Society's ChildS


Wolf

Torturing animals: USDA fines Harvard $24,000 after research monkey deaths

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© Boston Globe/Tom Landers
One died of an overdose. Two from water deprivation. And one was unintentionally strangled while playing with a toy designed to enrich the lives of research animals. The means varied but the results were the same: 4 monkey deaths at Harvard Medical School research centers since 2011. After a lengthy investigation, the Department of Agriculture fined Harvard $24,000 for repeated animal welfare violations, specifically the mistreatment of primates at its animal research labs in Massachusetts.

Arrow Up

Update: Pennsylvania pastor defrocked over gay wedding offered job

frank schaefer
© Matt Rourke/Associated Press
A United Methodist pastor from central Pennsylvania who was defrocked after officiating his son's gay wedding has been invited by a California Methodist bishop to serve in her region.

Frank Schaefer says he is deciding whether to accept the offer from Bishop Minerva G. Carcano (car-CAHN'-yo) to join the California-Pacific Annual Conference. The region includes California, Hawaii, and the Pacific Islands.

Carcano does not have the authority to restore his credentials but he says he would have the same rights. Schaefer on Friday appealed the decision of the church's regional Board of Ordained Ministry to defrock him.

A church jury suspended him for 30 days last month and told him to decide whether he would uphold the church's Book of Discipline or resign. Schaefer refused to surrender his credentials.

Source: Associated Press

Card - VISA

Target security breach affects up to 40 million cards

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© AP/Phil CoateIn this Jan. 18, 2008 file photo, a customer signs his credit card receipt at a Target store in Tallahassee, Fla. Target says that about 40 million credit and debit card accounts customers may have been affected by a data breach that occurred at its U.S. stores between Nov. 27, 2013, and Dec. 15, 2013.

Target's data-security nightmare threatens to drive off holiday shoppers during the company's busiest time of year.

The nation's second-largest discounter acknowledged Thursday that data connected to about 40 million credit and debit card accounts was stolen as part of a breach that began over the Thanksgiving weekend.

The theft marks the second-largest credit card breach in U.S. history, exceeded only by a scam that began in 2005 involving retailer TJX Cos. and affected at least 45.7 million card users.

Target's disclosure came a day after reports that the company was investigating a breach.

Customers who made purchases by swiping their cards at its U.S. stores between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15 may have had their accounts exposed. The stolen data included customer names, credit and debit card numbers, card expiration dates and the embedded code on the magnetic strip on back of the card, Target said.

There was no indication that the three- or four-digit security numbers visible on the back of the card were affected.

The data breach did not affect online purchases, the company said.

Books

The looting of Naples' Girolamini 16th Century library

Book-lovers around the world have been helping investigators trace thousands of rare volumes looted from one of Italy's oldest libraries by a gang of thieves including the librarian himself. While most have been recovered, a number of invaluable 15th and 16th Century books are still missing
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© BBCNaples' Giroamini Library
Inside a 16th Century church complex in the heart of Naples, the Biblioteca Girolamini's wooden shelves rise up and up towards richly decorated walls and vaulted ceilings.

They once held works of extraordinary value. There was a 1518 edition of Thomas More's brilliant and mysterious Utopia. Galileo's 1610 treatise Sidereus Nuncius, containing more than 70 drawings of the moon and the stars. And Johannes Kepler's study of the motions of Mars, Astronomia Nova, described as one of greatest books in the history of astronomy.

But this magnificent piece of Italy's cultural heritage was methodically plundered. Thousands of antique texts disappeared.

"Our investigations found that there was a true criminal system in action," says Major Antonio Coppola, a police chief who is leading the operation to recover the stolen texts. "A group of people... carried out a devastating, systematic looting of the library."

Take 2

'Duck Dynasty' star warned by A&E about speaking out too much

duck dynasty
© AP Photo/A&E/Zach Dilgard"Duck Dynasty."
Anyone looking at the "Duck Dynasty" uproar may wonder why A&E didn't warn Phil Robertson about the dangers of talking too much to reporters.

But it now looks like they did.

Robertson, the long-bearded patriarch of the clan of Louisiana duck-call merchants, is on "hiatus" from filming episodes of the No. 1-rated cable reality show after giving a GQ magazine interview where he made anti-gay remarks and questioned the need for the civil-rights movement. GLAAD and the NAACP, among others, condemned the comments. But thousands of fans - and even Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal - have rushed to his defense, touching off the latest skirmish in the national culture war. Late Thursday, the family said it might not want to continue the show without Phil.

The scandal has turned into the kind of tempest network executives feared all along. A&E knew of Robertson's controversial views - expounded in videotaped sermons and elsewhere - before the show premiered in spring 2012, and warned him not to overshare on hot-button topics such as gay rights and race relations, according to a producer familiar with the situation. Phil and other family members also probably signed contracts containing "morals clauses" in which they promised to, among other things, avoid anything that would embarrass or bring shame to A&E or the brand. Such clauses are standard in the entertainment and sports industries.

Bizarro Earth

Many dolphins in the vicinity of BP spill 'not expected to survive'

dolphins
© Reuters / Kim Kyung-Hoon
Dolphins swimming in the Gulf of Mexico near where a massive BP oil spill occurred in 2010 are showing signs of sickness so serious that many are not expected to survive, a new study has determined.

A team of government and academic researchers, veterinarian, biologists, and wildlife epidemiologists examined 32 dolphins in August 2011, one year after the largest oil spill in US history wiped out a swathe of the natural life in the Gulf.

The results, published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, found that nearly half of that 32 were found to be in "guarded or worse" condition according to the conditions spelled out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A quarter of the dolphins were underweight and 17 percent were in grave enough condition that they were "not expected to survive."

The most common problems were lung damage and low levels of adrenal stress-response hormones, a symptom that could hurt their fight-or-flight instincts.

"I've never seen such a high prevalence of very sick animals - and with unusual conditions such as the adrenal hormone abnormalities," lead author Dr. Lori Schwacke wrote in a NOAA press release.

Nuke

TEPCO detects record radiation at Fukushima's reactor 2, new leak suspected

Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear power plant
© AFP Photo / PoolNo. 2 reactor buildings of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear power plant

TEPCO has found a record 1.9 million becquerels per liter of beta ray-emitting radioactive substances at its No.2 reactor. Also radioactive cesium was detected in deeper groundwater at No.4 unit's well, as fears grow of a new leak into the ocean.

The level of beta ray-emitting radioactivity in groundwater around the crippled Fukushima reactor No. 2 reactor has been rising since November, NHK reported.

Previous the highest level - 1.8 million becquerels (bq/liter), of beta-ray sources per liter - was registered at reactor No.1 on December 13.

Meanwhile, TEPCO's latest examination of deeper groundwater beneath the #4 reactor's well has raised new concerns that there might be another source of radioactive substances leakage into the ocean.

For the first time, the analysis of water samples taken from a layer 25 meters beneath the No. 4 reactor's well that is facing the ocean has revealed radioactivity in groundwater.

TEPCO investigators detected 6.7 bq/liter of Cesium 137 and 89 bq/liter of strontium as well as other beta ray-emitting radioactive substances.


Comment: It is clear that TEPCO is in control of nothing AND that the world allows it to be so. All they do is damage control and trying to hide their complete incompetence, to the detriment of the Japanese population and very likely the world as a whole.


Stormtrooper

Vigil for teen found shot in police car ends with tear gas, arrests

police-Durham
© YouTubeAn image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube by user@leelaura1 on December 19, 2013
A vigil meant to commemorate the memory of a teenager who was fatally shot in the head while in police custody last month turned to panic Thursday night when police in full riot gear deployed tear gas to disperse the mostly peaceful crowd.

Jesus Huerta, 17, died of a gunshot wound to the head on November 19 in Durham, North Carolina. The police department has said that Huerta shot himself, an assertion that has become a subject of outrage in the community because Huerta was at the time handcuffed in the backseat of a patrol car when he was shot. The vehicle was parked behind a police building at the time of his death.

A police report filled out by Officer Samuel Duncan noted that Huerta had been searched at the time of his arrest, and no gun was found on him. Huerta is the third minority man to be killed in shootings involving city police within the past four months.

USA

Florida couple forced to uproot their 17-year-old organic garden

florida garden
© AFP Photo / Justin Sullivan
After 17 years of managing an organic vegetable garden in their front yard, a Miami Shores, Florida couple was forced to remove it due to a zoning violation.

Now, Hermine Ricketts and Tom Carroll are fighting back, suing the village after being threatened with a daily $50 fine.

"We are already feeling the impact of shopping for overpriced organic food," Ricketts said to the Miami Herald.

Village officials were not fans of the garden for a very simple reason: It was placed in the couple's front yard instead of the back, violating a local zoning ordinance. Despite the fact that the garden had been around for close to two decades, Ricketts and Carroll were told to dig it up by August 31 or face fines.

With the help of the nonprofit libertarian group Institute for Justice, the couple's lawsuit against argues that the new zoning codes violate the state Constitution, which gives residents the right to "acquire, possess, and protect" private property.

Document

Theater roof collapses in London's West End - injures more than 80 people injured

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apollo theater collapse
© Sang Tan/Associated PressFirefighters inspect the roof of the Apollo theatre following the collapse.
Seven people seriously hurt after part of Shaftesbury Avenue theatre ceiling collapses on to balcony during performance

More than 80 people were injured on Thursday night when part of a theatre in London's West End collapsed on to the audience during a performance.

Fire crews rescued people from the Apollo theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, which was showing The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. There were more than 700 people in the audience.

London ambulance service said there were 88 casualties, seven of whom were seriously injured, but none are thought to have life-threatening injuries. The Metropolitan police said they were not aware of any fatalities.

Some people were initially trapped inside the theatre, but all were rescued from the building soon after the collapse.

The wounded were taken into the foyer of the nearby Queen's theatre, which was turned into a makeshift treatment centre. Some were taken from there to hospital on board a red London bus, with a police escort.

Firefighters inspect the roof of the Apollo theatre following the collapse. Photograph: Sang Tan/AP

The collapse of part of the ceiling, which then brought down sections of a balcony, occurred at about 8pm. Part of the balcony started creaking before the collapse, and some audience members assumed that the noise was part of the show.

People were escorted out of the building covered in dust and debris, while others left crying, coughing and helping each other away.

Photographs from inside the theatre showed heavy beams and wood strewn across seats, which were coated in debris and dust. There were reports that after a storm earlier, water had begun dripping through cracks in the ceiling before it fell in, but this was not confirmed by authorities. A Westminster council surveyor was inspecting the building overnight to assess whether it was safe enough for a full inspection. The surveyor was expected to deliver a preliminary report on Friday morning.