A father's harsh parenting has aroused wide controversy after a video was circulated online showing his nearly-nude four-year-old son running in snow.
The boy, Duo Duo, was running with only a pair of pants and trainers to combat the morning temperature of minus 13 degrees Celsius in New York, where the family from the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing spent their Spring Festival holiday.
The 44-year-old entrepreneur trained his son to run in the freezing weather for five minutes and do push-ups despite the boy's trembling and cries for a hug.
He uploaded the training footage online and dubbed it the "eagle dad" parenting approach, the Yangtze Evening News reported yesterday.
Society's Child
© Richard A. Lipski / Washington Post
Last year, some mortgage lenders and government officials took action after discovering that many mortgage documents were mishandled.
Last year, some mortgage lenders and government officials took action after discovering that many mortgage documents were mishandled.
The $26 billion deal, which officially will be unveiled at a 10 a.m. Department of Justice news conference, aims to help troubled borrowers by reducing the amount they owe on their mortgages, lowering their interest rates and paying restitution to homeowners who suffered mortgage-related abuses.
Long-running negotiations over the settlement received a major boost Wednesday when California Attorney General Kamala Harris agreed to back the effort after withdrawing her support last fall, according to three people with knowledge of the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deal had not been finalized.
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A strike mandate after the schedule five days of voting would put the airline's 3,000 pilots in a legal strike position early on Feb. 17, or 72 hours after the end of a legally manadatory cooling off period.
The strike vote doesn't mean the pilots will actually initiate a labour stoppage, but it gives the union the ability to respond to any unilateral moves by the company.
"The corporation has tabled a position that asks for more concessions and threatens our entire careers through scope changes that would ship much of our flying outside Air Canada, possibly offshore," Captain Gary Tarves, chairman of the Air Canada Pilots Association, said in a memo to pilots.
Tarves said the airline's "rigid position" raises "the possibility that it simply seeks to run out the legislated time clock and lead us toward an escalation."
Father upset after couple deletes daughter, charged in double-homicide
Mountain City - A father who was upset after a Tennessee couple deleted his adult daughter as a friend on Facebook has been charged in the shooting deaths of the couple, authorities said Wednesday.
The victims had complained to police that Marvin Potter's daughter was harassing them after they deleted her as a friend on the social networking site, Johnson County Sheriff Mike Reece said Wednesday.
Potter, 60, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in last week's slayings of Billy Payne Jr. and his girlfriend, Billie Jean Hayworth. The couple was shot to death in their Mountain City home in the far northeast corner of the state. Their 8-month-old baby was found unharmed in Hayworth's arms.
"It's a senseless thing," the sheriff said.
© Unknown
Marvin Potter (right) Jamie Curd (left)
Marvin Potter (right) Jamie Curd (left)
Mountain City - A father who was upset after a Tennessee couple deleted his adult daughter as a friend on Facebook has been charged in the shooting deaths of the couple, authorities said Wednesday.
The victims had complained to police that Marvin Potter's daughter was harassing them after they deleted her as a friend on the social networking site, Johnson County Sheriff Mike Reece said Wednesday.
Potter, 60, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in last week's slayings of Billy Payne Jr. and his girlfriend, Billie Jean Hayworth. The couple was shot to death in their Mountain City home in the far northeast corner of the state. Their 8-month-old baby was found unharmed in Hayworth's arms.
"It's a senseless thing," the sheriff said.
San Diego - The U.S. Marine Corps confirmed Thursday that a sniper team in Afghanistan posed for a photograph in front of a flag with a logo resembling that of the notorious Nazi SS.
Use of the SS symbol is not acceptable, and the Marine Corps has addressed the issue, Lt. Col. Stewart Upton said in a statement. He did not specify what action was taken.
Upton said the Marines in the photograph, posted on an Internet blog, are no longer with the unit. The picture was taken in September 2010 in Sangin province, Afghanistan.
The photo shows a flag with what appear to be the letters "SS" in the shape of jagged lightning bolts. The symbol resembles that used by SS units in World War II.
© Unknown
Scout snipers in the Marine Corps shown with a flag bearing an "SS" similar in design to one used in Germany by the SS, a paramlitary force that operated under the Nazi party.
Scout snipers in the Marine Corps shown with a flag bearing an "SS" similar in design to one used in Germany by the SS, a paramlitary force that operated under the Nazi party.
Use of the SS symbol is not acceptable, and the Marine Corps has addressed the issue, Lt. Col. Stewart Upton said in a statement. He did not specify what action was taken.
Upton said the Marines in the photograph, posted on an Internet blog, are no longer with the unit. The picture was taken in September 2010 in Sangin province, Afghanistan.
The photo shows a flag with what appear to be the letters "SS" in the shape of jagged lightning bolts. The symbol resembles that used by SS units in World War II.
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If you don't read about economics much, you might not know what the Baltic Dry Index actually is.
Investopedia defines the Baltic Dry Index this way....
A shipping and trade index created by the London-based Baltic Exchange that measures changes in the cost to transport raw materials such as metals, grains and fossil fuels by sea.When the global economy is booming, the demand for shipping tends to go up. When the global economy is slowing down, the demand for shipping tends to decline.
And right now, global shipping is slowing way, way down.
© United States Postal Service (USPS)
The United States Postal Service stamp showing the face of Liberty from the New York NY Casino in Vegas.
The United States Postal Service stamp showing the face of Liberty from the New York NY Casino in Vegas.
The agency was hurt by declining mail volume and mounting costs for future retiree health benefits.
From October through December of 2011, losses were $3 billion more than during the same period in 2010 - even though the final quarter is typically the strongest, due to increased holiday shipping.
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe is warning of a possible suspension in postal operations this fall unless Congress acts to address long-term money problems.
He wants new leeway to eliminate Saturday mail delivery, raise stamp prices and reduce health and other labor costs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Comment: A reflection of the United States economy? Or, US: Surprised? Twisted government accounting behind Postal Service woes
© Thinkstock
By the end of 2011, only 54.3% of those between the ages of 18 and 24 were employed, according to a Pew Research Center report released Thursday. And the gap in employment between the young and all working-age adults is roughly 15 percentage points -- the widest on record.
The Great Recession hurt the young more than most other age groups. Their employment decline has been steeper and their median weekly earnings fell by 6%, while holding steady for others, Pew found.
Only part of this can be explained by the growth in college attendance. While a greater share of 18- to 24-year-olds are in school than ever before, the employment rate has fallen regardless of enrollment.
© Agency France Presse/Getty Images
Thousands of old Hungarian banknotes are processed at a logistics center at the Central Bank in Budapest.
Thousands of old Hungarian banknotes are processed at a logistics center at the Central Bank in Budapest.
The bank is pulping wads of old notes into briquettes to help heat humanitarian organisations.
"It's a very useful charitable act, a vital aid for our foundation because we can save part of our heating costs," said Krisztina Haraszti, the head of a centre for autistic children in the impoverished northeastern town of Miskolc.
It helped the centre, which also provides aid to autistic adults, save between 50,000 and 60,000 forints (£200) a month, which is a "considerable sum in this time of crisis," she told AFP.
Since the briquettes have a high calorific value, "one only needs to add a few bits of wood and the rooms are really warm," said Haraszti.
The Russian web was ablaze with bizarre theories today at an extraordinary explosion seen by thousands of commuters in St Petersburg.
It must have seemed like the end of the world was nigh when motorists driving along this busy motorway saw a huge flash light up the night sky on the horizon.
So far, conspiracy theories of martians and bomb-testing have emerged to explain the astonishing sight. However, the reality was far less exciting.
It must have seemed like the end of the world was nigh when motorists driving along this busy motorway saw a huge flash light up the night sky on the horizon.
So far, conspiracy theories of martians and bomb-testing have emerged to explain the astonishing sight. However, the reality was far less exciting.
© Russia Today
The calm before the electric storm: Unsuspecting motorists were driving along this motorway when the huge flash appeared on the horizon in front of them.
The calm before the electric storm: Unsuspecting motorists were driving along this motorway when the huge flash appeared on the horizon in front of them.
Comment: Are Marines making a point to show how the U.S. Empire is looking globally?