Year: 2015

Mail.com

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — African Union investigators discovered mass graves in South Sudan and found evidence of horrific crimes, including forced cannibalism, according to a long-awaited report. President Salva Kiir’s faction in the conflict is also accused of recruiting an irregular tribal force before the outbreak of war in December 2013.

The report, released late Tuesday, also disputes that there was a coup attempt in December 2013 by former Vice President Riek Machar. Government troops carried out organized killings of members of the ethnic Nuer in Juba, the capital, the report said. When violence broke out, Machar, a Nuer, became a rebel leader. He and Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, recently signed a peace agreement.   Continue reading “AU report cites mass graves, cannibalism in South Sudan”

Mail.com

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Albert Ake pointed to his niece in the promotional photos featuring a small chamber bubbling with a cottony cloud of liquid nitrogen at a Las Vegas cryotherapy center.

Chelsea Patricia Ake-Salvacion liked working at Rejuvenice Cryotherapy so much that she stayed behind when her boyfriend moved back to Hawaii to take a new job, Ake said Tuesday. Ake-Salvacion, 24, planned to spend another year in Las Vegas before opening a similar business of her own in the islands, Ake said.   Continue reading “Spa worker found frozen to death inside cryotherapy tank”

LA Times – by VERONICA ROCHA

Looking for another nonlethal way to take down suspects, the Anderson Police Department decided to go the way of the dragon.

The police force in the Northern California town of about 10,000 people plans to equip its 20 officers with nunchakus, also known as nunchucks.

Basically, they’re what martial arts legend Bruce Lee used – besides his fists of fury and feet — to take down all those bad guys in his movies.   Continue reading “Northern California police department to adopt nunchakus”

NBC News

No card reader, no PIN pad, no touch-screen display — how you bank at your ATM could drastically change in the not-so-distant future. Citigroup is testing an automated teller machine made by Canton, Ohio-based Diebold that relies on your smartphone and perhaps an eye scan to dispense your cash.   Continue reading “No Bank Card Required: Citigroup Testing Eye-Scanning ATM”

Reuters

Wal-Mart Stores Inc applied Monday to U.S. regulators for permission to test drones for home delivery, curbside pickup and checking warehouse inventories, a sign it plans to go head-to-head with Amazon in using drones to fill and deliver online orders.

The world’s largest retailer by revenue has for several months been conducting indoor tests of small unmanned aircraft systems – the term regulators use for drones – and is now seeking for the first time to test the machines outdoors. It plans to use drones manufactured by China’s SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd.   Continue reading “Wal-Mart seeks to test drones for home delivery, pickup”

AP

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Authorities in Georgia are investigating after they say two Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police officers and a third person were shot.

News outlets in Savannah report that the officers were shot around midnight Tuesday. Police spokeswoman Eunicia Baker says both officers suffered non-life-threatening injuries.   Continue reading “Authorities say 2 Savannah-Chatham police officers shot”

Reuters

Handgun owners in Los Angeles would have to keep their weapons locked in a box or disabled with a trigger lock under a measure aimed at protecting children that was given unanimous approval on Tuesday by the city council.

The provisions would not apply to people carrying a handgun or having one in their immediate control, such as when cleaning it, said Ian Thompson, a spokesman for Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Krekorian.   Continue reading “Los Angeles council OKs law requiring handguns to be locked up”

RT

US retail giant Walmart has got into hot water for selling a Halloween costume of an Israeli soldier and a fake “Arab sheikh” nose, sparking a wave of widespread indignation.

The store’s website offers sells a soldier’s uniform, including a shirt, trousers, belt and hat, bearing Hebrew writing, at the price of $27.44, reduced from $57.62.   Continue reading “Customers outraged by Walmart’s Israeli soldier Halloween costume”

Daily Sheeple – by Joshua Krause

We all know that in most public schools in America, talking about religion is now strictly verboten. Those who pushed for this policy have always argued that it would be a violation of the separation of church and state. However, the argument goes both ways. If it’s going to be inappropriate for a teacher to push his or her religion on students in a public school, it should also be wrong for a teacher advocate atheism in the same forum.   Continue reading “Teacher Tells Students to Deny God Is Real or Receive Failing Grade”

Reuters

Two people died in an explosion inside a World War Two era tank at a public gun range in Oregon on Tuesday, authorities said.

Officials were investigating the cause of the afternoon explosion at the COSSA firing range, east of Bend, Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Nathan Garibay said. It was not clear why the tank was at the gun range, he said.   Continue reading “Two people dead after explosion at Oregon gun range”

RT

The Bureau of Land Management broke the law when it sold wild horses to a rancher who profited from their slaughter, an Inspector General report has stated. No charges will be filed, despite allegations that BLM ignored clear signs of what was happening.

Tom Davis, a Colorado rancher, purchased 1,794 wild horses from the BLM from 2009 to 2012 at a cost of $10 each, though they came in truckloads. The federally-protected animals were then sold for 10 times as much to a Mexican slaughterhouse, reaping Davis a profit of about $154,000. The butchery violated both the BLM contract as well as the law, according to the IG report.   Continue reading “No charges filed after gov watchdog finds BLM illegally sold wild horses to slaughter”

Reuters – by Noah Browning

A hospital in north Yemen run by the medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) was destroyed late on Monday by a missile strike, MSF said, but the Saudi-led coalition denied that its planes had hit the hospital.

A Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in Yemen’s civil war in March to try to restore the government after it was toppled by Iran-allied Houthi forces, but a mounting civilian death toll has alarmed human rights groups.   Continue reading “Yemeni MSF hospital bombed, Saudi-led coalition denies responsibility”

RT

The Senate on Tuesday passed CISA, a controversial bill encouraging companies to share private user data with the government that is worrying to civil liberties advocates. Four amendments were proposed to address privacy concerns, but they all died on the floor.

The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act was introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) in June 2014 following several high-profile cyber-attacks targeting major US corporations. It would purportedly protect user data from falling into the wrong hands. After debating the merits of the bill, it passed the Senate in a 74 to 21 vote.   Continue reading “Senate passes CISA, strikes down four pro-privacy amendments”