Possessive individualism or greed?

Housing rules drive up fake divorces:

 Published on 1 Nov 2013 | The divorce rate in China's capital has soared by a staggering 41 percent since last year. Does that mean a sudden rise in unhappy families, or is something else driving up the divorce rate? At least some people in the cities are faking their divorces over housing. Beijing residents Xiao Hui and Xiao Ming, who only spoke to us on the condition of anonymity, divorced each other to buy a second apartment.

Madness over madness ? The limitations of the French recent law!

When bilateral agreements between France and other countries prevent gay marriage

Published on 18 Oct 2013 | France's constitutional council, the country's highest court, has ruled that mayors cannot refuse to marry same-sex couples because of what their conscience allowed. The case was brought on by a couple who sued their local mayor for refusing to marry them because he didn't believe in gay marriage. Meanwhile, some gay couples are facing a different legal dilemma. Bilateral agreements between France and 11 countries mean that some foreigners fall under the marriage laws of their home countries. Even if they're in a relationship with a French citizen, officials can't marry the couples.

USA madness! Latin American Leaders Denounce US at UN.

Published on 27 Sep 2013 | Brazil's Rousseff outraged over NSA spying revelations, Bolivia's Morales calls for Obama government to be judged in tribunal.

See more videos: http://therealnews.com

Ukraine (Habitual) Democracy?

Packing a Punch: Fist fights the norm in Ukraine's parliament

US accused of creating three more computer super-viruses.

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images / AFP

Two independent teams of researchers studying the Flame computer virus believe that the maker of the malware — all but certain to be the United States — has architected three additional programs to conduct clandestine cyberwar or espionage.

Both Symantec Corp of the United States and Kaspersky Lab of Russia acknowledged on Monday that their research of Flame has led them to believe that whoever had a role in creating that virus has also put their efforts behind three other similar programs.

A team of engineers at Kaspersky released new information on Monday collected during forensic analysis of Flame command-and-Control servers that were examined with the assistance of Symantec, ITU-IMPACT and CERT-Bund/BSI. Researchers had first disclosed in May that Flame, a sophisticated espionage virus, targeted computer systems in Iran and was likely the product of a nation-state, specifically the US. With this week’s update, however, it appears as if the United States’ endeavors in cyberwar may have stretched past even what researchers had imagined.

“Based on the code from the servers, it can be said that they were working with at least three other programs similar to Flame. The code names of those programs are IP, SP and SPE,” Kaspersky Lab chief security expert Aleks Gostev told RT. 

Although the United States government has not gone on the record to take credit for either Flame or Stuxnet, a similar computer worm that targeted Iranian nuclear facilities first discovered in 2010, experts have long maintained that the US is involved in both viruses, perhaps even enlisting Israeli scientists for assistance.

Speaking at a TED Talk in 2011, researcher Ralph Langner said, "My opinion is that the Mossad is involved but that the leading force is not Israel. The leading force behind Stuxnet is the cyber superpower – there is only one; and that's the United States."

In January of this year, Mike McConnell, the former director of national intelligence at the National Security Agency under George W Bush, told Reuters that the US had indeed attacked foreign computer systems at one time or another, and confirmed that America has “the ability to attack, degrade or destroy” the e-grids of adversaries. When the New York Times followed up with a report of their own only five months later, members of US President Barack Obama’s national security team admitted on condition of anonymity that the White House continued cyber-assaults on Iran’s nuclear program through Stuxnet, which Mr. Obama himself endorsed.

Once compared with coding from Flame, security experts saw an immediate correlation.

“Stuxnet of 2009 had a large piece of code similar to that of Flame, so apparently creators of Stuxnet and Flame were working in close collaboration,” Gostev from Kaspersky Lab said. 

With America all but confirmed as the culprit behind both viruses, this week it’s revealed that the United States may have crafted another three coded programs to target Iran and its allies. Speaking to Reuters, researchers involved in the latest analysis say they are still trying to figure out the basic facts about the three new viruses, but believe that the same entity responsible for Stuxnet and Flame are at it again.

"We know that it is definitely out there. We just can't figure out a way to actually get our hands on it. We are trying,"Symantec researcher Vikram Thakur tells Reuters.

Also in their report, Kaspersy say that the heavy encryption and nature of the newest programs “fits the profile of military and/or intelligence operations."

source here  >>>

Obama in a state of denial?

Published on Sep 8, 2012 by AssociatedPress : President Barack Obama says Republicans are "dead wrong" in calling America a country in decline.

Former Guantanamo guards, detainee and lawyer in heated live HuffPost debate.

Almost two and half years ago, I wrote about the murder of Abdul Manan Gul Rehman in a CIA black site facility known as the Salt Pit in Afghanistan. The news that he had been killed was received eight years after the fact.

In 2008, I had been fortunate enough to meet with the family of Gul Rehman in Peshawar as I was conducting investigations into enforced disappearances. At the time I had been informed by his family he had gone missing after having been accidentally picked up in 2002 in Islamabad from the home of Dr. Ghairat Baheer, the son-in-law of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. All the men in that home had been transferred to prisons in Afghanistan, with Baheer having been released three years later. The family wondered why their son/brother/father had still not been released in 2008, despite Baheer having been so many years earlier.

On returning to the UK, I followed up with colleagues from the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) to inquire why Gul Rehman had not been registered on any prison lists. At CagePrisoners we had been documenting the names of those detained in US custody in detention centres such as Bagram and Guantanamo Bay, so to find that there was no mention of this unimportant former driver was particularly worrying.

It was not until 28 March 2010, that the world learnt of Gul Rehman's fate. On 20 November 2002, he had died in US custody after only one month in detention. According to the Associated Press (AP) investigation, he died from being left half naked in the cold, after being subjected to continual bouts of freezing temperatures.

At that time, I called to pass on my condolences to the family, only to be informed that they knew nothing of this news or the AP investigation. It turned out that no one had bothered to inform the family that Gul Rehman had died in custody, let alone return his body for them to be able to perform the funeral rites.

In 2008 an inquiry was launched following allegations that the CIA had tortured rendition victims Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah with the use of waterboarding in secret prisons and destroyed videotape evidence of those interrogations to safeguard the identities of the agents involved and, after the release of an internal CIA report which revealed that interrogators had threatened to kill and sexually assault members of prisoners’ families – a practice routinely carried out in pre-revolution Arab states and currently in places like Syria.

Federal prosecutor John Durham then submitted that a full criminal investigation into the deaths of two men – Gul Rehman and Madadel al-Jamedi (who died in CIA custody in Abu Ghraib) – be pursued, despite President Obama’s post (and pre)-inaugural promise of immunity from prosecution for any Bush-era CIA agents accused of breaking the rules whilst fighting terrorism.

Not surprisingly, Durham's inquiry concluded that there was not enough evidence to push for the prosecution of individuals in such cases, so no criminal charges would be brought against those who had been involved in the killing.

A statement released by US Attorney General, Eric Holder, gave weight to these findings,

"Based on the fully developed factual record concerning the two deaths, the Department has declined prosecution because the admissible evidence would not be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt."

Thus, according to the Department of Justice, despite there being a well established factual narrative of the murder of Gul Rehman, no charges would be brought against any individuals, thereby whitewashing any wrongdoing involved in the case.

While Eric Holder may be satisfied with the outcome of this investigation, he was very wrong when he said, "I continue to believe that our Nation will be better for it". Such half-hearted attempts at the apparent administration of justice only serve to highlight a hypocrisy endemic within the US justice system, where serious crimes and violations of the laws of war are either whitewashed completely, or result in severely disproportionate under-sentencing when it comes to holding authority to account. This is particularly relevant when juxtaposed with sentences given to Muslims within the federal justice system, such as Aafia Siddiqui who was given an 86-year sentence, despite not having harmed even one individual in an alleged shooting incident.

A maxim of the law states that the law must not just be done, but it must be seen to be done - what people like John Durham and Eric Holder do no understand, is that the US justice system is not seeing with the same eyes as the rest of the world. 

source here  >>

Obama - biggest broken promise?

Thursday, 23 August 2012 : 168 remaining inmates at Guantanamo Bay

RAPE - -- in relation to Julian Assange

Published on Aug 23, 2012 by WomenAgainstRape : Lisa Longstaff on Sky news interview 21 August 2012

A year after the riots : Like a bad dream

Unrest that seemed epoch-making a year ago has changed little. That is surprising—and worrying

Aug 4th 2012 | BIRMINGHAM AND LONDON

ONE of the worst incidents of last year’s riots took place at the Bartons Arms, an ornate Victorian pub in the Aston district of Birmingham. Criminals set it alight, then shot at police officers on the ground and in a helicopter; six people have been jailed for up to 30 years for the ambush. But, with the help of its punters, the pub soon opened again. A scorch mark on the bar is the only reminder of the carnage.

Virtually the only trace in central Birmingham is a marketing ploy. After the windows of Cyber Candy, a sweet shop, were smashed, its hoardings were daubed with the words “Keep Calm and Candy on”. The slogan now adorns balloons in the window. The unrest “feels a little bit like a dream,” says Casey Rain, a local musician who chronicled the tumult on his blog. “Once all the damage was cleaned up, people just tried to forget about it.”

The riots that began in London on August 6th last year, soon spreading to Birmingham and other cities, seemed at the time to be an outbreak of mass lunacy. Now those few anarchic days feel instead like a mass hallucination. The closest analogy in recent history may be with the death of Princess Diana. Like the fevered week of mourning in 1997, the riots seemed set to be epoch-making; yet, a year on, so slight has the impact on politics and policy been that it almost seems as if they never happened at all.

Read More  >>

 

Kidnap victim found in garage of New York police detective

Kidnap victim found in garage of New York police detective

Bound with zip ties and rope, a 25-year old man was kidnapped and held for $75,000 ransom in a garage belonging to a New York City police detective, who claims not to be involved.

The officer, Ondre Johnson, was taken into custody and suspended from duty though he was not held in prison and is not facing any charges, the NY Daily News reports. Johnson is a 17-year veteran of the New York Police Department and a member of a Brooklyn gang investigation unit.

The victim found in his garage had been kidnapped at gunpoint by a group of men in front of his home on Friday. He was thrown into an SUV with a T-shirt over his head. “Don’t try anything funny or I’ll shoot you,” threatened Jason Hutson, one of the kidnappers.

Another kidnapper then proceeded to call a relative of the victim, demanding $75,000, but the relative recognized the kidnapper’s voice and called the police.

The police were able to trace the location of the phone to Officer Johnson’s home in Queens. After the officer answered the door, police soon found the victim tied up in the single-car garage, which is detached from the house at the end of a short driveway. But the detective denied any involvement in the crime, claiming that he shares his two-family home with his cousin and knew nothing of the kidnapping. Additionally, the cop said he had no access to the garage where the victim was being held.

Three men, including the alleged cousin of the cop, were charged with kidnapping, attempting to collect ransom and criminal possession of a weapon. In the area of the apartment reportedly used by the cousin, police also found a safe, containing materials needed to make fake credit cards. But although the crime took place in the cop’s garage, Officer Johnson was not charged or even locked up.

“A decision was made last night not to lock him up,” a law enforcement official told the New York Times on Saturday. “What you have is an enormous amount of suspicion, but not the hard evidence tying him into it.”

Currently, the officer is only facing suspension without pay, pending further investigation. But four men that were found at the house were all arrested. As of Saturday evening, two had been charged.

“Something is not right here,” a source told the NY Daily News. “They’re going to try to find out what [the cop] was doing there and how he knows these guys.”

source | 29 July 2012

Linda Chase, Michigan Woman, Faces Forgery Charge After Keeping Mummified Boyfriend

One woman's mummy dearest has her in some legal trouble. 

 Police charged Linda Chase, 72, with forgery after they found her mummified boyfriend, Charles Zigler, inside her Jackson, Mich. home. Chase previously admitted to cashing Zigler's benefits checks, but she said the only reason she allegedly kept the man's lifeless body for 18 months was that she was lonely. 

 "It's not that I'm heartless. It's just that after so many bad things happen to you, I don't know," Chase told MI Live earlier this month. "I didn't want to be alone. He was the only guy who was ever nice to me." 

 Prosecutors charged Chase with cashing $28,000 worth of fraudulent checks in Zigler's name, MI Live reports. Chase could face up to 14 years in prison, but likely won't see any jail time if convicted because she has no previous criminal record. 

 That doesn't sit well with Zigler's nephew, Aaron Dryer. "We're just stunned," he said. "I want her in jail. Our family wants her in jail." Prosecutor Hank Zavislak said he plans to take Chase's mental state into account, according to a press release obtained by WLNS. "This is a very unusual case," Zavislak said in the release. "Given the circumstances it is clear a comprehensive mental examination is in order. I would expect that to be ordered as the case progresses." 

 Jackson Police spokesperson Chris Simpson previously told The Huffington Post that Zigler was discovered by authorities after they received a call from one of his family members, who were concerned that they hadn't spoken to or seen him "for a long period of time." Zigler is believed to have died of natural causes.

Original report here | 28 July 2012 

Shock discovery: 248 human embryos found trashed in Russian forest

A fishing trip in Russia’s Urals ended with cries of horror as a man found canisters filled with human embryos, some already shaped to baby bodies.

Lids on the bright blue containers apparently unlocked as the canisters hit the ground, and many embryos spilled out. The little bodies, no longer than 15 centimeters, shrank, turning into mummies.

“A friend of mine called at night and said he went fishing and wanted to get some wood for his fire. He found some abandoned water canisters and wanted to take them for his house. And when he came up, he saw… little baby bodies,” a local told Russia’s Channel 4.

Arriving Monday morning, police found 248 embryos aged 12-16 weeks in and around the four canisters. Labels attached to tiny hands and legs listed family names of assumed mothers and some digit codes, which may refer to the pregnancy period, date of abortion or the hospital where the body originated from.

The 50-liter canisters filled with formalin seem to have been thrown out of a vehicle not far from a road leading to Nevyansk, a town on the slopes of the Ural Mountains.

Nevyansk authorities immediately said the canisters could not have originated in their town.

“Our area is too small; we can’t have so many stillborns, miscarriages or artificial abortions,” they said.

Later it was revealed that the horrifying content was “biological waste” from at least three hospitals in Ekaterinburg, the region’s major city.

“It appears a waste disposal company has failed to carry out its duties properly,” remark local authorities as the investigation continues. The Ministry of Health has been requested to determine which companies provide embryo disposal services to Ekaterinburg hospitals.

Read more : 

The Most Hated Woman In America.

Christian Leader William J. Murray: Son of Atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair:

Murray Wants to Tell of the Hope He Finds in Jesus Christ

Imagine you are a little child again. How would you feel if your mother ran a business and often hired convicted murderers to work for her and was proud of it? Suppose one of the convicts working for your mother stole a large amount of money from her business. Imagine she also cheated on her Federal Income Tax, stole from her own organizations, and printed phony stock certificates, in an attempt to take over other atheist companies. How would you feel if your mother often spent her days in an X-rated movie theater, was the only woman in the theater watching the movies, and boasted about her attendance? Suppose she was even proud to write articles for pornographic magazines. Do you think you would ever want to invite one of your friends home for a meal?

William Murray, a devout Christian, and the son of the late famous atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair, doesn't have to imagine. The founder of the Christian ministry, The Religious Freedom Coalition, makes these charges about his mother on his official website, http://ww.wjmurray.com. He claims the charges are true, based upon personal knowledge. Although he expressed regret in his belief that his mother never became a Christian before her murder, he nevertheless claims she "led many to hell. That is hard for me to say about my mother, but it is true."

read more :

On the Mum:-

Human placenta dinners rising in China.

After Wang Lan delivered, she brought home a baby girl and her placenta, which she plans to eat in a soup—adopting an age-old practice in Chinese medicine.

The health-giving qualities of placenta are currently creating a buzz in Western countries, where some believe it can help ward off postnatal depression, improve breast milk supply and boost energy levels. But placentophagy—the practice of eating one's placenta after birth—is relatively common in China, where it is thought to have anti-ageing properties and dates back more than 2,000 years.

"It's in the refrigerator now and I'm waiting for my mother to come and cook it to eat. After cleaning, it can be stewed for soup without that fishy smell," Wang said, adding she believed it would help her recover from delivery.

Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of a unified China, is said to have designated placenta as having health properties some 2,200 years ago, and during China's last dynasty the dowager empress Cixi was said to have eaten it to stay young.

A classic medical text from the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) said placenta—which lines the uterus and is key to the survival of the foetus—was "heavily nutritious" and "if taken for the longer term... longevity will be achieved".

China's state media says the practice of eating placenta has re-emerged over the past decade. One maternity hospital in the eastern city of Nanjing reported that about 10 percent of new parents took their placenta after childbirth.

Internet postings swop recipes on how to prepare placenta. One popular health website suggests soup, dumplings, meatballs or mixing it with other kinds of traditional Chinese medicine.

While trade in the organs has been banned since 2005, pills containing placentas ground into powder are legally available in Chinese pharmacies—indicating unwanted placenta is somehow making its way to drug companies.

"It's a tonic to fortify the 'qi' and enrich the blood," a traditional medicine doctor at Shanghai's Lei Yun Shang pharmacy said, referring to the "life force" that practitioners believe flows through the body. "Sales are very good. Basically, every time we have supplies, they sell out very quickly," a shop clerk told AFP.

And it's not just mums who want to eat the placenta. One new dad in Shanghai who didn't want to be named said his relatives were eager to try the sought-after item. "My wife and I were still in the hospital... and they ate it," he said.

But strong demand has created a thriving black market with hospitals, medical workers and even mums selling placentas in violation of the law. Last year, authorities investigated a hospital in the southern city of Guangzhou for selling placentas for 20 yuan (RM6) apiece. "The nurses take the money and use it to buy breakfast," a source told the local Xin Kuai newspaper.

They fetch a higher price in other parts of China like the eastern city of Jinan, where dealers ask as much as 300 yuan per placenta, most sourced from hospitals, the Jinan Times said. Last month, South Korean customs said they had uncovered multiple attempts to illegally import over 17,000 capsules apparently containing the powdered flesh of dead babies.

Experts have said the pills may actually be made from human placenta, raising concerns that China's trade in the organs has started to go international.

Some people, meanwhile, are averse to the idea of eating the organ. "I know it's good for health, but the idea of eating human flesh is just disgusting. I can't do it," said Shanghai accountant Grace Jiang, who opted to leave the placenta after giving birth to her son.

Source: Relaxnews

Published: 5th July 2012

Border agency overextended on drone program.

The Homeland Security Department ordered so many drones it can’t keep them all flying and doesn’t have a good plan for how to use them, according to a new audit the department’s inspector general released Monday.

In a blunt assessment, investigators said Customs and Border Protection's Office of Air and Marine has a fleet of nine “unmanned aircraft systems” and is awaiting a 10th — though it doesn’t have enough ground support and doesn’t have a good plan for prioritizing missions.

“CBP procured unmanned aircraft before implementing adequate plans,” the investigators said.

The Defense Department uses armed drones overseas in its war on terror, and a U.S. Navy drone crashed on Maryland’s Eastern Shore on Monday afternoon, according to the Associated Press.

American law enforcement agencies at all levels are also increasingly turning to drones for use in detecting or preventing crimes in the U.S. But they find themselves butting heads with civil libertarians who worry about intrusion into innocent citizens’ private lives.

The inspector general said given the number of aircraft, CBP should have been able to fly more than 10,000 hours of missions per year, but in the year under review the agency flew less than 4,000 hours.

Underscoring the ad hoc approach, the agency doesn’t have a dedicated budget for running drones, and has had to siphon money from other areas to keep the program afloat. Investigators said the budget woes mean future missions may have to be scrapped — yet the underfunded fleet continues to grow.

“Despite the current underutilization of unmanned aircraft, CBP received two additional aircraft in late 2011 and was awaiting delivery of a tenth aircraft in 2012,” the inspector general said.

In a statement, CBP officials said they accepted the auditor’s recommendations and will work to improve the program.

“CBP’s Unmanned Aircraft System program provides command, control, communication, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capability to support personnel and capabilities on the ground,” the agency said.

Since fiscal year 2004, when CBP conducted its first pilot study of using drones, the federal government has spent $240.6 million on the program, with each Predator B drone in the fleet costing about $14 million.

Full report here : 

NDAA banned: Indefinite detention of Americans 'unconstitutional'

Published on Jun 8, 2012 by RussiaToday : A Federal judge in the US has ruled Washington cannot indefinitely detain Americans suspected of having terrorist ties unless they have been found in connection with the September Eleventh attacks. It comes just six months after President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which would have allowed American citizens to be held without trial or charge. The judge initially ruled the act was unconstitutional last month, but the Obama administration asked her to reconsider the ruling. Attorney Carl Mayer says the act threatened Americans' basic freedoms.

NYPD + Muslim Students: Spying & Profiling.

Uploaded by tytuniversity on Feb 21, 2012 - Muslim students are up in arms after new reports of widespread spying and religious and racial profiling by the NYPD. Student gatherings, both on and off campus, have been investigated, and email activities are being regularly monitored without cause.

Faulty medicine kills scores in Pakistan

Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on 25 Jan 2012 - A senior health official has said the number of people in eastern Pakistan suspected to have died in the last month from taking bad heart medicine has risen to 70.

Saeed Illahi said on Wednesday that an investigation found that a total of 419 heart patients had become sick from taking the drugs, and that 45 of them remained in critical condition. Many of the patients are in the city of Lahore. Illahi is the head of the health department in Punjab province, of which Lahore is the capital. The suspected drugs were given free to patients by the state-run Punjab Institute of Cardiology.

Illahi said the government had registered a case against the company accused of manufacturing the faulty medicine. Javed Akram, another government health official, said patients developed red spots on their skin within days of taking the medicine that is suspected of killing them.

Marines urinating on dead soldiers Taliban.

Uploaded by moviesoundtrackvideo on 11 Jan 2012 - Marines urinating on dead soldiers dead Taliban insurgents.