is that the injector is extremely easy to use. It even talks users through the injection process. The second is because of how much it costs - as of November, two injectors of Evzio cost approximately $4,100, according to the subcommittee report.

Comment: Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep.Ro Khanna have introduced a bill to lower drug prices:

The Prescription Drug Price Relief Act would force drug companies to price medicines equal to or below the median price of the same drug in five countries: Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan. This legislation would lower drug prices for all Americans. In addition, regardless of the price in other countries, anybody who feels that their medicine is excessively priced can petition the government to lower the price. Most importantly, if companies refuse to lower their prices, then the federal government would allow generic competition in order to lower the price.

Suicide bombers attack Chinese consulate in Pakistan's Karachi

CNBC
Fri, 23 Nov 2018 16:04 UTC

© Asif Hassan | AFP | Getty Images
Pakistani security personnel stand next to burned out vehicles in front of the Chinese consulate after an attack in Karachi on November 23, 2018.

Three suicide bombers attacked the Chinese consulate in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi early on Friday, but were killed before entering the building, the city's police chief said.

At least two police officers were killed in the attack, which was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), an ethnic insurgent group that said it opposes Chinese exploitation of natural resources in the country's southwest. It also describes itself as the Balochistan Liberation Army.

All Chinese staff at the consulate are safe, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered an inquiry into the incident.

The attack was the most prominent attack in Pakistan against neighbor and ally China, which is pouring billions of dollars into the country as part of its vast Belt and Road initiative.

A blast and gunshots rang out early on Friday in the affluent Clifton neighborhood, where the consulate is located, and a plume of smoke rose over the area after the explosion.

Comment: Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the assault:

"The failed attack against the Chinese consulate was clearly a reaction to the unprecedented trade agreements that resulted from our trip to China," Khan said on Twitter. "The attack was intended to scare Chinese investors and undermine CPEC. These terrorists will not succeed."

Police are linking the attack to India:

Pakistani police say they are investigating whether a Baluch separatist commander suspected of orchestrating a suicide attack against the Chinese Consulate in Karachi is sheltering in India.
...
But two police and two Pakistani visa applicants were also killed in the violence, which was claimed by a Pakistan-based separatist militant group known as the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).
...
On November 24, Pakistani counterterrorism police officer Umar Khitab said the attackers used a foreign-made C-4 plastic explosive and suggested that India was involved.

Khitab also suggested that India was involved, saying that the BLA was backed by "the 'enemy country'," a reference to India.

Khitab said the authorities believed Baluch separatist commander Aslam Achhu masterminded the attack and that he may now be in India.

The Chinese consulate wasn't the only place targeted on Friday. Hours after the failed suicide bombing, another explosion took the lives of over 30 people and injured 50 more in a market in Kalaya.

Three children and 28 mourners are believed to be among the 31 victims, according to local Geo TV. The network says that another 33 people were injured in the suicide blast on Friday after the attacker went to the market on a motorcycle.

Meanwhile, AFP citing local officials gives a different account, saying that the improvised explosive device was hidden in a carton of vegetables. The agency also put the death toll at 31 and said that 50 more people were injured, with 17 in critical condition.

The attack on a market was labeled "terrorist" by Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari, who also blamed US failures in neighboring Afghanistan for the blast.

The conflicting report says the attacker drove a motorcycle into the market before detonating the explosive. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the second blast, saying it was a suicide bomber, not an IED. The death toll is now listed as 57, with 75 wounded.

See also:

Alabama police admit to killing the wrong suspect in mall shooting case

Carol Robinson
AL.com
Fri, 23 Nov 2018 16:18 UTC

A 21-year-old man shot and killed by Hoover police at the Riverchase Galleria Thanksgiving night likely did not fire the rounds that wounded an 18-year-old and 12-year-old, police announced Friday night.

Earlier Friday, the Jefferson County Coroner's Office identified the slain man as Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. Hoover police Capt. Gregg Rector while the department does not typically issue media updates during an internal investigation, there was information discussed with local media Friday night that merits update and clarification.

Preliminary information gathered Friday night, Rector said, indicated that two individuals were involved in a physical altercation that led to a 21-year-old male shooting an 18-year-old male multiple times. The 18-year-old victim was indeed shot and transported to UAB Hospital, where he remained on Friday.

Meth addict drops her baby on his head while running through traffic

WESH 2
Fri, 23 Nov 2018 16:12 UTC

Deputies in Marion County say a woman dropped an infant on his head, fracturing his skull, when they tried to get her to stop running in and out of traffic Monday.

Kayla Morgan, 23, is charged with aggravated child abuse and resisting.

Officials with the Marion County Sheriff's Office said they were called to the area of Highway 315 and Highway 40 after receiving reports that a woman holding an infant was running in and out of traffic.

When deputies approached Morgan they said she purposely dropped the baby on the ground head-first. The infant suffered a fractured skull from the incident, deputies said.

After she was taken into custody, Morgan was treated at a hospital.

Norway refuses to disclose details of frigate collision or the role of US officer on board

Sputnik
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 15:20 UTC

A US officer had a central role on the bridge ahead of the collision, which may set the Norwegian Navy back its entire annual budget; however, he had no formal responsibility, the national broadcaster NRK reported.

The US officer was receiving training from his Norwegian colleagues when the frigate KMN Helge Ingstad collided in the early hours of November 8 with the fully loaded oil tanker Sola ST off Norway's west coast. The frigate was under NATO command at the time, returning to its home port in Bergen after participating in NATO's huge Trident Juncture exercise off Trondheim, national broadcaster NRK reported.

When the collision occurred shortly after 4 a.m., there were seven people on the bridge of the frigate, which is usually manned by only five people. The US officer was being trained to become a duty chief, which was confirmed by NATO. Based on its sources, NRK claimed that the US officer had a central function on the bridge ahead of the collision, but no formal responsibility.

Comment: NATO drills fallout: Norwegian frigate almost entirely underwater after oil tanker collision

Stupidity of most mainstream media coverage has me defending Russians... again!

Simon Rite
RT
Sat, 24 Nov 2018 15:40 UTC

I often find myself writing in defense of Russia and Russians, then vowing to keep away from the subject for a while. It never lasts, because some coverage is so idiotic, I can't help but start angrily bashing away at my keyboard.

I've noticed how the media's framing of Russia affects the way it's viewed for some years, although obviously it's more pronounced now post-Skripal. I personally have no desire to defend anything governments do or say to each other, but there is a fallout which colors how people and cultures are seen, and that's what really annoys me. Russians are not all spies, oligarchs or any of the other cliches.

Shortly after I moved to Moscow in 2006 I came home for Christmas, a bag packed with decoratively-wrapped bottles of vodka and matryoshka dolls, fresh from the duty free to hand out as presents.

Trump may close US-Mexico border if rush of illegal migrants threatens loss of control

Neil Munro
Breitbart
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC

© AFP/File Alfredo ESTRELLA
Trump’s threat to close the border also comes amid reports that White House officials may pressure Mexico to accept the temporary return of asylum-seeking migrants pending the courtroom resolution of their pleas for asylum in the United States.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he may close the U.S.-Mexico border if the rush of illegal migrants pushes border management out of control.

"If we find that it's uncontrollable, Josh, if we find that it's - it gets to a level where we are going to lose control or where people are going to start getting hurt, we will close entry into the country for a period of time until we can get it under control," Trump told a gaggle of reporters in Palm Beach, Florida, according to a transcript prepared by Grabien.com.

Comment: Reports from Mexico indicate that could well be the case:

Mexican journalist Alex Backman has released a stunning expose on the caravan from Central America. He says the migrants are robbing and stealing in Mexico. They carjack cars containing just one occupant. There are even accounts of rapes. Many of the migrants will not let people film them. If they see someone filming them through a car window, they stop the car and demand the phone. Backman suspects the reason they don't want to be filmed is because they have criminal histories.

"If you don't have borders, you don't have a country," he said. "Democrats want open borders."

Trump's statement comes two days after a San Francisco judge temporarily shut down his November 9 border reforms at the request of a group of ACLU lawyers. The reform denies illegal migrants the right to ask for a full asylum and the right to live in the United States.

Trump's threat to close the border also comes amid reports that White House officials may pressure Mexico to accept the temporary return of asylum-seeking migrants pending the courtroom resolution of their pleas for asylum in the United States.

Ehret an idiot beyond belief

smertzasmert

.. .. are wheel barrel sales are up too?

Jibrish

I doubt any pureblood would object to the "vaccinated" being masked, but if they (the "vaccinated") still feel unsafe then maybe their problem is...

HashAttack2

I said this would happen...now they are looking to mandate companies with less that 100 employees...shits getting real, people[Link]

Bezel Bub

it's all a lie ! :O

cracker

Society's Child

'Tactical Contact': London police have new strategy to tackle moped criminals

U.S. judge oversees first federal case in Monsanto weed-killer litigation

US bombs continue to kill innocent lives in Laos 50 years after Vietnam War

Profiting off the opioid crisis: Drug company hikes the price of overdose treatment medication by 600%

Suicide bombers attack Chinese consulate in Pakistan's Karachi

Alabama police admit to killing the wrong suspect in mall shooting case

Meth addict drops her baby on his head while running through traffic

Norway refuses to disclose details of frigate collision or the role of US officer on board

Stupidity of most mainstream media coverage has me defending Russians... again!

Trump may close US-Mexico border if rush of illegal migrants threatens loss of control

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