The person is male. Racially, the person is white. The person is 33 years old. The person has a went to technical / vocational school. The person earns 58000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 5.5 in openness, 6.5 in conscientiousness, 5.0 in extraversion, 6.5 in agreeableness, and 6.5 in stability.

I just read this horrifying article. I am actually not sure that I should even tell you about it because it was so disturbing. It was about this woman who was on the Dr. Phil show. When she was a little girls she was sexually abused by by both her parents. No need to read that again, yes, I said both her parents. They forced her to have sex with the father and the mother videotaped all of it and then they sold the footage. It makes me want to throw up. How horrible of a human being do you have to be to do that to your own child. Thankfully both parents got charged and sentenced to 20 years. Unfortunately their sentence is up. The mother was on the tv show saying how much she regrets it and that the father made her do it. I do not believe her for a second.I would rather die than hurt my kid


The person is female. Racially, the person is white. The person is 27 years old. The person has a went to technical / vocational school. The person earns 25000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 6.0 in openness, 6.0 in conscientiousness, 6.0 in extraversion, 6.0 in agreeableness, and 6.0 in stability.

Child sex abuse victim recalls horror of being forced to sleep with father and mother —  A woman has recalled the horror of being forced to have sex with both of her parents and being plied with alcohol from the age of 11.   In a particularly heartbreaking episode of The Dr Phil Show, an incestuous child abuse survivor confronted her biological mother two decades on. Victim Amanda divulged her horrific experience, including her parents making her pose for explicit photographs and videotaping their sexual encounters with a view to sell them online.   Mother Justine – who appeared remorseful for her actions – claimed that she "hates" herself for the crimes made against her daughter. She said: "I know I made poor choices."   The daughter told her mother and the audience: "My innocence was stolen from me."   Television host Dr Phil questioned the mother: "In what parallel universe does a mother watch her daughter performing a sex act on her husband and her father?"   Justine and Amanda's biological father Jim were charged with sexual assault and exploitation of their then 13-year-old daughter in 1996. They both pleaded guilty and received sentences of 20 years in prison.   Amanda shocked the audience when she said: "My parents forced me to have sex with them," before revealing that she was given rewards for the sexual acts and that her mother showed her how to "enjoy" sex. "Justine would show me how good sex would feel by having sex in front of me with my father," she added. The young woman also claimed she was forced to have sex with both parents. She said that mother Justine both coached her sexually and was a "willing participant" in the ongoing sexual abuse.   Amanda revealed that Justine photographed and videotaped much of what she refers to as "encounters." After her parents "got what they wanted", family life would resume as normal.   Following the abuse, Amanda gave an account of what would typically happen thereafter. She said: "Afterwards, it was a normal night, dessert, brush my teeth and bedtime."   She also claimed that her parents threatened her if she revealed their dark secret to anyone in a bid for help. "It's been 20 years since that nightmare ended, but it's still hard to grasp the idea that they are out of prison," she said. According to the victim, her mother Justine had allegedly refused "to acknowledge that she had any significant part" in the molestation.   Jim, who has since reached out to his daughter on Facebook before becoming "manipulative," has yet to apologise to Amanda. She said: "I don't think I've ever received a real apology from Jim. Justine claims that her and her husband's behaviour was fuelled by money. She said: "Jim found out how much money could be made from child pornography.   "If I could take it all back I would. I hate myself for what I did," she added, along with claims that Amanda's father made her "join him" in abusing their daughter. She suggested it was all her then-husband's idea and that she had initially fought him for three months, but eventually "gave in". Contrarily, Jim has previously branded his ex-wife a liar, and stated that she was a willing participant in their heinous sex crimes against their own child. He is to appear on The Dr Phil Show today (17 November) and explain why he had sex with his daughter.   Since the episode aired, the official Twitter account for Dr Phil has posted a slew of tweets regarding child abuse and information on paedophiles.   Many viewers have expressed their horror on Amanda's story, with one person writing on the social media sharing site: "This show is a hard one... don't know how I'm going to stomach tomorrow's continuation," as another put: "SO Sad. Her parents are sick and should be ashamed of themselves".

This article was troubling on so many different levels. I cant put myself in this girls shoes because I would never imagine my parents doing this to me. I cant believe they are out of jail they seem like such a threat to society if they can do this to there own child. I pray these people never come in contact with a never child again. you are suppose to protect your kids. This girl can never get her childhood back i dont see how you could trust people after this or live a normal life my mind would be so messed up. i hope she gets the help she needs.


The person is male. Racially, the person is white. The person is 29 years old. The person has a college or university degree. The person earns 85000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 6.75 in openness, 6.75 in conscientiousness, 6.75 in extraversion, 6.75 in agreeableness, and 7.0 in stability.

After reading the article, i couldn't help but feel really disgusted and disturbed by what i read. The fact that someone can harm or sexually assault their own child is downright terrible. People like this need to be locked up for ever or even suffer the death penalty. It's terrible because they gave birth to this girl but now her life is already ruined.


The person is female. Racially, the person is white. The person is 21 years old. The person has a high school degree or diploma. The person earns 20000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 3.0 in openness, 5.0 in conscientiousness, 5.0 in extraversion, 4.0 in agreeableness, and 3.5 in stability.

73 killed in tanker explosion in Mozambique —  A fuel tanker exploded in northern Mozambique as residents gathered around to buy fuel from the driver on Thursday, killing 73 people and injuring 110 others, Mozambican media reported.   Dozens of charred bodies were scattered around the blast site in the town of Caphiridzange in Tete province, and government officials believed more bodies might be in surrounding woods, Radio Mozambique reported. Some badly burned people had tried to run into a nearby river, the radio said.   A truck driver from neighboring Malawi had turned off the main road to sell fuel to local residents, who were gathered around the vehicle when the fuel caught fire, according to Radio Mozambique.   Medical teams rushed to the scene of the accident, evacuating the injured in ambulances and other vehicles. Searchers looked for more victims, though their efforts were hampered as night fell.   The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. Citing Mozambican reports, the Portuguese news agency Lusa said one theory was that a fire near the tanker set off the blast, while another theory pointed to a lightning strike as residents were collecting the fuel.   A national government task force planned to travel to the accident site on Friday.

How sad and awful of a tragedy is this. I know accidents happen but surely there were steps in place, or steps that could have been put in place to prevent this. How horrifying of a sight it must have been to see charred bodies tossed in the air like that and being thrown all over the ground. That is something that will haunt whoever survived it for the rest of their lives.


The person is male. Racially, the person is black / african american. The person is 37 years old. The person has a college or university degree. The person earns 40000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 5.5 in openness, 7.0 in conscientiousness, 1.0 in extraversion, 6.5 in agreeableness, and 6.0 in stability.

I feel very bad for the people killed. I can only imagine going to get some fuel and having the truck blow up killing me and many others. I do not know if the death was quick or slow  and painful as you burned to death. I hope it was an accident and not cause by someone on purpose, but that does not really matter to the victims that died.


The person is male. Racially, the person is white. The person is 41 years old. The person has a college or university degree. The person earns 28000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 2.0 in openness, 2.5 in conscientiousness, 1.5 in extraversion, 2.0 in agreeableness, and 1.0 in stability.

This is a tragic story but it's also what happens in third-world countries where you pull a truck off the side of the road to sell fuel to citizens.  The world is an absolutely enormous place--beyond comprehension.  And death, suffering, and tragedy occur all the time.  I'm not going to worry about the lives of a handful of random people who I didn't know existed until I knew they no longer existed.  These people might as well be fictional characters to me.  Sure, someone is grieving them somewhere.  And this event probably really did happen.  But to me it's not real and it truly doesn't matter.  And, frankly, despite this modern age's attempt to argue the opposite, I don't think the world is any better a place because I know these people are dead.


It is so crazy what a freak accident this was. These people couldnt even try to escape as it just happened. I think that way more safety and procedures being done for these people then just collecting fuel from a truck on the side of the rode. Anything can happen with such a flammable liquid and people that dont really know alot getting it out. I feel horrible for the people who responded to the scene as that had to have been so scarring to see. So many families will be at a loss from this and i think the government should do alot to help out with there life now.


The person is female. Racially, the person is white. The person is 38 years old. The person has a postgraduate / professional degree. The person earns 42000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 3.5 in openness, 7.0 in conscientiousness, 6.5 in extraversion, 5.5 in agreeableness, and 6.5 in stability.

Wow, how sad.  So many people dead for no reason.  This sounds just like a terrible accident to me, I mean they think it could have been caused by lightning striking?  What are the odds?  It's so sad when things like this happen that result in such a massive loss of life.  I feel bad for all the families affected and plus of course all the victims who lost their lives due to something so unnecessary.  Sometimes things like this just happen and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it I guess.


The person is female. Racially, the person is white. The person is 28 years old. The person has a went to college but did not get a degree. The person earns 21000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 5.0 in openness, 7.0 in conscientiousness, 1.0 in extraversion, 5.0 in agreeableness, and 3.5 in stability.

At least 10 hurt after massive Arizona apartment complex fire caught on video —  Ten people were hurt when a fire tore through a small apartment complex in Payson. Fire Chief David Staub says the fourplex is a total loss after an explosion ignited the blaze Saturday evening. The fire was reported after sundown and fire crews arrived to find the building completely engulfed.   Staub says eight people inside all suffered minor injuries except one person who was transported to a Maricopa County burn center. That person remains hospitalized in stable condition.   Two people who were outside the apartments also sustained minor injuries. They were treated at the scene.   It took crews about 10 minutes to get the fire under control after the gas company shut off gas in the neighborhood.   Staub says the cause remains under investigation.

Oh my gosh, I wonder what went wrong. Those poor people! I can't fathom what it would be like to just be going about my life when a sudden explosion turns my entire world upside down. Recovering from serious burns must be excruciating, I hate it when I burn my tongue. I hope they figure out what went wrong. Crazy to think how something so necessary can be so dangerous.


These kind of stories make me sad, but it sounds like it could have been so much worse!! Of all the people that could have been in an apartment complex, for no one to die and for only ten to be injured, that seems like pretty good luck all in all to me. Especially considering only 2 were hurt bad enough to go to the hospital.


The person is male. Racially, the person is asian / pacific islander. The person is 33 years old. The person has a went to college but did not get a degree. The person earns 36000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 4.25 in openness, 4.25 in conscientiousness, 4.5 in extraversion, 4.25 in agreeableness, and 3.75 in stability.

It was a shame that there was a fire but at least they did not die. It could have been much worse the firefighters did a good job in preventing the loss of life. It was very good that there wasn't more serious injuries this could have been much worse but thank god there was someone watching out for these people


The person is male. Racially, the person is hispanic / latino. The person is 32 years old. The person has a college or university degree. The person earns 35000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 5.0 in openness, 5.5 in conscientiousness, 2.0 in extraversion, 5.5 in agreeableness, and 4.5 in stability.

I think when accidents like this happen we must sit back and wonder why they happened and what can be done to prevent them in the future. I feel like this Arizona apartment complex probably did not have the necessary protocols to do things the right way and that caused this to happen. We must ensure all buildings have the necessary steps to prevent this.


After reading the article, you can't help but feel sorry for the people that were affected by the fire. It's a good thing that most only had minor injuries and there weren't any deaths though. I think that something like this is terrible because it is an accident of one person that can really hurt others as well. Hopefully people are more careful in the future.


Rescuers say all 33 miners trapped in China mine found dead —  BEIJING — All 33 coal miners trapped underground in a gas explosion earlier this week have been found dead, state media reported Wednesday, as work safety officials vowed to punish those responsible. Two miners survived Monday’s explosion but rescuers working around the clock found no others alive. All bodies have been recovered and rescuers were shown bowing their heads in memorial for the dead. Gas explosions inside mines are often caused when a flame or electrical spark ignites gas leaking from the coal seam. Ventilation systems are supposed to prevent gas from becoming trapped. The State Administration of Work Safety ordered an investigation into the blast, “adding that those responsible must be strictly punished.” Local officials in Chongqing also ordered smaller mines to shut down temporarily, Xinhua said. China’s mining industry has long been among the world’s deadliest. The head of the State Administration of Work Safety said earlier this year that struggling coal mines might be likely to overlook maintenance. China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal but plans to shutter more than 1,000 outdated mines as part of a broader plan to reduce overproduction.

This makes me so sad.... Especially because it totally could have been prevented if the right safety precautions would have just been taken. 23 lives. That's a lot. That's 23 families who will never be the same. All because it sounds like the heads in charge were lazy and taking the easy shortcuts out.


I feel really bad for the miners that were trapped. It was an unfortunate situation and an accident that was hard to avoid. It was just a freak accident and i would not wish this upon anybody. Those people must have been so scared inside that cave. The families of the ones that were lost are all suffering as well which makes me very sad.


The person is female. Racially, the person is white. The person is 25 years old. The person has a college or university degree. The person earns 60000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 5.0 in openness, 6.0 in conscientiousness, 2.0 in extraversion, 5.0 in agreeableness, and 6.0 in stability.

Ugh, this story is so depressing. Cave ins and things like this are always devastating, but even more so when you dig and dig and find nothing. It reminds me of the dogs in 9/11 who got depressed over not finding survivors, or the Mexico earthquake where they made up a survivor just to make people feel better. It's so, so sad. :(


The person is female. Racially, the person is white. The person is 62 years old. The person has a college or university degree. The person earns 29000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 2.5 in openness, 6.5 in conscientiousness, 1.0 in extraversion, 6.5 in agreeableness, and 2.0 in stability.

I read the article on the China mining disaster.   There were 33 miners trapped in the mine.  Only two of them survived.  Officials stated whoever was responsible would be punished.   Smaller mines were shut down immediately until further notice.   China has always been known for the deadliest mining.


I cant even imagine dying this way. It is such a slow and painful death being trapped somewhere scared with gas leaking. It is sad that this was totally preventable but somehow they overlooked safety. I think all mines should be shut down until full safety inspections can be done. They need to be able to justify working conditions and not just have people working to make money. All of these people had families that are just stuck without them for such a silly reason to die. The government needs to be held responsible for this.


UW-Madison student charged in alleged attacks on 5 women —  (CNN)One woman's allegations of sexual assault against a University of Wisconsin student led to multiple charges based on claims from five women. Alec Cook, 20, appeared Thursday in Dane County Circuit Court to hear the charges against him. He faces 14 felony counts, including second- and third-degree sexual assault, strangulation and false imprisonment, and one misdemeanor count of fourth-degree sexual assault. The court entered a not guilty plea on his behalf to the misdemeanor charge. Under Wisconsin law he will not enter a plea to the felony counts until after his arraignment. He is being held on $200,000 bail in Dane County Jail. Cook's name and face spread through social media and local news reports after his October 17 arrest based on allegations from another UW-Madison student. She told police that Cook sexually assaulted her October 12 in a nearly three-hour ordeal, grabbing her by the hair and neck so tightly that, she told police, her "vision started to go." Cook was charged with four counts of sexual assault, strangulation and false imprisonment stemming from the allegations. Within a week, police said "dozens" more women came forward with potential information about Cook. CNN reached out to Cook's lawyers about the additional allegations but they declined to comment on the new charges. March 2015 The earliest count goes back to March 2015, when Cook allegedly invited a woman back to his apartment about two weeks after meeting her at a party. She told police that kissing turned to unwanted touching despite her attempts to push him away. When she tried to leave he grabbed her and pinned her to the futon and resumed kissing and touching her, according to a criminal complaint. She told investigators that after he assaulted her, she again tried to leave but that Cook pinned her to the futon again, wrapping his arms around her neck and torso. The detective asked what she thought would happen if she tried to leave she said she didn't know. "That's what I was afraid of. I didn't know." When she saw his face on the news in connection with his arrest she told police she "knew immediately" it was him, according to the complaint. Cook was charged with sexual assault and false imprisonment based on her allegations. January to May 2016 Two women who took ballroom dance classes with Cook reported to police being groped by him during the class. One woman told police the behavior continued even after she told him to stop. Their complaints led to the misdemeanor count of fourth-degree sexual assault. February 2016 Another woman described to police a similar scenario of a February 2016 encounter that started with consensual kissing and quickly escalated to sexual assault. She told police she repeatedly said no as forceful touching turned into forced oral sex and then vaginal rape. She had smoked marijuana earlier that night and drank a beverage she could not identify, and as the evening progressed she began feeling "fuzzy" and out of it, she told police, according to complaint. When she awoke the next morning he tried to have sex with her again, she told police, according to the complaint. Her allegations formed the basis of three counts of felony sexual assault. August 2016 Another woman to come forward said she took a psychology class with Cook, according to the complaint. He sent her a Facebook message and they began corresponding. She told police that she went to his apartment and they started kissing and having consensual sex. She rebuffed his efforts to choke her, though, and eventually he relented. About 45 minutes passed before he forced himself on her, hitting her backside with an open palm as he raped her. She told police she went along with it so he would not force her to have oral sex, according to the complaint. Sexual assault: Changing the conversation before college Defense lawyers: Wait for the facts When questioned by police on October 17, Cook said the encounter that triggered his arrest was consensual and that he did not recall grabbing the woman by the neck. He acknowledged pulling the woman's hair. Cook's lawyers called on the public "to wait for the facts before condemning" him, and railed against a "politically correct" culture that leads to "blind acceptance of mere accusations." "Alec, a 20-year-old business major with no criminal history, has seemingly been charged, tried, and convicted," read the statement from attorneys Christopher T. Van Wagner and Jessa Nicholson. "The rapid-fire news cycle, combined with the viral nature of social media, has resulted in modern-day character assassination that is very real and very wrong." How to help survivors of sexual assault CNN's Jamiel Lynch contributed to this report.

This man is truly disgusting.... My heart breaks for these poor girls and what they went through and what they will have to continue to go through as victims and survivors. I hope they know that this is not their fault and it is all on him. He made the choice. I'm sure the media will portray it how they usually do and try to put some blame on them, but it is not their fault at all.


Guys like this make me sick and so angry. The fact that he tried to say nothing every happened it was consentual and basically blaming the victims is beyond me. He tried to say he was already convicted because the news storys but it was his own behavior. You can't go around doing what you please to other people and hurting them for your own pleasure. I am so glad someone had the courage to speak up and stop this guy from hurting more women. In most cases you cant always be sure if the women is telling the truth or just getting back at a guy but multiple women coming forward you just have to believe this guy is a danger to society. He should be locked up for a very long time in my eyes.


This is kinda sad, although it's good that they caught this guy before he did any further damage.  IT is sad for the women he already assaulted though.  He is clearly some sort of serial rapist and needs to be put where he cannot harm any more women because he has already harmed too many.  This type of thing is always sad because the victims can't undo the harm that's already been done to them.  Going through a length trial just brings it all back up and everybody l oses.


I just finished reading the UW-Madison article.  This guy named Alec Cook is being charged in alleged attacks on 5 women.   It was a gruesome article how he forced these women to have sex with him or drugged and raped them despite the women pleading no.   Stories like this really affect everyone.  It's quite horrendous to think this happens so much in our culture.   His legal team has a great deal to disprove.


After reading the article, i felt really bad for the victims that were sexually abused. It really disgusts me that there are men out there that can so easily take advantage of others just for a couple seconds of pleasure. I think that people like this should be put behind bars and kept away from society for ever. This person violated multiple women.


China: Boy trapped in well found dead after 4 days —  A young boy stuck in a well in northern China since Sunday has been found dead, according to local media.   Rescue crews found the boy's body Thursday in a narrow, abandoned well in the province of Hebei, bringing an end to an almost five-day search involving more than 500 responders. He fell down the well -- just one foot (30 centimeters) wide -- while helping his father harvest vegetables, state news agency Xinhua reported. Too narrow for adults to climb into, rescuers began digging out the 40-meter deep well. Aerial shots of the scene showed excavators working on soft sandy soil around the dry well. Xinhua said the earth was prone to collapse and measures had been taken to support the shaft.

This is a horrible tragedy.  They didn't give the age of the boy, but either way it is horrific for him and the family.  Imagine the horror of being trapped in a tiny well for hours and hours until finally you die.  I imagine you would dehydrate and it would be extremely painful and scary.  It's sad that no one got to him in time.  I am also heartbroken for the family, how terrible.  I'm sure this is the kind of thing no one ever expects to happen.  Why was no one watching him?


The person is male. Racially, the person is white. The person is 29 years old. The person has a went to college but did not get a degree. The person earns 39000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 6.5 in openness, 6.0 in conscientiousness, 1.0 in extraversion, 6.0 in agreeableness, and 5.5 in stability.

I just read a story about a Chinese boy who went missing and five days later was found dead at the bottom of a well. Apparently, he had been harvesting vegetables with his father. My question is, if you know that you have a well on your property and your son simply vanishes, wouldn't that be the first place that you look?


The person is female. Racially, the person is white. The person is 25 years old. The person has a went to college but did not get a degree. The person earns 55000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 5.5 in openness, 5.5 in conscientiousness, 3.5 in extraversion, 4.5 in agreeableness, and 4.0 in stability.

Isn't it scary that so many bad things can happen to children and adults these days? After reading the article about a young boy falling in to a well and being found dead after 5 days, I can't even imagine the horror the boy faced but also the pain that his parents have to endure for the rest of their lives. It's quite sad and unavoidable at times. I highly doubt his father could have ever imagined his son falling into the well that they probably work at every day.


This story is so sad! I can't imagine the horror and pain that the boy suffered in his last moments of life... It must have been so scary to be there all alone, proibably knowing or feeling that you are going to die. And then I also feel bad for the workers trying to get to him... how devastating must it have been to find him dead.


This is so sad to read.  What a horrible tragedy for everyone involved - the boy himself, his parents, his family, his community.  It must have been a terrible and very scary way to die to be trapped in that well shaft for four days.  Also, the parents must have been beside themselves, I mean can you imagine?  It just sounds completely horrific and with such a terrible ending too.  It would have been much different if they had been able to rescue him but clearly that was not possible.  Overall this is a nightmare situation and one that no one should have to suffer.


The World Economic Forum's annual gender gap report is out and it doesn't look good —  The World Economic Forum (WEF) revealed its annual global gender gap report today, and the results are depressing.   The US slipped down to 45th on their ranking of countries by gender equality, behind four African countries and all major European countries (all of which are in the top 20), and down from 28th last year.    This dramatic fall is partly because women's participation in the labor force has declined over the past year and the number of women in senior positions is shrinking.   On a more positive note, the US closed its education gender gap in 2016. This means there is a large pool of educated female talent, even though fewer women are actually working, as can be seen in the table showing the United States' scores below. The annual report looks at progress towards equality between men and women in four key areas: educational attainment, health and survival, economic opportunity, and political empowerment.   Progress towards economic equality in 2016 has slowed globally, with the economic participation and opportunity sub-index dipping to 59% — worse than any point since 2008.  According to the report, the global economic gender gap is not forecasted to close until the year 2196.    That slowdown is partly due to imbalances in salaries, with women around the world on average earning just half of what men earn despite working longer hours, as well as a drop in women's labor force participation, with the global average for women standing at 54% compared to 81% for men. This is  despite the fact that women attend university in equal or higher numbers than men in 95 countries.    The number of women in senior positions also continues to be low, with only four countries in the world having equal numbers of male and female legislators, senior officials and managers.    "The world is facing an acute misuse of talent by not acting faster to tackle gender inequality, which could put economic growth at risk and deprive economies of the opportunity to develop," according to a statement issued by the WEF.   More progress has been made in the education sub-index, with the gender gap there having closed 95%. Similarly, the health and survival sub-index has also improved, with that gap having closed 96%.   The slow rate of economic progress for women poses a particular risk because many of the jobs that usually employ women are "likely to be hit the hardest by the coming age of technological disruption" says the report.   "This 'hollowing out' of female livelihoods could deprive economies further of women’s talents and increases the urgency for more women to enter high-growth fields such as those demanding STEM skills." STEM refers to a high education skill set consisting of science, technology, engineering and math.    The top four nations that lead the WEF's report are all Scandinavian countries, with Iceland taking the lead, followed by Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The next highest are Rwanda, Ireland, the Philippines, Slovenia and new Zealand. Rounding out the top 10 is Nicaragua.    The Global Gender Gap Index ranks 144 countries to understand whether countries are distributing their resources equally between women and men, irrespective of their overall income levels. The variables used to create the index come from publicly available data from international organizations like the International Labor Organization, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Health Organization among others, and from perception surveys conducted by the WEF.

This story is just depressing. Why can a country as advanced as the US be advanced in gender equality as well. As a women in the workforce it just is depressing to even think about. Why can't equal wages be discovered and demanded? It can't be that hard. And why can't more opportunity be given to women?


Being a woman myself i find this article very troubling. With all the movements and awareness and activisim for women in america we should be number one in all gender equality categories. I think less women are working or making it to senior positions because in todays society alot of women are shamed for working to hard and not having children. It's also apparent its still a man world with women on average making 50 percent less then men so there is not much motivation to go higher. I think with more focus on girls and stem learning our next generation of women will feel very empowered in math science and technology a place alot of women lack it. The future deinitly gives me hope for my gender to succeed.


I just read an article from a couple years ago about the U.S. ranking in comparison to other countries with regard to gender equality. It turns out our backward little country has slipped down to 48th in the international rankings. Am I surprised? No. Will things get worse before they get better? Yes.


I hate reading these kinds of articles!! The unfair pay for women is so annoying. It's crazy that it is even still a thing with how much attention has been brought to it over the last couple of years. It's like people just dont care. Or at least the people in charge don't care. Probably because it would effect their paycheck


It's the 21st century and we have barely moved women.   USA has slipped to 45th and we have African countries ahead of us.   For the past 100 years, it's all politics and government and who is going to win.  Definitely not for equality or fairness to genders.  I had a job in career that compared identically to a man's and he was paid 40% more than me.   You can't express it or you get fire because almost every state is an at-will state.


Endangered Wildlife Are At Risk After 200,000 Liters Of Fuel Leak Into British Colombia’s Coastal Waters —  Ten days ago, diesel fuel was leaked into Heiltsuk First Nation water near Bella Bella, British Colombia. The leak was caused by a tugboat which crashed in a remote region off British Columbia’s Central Coast.   Following the oil leak, underwater dive images revealed endangered wildlife including abalone, amidst the fuel spill area. Efforts are being made by the Heiltsuk to help recover this protected species. Divers also discovered schools of juvenile herring around the sunken Nathan E. Stewart tugboat.   The outer boom which was put in place to contain the spilled oil had broke free on Friday causing the oil to spread and bad weather had prevented clean up crews from working on the spill for four consecutive days. By Saturday, salvage crews had recovered more than 40 percent of the 200,000 liters of fuel estimated to be in the vessel, but the damage had already been done.   Mike Reid, the Heiltsuk Aquatics Manager said that there is an increased concern about the marine life in the Gale Passage. This is an extremely sensitive ecological and marine rescue area and there is a crucial herring spawning area which is located at the south end of the passage.   “In the first week of the spill, we had the largest tides of the month at 17.4 feet,” he said in a release. “Even without bad weather, the speed of tides rushing through the spill site are likely to flush diesel into the area.”   The local clam fishery has been shut down and BC NDP leader John Horgan criticized the spill response.   “It was tragic to see the sheen of diesel on the water,” Horgan said, adding. “You couldn’t have picked a worse place to drop this boat into the bottom of the ocean.”   The company that owns the tugboat, Kirby Offshore Marine has made their apologies to the Heiltsuk First Nation and gave thanks to the agencies involved in the spill cleanup.   According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), diesel is one of the most toxic types of oil for marine creatures.   Depending weather conditions in the area, 1500 feet of kepner boom will be placed around the primary and secondary containment boom for additional protection.

I do not like reading stories like this one. It makes me think about my use of fuel and it is hard to point the finger at somebody else damaging the environment. I think as humans we have a long way to go in figuring our the right balance between how we us the resources of the earth and how we respect the other animals on this planet.


these poor animals that have to live in this oil spill. It is so unfair that many marine and bird species die at the hands of oil accidents and carelessness. There needs to be more policies in place to prevent these things from happening and more resources and procedures to make sure they are cleaned up fast and efficiently. it is sad that these animals probably died from lacking the ability to move or breathe but also there food sources taken away from them. It is scary that endangered species are also being effected as once there gone there never coming back and an oil spill is such a silly way for that to even happen.


I just read about a tugboat that spilled a significant amount of oil off the coast of England. There's a lot of talk about automating cars, what about boats? It seems like every little bit we hear about another oil spill that has devastated wildlife and killed a bunch a healthy natural aquatic development. Why does it keep happening? Because people just accept it as a fact of life.


I don't really care about this at all.  I don't care about herring or abalone or whatever the diesel oil harmed.  I think it's ridiculous that the premiere of B.C., of the awful NDP party, would criticize the cleanup crew.  I'm sure they did the best they could in difficult conditions.  But what do you expect when a ship carrying hundreds of thousands of gallons of diesel crashes in a relatively remote part of B.C.?  I'm sure the Indians will raise holy hell, since they think they own more than 100% of the province.  But what can be done about any of this now other than clean it up and try not to have it happen again.  Either way I don't care.


The person is male. Racially, the person is white. The person is 47 years old. The person has a two year associate degree. The person earns 29000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 6.5 in openness, 6.5 in conscientiousness, 7.0 in extraversion, 7.0 in agreeableness, and 7.0 in stability.

Fell terrible for marine life that will be exterminated by this terrible spill. Humans have harmed so many wonderful species through their carelessness and selfish attitude. I just hope that the clean-up will be fast an effective but unfortunately this type of oil is the most dangerous to these innocent creatures. Makes you think about how vulnerable God made animals-he entrusted us to keep them but I think he had too much faith in humanity!


Study: More toddlers and preschoolers are overdosing on opioids —  In recent years, rates of toddlers and preschoolers hospitalized for opioid overdoses more than doubled, according to a new study.   In fact, overdoses rose more than 100% over a 16-year period among all children, the study published in JAMA Pediatrics Oct. 31 showed.   Researchers from Yale School of Medicine analyzed national data from the Kids’ Inpatient Database on children admitted to U.S. hospitals for opioid poisoning. The study focused on more than 13,000 records from patients ages 1 to 19 between 1997 to 2012.   What's to blame? Possibly the increase of prescribed pain killers, including OxyContin and Vicodin. Research from 1999 to 2010 show retail sales of prescription opioids quadrupled."Even in children younger than 6 years, opioids, followed closely by benzodiazepines, now account for most of the drug poisonings in this age group; in nearly all these poisonings, the child was exposed to a prescription intended for an adult in the household," the study states.   Young children found a pill on the floor, got into their mother's purse or simply figured out how to open a bottle.   While more current data isn't yet available, study author Julie Gaither said the upward trend is likely to remain a problem among young children.   “It’s a simple message for parents that we can limit so many of these exposures to keep these medications out of these little hands," Gaither said.   She also said companies must improve packaging because young children are finding ways to get into "child-proof" bottles. Lastly, she said there needs to be more conversations about young overdoses in the pediatrics community, a topic that's largely underreported.   Prescription opioids accounted for most poisonings in the Yale study, but heroin poisonings also increased 161%. In August, more than 225 heroin overdoses occured in four counties in four states within one week. The batch of heroin was most-likely supercharged with another substance, but still drew attention to the popularity of the drug.

It is sad that all these kids are overdosing on these drugs it seems like the parents are too dozed out on these pills to pay attention and the part about how heroin overdoses are happening to these kids really shows the state of the country and the use of drugs and how prevalent it has become among people.


I feel so bad for these children after reading the article. It was not their fault at all but rather the fault of the parents who just leave pills laying around everywhere. The parents should be more responsible for their actions knowing that there are children running around. They should be double checking the floors to make sure they didn't drop anything.


The person is female. Racially, the person is white. The person is 47 years old. The person has a college or university degree. The person earns 110000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 6.5 in openness, 7.0 in conscientiousness, 4.5 in extraversion, 5.5 in agreeableness, and 7.0 in stability.

This news story is about how more and more kids are overdosing on opioids. They are finding in laying around their house or figuring out how to open bottles. Most of the cases are from parents in the home having prescriptions for the opioid. I think this is so sad and is part of a larger problem of opioid addiction.


I think it's terrible that children are dying because of silly mistakes of parents. The fact that parents can drop something so dangerous like a drug on the ground shows that these parents shouldn't have children in the first place. I think that drugs like these should always be out of reach for children and parents should always check to see if they've dropped anything.


This is so preventable!  Why aren't people more careful with their drugs?  It's crazy to blame something like this on pharmaceutical companies or anyone other than the drug users themselves, and there is really no excuse for a baby to ever get their hands on someone's medication.  Keep it in a cabinet very high up out of reach where the baby can not get to it, no exceptions!  This is ridiculous and the majority of the time the person doesn't even need to be taking the drug in the first place.  They are just abusing it due to their own addiction or weakness.  For shame.


Flamingo Dead After Busch Gardens Visitor Allegedly Threw Her To The Ground —  A beloved flamingo at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida, had to be euthanized Tuesday after police say a park visitor attacked her. Pinky, a female Chilean flamingo known for a distinctive style of walking that became known as the “Flamingo Flamenco,” was 19 years old, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Joseph Anthony Corrao was at the park with his family around 6:45 p.m. Tuesday when he allegedly reached into Pinky’s pen, grabbed her and threw her to the ground. The zoo had to euthanize her because of her injuries, according to a Busch Gardens statement.  “Pinky was a beloved member of the Busch Gardens Tampa Bay family and made many appearances on behalf of the park’s conservation and education efforts,” the statement read. “She will be sorely missed.” Witnesses said that before picking up Pinky, Corrao picked up a different flamingo but put it down unharmed, according to local news station WFLA. Zoo personnel say they never trained Pinky to perform her circular dance, but that she just started doing it on her own. “While making an appearance with Jack Hanna, the team noticed that she was dancing on her own to get attention,” Busch Gardens spokeswoman Karen Varga-Sinka told the Orlando Sentinel. “Since then, she has danced for countless guests, school groups, media appearances and national television shows.” Corrao was charged with animal cruelty and jailed on $2,000 bond. At his first court appearance on Wednesday, Judge John Conrad said that the act “borders on depraved,” ABC Action News reports. “I don’t know if you have other issues, but I don’t know who does that,” Conrad said.

can you believe that they would throw a flamingo on the ground like that I can't believe the things that people will do and flamingos are such majestic birds and such vibrant colors I would be sad to see such a beautiful bird dying I think they should lock that person up for a long period of time to teach a lesson


After reading the article, i felt so bad for the poor flamingo. It was just minding it's own business when the man attacked it and slammed it to the ground. This makes me lose hope for humanity because someone can actually do something like this is terrible. This person should be put in jail or at least fined because of what he has done.


I can't understand why someone would want to attack an animal like that that wasn't harming anyone and was just minding its own business. Like, how insensitive do you have to be to just kill something for fun? I was also surprised the flamingo was sol old; I had no idea they could live to be nineteen.


We need to do more to protect life. The fact that this Flamingo died is mind boggling because it was a visitor that did it. With Busch Gardens considers themselves a serious institution they will most certainly end up having to press charges on this guy it is the least they can do here to be quite honest with you.


I hate reading stories like this... Poor animals made to suffer the abuse of stupid people. I'll never get where people get off hurting a defenseless animal for no reason. Like what did this flamingo ever do to that dude? Why does he think this is ok? I'm sure he suffered some sort of trauma as a child.


Wildlife Dying En Masse as South American River Runs Dry —  The Pilcomayo River in Paraguay is littered with dead caiman and fish carcasses as the government scrambles to find a solution. Vultures rest in the tree’s upper branches, their black bodies in stark contrast to the blanched wood beneath their feet. Below them, caimans and capybaras crawl in sucking mud through the Agropil lagoon, seeking water that is unlikely to arrive for many months. The river has dried up, and there is nowhere for them to go. The lagoon, located in the western Paraguayan province of Boquerón, is just one of many stretches of the Pilcomayo River suffering an extensive die-off of caiman, fish, and other river creatures. There have not been any official estimates from the Ministry of the Environment, but Roque González Vera, a journalist for ABC Color in Paraguay, reports utter devastation in some places: Up to 98 percent of caimans (Caiman yacare) are suspected dead, and 80 percent of the capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) population has died. Paraguay is in the midst of an ecological crisis. The crisis stems from a combination of drought and mismanagement that has left the Pilcomayo River dry for nearly 435 miles (700 kilometers), according to Vera. On June 24, Paraguay declared an environmental emergency, but little has been done, or can be done, to provide relief for the imperiled animals until the wet season returns. The dry season typically lasts through October, and the annual recharge does not generally occur until January. So, what went wrong? A Perfect Storm of Drought and Mismanagement The Pilcomayo River originates in the Bolivian Highlands, which form the upper basin of the river. The lower reaches run through the Gran Chaco—a hot, semiarid lowland also known as the Chaco Plain—and form a 518-mile (834-kilometer) international border between Argentina and Paraguay. This stretch of the river relies on an annual, three-month pulse of water from the upper basin during its rainy season (roughly January to March). Quite simply, this past year did not deliver. View Images  According to the Ministry of Public Works and Communication (MOPC), the drought is the second worst in the past 30 years, and the paucity of rain has not been seen since 1996-97. Alone, the drought posed a threat to wildlife and agriculture, but the crisis has been exacerbated by the mismanagement of water resources and infrastructure by the Paraguayan government, according to Vera. In a recent article, the reporter argues that the government is complicit in the wildlife die-off, alleging laziness, inefficiency, and irresponsibility in the rehabilitation of the Paraguayan channel. To some extent, the government agrees. The MOPC concluded that the National Commission of the Pilcomayo did an insufficient job of maintaining the river’s channels and canals and recently fired the head of the commission, Daniel Garay. Garay was also charged for the alleged irregularities. However, the mismanagement also extends across the border to Paraguay’s neighbor, Argentina. In 1991, the two countries signed a water distribution agreement for the Pilcomayo, but they have struggled to maintain a fair distribution of water. In any given year, the river largely flows in one country and not the other. A recent review of the river proposed that the country that gets the water is either lucky the river shifted to them, and/or they were more diligent in canal work. Both countries have built up artificial canals outside the agreement—ample mistrust between the nations fuels the construction—but Argentina appears to have done a better job managing theirs, while also adding some reservoirs to hold water surpluses. In recent years, they were luckier and more diligent: Argentina has the water now. How long Argentina keeps the water is largely dependent on a third factor: the natural characteristics of the Pilcomayo River. Natural Phenomenon? Oscar Orfeo, an Argentinean geologist at the Center for Applied Coastal Ecology, believes the lack of water is simply a natural result of the river’s morphology; the river simply does what it wants. The artificial canals cannot control the slope of the plain or the river’s shaping capacity, he says. Orfeo also believes that the current environmental emergency cannot be attributed to a period of extreme drought but is really due to the “wandering” behavior of the river. This wandering is largely related to the significant amounts of sediment the Pilcomayo transports downstream—some 140 million tons of sediment every year, one of the highest amounts in the world. The sediment, in combination with wood debris carried downstream, has created a blockage that disperses the river outside the channel into the surrounding land. As the blockage moves farther upstream every year, the dry river channel grows. It has now been nearly a hundred years since the Pilcomayo’s main channel connected with the Paraguay River in Asunción. With both human and natural forces at play, scientists in Paraguay worry the current crisis could easily become an annual occurrence. Seeking a Solution In the face of public pressure, the Minister of Public Works and Communication, Ramón Jiménez Gaona, announced that the government is working with local authorities, indigenous groups, and residents to remedy the situation. Yet, despite the claims of the government, so far there has been little action to address the situation, says Vera. At the time of this publishing, National Geographic had not received a response from the Ministry of the Environment or the National Commission of the Pilcomayo, which is housed in the MOPC. In reality, it is hard to see a clear solution right now; there is no water to release or divert. Existing options to rehabilitate the Pilcomayo mostly center on cleaning and updating the canals that are filled with sediment, but it is neither quick nor easy to do so. To restore a consistent flow on both sides of the border, Paraguay and Argentina must commit to sharing water, but cooperation has been hard to come by. Until the infrastructure is developed and maintained, observers can only watch and wait, hoping that it rains enough next year to save the animals, or that the river shifts back into its Paraguayan channel. Politics, water, and wildlife: Welcome to 21st-century river management. Rachel Brown contributed reporting for this story.       Article Title:Will Zimbabwe Sell Off Its Rare ‘Painted Dogs’?   Article URL:http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/160512-zimbabwe-selling-wildlife-wild-dogs-conservation-elephants-lions/   Article author(s)Carly Nairn   Article date: MAY 12, 2016   News source: nationalgeographic    Zimbabwe’s plan to sell its wildlife could hasten the decline of Africa’s endangered wild dogs. Last week Zimbabwe announced that because of the drought that’s ravaging the country—and leaving four million Zimbabweans in need of food aid—it will “destock” its national parks and reserves by selling off wildlife. The announcement by the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (also known as Zimparks) doesn’t say when the sales would begin, nor does it specify which species would be offered and at what prices. Some of the country’s animals can’t be sold off—those already protected against sale or hunting under the Parks and Wildlife Act, dating back to 1975. These include pangolins, pythons, and rhinos. Elephants and lions aren’t protected under the act, and elephants in particular, given their high value, would likely be priorities for sale. Surprisingly, African wild dogs, which are endangered continent-wide, aren’t on Zimbabwe’s no-sale list. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which sets the conservation status of species, these elusive canids are critically endangered and number only 3,000 to 5,500 continent-wide. Zimbabwe claims it must sell wildlife to replenish its coffers in the face of cash shortages so extreme that ATMs can’t be refilled, a scorching drought that’s causing the country’s exports of tobacco and maize to plummet, and a recent bid by the European Union to ban trophy hunting imports, which the government says would deprive the country of additional crucial revenue. (The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service banned the import of elephant hunting trophies from Zimbabwe in 2014, on grounds that killing elephants for trophies there would not enhance the population’s survival, a requirement under the Endangered Species Act.) But Ross Harvey, a senior researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs, says that if Zimbabwe had been governed responsibly, there would be no need reason for it to put its wild animals up for sale. “Zimbabwe's economy has been intensively mismanaged since the late 1990s, and the recent drought has had a more devastating effect than it otherwise would have if the economy was in fact being run properly.” According to Harvey, “the idea that the sale of elephants would help to assuage the country's economic woes is unworkable.” He notes that there’s no assurance that any money the government acquires from wildlife sales would be earmarked for conservation or drought relief. “In a system where lack of accountability has been baked in over a long time,” Harvey says, “there’s no guarantee that the money would be directed towards those who need it most.” Zimbabwe has been criticized by wildlife and animal rights advocates for its previous arrangements to use animals as financial leverage. In July 2015 the country exported 24 wild elephants to China. How the money from the sale has been allocated remains an open question. And the killing last year of Cecil the lion by Walter Palmer, an American dentist and trophy hunter, in a private reserve bordering Hwange National Park caused a furor that primed animal advocates to keep a critical eye on Zimbabwe. But so far Zimparks has escaped widespread criticism for its new wildlife sale plan. Will Wild Dogs Take a Hit? One of the continent’s largest populations of wild dogs—also called painted dogs for the splotches of black, tan, and gold on their coats—is in Hwange National Park. Although their exact numbers are unknown, experts believe that the park holds about 150. Zimbabwe as a whole may have around 700. Even without a crippling drought, survival is hard for wild dogs—they get caught in snares set by poachers seeking other animals, and many have been roadkill victims. At the news of the Zimparks proposal to sell wildlife, Peter Blinston, the managing director of the Painted Dog Conservation, a nonprofit based in Hwange, said he didn’t believe that wild dogs would be put up for sale. “Painted Dog Conservation has very good relations with Zimparks," he said. “Thus our standing carries some weight, and if there was talk of dogs being on the for sale list, we would fight hard, and I suspect we would win.” Speculating on what animals Zimparks would find attractive to sell, Blinston said there was a “perceived abundance” of elephants, yet their exact numbers, like those of wild dogs, are unknown. Estimates vary from a low of 60,000 to a high of 100,000. He also pointed out that “in some areas impala are over-represented. I don’t think anything else is.” If numbers play into the decision about which animals to sell, elephants and impalas would be high on the list. If impalas, an important food source for wild dogs, are sold and suffer drought losses as well, that would be a double whammy of deprivation for Zimbabwe’s already troubled painted dogs. Zimparks and Zimbabwe's Ministry of Environment, Water, and Climate did not respond to requests for comment.   Article Title:South Australia belted by second storm in 24 hours with winds of up to 140km/h   Article URL:https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/sep/29/south-australia-on-alert-again-as-adelaide-braces-for-strongest-storm-on-record   Article author(s)   Article date:Thursday 29 September 2016 05.51 EDTLast modified on Thursday 29 September 2016 14.11 EDT   News source: theguardian    Intense low-pressure system sweeps across state, causing heavy rain, flooding and major damage after emergency services tell Adelaide workers to go home   South Australia has copped another belting with a destructive storm lashing the state just 24 hours after super cell thunderstorms knocked out the state’s entire power network. The intense low pressure system raged across Adelaide and parts of SouthAustralia late on Thursday. The storm packed winds of up to 140km/h, among the strongest the city has experienced, prompting an unprecedented warning from police for workers to head home early and stay home amid concerns emergency services might not be able to cope. The winds brought down trees across a wide area, causing major damage, and ripped some mid-north buildings apart. Heavy rain caused widespread flooding, from the Patawalonga River in Adelaide, through to the Barossa and Clare valleys, which copped 54mm of rain.   In Clare, a caravan park was under threat and in the Barossa, a dam burst, prompting an emergency flood warning for the town of Greenock. Storm surges and huge waves also inundated some communities along the Spencer and St Vincent gulf coasts with the worst centres affected including Port Pirie, Port Broughton and Moonta. The State Emergency Service responded to more than 660 calls for help, taking the tally to well over 1,000 in the past 36 hours. The police commissioner, Grant Stevens, said extra police could be brought in from interstate to help cope with the crisis. The SES chief officer, Chris Beattie, warned the service was at risk of being stretched beyond capacity. The latest emergency came after Wednesday’s blackout when ferocious winds ripped up more than 20 transmission towers in the mid-north, taking out three of the state’s four major transmission lines. The premier, Jay Weatherill, described the storm as “catastrophic” and said it had involved weather events not seen before in South Australia, “such as twin tornadoes, which ripped through the northern parts of our state”. By late on Thursday, 30,000 properties remained without power, some because of Wednesday’s statewide blackout and others as a result of new damage caused by the continued wild weather. Weatherill warned some households, particularly in northern areas, could remain without power for at least a couple of days. At the height of the drama on Wednesday, super cell storms with destructive winds and tornadoes ripped more than 20 transmission towers in South Australia’s north out of the ground, bringing down three major transmission lines. Lightning also damaged energy infrastructure, with 80,000 strikes hitting the state over a short period. It caused a state-wide blackout that plunged South Australia into darkness. South Australian power transmission company ElectraNet will bring in temporary towers from interstate to repair the transmission lines. ElectraNet executive manager of network service, Simon Emms, said the company hoped to have one of the three backbone circuits restored by Sunday and would build on that as fast as possible. Emms said the company continued to work on restoring power to those areas of the state still without electricity but establishing a timeline was difficult. “That’s a very fair question but very hard to answer at the moment,” he said. “Obviously, the current wind conditions are hampering restoration efforts. Access to the sites is very difficult and we haven’t finished fully patrolling all the lines yet to ensure we can safely energise them. “When we’ve finished the patrols, then we’ll safely energise. We’ll then restore the assets with emergency towers.” Emms said he was not aware of any power system in the world that could handle losing as much energy so quickly without going into blackout. He said such events were not common but were not unheard of.   Meanwhile, parts of New South Wales were being hit by the tail of the storm cell as it moved on from South Australia. The weather bureau had warnings in place for damaging winds and potential flash flooding for much of the state, but had revised down warnings for heavy rains. Broken Hill has borne the brunt of the destructive winds, with gusts reaching up to 90km/h. Thunderstorms were hitting towns in the north of the state along the Queensland border. The Riverina, central and south tablelands and parts of the Hunter, Snowy Mountains and mid-north coastal regions were all on alert. Towns in flood-ravaged central NSW were also being told to prepare for potential flash flooding and further flooding in the next few days. The central west community of Forbes could be inundated by a second peak of the Lachlan River at the same time the town’s weekend floodwaters reach downstream Condobolin. The SES predicts the high water marks would occur sometime next week, with 30mm of rain expected on Thursday and up to 20mm on Friday. At least 50,000 sandbags had been transported into the towns from Maitland in the Hunter Valley and extra crews brought in from around the state. About 100 properties remained subject to an evacuation order while sittings at courthouses in Forbes, Condobolin and Lake Cargelligo had been cancelled for next week. The SES was calling on those going to the Deni Ute Muster or travelling inland to check for potential road closures.

It is terrible what is happening to the rivers and the animals I think global warming could be playing a role in the matter the animals are being effected and soon humans will feel the effects of global warming hopefully they get some rain soon and they can save these poor animals facing all this hardships


this is so horribloe because anything that effects animals hurts me to the core. They are innocent victims and cant really help themselves in this situation. I think alot needs to be done to make sure the river is restored and blockage is taken away so that this does not happen in the future. These fish cant move debris themsleves and i thin more light needs to shine down on what is happening so maybe a council can come together and monitor or take over and make sure the fish are in a thriving enviroment. I thin if an enviromental emergency is declared and especially in a poor country other countries should step in and lend a helping hand to lesson the suffering to innocent life.


This sounds like one of those situations where not much can really be done.  It's sad for the animals who are dying and suffering and I feel bad for them.  I think this is out of anyone's control and really just an act of nature.  Sometimes thiings like this just happen and it's sad and a tragedy but no one can do anything to fix it.  The animals are the ones that suffer.  They are in essence having a drought and starving due to it which is really sad.


I think this is combination of human climate change and messing with the rivers. I do think that droughts are natural and some times happens, but I think that human involvement in the river is the main cause of the river running dry. I think that human are going to mess with the river ecosystem and it may never return to normal.


After reading the article, i felt really alarmed and worried about wildlife heading into the future. I think that more and more species of animals will start to die out and go extinct because of lack of water as well as food. Hopefully the future generation could figure something out to combat this because if it continues down this path, Earth will end.


2 U.S. troops killed fighting Taliban in Afghanistan; civilians hit by airstrike —  KABUL — At least 26 Afghan civilians were killed and many others injured in airstrikes early Thursday while NATO and Afghan forces were battling Taliban fighters in northern Kunduz province, Afghan officials and witnesses said. Two American service members also died in ground clashes there, U.S. military officials confirmed. Details of the incidents were murky, with conflicting reports on the number of casualties and no official account of the airstrikes. Some local officials claimed that up to 100 civilians were killed or wounded in a series of airstrikes around Kunduz city. [NATO and government forces are increasingly responsible for Afghan civilian deaths] A portion of the strategic provincial capital was briefly overrun by insurgents last month, and Afghan troops assisted by U.S. forces have been trying to clear them from the area. The confusing and deadly drama recalled the tragic events in Kunduz just over a year ago, when the Taliban overran the city and Afghan and NATO forces were trying to beat them back. In the chaos, a U.S. airstrike mistakenly targeted an emergency hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders, killing 42 patients and staff members.  As of late Thursday, NATO officials had not confirmed or commented on the reported deaths of the civilians, who were said to be members of several families living in a neighborhood near the city. Photographs published on the Internet showed the bodies of small children crumpled on a blanket and being carried in a cart by weeping adults.  Angry relatives of the victims attempted to parade their bodies through the city to the provincial governor’s residence in a protest caravan, but they were stopped by security forces, Amruddin Wali, a member of the provincial council, said in a telephone interview.  A security official in Kunduz said an “operation against the opponents” resulted in the deaths of more than 20 civilians from “various families.” Ghulam Rabbani, another provincial council member, said 36 people were killed. Other officials said homes in various locations were destroyed by the strikes. [Kabul not spared Taliban strikes] U.S. military officials in Kabul confirmed that two U.S. service members were killed and two others wounded when they came under insurgent fire. “Despite today’s tragic event, we are steadfast in our commitment to help our Afghan partners defend their nation,” said Gen. John W. Nicholson, the senior U.S. military commander here, referring to the deaths of the U.S. troops.  Late Thursday afternoon, Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland, the chief spokesman for Resolute Support, the U.S.-led NATO mission in Afghanistan, issued a statement that referred to airstrikes by “friendly forces” but did not confirm any civilian casualties. It said all information on that matter should come from Afghan officials. The NATO mission’s mandate is to assist, advise and train Afghan defense forces in their war against insurgents. Almost all foreign combat troops withdrew at the end of 2014, leaving Afghan troops facing an aggressive Taliban militia. “As part of an Afghan operation, friendly forces received direct fire and airstrikes were conducted to defend themselves,” Cleveland’s statement said. “We take all allegations of civilian casualties very seriously. As this was an Afghan operation, we’ll work with our partners to investigate but refer you to them for additional details in the near term. We’ll provide updates as we have them.” The senior Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, Brig. Gen. Dawlat Waziri, said three Afghan special forces members were killed in fighting with the Taliban. He said he had no information on civilian deaths.  A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, said three Taliban fighters were targeted by the Afghan and foreign forces and were then killed in a firefight in which Afghan and American troops also died. He said a large number of civilians also were killed. Pajhwok Afghan News quoted a farmer in Kunduz named Taza Gul as saying: “I was working on my farm when the bombardment started. On coming home, I saw seven members of my family, including women and children, killed in the raids.”  After the deadly 2015 airstrike in Kunduz, a U.S. military investigation led to the disciplining of 16 military members who were said to have made mistakes leading to the strike. Doctors Without Borders called the attack a war crime.

IS this was ever going to end? It seems like it has been going on forever and we have tried and tried to help them, to fix this or to end it even but nothing is working. It seems like two steps forward one step back. I can only imagine the trauma the people/soilders around this event felt. It's disgusting and I wish it would end/


This is so sad. I hadn't heard of this happening, but US strikes in Afghanistan ended up killing many civilians. One of the strikes actually hit an emergency hospital that Doctors without Borders was operating. A lot of the patients and the staff were killed. It just sounds horrible. Relatives were trying to walk through the streets with the bodies of their dead children. I can't even imagine what it would be like for these people.


In my opinion, this is a mistake that can not happen. Killing civilians at a doctors without boarders camp has no excuse. I agree with doctors without boarders that this is a war crime. I wonder what discipline happened to the sixteen service members. It was wrong to stop the people protesting with the bodies, they have a right to show their anger.


These doctors are working hard to help these people I suppose it is important that they do this work but at the same time maybe they should stay home and focus on their own people instead of going around and solving everyone elses problems it seems like these people need to know what the real world is like


Troops killed in Afghanistan always angers because we should no longer be there in the first place. The fact that we are still there says a lot about us as a country. We need to realize that we have no business there anymore and get out. I don't know why we try to be the world police when it clearly does us no good in the long run.


Surprise! British Red Squirrels Carry Leprosy —  Some of them harbor strains that infected medieval Europeans, but that have been eradicated on the U.K. mainland for centuries. In 2006, Anna Meredith came across a dead red squirrel with a weird skin disorder. Its ears lacked the characteristic red tufts, and were instead swollen, smooth, and shiny, like the cauliflower ears of boxers and rugby players. Its nose, muzzle, and eyelids were similarly swollen and hairless. Meredith, a professor of conservation medicine at the University of Edinburgh, had never seen anything like this before. But she soon saw the same problems again—in six more squirrels over the next six years. She and her colleagues analyzed tissue samples from the dead animals. And to their surprise, they discovered that the squirrels had leprosy. That’s astonishing for two reasons. First, even though leprosy still affects at least 385,000 people around the world (including a few hundred in the U.S.), the disease was eradicated from Britain several centuries ago. Second, squirrels aren’t meant to get leprosy. The disease is mainly caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium leprae, which attacks the skin and peripheral nerves. Chimps and some monkeys can occasionally catch it from people, but until now, scientists knew of only two species that naturally harbor the disease: humans, and nine-banded armadillos in the southern United States. The latter actually acquired the disease from the former; European settlers brought leprosy to the New World and then passed it onto armadillos several centuries ago. Meredith’s discovery generated enough publicity that members of the public started sending her pictures of squirrels from their own backyards, some of whom had the same lesions. Most of the shots came from Scotland, but one was from Brownsea Island—an island off the southern coast of England, and some 480 miles away from Edinburgh. “Someone had done a day trip there, seen a squirrel, and said: Is this leprosy?” says Meredith. “I looked at it and said: Wow, it’s identical!” Working with Stewart Cole, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Meredith analyzed the cadavers of 110 red squirrels from Great Britain and Ireland, and found that almost a third of them had leprosy, including several without any clinical signs. Those in Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Wight were infected with Mycobacterium lepromatosis—a second species of leprosy bacterium that was only identified in humans in 2008. By contrast, all the squirrels from Brownsea Island had M. leprae, the more traditional leprosy microbe. By comparing the microbes’ genomes, the team showed that the M. leprae strains currently infecting the Brownsea squirrels are almost identical to those recovered from a medieval human skeleton buried in the nearby city of Winchester some 730 years ago. So it’s possible that humans passed M. leprae to red squirrels several centuries ago, and that the Brownsea individuals have harbored the microbe long after its eradication on the mainland. Could the squirrels ever pass the disease back to us? Armadillos certainly do in the United States, but for the moment, there’s no evidence of squirrel-to-human transmission in Britain. “It’s not impossible, but there’s no evidence that we’re at risk,” says Meredith. “We’re more concerned about the squirrels.” Red squirrels are an endangered species in Britain. Once common, they’ve had to contend with the introduction of gray squirrels from the Americas, which outcompeted them and infected them with squirrelpox—an often fatal disease. As a result, the country is currently home to more than 2.5 million grays but just 140,000 reds, most of which live in Scotland. Those that get leprosy can live for many years with the condition, but Meredith wants to see if their health suffers in the long run. They might eventually die because they’re unable to feed properly, or because leprosy makes them more vulnerable to other infections. (Contrary to stigma, leprosy doesn’t make body parts fall off; instead, deadened peripheral nerves sometimes stop people from noticing injuries or infections in their extremities, leading to eventual amputations.)   Why did the squirrels become infected in the first place? They belong to a different order of mammals than either humans or nine-banded armadillos, and all three species are separated by around 100 million years of evolution. And yet the three of us, out of all the mammals in the world, are the only ones know to harbor M. leprae. And for that matter, why does the red squirrel get infected when the closely related grey squirrel doesn’t seem to? No one knows. Meredith’s team looked at an immune gene called TLR1. A few mutations in this gene have been linked to either a greater or lower risk of leprosy in humans, but none of these specific mutations are found in either armadillos or squirrels. Some squirrels did seem to have their own TLR1 mutations that reduced their risk of infection, but with such a small sample, it’s hard to say for sure. Perhaps the weird troika of host species simply reflects our ignorance about where leprosy hides. It may be lurking in more animals than we realize. “We need to look more closely at the possibility of a wildlife reservoir,” says Meredith. And “there is circumstantial evidence that M. leprae has an environmental reservoir,” says Helen Donoghue, from University College London. That is, the microbe might hide out in water, soil, vegetation, or something else. Perhaps that’s how the red squirrels originally became infected, she adds. The idea of an environmental reservoir has been long disputed, but perhaps needs to be revisited in light of the squirrel discovery. “Although leprosy has been known since biblical times, and still remains a major public health problem in many parts of the world, our understanding of how this infection transmits and causes disease is very limited,” says Anura Rambukkana from the University of Edinburgh. And since the infected squirrels develop symptoms that “somewhat resemble human leprosy”, he adds, they may help us to understand how the disease manifests in humans, and how it spreads between us.

I think that after reading this article, i definitely felt a bit of disgust. I would definitely try and look out for myself more often after hearing about these diseases. The fact that there are so many squirrels running around everywhere makes me feel nervous. Also the fact that they can attack you at anytime makes me extremely nervous as well.


The person is female. Racially, the person is white. The person is 33 years old. The person has a college or university degree. The person earns 110000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 4.5 in openness, 7.0 in conscientiousness, 1.5 in extraversion, 7.0 in agreeableness, and 7.0 in stability.

Red squirrels in Britain are found to be carrying leprosy. Many of them are carrying strains of the skin disease that are the same as what infected human Europeans all the way back in medieval times. These same strains have been eradicated in the mainland of the UK for a number of centuries. It is a serious skin disease.


I just read an article about instances of red squirrels in the U.K. contracting leprosy. Apparently. there are only three species of mammal on the planet that can actively carry and suffer from the disease, which include: humans, banded armadillos and now red squirrels. I also wasn't aware that it kills nerves throughout your body so that infections can go unnoticed, resulting in amputations of limbs.


Can you believe there is still leprosy around this day and age? I did not know that squirrels could even carry the disease from now on I will be more careful around them since they can carry such a serious disease I thought that leprosy only existed during the time of Jesus I am surprised that it is still around.


wow I did not know that squirrels could carry such a serious disease it is kind of scary but also it is really interesting to see how adaptable and amazing nature can be I am glad that they have not spread the disease to humans but I feel like it is inevitable that some disease will attack humans in the future


'This isn't Pompeii, this is Aleppo' —  As 200 airstrikes hammered Aleppo last weekend, activists and aid workers posted dozens of pictures and videos online. Each of them heartbreaking, each helping to convey the horror of the besieged Syrian city. On Friday afternoon, a photo emerged of Brahim Sawas and his 10-year old son, Mahmoud, who had fallen victim to the war. They were covered in blood and dust, the pressure of the rubble holding their final postures in place. "This isn't Pompeii, this is Aleppo," one social media user wrote. A family devastated   The tragedy of this family doesn't end there. Another image shows Sawas' 8-month-old baby, Muhammad, buried under rubble in a separate room as Syrian Civil Defense workers try to recover the child's body from the dirt and dust. Um Mahmoud, Sawas' wife and the mother of the two dead boys, survived the airstrike along with her daughter. The mother and daughter were sleeping in the same room with the 8-month-old baby. Weekend of horror Sawas and the two boys were among more than 300 people killed last weekend in a new wave of violence. The deadly strike that hit the family home at 5 a.m. Friday in eastern Aleppo's rebel-held neighborhood of Qaterji was the first of a series of hundred. One activist from Aleppo described to CNN a level of bombing never seen before in a conflict that began more five years ago. In response to the surge in airstrikes, activists took to Twitter, using an Arabic hashtag that translates to #HolocaustAleppo and sharing pictures and videos from the city. Some had mistakenly described the photo of the father and son as that of a mother clutching her baby.

Too bad what happened to these Syrians but honestly I don't really care let them all burn up one less muslim to worry about I think they should bomb the whole country and turn it to dust but I guess we can't just go around killing millions of people unless we drop a nuke on them like the Japanese because that was justified


The person is female. Racially, the person is white. The person is 28 years old. The person has a two year associate degree. The person earns 50000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 6.0 in openness, 6.0 in conscientiousness, 5.0 in extraversion, 4.5 in agreeableness, and 3.5 in stability.

this situation is so sad. The things that are going on in syria break my heart Reading the terrible unimaginable story of children covered in dust and blood is so sad. Reading that children are being killed along with hundreds of others is so sad. This is truly a horrible situation that needs more attention so more can help.


It is a shame that they are going through such hardships I feel bad about the little baby that died and bombs falling on them but that is part of life growing up in an uncivilized world where savages run rampant if they could just get rid of the people and start over maybe just move all the savages out.


Just read an article about people being buried alive in Aleppo. The situation in Syria has gotten so out of hand its gotten to the point that you almost want to ignore it for your own mental health. I know the article is dated, but Trump's decision to remove support from our Kurdish allies in Syria is one of the greatest strategic blunders since the instigation of the Iraq war.


13 civilians killed by cross-border shelling in Kashmir, say India, Pakistan —  India and Pakistan say 13 civilians have been killed in cross-border shelling from both sides of the Line of Control, the de facto border between the two countries in the disputed region of Kashmir.   At least seven civilians on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC) were killed Tuesday and 15 others injured in shelling that came from the Pakistani side, according to local Indian authorities. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that six civilians on the Pakistani side had been killed by shelling from India Monday, and eight injured. Could India and Pakistan go to war? Women killed 'inside their homes' The casualties on the Pakistani side were in the Nikial and Jandrot areas, the statement said, adding that Pakistan's Director General had summoned India's Deputy High Chief Commissioner on Tuesday to strongly condemn the "unprovoked ceasefire violations." Of the Indian casualties, five civilians were killed in heavy shelling in the Ramgrah sector of India's Samba district, Sheetal Nanda, Samba's district magistrate, told CNN. Nine others were injured in the area. Two women were also killed in shelling in the Manjakote area of Rajouri district, according to Johnny Williams, deputy inspector general of police in the district. "The two ladies were inside their homes when shells landed there. They died on the spot," he said, adding that three others were injured in the strikes. Three civilians were also injured in India's Poonch district, police chief J.S. Johar told CNN. Neither side has responded to the allegations of ceasefire violations. The latest clashes come at a time of heightened tension between the neighbors over Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region that has been disputed territory between India and Pakistan for the past 70 years. Both of the nuclear-armed countries hold separate parts of the region and have fought two wars, in 1947 and 1965, over their claims. They came close to a third, in 1999. Tensions have flared since 19 Indian soldiers were killed in September in an attack by armed militants on an army base in Uri, about 63 miles (102 kilometers) from Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. In the aftermath, India launched what it described as a "surgical strike" across the Line of Control to attack what it said was a terrorist launching pad. Pakistan denied that the target was a terrorist base, pointing out that two of its soldiers were killed. Amid the continuing fallout, India has relocated more than 10,000 people from around the disputed border area, and a top Bollywood director has refused to hire Pakistani actors.

It's so sad that innocent civilians need to die because of war and fighting. These people did nothing wrong and were just minding their own business before their lives were taken away. It's not fair for the people and it's not fair for the families of the people that were killed as well. They are left without a family member and they have to live with that forever.


This is clearly sad because of the innocent people involved.  IT is always a tragedy when innocent civilians are caught up in the violence and politics of a government in trouble.  This seems like the situation here, and the people are the ones who are paying the price.  It is unfortunate these groups can't see the harm they are doing and just cease all violent activities.  When are people going to learn?


I don't care about this at all.  There are well over one billion Indians and Pakistanis.  We have enough of them.  I don't care if a few get lost from these people fighting over Kashmir.  That's been going on for decades anyway.  I'm sure it's pointless, but these two sides won't back down so it'll keep going on.  They're too nuclear powers so that's the only thing that makes this kind of interesting.  I love how the Bollywood directors won't hire Pakistani actors.  Pakistan sucks.  They harbor a lot of terrorists and a lot of bad crap happens in, and comes out of, Pakistan.  I'm sure they're to blame for most of the hostilities in the region.


I hate reading things about nuclear war and stuff! It's so scary... That kind of thing could literally destroy humanity. I would never want to think about what that could mean if this is really starting to happen or if this is a real option that people/countries are considering. I just wish that they had never been invented!


This is sad, I have not heard of this Indian Pakistani issue but it sounds like it is affecting a lot of people and a lot of lives.  I can't imagine living somewhere where you constantly  had to fear being bombed or shot or some catastrophe like that that caused imminent death or bodily harm.  It would just be so stressful and difficult to have to live like that.  I get worried about things like getting sick but jeez this just takes it to an all new level.  It makes me very grateful to live where I am instead of somewhere like that.


Justice For Disturbing Case Of Kitten Strangled To Death in Spokane, Washington —  Last month, a man named Wesley O’Dell and his wife, were walking around their neighborhood in Spokane, Washington and found something that changed their lives and opened their eyes to the cruelty that humanity can possess. *The real image of the kitten they found was too graphic and disturbing to display. The couple spotted a baby kitten on the side of the road completely wrapped in phone and electrical chargers and dumped like a piece of garbage on the sidewalk. When they approached the helpless kitten, they noticed that it was methodically wrapped so tightly around the kitten’s little body, from its tiny neck, to its small tail and back legs so that so that the poor things appendages were tied up next to its face. When O’Dell began to cut the cords off the the kittens small body, he felt that rigor mortis had already set in and it was hard for him to seperate the wires from its stiff figure. He also saw that the kitten’s jaw was ripped down, with a cord running through its mouth and around its neck. O’Dell was absolutely disgusted with this sight and is now determined to take action and find the culprit accountable for the horrendous crime. This act of cruelty is inhumane, disgusting and it is truly unthinkable that someone would do such a thing to a kitten who had barely even opened its eyes. The couple is now standing up and fighting for animal rights and animal welfare until justice and equality is received by all beings living on this earth. O’Dell is making a point to voice his story so that everyone is aware of the animal abuse that happened in Spokane, Washington and the lack of empathy that his local governing body has over the gruesome death of a helpless baby kitten. “Can you imagine how that would feel? What you would think, the fear in your heart, to be completely helpless at the hands of something much bigger and more poweful than you. Try to feel the pain and sadness this infant feline would have felt. Imagine what you would be thinking as the terror welled up in your swelling throat? The darkness that you would experience as you took your last breath, while someone laughed at you. Think how it would feel to be snuffed out in a cold dark street, scared and alone.” This act happened just two blocks from the couples home while their local police and animal shelters have done nothing about it. O’Dell says that this horrific situation must be remedied and he will try his hardest to ensure justice is served. Since this occurrence, O’Dell has spoken to people throughout the nation who would like to help, including the group “Gaurdians of the Rescue”. The rescue group has sent him flyers to be posted around his neighborhood as well as in local veterinarian hospitals and emergency pet clinics. He is hopeful that by distributing these flyers around town, someone will come forward with information on this crime and possibly who is at fault. O’Dell is asking for the public to repost this tragic story on social media and to talk about the kitten with friends and neighbors, not allowing for the kitten’s death to be in vein. Raising awareness of this story is one of the most important things we as animal lovers can do at this point.

who cares about a dead kitten do you know how many little human kids are being abused and sold into sex slavery there are so many things that we have to solve about humans before we go around saving kittens and dogs I think it is a shame that these people are wasting time saving stupid animals spend time on people


I just read an article about a kitten that had been brutally bound and left to die on the side of the road in Washington. The article itself was a little too cloying to take very seriously. You know when something is trying a little too hard to tug on your heartstrings and it just has the opposite effect?


After reading the article, i just feel really disturbed about it. The fact that someone can harm an animal is just mind boggling to me. I feel like people like this really need to be put behind bars. If they are willing to harm an animal, who knows what else they might do to humans. I feel like this is only the beginning for these people and they will do much worse.


How someone can have the cold heart to strangle a living thing let alone a baby kitten to death is beyond me.  Imagine the pain the poor thing felt? How can we let people that do these things continue to live amongst us. Surely there must be some justice for this? What a disturbing case if I've ever seen one.


The person is female. Racially, the person is white. The person is 27 years old. The person has a went to technical / vocational school. The person earns 25000 dollar per year. According to the Big Five personality test, on a scale of 10, the person has scored 6.0 in openness, 6.0 in conscientiousness, 6.0 in extraversion, 6.0 in agreeableness, and 6.0 in stability.

I cant believe someone could actually do this to another being. Kittens are so cute and friendly it would be like torchering a baby. Anyone with that kind of mindset on the lose is a danger to society. Mosy serial killers start out hurting innocent animals so this should be taken very seriosuly. Some kind of task force needs to be on this to make this person pay for what they did. Noone deserves to die such a sad and painful death. I cant believe how traumitized the people that found the kitten must be. Just reading this story made me almost cry I cant imagine seeing it.


Video Shows Cop Punching Woman In The Face, But She’s The One Arrested For ‘Assault’ —  A uniformed Arizona police officer who was filmed punching a woman has been placed on administrative leave while the incident is investigated.   “Our agency is very concerned by what is depicted in this video,” police in Flagstaff, Arizona, said in a Wednesday evening press release.   The footage, shot and posted to Facebook on Wednesday, shows a woman struggling with two officers who apparently believe there is an outstanding warrant for her arrest. She can be heard on video saying the issue has already been resolved.   “You cannot arrest me until I know I have a warrant,” she tells the officers as she struggles with them.   Suddenly, one of them strikes her in the face with a closed fist.   Authorities have identified that officer as Jeff Bonar. They haven’t released the name of the woman, but she identifies herself in the video as Marissa Morris. “You just fucking punched me in the face,” Morris can be heard yelling after Bonar hits her.   A number of people appear to be watching the scene from a porch. The man who filmed the confrontation — identified by The Arizona Republic as Danny Paredes — can be also heard shouting, “Hey, you can’t hit a girl like that.”   Bonar cuffs Morris and the two other officers lead her away and place her in the back of a patrol car while a man ― presumably Paredes ― can be heard saying, “I got it on video, Marissa.”   Morris’ boyfriend, Jimmy Sedillo, told The Arizona Republic he and his children, ages 3 and 9, witnessed the incident.   “She had a warrant a few weeks ago,” Sedillo said. “He still assumed she had a warrant.” Sedillo told Phoenix’s KTVK his girlfriend was ultimately charged with assaulting an officer and resisting arrest.Morris, who reportedly remains behind bars, could not be reached for comment.   “An internal affairs investigation is being initiated,” Flagstaff police said. “Further details will be released as the investigation progresses.”

This article has me very torn. I will always be a supporter of police who protect us and put themselves in harms way everyday and I now they deal with a lot of difficult people and situations. It is up to police to use discretion with force they inlflict on others and I think I would need to see the whole video and backstory and there side to decide. I now serving warrants is one of the scariest things for officers to do as alot are shot at and they go wrong. Im sure with her resisiting and the growing crowd around them they need to control the situation fast. Closed fist punching seems very scary and severe but who knows what led up to that happening. I feel sorry for both parties involved.


This is why it's so important to always get things on tap, because if it hadn't been I guarantee the officers would have tried to have said that they didn't do anything and it was all just her resisting arrest. I don't understand why they didn't just look the warrant up to see if it was still active instead of harassing her like that.