Current Events #7

Current Events #7

Not All Rings are Allowed

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/12/05/3436088/anti-gay-activists-lawmakers-apprehensive.html

WASHINGTON — With the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, less than two months away, human rights and gay rights activists say it’s still unclear if and how President Vladimir Putin’s government will enforce during the games a recently enacted law that’s widely regarded as anti-gay.

In June, Putin signed a law that prohibits individuals from promoting “homosexual behavior” and spreading “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” among minors. It levels fines up to 5,000 rubles – about $155 U.S. dollars – for individuals, but more for officials. In addition, foreigners charged under the law could face administrative arrests for as long as 15 days.

Wrong Way Pilots

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/dec/05/pilot-whales-stranded-florida-everglades

Wildlife workers in boats have been struggling to coax more than 40 pilot whales out of dangerous shallow waters in Florida's Everglades national park, hoping to spare them the fate of 10 others that have already died.

Six of the whales were found dead, and four others had to be put down on Wednesday. At least three could be seen on the beach, out of the water.

The whales are stranded in a remote area near Highland Beach, the western boundary of the park and about 20 miles east of where they normally live. It takes more than an hour to reach the spot from the nearest boat ramp and there is no mobile phone reception, complicating rescue efforts.

Karma v.2187

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/09/world/americas/mexico-radioactive-truck-arrests/index.html

The authorities in Mexico have detained six men suspected of stealing a truck earlier this week carrying medical equipment including a radioactive element.

The suspects had been admitted to a hospital in Hidalgo state with possible symptoms of radiation poisoning.

The truck was stolen on Monday as the driver made an overnight stop on the outskirts of Mexico City.

It was found abandoned two days later on a nearby field.

The Mexican authorities said the protective case containing the radioactive isotope - Cobalt-60 - had been tampered with.

Seriously, We are Spying

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/09/tech/web/nsa-spying-video-games/index.html?hpt=us_t3

Spies with surveillance agencies in the United States and United Kingdom may have spent time undercover as orcs and blood elves, infiltrating video games like "World of Warcraft" in a hunt for terrorists "hiding in plain sight" online.

Agents from the CIA, FBI and Pentagon and England's Government Communications Headquarters infiltrated WoW and virtual world "Second Life," as well as collecting information on the Xbox Live gaming network, according to the documents.

A 2008 NSA memo called online gaming a "target-rich communications network" where terrorists could communicate "in plain sight."

My Uncles Sucks Too

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/dec/8/kim-jong-uns-uncle-removed-north-korean-state-docu/

SEOUL (AP) — Images of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s uncle have been removed from an official state TV documentary, a disappearing act that appears to lend credence to Seoul’s claim that Pyongyang’s second-most- powerful official may have been purged by his nephew.South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers last week that it believes Jang Song-thaek likely was sacked after the executions last month of two close associates, allegedly over corruption. The National Intelligence Service hasn’t explained how it obtained the information, and skepticism followed the claim because of past intelligence failures in Seoul regarding the inner workings of the North’s secretive government. But some worry that, if true, the purge of such a powerful figure could lead to dangerous instability.

A Whole Lot of Neologisms

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/dec/05/barack-obama/obama-says-children-low-income-families-hear-30-mi/

Researchers Betty Hart and Todd Risley found a 30 million "word gap" by age 3 between students of divergent socioeconomic classes. That’s one piece of evidence, they argued, to explain the "achievement gap," a term educators and researchers have used to explain why lower-income students start kindergarten on worse footing.

Over several years, the pair observed families of different socioeconomic statuses, based on education and income levels, and found that better-off families engaged their children more frequently with language.

"This early language and vocabulary gap are really the beginnings of the achievement gap that we see continuing on through the end of high school and through life," Suskind said.

Women Rule the World

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/gm-names-mary-barra-as-car-industrys-first-woman-ceo/2013/12/10/7d7827e8-61b8-11e3-8beb-3f9a9942850f_story.html

General Motors Tuesday named longtime executive Mary Barra as chief executive, making her the first woman to rise to the top of the male-dominated world of U.S. auto manufacturing.

Barra, the executive vice president of global product development and global purchasing, will take over for current chief executive Dan Akerson on Jan. 15.

The selection of Barra, 51, to lead GM into the future marked the latest in a spate of appointments of woman chief executives to corporations long seen as dominated by men. Last year, the technology firm Yahoo named a woman as president and CEO. Also, women have been named in recent years to run defense contractors General Dynamics Corp. and Lockheed Martin as well as computer giants IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

Gun Control?

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/15/us/colorado-school-shooting-victim/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

A 17-year-old high school student remained in critical but stable condition Sunday as Colorado officials tried to understand why a fellow student shot her and tried to shoot his debate coach before committing suicide last week.

Two days after the shooting at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, the wounded student, Claire Davis, was in a coma at Littleton Adventist Hospital, her family said in a statement released through the hospital's Facebook page Sunday evening.

Real Football

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/dec/15/court-construction-2014-world-cup

Construction in a section of the World Cup stadium in Manaus where England will play Italy has been halted due to a court order after a worker fell 115ft to his death while working on the roof. Another worker died of a heart attack while paving an area outside the venue.

Two workers were killed when a crane collapsed on 27 November as it was hoisting a 500-ton piece of roofing at the São Paulo stadium that will host the World Cup opener. Last year a worker died at the construction site of the stadium in the nation's capital, Brasilia.

“Affluenza” or Idiocy

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2013/1212/Rich-kid-gets-probation-for-drunk-driving-deaths.-His-defense-Affluenza.-video

The case of a rich Texas teenager who received probation but no jail time after killing four people in a drunk driving car crash in June has sparked a new debate about money, power, and punishment after the teen’s defense team argued he was the victim of “affluenza,” or the failure of his wealthy parents to set boundaries.

Judge Jean Boyd accepted Ethan Couch’s guilty pleas for killing four people and injuring nine, but the punishment – most likely a lengthy stay at a $1,200-a-day California drug treatment facility – brought widespread outrage because it seemed to suggest that the judge bought the defense theory “that because he has gotten off without serious punishment in the past, he cannot be seriously punished in this case either,” as Jaquielynn Floyd of the Dallas Morning News writes Thursday.

Shhhh…Are They Listening?

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/16/justice/nsa-surveillance-court-ruling/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Washington (CNN) -- A federal judge said Monday that he believes the government's once-secret collection of domestic phone records is unconstitutional, setting up likely appeals and further challenges to the data mining revealed by classified leaker Edward Snowden.U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said the National Security Agency's bulk collection of metadata -- phone records of the time and numbers called without any disclosure of content -- apparently violates privacy rights.

I’ll Take My Game and Go Home

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2013/1216/As-foreign-funds-run-dry-Syrian-fighters-defect-to-anti-Western-militias

Once courted by Western powers and funded by anti-regime exiles, support for the FSA has dried up in recent months, and its demoralized fighters have begun to desert. Some end up in the arms of armed opposition groups linked with Al Qaeda, whose sectarian cause has attracted foreign fighters and funding, to the alarm of Western powers that initially backed the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

The US and Britain said last week that they had suspended non-lethal aid to northern Syrian rebels after Islamist rebels raided a warehouse run by an FSA-allied group, underscoring the crisis of leadership in Syria’s armed opposition. US officials said that FSA commander General Salim Idris had fled to Turkey.

Wipe No More

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2013/1216/FDA-Antibacterial-scrubs-might-be-worse-than-plain-soap

The Food and Drug Administration issued a proposal that would require manufacturers to prove that antibacterial soaps and body washes more effectively prevent disease than plain soap and water.

There is currently no evidence that antibacterial soaps are any more effective at preventing illness than washing with plain soap and water, said Colleen Rogers, a lead microbiologist at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a Monday press release.

In fact, the risk of long-term use of antibacterial soap might outweigh the benefits, according to a Monday announcement from the FDA. There are indications that certain ingredients in these soaps may contribute to bacterial resistance to antibiotics and may have unanticipated hormonal effects that are of concern to the FDA.

1.3 Billion Still Wondering

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/a-year-after-new-delhis-gang-rape-what-has-changed-for-indias-women/article15982313/

December 16 marks the anniversary of the gang rape of a young student in New Delhi, an event that shook India and the world. The brutality of the crime was so shocking that it galvanized national and international media attention, sparking a debate in India and elsewhere about the routine and daily nature of violence against women. The young woman eventually succumbed to her injuries at a hospital in Singapore. Such was the public outcry that the government struck a commission headed by a former supreme court justice which led to the speedy enactment of a stringent new anti-rape law in the Indian penal code, as well as the creation of fast-track courts to expedite cases such as these. Indeed, the adults accused in the case (except for one who committed suicide in jail) were quickly tried, convicted and sentenced to death within 9 months of the crime, which is remarkably quick by the standards of the creaky Indian criminal justice system. They’re currently on death row. The one juvenile convicted was sent to a remand home.

Gas or No Gas?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/16/us-ukraine-idUSBRE9BF11U20131216

Ukraine's president could secure loans from Russia on Tuesday when he meets Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin - money that could help fend off economic crisis as anti-government protests continue in Kiev.

Demonstrators demanding that Viktor Yanukovich step down after he spurned a trade and investment deal with the European Union last month plan a new show of force in Ukraine's capital on Tuesday as the president meets his Russian counterpart.

Caught between Western powers, keen to anchor the nation of 46 million in a friendly embrace on the EU's borders, and Moscow, which accuses the West of turning its former Soviet territories against it, Ukraine is in the grip of impending financial crisis that could hit fuel supplies this winter.

President Putin, who meets Yanukovich at 3 p.m. (1100 GMT), seems set to agree a loan deal, and possibly offer Ukraine a discount on the Russian natural gas on which its people depend.