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Woman Sues City of Tulsa For Cutting Down Her Edible Garden

Lori Fullbright
NewsOn6.com
Sat, 16 Jun 2012 15:03 UTC
Tulsa garden
© NewsOn6
A Tulsa woman is suing the city's code enforcement officers after she said they cut down her garden with no cause.

Denise Morrison said she has more than 100 plant varieties in her front and back yards and all of them are edible and have a purpose.

She knows which ones will treat arthritis, which will make your food spicy, which ones keep mosquitoes away and treat bug bites, but she said none of that matter to city inspectors.

Last August, Morrison's front and back yards were filled with flowers in bloom, lemon, stevia, garlic chives, grapes, strawberries, apple mint, spearmint, peppermint, an apple tree, walnut tree, pecan trees and much more.

She got a letter from the city saying there had been a complaint about her yard.

She said she took pictures to meet with city inspectors, but they wouldn't listen, so she invited them to her home so they could point out the problem areas.

"Everything, everything needs to go," Morrison said they told her.
      Read More...
Arrow Up

Black Death Discovered In Oregon

Dave Smith
International Business Times
Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:45 UTC
The Black Death, a strain of bubonic plague that destroyed nearly a third of Europe's entire population between 1347 and 1369, has been found in Oregon. Health officials in Portland have confirmed that a man contracted the plague after getting bitten by a cat. The unidentified man, who is currently in his 50s, had tried to pry a dead mouse from a stray cat's mouth on June 2 when the cat attacked him.
Black Death
© International Business Times
A few days after getting bitten, the resident from the rural town of Prineville in Crook County developed a fever. By June 8, the man was so sick that he checked himself into St. Charles Medical Center in Redmond, Ore. He has since been transferred to the larger St. Charles facility in Bend. He was believed to be suffering from septicemic plague -- meaning the bacteria was spreading into his bloodstream -- and he is currently in critical condition.

"This can be a serious illness," said Emilio DeBess, Oregon's public health veterinarian. "But it is treatable with antibiotics, and it's also preventable."

The Black Death originated in rats -- black rats in particular -- but the bacteria thrives in forests, grasslands and any wooded areas inhabited by rats and squirrels. Even though rats were carriers, the disease was spread by the fleas that infested their bodies. Fleas would bite the rat, and the plague bacterium -- later identified as Pasteurella pestis, and renamed Yersinia pestis -- would stay in the intestinal track of the flea until the insect regurgitated it on its next victim; rodent populations can carry the plague bacteria without it killing them off, and the bacteria can travel back and forth from rats to fleas, also known as the sylvatic or enzootic cycle. When the fleas bit humans during this period, humans became exposed to the bacteria -- and became likely to die. Without the help of modern medicine, Europeans in the Middle Ages could do little to combat the plague.
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Bizarro Earth

81 Year Old Man Killed By 70 Year Old Man


Redding.com
Sat, 16 Jun 2012 12:35 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Robert Mix
An 81-year-old Paynes Creek man died today after hitting his head during a fight with another man in the parking lot of the Redding Costco, police said.

Just before 11 a.m. Monday police responded to a report of the fight in the Costco parking lot at 1300 Dana Drive.

There, officers found Robert Leonard Mix lying on the sidewalk in front of the store. He was conscious and speaking with medics, Redding police Sgt. Al Mellon said.

Witnesses told police Mix was sitting in his Dodge pickup waiting for a parking space, which was causing congestion in the parking lot.
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Info

Jesus' Birthplace May Become First Palestine World Heritage Site

Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience
Fri, 15 Jun 2012 12:35 UTC
Grotto of the Nativity
© Zvonimir Atletic | Shutterstock
Two entrances (one shown here) now lead to the Grotto of the Nativity. Originally, in the fourth century, there was only one entrance to the grotto from the main body of the church.
The holy city of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, thought to be the birthplace of Jesus, may become the first World Heritage Site in the Palestinian territories, according to UNESCO.

In its 36th yearly session, the World Heritage Committee - consisting of representatives from 21 of the States Parties to the Convention - will consider 36 possible World Heritage sites, from June 24 to July 6 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

The list currently includes more than 900 properties deemed by the committee as having "outstanding universal value" as part of the world's natural and cultural heritage.

Palestine, which became a member of UNESCO in October 2011, will be presenting the church and the surrounding route used for religious pilgrimages as its first site for inscription on the World Heritage List.

That vote, to accept the Palestinians into UNESCO, proved controversial, according to a CNN news report, suggesting the United States held the view that a peace deal should be reached with Israel before the Palestinian territories were granted full UNESCO membership.

Located in the holy city of Bethlehem, the Church of the Nativity, a Byzantine basilica, is built on top of the cave where, according to a tradition first documented in the second century, Jesus was born, UNESCO notes. Helena, mother of Christian Emperor Constantine, is said to have intended the basilica to commemorate Jesus' birth.
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Handcuffs

3rd Teen in Prostitution Ring Nabbed in Gatineau


CBC News
Fri, 15 Jun 2012 09:27 UTC
Image
© CBC News
Staff Sgt. John McGetrick called the teen human trafficking case shocking as three girls are accused in the prostitution of three other teenaged girls.
Girl, 16, appears in court Friday afternoon on several charges

Canada - Police in Gatineau, Que., have arrested the third suspect in a human trafficking case where three teenage girls are accused in the prostitution of three other teenage girls in Ottawa.

The youth, 16, was apprehended Thursday at about 8 p.m. and returned to Ottawa, police say. She appears in an Ottawa courtroom Friday afternoon on charges of human trafficking, procuring for prostitution, forcible confinement, robbery, assault and uttering threats.

The search for the third suspect was made more difficult, police say, because they could not release info about her due to provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Police had also originally said she was 17 years old.

Police said the three accused allegedly used social media to lure a trio of other girls, who are between 13 and 17 years old, to a home at a Walkley Road community housing project in southeast Ottawa. That is also where the accused live, neighbours say.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Water, the next flash-point: tensions rising in the Middle East over shrinking water supplies


United Press International
Fri, 15 Jun 2012 11:42 UTC
Image
© UPI/Ismael Mohamad
A Palestinian child drinks water in the southern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Rafah on April 08, 2012. Israelis use 66 gallons a day, while Palestinians are limited to 15.4 gallons, even though they claim a major underground aquifer and access to Jordan River.
There are moves to rewrite contentious water-sharing agreements that are becoming a major source of friction in the Middle East as water supplies shrink.

Amid the profound political changes sweeping the Arab world, there are moves to rewrite contentious water-sharing agreements that are becoming a major source of friction in the Middle East as water supplies shrink.

In May, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned his neighbors, with Turkey and Syria his main targets, that the region faces conflict unless the issue of dwindling water resources is addressed by regional governments.

Baghdad is increasingly angry and frustrated at the failure of Turkey, in the north, and Syria, to the west, to resolve a growing crisis over the reduced flow and the deteriorating quality of water from the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers they allow Iraq.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

India's capital in water crisis after supplies cut in searing heat-wave


Terra Daily / Agence France-Presse
Fri, 15 Jun 2012 11:39 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Large parts of New Delhi were struggling with acute water shortages on Friday after a neighbouring state cut its supplies at the peak of summer, officials said.

The sprawling Indian capital, with a population of 16 million sweltering in 43 degree C (109.4 F) summer heat, relies on four neighbouring states for its water -- Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand.

Haryana, the biggest supplier, cut its flow to the city on Thursday and about three million people have suffered shortages or been completely cut off, according to the Delhi Jal Board, a government agency responsible for water supply.
      Read More...
Handcuffs

Police Arrest Last Fugitive in Japan Gas Attack

Mari Yamaguchi
The Globe and Mail
Fri, 15 Jun 2012 02:40 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Yuriko Nakao
Police officers stand in front of the Tokyo Metropolitan police department as they wait for Katsuya Takahashi, the last remaining fugitive of the Aum Shinrikyo, to be escorted by police officers to the building in Tokyo June 15, 2012.
Tokyo - Japanese police Friday arrested the last fugitive suspected in a doomsday cult's deadly nerve gas attack on Tokyo subways 17 years ago: the cult leader's former bodyguard, who was finally tracked down at a comic-book cafe.

Katsuya Takahashi, 54, a former member of Aum Shinrikyo cult, was arrested on suspicion of murder, a Tokyo police spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity, citing department rules. An employee at the downtown Tokyo cafe had recognized him and called police, she said.

Mr. Takahashi admitted who he was when approached by the police at the cafe.

His trail had been cold for years, but it heated up after another fugitive from the cult was arrested June 3. Thousands of officers had been hunting for him across the capital, handing out fresh photos of the suspect and monitoring transportation hubs to keep him from escaping.
      Read More...
Arrow Down

Foxconn Worker Falls to Death in China


Agence France-Presse
Thu, 14 Jun 2012 00:00 UTC
Trabajadores de Foxconn
© Reuters
A Foxconn worker fell to his death in China, the company which assembles products for Apple said Thursday, following a series of fatalities that sparked concern about conditions at its plants.

The 23-year-old, identified only by his surname Xie, fell from his rented apartment in the southwest Chinese city of Chengdu on Wednesday, according to a statement released by Hon Hai Precision Industry, Foxconn's parent company.

It said the cause of the tragedy was not immediately clear and Chengdu police were still investigating.

Taiwan tech giant Foxconn, which assembles products for Apple, Sony and Nokia, has come under the spotlight after suicides and labour unrest at its Chinese plants since 2010.
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Stormtrooper

Andre Pshenichnikov, Ex-Israeli Soldier, Seeks Palestinian Citizenship

Dalia Nammari
Source
Thu, 14 Jun 2012 03:40 UTC
Andre Pshenichnikov
© AP Photo/Ariel Schalit
In this June 11, 2012 photo, Andre Pshenichnikov, a 23-year-old immigrant from Tajikistan who was recently detained by Israeli police for residing illegally in the Dheishe Refugee Camp near Bethlehem, poses for a picture in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, Israel.
Ramalla, West Bank -- In an odd twist to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian saga, a former Israeli soldier has embarked on a new fight: He wants to renounce his Israeli citizenship and move to a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank.

Andre Pshenichnikov, a 23-year-old Jewish immigrant from Tajikistan, was recently detained by Israeli police for residing illegally in the Deheishe Refugee Camp near Bethlehem. There he told police that he wants to break all ties with Israel, give up his Israeli citizenship and obtain a Palestinian one instead.

Pshenichnikov is currently traveling in Europe for two months. When he returns, he hopes to move to the West Bank.

It's incredibly rare for Israelis to seek to live under Palestinian rule. There are only a few known cases of Jewish Israelis who have done so, mostly ones who have married Palestinians, as well as a journalist for the Israeli daily Haaretz who moved to Ramallah and reports from there. None are known to have renounced Israeli citizenship - though some Israelis living abroad have. Nor are any known to have sought Palestinian residency instead. People are not allowed to be dual citizens.
      Read More...
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