Society's ChildS


Pirates

Even Ukraine's own newspapers report bribery problem worse now than in 2015

bribe
Despite government promises to tackle corruption, Ukrainians say they encounter bribery even more frequently in 2018 than they did in 2015, according to a study published on Sept. 25.

A joint study by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology and Pact, an international non-profit, found that the index on demanding bribes rose from 20.9 points in a similar study performed in 2015, to 25.4 points in the 2018 study. The index tracking the giving of bribes also rose, from 6.6 points in 2015 to 7.8 points in 2018.

Almost 37 percent of those polled claimed they had been asked to give bribes, and almost 15 percent said they had offered bribes in 2018, according to the poll.

The study was conducted in July and August, with more than 10,000 people polled nationally. Similar studies have been conducted every four years since 2007.

Comment: Ukraine only has itself and its US masters to thank for the dire situation they find themselves in: Also check out SOTT radio's:


Eye 2

Notorious pedophile killed by mother during attempted rape of 12yo daughter

cop car
Editor's note: It has come to our attention that this story is mostly false. The woman did not use a shotgun or "blow the intruder's head off," nor was the intruder attempting to rape the woman's child at the time he was shot.

For a more accurate version of this story, please see this link. Sott.net will no longer be publishing articles from the 'ABC 14' web site.
A notorious pedophile has been found dead by police after he was shot dead during the attempted rape of a 12-year old girl at a property in Morgantown, West Virginia.

The 42-year old mother of the girl told investigators that she woke in the early hours of the morning after hearing a commotion in her daughters room. She grabbed a shotgun from her closet and rushed to her daughter's room, where she was confronted by the sight of an unidentified man struggling with her daughter.

Startled, the man turned around to face the mother, at which point she fired directly into his face, blowing off most of his head. The rapist - a 53 year old sex offender known to police for a series of crimes on young victims - died instantly.

The mother took her daughter with her and drove directly to a nearby police station where she made her statement to officers. "Deputies arrived at the scene and discovered the body of a deceased male," said one investigator. "As our enquiry is ongoing we are yet to release the name of the suspect, or the victims involved, but we can confirm that the dead man is on the West Virginia Sex Offender Registry.

The mother and daughter are now staying with relatives as their property remains an active crime scene. It is not clear at this point if any charges will be filed against the mother. Victims rights groups have said they expect she will be cleared of any wrongdoing once the investigation is complete. As one member who spoke to the media said: "Can you imagine confronting a rapist in your child's bedroom? I think all of us would agree he got what he deserved."

Bacon

'Threat' from rivals? Pig heads with knives found at doorstep of Moscow lawmaker

pig head
© Nadezhda Zagordan / Facebook
A municipal deputy has found herself on the receiving end of apparent mafia-style intimidation, after a pig head was left on her doorstep and that of her mother's. She alleges the swine parts are a "threat" from her rivals.

Nadezhda Zagordan, a deputy for Moscow district of Izmailovo, found the pig's head on the doorstep of her apartment late on Tuesday. The head had a note, reading '21,' stuck to it with a knife.

Another swine head was placed on the doorstep of Zagordan's mother. That one had note reading '72.' The meaning of the notes remains unclear.

Red Flag

Sweden to update Pippi Longstocking in new children's story, becoming a Roma migrant and 'warrior against injustice'

Pippi Longstocking
© AFP
In a new version of the children's story, to be broadcast despite initial objections from the creator's family, the naughty ginger heroine will become a Roma "warrior against injustice" living in a troubled immigrant suburb.

Pippi in Rinkeby is to be transmitted as a radio series on state-funded Radio Sweden not just in Swedish, but popular minority languages, including Romanian and Arabic. The story, in which Pippi is a homeless migrant, who inhabits a car wreck, will then be published as a book.

"She is the world's strongest and most self-sufficient girl and takes total care of herself. Everything is as in the original, but we have made it our own version," 12-year-old Felicia Di Fransesco, who helped develop the story in a children's writing workshop, told Sweden Radio.

Comment: The radical leftists seem to want to change every cultural touchstone. They should write their own stories and see if they stick instead of taking an already admired story and turning it into Liberal Utopia.


Handcuffs

Bill Cosby sentenced to 3-10 years in state prison for sexual assault

cosby
© Brendan McDermid / Reuters
Comedian Bill Cosby, 81, has been sentenced to three to 10 years in a Pennsylvania state prison for drugging and molesting a woman in 2004.

Cosby was sentenced on Tuesday over the assault, which took place at his Philadelphia home back in 2004. The sentence was a bit lighter than demanded by prosecution, which urged the judge to put the comedian from five to 10 years behind bars.

"No one is above the law and no one should be treated differently or disproportionately based on where they live or who they are," or based on "wealth, celebrity, philanthropy," Judge Steven O'Neil said Tuesday, sentencing the actor.

TV

MSM Fail: NBC's 'Nightly News' ratings sink to all-time low

NBC Nightly News
NBC has been dealt another blow of bad news-ratings for this year's NBC Nightly News have fallen to an all time low.

The Wrap reports that NBC Nightly News just had it's "lowest-rated September-to-September year ever."

The report continues, stating that the Lester Holt-hosted show "delivered its lowest-rated year ever in both total viewers and the all-important adults 25-54 demographic, according to available numbers dating back to Nielsen electronic data began in 1991."

This is just the latest bit of bad news for NBC. The company has been rocked by reports detailing how the company covered up sexual assault allegations made against Harvey Weinstein, preventing their reporter, Ronan Farrow, from publishing a story about Weinstein's alleged history of sexual harassment and assault.

Question

Blip or trend? Far East regional elections suddenly become less predictable in Russia

Vladivostok
© Vitaliy Ankov / SputnikRussian city of Vladivostok.
Russia's Far East has given the Kremlin a bloody nose over the past two weekends. It's a reminder to Moscow that the regions can't be taken for granted and blowback can be expected over unpopular pension reforms.

In the end, it was a landslide. Nationalist opposition candidate Sergei Furgal of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) defeated President Putin's man Vyacheslav Shport by a margin of almost 70 percent to just under 28 percent in the race to become governor of Khabarovsk. Meanwhile, contests in Vladimir, Khakassia and Primorye also delivered setbacks to the ruling party, United Russia.

But don't get too excited - or worried - just yet, depending on your political preferences. These were regional elections, fought mainly on local issues, involving personalities barely known in Moscow but well-known in their own backyards. Small town heroes, or villains, as it were.

Comment: Putin was faced with harsh demographic and economic realities regarding Russia's pension system. He did his best to find a compromise that would ensure the viability of the system without impacting Russian retirees. The Duma recognized his efforts and amended the bill according to his suggestions.


Red Flag

Second Kavanaugh accuser, Deborah Ramirez refusing to testify to Senate

Deborah Ramirez
© Benjamin Rasmussen for The New YorkerDeborah Ramirez, a Yale classmate of Brett Kavanaugh
Deborah Ramirez, a Yale University classmate of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, is refusing to talk to the Senate Judiciary Committee about her accusation against Kavanaugh, a GOP lawmaker said Tuesday.

Ramirez lawyer John Clune tweeted Tuesday that "We have been working hard to cooperate with the Senate Judiciary Committee...and they have refused to meet all scheduled appointments." He said Ramirez wants an FBI investigation, not a congressional investigation, and is willing to "swear to the FBI under penalty of perjury."

A top Judiciary Committee GOP aide told the Washington Examiner in response to the Clune claim, "The Ramirez legal team has declined to comply with the committee's established process and investigation and seem to prefer working through the media."

Clune is scheduled to appear on CNN tonight.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who sits on the committee, said a lawyer for Ramirez told committee staff she would not speak to them about her allegation that Kavanaugh flashed his naked groin in her face during an alcohol-laden party their freshman year. Ramirez made the accusation in a blockbuster Sunday night New Yorker story.

Comment: Have Kavanaugh's two accusers been carefully constructing perjury hedges? Sure looks like it.
In the case of the second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, who was a student at Yale and claims that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her, we have the same perjury-hedge dynamic. She's spoken only to the press, and in the wake of intense solicitation from those parts. And she's on stage one of the Ford style of accusations: lots of hazy and indistinct memories that she became sure of only just recently. Muddled memories certainly can be read any way a person wants them to be read. They're also a convenient hedge against perjury, since a defense team can't come up with pinned details to refute them.

Yet everyone else in this confirmation drama is testifying under oath and telling lawmen to haul them away to jail if they aren't telling the truth.



Footprints

American teen finds herself trapped in a South Korean cult during holiday with mum

Elise with camera
© EliseElise on a trip to Fiji where 400 members of Grace Road Church moved after their leader prophesied that it was the promised land
During the summer break after her junior year of high school, Elise* travelled to South Korea from Chicago with her mother for what was meant to be a six-week holiday.

Instead, the 17-year-old ended up trapped in Grace Road Church, a cult whose leader was arrested in August accused of depriving followers of their liberty and participating in ritual beatings. While there, Elise was forced to attend five-hour sermons, denied medication and told she would never see her father and sister again.

Elise's mother organised the trip in 2013 after discovering her daughter smoked marijuana. The holiday was supposed to allow Elise - who was born in the US to Korean parents - a chance to spend time with her Korean family and have a break from her American friends.

But, after two weeks with family, Elise's mother took her to stay at Grace Road Church in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul.

The church, which denies it is a cult, has branches in both South Korea and Fiji, where hundreds of church members moved in 2014 after its leader, Pastor Shin Ok-ju, said there would be a famine in Korea and Fiji was the promised land where they would survive.

Yoda

Britain's Labour Party defies Israel lobby and votes for arms freeze

Labour Party conference UK
© Asa WinstanleyDelegates listen as Colin Monehen, a delegate from Harlow, proposes the motion to end British arms sales to Israel, at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, 25 September.
In a historic move, the Labour Party's annual conference on Tuesday voted to end UK arms sales to Israel.

But The Electronic Intifada has learned that Emily Thornberry, the woman who would become foreign minister were a Labour government elected tomorrow, had privately tried to scupper the motion.

Although Thornberry is a close ally of Labour leader and Palestine solidarity veteran Jeremy Corbyn, she is also a supporter of Labour Friends of Israel and opposes an arms embargo.

Amid a sea of waving Palestinian flags, and chants of "Free Palestine," delegates debated a motion condemning Israel's killing of Palestinian protesters - more than 140 to date - since the Great March of Return protests began on 30 March.


Comment: Expect further hysterical allegations on UK media that Jeremy Corbyn is 'antisemitic'.