Society's ChildS


Ambulance

Journalist Nanao Singh killed as India gripped by anti-rape and anti-molestation protests


A reporter was killed in eastern India as police fired on a violent rally which called for the arrest of a man accused of molesting a film star. In New Delhi, police used tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters angered over a recent gang-rape.

­For a second consecutive day, India was gripped by protests over widespread violence and abuse against women in the country. The rallies continued despite a government-imposed ban on gatherings of five or more people in areas of unrest.

In India's eastern state of Manipur, local reporter Nanao Singh, 26, died at a hospital after sustaining deadly wounds from police gunfire. Security forces fired tear gas and rifles to break up a strike called by a film union, India's NDTV reported. The strikers torched a police car, lit tires on fire, hurled stones at police and obstructed roads in a popular Christmas shopping area.

News of the death sparked further unrest across the state, and more vehicles were set ablaze. Authorities responded by re-imposing a just-lifted curfew.
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© Agence France-Presse/Sajjad HussainIndian police fire tear gas at demonstrators during a protest calling for better safety for women following the rape of a student last week, in front the India Gate monument in New Delhi on December 23, 2012
Demonstrators in Manipur called for the arrest of militant Livingstone Anal, who allegedly molested local film star Momoko right on the stage as she performed at a concert on Tuesday. The strike began on Saturday and resulted in a curfew being imposed until Sunday morning.

In the capital New Delhi, thousands gathered for a second day of protest after police arrested six men who brutally beat and gang-raped a 23-year-old student.

Police used tear gas, water cannons and batons to hold back the swelling crowds, which consisted mostly of students and women. Around 35 people were injured in the New Delhi protests on Sunday, including several police officers.

Heart - Black

Massive Protest in New Delhi over gang rape; reporter shot dead

Police say a TV reporter has been killed during protests over sexual attacks in India as a public outcry continues.
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Water cannon were fired on the crowds
A journalist has been killed in violent demonstrations against sex attacks in India as police failed to contain fresh violence.

A television reporter, 36, was reportedly shot dead when officers opened fire on a protest in Imphal, the capital of Manipur state, over an attack on a film actress.

The star, known as Momoko, was dragged from stage in full public view last week by an armed militant who tried to rape her. She managed to fight him off and fled.

Momoko, also a popular model, has waived her right to anonymity to make a public appeal for her attacker's arrest.

Crowds in Manipur pelted police with stones on Saturday, prompting a curfew to be imposed for parts of the state.

This was relaxed on Sunday but soon a huge crowd assembled again to confront police who opened fire in retaliation, according to police spokesman A. Singh.

A women's rights activist Bala Bedi said: "We want a strong message to be sent that perpetrators of such crimes have no place in our society."

Horse

Meat company owner sues USDA for right to slaughter horses

A New Mexico man sues the USDA, saying politics has blocked permits to slaughter horses for food.
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© Darin Oswald / Idaho Statesman/Associated Press / July 25, 2007The Bureau of Land Management uses a helicopter to herd wild horses in Idaho. The practice has drawn complaints from some animal protection groups, who are now also angered by efforts to open a slaughterhouse in New Mexico to produce horse meat.
Rick de los Santos wants to reopen an animal slaughter business that's been banned in the U.S. for years. Along the way, he's also opened a can of worms.

The Roswell, N.M., meat company owner sued the federal government last week, alleging that officials ignored his application to resume domestic horse slaughter for food because the practice had become an emotional political issue throughout the West.

After waiting a year for permits, De los Santos, 52, says he's using the courts to force the U.S. Department of Agriculture to resume inspections necessary to open what would be the nation's first new horse slaughterhouse since 2007.

"I've submitted all the paperwork and have been told all along 'Oh, it won't be long now,'" said De los Santos, who owns Valley Meat Co. "I followed all their guidelines. I put more than $100,000 in upgrades and additions on my facilities to handle equine slaughter. And then the government comes back and tells me, 'We can't give you the permits. This horse issue has turned into a political game.'

"So what else do you do? I figured it was time to go to court."

Pyramid

Mayan temple damaged in tourist 'apocalypse' frenzy

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Guatemalan natives and visitors take part in a ceremony on December 21, 2012, at the Tikal archaeological site, Peten departament, 560 kms north of Guatemala City.
Tourists flocking to Guatemala for "end of the world" parties have damaged an ancient stone temple at Tikal, the largest archeological site and urban center of the Mayan civilization.

"Sadly, many tourists climbed Temple II and caused damage," said Osvaldo Gomez, a technical adviser at the site, which is located some 550 kilometers (340 miles) north of Guatemala City.

"We are fine with the celebration, but (the tourists) should be more aware because this is a (UNESCO) World Heritage Site," he told local media.

Gomez did not specify what was done, although he did say it was forbidden to climb the stairs at the site and indicated that the damage was irreparable.

Temple II, which is about 38 meters (125 feet) high and faces the central Tikal plaza, is one of the site's best known structures.

Sherlock

Update: Motive sought in Pennsylvania slayings of 3; gunman killed

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© The Associated Press/Altoona Mirror, J.D. CavrichLocal law enforcement block off road along Rt. 22 near the Canoe Creek State Park, Pa. while investigating a shooting on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012.
The shooting of a man who went on a rampage in central Pennsylvania, killing two neighbors and a third person before wounding three state troopers during a gunbattle, was a justifiable homicide, authorities ruled Saturday.

Investigators are still trying to figure out what set off the gunman, identified as 44-year-old Jeffrey Lee Michael of Geeseytown, a tiny village about 70 miles west of Harrisburg, the state capital.

''We're not sure of the motive. We'll be trying to find out by talking to people who knew him, see if he gave any indication,'' Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio said of the violence, which began Friday morning in Frankstown Township and spanned five separate crime scenes across a 1.5-mile area.

Authorities said Michael knew his two males victims, who were related to each other, but investigators do not yet know whether he knew the third, a woman who was slain while decorating a church hall for a children's Christmas party.

Michael fired into the Juniata Valley Gospel Church from outside, then entered the church and fired again, killing Kimberly Scott, 58, of Duncansville, State Police Sgt. Gregory Bernard said.

Stock Down

Christmas food handouts double as millions of British subjects face 'financial precipice'

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Food banks have sprung up all over the UK to stave off hunger, but for how much longer will Western civilization last?
Debt-ridden households could kill off economic recovery when interest rate rises, says Resolution Foundation

The number of people who will turn to food banks for sustenance is expected to double this Christmas, as a new report warns that millions more families face a financial "precipice" due to high personal debts, flatlining wages and future interest rate rises.

With three new food banks opening every week in the UK, the charity that oversees Britain's 292 emergency outlets, the Trussell Trust, says it expects to feed 15,000 people over the Christmas fortnight alone, almost double the number last Christmas.

At the same time, a study published by the Resolution Foundation, an independent thinktank, says millions of households with low to middle incomes will be pushed close to the edge if they are unable to reduce their debts, including mortgages, before the cost of borrowing returns to more normal levels.

Bell

I quit murdering people on November 17, 2012 (for now)

drone attacks Pakistan
I lost my job (outsourced) on November 16th.

Since I no longer pay taxes (since I'm unemployed - and no I'm not collecting unemployment), my tax dollars are no longer going to a government intent on killing people who look (or think) a little different than us.

That is the one thing I take comfort in since losing my job of 27 years.

I'm no longer drone bombing wedding parties in Pakistan.

I'm no longer killing the Afghani people.

I quit pointing guns at Iran.

I no longer give out $55 billion in foreign aid which goes to rogue governments who torture, imprison and murder their people.

I no longer sell or give military weapons to foreign nations who in turn suppress their people for U.S. weapons manufacture's financial gain.

I have quit sanctioning Iran and causing untold harm to innocent Iranians who never did a thing to me.

I no longer send Israel 3.2 billion dollars to kill Palestinians.

Pistol

Gun frenzy: Photos show how quickly stores across the nation are selling out: "Lines out the door"

After nationwide calls to ban assault rifles and high-capacity magazines following the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Americans concerned about the government's coming move to restrict the sale, the transfer, the importation and the possession of firearms deemed too dangerous to be in the hands of private citizens are cleaning out gun stores from coast to coast.

While some retailers have made the decision to suspend sales and stop selling certain firearms altogether, others are seeing sales skyrocket to never before seen levels. Parking lots are packed and hopeful shoppers are waiting hours for their chance to get their hands on weapons, parts and magazines that may soon be banned under Federal mandates.

The following photos taken over a three day period at a local gun store give us a glimpse of just how fast gun stores are clearing out their inventory. According to the shop owner who took these pictures, their store was selling upwards of one thousand guns per day.

Here's how the store looked on the Sunday before the frenzy:
Guns_1
© The Firearm Blog
On Monday:
Guns_2
© The Firearm Blog

Handcuffs

Breaking the hold of corporate welfare on America's incarceration industry

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© Reuters/Mike Segar
'An incarceration program is not an employment program,' said New York's incoming governor, Andrew Cuomo, at his 2011 State of the Union speech.
The US department of justice released a report this week (pdf) showing that 26 states have recorded decreases in their prison populations during 2011. California boasted the biggest decline of over 15,000 prisoners and several other states including New York and Michigan reported drops of around 1,000 prisoners each. This is the third consecutive year that the population has declined, and as a result, at least six states have closed or are attempting to close approximately 20 prisons.

This should be welcomed as good news considering that pretty much every state has been going over its own version of a fiscal cliff for the last several years and out-of-control corrections budgets play a significant part in that. But sadly, because incarceration has become a virtual jobs program in many states and because certain corporations are profiting handsomely from the incarceration binge that has been in place for the past few decades, the reduction in prison populations and prison closures is being met with huge resistance.

Road Cone

Post Mayan apocalypse blues: After mayan apocalypse failure, believers may suffer

 Tzolk'in
© Andrea Dailey at Longwood UniversityThis silkscreen shows dates in the Maya Long Count Calendar and a sacred calendar called the Tzolk'in. The silkscreen is based on carvings found in Quirigua, Guatemala.

You might expect the world not ending to be a cause for celebration. But for believers in doomsdays like yesterday's supposed Mayan apocalypse, the continued existence of the planet can be quite traumatic.

Yesterday (Dec. 21) was widely rumored online to be the end of the world, a misunderstanding of a calendar used by the ancient Maya people. Although the Maya made no doomsday predictions, some modern individuals and groups claimed they had foretold the end on Dec. 21, 2012.

Because the doomsday predictions were largely grassroots and spread online, the fallout from their failure is likely to be more varied than in doomsdays past, said Stephen Kent, a University of Alberta sociologist. Most of the time, doomsday predictions are made by charismatic leaders, often in cultlike settings.

This silkscreen shows dates in the Maya Long Count Calendar and a sacred calendar called the Tzolk'in. The silkscreen is based on carvings found in Quirigua, Guatemala.