Thursday, 2 August 2018
Is something rotten in the state of the BBC?
Is something rotten in the state of the BBC?: By Russell Bruce The fiasco over BBC lawyers taking down video channels with snippets from news programmes on the YouTube channels of Wings over Scotland and Peter Curran, strikes at the heart of democratic debate in a pluralistic society where the pluralism of the media is under constant fire. As Alex Salmond explains the copyright …
Monday, 5 January 2015
22 YEAR OLD JAPANESE WOMAN GANG RAPED IN INDIA FOR WEEKS
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| Maha Bodhi Temple, Bodhgaya, India. ไทย: วัดมหาโพธิ์ พุทธคยา ประเทศอินเดีย (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
A Japanese woman was abducted by three men while doing research near a Buddhist pilgrimage centre in eastern India. She was held near the centre at Bodh Gaya where Gautam Buddha is said to have found enlightenment under a tree There she was brutaly gang raped and held for several weeks. "We have arrested three people from Kolkata and two from Gaya in Bihar. This gang used to operate from Kolkata and used to dupe and sometimes physically abuse Japanese tourists" said Joint Commissioner of Police, PK Ghose. "She was forced on a bus from Digha to Bodh Gaya where two members of the gang raped her" Ghose said While two of the accused have been charged with rape, three others have been booked for cheating,criminal conspiracy and kidnapping among other offences. The woman managed to escape from the secluded basement where she was held to Varanasi, a city in the neighbouring state.Afterwards she reached Kolkata where she lodged a complaint of fraudulent withdrawal of money and rape. Following a spate of high profile rapes India has doubled the prison term for rape to 20years, it has also made it a crime for officers not to investigate once a complaint of rape is made.
Monday, 1 December 2014
VENEZUELA PRISON DRUG OVERDOSE DEATH COUNT NOW 35
The death toll in David Vilora prison, western Venezuela reached a staggering 35 as government authorities confirmed that another 20 inmates out of 100 other suspected drug overdoses were critical in comas. Prisoners on hunger strike for better conditions in the vastly overcrowded prison are said to have stormed an infirmary and raided the drugs for the treatment of diabetes, epilepsy and high blood pressure, inmates then mixed them with a large quantity of pure alcohol made from grain. Human rights activist's accused the authorities of with holding information on the figures and the only way of varifying was to visit the local morgue.
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| Venezualan riot police guard the morgue |
As of the end of June 2014 Venezuela's prison population was more than 55,000, while penal facilities have room for 19,000. Sixty-five percent of those in jail are still awaiting trial. Relatives of the dead blamed prison guards for the deaths and police have arrested Julio Cesar Perez, the warden of the prison and are preparing to file charges against him. President Nicolas Maduro has yet to comment on the incident in frequent television appearances this week even as calls for a thorough investigation have come from the Roman Catholic leaders in Venezuela and from the United Nations human rights agency. President Maduro is now under pressure from the Committe Against Torture to investigate not only this incident but the many numerous claims of beatings, burnings and electric shock of detainees in order to extract confessions. Venezuela should "guarantee that all complaints and all cases of torture and abuse of detainees are investigated in a prompt and exhaustive manner" the report said.
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Friday, 17 October 2014
FUKUSHIMA RADIATION LEVELS SOAR AS JAPAN IS HIT BY BACK TO BACK TYPHOONS
Radiation levels at fukushima have risen by more than 10 times in the aftermath of typoons Phanfone and Vongfong. Levels of tritium measured against samples taken on October 9 show the increase according to Japans JIJI agency. Radioactive Cesium isotope levels which is soluble, easily spread and known to cause cancer show a 3 fold increase.
Whilst cesium is considered to be more dangerous than tritium both are radioactive substancies and need to be kept from being discharged into the Pacific Ocean in high quantities. Additionally record levels of Beta ray Strontium-90 which causes bone cancer were found according to JIJI news agency.
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| Typhoon Phanfone |
As for now there is no sense of urgency to contain the increase as "additional measures have been ruled out since the depth and scope of the contaminated water leaks are unknown, and TEPCO already has in place several measures to control the problem, such as pumping of underground water, " according to the IANS news agency. Officials blamed the increases on the typhoons which resulted in large amounts of rain falling in the area.Typhoon Phanfone slammed central Japan stalling trains and flights and triggering mudslides before moving into the Pacific ocean. 3 US airmen were swept out to sea and their bodies recovered by US and Japanese search crews in reports from local authorities.The latest and strongest of the typhoons - Vongfong _ hit the southernmost island of Kyushu monday morning. At least 36 injuries related to the storm were reported across Okinawa,Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures, Officials reported that 44,000 people across the country were without power. Edit 22/10/2014
Doctor: My friends are dying of cancer, one after another http://goo.gl/Eh5koJ
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Tuesday, 23 September 2014
F.G.M.- NOT ENOUGH MONEY TARGETED FOR UK
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| No-FGM (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
At a fringe meeting during the Labour Party Conferencs last night politicians were told that not enough money was being put into the eradication of FGM (female genital mutilation) in the UK. Fears were raised as to how much data was being collected and with services being cut that this would put vulnerable children at risk. The meeting which was attended by teachers,doctors, councillors and survivors said that out of £35million put aside only £1million had been allocated to eradicate FGM in Britain which is said to affect up to 170,000 people. Ellie Robinson from Newham council in east London, which was recently given £80,000 from the mayor of London to provide an FGM service, said she feared the problem was vastly under reported.
She said "30% of our residents were actually born elsewhere and if you think about what that must mean for FGM you would expect very high numbers, but in actual fact in 2013 we only had five cases that came to our children and social care department and we had just six reported to the police. So at the moment we just don't have the data. We don't know what the problem is and we can't analyse trends,we cant get into the communities because we don't know what we are dealing with, At the moment we are having to make huge cuts, so every intervention that you do, you have to prove there is a need for it and you've got to prove that your intervention would work and i cant prove that the intervention will work because it's not been done in many places"
In response to the question asked by survivors of FGM to put FGM on the sex education curriculum for both boys and girls Seema Malhotra MP and shadow minister for prevention of violence to women and girls said " we are talking about age appropriate sex education right from key stage 1" but she would not comment on whether she would commit more money in the future to prevent FGM in the UK. Lucinda Berger the shadow minister for public health said " I'm particularly interested in how we can train and support everyone working in the health services- doctors, nurses, health visitors, midwives, social workers- and how right at the start of education this is something we need to be talking about " According to provisional estimates approximately 130,000 women and girls are living with the consequences of FGM in England and Wales. In addition 60,000 English and Welsh girls were born to mothers who have undergone FGM. Though FGM has been illegal in the UK since 1985, it wasn't until 2014 that the crime was first prosecuted.
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Thursday, 18 September 2014
Wednesday, 23 July 2014
CHINESE CITY SEALED AFTER OUTBREAK OF THE BLACK DEATH.
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| English: This plague patient is displaying a swollen, ruptured inguinal lymph node, or buboe. After the incubation period of 2-6 days, symptoms of the plague appear including severe malaise, headache, shaking chills, fever, and pain and swelling, or adenopathy, in the affected regional lymph nodes, also known as buboes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The 30,000 population of Yumen, North-western province of Gansu are not being allowed to leave the city following the death of a man from bubonic plague. Police have set up roadblocks on the perimeter of the city and are telling motorists to find alternative routes china central television (CCTV) said. More than 150 residents have been quarantined following the death of the 38 year old man who is thought to have been in contact with a dead marmot, a species related to a squirrel. The city has been sealed since last week with four quarantine sections set up. " Yumen has enough rice, flour and oil to supply all its residents for up to one month," CCTV added. "Local residents and those in quarantine are all in stable condition."
Due to its bite-based form of infection, the bubonic plague is often the first step of a progressive series of illnesses. Bubonic plague symptoms appear suddenly, usually 2–5 days after exposure to the bacteria. Symptoms include:
Gangrene of the extremities such as toes, fingers, lips and tip of the nose.
Chills
General ill feeling (malaise)
High fever (39 °C; 102 °F)
Muscle cramps
Seizures
Smooth, painful lymph gland swelling called a bubo, commonly found in the groin, but may occur in the armpits or neck, most often at the site of the initial infection (bite or scratch)
Pain may occur in the area before the swelling appears
Skin color changes to a pink hue in some very extreme cases
Other symptoms include heavy breathing, continuous vomiting of blood (hematemesis), aching limbs, coughing, and extreme pain. The pain is usually caused by the decay or decomposition of the skin while the person is still alive. (wikipedia) The US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) says modern antibiotics are effective in treating plague, but that without prompt treatment the disease can cause serious illness or death. Primarily an animal illness it is thankfully extremely rare in humans.
Sunday, 22 June 2014
FGM. CLASS IN SWEDEN WHERE EVERY GIRL UNDERWENT PROCEDURE EXPOSED.
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| The harrowing tales of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (Photo credit: DFID - UK Department for International Development) |
School health services in Norkopping, eastern Sweden found that 60 girls returning to school after holidays to their parents country of origin had been subject to FGM (female genital mutilation). The 28 girls from the same class had been subjected to infibulation, the most extreme form of FGM where the clitoris and labia are completely cut away and the genitals are sewn together leaving just a small opening of the vagina. FGM has been punishable by a prison sentence in Sweden since 1982 but was updated to include FGM performed outside the country in 1999. Considered by communities to be allowed for religious,social and cultural reasons as well as necessary for developement of females into adulthood and marraige FGM comes along with mental illness, chronic vaginal and pelvic infections, abnormal periods, persistent urine infections, possible kidney failure and infertility according to UK NHS. "We're working to inform parents that they could face prison if they come back and their children have undergone female genital mutilation,” said Petra Blom Andersson, student health coordinator in Norrköping. FGM is also a problem in the UK, where, it is estimated that over 20,000 girls under the age of 15 are at risk, and that 60,000 women have been operated on. As in Sweden girls in the UK are most at risk in the summer months when taken abroad and mutilated at the hands of the girls relatives making prosecution of the parents difficult to prove. The law can only prosecute the main perpetrators of FGM. UK Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Keir Starmer, unveiled plans to increase convictions under existing legislation, the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act, which creates an offence of causing or allowing a child or vulnerable adult to die or suffer serious physical harm. The World Health Organisation predicts that 125 million girls and women alive today have been subjected to FGM in the 29 Africa and Middle Eastern countries where it is most frequently performed Related articles
Wednesday, 21 May 2014
PREGNANT WOMAN GIVEN DEATH SENTENCE IN SUDAN FOR BEING A CHRISTIAN.
A women has been sentenced to death in the sudan for not denouncing her christian faith. Meriam Ibrahim was born to a muslim father but was brought up to be a christian by her mother. At present she is kept shackled to a wall although she is 8 months pregnant and with her is her 20 month old son Martin The court sentenced her for refusing to recant her Christianity and marrying Christian Daniel Wani - a Sudanese man with US citizenship who lives in New Hampshire. They found her guilty of apostasy - leaving Islam - even though miss Ibrahim testified that she was never a muslim, and was brought up as a christian by her Ethiopian born mother. The case was brought to the authorities attention in august by Miss Ibrahims fathers family who said that she had been born a muslim and renounced Islam. Fatih Al_Deen, Sudanese parliament speaker, said Miss Ibrahims brother had denounced her. "I was never a muslim" she told the court " i was raised a christian from the start" Her husband who was in the US at the time of the verdict said " I am so frustrated. I don't know what to do. I'm just praying". He was only allowed to see her on monday and found her shackled to a wall and her legs were swollen. Miss Ibrahim;s sentence of death by hanging will not be carried out until after the birth of her child. Minister for Africa, Mark Simmonds, said " I am truly appalled that a sudanese court has sentenced Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag to death for apostasy. This barbaric sentence highlights the stark divide between practices of the Sudanese courts and the country's international human rights obligations"
Edit: 23/6/2014 Meriam Ibrahim has been freed, her lawyer tells the BBC. http://bbc.in/1szat6m new edit:Meriam Ibrahim re-arrested lawyer tells CNN news http://cnn.it/1iuDMms
Wednesday, 30 April 2014
STRIP SEARCH NAKED MAN TASERED WHILE IN POLICE CUSTODY.
A 23 year old man was tasered while in his cell after he flicked a police officer with his wet underpants. P.C Lee Birch fired at 23 year old Daniel Dove hitting him in the chest. A Bristol crown court jury on Tuesday cleared the officer who fired the
Taser, PC Lee Birch, of assault causing actual bodily harm and
misconduct in a public office.
CCTV coverage , which was shown in open court, shows PC Birch ( pictured) hiding the taser behind his back and then shooting Dove who then writhed on the floor in agony. At the end of the trial media organisations asked the trial judge for the CCTV coverage to be released as it would be in the public interest for it to be published. The judge agreed, the defense ,prosecution and Dove himself had no objections to the footage being released. After taking instructions from Patrick Geenty, chief constable of Wiltshire, police representatives said they would be asking the crown prosecution service for the footage not to be released.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating five officers in connection with the incident and is also looking at why the Wiltshire force did not inform it about what happened. IPCC associate commissioner Guido Liguori said "We will examine how the professional standards department at Wiltshire Police handled matters following the incident. The IPCC has particular concerns around the use of Taser in confined spaces including police cells, and has asked all forces to notify us where a complaint involving Taser is made. The investigation will consider why the use of Taser wasn't brought to our attention earlier." The IPCC has carried out a review of Taser use in England and Wales which is expected to be published shortly. The Crown Prosecution Service discontinued a prosecution against Dove for assault and being drunk and disorderly on the basis that PC Birch's credibility was under question. Edit: Friday 2nd May 2014. Video of Dove being tasered, http://bit.ly/1pWWMwN
Friday, 11 April 2014
DEADLY EBOLA OUTBREAK IN WEST AFRICA.
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| English: Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever fistribution map of outbreaks in Africa (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus has killed 101 people in Guinea and neighbouring Liberia. One of the worlds deadliest viruses Ebola has a fatality rate of 90% resulting from haemorrahagic fever and organ failure. Medicins San Frontieres (MSF) who are attempting to stem the spread of the virus say it could be months before they can halt the spread of the pathogen. Ebola is spread through contact of sweat and other bodily fluids of infected people or animals, although this is not understood in many remote villages where some people believe the virus is caused by witchcraft. Initial symptoms resemble those of the flu or malaria: Between two and 21 days after becoming infected, patients start to feel weak and experience headaches, muscle aches and chills. They develop high fever paired with diarrhea and nausea. The infected die of severe internal bleeding, in particular of the gastrointestinal tract, spleen and lungs. It's the first Ebola outbreak in West Africa which is proving to be a challenge for international aid organizations. "This time, in Guinea, we have cases reported from several localities inside the country which means that we need to put measures in place not in one place that was quite often the case but in several locations" said Tarik Jasarevic spokesman for the World Health Organisation. "It was difficult to come up with enough resources and mobilize partners" he added. Hiccups, say doctors, are the final tell tale sign of infection. Patients can be discharged from isolation units soon after their clinical symptoms, such as fever and diarrhoea, disappear.
Friday, 4 April 2014
NEW BAILIFF LAWS COME INTO FORCE.
Under new laws restrictions will apply when bailiffs come to your door. From the 6th of april bailiffs will be banned from calling at night and entering premises using physical force. When children are the only people at home enforcement agents will be prevented from entering premises. They will also be prevented from taking essential items such as cookers,fridges,freezers, microwaves and washing machines.Bailiffs will now have to be trained and certified to practice so as
to put an end to the bullying and aggressive behaviour of agents
attempting to seize property. Chris Grayling, the justice secretary said
"People will still have to face up to their debt but they will no longer
need to fear their home being raided at night,the threat of violence or
having their vital household equipment seized. "We are stamping out bad practise and making sure bailiffs play by the rules. Those who don't will be banned." Other changes mean landlords will not be able to use bailiffs to seize goods for rent debt without going to the courts first, the bailiffs would then also have to go court to explain their means of entry and the amount of force that may be needed before any warrant is granted. Bailiffs will also have to give 7 days notice before taking possessions unless they have been given specific permission from a court.
Jo Salter, researcher at the think-tank Demos, said its research had shown "aggressive" behaviour by bailiffs played a big part in the emotional harm caused to families by debt.
"Council tax arrears is an example of one type of debt that many said resulted in bailiffs getting involved. The actions of bailiffs could often overwhelm people's rational ability to deal with the debt itself. As a result our research showed that arrears can often be just as harmful to people as payday loans."
The Citizens Advice chief executive, Gillian Guy, said: "We help with 1,000 bailiff problems a week. People have reported bailiffs giving debt letters to their children and threatening violence. These new rules reflect just how out of control the industry is and are a welcome step towards protecting people in debt.
"What is missing from these changes is accountability for bailiff firms. We'd like to see a licensing system that means firms are struck off if bailiffs break the rules."
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