Haze from Indonesian fires may have killed more than 100,000 people – study —  Harvard and Columbia universities estimate tens of thousands of premature deaths in areas closest to blazes clearing forest and peatland A smog outbreak in Southeast Asia last year may have caused over 100,000 premature deaths, according to a new study released Monday that triggered calls for action to tackle the “killer haze”. Researchers from Harvard and Columbia universities in the US estimated there were more than 90,000 early deaths in Indonesia in areas closest to haze-belching fires, and several thousand more in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia. The new estimate, reached using a complex analytical model, is far higher than the previous official death toll given by authorities of just 19 deaths in Indonesia. “If nothing changes, this killer haze will carry on taking a terrible toll, year after year,” said Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaign Yuyun Indradi. “Failure to act immediately to stem the loss of life would be a crime.” A spokesman for Indonesia’s environment ministry did not immediately have any comment. Indonesian authorities have previously insisted they are stepping up haze-fighting efforts, through such actions as banning the granting of new land for palm oil plantations and establishing an agency to restore devastated peatlands. The haze is an annual problem caused by fires set in forest and on carbon-rich peatland in Indonesia to quickly and cheaply clear land for palm oil and pulpwood plantations. The blazes occur mainly on Indonesia’s western Sumatra island and the Indonesian part of Borneo, with monsoon winds typically blowing the haze over Singapore and Malaysia. But last year’s fires were among the worst in memory and cloaked large parts of the region in choking smog for weeks, causing huge numbers to fall ill and sending diplomatic tensions soaring. The new study to be published in journal Environmental Research Letters, which combined satellite data with models of health impacts from smoke exposure and readings from pollution monitoring stations, estimated that 100,300 had died prematurely due to last year’s fires across the three countries. They estimated there were 91,600 deaths in Indonesia, 6,500 in Malaysia and 2,200 in Singapore. Greenpeace hailed a “groundbreaking” study they said for the first time gave a detailed breakdown of deaths from last year’s fires, but cautioned that the figure was a “conservative estimate”. It only looked at health impacts on adults and the effect of dangerous fine-particulate matter, known as PM 2.5. It did not examine the effect on youngsters or of the other toxins produced by the blazes. In reality, infants are some of the most at risk from the haze, said Nursyam Ibrahim, from the West Kalimantan province branch of the Indonesian Medical Association on Borneo. “We are the doctors who care for the vulnerable groups exposed to toxic smoke in every medical centre, and we know how awful it is to see the disease symptoms experienced by babies and children in our care,” said Ibrahim. The study found an increase in the number of fires in peatland and in timber concessions in 2015, compared to the last haze outbreak considered major, in 2006, and that the number of fires in palm oil plantations fell. Shannon Koplitz, a Harvard scientist who worked on the study, said she also hoped the model they had developed could help those involved with tackling the annual blazes make quick decisions “as extreme haze events are unfolding”. Last year’s haze outbreak was the worst since 1997 due to a strong El Nino weather system, which created tinder-dry conditions in Indonesia and made peatland and forests more vulnerable to going up in flames.       Article Title:Samoa hit by hail storm so rare residents thought it was a hoax   Article URL:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/19/samoa-hit-by-hail-storm-so-rare-residents-thought-it-was-a-hoax   Article author(s)Eleanor Ainge Roy   Article date:Monday 19 September 2016 00.11 EDT   News source: theguardian    Meteorologist forced to release satellite images of the storm to convince some locals that the hail wasn’t part of a practical joke Samoa has been hit by a hail storm so rare that it was believed to be a hoax by many of the island’s inhabitants. The tropical nation of Samoa lies in the Pacific Ocean, where the average temperature at this time of year is 29C. But on Friday evening an unexpected hail storm struck the eastern side of the island of Savai’i, accompanied by heavy rain and strong wind gusts. It was only the second time since records began that hail has fallen on Samoa, the first was in 2011. The storm lasted 10 to 15 minutes and produced hail stones roughly 2cm wide. “The ice was very small and there were no reports of damage,” said Luteru Tauvale, principal meteorologist for the Samoan Meteorology Service. “Because it was so unexpected a lot of people thought it had been invented. We had to release satellite images of the conditions that led to to the hail for people to believe it was real.” Samoans took to social media to share their photos of the hail, many voicing disbelief at the incident, and then saying it was the “first time” they had been convinced of the the phenomenon of climate change. “Climate change is here!” wrote one Samoan on Facebook. “More like we have just woken up to the fact it had been with us for a while but we refuse to accept/believe it.” Hailstorms form within a unusually unstable air mass in which the temperature falloff with height is much greater than normal.       Article Title:Dozens dead and missing after typhoon lashes eastern China     Article URL:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/18/dozens-dead-and-missing-after-typhoon-lashes-eastern-china   Article author(s)   Article date:Saturday 17 September 2016 22.40 EDT   News source: theguardian    Typhoon Meranti has damaged more than 18,300 houses and caused direct economic losses of more than 16.9bn yuan ($2.5bn)   The strongest typhoon to hit China this year has left 28 people dead and 15 others missing in the east of the country. Typhoon Meranti made landfall early Thursday in Fujian province after winds and rains associated with it pounded Taiwan, leaving one person dead and more than 50 injured. Authorities in Fujian said Saturday that the typhoon had left 18 people dead and 11 missing, damaged more than 18,300 houses and caused direct economic losses of more than 16.9 billion yuan ($2.5bn).   Authorities in neighboring Zhejiang province say that 10 people died and four remained unaccounted for following landslides and flash floods in rural areas. Taiwan saw wind and rain from a second typhoon, Malakas, that caused no apparent deaths.

Wow, 100,000 deaths is a massive amount!  I found this very  it makes me very sad for the people involved especially the fact so many infants and children's were affected.  This just seems like something that could have been very avoidable if the right steps were taken. I mean a haze killing 100,000 people?  That's crazy! I think it's sad that it's happening in what is probably an underfunded area where the people don't really have much freedom.  Overall this is just a bad situation, it makes me very sad for the people involved.


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.

With Much Sadness We Report Baby Isibindi Has Passed —  Rhino Update From Thula Thula Rhino Orphanage: It is with many tears, a heavy heart and very mixed emotions that I write that little Isibindi passed away shortly before midnight after a very, very rough 56 hours. She went through such deep sadness in her short life. I was so hoping and fighting to give her a second chance at life. A part of me feels a deep relief – the last two days were very difficult and she had so much to cope with. Little Bindi left this earth lying in my arms (the orphanage had no power so I wrapped us both in a duvet to keep her warm) It never gets easier. RIP little Bindi – may your spirit fly free! To the team on the ground here – humbled and proud. I have been with Isibindi constantly since she arrived a few days ago with no water, no power, wet cold conditions and security issues, this young and amazing group have made sure that the other rhinos have been cared for. Thank you to: Axel Tarifa, Shannon Westphal- very special people and Steven and Nicole. May God Bless all of the orphaned babies who are fighting for their life! -WAN

I find it sad that the little baby rhino has passed away.  Surely it lived a short life and it did not deserve a day.  Most animals seem to be very innocent creatures and it is always sad to hear of the loss of a little innocent animal life.  It also seems sad that it was at a rhino orphanage.  What happened to its parents, were they killed or did they abandon it?  Anyway, this is sad news although life does go on and it is the way of the world I guess.


Suicide: Russian girl's death prompts national debate —  It's a day like any other day in a provincial city in central Russia. A 12-year-old girl is getting ready to go to school. Suddenly her phone rings. The next minute she is out of the door, saying she's meeting a friend and they will go to school together. Later the same day, when her mother turns up at the school, there is no sign of her daughter. No-one has seen her. Then the mother's phone rings, and she can tell by the ring tone that it's her daughter's phone. "Where are you, darling?" she asks with relief. "It's not your daughter," a strange voice replies. "I'm a doctor from A&E. Your daughter is dead." She had taken her own life. Social network subculture In the weeks and months that followed, the mother discovered how her daughter had been immersed in an online subculture of suicide involving images of self-harming, alternative reality games and a cult surrounding a 16-year-old girl who had killed herself in a violent fashion. This is the tragic story at the heart of a long, front-page article called Groups of Death in independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta on 16 May. Written by correspondent Galina Mursalieva, it alleges that Russia's most popular social network VKontakte (VK) has numerous groups used by Svengali-type figures to encourage vulnerable young people to kill themselves. These groups are regularly closed down, but others quickly spring up in their place. Emotional intensity The piece claims that a spate of at least 80 recent suicides can be linked to these online groups. Four of the deaths, including the one described above, occurred on the same day last December and in roughly the same manner. A note from Novaya Gazeta's editors at the top of the article urges every parent to read it to "save their children from a fateful step". Groups of Death has had an extraordinary impact. In little over a week, it has been viewed more than two million times and has sparked a stormy debate on social networks and beyond. One of the reasons it has gone viral is undoubtedly the emotional intensity of Galina Mursalieva's writing. But that has been singled out as one of its main shortcomings, too. Critics have accused her of treating a complex subject with tabloid sensationalism and allowing her personal involvement in the story to cloud her judgement. In particular, they question the emphasis that the writer and the bereaved parents have placed on the internet as a cause of juvenile suicide. A follow-up investigation by the Lenta.ru website presented a more nuanced, although no less disturbing, picture of internet subculture. It suggested that the people running the VK groups were not much older than their teenage members, and in many cases were exploiting suicide cults to boost their own egos or even earn money from online advertising. But Lenta.ru also admitted that at least some of the deaths mentioned by Novaya Gazeta could be linked to online grooming. ________________   Russia's high level of youth suicide Russia has world's third-highest number of suicides among adolescents Depression, anxiety and aggression are found in 20% of Russian teenagers; the Western average is no higher than 5% Suicidal thoughts come into the minds of 45% of Russian girls and 27% of young men Most suicides are linked to parents' alcoholism, family conflicts and abuse Statistics agency Rosstat says Russia's overall rate of suicide fell in 2015 to the lowest level for 50 years Source: Unicef 2011/Rosstat 2016 iWonder: How do we talk about teenage suicide? ________________   As well as appealing to parents, Novaya Gazeta also argued that it had wanted to goad the authorities into action. It said it had passed material to law enforcement agencies and informed media watchdog Roskomnadzor of its findings. Since publication, investigators in St Petersburg have launched a criminal case over groups on VK that allegedly promote suicide. But Novaya Gazeta has also been accused of colluding with the authorities, or at least giving them a useful pretext to further extend their control over the internet. It is an allegation emphatically denied by chief editor Dmitry Muratov. One of the ostensible aims of a controversial internet blacklist law that came into force in 2012 was to protect minors from material promoting suicide. Internet expert Anton Nosik believes that the Kremlin is now intent on getting to grips with online communities, having passed laws that have the potential to curb the activity of top bloggers and with key elections just around the corner. One thing that everyone appears to agree on is that adolescent suicide is a very serious problem in Russia. A 2011 Unicef report found that the country had the third-highest suicide rate in this age group in the world, more than three times the global average. As such, even some of Galina Mursalieva's critics concede that by getting people to talk about a subject that is too often ignored, she may have performed a useful public service. ________________   Are you affected by this? Samaritans The Samaritans helpline is available 24 hours a day for anyone in the UK struggling to cope. It provides a safe place to talk where calls are completely confidential. Phone for free: 116 123 Email: jo@samaritans.org Visit the Samaritans website Papyrus Papyrus offers support, practical advice and information to young people in the UK considering suicide and can also offer help and advice if you're concerned about someone you know. Phone: 0800 068 41 41 Telephone Doveriye (Telephone of Trust) In Russia, a confidential hotline for children is available on 8-800-2000-122

Wow, a twelve year old russian girl commited suicide because of her association with some website that promoted teens committing suicide.  It's really sad that sick people would go online and prey on little children like this.  I find it shocking and hard to believe anyone would want to do such a thing.  They really need to find a way to crack down on these people and put them away for life.  This is just ridiculous.


Study reveals why seabirds eat plastic in the ocean —  The human sense of smell is important. It alerts us to different dangers including spoiled food, poison, fire, and so on. But other species on this planet have no sense of smell like humans have. In fact, a new research revealed that the sense of smell of seabirds, which they use to hunt for food, have put them in danger. Not surprisingly, humans ARE to blame.   Published last week in the PNAS, or the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers said that ninety percent of seabirds eat plastic flowing in oceans. By 2050, the team revealed that virtually all seabirds will be eating it.   So the question now is why do seabirds eat plastic?   The paper said plastic in the ocean emit the scent of a sulfurous compound which seabirds have relied upon for thousands of years. It tells them where to hunt for food.   In other words, the compound trick them into confusing marine plastic with food.   Lead researcher Matthew Savoca said–via the UC Davis website–that in order to understand the problem, we have to think about how animals look for food.   Researchers learned what plastic in the ocean smell like by putting beads–made of the three most common types of plastic beads–into the ocean at Monterey Bay and Bodega Bay in California. They placed it in mesh bags to protect the species there, and tied them to an ocean buoy before collecting them about three weeks later.   Then, the team brought the beads to UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology where scientists are often found analyzing wine chemistry. Using the chemical analyzer provided by food-and-wine chemist Susan Ebeler, the research team confirmed that the beads emit the sulfur compound dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, a chemical cue released by algae, which coats floating plastic.   Co-author and UC Davis professor Gabrielle Nevitt had previously established that the said compound triggers seabirds to search for food. DMS is released when algae is eaten by animals (like crustaceans). So while the algae doesn’t smell like food itself, it does emit the scent of food being eaten which works like a dinner bell of the birds.   The paper also revealed that birds that track the scent of the compound to look for food are about six times more likely to consume plastic than those that don’t.   Professor Nevitt said their research gives spotlight to species that don’t receive a lot of attention, like petrels and species of shearwaters, which are impacted by plastic ingestion. These species, she added, are hard to study as they nest in underground burrows. So they’re often overlooked.   Apart from that, the study could open the door to new steps to address the growing plastic pollution in oceans which not only plague the seabirds, but also sea turtles, fish and other marine animals.   Apparently, the problem starts on land. According to NOAA, one of the biggest sources of ocean pollution is called nonpoint source pollution which occurs as a result of runoff. It includes many small sources like boats, septic tanks, cars, etc, and larger sources like farms, forest areas, etc.   A study published last year said that the top five countries that dump plastics into oceans are China, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. It projected that by 2025, plastic consumption in the region will increase by eighty percent.

I think it's sad that so much plastic in the ocean is affecting wildlife the way it is.  It's really unfair the way we have destroyed their ecosystem with our own selfish use of plastic.  It is terrible when you see pictures of all the plastic in the ocean.  Apparently these birds are even being tricked into thinking plastic is food since it smells like food to them.  That is so unnatural and just wrong really.  and all this has happened in just a short period of time!


Syrians and Iraqis granted asylum in Germany far more often than Pakistanis, Nigerians —  BERLIN — One year after the height of Europe’s migrant crisis, Germany — a nation that took in more asylum seekers than the rest of the continent combined — is confronting the Solomonesque task of deciding who gets to stay. Yet as authorities adjudicate cases, a contentious truism is emerging: Not all nationalities are created equal. If you’re from Syria or Iraq, sanctuary is almost guaranteed. But if you’re from Nigeria or Pakistan, chances are you journeyed halfway across the world in vain. Nearly 37 percent of all claims processed by the German authorities are being rejected, including an increasing number of people from countries afflicted with violent insurgencies, such as Afghanistan. Even Syrians are increasingly falling short of winning full refugee status. Authorities say they’re simply applying national and international asylum law, weeding out those who do not qualify. But critics say that overburdened asylum officials are turning a deaf ear to at least some genuine petitions simply because they come from asylum seekers arriving from nations outside the much-publicized war zones of the Middle East. [Germany used to be the promised land for migrants. Now, it’s turning back more of them.] Pakistani Mohammad Nabeel is among the unlucky ones. This month, German migration authorities informed him that his case had been closed before he even had an official hearing. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) said he had missed his appointment, although Nabeel said he was never notified. Even if he had been, experts say, his case falls into the gray area that often leads to rejection. The 23-year-old claims he was in love with a rich girl in his hometown. But her family was against the relationship with Nabeel, who was poor and didn’t have the right family name, important factors in some areas of Pakistan for arranging a marriage. The girl’s brother and father set out to kill Nabeel, he says, to protect the girl’s honor. His only proof, he says, are fading scars on his body from being severely beaten by members of her family. Nabeel arrived in Germany after traveling six months and crossing seven different countries. Now, he may be sent back. “I won’t go back; I’d rather kill myself,” Nabeel says. He plans to appeal the asylum official’s decision. There are loopholes in the German system allowing for people like Nabeel — who aren’t strictly fleeing from war or political persecution — to temporarily stay in Germany on humanitarian grounds. Some are eventually granted permanent residence. But only about 4 percent of asylum requests by Pakistanis are currently decided in their favor. And Nabeel’s rejection comes at a time when the German government is increasingly taking measures targeting those migrants it deems ineligible for protection. It is determined to enforce deportation more strictly and even hired a consulting firm to help. Negotiations for deportation deals with Afghanistan and Nigeria are underway on the national and the European level. [Europe pressing harder on countries to take back deported migrants] Politicians in favor of a more restrictive asylum policy argue that some migrants apply for refugee status based on flimsy evidence and come to Germany for purely economic reasons. Others, they say, could escape the dangers they’re facing by simply approaching the local police or by moving to a different part of their home country. Daniel Owolabi Ajibade is one of the more than 10,000 Nigerians who applied for asylum in Germany this year. The business consultant claims that members of a Nigerian cartel attempted to kill him because they feared that the high-quality marbles and tiles he wanted to bring into the country would ruin their business with cheap Chinese imports. Although the 35-year-old has a newspaper article to prove the incident, the chances are high that German migration officials won’t heed his plea. The protection rate for Nigerians is only about 9 percent and to be allowed to stay, Ajibade will have to convince authorities that he had nowhere else to go. “I’m very afraid of what the outcome will be, since going back to Nigeria would be very risky,” he says. “I understand that there’s a real war in Syria and our problems with Boko Haram are mostly in the north . . . but I wish that the German government would also accept more of us until things quiet down.” “Our system caters primarily to those who have a concrete claim for protection, as bitter as this might be for some individuals,” said Ansgar Heveling, a lawmaker with Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and chairman of the German parliament’s Home Affairs Committee. Heveling thinks that the vast majority of applicants are given their due. “If in individual cases a wrong decision is made, we have courts to correct them,” he said. [Germany said it took in more than 1 million refugees last year. But it didn’t.] The nongovernmental organization Pro Asyl says that the flood of appeals against the Federal Office’s decision suggest that the system is flawed. So far, 18,666 Syrians went to court this year to fight for a better status of protection than they were granted. Many cases were dropped, but of the 1,943 verdicts, 1,547 were in favor of the plaintiffs. Stephan Dünnwald, spokesman for the Bavarian Refugee Council, said that there is a danger of the German authorities sweepingly rejecting certain groups of asylum seekers because they’re overburdened or because of political decisions made in Berlin. “The decision-making is a disaster, because there are so many new and inexperienced deciders who are under a lot of time pressure . . . In some situations, where there should be additional probing, this simply isn’t done. The quality of the interpreters has declined rapidly. There are no quality standards,” Dünnwald said. “Sometimes it almost feels as if people must be beaten to death before they are being believed.”

I felt like this was really sad for the people involved.  They are caught in a situation with no real solution and there is not much they can do.  I try to imagine being in their shoes and it is diffivult to fathom, but I am certain it would be very difficult and distressing.  No one should have to fear for their life on a day to day basis and it sounds like Germany is making decisions som ewhat arbitrarily or with bias.  However, on the same token it is up to Germany to decide who they want to let in, and it is generous of them to do so to start with.  So there is that.


Wind turbines killing more than just local birds —  Wind turbines are known to kill large birds, such as golden eagles, that live nearby. Now there is evidence that birds from up to hundreds of miles away make up a significant portion of the raptors that are killed at these wind energy fields. Using DNA from tissue and stable isotopes from the feathers of golden eagle carcasses, researchers from Purdue University and the U.S. Geological Survey found that golden eagles killed at the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area in northern California can come from hundreds of miles away. Golden eagles are a species of conservation concern, so understanding population-level differences and how individuals interact with turbines is key to meeting a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service target of no net loss to their populations. The APWRA is one of the oldest wind farms in the country and one of the largest in the world originally with around 5,000 turbines. Worldwide, such facilities have been responsible for the deaths of 140,000 to 328,000 birds and 500,000 to 1.6 million bats, raising questions about their effects on population sustainability. "Eagles tend to use that habitat around the turbines. It's windy there, so they can save energy and soar, and their preferred prey, California ground squirrels, is abundant there," said J. Andrew DeWoody, a Purdue professor of genetics in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources. "As they soar, these eagles are often looking straight down, and they fail to see the rapidly moving turbine blades. They get hit by the blades, and carcasses are found on the ground under the turbines." Collaborator David Nelson, a stable isotope ecologist with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, tested the birds' feathers for stable hydrogen isotopes, which can be used to determine where the birds likely grew their feathers. The research team determined that about 75 percent of the 62 birds were from the local population. The remaining 25 percent likely migrated into the area before they were killed. Isotopes are atoms of an element that have different molecular weights. As precipitation moves inland, water with the heavier form of hydrogen falls out first, which creates predictable patterns of the stable isotopes ratios of precipitation across continents. "When a bird drinks water or eats animals in a particular place, the hydrogen isotope ratios of precipitation in that area get recorded in its tissues," Nelson said. "You can use these hydrogen ratios in the feathers to determine the approximate place that the bird grew its feathers." A genetic analysis revealed that golden eagles from the western U.S. have gene pools similar to those killed at the APWRA, which reflects the capacity of these birds to disperse widely. "The population models we built confirm that the age structure of the eagles killed at Altamont is difficult to replicate without substantial immigration," said co-author Todd Katzner, a wildlife biologist with the USGS. Katzner said these findings suggest that environmental assessments of alternative energy facilities like Altamont Pass should take into consideration that animal populations affected by wind turbines might not be just local. "If you only consider local birds in an environmental assessment, you're not really evaluating the effect that facility may have on the entire population," Katzner said. DeWoody said that wind energy generators can receive permits that allow a certain number of unintended bird deaths. But if that number is too large, the companies could be fined. And knowing that a large percentage of the birds killed are from neighboring states could muddy the management waters. "The golden eagle fatalities at this one site have demonstrated consequences that extend across much of the range of the species across North America," DeWoody said. The golden eagle population is a concern for several state and federal agencies, DeWoody added. He said future research could include looking at more bird species affected by turbines.

I think it's sad that the golden eagles are being killed by manmade technology.  It's so typical that something we have made for our convenience is just carelessly killing wildlife in the area, and an endangered species at that.  It's also sad that birds are traveling from long distances just to be killed by these things.  And there is not much that can be done except maybe to just do away with the technology altogether.  This is just one of many similar examples anyway.


‘She was my constant companion’: No charges in fatal dog shooting on Virginia park trail —  Susan R. Smith lost her best companion this week — a black Labrador mix — after a man shot and killed her in a park. Smith said she was walking her 10-month-old dog, Macie, on Tuesday afternoon along with a friend and the friend’s dog at Algonkian Regional Park, near her home in Loudoun County. Smith, of Sterling, said she had Macie off her leash, which she acknowledges is in violation of county rules. They came upon a couple walking toward them on a path, and when her dog began to jump behind the man, he shot and killed it, Smith said. The man was not charged and Loudoun County Animal Services officials said their investigation found that the man acted in self-defense after the two dogs were “behaving aggressively.” The man had a license to carry a concealed weapon in Virginia, authorities said. He could not be reached to comment. Smith recalled the events that left her holding Macie as she died in her arms. Smith said her dog approached the couple and jumped in the air. She said the dog was leaping behind the man but was not barking at the time. At that point, the man yelled out, “Call your dog,” Smith said. “He said it once, maybe twice.” Smith said she and her friend then started running toward the dogs, who were about 20 yards away. “We called for our dogs,” Smith said. Then she said she saw the man’s arm “go to his side” and across his body. “He sees us coming,” she said. The man pulled out a gun and fired it at the dog. When the gun went off, Smith said she asked the man if it was a cap gun. “He said, ‘No it is a real gun.’ ” Hysterical, she said, she called 911. A wounded Macie slowly came to Smith, then lay on the path, taking her last breaths in Smith’s arms. Smith said the couple waited in their car for police and animal control authorities to arrive. [Arlington National Cemetery bans pets on grounds] As the couple walked past her, she said, one of them apologized for her loss. Smith said she wishes the man would have used other methods to scare her dog away, such as firing a warning shot, kicking her or swinging a stick. She said she misses Macie jumping on her bed each morning to wake her. “She was my constant companion,” she said. “She doesn’t even bark at a doorbell,” Smith said. “It was unnecessary to shoot her. It was poor judgment.” Animal services officials said in a statement that “two large-breed dogs” had been walking off their leashes and were “behaving aggressively towards a man who was walking in the park.” Animal services investigators found that Macie “circled and jumped up on the walker and that the dogs’ owner failed to secure them despite the walker’s repeated requests.” Officials said the man was “legally carrying a firearm when he discharged it in an act of self-defense, fatally shooting the dog.” Authorities said no charges would be filed in the case. “I could be ugly and call him up,” Smith said of the man who fired the shot. “But he was within his rights. It is not going to bring my dog back.”

In this case I totally support the actions of the man who shot the dog.  He was totally within his rights and it was highly inappropriate and inconsiderate of that woman to have an unleashed dog running int he park.  The man asked her to restrain her dog when it attacked her and she failed to do that several times so she had fair warning.  I'm sick of dogs running wild and attacking innocent bystanders, often resulting in grave bodily injury or death.  Somebody needs to do something to stop this problem.


After hearing about the shooting of a dog in a public park, I fully stand behind the actions of the man who shot the dog.  I'm sorry for the dog owner's loss, but in this case they were totally in the wrong and should have taken precautions to protect and be considerate of others.  For starters, they did not have the dog on a leash.  They also did not restrain the dog when it jumped at the man and he repeatedly asked them to restrain it.  With so many dog attacks resulting in deaths recently, I can understand the man's concern and he acted to defend himself quickly.  This was the dog owner's fault entirely.


Female Lawyer Accuses Justice Clarence Thomas Of Groping Her In 1999 —  She was 23 at the time. He was a Supreme Court justice. Years after his Senate confirmation hearings were roiled by accusations that he sexually harassed Anita Hill, another woman has come forward to accuse Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of groping her. Moira Smith, vice president and general counsel at Enstar Natural Gas Co., told the National Law Journal that the justice grabbed her without her consent in 1999, when she met him at a Truman Foundation dinner. Veteran Supreme Court reporter Marcia Coyle writes that Smith described the encounter ― which allegedly took place when she was a 23-year-old Truman scholar ― on Facebook earlier this month. She has since deactivated her Facebook page. “He groped me while I was setting the table, suggesting I should sit ‘right next to him,’” Smith wrote, according to the NLJ. Smith told the NLJ that Thomas “cupped his hand around my butt and pulled me pretty close to him” and later “squeezed” her behind during a June 1999 dinner for Truman scholars at the home of Louis Blair, then head of the Truman Foundation. The NLJ spoke with several of Smith’s former roommates and fellow Truman scholars who said they remembered her describing the incident at the time. Through a Supreme Court spokeswoman, Thomas denied Smith’s allegations. “This claim is preposterous and it never happened,” he said in the statement. During Thomas’ Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 1991, Hill, a law professor, testified that Thomas had harassed her a decade earlier, when he was her supervisor at the U.S. Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  Earlier this month, Hill wrote a Boston Globe op-ed about her experience, sparked by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s recorded boasts about grabbing women “by the pussy” and kissing women without their consent. “What I learned in 1991 is no less true today and no less important for people to understand: responses to sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence must start with a belief that women matter as much as the powerful men they encounter at work or at school, whether those men are bosses or professors, colleagues or fellow students,” Hill wrote. Read more at the National Law Journal. Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.

Ehh I never really know what to think about claims like this.  On the one hand, her roommates claim that they remember hearing her talk about it at the time.  On the other hand, why wait twenty years to bring up an incident that happened that was that disturbing?  I think some women are making allegations and accusations just to get attention or for political motivations.  Who knows why.  People do crazy things for crazy reasons.  I'm just really skeptical of a lot of these things I hear and I think the #metoo movement has gotten way out of hand.  Sorry, just my two cents.


I am never sure what to think about these people.  I mean if he did actually harrass her that is bad and deserves attention.  But if she is just making up the allegations then shame on her.  I think the me too movement has gone too far with too many people making up allegations and ruining the lives of men.  However, in this case Thomas was already guilty of harrassing Anita Hill so it is probably more likely to be true.  Either way it is always hard to tell.


POLICE ASKING FOR HELP REUNITING UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN WITH FAMILY —  Police are asking for the public's help in their effort to identify a woman who was found wandering in the middle of the night without a coat in Northeast Philadelphia.   The woman was found shortly before 1 a.m. Monday on the 8700 block of Pine Road.   Responding police officers observed the woman walking towards Pennypack Park. She was not wearing a coat despite the cold temperature.   When the officers attempted to stop to speak with the woman, she was allegedly uncooperative and appeared to be confused.   She was eventually transported to the hospital for a medical evaluation.   Police are now attempting to identify the woman and reunite her with her family.   She appears to be in her late 60s or early 70s, 6'0", 175lbs, with gray hair; she was wearing a blue sweatshirt, blue scrub pants, and white sneakers.   Anyone with information is asked to contact Northeast Detective Division at 215-686-3153 / 3154 or call 911.

This is a sad case of what seems like an elderly woman getting lost.  I feel sad for the family involved and the feelings they must have.  Or did they even notice she was gone?  You would think they would be out looking for her if they noticed.  Maybe it was just a lonely old woman by herself which is even more sad.  Either way, I feel like elderly people in general are often overlooked and that is unfortunate.  They should deserve the same respect that younger people do


This is sad for the woman and the family!  It sounds like she had some sort of dementia and alzheimers which is really scary.  Hopefully she is okay and will be able to be reunited with her family.  It is sad when people get so old that they are deteriorating so much.  I hope my parents don't decline that much as they age but they possibly will.  My grandparents definitely.  anyway, hopefully, they can get better services to help people like this and avoid situations like the one in the article.


Janet Reno, first female US attorney general, dies at 78 —  anet Reno, former US attorney general under President Bill Clinton, died Monday morning following a long battle with Parkinson's disease, her sister Maggy Hurchalla said. She was 78.   Reno, the nation's first-ever female attorney general, served in the Clinton White House from 1993 to 2001. What is Parkinson's disease? In a statement, former President Bill Clinton said that he and his wife, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, were "deeply saddened" by the passing of Reno, calling her "an extraordinary public servant who dedicated her life to advancing justice, equality, and innovations in criminal justice that would save and lift lives." "As Attorney General for all eight years of my Presidency, Janet worked tirelessly to make our communities safer, protect the vulnerable, and to strike the right balance between seeking justice and avoiding abuse of power," Clinton said in the statement, listing some of her top accomplishments. "It's fitting that she spent her last years with family and friends, living in the house her mother built with her own hands. Janet was her mother's daughter. I will always be grateful for her service, counsel, and friendship." Convictions and controversies As part of the Clinton administration, Reno oversaw the high-profile convictions of numerous bombers including Ted Kaczynski, the domestic terrorist infamously known as the "Unabomber;" Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; and Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols for their roles in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. "Speak out against the hatred, the bigotry and the violence in this land. Most haters are cowards. When confronted, they back down. When we remain silent, they flourish," Reno said one month after the Oklahoma City bombing. Reno's time in office was also bookended with a pair of major controversies that gripped the country. In 1993, she took office as the Waco, Texas, standoff was already underway. On the 51st day of the standoff, the attorney general ordered federal agents to raid the compound -- a decision that resulted in the death of approximately 80 members of the Branch Davidian sect. "The buck stops with me," Reno said after the incident. She later said on CNN's "Larry King Live" that her decision was "obviously wrong." In April 2000, Reno played a pivotal role in the saga of six-year-old Cuban immigrant Elian Gonzalez. Gonzalez, found off the coast of Fort Lauderdale in November 1999, was the only survivor among a group of 13 Cuban migrants trying to make it to the US. The incident sparked an international custody dispute between Gonzalez's relatives in the US and his father in Cuba. Reno ultimately ordered a raid that sent Gonzalez back to Cuba. When Clinton's administration was rocked by the Whitewater scandal, Reno was the person tasked with appointing special prosecutor Robert Fiske to lead the probe in 1994. The Clintons were never charged with criminal wrongdoing. In Clinton's second term -- months before his impeachment -- the Republican-controlled House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform voted to cite Reno for contempt of Congress for failing to hand over key memos. Reno eventually provided those documents. Congress never moved forward with a vote on the matter. From Miami to Washington D.C. Born in 1938, Reno grew up in Miami, Florida, with parents who both worked as reporters for Miami newspapers. After attending Cornell University for her undergraduate degree, Reno enrolled at Harvard University for law school in the early 1960s. During her first year, she heard one of her heroes, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, speak at the Sanders Theater. "She was so wonderful and her voice was still so clear and so magnificent," Reno later recalled in a 1993 speech to the Women's Bar Association. "And I went up to her afterwards, and I said, "Mrs. Roosevelt, I think you are perfectly wonderful." And I will never forget her looking at me and saying, 'Why, thank you, my dear. Those words mean so much to me.' And she seemed to mean it." After law school, Reno worked for four years as an associate at Brigham & Brigham, before becoming partner at Lewis & Reno, where she stayed for four years. In 1971, Reno decided to work with the Florida House of Representatives as a staff director. After a brief return to the private sector, she was appointed as Florida's State Attorney in Miami, becoming the first woman to ever hold that position. Reno stayed in the job for about 15 years until Clinton tapped her to become the 78th US attorney general. After the White House At a ceremony to honor Reno in 2009, then-Attorney General Eric Holder praised his predecessor for her tenacity and tireless work ethic during her eight years in the job. "I don't know how many times she said to me, 'What's the right thing to do?'" Holder said. "It was never what's the easy thing, what's the political thing, or the expedient thing to do." In 2002, Reno ran to become Florida's governor, but narrowly lost in the Democratic primary. Reno died at her home in Miami. She had battled Parkinson's disease for 20 years.

I must say I really disagree with her politics and am not at all a fan of hers.  However, it is always sad for a person to suffer from a disease such as Parkinson's so I am sympathetic for what she must have gone through as well as for her family as well.  I'm sure it was hard on them watching her deteriorate and suffer and that is always so rough on the family.  So regardless of how I feel about her career or her actions, I have sympathy for what she went through and for her family's feelings.


http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/13/europe/paris-attacks-one-year-on/index.html —  Lanterns, candles and calls for peace illuminated the City of Light on Sunday as Paris mourned 130 people killed one year ago in attacks throughout the city.   November 13, 2015, was like any other day for Georges Salines: Work, a lunchtime swim with his daughter Lola, watching the news on TV, and an early night. He had no idea, until the phone rang, jolting him from his sleep, that his world was about to change forever. "I went to bed ... without knowing what was going on in the streets of Paris," he recalls. "I was woken up by a phone call in the middle of the night, from my eldest son, who knew that his sister was at the Bataclan." Salines' 29-year-old daughter, Lola, had gone to a concert at the Bataclan by US rock band the Eagles of Death Metal. Midway through the show, ISIS-linked gunmen opened fire on the audience and detonated suicide vests; 90 people were killed in the raid, one of a series of coordinated attacks across Paris. Unable to reach her, the family spent hours trying to find out what had happened to Lola, calling emergency help lines and hospitals, even the morgue, but nobody could tell them if she was alive. Then the worst news, delivered in the worst way: They discovered via social media that she had been killed. "I hope she didn't suffer or see her death coming," her father says. French President Francois Hollande unveiled plaques at attack sites in the city -- at the Stade de France, outside the Petit Cambodge restaurant, in the Boulevard Voltaire, and at the Bonne Biere and Belle Equipe cafes. At the Bataclan, the President tore down a French flag to reveal the memorial, as the names of all 90 who perished there were read aloud in solemn ceremony. It followed an emotional performance on Saturday night by musician Sting, a fundraiser for victim support charities at the newly opened Bataclan. He began with the words: "We shall not forget them." The much-loved venue has been renovated to remove all traces of the massacre that took place there. On Sunday, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said a state of emergency, first imposed in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, will likely be extended. With the country's presidential elections coming in April-May, the prime minister said the government needs to retain the extra powers delegated by emergency laws "to protect our democracy." 'Bloody battlefield' Denys Plaud was also at the Bataclan on the night of the attacks. He credits his survival to the fact that, when the attackers burst in, he was up on the balcony where there was more room to move to the music. "I love to dance, and that saved my life," he told CNN days after his escape from the Bataclan. "It meant I was not in the direct line of fire from the terrorists' machine guns." Plaud hid in a tiny room at the venue with 15 others; they waited as the gunmen got closer and closer, even shooting at the partition that sheltered them: "I thought, 'Oh my God, I hope that wall will stand.'" "For three hours, we had to listen to the shooting," he remembers. "That was terrible. Every time we thought it would end, it was just time for the terrorists to get their weapons reloaded, and then they would shoot again." Eventually, the police arrived and led them to safety across what Plaud calls "the bloody battlefield," urging them not to look at the bodies of their fellow music fans. "But ... it was not a direct path, I had to look where I was putting my feet. ... There was no way but to look at death." A year on, he says, the memories are "very fresh ... it's just like it was yesterday." Artist turns Paris attacks ordeal into graphic novel A nation traumatized By late morning Sunday, the first flowers to remember victims were placed among the autumn leaves at the Place de la République, which became the center of the city's mourning and expressions of national unity after the attacks. For many Parisians, it is an opportunity to begin getting on with life. The year since the attacks has been filled with shock, grief and mourning -- for the relatives of the dead, for those who survived, and for France as a whole: The nation was left traumatized. Extra police and troops have been on the streets of France since January 2015, when terrorists attacked the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people: Armed officers now patrol outside tourist hot spots, schools, government and religious buildings. Operation Sentinel has seen the mobilization of 10,000 soldiers to monitor and protect more than 11,000 locations across the country -- 3,000 of them religious sites, the rest a mixture of key infrastructure, industrial plants and "symbolic" places around the country. And despite all the extra security on the streets, what happened in January and November 2015 -- and other incidents that followed in 2016, in Nice, Rouen and Magnanville -- have impacted the country's morale. Plaud says Paris itself was left "in shock." Anger at these events has been linked to a steep rise in xenophobia; according to the National Commission on Human Rights, or CCNDH, there were 429 reports of attacks on, and threats against, Muslims in France in 2015 -- a rise of 223% on the previous year. This "wave of aggression against Muslims" ranged from assaults on women wearing the hijab to graffiti on places of worship and halal butcher shops. In one incident, the door handle of a mosque was wrapped in bacon. The CCNDH says the majority happened in January and November. The attacks have also damaged France's prized tourism industry: Almost 2 million fewer visitors have come to the country over the past year -- international arrivals are down 8.1% so far in 2016. But Plaud says the country has seen troubled times before, and is sure to bounce back: "I am confident; in Parisian history there have been a lot of events like that -- war, civil war. But Paris has always been able to recover." #ParisResiste Balloons were released into the skies over Paris, and as darkness fell, thousands of lanterns were floated on the waters of the Canal St. Martin, close to the scene of several of the attacks. A social media campaign, #ParisResiste called on people to display lighted candles in the windows of their homes on Sunday evening, to "light up the city" and "brighten the future." Salines concedes the day will be a difficult one for many: "Some families have chosen to take a vacation and go abroad even, because there will be a lot of media attention and there will be a lot of archive footage of last year -- I'm sure it will be painful to see these images again." Plaud suffered flashbacks in the months after the attack that forced him to give up his job as a math and physics tutor, but says he is gradually recovering. This week he returned to the Bataclan for the first time. "I want[ed] to come back to pay my last homage to the victims and people who died there," he says. "It is important even if it is very strong, emotionally, to be here." Both Plaud and Salines say putting pen to paper has helped them through the past 12 months. "I wanted to write in order not to forget," Salines says. "The writing helped me, because it was the only way in the first days that I could think about what had happened ... not without pain, but being able to stay calm and to keep some distance between the pain and my thinking." The idea for his book, "The unspeakable, from A to Z" came, he says, from "the messages I received from friends and family -- lots of them started with the words, 'this is unspeakable,' 'we don't know what to say,' 'there are no words.' They had no words but I had lots! I started to make a list of words and ... little by little it grew and it grew into a book." He says the dictionary-like form his writings took helped reflect the rapidly changing emotions he experienced in the weeks and months after Lola's death. "It was very close to what I was experiencing in terms of the shift between very different moods, even happening all at the same time, within a few minutes, from crying to laughing. When you read you go from one word to another, from emotional feelings ... to very funny." The first entry in the book: A is for absurd. "Because Lola, and I am sure all the other young people who lost their lives that day, were total strangers to the situation, the fight that the terrorists have and it is profoundly unjust." For Plaud, revisiting his experiences to write about them "was very difficult [but] it was therapeutic." "It was a way to exorcise the demons and all the horror I saw that night. It was dangerous because sometimes I had to go deep inside my memories of death." 'Grieving never ends' "The grieving never ends," says Salines. "I am at a stage now where I know that things are relatively stable -- the pain will probably last for the rest of my life but I don't break down in tears three times a day as I was doing at the beginning." Salines is sustained by his work as chairman of one of the support groups for those affected by the events of November 13, and by his memories of Lola. "Her life was maybe short, but it was a full life, full of happiness," he says. A publisher of children's and young adult books, Lola loved to travel and had a passion for roller derby. "She had incredible energy. We didn't know how she could do so many things in a day." "She did a lot of good things in her life, she had a great deal of pleasure, she was very enthusiastic," he says. "She had a good life. Writing about it was maybe a way of convincing myself, but I feel pretty confident that my daughter's life was a good life." Plaud says for him, the time has come to move on. "It's been one year now and I feel like it's the end of my mourning." "It is a good thing that life has come back again," he says. "We have to keep the memory, but you also [must] not be stuck in that horror, [you must] keep on living."

To me this was very sad to read.  These parents lost their child and many other people lost loved ones in this senseless attack.  It just seems like it's gotten unsafe to go anywhere public these days with large crowds.  The situation is obviously out of hand in France and it is bad in the United States too.  Everywhere really.  I don't trust the terrorists or Muslims and there are many other problematic groups as well.  The problem is with humanity and it is very sad.


Islamic State militants are kidnapping thousands of people to use as human shields —  TULUL AL-NASIR, Iraq — Islamic State militants have rounded up thousands of villagers at gunpoint to use as human shields as they retreat toward their stronghold of Mosul, the latest brutal war tactic inflicted on civilians in areas the group controls. Military officials and some who escaped said that the vast majority of people in more than half a dozen villages were forced to walk north toward the city as the army advanced from the south, and that those who refused were shot. Some villagers said they ran and hid in the desert to avoid being captured, sleeping out in the open for days. Others said they were taken but later managed to flee. Villagers also described mass executions of former policemen and army officers as the militants become increasingly paranoid about spies and collaborators. The kidnappings and killings compound fears about the plight of civilians as Iraqi forces advance toward the northern city of Mosul, a prize the militants don’t appear ready to give up without a hard fight. Humanitarian organizations have said they have grave concerns that civilians are at risk of being caught in crossfire, trapped between fighting or used as human shields. Holding civilian populations hostage is among the tactics the militants use to waylay advancing forces and complicate the U.S.-led airstrikes that support them. They also have set fire to oil wells and a sulfur plant south of the city, sending noxious fumes over hundreds of miles. Before launching the offensive for Mosul last week, Iraqi officials estimated that as many as 1.8 million residents were still in the city, with expectations of an exodus as forces advanced. But residents of Tulul al-Nasir, a gray, cinder-block settlement about 25 miles south of the city, said they were forced to flee the other way. [Signs of panic in the heart of Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate] “They told us on the loudspeakers that whoever stays will be killed,” said Mohammed Ali, 45. They were ordered by the militants to walk about 15 miles north to Hamam al-Ali, a larger village that is still under Islamic State control. As he spoke, men crowded around him to list their family members who are missing. Some said dozens had been taken, with families divided in the confusion. More than 90 percent of the village’s 5,000 residents were kidnapped, said Iraqi army Col. Faisal Ali Abdellatif. “When they retreat from every village, they take the civilians with them to use as human shields,” he said. At her house in Tulul al-Nasir, Bushra Hussein recalled how two armed militants came by one recent day. “They said we had to gather on the road and that if they came back in 30 minutes and found us here, they’d kill us,” she said. With thousands of her neighbors, she was marched north, pushing her disabled 26-year-old son in his wheelchair, which broke after several days. Unable to move him, she was allowed to stay by the side of the road with him, where she remained until security forces advanced. Her husband, three other sons, three daughters and grandchildren were all forced to move on with the militants, she said. They called her briefly two days earlier to say they were in Mosul. “Thousands of families have been taken,” she said. “No one wanted to go.” [Sunnis fleeing Islamic State rule in Mosul brace for revenge] For those who refused to leave, the punishment was swift. On the outskirts of the village, Moyad Atallah, 40, was attending a funeral for his three brothers, who were shot after protesting. Eight Islamic State fighters in pickup trucks mounted with machine guns had arrived at their house at sundown to round them up, he said. One brother refused. “They shot him just there,” said Atallah, pointing at the dust outside his home. When his two other brothers then fought back, they were also killed, he said. The militants took their money and the family car, then kidnapped another brother and said they would return. The rest of the family fled and hid in an abandoned house nearby, including 11 now-orphaned children. The Islamic State’s utter disregard for the safety of civilians and its apparently deliberate use of human shields is putting people trapped in areas of active conflict at even greater risk as Iraqi forces advance, said Lynn Maalouf, a Beirut-based researcher for Amnesty International. Iraqi security forces have slowly won back villages and towns outside Mosul, but the militants have shown little sign that they will give up ground easily, and Iraqi and U.S. military officials say they expect the fight to get tougher as they near the city’s outskirts. As the militants are gradually squeezed, they have stepped up their savagery against local populations, residents have said. Abdulrahim al-Shammiri, the chairman of the human rights committee in the Iraqi parliament, said that 190 civilians were executed in Hamam al-Ali on Wednesday after being “kidnapped” from surrounding areas. Those who escaped said that former police or army officers were separated from their families and executed. “They killed 20 people in front of me,” said one 19-year-old from the village of Safina, who was held for three days in Hamam al-Ali before his family escaped at night, walking for days before reaching the Iraqi security forces. The family members were separated during their escape, and militants on motorbikes recaptured some of them while others watched from a ditch. Those who escaped were shot at as they fled; one woman was hit in the abdomen and is receiving treatment in Irbil. The family members declined to give their names because of concerns about the security of 30 relatives who are still missing. “All of us were against them, but they dragged us with them, all the village,” said his aunt, whose husband, four sons and three daughters are missing. Mustafa Salim contributed to this report.

Wow, hearing about things like this really makes me so grateful to be an American.  I'm very happy to live in this beautiful country and I wish people would stop complaining so much about everything they think is wrong here.  Just be grateful you're not being used as a human shield.  Some of the things going on over there are just atrocious, and as bad as people think it is here it doesn't even hold a candle to that.  I am saddened to hear about these families and children being harmed so maliciously.


A humanitarian crisis looms in Afghanistan as the number of displaced climbs —  KABUL — Abdulhalim fled the northern city of Kunduz this month after militants and security forces had been clashing for days. Now he’s 200 miles away in Kabul, sleeping in a tent and living on aid. He is part of a looming humanitarian crisis aid agencies here are struggling to contain. Before the current crisis, more than a million people had already been uprooted last year. This year, at least another million Afghans are “on the move” inside Afghanistan and across its borders, in what the United Nations warns is an alarming new wave of displaced people. Many, like Abdulhalim, fled violence or conflict; others escaped hardships such as poverty or drought. Still others were forced to return from Pakistan and Iran. Even as the numbers grew, Afghanistan agreed to accept Afghan asylum seekers deported from the European Union. The deal, signed in October, could lead the E.U. to construct a separate terminal for deportees at Kabul’s international airport, and as many as 100,000 Afghans could return. “This sudden increase [in the displaced] has put a lot of pressure on Afghanistan, which has had 30 years of war,” said Nader Farhad, spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency in Kabul. “It’s not easy to put together the infrastructure, to provide the services that are required,” he said, adding that the displaced need everything from food and blankets to jobs and health care. “To the European countries, we say: Instead of investing in the return of Afghans to Afghanistan, tackle the root causes,” Farhad said. If the United Nations and other aid agencies fail to provide emergency assistance, “it will be a humanitarian crisis,” he said. Massive displacement has plagued Afghanistan for years, beginning with the Soviet invasion in 1979. That conflict kindled two decades of war. When the United States invaded in 2001, some 4 million Afghans were living in Pakistan and Iran. [Europe pressing harder on countries to take back deported migrants] Many of those refugees later returned, driven by hopes for stability and peace. But now, Afghanistan is witnessing some of its worst violence since the United States helped to topple the Taliban. More than 1,600 civilians were killed in the first six months of 2016, according to a U.N. report released in July. That was the highest number of civilian casualties in the first half of a year since the United Nations began keeping track in 2009. The violence has been driven by Taliban assaults on Afghan cities, putting more civilians in the crosshairs. And the clashes have pushed even more people from their homes. “The fighting was intense. There was artillery, rockets, aerial bombardment,” Abdulhalim, 38, said of this month’s days-long battle between Afghan and Taliban forces in Kunduz city. Insurgents briefly seized the city at the same time last year. “My children were screaming, our neighbors’ houses destroyed,” said Abdulhalim, who like many Afghans goes by one name. “We had no option but to leave.” In Helmand province, in the restive south, more than 60,000 people have been displaced this year, according to the United Nations, and militants have fought pitched battles in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. At least 5,000 of those displaced in Helmand were forced out only in the past two months, the United Nations says, and thousands more have fled to neighboring provinces and beyond. “In some provinces, the [armed] groups have more power there, and the government, it is very difficult for us to reach” the affected population, said Sayed Rohullah Hashemi, an adviser to the minister of refugees and repatriation. “We don’t have the capacity to do so, especially in our ministry. The government cannot reach everyone on its own.” In a dusty lot east of Kabul, the U.N. refugee agency has erected a center for the hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees arriving from Pakistan. At least 5,000 refugees cross the border from Pakistan every day. The United Nations gives them a small stipend and vaccinates the children against measles and polio. [Afghan refugees, settled in Pakistan for decades, are being ordered to leave] The influx began after Pakistani authorities announced a deadline for Afghan refugees — of which there were 1.7 million registered with the United Nations — to leave. Many of the refugees had lived in Pakistan for decades, or were even born there after their parents had fled Afghanistan. Jumauddin, 27, was born in Pakistan to Afghan parents. Now he is heading to Kunduz province, to the Khanabad district, where Taliban fighters hold sway. He says he has no choice. “Kabul is too expensive, and maybe in Kunduz I can plow a plot of land,” Jumauddin said. “I know that there was fighting there even last week, but I have no other option.” The government is worried about the return of refugees to areas where insurgents are active. But right now, the Taliban controls more territory than at any time since 2001. “We are facing the return of tens of thousands of Afghans each month. . . . This will add very much to the vicious cycle of insecurity and joblessness,” said Bashir Bezhen, an Afghan analyst and political commentator. Reports have already surfaced of returning refugees clashing with locals over resources and land. The displaced are often rejected, or pushed into squalid camps. They also face the threat of forced eviction and rarely have access to clean water or food. “They are the poorest of the poor. They often live in open air,” the U.N.’s Farhad said. “But they should go back [to their homes] when they feel secure. It has to be voluntary and of their own accord.” In the area where Abdulhalim took shelter, the displaced worried that the government would force them out. The fighting in Kunduz city had subsided, but they couldn’t just pack up and go home. “They want us gone from here, but we don’t have anything, not even the money to get back,” Abdulhalim said. He first fled Kunduz on foot, with his children and the clothes on his back. Bezhen said that the government “is incapable of creating jobs for these people or of improving the economy in the remote places where they live.” He said criminal and terrorist networks will seek out the jobless and displaced youths. “It will push Afghanistan into deeper crisis,” Bezhen said. Sayed Salahuddin contributed to this report.

I found it a little hard to relate to this situation.  It seems so far away and I can't really connect with any of the people involved.  I'm really sad for these families and their children.  It seems like they are in a difficult position without much option or anything they can do about it.  I hope they are able to find some resolution or some solution, but it doesn't seem like much is going to change there anytime soon.  I don't think this is the problem of the United States and we should remain uninvolved.


Hate crimes against Muslims hit highest mark since 2001 —  Hate crimes against Muslims spiked last year to their highest level in more than a decade - an increase experts and advocates say was fueled by anger over terrorist attacks and anti-Islam rhetoric on the campaign trail.   Law enforcement agencies across the country reported 257 anti-Islamic incidents in 2015, up nearly 67 percent from the year before, according to FBI data released Monday.   That is significant in its own right, but even more so in historical context. The last time the FBI saw more than 160 anti-Islamic incidents was in 2001, when it reported 481. That was the year that radical Islamist terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, killing thousands and sparking a wave of anti-Muslim incidents.   Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that he believed that the anti-Muslim rhetoric that came out of the presidential campaign was to blame and that he feared there will be more hate crimes this year. "Whenever you have one of the nation's leading public figures in the person of Donald Trump mainstreaming and empowering Islamophobia in the nation, it's the inevitable result," he said.   A Trump campaign spokeswoman did not immediately return an email seeking comment.   Hate crimes overall increased about 6.7 percent from 2014 to 2015, but that increase still left such incidents below what they were a decade earlier. Anti-black incidents rose by about 7.6 percent, anti-Jewish incidents rose by about 9 percent, and incidents based on sexual orientation rose by about 3.5 percent during that time frame.   Before and after Trump's election, there were reports of hateful acts across the country. The Southern Poverty Law Center, drawing on news accounts, social media postings and direct reports, said it had tallied 201 incidents of election-related harassment and intimidation as of Friday. Last week, a Muslim student at San Diego State University reported that she was robbed by two men who made comments about Trump. Police believe she was targeted because she was wearing a hijab. The week before the election, a black church in Mississippi was burned and spray-painted with the words "Vote Trump." During his campaign, Trump vowed to have law enforcement conduct surveillance at mosques and called for at least a temporary ban on Muslims immigrating to the United States, measures that he suggested might prevent terrorist attacks. Asked on "60 Minutes" about reports of supporters harassing Latinos and Muslims, he said: "I am so saddened to hear that. And I say, 'Stop it.' "   Notably, the data from 2015 does not show an increase in anti-Latino incidents from the year before. Still, advocates say Trump's rhetoric is at least partly to blame for the spike in other incidents.   "I don't think there's any question at all that the Trump campaign contributed and contributed mightily to these numbers," said Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center.   The data available is somewhat limited, analysts say, because law enforcement agencies provide numbers voluntarily to the FBI, and many did not report hate crimes. Bureau of Justice Statistics surveys show a far greater number of hate crimes than what is reported - hundreds of thousands each year.   The data largely confirms the findings of Brian Levin, a professor at California State University at San Bernardino, who wrote earlier this year about a surge in crimes against Muslims. In an interview Monday, Levin said he attributed the spike to three factors - anger after terrorist attacks like those in San Bernardino, Calif., and Paris; a generally elevated level of prejudice against Muslims; and "the coalescence of a sociopolitical movement that labels Muslims as an enemy."   Levin said he found a spate of anti-Muslim incidents in the weeks immediately following the attacks in San Bernardino and Paris. After Paris, for example, a Florida man threatened violence at two mosques in two anti-Islamic diatribes.   But Levin said he did not expect that those would make 2015 an anomaly. Based on 2016 data in places such as Ohio, Texas, Delaware and New York, he estimated that anti-Muslim hate crimes are "either at or above the levels of 2015."

I'm sorry for the hate crimes happening against Muslims and others, but to blame this on Trump is absurd.  It's more of the left wing media trying to pin things on him.  There have been hate crimes going on for a long time, and even the article said they were at the same level they were in 2015 before he was even elected.  I would blame social media and the way people spread information now.  Plus a general anger that has entered society and people feel it is acceptable to take it out in violence against others.


Operation killed Afghan civilians, US military says —  The US military acknowledged Saturday that civilians were likely killed in a joint Afghan-US operation in the northern district of Kunduz Thursday.   Besides the 30 civilians, two US service members were killed in the operation that targeted Taliban leaders planning additional attacks in Kunduz city. "I deeply regret the loss of innocent lives, regardless of the circumstances," Gen. John W. Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement Saturday. "The loss of innocent life is a tragedy and our thoughts are with the families. We will work with our Afghan partners to investigate and determine the facts and we will work with the government of Afghanistan to provide assistance." Afghan forces, advised by the US military, conducted the operation Thursday in the village of Boz in Kunduz district, the statement said. It targeted Taliban leaders planning attacks in the city of Kunduz. "During the course of the operation, friendly forces encountered significant enemy fire from multiple locations and defended themselves with ground fire and US air-to-ground engagements," the US military statement said. "Initial reports indicate that several Taliban leaders and Taliban members were killed in the engagement." Civilians, troops killed At least 30 Afghan civilians were killed and 25 others injured in an air-and-ground operation launched in an area known as Bohd Qhandahari, said Sayed Mahmood Danish, a Kunduz provincial spokesman. Four members of Afghan special forces were also killed and six others injured, Danish said. Twenty-six insurgents were killed and 10 others were wounded, he added. The Pentagon identified the dead US service members as Capt. Andrew D. Byers, 30, of Rolesville, North Carolina, and Sgt. 1st Class Ryan A. Gloyer, 34, of Greenville, Pennsylvania. They were assigned to Company B, 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Carson, Colorado. The troops came under fire during what the US military said this week was a mission to train, advise and assist its Afghan partners in clearing a Taliban position and disrupting the organization's operations in Kunduz district. "On behalf of all of US Forces-Afghanistan, today's loss is heartbreaking and we offer our deepest condolences to the families and friends of our service members who lost their lives today," Nicholson said in a statement Thursday. US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said he was saddened by the casualties. "Our service members were doing their part to help the Afghans secure their own country while protecting our homeland from those who would do us harm," he said in a statement. "We will honor their sacrifice by finishing our important mission in Afghanistan." Taliban attack The deaths occurred on the same day that a Taliban mortar attack killed at least seven people attending a wedding party in Faryab province in northern Afghanistan, provincial police spokesman Kareem Youresh said. At least 13 people were wounded. In April, the Pentagon announced that 16 military personnel would be disciplined over a fatal US strike on a Kunduz hospital in October 2015. But the military maintained the strike was not a war crime because it resulted from unintentional human error and equipment failure. The Pentagon said some personnel involved in the bombing of the Doctors Without Borders hospital "failed to comply with the rules of engagement and the law of armed conflict."

To me this is very disturbing.  55 civilians were killed?  I mean I get that they killed some bad guys too, but to me it is not worth sacrificing so many innocent lives just to kill a few bad guys.  U.S. troops were killed too.  This whole thing is just terrible and tragic in my opinion.  IT sounded like some protocol was not followed either, which makes it even worse.  I think we need to mind our own business and get out of there honestly.  We have enough issues with our own country to be over there contributing to issues in others.


Wow, this is very sad.  All these poor people who lost their lives because of this ongoing conflict.  I must say, this whole area just constantly seems caught up in some terrible conflict, tension, war, and violence.  I don't understand what is going on over there, but I know it is very sad to hear about innocent people being killed as a result.  I also feel sad for the U.S. Soldiers who lost their lives.  Their families must be grieving terribly.  So the whole thing is a tragedy, and it all just seems so unnecesary to me.  All this senseless killing.


The treatment of Calais camp children isn’t just neglectful – it’s abusive —  The Calais camp lies in limbo, with most of its inhabitants long gone. Those who remain face hardship beyond anything the camp has previously known. Before, there was shelter – now hundreds sleep on the fringes of its dirt tracks. Before, there was at least some sense of ease – now shocked and abandoned refugees live in a state of constant tension. Fire is a constant threat, and the bulldozers are coming.   Volunteers grapple not only with the urgency of the situation, but also with the knowledge that it should – and easily could – have been prevented.     When the French authorities began the registration and resettlement of refugees, those of us involved felt an initial sense of relief. But after three days of relatively smooth action the warehouse where the registration took place closed its doors. It did not open them again. This was despite previous assurances that all refugees would be accommodated. Those left behind had no chance of safely reaching asylum centres. Most minors, registered separately, were confined to a fenced-in yard and housed in shipping containers. The rest were left homeless alongside the adult population of the camp.   Despite being provided with up-to-date and detailed census information from my organisation, Help Refugees, and the local charity, l’Auberge des Migrants, the authorities chose not to take heed of these estimates. The 50-person, four-day census operation identified exact numbers of men, women, and children within the camp, and put the total population at 10,188. Though promised over 12,000 spaces in accommodation centres throughout France, almost 2,000 refugees have been abandoned once again by an uncaring government, and are left behind in the ruins of the Calais camp.   Over two weeks ago Help Refugees warned authorities at a local tribunal in Lille that housing minors in the “container camp” would be tantamount to exposing them to fire, violence, and extreme trauma. My colleague’s words went unheeded, and now seem almost prophetic. There are now approximately 1,500 children subjected to these conditions.   Children housed in the containers report choking on the smoke that blows in from their burning former homes. They say there is no drinking water, that the toilets are never cleaned and the showers are not working. Food is served only from 3pm to 5pm, and there is only one meal a day.   There is no drinking water. The toilets are never cleaned. The showers are not working. There is only one meal a day The authorities have utterly failed to safeguard these young people, and show little to no regard for their wellbeing, health, or mental states. The children in this camp are starved of care and attention, and are in constant danger. Their treatment is not just neglectful – it’s abuse.   The lack of organisation has permeated every aspect of these children’s lives. The crippling hunger pangs reported by many are alleviated only when groups of volunteers are allowed to distribute food. Without an identification wristband, children are not permitted to use the few still-working shower facilities – a fact made worse by the decision of the authorities to register some children without providing wristbands.     The stories you need to read, in one handy email  Read more Arbitrary security measures mean that services such as the Refugee Info Bus – founded by long-term volunteers to provide refugees with WiFi and legal services – are barred from approaching the container camp, cutting the children off from means of communication and legal assistance. With this, and the recent banning of human rights lawyers acting as observers from entry into the camp, it is feared that the mistreatment of the camp’s children will go unchecked.   Volunteers are banned from putting up tents to house the homeless adult and child refugees outside the container camps, in yet another example of the restrictions that serve only to further endanger refugees’ lives. With a large portion of the camp in flames, many are sleeping on the dunes surrounding the camp, exposed to the rain, the cold, and the people smugglers.   Despite desperate conditions and daily heartbreak, the volunteers of Help Refugees and other organisations continue to provide food, water, and some comfort to the refugees who are left. Many volunteers are from the UK, and express their devastation that their country is not answering France’s calls and the refugee children it is failing – at present, it seems unlikely that the UK will take in more than the 274 children it already has. Many other volunteers are French, and must bear witness, distraught, to their nation’s mistreatment of refugees already so weakened by months of subsistence in the camp.   On 1 November charities operating within the camp received notice from the French authorities promising that all children in the container camp would be transferred by bus to accommodation centres across France this week. A representative from the UK Home Office on each bus will ensure that any children legally eligible for asylum within the UK are able to apply for transfer to the UK. It is unknown how long this legal process will take.   This is a testament to the work of the volunteers and legal workers in the camp, and presents an opportunity for these children to leave behind the trauma and misery of life in a refugee camp. However, there are no guarantees, and charities must continue to work to ensure that refugees throughout France are given a far better standard of care than was provided for the children of the Calais container camp.

The article did not give much information about where the refugees were from.  I had to google to learn they were mainly from Syria.  I thought this was very sad, although it is one of those problems without an easy solution.  Who is supposed to be paying for these people to be cared for?  Taxes?  Whose taxes?  I don't see a simple fix here.  It's easy to sit there and judge and say this is unfair, but also what is everyone supposed to do?  AT least they are being given asylum from the dangerous place they came from I guess.


This Is What It’s Like on the Front Lines of Nigeria’s Unseen Hunger Crisis —  Millions of Nigerians survived Boko Haram, but now a humanitarian catastrophe is putting their lives at risk again. ABUJA, Nigeria ― After her father died two years ago during a Boko Haram raid on her village in Yobe, Nigeria, 16-year-old Zulyatu, her younger siblings and their mother fled to Biu, a town in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state. A year ago their mother left for another town to get treatment for high blood pressure from a traditional healer, leaving Zulyatu alone to care for her siblings, 12-year-old Abubakar and 8-year-old Amira. Zulyatu said hunger affects every part of their lives. They only eat once or twice a day, and they often feel dizzy from hunger. In their home village, before Boko Haram came, their father was a butcher, so the family always had enough meat to eat. The hunger makes her long for her father, and Zulyatu said that if he were still alive they wouldn’t be having this experience. The focus on their struggle for food also leaves the siblings with little time or access for education. Before they came to Biu, Zulyatu was interested in studying to become a doctor, but they have been unable to attend school since the move. Sadly, experiences of hunger and desperation, like those of Zulyatu and her siblings, are the rule rather than the exception in conflict-weary Nigeria and in the greater Lake Chad Basin area. The hunger has become so strong, that one woman recently told us that she had become so desperate to feed her children that she took to boiling grass. The militant group Boko Haram emerged in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, in 2002, but much of the world first became familiar with the terrorist group when it kidnapped 276 schoolgirls in 2014. Years of violence and destruction, combined with widespread and underestimated drought conditions, have created an ongoing crisis here. But as the Nigerian army retakes territory held by Boko Haram, another problem has emerged in the country ― a horrific and massive humanitarian crisis is revealing itself. More than 4 million people are food insecure, not knowing from where their next meal will come. In August, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that in Borno state, where Zulyatu lives, nearly a quarter of a million children are severely malnourished, and one in five will die if they aren’t treated. Mercy Corps, the global organization I work for, is one of the organizations mounting a response to this urgent and largely overlooked humanitarian situation. Our team has accessed remote villages and towns in south Borno state, where regular army checkpoints serve as a reminder of the serious threat Boko Haram still poses. But despite efforts from aid organizations like ours, there are still 2.2 million people living in unreachable areas in northeast Nigeria, with no contact to the outside world ― and no guarantee of safe passage for aid workers. We don’t yet know the full extent of the crisis ― the Nigerian military and humanitarian organizations like Mercy Corps are still trying to push into these parts of the country ― but based on what we’ve seen so far, we fear the worst.  “The carnage becomes more glaring as we gain access to newer areas, and it has become a struggle for those of us in the forefront to comprehend how to help the thousands we come across who need our support,” said Michael Mu’azu, our humanitarian projects manager. “What keeps me going is the fact that I can contribute to making a difference, and because I work with an amazing team of men and women who have dedicated their lives to providing lifesaving assistance, I wake up every day and go to work knowing more people will get to smile.” For now though, many of the people we come across are not smiling. “When I see the people in these communities, I see hunger and suffering in their faces,” Umar Shuaibu, our operations officer, said. In our internal assessments this past July, we found that in the area of Damboa more than 80 percent of shelters were destroyed or partially destroyed, with no roof or doors. Of the people we interviewed, 97 percent reported that they could not afford to buy food in the previous four weeks. Because of continued insecurity, many farmers cannot reach the land where they cultivate food to eat and sell. People in these communities survive by selling foraged firewood and begging or laboring for less than the equivalent of $1 per day. Others have resorted to transactional sex.  The Nigerian military must clear and secure new areas before aid can get in, to make sure humanitarian workers have safe passage and aid does not end up in the wrong hands. And we have also not seen the amount of funding needed to mount a response of this size. Right now, less than one-third of current United Nations appeals for the crisis has been funded, a shortfall of $542 million. As a sovereign nation, Nigeria has a duty to provide for its people. It is ultimately responsible for leading the response to this emergency, establishing strong coordination and allowing for safe and organized access to deliver assistance to people in need. But it is also the humanitarian imperative of the international community to help people in crisis. At Mercy Corps, we are working quickly to meet urgent needs. In south Borno state we have been providing financial assistance, such as cash and vouchers that can be exchanged for food in local markets, as well as grants to jump-start businesses. We are repairing water points and latrines to ensure access to clean water and prevent the spread of waterborne illness. We also provide protection for vulnerable civilians, particularly women and children, and mobilize and train community members to recognize and respond to gender-based violence. We know that the needs are massive, and are going unmet, and we are working as quickly as possible to scale up our operations. Already in the past several months we have shifted to new locations and tripled our financial and staffing resources to reach upwards of 100,000 people. But it is a herculean task for any single organization to tackle on its own, and a risky one because insurgents could attack us unexpectantly. All organizations responding to this crisis in Nigeria face stretched capacity and daunting logistics. But we aren’t giving up. Already we see the benefit of one small act. With the e-voucher she received during Mercy Corps’ first distribution, Zulyatu bought a month’s worth of rice and cooking oil in the local market. When asked what she hopes for the future, Zulyatu said, “I just want to see everyone happy. Everyone would have enough to eat and abundance.” We can make that hope possible, if we act urgently.

I found this to be very sad.  These people obviously don't have many options, and they are trapped in a bad situation without any food and with a lot of violence around them.  I have heard a lot about this area and the bad things going on there.  This is an ongoing situation that shows no signs of improvement, and meanwhile the people continue to suffer and die.  Young people are affected as well as women and many innocent people who have nothing to do with the terrorist groups causing all these problems.


Sheriff: Police dog dies in hot car in western Arkansas —  HUNTSVILLE, Ark. –  A police dog died after she was left in a hot patrol car by her handler in western Arkansas, officials said. Madison County Sheriff Phillip Morgan said the dog, named Lina, died Friday. The sheriff said the dog's handler was placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation. The 5-year-old dog had been with the sheriff's office for three years, and the sheriff said the animal was used in drug investigations. Morgan described the dog's death as a "bad accident." He said the investigation into the dog's death is being handled by the Washington County Sheriff's Office. Last month, a police dog in Stephens County, Oklahoma, died after being left for 38 hours in a hot car and its handler was charged with animal cruelty.

Overall, this is a really sad incident.  The poor dog was just helplessly left in the car to suffer, and there's no way it could have let itself out or saved itself.  IT's really sad to me when people are this negligent about pets and other people.  Especially vulnerable populations.  Honestly I think whatever punishment she gets, such as an animal cruelty charge, is definitely deserved and she will just have to take that as it comes.  She should have been more careful with the animal, end of story.


After Traveling More Than 700 Miles, A Young Wolf Was Gunned Down By A Government Sniper —  A young male wolf who was in search of a mate and had travelled more than 700 miles, has been gunned down by a government sniper.   This wolf was a member of the Huckleberry pack which is a family that lives in Washington state and had been saved from extermination by the Center for Biological Diversity as well as it’s allies when the wolf was a pup back in 2014.   The wolf was collared in February and began his journey east, surviving the wolf-killing fields in Idaho.   On Septemer 29th, he was gunned down at Judith Gap, Montana near Wildlife Services which is the deadly federal killing program that had wiped out more than 3 million wild animals just last year.   This was a special collared wolf whose journey was well documented and whose life was carelessly taken away at the hands of trigger-happy exterminators who must be held accountable for their actions.   Wolves often leave their pack in search of a mate and new territory when they come of age. Sadly, in states such as Colorado, Iowa, Wyoming and Utah these wandering wolves end up dying brutal deaths due to acts of cruelty and indifference.   For this reason, the Center for Biological Diversity has lawyers, scientists and activists who are in court, congress and on the streets every day fighting for the lives and safety of wolves.

I am sad for the wolf but this didn't have me too torn up.   I imagine the sniper shot the wolf for some reason.  It's too bad the wolf traveled so far looking for a mate just to be killed, but I guess these things happen sometimes.  Perhaps the sniper should have been a little more careful.  A little more background about why they were out there shooting wolves might have been helpful, like maybe there was a valid reason.  Wolves can be harmful creatures.