Society's ChildS


Handcuffs

Canada: Alleged Vancouver Looter Turned in by Parents


CBC News
Fri, 17 Jun 2011 12:21 UTC
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© Getty ImagesRiot police stand in front of two burning police cars as three Canucks fans look on in downtown Vancouver.
Police say 6 people have turned themselves in

The parents of a 17-year-old boy turned him in to Burnaby RCMP alleging he was involved in looting during the Vancouver riot.

The couple decided to contact police about their son after seeing photos of the looting at the Louis Vuitton store on the corner of Howe Street and West Georgia Street that were posted on the internet, RCMP said.

Police allege the teen was also linked to the destruction of a Vancouver police vehicle, which was flipped upside down during the rioting.

The youth, who cannot be named because of his age, is set to appear in court in August to answer to charges of break enter and theft, and mischief to property over $5,000.
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Blackbox

Jewish court sentences dog to death by stoning


Agence France-Presse
Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:56 UTC
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© AFP/File, Menahem Kahana
A Jerusalem rabbinical court condemned to death by stoning a dog it suspects is the reincarnation of a secular lawyer who insulted the court's judges 20 years ago, Ynet website reported Friday.

According to Ynet, the large dog made its way into the Monetary Affairs Court in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, frightening judges and plaintiffs.

Despite attempts to drive the dog out of the court, the hound refused to leave the premises.

One of the sitting judges then recalled a curse the court had passed down upon a secular lawyer who had insulted the judges two decades previously.
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Nuke

Fukushima: It's much worse than you think

Dahr Jamail
Aljazeera
Thu, 16 Jun 2011 12:50 UTC
Scientific experts believe Japan's nuclear disaster to be far worse than governments are revealing to the public.
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© Gallo/GettyMany Japanese citizens are now permanently displaced from their homes due to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind," Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera.

Japan's 9.0 earthquake on March 11 caused a massive tsunami that crippled the cooling systems at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. It also led to hydrogen explosions and reactor meltdowns that forced evacuations of those living within a 20km radius of the plant.

Gundersen, a licensed reactor operator with 39 years of nuclear power engineering experience, managing and coordinating projects at 70 nuclear power plants around the US, says the Fukushima nuclear plant likely has more exposed reactor cores than commonly believed.

"Fukushima has three nuclear reactors exposed and four fuel cores exposed," he said, "You probably have the equivalent of 20 nuclear reactor cores because of the fuel cores, and they are all in desperate need of being cooled, and there is no means to cool them effectively."

TEPCO has been spraying water on several of the reactors and fuel cores, but this has led to even greater problems, such as radiation being emitted into the air in steam and evaporated sea water - as well as generating hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive sea water that has to be disposed of.

"The problem is how to keep it cool," says Gundersen. "They are pouring in water and the question is what are they going to do with the waste that comes out of that system, because it is going to contain plutonium and uranium. Where do you put the water?"
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Heart

Canada: For All The Right Reasons

Derek Jory
Canucks.com
Fri, 17 Jun 2011 01:37 UTC
06/15/2011 - A day that will go down in history for all the wrong reasons

I cried twice today.

I'm an eternal optimist, always have been, always will be, and never once did the thought of the Vancouver Canucks losing in the Stanley Cup Final cross my mind. Not once.

That made dealing with the inevitable hardship worlds more difficult; Thursday was truly a day of grieving and it got the best of me when I took a seat in Rogers Arena for an all-staff meeting just before lunch. They were tears of disappointment and exhaustion.

I wanted to be so hungover Thursday that my headache had a migraine, instead I spent the bulk of the day sitting in my office playing out different what-if scenarios in my head. Then I was asked to head downtown to the scene of the unthinkable riots to talk to some people who were apparently spearheading a cleanup effort.

Great, I thought, a few people will be picking up trash, it'll be the equivalent of fighting a rhinoceros with a cocktail sword.

Then I got to the heart of the city.

And I cried again. They were tears of pride.

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Stormtrooper

Warmonger Prince Harry could return to frontline in Afghanistan


CBS News
Thu, 16 Jun 2011 18:22 UTC
Prince Harry
© GETTYPrince Harry salutes at the opening of The Royal British Legion Wootton Bassett Field of Remembrance in Lydiard Park on Nov. 9, 2010, in Wootton Bassett, England.


British newspaper The Guardian states Harry has reportedly been cleared for a return (the Ministry of Defense will not comment officially). Prince Harry recently qualified to pilot Apache helicopters.

The Guardian quotes Clarence House: "Harry is an army pilot and will deploy wherever the army chooses to send him. His course finishes in 2012 and after that his deployment will be a matter for the army chain of command."
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Attention

Canada: Crowd Attacks Man During Vancouver Riot


Realradio.fm
Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:13 UTC
A man attempting to halt the looting and destruction of a storefront is attacked and severely beaten by the riotous crowd (relevant portion of video begins at 3:15 - Warning: Graphic Video)
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Nuke

Fukushima's Apocalyptic Threat

Harvey Wasserman
Reader Supported News
Fri, 20 May 2011 00:00 UTC
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© Shiho Fukada/IHTA Japanese child evacuee rests at a temporary shelter in Kesennuma, 03/17/11.
Fukushima may be in an apocalyptic downward spiral.

Forget the corporate-induced media coma that says otherwise ... or nothing at all.

Lethal radiation is spewing unabated. Emission levels could seriously escalate. There is no end in sight. The potential is many times worse than Chernobyl.

Containing this disaster may be beyond the abilities of Tokyo Electric or the Japanese government.

There is no reason to incur further unnecessary risk. With all needed resources, it's time for the world's best scientists and engineers to take charge.

Even then the outcome is unclear.

For a brief but terrifying overview, consult Dr. Chris Busby as interviewed by RT/TV.

Fukushima Units One, Two and Three are all in various stages of melting down.
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Stormtrooper

Canada: Angry Vancouver Fans Set Cars Ablaze, Fling Bottles After Stanley Cup Loss

Tamsyn Burgmann and Terri Theodore
The Canadian Press
Thu, 16 Jun 2011 01:00 UTC
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© The Canadian Press / Geoff HoweVancouver Canucks fans watch a car burn during a riot following game 7 of the NHL Stanley Cup final in downtown Vancouver, B.C., on Wednesday, June 15, 2011.
The same city that played peaceful host to an idyllic 2010 Winter Olympics showed a darker side Wednesday as a heartbreaking Stanley Cup loss sent furious hockey fans on a violent, liquor-fuelled rampage in downtown Vancouver.

Angry, drunken revellers ran wild after Wednesday night's 4-0 Game 7 loss to the Boston Bruins, setting cars and garbage cans ablaze, smashing windows, showering giant TV screens with beer bottles and dancing atop overturned vehicles.

For many, the ugly chaos added a vicious sting to the already bitter taste of defeat.

"This isn't what the Canucks are about," said Chad McMillan, 31, a Vancouver resident and lifelong Canucks fan.

"This isn't what their fans are about, this isn't what this city is about."

Tear gas mingled with the stench of acrid smoke and stale beer as riot police, truncheons drawn, moved in to quell the violence, pushing crowds away from the burning cars that were at the epicentre of the anger.

Later in the evening, police cars were also set aflame.

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© Reuters / Anthony Bolante A Vancouver Canucks fan poses for photos in front of a destroyed pickup truck during a riot after the Canucks lost Game 7 of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs to the Boston Bruins in Vancouver, British Columbia June 15, 2011. Riot police fired tear gas to control a mob that turned violent in downtown Vancouver on Wednesday after the game.
At one point, police were using flash-bangs - grenades that are designed to distract and disorient, rather than injure - to try to break up the mob, McMillan said.
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People

Residents describe 'scary' China riots


Agence France-Presse
Wed, 15 Jun 2011 06:26 UTC
Zengcheng - Residents of a southern Chinese town on Wednesday described frightening scenes of overturned cars engulfed in flames and armed police out in force after days of violent clashes.

A heavy security presence remained on the streets of , which is part of the greater Guangzhou area -- a bustling city in China's industrial heartland packed with migrant workers that lies near the border with Hong Kong.

The clashes, sparked by rumours spread on the Internet that police had beaten a street hawker to death and manhandled his pregnant wife, have so far led to 25 arrests.

"It was very scary -- the scariest thing I have encountered since I was born," said Chao, a 27-year-old owner of a denim shop in Xintang, a garment district in Zengcheng, which is about 90 minutes by car from central Guangzhou.

Chao said at one point in the melee, there were a "few thousand rioters" facing off against a massive police force, adding: "They burnt down one of the buildings."
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Beaker

Illegal Spread of GM Rice Alarms Chinese Officials


Raw Story
Wed, 15 Jun 2011 21:15 UTC
rice
© AFP
Genetically modified rice has been spreading illegally for years in China, officials have admitted, triggering a debate on a sensitive aspect of the food security plan in the world's most populous nation.

Two strains of GM rice were approved for open-field experiments but not commercial sale in 2009. In January, the agriculture ministry said "no genetically modified cereals are being grown in China" outside the test sites.

But in April, an environment ministry official told the weekly Nanfang Zhoumo that a joint investigation by four government departments had found that "illegal GM seeds are present in several provinces because of weak management".

The agriculture ministry did not respond to an AFP request for clarification.
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