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More horrifying still, a recent Indian government report shows that none of the 216 births recorded in 132 villages from a northern Indian district are girls, leading local officials to suspect female foeticide. Of those, 16 villages have not recorded a single female birth since the beginning of the year, according to the district's magistrate Ashish Chauhan.
The increasing desire for smaller families is one cause of ongoing sex selection. For instance, women in India in 1970 had about 5.6 children on average, but by 2018 they were having just 2.3 children on average over their lifetimes. This has meant more women resort to sex-selective abortion to achieve their desired family composition.
The government of India has also long promoted population control policies which limit family size, and thus fuel the practice of prenatal sex selection. Six states in India currently have two-child policies that prohibit civil servants from having more than two children.
The practice of sex selection is commonly associated with poverty and countries where women do not have equal rights.
© (L)AFP/Norwegian Police (R) Twitter
In a statement on Friday, police said they believe Arjen Kamphuis - a missing cybersecurity expert and WikiLeaks affiliate who was last seen in the Norweigan town of Bodo in the summer of 2018 - was likely "lost at sea" after a kayaking trip went awry.
"The police have concluded that Mr Kamphuis most likely suffered an accident on the evening of August 20, 2018, while kayaking in ... northern Norway, and was subsequently lost at sea," the police statement said. "His body has still not been recovered."
Kamphuis's disappearance has generated conspiracy theories, particularly due to his connection to WikiLeaks and suspicions were stoked further last year when a phone belonging to Kamphuis was briefly activated in a location nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) from Bodo.
Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter found head of severed cat outside home during Jeffrey Epstein reporting
© Brigitte Stelzer
Back in 2006, as the feds compiled accusations against the money manager in Palm Beach, Florida, John Connolly, a contributing editor for the magazine, headed out there in search of a story, NPR reported.
But as Connolly, a stringer, sat down with women who had worked for Epstein, his editor, Carter, called him to report the gruesome cat head in the front yard of his Connecticut home.
"It was done to intimidate," Connolly told NPR. "No question about it."
Connolly said he decided to stop reporting on Epstein and later penned a nonfiction book about the disgraced financier with bestselling crime novelist James Patterson.
But Carter told NPR that the magazine never ceased its Epstein-related reporting because of any perceived threat.
Russia launches 'floating nuclear power plant', delivering energy security to its most remote region
© Sputnik/Pavel LvovThe Akademik Lomonosov, August 13, 2019
During a special ceremony on Friday the unique vessel, called the Akademik Lomonosov, will leave the city of Murmansk to float thousands of kilometers, all the way to the small far-eastern port of Pevek, which sits on the Arctic coast of Chukotka. Two tug boats and one reserve vessel will tow the floating nuclear power plant.
Comment: Chukotka is so far away from Moscow, it's technically in the Western hemisphere. Sarah Palin can even see it from her house!
"There are no analogues to it in the world," said Dmitry Alekseenko, a branch deputy director of Rosenergoatom, the builder of the floating nuclear power plant.
The Akademik Lomonosov and its assisting vessels are scheduled to reach their destination by the end of September, their exact arrival time depending on weather conditions. The facility is set to become operational by the end of the year.
© South China Morning PostAndrew McCabe
Now, McCabe - who is suing the DOJ and FBI over what he claims was a "politically motivated" firing just days before he was set to retire with full benefits," will join former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper at CNN.
Comment: So it is in the topsy-turvy world of US politics and media today. An upright actor such as Michael Flynn is crippled with legal fees defending his innocence but his corrupt persecutor gets a fat television contract. McCabe will fit right in with America's premiere propaganda outlet.
- FBI report: Andrew McCabe 'lied four times' about media leaks
- DOJ releases report that led to firing of FBI's McCabe - leaking and lying to FBI about it
- What? Senate investigators suspect McCabe altered Mike Flynn's 302 report from the ambush interview
- McCabe interrogated Mike Flynn for Russia hoax while Flynn was a witness against McCabe in a sex discrimination case
- Report surfaces: Michael Flynn investigation was an FBI personal vendetta for sexual discrimination charges
- FBI Deputy Director McCabe accused of ordering agents to lie about Benghazi
- Damning: James Comey and Andrew McCabe set out to destroy Iraq War veteran turned FBI agent who informed them of widespread FBI corruption
© FDNY/TwitterNew York Fire Department members investigate an incident with an elevator in an apartment building in New York city.
The man, identified as Samuel Charles Waisbren, was a resident of the building at 344 Third Avenue in the Kips Bay neighborhood of New York City, police said.
Waisbren was exiting the elevator in the building's lobby after two other passengers had already left the elevator just before 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, according to New York ABC station WABC.
When the doors began to close, the elevator unexpectedly malfunctioned and dropped to the basement. Waisbren became trapped between the elevator and the shaft wall, and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Comment: Oh man. What a way to go. That is horrific.
Here's the video. Warning: it's graphic...
© The OregonianTyrone Lamont Allen's mugshot, on left. The police Photoshop-altered photo of Allen, on right.
But when Portland police suspected Allen was involved in four bank and credit union heists, and none of the tellers reported seeing tattoos on the face of the man who robbed them, police digitally altered Allen's mugshot.
They covered up every one of his tattoos using Photoshop.
"I basically painted over the tattoos,'' police forensic criminalist Mark Weber testified. "Almost like applying electronic makeup.''
Police then presented the altered image of Allen with photos of five similar-looking men to the tellers for identification. They didn't tell anyone that they'd changed Allen's photo.
© REUTERS / Jane Rosenberg
Innocence en Danger (Innocence in Danger), a French non-profit organisation fighting child sexual abuse, says it has received witness statements from 10 people who claim to be victims or witnesses of sexual violence linked to the late US financier Jeffery Epstein.
The group's president, Homayra Sellier, said that its lawyers would file legal complaints and hand them over to prosecutors both in France and the United States.
© Amy Luke / Getty Images fileThe NXIVM Executive Success Programs sign outside of the office at 455 New Karner Road on April 26, 2018 in Albany, New York. Keith Raniere, founder of NXIVM, was arrested by the FBI in Mexico in March of 2018.
Brandon B. Porter, a former doctor at St. Peter's Hospital in Albany, violated 40 state and federal regulations, according to an investigation against him by the New York Department of Health. The department's investigation into Porter found that the doctor not only conducted unlicensed "human subject research," but that he failed to obtain proper consent from people or keep records from his supposed studies.
Between 2010 and 2017, Porter allegedly performed unsanctioned neurological research on more than 200 "subjects" to study psychological responses to certain stimuli as part of NXIVM's studies into Tourette's syndrome, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and "Executive Success Program" for self-betterment, according to the department's investigation.
In one study, dubbed the "Fright Study," Porter forced his subjects to watch violent and "horrific" video clips, including footage of four women being dismembered with a machete and a conscious male being forced to eat his own brain matter.
Comment: See also: WikiLeaks associate's mysterious disappearance takes a new turn