Society's ChildS


Smoking

Retired Yard detective warns fake cigarettes in Scotland being used to fund organized crime worldwide


The Herald
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 17:00 UTC
Cigarettes
© heraldscotland.com
Fake cigarettes sold over counters in Scotland are being used to fuel organised crime across the globe, a former top detective has warned.

Illicit cigarettes currently make up around 13 per cent of the market in the UK, HMRC figures show - a six-year high.

And retired Scotland Yard DCI Will O'Reilly said there were "a number of consequences" to the illicit trade, which often operates secretly within otherwise legitimate businesses. As well as corner shops and sellers based in pubs, Facebook is being widely utilised to flog illegal tobacco shipped in from Poland and beyond.

Mr O'Reilly said the black market trade cost taxpayers billions in lost revenue, adding: "That shortfall has got to be made up somehow. And that costs every one of us."

HMRC estimates the illicit tobacco trade costs the taxpayer £2.4 billion every year. But lost cash isn't the only drawback, according to Mr O'Reilly.

Comment: This is such a joke. The ONLY reason there is an illegal trade in tobacco products worldwide is because Tobacco Control has managed to convince government around the world that they can make huge money by taxing the hell out of tobacco products, and justifying it in the name of good public health. People will not pay these exorbitant taxes, so the black market in cigarettes has boomed around the world. Want to stop it dead? Take off the exorbitant tobacco taxes and the problem will disappear overnight.

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Attention

Mentally disturbed defendant 'repeatedly slits his own throat' in Wales courtroom


RT
Wed, 11 Jan 2017 16:55 UTC
ambulence
© Paul Hackett / Reuters
A man who was waiting to be sentenced for a sex attack at Haverfordwest Magistrates' Court in Wales started "slashing" his own throat while standing in the dock on Wednesday.

Lukasz Robert Pawlowski, 33, had previously pleaded guilty to sexual assault by grabbing and kissing a shop assistant, according to the BBC.

Pawlowski was appearing for sentencing on Wednesday morning when the incident happened.

He has been taken to a Swansea hospital by air ambulance. His condition is not known.

A Western Telegraph reporter, who was at court and saw the incident, told the newspaper: "He came into the dock, then asked to go to the toilet.

"He went out, came back, muttered something, and then started slashing at his throat.

"The courtroom was then cleared out, and first aid was given by paramedics in the dock.
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Black Magic

Fevered Ghana man beheads 60-year-old girlfriend

Stephen Kwabena
3 News
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 16:44 UTC
Ghana police logo
© Ghana Police Service
A 32-year old man said to be suffering from high-fever has allegedly beheaded his girlfriend under a mysterious circumstance at a village near Kasseh in the Ada District of the Greater Accra Region.

Kisseh Adowah who is in the grips of the Kasseh Police, is believed to have decapitated the head of Korkor Sarah Mormorbi Wormenor, said to be in her 60s, in a bush just about 100 metres from the outskirts of Bedeku-kpornya.

The head of the deceased is yet to be found, the Police told 3News, adding the body is being prepared for transportation to the Accra Police Hospital for autopsy.

"We could not find the head so we are sending the body to the Police Hospital. We have also arrested the alleged boyfriend who is also living in the same village," Ada District Police Commander, Supt. Faustina Agyeiwaa Koduah Andoh-Kwofie - Adda confirmed to 3News.

Adowah was said to have gone for Wormenor from her home Sunday night at about 10:30pm to his house where the two usually spend the night.

Relatives of the deceased told our correspondent that they became alarmed Monday morning when the woman did not return by 10:00am. She usually returns home at dawn, they said.
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Dollar

The rise of the cashless city

Adam Forrest
The Guardian
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 15:39 UTC
homeless cashless society
© Jack Taylor/Getty ImagesA two-tier city: as many go increasingly cash-free, others are left behind.

Cities from Sweden to India are pushing for a totally cash-free society. But as more shops and transport networks insist on electronic payments, where does this leave the smallest traders and poorest inhabitants?

Scrolling through my online bank statements at Christmas, I was surprised to find I had not removed cash from an ATM for well over four months. Thanks to the ubiquity of electronic payment systems, it has become increasingly easy to glide around London to a chorus of approving bleeps.

As more shops and transport networks adapt to contactless card and touch-and-go mobile technology, many major cities around the world are in the process of relegating cash to second-class status. Some London shops and cafes are now, like the capital's buses, simply refusing to handle notes or coins.

Comment: Moving ever so closer to a cashless society.

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Ambulance

Pakistani man threw hand grenade at 2 sisters after family rejected marriage proposals


RT
Wed, 11 Jan 2017 15:28 UTC
hand holding grenade
© Goran Tomasevic / Reuters
Two teenage sisters were seriously injured in Pakistan when a rejected suitor threw a hand grenade at the pair, according to regional media.

The attacker, identified as Sajid, hurled the grenade at Samreen, 19, and Sanam, 17, while the siblings were asleep on the roof of their small house in Koohi Goth on Tuesday, reports Samaa TV.

However, Pakistan Today says the attack took place at a private girls' college in Daska.

The girls were critically injured in the attack and taken to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for treatment. Doctors have since said they are out of danger, according to The Indian Express.

The man had previously asked the girls to marry him, but was rejected, according to the girls' father, Qadir Buksh.

"Sajid has been interested in getting married with one of my daughters, which we already refused," Buksh said in a statement to police.

This was not the first time Sajid had threatened the life of the family, according to Buksh. Police said the attacker is a "member of a gang" and a "drug addict."
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Smoking

Russian Health Ministry influenced by US propaganda, proposes blanket ban on sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 2014

Tom Balmforth
RFE/RL
Tue, 10 Jan 2017 15:12 UTC
smoking
© Reuters
Since 2013, Russia has banned smoking in restaurants and taken serious measures to reduce its huge number of smokers. Now, drastic proposals aired this week could put Russia on course to try and eradicate the habit altogether.

The Russian Health Ministry on January 9 proposed a blanket ban on the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 2014 -- even when they reach the current legal smoking age of 18.

The ban would thus take effect in distant 2033, when President Vladimir Putin, at the age of 81, could hypothetically be serving a fifth term in the Kremlin.

The revolutionary proposal was contained in the draft Antitobacco Concept signed by Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova and leaked to the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia on January 9. The document. which outlines government efforts to curb smoking from 2017 to 2022, still requires the approval of the government and has been circulated to 18 other government agencies for review.

Other proposals in the document include: banning smoking in cars in the presence of children; allowing employers to make employees work additional time to make up for cigarette breaks; and placing health warnings on individual cigarettes.

Comment: A comprehensive review of the many health benefits of smoking Tobacco

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Propaganda

Fake news CBS caught twisting reality to stoke racial tensions

Claire Bernish
Free Thought Project
Tue, 10 Jan 2017 14:27 UTC
cbs fake news racial tensions
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Attention

Dylann Roof gets Death penalty as sentencing verdict reached


RT
Wed, 11 Jan 2017 22:06 UTC
Dylann Roof
© Charleston County Sheriff's Office / ReutersDylann Roof
Dylann Roof will be put to death after a federal jury of his peers deliberated on the sentencing for three hours, according to multiple media reports. Roof was found guilty in the murder of nine people praying at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 2015.

WCNC reports Roof, who was 18 at the time of the murders, showed no response to the reading of the verdict.

He will be the first person on death row for federal hate crimes.

The formal sentencing hearing will take place Wednesday at 9:30am, according to WLTX's Janae Frazier, who then subsequently reported that the judge would not grant Roof's request for new lawyers for a motion for a new trial. The judge said Roof needed to show how his lawyers did not perform admirably by the time of the sentencing hearing.

Comment: See also: 'Nothing wrong with me': Remorseless Dylann Roof makes no apology in address to jury


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Wolf

Siberian 'werewolf' serial killer confesses to murdering 59 more women


RT
Wed, 11 Jan 2017 01:01 UTC
Mikhail Popkov
© Wikipedia
A former policeman-turned-serial killer from the East Siberian city of Angarsk, Mikhail Popkov, has confessed to killing at least 59 more women, two years after he was given a life sentence for 22 murders, the city's Investigative Committee said.

Popkov has for now been charged with 47 of the new murders he has confessed to, Angarsk Investigative Committee told RIA Novosti.

The total number of his victims may now go to as high as 81, putting the 52-year-old first on the Russia's serial killers list, ahead of the notorious Andrey Chikatilo, who was executed in 1994 for killing at least 52 people.

According to conflicting reports, Popkov committed the murders in the period from 1994 to the early 2000s or alternatively to 2012, until the very moment he was arrested. Popkov quit the police in 1998, reportedly surprising his colleagues at the time, as he had career prospects. It was later revealed that he even assisted several investigations of his own murders.
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Bullseye

Cop arrested for 'bestiality' video of himself raping small dog posting it online using police PC

John Vibes
Free Thought Project
Tue, 10 Jan 2017 21:46 UTC
police officer sex dog
Harris County Sheriff's deputy Andrew C. Sustaita Jr. is due in court this week to face some truly disturbing charges. The six-year veteran of the Harris County Sheriff's Office is accused of raping a small dog, taking the video, and then posting the video online with a police department computer. So far, the only crime that Sustaita is charged with is obscenity, a felony. However, it is possible that he will receive more charges after appearing in court.

Surprisingly, Sustaita was fired immediately after the arrest, so the evidence against him must be substantial. Otherwise, the department would have delayed his termination.
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