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Barbaric slaughter or historic ritual? World's largest animal sacrifice begins - Warning: Contains graphic images


National Post
Fri, 28 Nov 2014 22:18 UTC
Hindu Festival_1
© Omar Havana /AFP/Getty Images
A festival believed to be the largest animal sacrifice ritual in the world began Friday in southern Nepal, where devotees believe the sacrifices bring good luck and a Hindu goddess will grant their wishes.

In the fields outside a temple before dawn, a priest dropped five drops of his own blood and sacrificed a rat, chicken, pigeon, goat, and pig to start the festival. More than 5,000 buffaloes were ritually killed during the day.

Many other animals will be killed during the two-day festival at Gadhimai temple in the jungles of Bara district about 160 kilometres south of Katmandu.

Organizers and the authorities defend the festival held every five years as a generations-old tradition, though animal rights activists says it is barbaric. During the 2009 festival, an estimated 200,000 animals and birds were sacrificed.

Animal activists have decried the event, which attracts thousands of devotees from Nepal as well as close-by regions of India. Gadhimai is the Hindu goddess of power, and it is believed sacrificing an animal in her honour will bring prosperity. Many of the animals - most of which are babies - are brought illegally over the border from India.

Last month, India's Supreme Court ordered the government to ensure that no live cattle or buffalo were exported out of India and into Nepal without licence, and its Ministry of Home Affairs directed its border patrol to ensure that "the movement of cattle for sacrifice during Gadhimai Mela [Fair] be stopped."
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Pistol

Austin, Texas: Gunman dead after downtown shooting rampage


KXAN News
Fri, 28 Nov 2014 18:11 UTC
Image
© KXANAustin Federal Courthouse
A gunman opened fire at four different buildings, including APD headquarters along 8th St. and the I-35 frontage road, the Mexican Consulate, the Federal Courthouse and a downtown bank early Friday morning. An officer about to get off duty saw the suspect near APD HQ and opened fire on the suspect who fell to the ground.

The suspect is dead, however, it's not clear yet if he took his own life or was killed by the officer's bullet. An autopsy has been ordered to determine which bullet(s) killed the suspect.

The very latest:
  • SWAT officers swarmed the shooter's home on Hollow Creek. Nearby homes and apartments were evacuated as officers searched for any potential explosives. The SWAT team left just before 11 a.m.
  • Sources tell KXAN the officer who shot the suspect is Sgt. Adam Johnson.
  • The suspect is a 50-year-old white male who police say has an extensive criminal history. His name has not been released.
As officers tended to the injured suspect, they noticed what appeared to be an improvised explosive device in his car. The officers dragged the man away from the car and determined he was wearing a suspicious vest. Officers then retreated and called in the bomb squad. During a news conference Friday morning, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said the suspect's car was searched and cleared by the bomb squad.

The first reports of shots fired came in at 2:21 a.m., for the next 10 minutes, Police say approximately 100 rounds were fired around downtown. At 3:31, the suspect was contained by an officer.

Chief Acevedo said the officer was a member of the mounted patrol unit who was putting two horses up when he heard the shots fired. He had the reins to two horses in one hand when he fired with the other. APD has identified that officer as Sgt. Adam Johnson.
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Headphones

Best of the Web: Ferguson: Darren Wilson's pathetic testimony sounded like the spewings of a paranoid white supremacist

Chauncey DeVega
AlterNet
Tue, 25 Nov 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© Reuters/LandovThis photo, provided by the St. Louis County Prosecutor's Office, shows Ferguson, Mo., police Officer Darren Wilson shortly after his encounter with Michael Brown. A grand jury declined Monday to charge Wilson with killing 18-year-old Brown.

If you have not yet read Darren Wilson's testimony to the Ferguson grand jury which decided that he would suffer no ill consequences for his decision to kill Michael Brown, please do so.

Wilson's description of the events on the day that he decided to shoot and kill an unarmed person cannot be adequately relayed to you by a second party.

The absurd, unfathomable, and fantastical story which Wilson spun out of the whole cloth in order to justify killing an unarmed black teenager combines the deepest and ugliest white supremacist stereotypes and fantasies about black folks' humanity such as the negro fiend", "black beast", and "giant negro",with white racist paranoiac thinking, and dialogue from blaxploitation movies.

Darren Wilson's grand jury testimony purports to be an accurate description of his encounter with Michael Brown. In reality, it is closer to an amateurish summer stock theater production of the movie Birth of the Nation as performed by the KKK and/or Neo-Nazis.

After submitting a blank police report that provided no substantive information, Darren Wilson was trained by attorneys from the police union (a common procedure when police kill civilians), and had many weeks to prepare his grand jury testimony.

During that time, Wilson was privy to the narrative and witness testimony that he would be confronted by in court.

Wilson was also aided by a prosecutor who was not at all interested in finding sufficient probable cause to proceed with a proper trial for the latter's decision to kill Michael Brown.

Comment: Institutionalized racism can now be seen for what it is, yet again:

Nationwide protests against police brutality in AmeriKKKa: Wilson gets away with murder, Anonymous: #HoodsOff "The war is on!"

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Hourglass

UN agency declares state of emergency after heavy rains, flooding in Gaza - thousands homeless


Press TV
Thu, 27 Nov 2014 21:58 UTC
Image
© AFP/Mahmud HamsPalestinian men in the back of a pickup truck make their way through a flooded street during heavy rains in Gaza City on November 27, 2014.
A United Nations agency has declared a state of emergency in the besieged Gaza Strip after two days of heavy rains and flooding in the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said in a Thursday statement that hundreds of residents in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City had been evacuated due to the rise of a "storm water lagoon" in the area.

It further said that the flooding has caused the closure of 63 schools across Gaza City and 43 schools across the northern Gaza Strip.

"The flooding is exacerbating the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza caused by blockade and the unprecedented destruction from the latest Israeli offensive," the UN agency said.

The agency further noted that it was "providing emergency fuel to supply back-up generators for pumping stations, portable pumps, municipalities, water, sanitation and health facilities."

Israel launched its latest onslaught on the blockaded area on July 8. The war killed over 2,140 Palestinians and left more than 11,000 others injured. The war ended on August 26 with an Egyptian-brokered truce.

The Israeli military aggression against the Palestinian territory also caused widespread devastation across Gaza. Over 15,600 housing units were damaged in the onslaught. More than 2,200 houses were totally destroyed, according to official figures released by Palestinian sources.
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Bulb

Zip your lips: It's never a good idea to talk to the police

Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg
Wed, 26 Nov 2014 01:35 UTC
police t-shirt
© Anonymous Anon
In my recent interview, "Serfdom is the New Normal -Talkin' Oligarch Blues with Perpetual Assets", I mentioned the dangers of talking to the police in light of the recent epidemic of shady civil asset forfeitures. What many people fail to realize, is that you aren't obligated to have casual conversations with police when you have been pulled over. In fact, such conversations are often used solely to manufacture an excuse for further action against you. For example, take this excerpt from the recent Washington Post article, "Highway Seizure in Iowa Fuels Debate about Asset-Forfeiture Laws":
"Simmons said he was issuing a warning for the failure to signal. After handing over the paperwork, he said the stop was over. Then he asked the driver, Newmerzhycky, if he had "time for just a couple quick questions."

Police who specialize in highway interdiction use casual conversations to avoid triggering legal questions about the length of stops. If the conversations are consensual, courts consider the added delay to be legal."
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Heart - Black

Stepfather accused of raping, beating 3-year-old Florida girl to death

Lisa Fogerty
Opposing Views
Thu, 27 Nov 2014 00:57 UTC
Image
© WFTV
A 3-year-old Florida girl was reportedly raped and beaten by her new stepfather, who had married the child's mother just one week before she died.

Charlie Brame died Monday at an Orlando hospital and investigators say her body showed signs of recent severe sexual and physical abuse and "aggravated child abuse with severe brain trauma," reports the New York Daily News. Her stepfather, Pascal Kaufmann, 19, allegedly told police the girl stopped moving on Saturday when he was babysitting for her alone while her mother was at work.

Police say it "was unlikely that (Brame) could receive such severe head trauma from falling out of the bed" and that her injuries were "more consistent with blunt trauma to the back of the skull."

Kaufmann moved to the United States from Germany in August and married Charlie's mother Emma Paige Liggett last week, reports WFTV. He was charged with child neglect and rape and has been denied bail. Depending on the results of an autopsy report, he could face additional charges.

"In all likelihood, what we're going to see is a charge of first-degree murder for the death of this child," WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said.

Charlie's biological father had reportedly begged her mother not to leave Kaufmann alone with the little girl after he found out he had spanked her. He reportedly told her that "(Kaufmann) is to never touch his daughter again or he would kill him," according to a police report. The father reportedly had no comment after the horrific incident.

Comment: Another manifestation of the 'Wetiko Virus'.
  • The Greatest Epidemic Sickness Known to Humanity

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Arrow Up

Here a psycho, there a psycho...

Brad Oswald
Winnipeg Free Press
Thu, 27 Nov 2014 03:00 UTC
Psychopathy
© Winnipeg Free Press
The term "psychopath" tends to conjure up a specific set of images -- pop-culture creations like Psycho's Norman Bates or Silence of the Lambs' Hannibal Lecter, or real-life serial killers such as Clifford Olsen, Paul Bernardo or Jeffrey Dahmer.

But the reality is that those monstrous characters represent only the extreme end of the personality disorder covered by that word, and that it's very likely that you know someone who could rightly be described as a psychopath.

Local filmmaker Jeremy Torrie examines the broader scope of psychopathy with a fascinating hour-long documentary called The Psychopath Next Door, which airs Nov. 27 on CBC's Doc Zone.

"You're going to run into one of these individuals sometime in your life, more than once," University of British Columbia forensic psychologist Dr. Robert Hare says in the film. "And the encounter could either be exhilirating, thrilling (and) exciting, or devastating. More likely the latter.

"Most of these psychopaths are living right next to us, living a reasonably normal life but creating some sort of distress -- psychological or environmental or financial -- for others around them."

Hare, who's apparently known in scientific circles as "the godfather of psychopathy" for, among other things, having developed a 20-point checklist for identifying psychopaths, notes that the main attribute that separates them from the rest of the population is a total disregard for the distinction between right and wrong.
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Dollars

Fighting corruption in Russia: Olympics builder charged with tax evasion and embezzlement


The Moscow Times
Mon, 17 Nov 2014 17:45 UTC
Image
Oleg Shishov
The hard-pressed chief of bankrupt 2014 Winter Olympics builder Mostovik has now been charged with tax evasion and embezzlement in the Siberian region of Omsk, adding to earlier charges of withholding wages from employees.

Oleg Shishov, who is CEO of Mostovik and a member of the region's legislative assembly, was put under house arrest early last week for allegedly failing to pay Mostovik employees for six months straight.

Shishov was then slapped with two additional charges: evading more than 515 million rubles ($10.9) in taxes from 2009 to 2012 via falsified tax documents and embezzling 500 million rubles ($10.6 million) from the Omsk regional budget, according to a statement last week on the regional investigative department's website.

Comment: Every country has corruption. Singling out Russia is simply part of the West's information war. But at least Russia is doing something about their corruption. See: Putin's not corrupt, he's fighting corruption: Squandering of state funds will not go unnoticed

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Sheriff

Saved by the cloud: Bystander's deleted video footage of brutal police assault on man and his pregnant wife retrieved from cyberspace

Matt Agorist
The Free Though Project
Tue, 25 Nov 2014 12:11 UTC
Denver police
© denvergov.orgDenver's finest.
The Denver police department has been accused of using excessive force after a video, which they allegedly deleted, survived on the cloud and was turned into FOX 31.

The incident started as two officers approached David Nelson Flores, who was in his vehicle with his seven-and-a-half-months pregnant wife and their child, to shake him down after suspecting him of being in possession of a substance deemed illegal by the state.

Upon their approach, officers said they saw Flores put a white sweat sock in his mouth. Because the US is involved in an immoral war on drugs, this 'sock in mouth' move apparently gave the officers the right to yank Flores out of his car and proceed to pummel the man on the asphalt.

According to the police report however, a pair of plain clothes officers "assisted" suspect David Nelson Flores out of his car and they all "fell to the ground."

The pummeling was for Flores' own good, according to the police report. They bashed in his face and head so he wouldn't "choke."

Comment: It's highly unlikely that even with this retrieved footage the Denver cops will face any ramifications for their actions. Welcome to Police State America where goon cops go wild.

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Syringe

Ebola death toll rises in W. Africa amid hopes of new vaccine


RT
Thu, 27 Nov 2014 15:31 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Brian C. Frank
The Ebola death toll is up to 5,689 out of nearly 16,000 cases reported in eight countries by November 23, the World Health Organization said in its latest update.

Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia were the hardest hit by the virus outbreak, with 600 new cases recorded just last week.

"The total number of cases reported in Sierra Leone since the outbreak began will soon eclipse the number reported from Liberia," the WHO said.

Sierra Leone had 6,599 cases in comparison to 7,168 in Liberia.

A month ago, those figures stood at 5,235 for Sierra Leone and 6,535 for Liberia, with the number of deaths, respectively, 1,500 and 2,413, according to the WHO.

The situation is said to be more or less stabilizing in Guinea and Liberia, but just the opposite is happening in Sierra Leone, according to the update. However, officials in Sierra Leona insist that the outbreak is losing momentum.

"We believe that now that those treatment centers are ready, the transmission of new cases will start reducing," Sierra Leone's minister of information, Alpha Kanu, told journalists. "I don't think we can get any higher than we are now - we are at the plateau of the curve and very soon we will have a downward trend, once we have somewhere to take people."

The World Health Organization said it was able to isolate more than 70 percent of those infected with Ebola in Guinea, referring to the international target set for December 1, but had failed to do so in the other two countries.

"Liberia and Sierra Leone report that fewer than 70 percent of patients are isolated, though there is wide variation among districts," the WHO said, adding that the final goal is to isolate 100 percent of those infected by January 1.

Meanwhile, eight more cases have been reported in Mali, with six dying.

Comment: The efficacy of vaccines certainly comes into question with reports like these:

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