Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Thursday 6 August 2015


Puppet Masters
Fort Russ
2015-08-04 17:35:00

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We are facing a legal farce and a grave injustice for all the relatives of the 298 victims thanks to the fact that Netherlands and Ukraine have forgotten in the case of MH17 that "Nemo iudex in causa sua" or that no one should judge or investigate in his own cause,says Finnish judge and diplomat Peter Iiskola, who is expert in international air and space law.

What makes it even more ridiculous is that Netherlands should know better, as it is the seat for at least eight international Tribunals, says Iiskola.

The MH17 investigation is led by the Netherlands - it is clearly procedurally biased from these general justice principles points of views. Therefore, this investigation should be nullified and replaced with a fair, unbiased and neutral one - or the 298 victims and their families will never find out the legal or the actual truth, and get justice! Now the fundamental human and legal rights are in this way denied, endangered and gravely breached.

This says the Finnish judge and international diplomat Peter Iiskola, who has worked in Iran-United States Arbitration in The Hague, as well as in United Nations and Council of Europe justice and human rights projects, and is also specialized in international air and space law.
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Dr. Judith Brown
Yemen News Today
2015-07-31 11:41:00

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The estimates of numbers killed in this terrible war have varied from website to website. On the 31st July FARS news agency reported the number killed as 5,313 people, most of them women and children. Al Jazeera quoted UN statistics on 27th July, stating that 3,640 have died altogether, about half of them civilians deaths. I believe both of these numbers hide the truth, and the number of those who have died is much, much higher.

Systems of recording deaths in Yemen during the war are not straightforward, hence the differences in death counts. Some agencies count deaths that have been reported in the media, but this is a multi-focal war, with both militia activity and air assaults by the coalition happening in all of the areas except Hadramaut, and journalists cannot access all areas where people are being attacked. As the war progresses, deaths in Yemen have become less newsworthy as it has become so commonplace and the Western media have not seriously tried to give the war in Yemen the coverage it deserves.Furthermore, militias and fighting forces have an interest in under-reporting any of their own fighters killed by the other 'side' as militia and military deaths have a propaganda purpose; these deaths can only be estimated.
Comment: Kudos to Dr. Brown for starting this much-needed blog about what's going on in Yemen.

Indeed, the true situation in Yemen has received little-to-no coverage in the mainstream media. People are barely surviving under severe conditions in the country, and there isn't one bit of help coming from the West. In fact, NATO countries have been supplying the Saudis with deadly weapons (such as cluster munitions), which are continuously used against defenseless Yemeni civilians.

Russia, on the other hand, has sent two planes with 46 tons of humanitarian aid, containing mostly food, to the country. Iran sent its second ship carrying humanitarian aid, loaded with 8,000 tons of rice and 1,000 tons of sugar, back in early June. Delivering aid to Yemen has proven difficult due to a blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia:
One of the first measures taken by Saudi Arabia, when announcing its war against Yemen, was a full-scale naval blockade. For a nation that imports over 90% of its food, that was a devastating move, and one Saudi officials assured wouldn't keep the food out of the country. [...]

The poorest country in the Middle East, Yemen didn't have a lot of excess food lying around in the first place, and the shipping delays have meant shortages in most of the major cities. As the inspection process continues to delay if not outright prevent ships from delivering food,expect inconvenience and high prices to quickly turn into an outright humanitarian calamity.

Saudi officials defend the blockade as necessary for their military operation, and continue to cite the specter of Iranian weapons, even though not a single weapon has been found in the searches. The US Navy is involved in some of the vessel searches as well, meaning America is playing a direct role in prevent food from reaching the besieged populace.
See also: U.S., British and Saudis thwart Freedom and Democracy in Yemen - again
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South Front
2015-08-06 16:46:00

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Ukrainian Senior Lieutenant Marian Rak who drunkenly ran an armored vehicle over pedestrians, killing an 8-year-old girl earlier this year has been awarded a state medal. The military claims that President Petro Poroshenko honored the soldier for his outstanding leadership. Rak was of the two drunk Ukrainian soldiers who, driving a heavy armored vehicle, ran over three people on the sidewalk: 5-month-old baby in a stroller, 8-year-old girl Polina and their mother. Polina died on the spot, while the mother and the baby were taken to the hospital. Now, all know how to become an Ukrainian hero: drink alcohol, kill children.


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Tim Devaney
The Hill
2015-07-23 16:08:00

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Gun production has more than doubled over the course of the Obama administration, according to a new report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The manufacturing boom has come in the face of the president's push to expand background checks and place new restrictions on guns in the wake of high-profile shootings like the recent mass-killing in Charleston, S.C., and the 2012 massacre at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school.

The numbers paint a picture of gun owners who are concerned about new restrictions on their Second Amendment rights, activists say.

"The ATF report confirms what we already know, that Barack Obama deserves the 'Gun Salesman of the Decade' award," said Erich Pratt, spokesman for the Gun Owners of America. "People have been rushing to buy firearms because they're afraid that Obama will take away their Second Amendment rights."

The ATF's annual firearms commerce report tracks the number of guns manufactured in the United States, which provides an indication of gun sales around the country.

The number of guns manufactured increased by 18 percent during the George W. Bush administration, while the Clinton administration actually saw a 9 percent reduction.

But under President Obama, gun production has spiked 140 percent to 10.8 million firearms in 2013, the most recent year for which data is available.
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Alex Thomas
Intellihub
2015-08-05 05:09:00

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"I don't believe we should put up with being controlled by Big Brother."


After 27 long years of government denial and cover ups, famed investigative reporter Duncan Campbell, the man who first revealed the surveillance dragnet known asECHELON in a 1988 magazine article, has been vindicated after files from the Snowden cache confirmed the existence of the program.

Writing in the Intercept, Dan Froomkin details the extraordinary circumstances that surrounded ECHELON and the conspiracy of silence that kept it "secret" for so long.

"As Campbell writes today, in a first-person article in The Intercept, the archive of top-secret documents provided to journalists by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden contains a stunning 2005 document that not only confirms ECHELON's existence as "a system targeting communications satellites" - it shows how the program was kept an official secret for so long," wrote Froomkin.
Comment: The NSA has not, in fact, "gone off track". It has and will continue to do what it was designed to do: a malevolent power unto itself it seeks to grow its totalitarian aim of control over everyone and everything. The NSA doesn't secure anything but its own ends and means. Like a secret society with varying inner circles, there are probably only a relative few who know and understand why the apparatus is in place and what its function truly is. Connect this intent with all the many profound changes that we are experiencing on the planet - including the 'cosmic' - and we might come to some further idea of just how far this Goliath of a control system is willing to go.

Spying on Strom Thurmond is peanuts.

See also:

NSA documents obtained by Snowden confirm existence of ECHELON spying program
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RT
2015-08-06 16:24:00

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Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says there are a lot of questions regarding the investigation into the downed MH17 Malaysia Airlines plane in eastern Ukraine, adding that it is "not independent, not comprehensive and not truly international."

Russia's top diplomat was speaking to the Singapore-based Channel News Asia and mentioned that one of Moscow's main gripes is that its experts are not being given full access to the information that is being used in the investigation, which is being conducted by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) - made up of Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ukraine, and Malaysia.

"The representative of the Russian Civil Aviation Organization is participating in these procedures, but the information we receive through this representative is not complete. We are being given less information than those who started the investigation," Lavrov said during a visit to the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

Lavrov was adamant in saying that Russia wants "the truth to be established and the culprits to be brought to justice." However, the Russian foreign minister admits that he is becoming frustrated as the investigation was "not independent, was not comprehensive and not truly international."


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RT
2015-08-06 15:35:00

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Speaking at a roundtable meeting in the Moscow Institute of International Relations on Wednesday, Sergey Naryshkin said the US nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not necessary for the military campaign against Japan. He added that the thousands of civilians killed by the atomic bombs had not been involved in crimes of the Japanese military.

The lower house speaker suggested that the participants of the roundtable imagine the situation in which Nazi Germany completely destroyed the population of one or several European cities, for example by means of chemical weapons.

"Would this have been included in charges pressed during the Nuremberg trial? Of course, it would!" he said.
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F. William Engdahl
New Eastern Outlook
2015-08-03 15:46:00

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Vladimir Putin! Now you've really done it. You have had the temerity to declare our National Endowment for Democracy (NED), America's most important Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) to be "undesirable." Where will this end? Don't you respect our right, as a US Government-financed NGO, to meddle in internal Russian affairs? After all, we are the most important NGO of the world's Sole Superpower. We can go wherever we want and do whatever we like. We are truly upset!

This is the clear reaction of Washington to the decision by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office on July 28 to declare the activities of the US National Endowment for Democracy as "undesirable in the territory of Russia." The official statement stated that, "the National Endowment for Democracy used Russian commercial and non-commercial organizations under its control to take part in campaigns aimed at denying the legitimacy of results of Russian elections; organize political actions designed to influence the authorities' decisions and discredit the service in the Russian Armed Forces." It further elaborated, "In pursuit of these goals, the fund allocated about 2.5 million US dollars to Russian commercial and non-commercial organizations in 2013-2015."

Under Russia's law on Undesirable NGOs, adopted by the Duma or parliament and signed into law by President Putin this May, any foreign or international non-governmental organization could become "undesirable" if it threatened the foundations of Russia's constitutional order, the country's defense capability and the security of the Russian state.
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RT
2015-08-06 15:21:00

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Deputy head of the Federation Council's committee for foreign affairs has said an international court must look into all US wars, in particular the Vietnam campaign that killed thousands of civilians and caused significant damage to many innocent people.

Senator Andrey Klimov (Perm Region) made this proposal in an interview with "Govorit Moskva" radio dedicated to the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Klimov supported the idea of holding an international tribunal over these events, but added that the US campaign against Vietnam deserved equal attention from international lawyers. 

"There is another anniversary [this year]. 1975 saw the end of an almost 10-year war between the United States and Vietnam, that was, by the way illegal," Klimov said in the interview. "Casualties were not simply enormous there, even though no one had declared war back then. For 10 years they tormented Vietnam, using torture and concentration camps, and burned people alive with napalm," he said.
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Eric Draitser
New Eastern Outlook
2015-08-04 15:29:00

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The nature of the war in Afghanistan has shifted dramatically in recent months. While the US and NATO continue to be actively involved in the country - their strategic objectives having changed very little since the Bush administration launched the war nearly a decade and a half ago - the complexion of the battlefield, and the parties actively engaged in the war, has changed significantly.

The emergence of ISIS in Afghanistan, along with the impending withdrawal of US-NATO troops from the country, has driven the Taliban into a marriage of convenience, if not an outright alliance, with Iran. What seemed like an unfathomable scenario just a few years ago, Shia Iran's support for the hardline Sunni Taliban has become a reality due to the changing circumstances of the war. Though it may be hard to believe, such an alliance is now a critical element of the situation on the ground in Afghanistan. But its significance is far larger than just shifting the balance of power within the country.

Instead, Afghanistan is now in many ways a proxy conflict between the US and its western and Gulf allies on the one hand, and Iran and certain non-western countries, most notably China, on the other. If the contours of the conflict might not be immediately apparent, that is only because the western media, and all the alleged brainiacs of the corporate think tanks, have failed to present the conflict in its true context. The narrative of Afghanistan, to the extent that it's discussed at all, continues to be about terrorism and stability, nation-building and "support." But this is a fundamental misunderstanding and mischaracterization of the current war, and the agenda driving it.
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RT
2015-08-06 15:11:00

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A man has been beheaded in Saudi Arabia, bringing the total number of executions in the Kingdom to 110 for the year so far. This is already a 26-percent increase on the number of people put to death in 2014.

Mugrib al-Thanyan was executed after he was found guilty and sentenced to death for shooting and killing a fellow citizen following a dispute, a statement from the Interior Ministry read.

The man was sentenced to death according to the nation's strict version of Sharia law, under which such crimes as murder, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking are punishable by death. Public executions are mostly conducted by decapitating the accused with a sword.

He is the 110th person to be executed in the country in 2015 and Saudi Arabia has already seen a 126-percent increase in death sentences. In 2014, 87 people were executed.
Comment: Meanwhile, the U.S. bombs culturally advanced countries like Iraq and Libya back to the Stone Age while they support the medieval practices of Saudi Arabia.
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Stephen Gowans
gowans.wordpress.com
2015-07-27 09:39:00

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Below are excerpts from a July 26, 2015 speech Syrian president Bashar al-Assad delivered in Damascus.

On the West's double standards on terrorism
[Western powers] call it terrorism when it hits them, and call it revolution, freedom, democracy, and human rights when it hits us.There, its perpetrators are terrorists, and here, they are rebels and moderate opposition. They scream at the top of their voices whenever they are touched by a spark of fire while they fall deathly silent when we are burned by it.
On humanitarian intervention
Let them permit the opposition in their countries to bear arms and kill and destroy and keep calling them opposition, or permit them to become proxies or let other states decide what is the ruling system for them should be, then we will believe and accept their old recipes that have always been used to justify an aggression or interference in states' affairs under humanitarian slogans like human rights, freedom, democracy, and so on.
On the West's relationship with militant Islamists
What they want is to keep this monster in check and not eliminate it.All their military, political and media campaigns are in fact smoke screens, and what the West has done so far has led to a growth of terrorism instead of eliminating it, and this is confirmed by reality, not personal analysis, as terrorism has spread geographically, its material resources have increased, and its manpower has doubled.
An observation a propos of Assad's comments: Western newspapers talk of the Egyptian army's fight in the Sinai against militant Islamists, but of the Syrian army's fight against militant Islamists in Syria as "regime forces" waging a "brutal" war to crush a "rebellion".
Comment: No wonder the words of the Syrian president haven't reached the Western audience as they could potentially make them question the bogus narrative put forth by the West and their allies.
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Jean Aziz
Al-Monitor
2015-07-28 00:00:00

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During the night of July 17-18 in the Lebanese Bekaa Valley, a kidnapping took place that has turned into a strange, suspense-filled drama with international dimensions involving Beirut, Washington, Prague and Kiev.

On the night of July 17, five Czechs — Jan Svarc, Adam Homsi, Miroslav Dobes, Merlin Pesek and Pavel Kofron — arrived at Beirut's international airport, where a vehicle was waiting to pick them up. A couple of hours later, the van was found on the side of the road in Kefraya, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) east of Beirut in the Bekaa Valley. Their passports, papers and other personal belongings had been left in the car, but there were no other traces of the men or their possible whereabouts. 


Comment: Bekaa Valley is known for kidnappings (including those for ransom and counter-kidnappings), thefts and drug trafficking. It is a predominantly Shiite area.


Lebanese security agencies launched an investigation immediately after the vehicle's discovery that night and soon found that it belonged to a Lebanese man, Munir Saeb Taan,

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who had picked up the Czechs. The following day, July 18, the father of the car's ownerreported his son's disappearance to security officials, telling them that he had been unable to contact him. He had no idea where his son might be.

The investigation soon revealed that Taan is the half-brother of Ali Fayyad, a Lebanese man who had been arrested in April 2014 in Prague. At this point, interpretations of the Czechs' disappearance began to change, with Lebanese media outlets speculating that their kidnapping had probably been orchestrated to pave the way for a swap for Fayyad. 


Comment: Ali Fayyad, and two others, were accused by the US of collaborating with terrorists and allegedly planning to sell weapons and cocaine to American secret agents who were disguised as members of a Colombian guerrilla group FARC.
Comment: US undercover "theme and variation": Three businessmen are set up by US agents as fake Columbian guerrillas. Five Czechs working to free them and the car driver (a relative of the accused) are missing and presumed kidnapped (at best) with a link to a pro-Moscow past president of Ukraine. The US demanding extradition, no ransom demands and belongings purposely left to be found... We can hazard a good guess who has them. Cui bono?
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Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
Mint Press News
2015-08-05 18:14:00

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Illusions are at play in the modern tragedy that is the Greek economic system, particularly when it comes to notions of who benefits most from the latest bailout

Modern Greek tragedy is at play, and so are illusions.

The big myth is that Greece overspent and the Greek government was reckless with its budgets, ultimately indebting Athens. It is true that Greek officials tried to gain influence and political support through spending. It's also true that they signed lucrative contracts with local businesses.

Athens, however, is no exception here; this type of conduct has been displayed by politicians throughout the European Union and around the world.

The fact is that this is not what created the economic crisis in Greece. What is really taking place in Greece and the eurozone is something altogether different. The Greek bailouts appear to be part of a rigid restructuring of the EU that is placing other members under the control of Germany.

Banker bailouts versus national bailouts

We are not dealing with national bailouts for failing economies, but with banking sector bailouts. Almost all the money that has been given to Greece, Cyprus, Ireland, and Portugal has gone to the banks of the creditor lenders.

In his 2013 documentary The Secret Bank Bailout, German investigative journalist Harald Schumann documents how the peoples of Ireland, Cyprus and Spain were not bailed out. The biggest recipients of the Irish bailout that saved Anglo-Irish Bank were British, French and German banks, including Union Investment Privatfonds, Rothschild et Compagnie Gestion, and Deutsche Bank. German and French banks accounted for 50 out of the 80 bondholders. The blogger Guido Fawkes revealed that the Irish government was protecting German investors when he published a list of the bondholders that he had obtained from an insider.
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Tyler Durden
Zerohedge
2015-08-05 23:31:00

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Surprise! In what must be the most predictable geopolitical event in recent days, WSJreports that Iran has refused to let United Nations inspectors interview key scientists and military officers to investigate allegations Tehran maintained a covert nuclear-weapons program. This comes hours after CNN reported that the intelligence community believes Iran has been attempting to clean up the suspected nuclear site at Parchin prior to the arrival of international inspectors based on new satellite imagery. While the administration attempts to 'clear up' any misunderstandings, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker told reporters."It was not a reassuring meeting...I would say most members left with greater concerns about the inspection regime than we came in with."

For now, the landmark nuclear agreement forged between world powers and Iran on July 14 in Vienna is on hold. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Iran's stance complicates the International Atomic Energy Agency's investigation into Tehran's suspected nuclear-military program - a study that is scheduled to be finished by mid-October, as required by the treaty.
The IAEA and its director-general, Yukiya Amano, have been trying for more than five years to debrief Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, an Iranian military officer the U.S., Israel and IAEA suspect oversaw weaponization work in Tehran until at least 2003.

Mr. Amano said Tehran still hasn't agreed to let Mr. Fakhrizadeh or other Iranian military officers and nuclear scientists help the IAEA complete its investigation. The Japanese diplomat indicated that he believed his agency could complete its probe even without access to top-level Iranian personnel.

Tehran has repeatedly denied it ever had a secret nuclear weapons program.

But Mr. Amano said in a 25-minute interview in Washington that Iran still hasn't agreed to provide access to Mr. Fakhrizadeh or other top Iranian military officers and nuclear scientists to assist the IAEA in completing its probe.

"We don't know yet," Mr. Amano said about the agency's interview requests. "If someone who has a different name to Fakhrizadeh can clarify our issues, that is fine with us.
Comment: The US propaganda machine going into full swing against the Iran nuclear deal.
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Society's Child
Raw Story
2015-08-06 19:46:00

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Four Los Angeles-area police officers have been arrested on charges of physically abusing minors who were attending a boot camp for at-risk youth in central California, a sheriff's office said on Wednesday.

The San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Office said the four officers were arrested following a two-month investigation into allegations of abuse on 13 youths between the ages of 12 and 17.

All of the juveniles came from the Los Angeles-area, about 200 miles (322 km) to the south, and were participating in a week-long program from May 17-24 at Camp San Luis Obispo, a California Army National Guard military base, the sheriff's office said in a release.

The sheriff did not give any details into the kinds of physical abuse the children were said to endure, but the Los Angeles Times, citing an attorney for the children, said it included the youths being slapped and punched, and having their hands and backs stepped on while they were doing push ups.
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Bethania Palma Markus
Raw Story
2015-08-06 19:14:00

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A New York police officer has been indicted for sexually abusing a teenage girl, the New York Daily News reports.

Joel Doseau was arrested Wednesday morning and faces 40 counts for abusing a girl starting in 2008 when she was 15 years old and he was 37, the Daily Newsreports. She just recently came forward to report the abuse and is now a young adult. Doseau is a sergeant with the NYPD.

He faces charges that include counts of rape, promoting the sexual performance of a child, sexual abuse and misconduct, using a child for sexual performance and acting in a manner injurious to a child.
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RT
2015-08-05 17:02:00

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A 911 operator in Lawrence, Massachusetts is currently being investigated for allegedly hanging up on Spanish-speaking callers, even though the department is supposed to have a fluent speaker on hand for just such occasions.

Notably, this isn't a one-time accusation against the dispatcher, who has remained unidentified. According to CBS Boston, which broke the story, the operator has dumped Spanish-speaking callers a total of three times, a significant number considering that 75 percent of Lawrence is Spanish-speaking.

In an audio recording made available by the news outlet, a man who called in to 911 can be heard speaking in Spanish.

"I don't speak Spanish. I speak English, sir," the dispatcher says to the man.
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RT
2015-08-06 16:49:00

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Nearly a dozen bounty hunters descended upon a Phoenix, Arizona house with guns drawn on Tuesday night, in an attempt to weed out a suspected fugitive. However, they ended up running into the top dog of the local police department.

Instead of discovering the runaway Oklahoma fugitive they were looking for, they were actually trying to raid the house of the Phoenix Police Chief Joseph Yahner. The bounty hunters said a social media tip led them to the house, where they believed they'd find their target.

According to the Arizona Republic, police said the incident began when two separate bounty hunter organizations, the Northstar Fugitive Recovery and Delta One Tactical Recovery, converged on Yahner's home. A 54-second cell phone recording shows part of the scene, during which the bounty hunters can be seen around the property.
Comment: The police seem to have no problem raiding the wrong person's home. Now at least one of them understands what it's like to be on the other end.
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RT
2015-08-06 16:34:00

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A "hazardous acidic substance in the water" off the shore of part of Santa Monica beach has forced Los Angeles authorities to partially evacuate the packed coastline.

Lifeguards rushed to clear the water and the Hollywood-famous pier, closing it off from block 1700 of Ocean Front Walk to Tower 15, north of the pier, LA County Lifeguard spokesman Ken Haskett told local reporters.

As beach-goers took snapshots at the scene, swimmers were urged to stay out of the water. For now the public is not allowed to enter the cordoned off area until the nature of the substance is determined, ABC local news, KABS, reports.

The mysterious substance possibly comes from an offshore boat and could be chemically treated sewage, said Petty Officer Marshall Anderson with the US Coast Guard who spoke with KATLA news station.

If the substance is proved to be sewage, it will eventually dissipate naturally, Anderson added.
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Eli Watkins
CNN
2015-08-05 20:05:00

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Opposition groups have reacted swiftly to notice of a Friday deadline after which Federal officials could start removing a herd of horses from the Tonto National Forest in Arizona.

Though it's unlikely they would start immediately, the Feds said that these are stray and escaped horses and that they pose a public hazard. But advocates who oppose the roundup say these horses are part of the last vestige of an estimated half million "wild" horses that used to roam Arizona.

In a notice posted to much controversy last week, the Forest Service said people have until this Friday to claim their "stray" horses, before service officials may begin removing the horses from Salt River in Tonto National Forest.

With that Friday deadline looming, anger at the federal government turned to action -- swift and organized. So much so, that it garnered a response from Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey.

"Feds should leave our free roaming & #wildhorses alone. But if they don't, #AZ will do everything we can to protect them and provide sanctuary," Ducey said in a tweet posted Wednesday afternoon.
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Nicky Woolf
The Guardian
2015-08-05 14:54:00

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Police say they are investigating the role of a recent 'blue moon,' after the bodies of a man and his two sons were discovered dead at home on Friday

Leading experts and practitioners of Wicca and other pagan religions have slammed a Florida sheriff's department after police announced that a triple murder was a "ritualistic killing" linked to "witchcraft".

The bodies of a man and his two sons were discovered on Friday in a house in Escambia County in the Florida panhandle, after a routine welfare check.

They had been bludgeoned to death on the afternoon of 28 July, with what police said had been a claw-hammer, and their throats had been slit. One of the sons, who was a Department of Homeland Security employee, had also been shot through the head.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Escambia County sheriff David Morgan told reporters that his department was investigating a connection with "witchcraft", saying that the "method of the murder, blunt force traumas, slit throats, positions of bodies and then our person of interest has some ties to a faith or religion that is indicative of that".

"Those of you that follow any of that will also note that at the time of death we believe on Tuesday it also coincides with what's referred to as a blue moon," Morgan added.

A "blue moon" is when a full moon occurs twice within one month, giving a year 13 full moons instead of 12, and one indeed occurred that week - though the astronomical rarity actually happened on Friday, the day the bodies were found, rather than on Tuesday, when police say the murders took place.

"If they had done even a modicum of research it would be clear this had nothing to do with paganism," said Dr Gwendolyn Reece, a specialist in contemporary paganism at American University. "It's very irresponsible and highly prejudiced on the part of the sheriff."
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Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg
2015-08-04 21:25:00

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Criminal sentencing has long been based on the present crime and, sometimes, the defendant's past criminal record. In Pennsylvania, judges could soon consider a new dimension: the future.

Pennsylvania is on the verge of becoming one of the first states in the country to base criminal sentences not only on what crimes people have been convicted of, but also on whether they are deemed likely to commit additional crimes. As early as next year, judges there could receive statistically derived tools known as risk assessments to help them decide how much prison time — if any — to assign.

- From the Five Thirty Eight article: Should Prison Sentences Be Based On Crimes That Haven't Been Committed Yet?
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Secret History
No new articles.
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Science & Technology
RT
2015-08-06 19:08:00

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A new hacking technique that uses sound and radio waves can siphon data from devices even without internet access. Showcased at the Black Hat security summit in Las Vegas, the 'Funtenna' hack has the potential to unravel the Internet of Things.

By uploading a malicious program to a device, the hackers can vibrate the physical prongs on general-purpose input/output circuits at a frequency of their choice. The resulting vibrations can be picked up by an AM radio antenna.

The setup, dubbed "Funtenna" by its creators, was presented to the audience at the Black Hat hacking conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday by Ang Cui of the Manhattan-based Red Balloon Security.

Cui, who recently completed a PhD at Columbia University, spoke with several reporters before his presentation, providing a preview of the technique. Unlike the previous hacking techniques, "Funtenna" works by turning the infected device into a transmitter.


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RT
2015-08-05 23:57:00

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NASA has released spectacular footage of the "dark side" of the moon - fully illuminated - as the Earth's natural satellite was moving across the sunlit side of our planet. The unique shots were captured by the Deep Space Climate Observatory.

Taken by the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), the images show a unique view of our planet and the moon from one million miles away. The capture of this rare spectacle was made possible due to the orbiting trajectory of the DSCOVR satellite that is positioned between the Sun and the Earth, giving it the capability to see the far side of the moon.

"It is surprising how much brighter Earth is than the moon," said Adam Szabo, DSCOVR project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Our planet is a truly brilliant object in dark space compared to the lunar surface."

The series of images taken on July 16 were compiled into GIF animation that depicts the moon flying over the North America and the Pacific Ocean. The images taken from the satellite's point of view also clearly show the tilt of the Earth, with the North Pole located in the upper left corner.
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Earth Changes
newsinenglish.no
2015-06-19 17:12:00

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One of the large, horned musk ox that roam the mountains of Dovre in central Norway attacked a German tourist near the Kongsvoll mountain lodge on Friday. The tourist, a man in his 70s, was rescued after an ambulance, helicopter and police rsponded to the call for help.

There had been reports earlier in the day of the normally shy musk ox (called moskus in Norwegian) spotted along the E6 highway that runs over the mountains. Another hiker in the area reported seeing moskus on a trail in the area as well, according to wildlife authorities.

The extent of the German tourist's injuries were unclear, "but the man was conscious," emergency operations lader Wiktor Pederson of the Sør-Trøndelag Police District told state broadcaster NRK.
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daijiworld.com
2015-08-06 16:15:00

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In the third such incident of its kind in the coastal districts in the last few days, a dead whale was found at Malpe beach here on Thursday August 6.

The whale was spotted by the locals early morning on Thursday.

The whale was in a decomposed state, with the tail separated.

Locals suspect that it might have been hit by a ship and died due to injuries.

The whale was a rare sight at Malpe beach and attracted a number of curious locals.

Udupi city municipality workers have buried the carcass near Malpe seashore.
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dutchnews.nl
2015-08-06 14:39:00

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A hungry fox pacing next to a chicken coup in the garden of a family home in Zeewolde has attacked the person filming its actions on a mobile phone.

Eduard Plate, who is a Flevoland provincial councillor for the VVD, spotted the fox hanging around his neighbours' chickens on Wednesday afternoon and started filming it. After a few seconds the fox turned and saw Plate. It leapt at him, forcing him to run off and stop filming. 

Plate called in pest control experts who caught the fox and took it to Lelystad where it was killed, RTL news reports.


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Kathryn Robinson
nbcnews.com
2015-08-06 14:06:00

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An Alaskan woman is recovering after being mauled by a grizzly bear while jogging with a co-worker late Tuesday night, authorities said.

Gabbriele Markel, 20, and Kaitlin Haley, 26, were running on a trail along Skilak Lake, 50 miles south of Anchorage, when an adult grizzly bear came out of the thick brush next to the trail and attacked Markel, knocking her to the ground, police said.

Police told NBC News the two women work at Alaska Wildland Adventures lodge and were about three-quarters of a mile from the lodge.

Police spokeswoman Megan Peters said Haley ran back to the lodge for help while the bear was still on top of Markel.

Haley and several other employees ran back from the lodge, armed with bear spray, and saw Markel walking towards them. The employees transported Markel across the lake via boat and met with emergency officials, Peters said.


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The Straits Times
2015-08-06 13:45:00

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At least 27 people were killed after two packed trains derailed while crossing a bridge hit by floods in central India overnight, the authorities said, highlighting again safety problems with the nation's crumbling railway network.

Rescuers searched in darkness for passengers feared trapped on the trains that were travelling in opposite directions when some of their carriages derailed in Madhya Pradesh state, the officials said.

The trains derailed within minutes of each other near the town of Harda at about 11.30pm on Tuesday.

"There have been 27 deaths due to the accidents," Madhya Pradesh railway police chief M. S. Gupta said yesterday. "All the coaches have been cleared and all bodies have been collected from inside," he said, adding that the death toll could still rise slightly.


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rte.ie
2015-08-05 13:00:00

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