Society's ChildS


Footprints

Papandreou resigns as Greek PM

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© Unknown
Athens - Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou pledged his support for his yet-to-be named successor Wednesday as he formally stepped down as leader of the debt-wracked country.

"I want to wish every success to the new PM and the new government. I will support this effort with all my strength," Papandreou said in a solemn televised address to the nation, without naming the next leader.

But the outgoing PM said his successor would be an "institutional" choice as reports suggested 60-year-old parliament chief Philippos Petsalnikos, a long-term socialist member and former minister, would be given the nod.

"This is a historic day, the fact that several political powers are able to co-operate," Papandreou later told head of state President Carolos Papoulias ahead of a meeting with other parties to finalize the new administration.

"It opens a new page in our country's history," he said.

Attention

Student fees protest: who is behind latest London demonstrations

Thousands of students and demonstrators are expected to gather for protests against tuition fees on Wednesday. Here is a look at some of the groups involved in the large scale demonstration.

Police said around 4,000 officers will be on duty for the protest against a hike in tuition fees and cuts to funding, with organisers expecting about 10,000 students to take part.
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© EPAAnti-riot police in Hackney, north London

The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, led by Michael Chessum, is said to be the protest's "organiser".

Mr Chessum the group supports non-violent direct action. He accused police of making it "more likely that trouble will occur".

"This is the biggest peacetime betrayal of a generation in modern British history," he said.

"The failure of the democratic process has led people to take it to extremes. Anything that does happen will be other people doing what other people do and not our responsibility."

Comment:
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© C.H.



Dollar

US: Goldman faces suits over $15.8B in mortgages

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© Ingram Pinn
Goldman Sachs Group Inc faces lawsuits over $15.8 billion worth of mortgage securities, the bank said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday, a more than 30-fold increase from the amount disclosed three months earlier.

The aggregate figure, which is up from $485 million previously, does not represent how much money Goldman management estimates it may lose on the litigation. Goldman lifted that estimate of "reasonably possible" losses to $2.6 billion from $2 billion.

The bigger dollar figures come as investors in mortgage-backed bond deals have raced to take legal action or enter settlement negotiations before statutes of limitations expire, and as investors continue to worry about banks' exposure to big lawsuits.

Goldman also added three European financial firms to a list of parties that have threatened to sue it, a more fulsome disclosure than some of its peers.

Goldman said HSH Nordbank, Norges Bank Investment Management and IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG have threatened to assert claims related to mortgage offerings, in addition to insurance giant American International Group Inc and Manulife Financial Corp's John Hancock unit, whose legal threats it disclosed last quarter.

Attention

US: Mental health worker who reported child porn fired

'We're not allowed to go to police' unless actual child abuse is observed, supervisor says

Missoula, Montana - An employee of a Missoula mental health center who reported a client's computer search for child pornography was fired after reporting him to police.

The client, John Gribble, is charged with sexually abusing a child after a DVD with photos of nude children was found at his house.

The Missoulian reported Wednesday that an employee of Three Rivers Mental Health Solutions contacted police about Gribble on Oct. 17.

The employee first told her supervisors, who told her not to report Gribble. Three Rivers administrator Shea Hennelly says reports that break medical confidentiality must include the names and address of the child involved and the extent of the child's injuries.

"In order to provide mental health services, we can't engage in dual roles. We're not allowed to go to police" unless actual child abuse is observed, Hennelly told The Missoulian. "She didn't witness someone abusing a child. What this woman reported to this office was she saw the tab of Web browsers that said teenage girls. That's a lot different."

Pistol

US, Wisconsin: Tasers now legal under concealed carry law

Taser
© Unknown
For months, the focus of discussion about the new concealed carry law has been on guns. But, the law is not just limited to deadly weapons.

The new law defines a legally concealed weapon to be a handgun, a non-switchblade knife, a billy club, or an electric weapon -- like a taser.

Up until November 1, it was illegal to even own a taser in the state of Wisconsin. But now, stores are starting to consider selling them to appeal to a customer who's not necessarily comfortable with a gun but wants to protect themselves.

Attorney General JB Van Hollen says it's a good idea for people to protect themselves, as long as they're properly trained.

Comment: You'd have to be living under a rock at this point to consider tasers anything other than a "deadly weapon":

Taser-related deaths in US accelerating


Attention

US: National Test Has Emergency Managers, Broadcasters on Alert

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If your co-workers rush in from lunch to tell you that World War III is starting, tell them this:

It's only a test.

Except ... it's not "only" a test.

For the first time in history, every radio and TV station, every cable and satellite operator, will interrupt all broadcasts, at 1 p.m. today, for a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, or EAS. (Fans of "The Talk," Maury Povich, "One Life to Live," you have been warned ...)

Two years in the planning, the minutelong drill is designed to expose weaknesses in a 60-year-old readiness system that has never been used - not even on 9/11.

The test is a joint venture of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Communications Commission's Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau, headed by retired Navy Adm. James A. Barnett Jr.

Star of David

Helen Thomas Skewers Zionism - Again

Helen Thomas
© unknownHelen Thomas
Veteran Washington insider and reporter 91-year-old Helen Thomas created shockwaves a year ago when she declared Israel should "get the hell out of Palestine." A disapproving statement came from President Obama and Thomas suddenly faced a vendetta from Jewish attack groups such as the Anti-Defamation League. They persuaded her alma mater, Wayne State University, to rescind her Lifetime Achievement Award.

"They took away basically my lifetime achievement award and they wanted to take away the worst of all - the first amendment right to speak freely - to speak and to write," she said on Republic Radio in August.

Polls show Thomas is admired by most Americans, many of whom share her conviction that America has no business supporting the strife-engendering Jewish state. In an August 5 interview with Deanna Spingola on the Republic Broadcasting Network, Thomas spoke out again. Here are her remarks, arranged according to topic. To listen to the complete two-hour broadcast commercial-free, go here at truthtellers.org.

Info

US: Air Force Mishandled Remains of War Dead, Inquiry Finds

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© unknownThe military has long borne a sacred obligation: to treat its fallen members and their families with utmost levels of dignity and honor.
Federal investigators said Tuesday they had uncovered "gross mismanagement" at the Dover Air Force Base mortuary that cares for America's war dead after whistleblowers reported horror stories of lost body parts, shoddy inventory controls and lax supervision.

The Air Force admitted that the Dover mortuary misplaced a dead soldier's ankle and another set of remains that had been stored in a plastic bag. Employees also sawed off the damaged arm bone of a Marine so he could fit in his uniform and casket - but did not tell his family.

Military officials said the incidents resulted from the strain of handling thousands of dead bodies, some with gruesome injuries that made it difficult to prepare remains for burial.

But the sloppy handling of troops' remains at Dover painfully undercut the military's commitment to treat war dead with the utmost honor. "There is nothing more sacred, there is nothing that is a more profound obligation, than treating our fallen with reverence, dignity and respect," said Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, the Air Force chief of staff, who took responsibility for the problems.

Stop

US, California: West Hollywood approves first fur ban in United States

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© Reuters/Mario AnzuoniA man walks past a fur store in Beverly Hills, California September 23, 2011.
Putting animal rights over fashion and its own vibrant shopping scene, West Hollywood's leaders gave final approval on Tuesday to a first-in-the-nation ban on the sale of fur clothing within city limits.

The five-member City Council of the tiny, tony municipality wedged between Beverly Hills and Hollywood voted 3-to-1 with one abstention to approve the ordinance, which takes effect in 2013, said City Councilman John Heilman, who voted "no."

The ban was tentatively adopted by the council on September 20 and had been expected to win easy enactment two weeks later. But it ran into stiff opposition from the local Chamber of Commerce and the fur industry, whose main trade group, the Fur Information Council of America, is based in West Hollywood.

Ultimately, the city's famously left-leaning political establishment embraced the ban, won over by supporters' arguments that furs are produced from animals that are inhumanely killed for their pelts.

Final action came shortly before 1 a.m., capping a contentious, hours-long debate.

Phoenix

US, Alabama: Twin sisters face murder charges in burning deaths of 3 toddlers

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Twin sisters face three counts each of reckless murder in connection with the burning deaths of three of their children in Atmore, Alabama.

Akeevia Lajoseia Abner and Tekeevia Lajoseialan Abner, 18, were taken into custody on Monday by the state fire marshal. A bond hearing has not yet been set.

Escambia County District Attorney Steve Billy said the women left 3-year-old Aniyia Abner, 3-year-old Takia Abner and 22-month-old Michael Coleman alone on Wednesday night last week.

The fire marshal's preliminary investigation indicated an oven left open -- possibly as a heat source -- could be the source of the blaze that killed the unattended children.