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Racist emails from Ferguson police released

Image
© Reuters / Jim Young
Seven racist emails exchanged between Ferguson court and police officials, which were cited in the Department of Justice (DOJ) inquiry in March, were finally released to the press. Some 50,000 messages remain unavailable.

The emails came from former Ferguson court clerk Mary Ann Twitty, former police captain Rick Henke and former police sergeant William Mudd. All were sent and received between 2008 and 2011. Twitty was fired over the emails, while Henke and Mudd resigned shortly after they were revealed.

One of the messages, sent by Twitty to Mudd and Henke in April 2011, showed a still image from the movie "Bedtime for Bonzo," with then-actor and later President Ronald Reagan bottle-feeding a chimpanzee. The caption read, "Rare photo of Ronald Reagan babysitting Barack Obama in 1962."

Another email from Twitty, from October 2011, showed a photograph of bare-chested African women dancing with a captioned of, "Michelle Obama's High School Reunion."

Megaphone

Donbass struggle, European shame

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© Sputnik/ Pepe Escobar
I am standing on sacred territory in Donbass, which also happened to be sacred territory during the former Soviet Union. On the top of this hill roughly halfway between Donetsk and Lugansk, there used to be an elaborate monument complex celebrating the heroes of World War II who defeated nazi-fascism.

Kiev's self-described "anti-terrorist operations" (ATO) - which continue to demonize the whole population of Donbass - have turned this literally upside down. Last year, Kiev's forces took Saur-mogila, and bombed the whole monument complex. The forces of the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk retook it, at great cost; and now a red-white-blue resistance flag dominates the landscape, waving in the wind.

Airplane

Cock(pit) fighting: Air India pilots grounded after fighting with each other

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© Flickr/ Christian Junker - AHKGAP
Two co-pilots who had a fight in the cockpit of a commercial jet prior to takeoff have been suspended from duty.

A spokesman for Air India announced on Monday that the co-pilots of Sunday's flight from Jaipur to Delhi have been suspended pending an investigation by the airline, following reports that they had a fight in the cockpit prior to takeoff.

According to sources in the airline, the conflict began after the captain of flight AI 611 asked his copilot to take notes of critical data for the flight prior to take-off. The co-pilot, instead of complying with the request, is alleged to have physically attacked his colleague.

Light Sabers

2,500 Ukrainians protest at US Embassy in Kiev (Video) - no international or even local reporting

kiev protestors April 2

'We are not cattle'
On April 1st US Embassy in Ukraine was picketed by 2,500 demonstrators under the slogan "We are not cattle!" - Event got barely any coverage in Ukraine and none in the west

We initially missed the story ourselves since so few reported on it, but have been able to find two useful reports since:
About two and a half thousand Ukrainians surrounded the US embassy in Kiev on the first of April. People who disagree with the appointment of foreigners to the Ukrainian government, as well as the intervention of the Americans and Europeans in the public administration of the country, holding banners saying "We are not cattle!" And they made sounds imitating animals.

Besides the protesters braying and bleating, they were eating cabbage, which was distributed by the organizers of the protest. They also kept two-meter carrots with the symbols of the European Union. By the end of the demonstration of dissent Kiev residents pelted the US embassy with manure.

It is noteworthy that the video from the protest was removed from all the Ukrainian sites and users were blocked. Local journalists hardly covered the event.


Comment: Local media knows better than to give any hint that all is not well in 'glorious Ukraine'. International media are more focused on the circus du jour, which at the moment is Yemen.


Attention

Fire rages for fourth day at fuel storage facility in Brazil's largest port Santos

fuel tank storage fire santos brazil
© Reuters/Paulo Whitaker
Smoke rises from a fire at a fuel tank storage facility run by Ultracargo in Santos near Sao Paulo, April 2, 2015.
A fire at a fuel storage facility near Brazil's largest port Santos entered its fourth day on Sunday as 110 firefighters worked to stop the flames from spreading further, the local fire department said.

Six fuel tanks run by Ultracargo, owned by Brazil's Grupo Ultra, were hit since the blaze started on Thursday morning, sending a column of thick black smoke into the air. Three of them were still burning on Sunday, the fire department and Ultracargo said.

Firefighters said there was little they could do to extinguish the flames before all the fuel was consumed. Instead, they were focusing on dousing nearby tanks to keep the fire from spreading.

Syringe

Nun stabs schoolboy to teach him about the suffering of Jesus

Crazy Nun
© CEN
Wrath of God: Sister Ludovita stabbed a boy in the hand during an RE lesson
An over-zealous nun stabbed a schoolboy in the hand with a needle to show him how Jesus suffered.

Sister Ludovita, 30, had been giving RE classes at a school in the town of Kysucke Nove Mesto in northern Slovakia when she told unsuspecting pupil Adam Celko, 7, to come to the front of the class.

She then took a needle out of her handbag and rammed it into the boy's hand in front of the horrified class, telling him that this was how Jesus suffered - and he would too if he behaved badly.

The boy's outraged mum Helena, 30, said: "When Adam got home he had a wound on the back of his hand and when I asked him what had happened he told me the nun had done it.

Eye 1

Warped! Danish school professor wants to show children porn as a part of their 'education'

danish school
© Reuters / Eric Thayer
A sexology professor has called on Danish schools to show students porn to help them become "critical consumers." Christian Graugaard believes it's important for teens to distinguish between adult movies and real sex relationships.

"Instead of having sex education be boring and technical, where you roll a condom onto a cucumber, I want us to educate young people to be critical consumers who see porn with reflection and critical distance," Graugaard, a Professor at Aalborg University, told public broadcaster DR.

Denmark is among one of the world's most porn-friendly countries. It lifted a ban on pornography in 1967. In 1969, it became the first country in the world to completely legalize pornography.

According to research conducted in the Nordic countries in 2006, up to 99 percent of teenage boys and 86 percent of teenage girls watched porn.

A 2013 study from the University of Copenhagen showed that viewing online porn or sexually explicit content in magazines has little influence on the sexual behavior of teens and young adults.

Comment: What's next? Giving students cocaine to dissuade them from taking drugs? How sickening it is that so many of those society has entrusted to guide our children in their development are without any sense or human decency.


Pistol

Footage exposes Idaho police killing mentally ill, pregnant woman

idaho police shooting
Last summer, 35-year-old Jeanetta Rily was shot and killed in front the Bonner General Hospital by members of the Sandpoint Police Department. At the time of the incident she was intoxicated, and displaying aggressive behavior. The woman had a long history substance abuse and mental illness, and after drinking a half a bottle of vodka while ranting about hurting herself and others, her husband decided the best thing to do would be to drive her to the hospital.

Once they arrived, Jeanetta grabbed a three and a half-inch knife from under her car seat. Her husband immediately ran towards the hospital and asked the staff to call the police, and within 15 seconds of arriving on the scene, the police had shot and killed Jeanetta in the parking lot. They would later learn that she was pregnant.

Che Guevara

A lucid, talkative Fidel Castro makes his first public appearance in 14 months

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© AFP
Former Cuban president Fidel Castro (L) greeting a member of the Venezuelan delegation “II flight Solidarity Bolivar-Marti” who are in Cuba taking part in social and political activities, in Havana on March 30, 2015
Former Cuban President Fidel Castro has made his first public appearance for more than a year. The 88 year-old met a Venezuelan delegation which had traveled to the island. Pictures showed Castro shaking supporter's hands through the window of a vehicle. Castro made the appearance on March 30; however, it was only reported by Cuban state media on Saturday. It was the first time that the former Cuban president has been officially seen in public in 14 months.

The revolutionary icon was wearing a blue and white tracksuit and a black cap, as well as a hearing aid. Pictures taken of the former leader showed him shaking the hands of supporters through the window of the vehicle he was traveling in. He also met 33 Venezuelans at a school, who had been visiting Cuba on a solidarity mission. Castro spent around 90 minutes talking to the delegation in the capital Havana.

Granma, the official Cuban newspaper, said Castro "greeted, one by one and without any difficulties, the Venezuelans," who were left impressed "by Castro's lucidity and his attention to the details of what is happening in Venezuela," AFP reported.

Bug

Delaware family in critical condition from methyl bromide pesticide exposure at luxury Virgin Island resort

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© CNN
Theresa Devine and Steve Esmond
Two Delaware boys are in a coma and their father still is unable to talk or move two weeks after they became sick -- perhaps from pesticide exposure, federal officials say -- during a trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands, their lawyer said Saturday.

Steve Esmond, his teenage sons and the teens' mother fell ill more than two weeks ago in St. John, where they were renting a villa at the Sirenusa resort.

The family was airlifted to hospitals in the United States. The boys, 16 and 14, were in critical condition at a Philadelphia hospital on Saturday, the family's lawyer, James Maron of Delaware, said.

"The boys are in rough shape," Maron said.

"The family are all fighters," he added. "They're fighting for everything right now. I understand it's a long recovery."

Esmond, also being treated at a hospital, is conscious but cannot move, Maron said. The teens' mother, Theresa Devine, was treated at a hospital but released, and is now in occupational therapy, Maron said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that the presence of a pesticide at the rented villa in St. John may have caused the illnesses, which were reported to the EPA on March 20.

Paramedics were called to the villa, which the family began had been renting since March 14.

Comment: The EPA and the U.S. Department of Justice? The interest in a pesticide poisoning at a resort in the Virgin Islands is puzzling. Hundreds of thousands of people are poisoned by pesticides every year in the continental U.S. and the government could really care less.