Society's ChildS

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Opinion poll: Europeans do not trust or want American occupation forces in their countries

occupiers
Most Europeans: "Yankees, go home!!"
Translated by J. Arnoldski

According to an opinion survey published on September 27th by Sputnik Opinion, Europeans do not trust the foreign military bases stationed on their countries' territories to resolve national security problems. Only 4% of German respondents and 5% of Italians believe that foreign military bases can handle the defense of their countries' better than their own national armies.

This survey was commissioned by Sputnik International News Agency and Radio in cooperation with, among others, the oldest French research company, IFop, and conducted from June 28th to July 4th, 2016 in Germany (1004 respondents) and Italy (1002 respondents).

According to the report of the US Department of Defense, 587 US military facilities were stationed beyond the country's borders in 2015. According to the Pentagon, the highest number of US military sites in Europe are to be found in Germany and Italy.

Given the sheer number of US military bases on the territory of Europe, it follows that Europe should be recognized as a continent under American occupation. Such a state of affairs was formed as a result of the Second World War and the ensuing Cold War. The confrontation between two world systems headed by the US and USSR respectively was used to justify the stationing of US military bases in the countries of Western and Southern Europe.

Comment: The United States is an imperial mafia; shaking down, intimidating and manipulating Europeans (and much of the world for that matter) into allowing it to play a bogus role of "protector". But, just like a mafia - or global crime syndicate - it itself is the force that sovereign countries need protection from. When we accept the idea that the US is actually an occupying force that is scrambling ever forward to exert its dictates and influence, we come much closer to seeing things as they actually are.

For a shining example of insightfulness and courageous responsiveness to this aggression, see: NATO just attempted to invade Moldova, thwarted by people's resistance


Post-It Note

Possibly Britain's youngest rapist: 11yo boy pleads guilty to 15 sexual attacks and 3 assaults

boy running in fog
© Stephanie Keith / Reuters
A boy aged 11 has pleaded guilty to a charge of rape against another child, aged nine. He is thought to be the youngest person charged with the offense in UK history.

The boy was allegedly discovered sexually attacking the nine-year-old after the victim's mother heard strange noises over a baby monitor.

The victim said the older boy, now aged 12, raped him every time they played together and told him to keep the attacks secret, the Daily Mail reports.

The single charge relates to 15 allegations of rape and three of sexually aggravated assault.

Card - VISA

Adjusting after sanctions: Iranian banks to issue credit cards for the first time

Credit card
© Philippe Wojazer / Reuters
The Central Bank of Iran is allowing local financial institutions to issue credit cards for the first time in the Islamic Republic's history, reports the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA).

The full introduction of the cards could take some time as local banks will need to get used to the credit card system, according to the head of Iran's central bank Valiollah Seif.

"It would be wrong to think that these cards will be quickly adopted by the banking network," the news agency quotes Seif.

Whistle

EU states could follow UK, leave union - French MP

eu falling apart
Nearly every EU state could follow in the footsteps of the UK and vote to leave the bloc, French Member of Parliament responsible for European affairs in President Francois Hollande's party, Philip Cordery, has said.

Cordery was speaking at a Fabian Society fringe event at the UK Labour Party Annual Conference in Liverpool.

"I think what happened in the UK at the referendum could have happened [in] almost every other country in the European Union - except in the other countries no Prime Minister would have been as irresponsible as to ask for a referendum," Cordery, who is half English, said, as quoted by The Independent.

Card - MC

What sanctions? Russia's Mir credit card goes European

first cards of Russia's Mir national payment system
© Alexey Filippov / Sputnik
The new Mir charge cards, which are part of Russia's national payment system (NSPK), could soon be used across Europe, the head of NSPK Vladimir Komlev said in an interview with Russian newspaper Izvestia.

According to Komlev, the international acceptance of Mir shows the system's maturity, and agreements have been signed with MasterCard, JCB, AmEX and the Union Pay payment systems.

"We are in talks with Visa. World payment systems already view us as an interesting partner because NSPK has managed to ensure a wide network for a functioning national card in the short period of a year," Komlev said.

Russia will be able to promote its produce and brands through co-badged international systems, according to the head of NSPK. Mir cards will soon be accepted by online payment platform Alipay, and there are plans to connect to eBay, he added.

"Three major West European processors (including from France and Germany), have expressed an interest to collaborating with NSPK. They have approached us themselves. European retailers want to motivate Russians via the Russian payment system," said Komlev.

Stormtrooper

Comparison to torture: Suit against Australian 'Abu Ghraib-style' youth detention center reaches court

Don Dale juvenile detention center
© ABC News (Australia) / YouTube
Court hearings over alleged abuse of youngsters at Don Dale, a juvenile detention center in Australia's north, have started with claims of unlawful use of tear gas, shackles, spit hoods and handcuffs, slammed as "manifestly unnecessary and unreasonable."

A civil trial began on Monday, with four boys, whose names were not made public due to legal concerns, suing the Australian Northern Territory Government over alleged mistreatment at Darwin's Don Dale Juvenile Detention Center. They accuse it of assault and battery.

Two more former detainees are also suing Don Dale, but their cases are being heard separately because apart from mistreatment, the plaintiffs complain of involuntary deprivation of liberty at the facility.

The current case revolves around an incident which took place on August 21, 2014, when six inmates were abused by prison guards after one of them allegedly attempted to escape.

Info

Kiev cuts water supplies: Several Lugansk People's Republic districts impose state of emergency

Igor Plotnitsky
Water supplies to the LPR were cut from the Petrovsky water intake facility and Western filtering station controlled by Kiev, reports a news agency

A state of emergencies has been imposed in a number of districts of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) after Kiev stopped water supplies, Lugans Inform Center said on Monday.

"The LPR Council of Ministers has issued an instruction to impose a state of emergency in certain districts of the republic over insufficient water supplies to cities and villages under sanitary norms," the agency said.

Handcuffs

Baltimore man calls police for help, ends up dead after being 'attacked' by police

Baltimore police patch
© Reuters
The family of Tawon Boyd, 21, who died in Baltimore's Franklin Square Hospital after calling the police requesting an ambulance while fighting with his girlfriend, are questioning the way he was treated by authorities claiming it might have led to his death.

Tawon Boyd died at the age of 21 on Wednesday. While the autopsy is still pending, his attorney claims that brain swelling along with kidney and heart failure all contributed to his death. All three things can theoretically be attributed to blunt force trauma, which witnesses believe he incurred while the police roughly subdued him.

Tawon Boyd called the police last Wednesday while having an argument with his girlfriend, Deona Styron. Officers responded to his emergency call, requesting an ambulance, citing that he felt disoriented and needed to go to the hospital, attorney Latoya Francis-Williams said in a statement.

"They really were supposed to be there to get him to the nearest healthcare facility," Francis-Williams wrote. However, when police found him, he was described in reports as "confused and paranoid" while he claimed that his girlfriend "got him intoxicated and is secretly recording him while someone else is in the home," the police report read.

Heart - Black

Second European bison found decapitated at Spanish wildlife reserve

European bison
© AlamyEuropean bison
Spanish authorities are investigating the death of a second European bison, which was found decapitated just days after staff discovered the headless body of the herd's dominant male.

The death of the bison was similar to that of Sauron, the 660kg (1,455lb) male whose decapitated body was found nearly a week earlier at the reserve.

A spokesman for the central government's representative in the eastern Valencia region where the private Valdeserrillas reserve is located said the animal had been decapitated after death. "Either it died of a natural death, or it was poisoned before being decapitated by an axe," he said.

The European bison, the continent's largest wild land mammal, once roamed across most of the continent but it was severely hunted until it finally became extinct in the wild in 1927, according to the WorldWildlife Fund.

Neither of the dead animals had any bullet wounds, and reserve spokesman Rodolfo Navarro told AFP earlier this week he thought that Sauron might have been poisoned and decapitated by hunters who wanted its head as "a trophy".

Comment: European bison 'Sauron' poisoned, decapitated at wildlife reserve in Spain


Stormtrooper

Disgruntled Houston shooting suspect wore 3rd Reich uniform, collected Nazi symbols in his apartment

shooting houston
© Bob Levey / Getty Images / AFPInvestigators looks over the scene where nine individuals were shot at a strip mall along Weslayan St. on September 26, 2016 in Houston, Texas.
A "disgruntled lawyer" who is believed to be responsible for shooting nine people in Houston has reportedly been collecting Nazi paraphernalia and was wearing a vintage military uniform with swastikas when going on the rampage.

Nathan DeSai, as the shooting suspect has unofficially been identified, injured six people near a Houston shopping center on Monday morning before being neutralized by police. Another three people were struck by debris and glass.