Society's ChildS

Sheriff

More Than 900 Police Make Early Morning Raids Across Canada in Huge Criminal Probe


The Canadian Press
Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
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© Brett Gundlock / Globe and Mail
Toronto police say they'll release details this afternoon of a massive investigation that resulted in raids this morning in Ontario, Alberta and B.C.

Early today, more than 900 officers executed 67 search warrants simultaneously across Ontario and in Western Canada.

Police say nearly 400 tactical officers were involved in the raids in Toronto, across Ontario in London, Hamilton, Durham Region, York Region, Peel Region, Windsor and Ottawa, and in Calgary and Surrey, B.C.

Investigators say Project Marvel involved criminal organization offences, attempted murder, firearms trafficking and importation, drug trafficking, robbery, shootings, prostitution and other crimes.

Police say the probe initially involved investigators from Toronto, London, Ont., Ontario's Waterloo Region and Ontario Provincial Police.
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Airplane

Please Can We Have Our Ball Back? Barack Obama demands Iran return downed US drone


The Telegraph
Tue, 13 Dec 2011 03:36 UTC
drone
© unknown
President Barack Obama on Monday acknowledged a US drone was in Iranian hands for the first time and said the United States has asked Tehran to return the sophisticated spy aircraft.

"We've asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond," Obama said at a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

It was the first open confirmation by the Obama administration that Iran was in possession of the drone, which Tehran says it brought down as the plane was flying over the country's territory.

Obama, however, shed no further light on the plane's mission or why it failed to return to a base in Afghanistan.

"With respect to the drone inside of Iran, I'm not going to comment on intelligence matters that are classified," he said.

The bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel, designed to evade radar for surveillance flights, was on a CIA mission when it went missing, US officials, speaking anonymously, have said previously.

Comment: Quite laughable behaviour that sounds like a childhood playground request to ask for their ball back from a neighbour or a murderer asking for his knife back left at the crime scene.

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Handcuffs

US, California: 5-Year-Old Handcuffed, Charged With Battery On Officer

Dave Manoucheri
KCRA 3 News
Wed, 23 Nov 2011 04:59 UTC
Boy Cuffed With Zip Ties On Hands, Feet


Earlier this year, a Stockton student was handcuffed with zip ties on his hands and feet, forced to go to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and was charged with battery on a police officer. That student was 5 years old.

Michael Davis is diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD. His mother says it has led to fights at school. But when the school district said it had a plan to change Michael's behavior, his mother says things went wrong.

"Michael is energetic," Thelma Gray said. "He is one big ball of energy."

Gray calls Michael a comedian. She says his biggest problem is his ADHD stops him from thinking before he acts or speaks.

"He's very loving," Gray said. "He's a good kid and he's not the discipline problem that he was made out to be."

Those discipline problems include fights with other students, even throwing a chair.
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Passport

U.S. Proposes Unmanned Border Entry With Mexico


Fox News
Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:22 UTC
Oct. 31, 2011: The Rio Grande river flows past Big Bend National Park, Texas.
Oct. 31, 2011: The Rio Grande river flows past Big Bend National Park, Texas.

Big Bend National Park, Texas - The bloody drug war in Mexico shows no sign of relenting. Neither do calls for tighter border security amid rising fears of spillover violence.

This hardly seems a time the U.S. would be willing to allow people to cross the border legally from Mexico without a customs officer in sight. But in this rugged, remote West Texas terrain where wading across the shallow Rio Grande undetected is all too easy, federal authorities are touting a proposal to open an unmanned port of entry as a security upgrade.

By the spring, kiosks could open up in Big Bend National Park allowing people from the tiny Mexican town of Boquillas del Carmen to scan their identity documents and talk to a customs officer in another location, at least 100 miles away.

The crossing, which would be the nation's first such port of entry with Mexico, has sparked opposition from some who see it as counter intuitive in these days of heightened border security. Supporters say the crossing would give the isolated Mexican town long-awaited access to U.S. commerce, improve conservation efforts and be an unlikely target for criminal operations.

Comment: A little odd! Why now? What's up?

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Gingerbread

Butter Shortage in Norway: Bids to Roughly $465 Per Pound


Agence France Presse
Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:58 UTC
butter
© n/a
An acute butter shortage in Norway, one of the world's richest countries, has left people worrying how to bake their Christmas goodies with store shelves emptied and prices through the roof.

The shortfall, expected to last into January, amounts to between 500 and 1,000 tonnes, said Tine, Norway's main dairy company, while online sellers have offered 500-gramme packs for up to 350 euros ($465).

The dire shortage poses a serious challenge for Norwegians who are trying to finish their traditional Christmas baking -- a task which usually requires them to make at least seven different kinds of biscuits.

The shortfall has been blamed on a rainy summer that cut into feed production and therefore dairy output, but also the ballooning popularity of a low-carbohydrate, fat-rich diet that has sent demand for butter soaring.

"Compared to 2010, demand has grown by as much as 30 percent," Tine spokesman Lars Galtung told AFP.

Last Friday, customs officers stopped a Russian at the Norwegian-Swedish border and seized 90 kilos (198 pounds) of butter stashed in his car.
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X

Canada Bans Burqas and Niqab Veils at Citizenship Ceremonies

Paul Vieira
The National Post
Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:54 UTC
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© Christopher Furlong/Getty Images/Postmedia NewsJason Kenney, right, said on Monday that Niqabs, such as the one left, could not be worn during Canadian citizenship ceremonies.
Muslim women will be banned from wearing face coverings such as burka and niqab veils when swearing the oath of citizenship, under new rules announced Monday.

"Starting today, any individual will have to show his or her face when taking the oath of citizenship," Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced in Montreal.

"Allowing a group to hide their faces while they are becoming members of our community is counter to Canada's commitment to openness, equality and social cohesion," he explained.

Currently at airports, veiled Muslim women may opt to show their face only to a female security screener. They may also vote in elections without showing their face. But Kenney said from today all women must remove any face coverings before crossing the final hurdle in becoming a Canadian citizen.
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Eye 2

US: Child sex abuse scandal rocks Orthodox Jewish community after 85 arrested


The Daily Mail
Sun, 11 Dec 2011 14:58 UTC
child abuse orthodox jews
© ReutersHushed up: The Orthodox Jewish community has been reluctant to turn suspected child abusers over to authorities in the past but an initiative in Brooklyn aims to help victims come forward
117 alleged victims spoke out from tight-knit religious society

An Orthodox Jewish community has had to face up to claims of child sex abuse after 83 men and two women were arrested.

An initiative was set up to encourage victims to come forward despite pressure from the close-knit religious society to hush up the crimes.

Some 117 male and female victims have approached authorities in Brooklyn, New York since 2006.

According to the New York Post, one suspect Andrew Goodman, 27, worked with Jewish charities involving vulnerable young people and the disabled.

He was charged with sexually abusing two Orthodox boys at his home in the Flatbush neighbourhood last September.

One child was abused between the ages of 11 and 15, the other from 13 until he was 16 years old.

Goodman reportedly filmed sex acts with the boys on a webcam after plying them with alcohol in his bedroom and making them watch child porn.

Neighbours had filmed Goodman sneaking the children into the home he shared with his parents and sister between 3am and 5.30am.
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V

Occupy protesters halt work at some West Coast ports


CBC News
Mon, 12 Dec 2011 06:55 UTC
Occupy Vancouver to join West Coast protests
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© Kimberly White/GettyProtesters attempt to block an entrance to the Port of Oakland on Dec. 12, 2011 in Oakland, California.

Hundreds of Wall Street protesters blocked gates at some of the West Coast's busiest ports on Monday, causing the partial shutdown of several in a day of demonstrations they hope will cut into the profits of the corporations that run the docks.

The closures affected some of the terminals at the ports in Oakland, Calif., Portland, Ore., and Longview, Wash., though it was not immediately clear the how much the shutdowns would affect operations and what the economic loss would be.

From California to as far away as Vancouver, British Columbia, protesters picketed gates at the ports, causing longer wait times for trucks. There were no major clashes with police.

In Oakland, shipping companies and the longshoremen's union agreed to send home about 150 workers, essentially halting operations at two terminals. In Portland, authorities shuttered two terminals after arresting two people who were carrying weapons.

And in Longview, Wash., workers were sent home out of concerns for their "health and safety."
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House

Canada, British Columbia: Extra Olympic Village Costs Have Tenants Fearing Eviction

Jordana Divon
The Daily Brew
Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
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© The Canadian Press / Don DentonThe square in the former Olympic Village housing development, now called The Village on False Creek in downtown Vancouver
When Ritta Mikkonen learned she and her husband had qualified for a one-bedroom, $400-per-month apartment in Vancouver's Olympic Village, the formerly homeless couple rejoiced.

"I was so overwhelmed I started crying," Mikkonen told the Canadian Press. "I felt like we won the lottery."

Mikkonen had worked as a forestry engineer until a car accident prematurely ended her career seven years ago. Her husband, a former RCMP officer, is also unable to work due to blood clots in his legs. For over a year the couple had been unable to afford housing in Vancouver's expensive rental market. That changed in 2010, when the government pledged to convert a number of Olympic Village units once occupied by the athletes into low-income housing.

Though the number of units made available was slashed to recoup city costs, the couple managed to secure one of the rare vacant apartments just over a year ago. But now the Mikkonens fear that unexpectedly high utility bills may result in their eviction from the property.
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Dollar

Swiss government is preparing for a collapse of the euro

Wolf Richter
Testosteronepit.com
Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:07 UTC
Merkozy
© Twitpic
The Swiss government is preparing for a collapse of the euro, according to Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf. She told parliament that a work group was studying the imposition of capital controls and negative interest rates to protect Switzerland from the capital flight that a euro collapse would engender (Handelsblatt). A tidal wave of euros would drive up the Swiss franc, devastate Switzerland's export economy, and devalue its vast wealth invested in other countries. Already in August, the Swiss National Bank instituted a currency peg and swore to defend it by acquiring "unlimited" amounts of euros, a risky strategy if the euro were to collapse (for the debacle leading up to the peg, read... Swiss Franc Wreaks Havoc In Switzerland).
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