Bonjour Planet Earth

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Indian acid attack survivor is new face of fashion brand...

Ms Saa was 15 when a 32-year-old man threw acid at her for rejecting his offer of marriage.

"It felt cold first. Then I felt an intense burning. Then the liquid melted my skin," she remembers about the attack.

Since then, she has become one of India's most outspoken advocates against the unregulated sale of acid, as well as for harsher punishment for the perpetrators of acid attacks.

"This opportunity to represent an apparel brand was a platform for me to set an example for women like me to be confident and have courage despite their physical appearances. This was also a platform for me to send a clear message to criminals that women will not lose courage even after they are attacked with acid to destroy their physical beauty," Ms Saa told the BBC. Full story...

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Pakistan acid attack victim commits suicide...

Posters in Indian city threaten acid attack on women wearing jeans...

Mumbai plans ‘no selfie zones’ after two die in ocean photograph tragedy...

India’s largest city of Mumbai may introduce “no selfie zones” at popular but dangerous locations for taking self-photographs after a tragic accident claimed two lives.

The deaths of a teenage woman, who fell into the sea while taking a photograph of herself, and a passer-by who drowned trying to save her have focussed attention on the growing trend of life-endangering selfies.

Police have identified 16 potentially lethal selfie spots across the country’s financial hub, including major tourist attractions such as a busy beach and the famous Marine Drive promenade.

Dhananjay Kulkarni, the deputy commissioner, said that the police’s first move would be to ask the local authorities to put up warning signs at the locations and deploy lifeguards where appropriate. Full story...

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Facebook tries to defend its troubling masterplan to own India's internet...

Facebook has provided a passionate defense of its controversial Free Basics program and its approach of "zero rating."

In the 19-page response [PDF] to a public consultation on the practice of "differential pricing for data usage" run by India's telco regulator TRAI, the social media giant argues that programs like Free Basics have "a track record of increasing internet access and use," and "should be recognized as tools for economic development, and encouraged."

Facebook insists that the arguments against zero-rating are "unaccompanied by hard evidence, and cannot even minimally bear that burden of proof." Instead, it says, the practice of providing free access to some content has real benefits that are "supported by concrete evidence in India and throughout the world."

In addition, it argues that there are literally no downsides to the approach, and that economists that have studied it "have shown that zero rating spurs Internet adoption without any market-distorting effects." Full story...

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200 people died in Russian police custody in 2015...

Nearly 200 people are thought to have died in police custody in Russia last year, according to a new investigative website calling itself “Russian Ebola”.

Founded by journalist Maria Berezina, the site monitors deaths in police stations, pre-trial detention facilities and related institutions, and publishes the information online.

Berezina, who previously worked at the Journalism Investigations Agency in St Petersburg, said she first noticed the reports of frequent deaths while working for the prominent Russian opposition journalist Oleg Kashin.

She decided to request data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and said she had been shocked by the statistics. Full story...

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Sri Lanka: Routine police torture devastates families...

US: Fatal police shootings in 2015 approaching 400 nationwide...

Brazilian cops killed more than 11,000 people in 5 years...

Police brutality in Vietnam...

Malaysian police accused of torture...

The British Police: getting away with murder since 1969: 827 people have...

Touch me...

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Porn star teaches University of Illinois students about sex...

Anger in Haiti over misspent aid, six years after the 2010 earthquake...

In the immediate aftermath, the world rallied and pledged enormous amounts of assistance and development aid. But in Haiti today there is anger about the promises that have fallen short.

The UN estimates that about $10 billion was pledged, and about half of that has been spent.

Much was well-spent, especially in the beginning, according to Brian Concannon, executive director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. Concannon has worked in and for Haiti for more than 20 years.

“I think where the money worked was mostly in the emergency response,” says Concannon. “There was a lot of very good medical treatment; the rubble was cleared; there were some food programs and other things that just kept people alive. It probably saved thousands of lives; perhaps tens of thousands and was very effective. And clearing the rubble allowed the city to move forward. So that part was fairly effective.”

“What hasn’t worked is the more sustainable initiatives,” says Concannon. “The buzzword[s] six years ago was ‘build Haiti back better’ and that simply didn’t happen. Full story...

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Saudi Arabia arrests Samar Badawi, human rights advocate...

Saudi Arabia arrested a prominent human rights activist on Tuesday in what advocacy groups called the kingdom’s latest effort to clamp down on dissent.

The activist, Samar Badawi, until recently had led the campaign to free her former husband, Waleed Abu al-Khair, a Saudi lawyer currently serving a 15-year sentence in connection with his own activism.

She is also the sister of Raef Badawi, a Saudi blogger who was sentenced to a large fine, 10 years in prison and 1,000 blows with a cane for running a website that criticized the country’s religious establishment. He received 50 blows in a public square last year, prompting international outrage. The caning stopped, but Mr. Badawi remains in prison.

Amnesty International, one of the organizations that reported Ms. Badawi’s arrest, called it “the latest example of Saudi Arabia’s utter contempt for its human rights obligations.” Full story...

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Migrant crisis: Coach full of British schoolchildren 'ATTACKED by Calais refugees'

The youngsters were left terrified after a gang of thugs targeted their bus as it travelled through the notorious port town in the early hours of Monday morning.

One child was said to have suffered an epileptic fit following the horrifying attack which marred the end of a dream school trip for the children, some of whom are as young as 12.

The harrowing incident also underlines the growing violence of migrants in Calais, who are now arming themselves and resorting to increasingly desperate methods in their attempts to reach Britain.

Terrified truckers have repeatedly warned that it is only a matter of time before someone is killed as clashes with migrants become both more heated and regular. Full story...

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Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Mainstream media finally admits: Adding fluoride to water a 'useless scheme' with no benefit to public health...

Fluoride, long added to our drinking water to improve oral health, is probably useless and even harmful to public health.

Its effectiveness is based on shaky science from the 1950s, yet big dental associations around the world keep promoting the addition of fluoride to our drinking water.

"The sad story is that very little has been done in recent years to ensure that fluoridation is still needed [or] to ensure that adverse effects do not happen," says Dr. Philippe Grandjean, an environmental health researcher and physician at Harvard University.

In the early 1930s the link was made between fluoride and both mottling – or tooth staining – and stronger, healthier teeth. By the mid-40s the U.S. Public Health Service was convinced that artificial fluoridation of drinking water to 1.0 ppm would provide better oral health without causing mottling from over-fluoridation.

In 1945, they started to add fluoride to a test environment, and by 1950 declared the test a huge success, reporting a 50 percent reduction in cavities. (This number may be slightly misleading). At the same time, people started to improve their oral health practices, and there was an increase in the use of fluoridated toothpaste, too. Full story...

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Airbnb considers illegal West Bank settlements to be in Israel, gets backlash...

Airbnb has come under fire from Palestinian officials and activists for listing dozens of houses for rent in the illegal Israeli settlements of the West Bank. Critics accuse the website of profiting from stolen Palestinian land.

The US-based online service advertises hundreds of accommodations for tourists “in Israel” that are, in fact, situated in the West Bank, meaning potential clients will most probably not comprehend that they will be vacationing on illegally occupied land.

One such listing flagged by Al Jazeera that describes a three-bedroom rental home “15 minutes from Jerusalem” as “inspiring,” in reality offers accommodation in the West Bank settlement of Tekoa, which is now under Israeli military control. In accordance with the Oslo Accords, it should have been returned to the Palestinian Authority by 1999, but this never happened. Full story...

Swedish police 'migrant sex attacks coverup' exposed...

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22,000 nurses refuse mandatory vaccinations...

If you are a nurse in the US and refuse the flu vaccine (one the CDC has even admitted doesn’t always work, largely due to fast mutations and too slow of production) then you have to wear a face mask while on duty. Despite the fact that multiple studies have also shown that flu vaccinations are ineffective and do not offer any extra protection for hospital patients, hospitals are forcing the issue on some of their most prized employees.

Some nurses are choosing to lose their jobs instead of being forced into receiving a vaccine. Others are fighting back by suing the hospital, state, and federal governments for $100,000,000 for trying to take away their constitutional rights.

Dr. Karen Sullivan Sibert, herself a pro-vaccine doctor, wrote an opinion piece explaining how requiring nurses to wear masks for refusing the flu vaccination violates HIPAA law for patient privacy. More importantly, it forces our front lines in the healthcare industry to take a concoction with numerous questionable ingredients, including known neurotoxins like aluminum, foreign proteins derived from GM ingredients, and more. Full story...

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Judge halts mandatory flu vaccine shots for health workers in New York...

California Nurses Association on swine flu vaccine: encourage, don't mandate...

One third of British doctors will not take swine flu vaccine...

One in three nurses do not want swine flu vaccine...

Why educated Germans avoid social media...

With just over 40 percent of German social media users classed as coming from a background of "high formal education" in OECD statistics released in November, a clear dividing line from other nations is clear.

In France, the figure is almost 50 percent, while around 70 percent of British social media users are well-educated – a figure matched by less-developed Turkey and former communist states like Hungary.

Stranger yet is the fact that more social media users – in fact, almost a majority – come from a low educational background.

Dr Klemens Skibicki, a professor at Cologne Business School's Institute for Internet Law and Communication, suggested a combination of factors are at work. Full story...

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8-yr old sodomised by Congress leader in Madhya Pradesh...

An 8-year old boy was allegedly sodomised by a 55-year old Congress leader in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh. A case has been registered under section 377 (unnatural sex) and relevant sections of protection of children from sexual offence Act and a hunt has been launched to arrest the accused. .
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Kotwali police station incharge Prafull Shrivastav said that a woman resident of Punjab Bank Colony used to work as a domestic help in the house of Rupendra Patel, 55, resident of Saraswati Colony of the town..
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Her 8-year old child also used to come with her to the house of Rupendra Patel, Shrivastav said.

Patel had sodomised the kid 4-5 times in the past and the kid sustained severe injuries when the accused sodomised him last time, around a fortnight ago, said police. Full story...

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Fifth of India's election candidates face criminal charges...

Politician in India rapes Dalit girl and then gets her jailed for theft...

India: rape victim's life threatened by accused Congress minister...

Why do many India MPs have criminal records?

India: woman found floating in sack was raped and killed by Congress leaders...

Air India flight delayed as Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury goes ‘shopping’

Romania amends law enabling convicts to cut sentences by writing books...

Romania says it is changing a law that allowed prisoners to reduce their sentences by writing books.

Convicts could cut 30 days off their jail terms if they published a work of literature or science.

Justice Minister Raluca Pruna said abuse of the system had spiralled out of control, and the law was being changed by emergency decree.

Last year, convicts published more than 300 books - some churned out several books in record time.

"According to prison administration figures, the number of books published by detainees went from one a year between 2007 and 2010, to 90 in 2014, and 340 last year," Ms Pruna told a news conference. Full story...

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Microsoft has finally ended support for Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10...

After its decline from being the world's most-used browser to one of the least-used in the space of a few years, Microsoft has finally killed off its Internet Explorer (IE) browser.

As of Tuesday, Microsoft ended support for all old versions of IE, including 8, 9 and 10, leaving only version 11, the most recent.

Those still using older versions of the much-maligned browser will receive an 'End of Life' notification telling them about the development and urging them to upgrade to IE 11 or Microsoft Edge, a brand-new browser for Windows 10 which is designed to work better with the modern web.

Old versions of IE will still be usable, but Microsoft isn't going to release any more security or technical updates going forward - meaning those still using these versions will become much more vulnerable to malicious hackers, and will generally have a worse browsing experience. Full story...

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Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions...

Microsoft to kill Internet Explorer name, ship Windows 10 with 2 browsers...

Internet Explorer users risk having their computers taken over...

Germany warns users of Internet Explorer security problems...

EPA finally discovers what’s killing the bees...

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Nestle is being sued for allegedly using child slaves on cocoa farms...

The world's largest food producer is to be sued over allegations that it used child slaves to harvest cocoa in the Ivory Coast in Africa.

Nestle SA has lost its bid to throw out a court case which has accused it of using child labourers for its chocolate products.

The US Supreme Court has rejected the appeal from Nestle and two other companies to dismiss the lawsuit which was left in place by the high court in December 2014, according to Reuters.

The plaintiffs, originally from Mali, say that the companies aided and abetted human rights violations through the purchasing of cocoa from the Ivory Coast. The companies were allegedly aware of the problem of child slavery in the region yet provided financial and technical assistance to local farmers to get the cheapest product.

Abby McGill, campaign director from the International Labour Rights Forum, which originally filed the lawsuit, told The Independent: “We have fought for a long time to bring accountability to supply chains and to bring redress for the victims.” Full story...

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Nestlé buying milk from farms confiscated and owned by the Mugabes...

U.N. says some of its peacekeepers were paying 13-year-olds for sex...

The United Nations has been grappling with so many sexual-abuse allegations involving its peacekeepers that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recently called them “a cancer in our system.”

Now, officials have learned about what appears to be a fresh scandal. Investigators discovered this month that at least four U.N. peacekeepers in the Central African Republic allegedly paid girls as little as 50 cents in exchange for sex.

The case is the latest to plague the U.N. mission in the Central African Republic, whose employees have been accused of 22 other incidents of alleged sexual abuse or sexual exploitation in the past 14 months. The most recent accusations come in the wake of Ban’s efforts to implement a “zero tolerance” policy for such offenses.

The United Nations maintains nine peacekeeping operations in Africa, employing over 100,000 people on the continent, and the abuses threaten to erode the organization’s legitimacy. Other sex-crime cases have occurred in Mali, South Sudan, Liberia and Congo in recent years.

Last month, the United Nations published a damning independent investigation that said that poor enforcement of policies in place to deter and report abuse meant that “the credibility of the U.N. and peacekeeping operations are in jeopardy.” Experts and officials say systemic problems still hinder the investigation and prosecution of alleged abusers, leading to a perception of impunity. Full story...

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Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Why you shouldn't give up coffee...

If you have resolved to give up coffee in the New Year, you can give yourself a break.

For experts say there is no need for most people to avoid coffee.

Professor Clare Collins, of the Dietitians Association of Australia, said: ‘One of the first things that people give up when they go on a health kick is coffee, and that’s a crazy thing to do, because there’s evidence of health benefits.’

Her detailed review of research on the topic concluded that coffee drinkers have a lower odds of developing liver cancer and of dying unexpectedly.

They are also at lower risk of type 2 diabetes, which develops when the body does not make enough insulin – a hormone key in the conversion of sugar into energy – or the insulin they do make does not work properly.

Professor Collins told the Australian edition of Good Food magazine: ‘When you look at the biochemical role of coffee, it seems to have a task at a cellular level that I would explain is a bit like a contract cleaner: it’s able to come in and speed up some important biochemical processes related to fixing damage in cells or clearing away debris so that some of the molecules related to insulin and glucose can work more efficiently.’ Full story...

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Husband paid prostitute wife for sex!!!

Manica Post reported that the court gallery in Mutare was left in roars of laughter after the man said his wife was a sex worker whom he paid whenever he wanted to engage in sex with her.

All this was revealed after Misheck Manapa had dragged Caroline Marange to the Mutare Civil Courts seeking a protection order against her.

Appearing before Magistrate Anniah Ndiraya, Manapa t said Marange was not his wife but a gold digging sex worker who was taking advantage of his bachelorhood.

He said the few times that he had had sex with Marange, he had begged her and paid her for her services since it was her way of doing business.

"The pregnancy that she is carrying is not mine because I was only her sex client since I had to pay her after service at all times. At one time, she even confiscated my phone after I had failed to pay for sex and would that be a wife? Full story...

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Torture of Tamils continues in Sri Lanka...

Despite generally high marks for its attempts at reconciliation by the Sirisena government in Sri Lanka from one of the world’s longest and bitterest civil wars, Tamil citizens continue to be abducted and tortured by security forces, according to a new report by the International Truth and Justice Project.

The report details the suffering of 20 victims who have allegedly been kidnaped during the past year during the presidency of Maithripala Sirisena, who promised a new era for the country on the ouster of the previous president, Mahendra Rajapaksa, who ended the civil war in brutal fashion in 2009 after 26 years of war, defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which had been fighting for a separate homeland in the north of the country. Up to 40,000 Tamils were said to have been massacred as the Sri Lankan army drove into Tamil territory to finish them off.

It is unsure whether the Sirisena government condones the attacks, or if the security forces are outside the government’s control. In dramatic fashion, Sirisena has vowed to pursue reconciliation efforts with the Tamil minority. The country’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has said a political settlement with the minority Tamil community is a prerequisite.

“If you want a stable and secure country, we must have a political solution with Tamils and move forward,” Wickremesinghe said in an address in the Tamil-dominated Jaffna peninsula in October.

Nonetheless, according to the truth and justice NGO, the practice continues of “white vanning” – in which luckless victims are collected up by white vans and tortured or raped. Full story...

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Jaffna fears remembering Tamil war dead...

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The top seven places to retire...

These days most of us can expect our retirement to last for more than a couple of decades. So, with life expectancy on the rise where you choose to spend those twilight years is more important than ever.

A growing number of pensioners are seeking far-flung destinations. They’re lured by hours of sunshine, a slower pace of life, favourable tax rates, and the prospect of a more fulfilling lifestyle where their income goes much further than it does at home. Considered carefully, retiring abroad can deliver all of the above without compromising home comforts or quality healthcare.

From tropical towns in Thailand to coastal comforts in Central America, our guide to the seven best countries to retire has it all. Full story...

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How to age gracefully...

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85-year-old graduates from college, finds job...

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Jallikattu: India order to allow Tamil Nadu bullfighting challenged...

Animal rights activists in India have challenged a government order lifting a ban on Jallikattu, a form of bull fighting which has been popular for centuries in the state of Tamil Nadu.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the petition on Tuesday.

At the annual festival held in January, thousands of men chase the bulls to grab prizes tied to their horns.

The Supreme Court imposed the ban in 2014 following objections from animal rights activists.

In its order, the Supreme Court had said that use of bulls in the sport "severely harmed" the animals and was an offence under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, but last Friday the government issued an order lifting the ban.

The sport is due to resume this month, after no events were held last year. Full story...

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Mumbai police force feed thief with 40 bananas to retrieve gold chain!!!

Police in Mumbai have resorted to an unusual method of getting a thief to hand over the goods - by force feeding him more than 40 bananas in an attempt to retrieve a gold chain which he had swallowed.

The thief reportedly snatched the chain from a woman at the Ghatkopar east fish market on Wednesday night.

But after the woman screamed, some citizens gave chase and he was later handed in to the authorities.

In a desperate attempt to cover his tracks he swallowed the chain and denied stealing it, but x-rays suggested otherwise.

Baffled police resorted to giving the thief an enema, but it was to no avail. Full story...

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Indian women concealed 5.4 kg gold in their undergarments

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Gold bars removed from Indian man's stomach!!!

Putin: Human evolution under threat by Big Pharma, GMO, vaccines...

A report prepared by the Security Council (SCRF) circulating in the Kremlin today states that President Putin has issued orders that his people must be protected from GMO “food” and Western pharmaceuticals “at all costs.”

The report says that President Putin believes the next stage of human evolution is currently in “grave risk” and that Western and global powers are “intentionally decelerating the process for their personal gain.”

“We as a species have the choice to continue to develop our bodies and brains in a healthy upward trajectory, or we can follow the Western example of recent decades and intentionally poison our population with genetically altered food, pharmaceuticals, vaccinations, and fast food that should be classified as a dangerous, addictive drug.”

“We must fight this. A physically and intellectually disabled population is not in our interests,” the report states.

Describing the average government-controlled Westerner as an “intensively vaccinated borderline autistic fat man slumped in front of a screen battling a high-fructose corn syrup comedown,” the report states that such tactics used by governments to subjugate their citizens are not only “dark/evil” but “counter-productive in the medium to long term.” Full story...

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David Bowie - Let's Dance

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26-year-old hacker sent to jail for 334 years, highest ever for a cybercriminal...

26-year-old hacker, Onur Kopçak, from Turkey, was sentenced to 135 years in prison on Sunday for stealing 11 people’s credit card information. This new prison sentence is served on top of his previous 199-year sentence from 2013. As a result, Kopçak will now serve a record 334 years in prison.

This new sentence hs been approved by Mersin third Criminal Court of General Jurisdiction where he was accused of selling the stolen credit card records to other cyber criminals. He is already convicted for running a phishing scam that used fake bank websites to steal online banking credentials of 43 bank customers.

The hacker was accused of charges like identity fraud, website forgery, wire fraud, and access device fraud. As the investigation of his previous case proceeded, 11 cases were filed against him by the banks that earned him an extra 135 years in prison.

The Turkish media website Daily Sabah writes that Onur Kopçak currently resides in the Osmaniye prison in southern Adana province. Full story...

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The 14 people who control the security of the world wide web...

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Inside Delhi's gadget graveyard where the West's e-waste ends up...

Imran Mansoori kneels in an alleyway picking over a tangle of electronic trash.

He's one of thousands of e-waste workers in India's capital, Delhi, which has emerged as one of Asia's biggest e-waste processing hubs.

Much of the junk on Imran's pile is familiar – the shell of a TV remote, a shattered Wi-Fi router and a squashed credit/debit card reader. This is the graveyard for countless electronic gadgets.

The grimy lane where Imran works is strewn with the debris of the e-age. One shop is packed to the ceiling with those familiar rectangular steel boxes that house computers under office desks across the world. Another gloomy hole in the wall is crammed with neatly stacked flat screen televisions. Across the alley from Imran, a young man, maybe in his teens, sits cross legged in a tiny room using a chisel to separate electronic components. The wall beside him is piled waste-high with circuit boards ready to be dismantled. Another young man next door uses a small drill to disassemble steel circuit boxes at lighting speed.

Imran's job is to sort through heaps of electronic refuse and separate items of value that can be sold in one of Delhi's vibrant scrap markets. Sometimes he gets lucky and finds a component containing a precious metal. He takes those fragments himself to be melted down and the treasure extracted.

"I know where the gold is," he says with a smile. Full story...

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India becoming dumping ground for e-waste...

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Saturday, January 09, 2016

Catholic Church spent millions providing for paedophile priests...

The Catholic Church has spent millions of dollars providing pensions, housing, and private medical insurance to convicted paedophile priests despite branding them "evil" and having most defrocked.

The Melbourne archdiocese alone is still financially supporting six former priests who have been convicted for committing sex crimes against children.

Parishioners have unwittingly been partly funding the assistance through their donations into church collection plates, which they believed went towards the local church or fundraising for retired priests.

Church records show two of the paedophiles, priests Wilfred Baker and David Daniel, received hundreds of thousands of dollars alone in annual pensions and entitlements.

Their victims received one-off payments of $31,000 to $37,000 under the church's Melbourne Response redress scheme. Full story...

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You're not owed asylum...

The news finally can’t help the German government cover up the mass sexual assault of German women by “immigrants” anymore. Now the news states that Finland was tipped off that there was actually a conspiracy sent out by tweets and texts to do it there and they caught three of them in the act over there. What’s right is right, so with my usual candor, something needs to be said about this.

First, about refugees and immigrants. You know what, guys? Nobody owes you asylum, got that? It is basically an act of mercy and compassion, since you are coming from a nation that is oppressing you or threatening your life. Now, keeping that in mind, what does that mean? It means you do NOT oppress the people in the country that took you in! Pardon me, but why does this need to be said?! I don’t give a hoot what your religion or culture is. If your religion or culture approves of this sort of thing, then it is not a religion or culture that is worth importing into a country that probably has enough problems of its own to deal with. If your religion or culture does not approve of this, then why were several hundred of you involved in this? Hmmm? Care to answer that question? And why do the apologists only come out AFTER the attack? “That wasn’t us, don’t persecute us for that! I hope this doesn’t make us all look bad!” Then where the heck were you whiners when this was going on?! This isn’t about YOU! This is about the women that were victimized! Where is the grand apology for them? You guys need to stop the after-the-fact damage control and start wading into your countrymen and kicking their keesters if you’re worried about their behavior derailing the gravy train. Full story...

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So Bob Geldof, where are your refugees?

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Australia paid people smugglers to turn back asylum seeker boats ...

A thrilling H-bomb...

“Let’s begin 2016…with the thrilling explosion of our first hydrogen bomb, so that the whole world will look up to our socialist, nuclear-armed republic and the great Workers’ Party of Korea!”

Kim Jong-un

North Koreans may be happy, but the rest of the world certainly is not. Predictably, the US, Japan, China, Australia and South Korea seethed with fury at the explosive North Koreans. China scowled and muttered.

This hypocrisy and hysteria made world equity markets, already reeling from new Chinese financial blundering, crazy as uninformed investors ran for the lifeboats. The UN shook its tiny fist at North Korea, ignoring that the US, Britain, France, Russia and China are all in violation of the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

There was not a peep about nuclear scofflaws, Israel, Pakistan and India. Nor mention that today’s outraged South Korea and Taiwan had been caught by CIA red-handed trying to make their own nuclear weapons.

Is North Korea’s claim of a hydrogen weapon true? The 6-7 kiloton underground nuclear blast – close to China’s northern border was not indicative of a true thermonuclear weapon. It may, however, have been a test of the atomic trigger used to detonate a full hydrogen weapon. Full story...

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Enter Pyongyang...

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Iran's nuclear threat and infantile conservatism...

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India flexes its nuclear muscles ... while we fixate on North Korea and Iran!

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US police killed 1,126 people so far this year. Will 2016 be any different?

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'You need to be white to win': skin-whitening campaign causes uproar...

Even in a country where many Thai women are obsessed with whitening their skin a YouTube video has provoked uproar.

The video posted by cosmetic maker Seoul Secret Thailand features two images, one of actress Sirin "Cris" Horwang and the other of a model whose skin has been darkened.

Ms Horwang, 35, starts by talking about her struggles in the entertainment industry and how she must work to keep her skin white to stay on top.

"You just need to be white to win," she says in a pitch for viewers to take the company's whitening cream called Snowz.

Ms Horwang tells viewers that if she stopped taking the cream all her investment in skin tone would disappear and she would become a "dusky star", just as the screen shows the black model looking downcast and dismayed. More + video...

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Iranian soccer player jailed over photos with unveiled women...

A professional Iranian soccer player has been jailed after photographs published on social media showed him together with several women not wearing the Islamic hijab, as required by Iranian law.

Sosha Makani, a 29-year-old goalkeeper who has competed with Iran's national team, was arrested on January 4 and jailed following a complaint by private plaintiffs, Iranian media reported.

The Mizan news agency, which is affiliated with Iran's judiciary, quoted a judiciary source as saying that one of the plaintiffs had withdrawn his complaint.

But the source added that Makani will remain in jail pending an investigation for "publishing pictures that lead to the spread of corruption and prostitution in society."

Makani's lawyer, Behnam Alimohammadi, has said that his client's account on the mobile messaging app Telegram was hacked and that two other individuals posted information from his account online. Full story...

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Gaddafi warned Blair his ousting would 'open door' to jihadis...

Muammar Gaddafi warned Tony Blair in two fraught phone conversations in 2011 that his removal from the Libyan leadership would open a space for al-Qaida to seize control of the country and even launch an invasion of Europe.

The transcripts of the conversations have been published with Blair’s agreement by the UK foreign affairs select committee, which is conducting an inquiry into the western air campaign that led to the ousting and killing of Gaddafi in October 2011.

In the two calls the former British prime minister pleaded with Gaddafi to stand aside or end the violence. The transcripts reveal the gulf in understanding between Gaddafi and the west over what was occurring in his country and the nature of the threat he was facing.

In the first call, at 11.15am on 25 February 2011, Gaddafi gave a warning in part borne out by future events: “They [jihadis] want to control the Mediterranean and then they will attack Europe.”

In the second call, at 3.25pm the same day, the Libyan leader said: “We are not fighting them, they are attacking us. I want to tell you the truth. It is not a difficult situation at all. The story is simply this: an organisation has laid down sleeping cells in north Africa. Called the al-Qaida organisation in north Africa … The sleeping cells in Libya are similar to dormant cells in America before 9/11. Full story...

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At least 231 children abused at Catholic boys’ choir run by Pope Benedict’s brother...

AT LEAST 231 children at a famous Catholic boys’ choir in Germany were victims of physical abuse, a lawyer commissioned to investigate the scandal said today.

The Domspatzen, a 1,000-year-old choir in Regensburg, Bavaria, was dragged into the massive sexual abuse scandal plaguing the Catholic Church in 2010, when allegations of assaults that took place several decades ago went public.

The choir was run by Pope Benedict’s elder brother, Georg Ratzinger, from 1964 to 1994 when most of the claimed abuses took place.

Ratzinger has said that the alleged sexual abuse was “never discussed” in the time that he ran the choir attached to the boarding school.

Lawyer Ulrich Weber, who had been commissioned by the diocese to look into the cases, said at a press conference today that his research, which included 70 interviews with victims, uncovered abuse that took place from 1945 to the early 1990s. Full story...

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Slovakia vows to refuse entry to Muslim migrants...

Responding to the sexual assaults in Cologne and Hamburg, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has reiterated his aim to allow no Muslims into the country. According to reports, some of the attackers were refugees.

Robert Fico said on Thursday that Slovakia would fight against immigration from Muslim countries to prevent attacks like last year's shootings in Paris and large-scale assaults of women in Germany, which took place on New Year's Eve.

"We don't want something like what happened in Germany taking place in Slovakia," Fico said, adding that the country must "prevent [its] women from being molested in public places."

According to reports by local German newspaper "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger" and an online preview of investigations by Sunday paper "Welt am Sonntag," Cologne authorities have identified some of the perpetrators in the attacks as been Syrian asylum seekers. Full story...

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Friday, January 08, 2016

A kind drone...

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Most Americans are one paycheck away from the street...

Americans are starting 2016 with more job security, but most are still theoretically only one paycheck away from the street.

Approximately 63% of Americans have no emergency savings for things such as a $1,000 emergency room visit or a $500 car repair, according to a survey released Wednesday of 1,000 adults by personal finance website Bankrate.com, up slightly from 62% last year. Faced with an emergency, they say they would raise the money by reducing spending elsewhere (23%), borrowing from family and/or friends (15%) or using credit cards to bridge the gap (15%).

This lack of emergency savings could be a problem for millions of Americans. More than four in 10 Americans either experienced a major unexpected expense over the past 12 months or had an immediate family member who had an unexpected expense, Bankrate found. (The survey didn’t specify the impact of that expense.) “Without emergency savings, you may not have money to cover needed home repairs,” says Signe-Mary McKernan, senior fellow and economist at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit organization that focuses on social and economic policy. “Similarly, without emergency savings, people could raid their retirement account.” Full story...

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