Society's ChildS


Airplane

Severe turbulence injures 5 on Beijing bound flight forcing the plane to return to New Jersey

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Three flight attendants and a number of passengers were injured after a United Airlines flight encountered severe turbulence as it approached a Montana airport, an airline spokesman said on Tuesday.

One passenger, Bill Dahlin, told Billings television station KTVQ there was a lot of screaming when the airplane dropped sharply during its descent on Monday, and a woman struck her head on the ceiling so hard a panel cracked.

The three flight attendants and two passengers were taken to a hospital after the incident on the flight to Billings, Montana, from Denver, Colorado, United said in a statement. One flight attendant remained hospitalized on Tuesday, United said.

"Our primary focus is assisting our employees and passengers who were injured, and our flight safety team will review what happened," United said in its statement.

There were 114 passengers and five crew members aboard the airplane, a Boeing 737-700, which left Denver just before midday on Monday and landed in Billings at 1:23 p.m. local time, United said.

Bomb

1 killed, 77 injured as security forces keep dark-skinned foreigners at bay in Australian Detention Center

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Australian immigration minister confirms 77 people were treated for injuries and one person died of a head injury

One person has been killed and 77 injured, one by a gunshot, in unrest at Australia's asylum seeker detention centre on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, immigration minister Scott Morrison has confirmed.

The person died of a head injury on the way to Lorengau hospital in PNG. The gunshot victim, who was wounded in the buttock, and another person who suffered a critical head injury, were being taken to Australia.

At a press conference in Darwin the minister said 77 people had been treated for injuries. Thirteen suffered serious injuries, including the gunshot wound and the critical basal skull fracture, that resulted in the evacuations to Australia. Twenty two people suffered minor injuries.

One air ambulance was on its way to the island and another was being arranged to leave on Tuesday afternoon to help treat the remaining injured.

There have been escalating protests at the centre for several days; asylum seekers breached fences, internal and external, on Sunday and Monday nights, Morrison said.

Eye 1

Guangxi policeman Hu Ping sentenced to die for killing pregnant woman

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Former policeman Hu Ping in court
A court in Guangxi province yesterday convicted a former policeman of killing a pregnant woman and injuring her husband, and sentenced him to death.

The policeman, Hu Ping , was detained in October after he shot the restaurant owner in Pingnan county, Guigang , following a quarrel. Hu, 33, was allegedly drunk at the time, and the victim was five months pregnant, according to a Xinhua report.

The woman's husband was wounded in the shoulder.

Prosecutors said Hu fired arbitrarily after the victim told him there was no milk tea on sale at the restaurant.

V

Human chain blocks Dresden neo-Nazi march on firebombing's anniversary

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© AFP Photo / Robert MichaelPeople create a human chain along the Elbe river in front of the Dresden historical city center on February 13, 2013
Over 13,000 anti-Nazi protesters have formed a human chain in the center of Dresden, Germany to block the neo-Nazi march, which assembles annually to mark the anniversary of the allied bombing of the city in 1945, and spread extremist ideology.

Around three thousand officers are policing the parallel processions. No clashes were reported between the two groups.

Wednesday's demonstration for the ultra-right marks the 68th anniversary of the bombing against the civilian population. The neo-Nazis condemn the allied actions in the final months of World War II and claim the bombings to be war crimes.

Activists that oppose them, say that the neo-nazi march insults the memory of some 25,000 victims that died from the bombs. A number of high-profile politicians including parliamentary deputy president Wolfgang Thierse and Saxony's state premier Stalislaw Tillich took part in the human chain.

Speaking at the city's Heide cemetery in front of some 200 guests, Dresden Mayor Helma Orosz spoke out against the neo-Nazi message.

Che Guevara

U.S. students bring Kurt Vonnegut back to Dresden for firebombing anniversary

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American students unveil an interactive Kurt Vonnegut exhibit and commemorate Dresden's firebombing. Revered for his satire and criticism of war, Vonnegut remains largely unknown in Germany - but that's changing.

In his carry-on luggage, Kyle Royse packed a lucky dollar bill from his grandfather and a pristine paperback copy of "Slaughterhouse-Five." It was the first Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. novel the recent college graduate had ever read.

"Once you start reading his works, it's hard not to fall in love with them," Royse said. "Hopefully we will cause a few more people to fall in love with his works."

For six months, Royse and a team of 11 fellow students combed through handwritten letters, marked-up manuscripts, personal photos, and audio recordings of the American novelist with German heritage.

Stock Down

SEVENTH Banker Suicide: Man leaps to death from JP Morgan's Hong Kong headquarters

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© SCMP PicturesThe man stands on the roof of Chater House in Central as police try to talk him down
A man on Tuesday jumped to his death from the top of Chater House in Central, where Wall Street bank JP Morgan has its Asia headquarters, witnesses told the South China Morning Post.

The man, said to be in his early 30s, went to the roof of Chater House, a landmark 30-floor building in the heart of Hong Kong's central business district - also near the city's stock exchange - and jumped.

Medics rush to the scene of the accident in Central. The incident happened between 2pm to 3pm, a witness said.

Several policemen were seen on the roof but apparently failed to convince the man not to jump, one of the witnesses said.

According to several JP Morgan employees, the man was a forex trader with the company.

Comment: Exposing what lies beneath the bodies of dead bankers and what lies ahead for us


Cow

USDA takes aim at small farms: Rancho recalls a year's worth of meat

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After nearly a century in business, the Bay Area's last major slaughterhouse facility has once again closed its doors, for the second time in less than a month.

Following a massive recall of 8.7 million pounds of beef and the launch of an investigation into potential criminal charges, Rancho Feeding Corporation in Petaluma has ceased its operations while they retrieve the meat. The financial burden of reimbursing clients could mean the plant may not reopen, multiple ranchers said, posing a threat to the region's beef and dairy producers.

Last month, the United States Department of Agriculture announced a recall of all cattle slaughtered at the plant on a single day in January; on Saturday, a second recall was initiated for a year's worth of beef, totaling approximately 8,742,700 pounds. U.S.D.A. inspectors maintain Rancho processed "diseased and unsound" animals that received only a partial inspection or were not examined at all, rendering the meat "adulterated" and "unfit for human food."

Stormtrooper

California police use taser on deaf man trying to communicate with them via sign language

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© Shutterstock
Four police officers in Hawthorne, California used a taser on a man who was attempting to tell them that he was deaf via sign language.

The Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness is filing a lawsuit on behalf of Jonathan Meister, who was charged with assault as a result of the incident. According to the lawsuit, Meister was retrieving boxes he had left at a friend's house when police, alerted by a neighbor to a possible burglary, arrived.

Officers Jeffrey Salmon, Jeffrey Tysl, Erica Bristow, and Mark Hultgren allegedly ordered Meister to stop loading the boxes into his car, but Meister could not hear the order. One of the officers then grabbed Meister by the hand, who responded by attempting to use American Sign Language to communicate with the officer.

The officers interpreted his sudden movements as resistance, so they "struck Meister with fists and feet, and forcibly took him to the ground." Once he was on the ground, one of the officers allegedly shot him twice with a taser. Another officer then delivered a "drive stun" to Meister's abdomen.

They continued to beat Meister until he was unconscious, then escorted him to the hospital, where he was charged with assaulting the officers. The charge was later dropped.

Stormtrooper

Father trying to stop family fight beaten to death by Oklahoma cops

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© Reuters / Jerry Laizure
A Valentine's Day outing turned tragic for one Oklahoma family who claims five police officers beat their father to death during a confrontation outside a local movie theater.

The death is currently under investigation, and three police officers have been placed on administrative leave as the probe unfolds.

The incident occurred February 14 in Moore, Oklahoma, when an argument erupted between Nair Rodriguez and her daughter Lunahi. Nair slapped her daughter during the dispute and ended up leaving the theater. When Luis Rodriguez chased after his wife in a bid to stop her, law enforcement officials intervened and asked for his identification.

According to NewsOK, police claim that Luis Rodriguez attempted to fight with police and that led to a physical altercation. Nair and Lunahi, however, told local media outlet News9 that allegation is false, and that Luis simply tried to bypass officers to keep his wife from driving off in anger.

As the confrontation escalated, five police officers allegedly beat Luis Rodriguez beyond recognition, a situation captured on a video by Nair's cell phone.

"They jumped on him like he was some kind of killer or drug dealer and beat him up," Lunahi Rodriguez said to NewsOK. "He never fought the officers, they beat him on the head and that's how he lost his breath."

"When they flipped him over you could see all the blood on his face, it was, he was disfigured, you couldn't recognize him," she added to News9.

Stormtrooper

Police shoot, kill 80-year-old man in his own bed, don't find the drugs they were looking for


Originally published on Feb 13, 2014. Original text is below:
In the early morning hours of June 27, 2013, a team of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies pulled up to the home of Eugene Mallory, an 80-year-old retired engineer living in the rural outskirts of Los Angeles county with his wife Tonya Pate and stepson Adrian Lamos.

The deputies crashed through the front gate and began executing a search warrant for methamphetamine on the property. Detective Patrick Hobbs, a self-described narcotics expert who claimed he "smelled the strong odor of chemicals" downwind from the house after being tipped off to illegal activity from an anonymous informant, spearheaded the investigation.

The deputies announced their presence, and Pate emerged from the trailer where she'd been sleeping to escape the sweltering summer heat of the California desert. Lamos and a couple of friends emerged from another trailer, and a handyman tinkering with a car on the property also gave himself up without resistance. But Mallory, who preferred to sleep in the house, was nowhere to be seen.

Deputies approached the house, and what happened next is where things get murky. The deputies said they announced their presence upon entering and were met in the hallway by the 80-year-old man, wielding a gun and stumbling towards them. The deputies later changed the story when the massive bloodstains on Mallory's mattress indicated to investigators that he'd most likely been in bed at the time of the shooting. Investigators also found that an audio recording of the incident revealed a discrepancy in the deputies' original narrative: Before listening to the audio recording, [Sgt. John] Bones believed that he told Mallory to "Drop the gun" prior to the shooting. The recording revealed, however, that his commands to "Drop the gun" occurred immediately after the shooting.

When it was all over, Eugene Mallory died of six gunshot wounds from Sgt. John Bones' MP-5 9mm submachine gun. When a coroner arrived, he found the loaded .22 caliber pistol the two deputies claimed Mallory had pointed at them on the bedside table.

Mallory had not fired of a single shot. The raid turned up no evidence of methamphetamine on the property.

To find out more about this case, including details about what the police did find, watch the above video, featuring Mallory's widow Tonya Pate. Pate has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, an agency plagued by prison abuse scandals, questionable hiring practices, and allegations of racial profiling and harassment in recent years.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department declined multiple requests to comment on this story.