Germany has become Europe's first country to allow babies with characteristics of both sexes to be registered as neither male nor female. Parents are now allowed to leave the gender blank on birth certificates, in effect creating a new category of "indeterminate sex". The move is aimed at removing pressure on parents to make quick decisions on sex assignment surgery for newborns. However, some campaigners say the new law does not go far enough. As many as one in 2,000 people have characteristics of both sexes.
Society's Child
© Associated Press
Jeff Hall, pictured in 2010, was a regional leader of the National Socialist Movement and organised rallies at synagogues and day labour sites.
Jeff Hall, pictured in 2010, was a regional leader of the National Socialist Movement and organised rallies at synagogues and day labour sites.
The blond boy was 10 when he put a gun to the head of his sleeping neo-Nazi father and pulled the trigger.
It was over in an instant for Jeff Hall, but deciding the fate of his son has been a two-and-a-half-year journey that approaches its final stage on Friday in a hearing to determine where he will spend his teens and, possibly, his early adult years.
The judge hearing the case must decide not how to punish a child for second-degree murder, but how to rehabilitate someone who grew up in an abusive home, attacked his school teachers and was indoctrinated in the beliefs of white supremacy.
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The infamous "Rob Ford crack video" is now in police hands.
The infamous "Rob Ford crack video" is now in police hands.
The last point was underscored at the end of a morning press conference. "As a citizen of Toronto I'm disappointed," Police Chief Bill Blair said. "I know this is a traumatic issue for the citizens of this city and for the reputation of this city - and that concerns me."
Normally spoiling for a political scrap, Mr. Ford seemed at a loss for any defence against this new adversary.
The head of the largest food bank says the $5 billion annual cut will take a week of meals off millions' plates
Food stamp recipients face a massive benefit cut set to kick in when stimulus funds expire Friday. The nationwide cut "is equivalent to about 16 meals a month for a family of three," according to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis using the USDA's "Thrifty Food Plan." CBPP called the roughly $5 billion annual cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program "unprecedented" in "depth and breadth."
"If you look across the world, riots always begin typically the same way: when people cannot afford to eat food," Margarette Purvis, the president and CEO of the Food Bank for New York City, told Salon Monday. Purvis said that the looming cut would mean about 76 million meals "that will no longer be on the plates of the poorest families" in NYC alone - a figure that outstrips the total number of meals distributed each year by the Food Bank for New York City, the largest food bank in the country. "There will be an immediate impact," she said.
© Marcio Jose Sanchez, AP
"If you look across the world, riots always begin typically the same way: when people cannot afford to eat food," Margarette Purvis, the president and CEO of the Food Bank for New York City, told Salon Monday. Purvis said that the looming cut would mean about 76 million meals "that will no longer be on the plates of the poorest families" in NYC alone - a figure that outstrips the total number of meals distributed each year by the Food Bank for New York City, the largest food bank in the country. "There will be an immediate impact," she said.
© Reuters
Pavlo Lapshyn came to Britain in April from Ukraine after winning a prize to further his studies, but within days he had stabbed Mohammed Saleem in Birmingham.
Pavlo Lapshyn came to Britain in April from Ukraine after winning a prize to further his studies, but within days he had stabbed Mohammed Saleem in Birmingham.
A white supremacist who hoped to "ethnically cleanse" Muslims has been told he will serve at least 40 years imprisonment for a terror campaign in which he hunted down a Muslim to murder before he bombed three Midlands mosques aiming to kill and maim worshippers.
Pavlo Lapshyn, 25, came to Britain in April from Ukraine after winning a prize to further his studies. Instead he tried to trigger a race war, fuelled by extremist material on his computer - including a video game called "ethnic cleansing" which celebrated racist violence.
© Donnachadh McCarthy
Donnachadh McCarthy outside his retrofitted eco home in London
Donnachadh McCarthy outside his retrofitted eco home in London
A 583% gas-bill rise.
That was the shock news I received this week from British Gas. Over the last 15 years, instead of running a car, I invested about £30,000 to make my south London Victorian terrace home eco-friendly.
I installed solid-wall, under-floor and loft insulation, triple-glazing, LED lighting, wood-burner, rain-harvester, solar hot water and solar photovoltaic panels. Whilst I did this because I passionately wanted to show that it was possible to make old homes almost zero-carbon, the other plus-side was that it slashed my annual gas bill to about £18 and my electricity-bill to almost zero, helping me recoup some of the costs.
However David Cameron's new "clearer pricing policy" has resulted in British Gas imposing a new £95 standing-charge on my gas bill. This means that whereas a rich Tory MP living in a rural mansion with a £3,000 heating bill will be paying 5p per unit, the unit cost for my gas will jump to 48p. That is a 963% premium.
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Daniel Hoevels acting out the role of a suicide. In a later show, the knife was switched.
Daniel Hoevels acting out the role of a suicide. In a later show, the knife was switched.
Daniel Hoevels, 30, slumped over with blood pouring from his neck while the audience broke into applause at the "special effect". Police are investigating whether the knife was a mistake or a murder plot. They are questioning the rest of the cast, and backstage hands with access to props; they will also carry out DNA tests.
© SFGate
Now, Ashlea Bennett is taking the City of Haskell, Arkansas and its police officer Brandon Carter, to Federal Court. Her recent suit claims that Carter "demanded that she expose her breasts to him" after wearing his uniform, entering her work place and suggesting that the demand was carried legal authority.
"Carter's demands to the Plaintiff to expose herself to him occurred multiple times," the lawsuit articulates.
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A sign displays that a shop accepts Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT), more commonly known as Food Stamps, in the GrowNYC Greenmarket in Union Square on September 18, 2013 in New York City
A sign displays that a shop accepts Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT), more commonly known as Food Stamps, in the GrowNYC Greenmarket in Union Square on September 18, 2013 in New York City
"Riots always begin typically the same way: when people cannot afford to eat food," Margaret Purvis, president and CEO of the Food bank for New York City, told online news and entertainment site Salon.com.
She added that families face the "daunting" prospect of losing a whole week's worth of food every month.
Currently, the program costs about $80 billion per year and provides food aid nearly 15 per cent of all US households - over 45 million people.
A big automatic cut is expected on November 1, taking $5 billion from federal food-stamp spending over 2014. The benefit is set to shrink by 5 per cent.
Comment: War must go on, while those less fortunate, considered by the psychopaths in power to be expendable, are left to starve.
© Rainer Zenz
The scandal was uncovered by "A Bon Entendeur", a consumer affairs program aired on Tuesday by the French language Swiss broadcaster, RTS.
Both restaurants are in the canton of Jura and the consumer affairs program tested 15 of the raw meat meals from restaurants in western Switzerland. A chemist who analyzed the phoney steak tartare said,
"One can properly talk of obvious and blatant deceit."
However, there is not just deceit involved in the incident, as apparently only four meals tested were found to be free of elevated levels of bacteria. Bearing in mind that the meat in the dish is served raw, one can only imagine the dangers.
In restaurants in the canton of Vaud, two plates of steak tartare were found to be particularly infected, and exceeded the acceptable levels for bacteria many times over.
Comment: For readers outside of Toronto to get a good idea of the utter buffoonery of the Toronto Mayor, here's a link to a recording of a live radio call-in show where it appears the Mayor called in incognito in order to defend himself.