rpannier
rpannier's JournalAfghanistan Releases Activists Who Exposed Alleged Pedophile Ring
Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency says it has released two activists who helped expose an alleged pedophile ring operating in the country's schools, a scandal that has sparked national outrage.
The National Directorate of Security (NDS) has come under fire for arresting last week the two human rights defenders -- Musa Mahmudi and Ehsanullah Hamidi -- who gave interviews about the purported pedophile ring.
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In a series of tweets, Ghani said he was "deeply disturbed about the recent reports on sexual abuse" in schools in Logar Province, south of Kabul, and that he instructed the Education Ministry to provide him with a “thorough report” on the matter "ASAP."
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The NDS on November 26 described the Guardian report as "baseless" and said Mahmudi's claims in the article were part of a scheme aimed at securing asylum in a foreign country.
link
https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-releases-activists-who-exposed-alleged-pedophile-ring/30294906.html
There are reports of a return of the ancient practice of "bacha bazi" -- literally, dancing boys -- in which wealthy or powerful men exploit underage boys as sexual partners.
https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-dancing-boys-sexual-exploitation-officials-complicit/28653116.html
According to Reuters, Public Support grew for impeaching il douche
Now, we wait to hear from the belt way media how bad this is for Democrats
Because everything is bad for the Democratic Party
Most dolphins are 'right-handed', say researchers
About 90% of humans are right-handed but we are not the only animals that show such preferences: gorillas tend to be right-handed, kangaroos are generally southpaws, and even cats have preferences for a particular side – although which is favoured appears to depend on their sex. Now researchers have found common bottlenose dolphins appear to have an even stronger right-side bias than humans.
“I didn’t expect to find it in that particular behaviour, and I didn’t expect to find such a strong example,” said Dr Daisy Kaplan, co-author of the study from the Dolphin Communication Project, a non-profit organisation in the US.
On a roll: blue whales switch 'handedness' when rolling to scoop food
Read more
Researchers studying common bottlenose dolphins in the Bahamas say the preference shows up in crater feeding, whereby dolphins swim close to the ocean floor, echolocating for prey, before shoving their beaks into the sand to snaffle a meal.
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Crucially, however, they found this turn is almost always to the left, with the same direction taken in more than 99% of the 709 turns recorded between 2012 and 2018.
The researchers say the findings indicate a right-side bias, since a left turn keeps a dolphin’s right eye and right side close to the ocean floor.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/27/most-dolphins-are-right-handed-say-researchers
Swastika Painted On Statue Of Prominent Jewish Writer In Kyiv
Vandals have painted large swastikas on a monument of the prominent Jewish author and playwright Sholem Aleichem in Kyiv just days ahead of a summit of regional Jewish leaders in Ukraine.
Worshippers at the Brodskiy Synagogue in central Kyiv found the sculpture in the morning on November 25 vandalized with a large red swastika painted on the body of the monument, which depicts Aleichem standing with a cane in one hand while doffing his hat with the other.
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Sholem Aleichem, born as Solomon Naumoych Rabynovych in Ukraine in 1859, wrote his works in Yiddish.
His most known and popular book was a series of short stories about Tevye the Dairyman, a pious Jewish milkman living in Tsarist Russia, upon which the musical Fiddler on the Roof was based.
https://www.rferl.org/a/swastikas-painted-on-prominent-jewish-writer-sholem-aleichem-s-statue-in-kyiv/30291292.html
cross post Jewish Group
Swastika Painted On Statue Of Prominent Jewish Writer In Kyiv
KYIV -- Vandals have painted large swastikas on a monument of the prominent Jewish author and playwright Sholem Aleichem in Kyiv just days ahead of a summit of regional Jewish leaders in Ukraine.
Worshippers at the Brodskiy Synagogue in central Kyiv found the sculpture in the morning on November 25 vandalized with a large red swastika painted on the body of the monument, which depicts Aleichem standing with a cane in one hand while doffing his hat with the other.
snip
Sholem Aleichem, born as Solomon Naumoych Rabynovych in Ukraine in 1859, wrote his works in Yiddish.
His most known and popular book was a series of short stories about Tevye the Dairyman, a pious Jewish milkman living in Tsarist Russia, upon which the musical Fiddler on the Roof was based
https://www.rferl.org/a/swastikas-painted-on-prominent-jewish-writer-sholem-aleichem-s-statue-in-kyiv/30291292.html
Secret bunkers and mountain hideouts: hunting Italy's mafia bosses
On the slopes of the Aspromonte mountains, Pasquale Marando, a man known as the Pablo Escobar of the Calabrian mafia, the feared ’Ndrangheta, built a secret bunker whose entrance was the mouth of a pizza oven.
Less than 10 miles away, Ernesto Fazzalari, who allegedly enjoyed trap shooting with the heads of his decapitated victims, lived in a 10 square-metre hideout in the formidable southern Italian range. When authorities came for him in 2004, Fazzalari, then the second most-wanted mafia boss after Matteo Messina Denaro of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, had already escaped through a secret tunnel under the kitchen sink.
Before his eventual arrest in 2016, Fazzalari spent 20 years as a fugitive in the Calabrian mountains, where the wanted men of the ’Ndrangheta have for decades planned and built elaborate mirror cities underneath their villages. It is a literal underworld of bunkers located behind sliding staircases, hidden trapdoors and manholes linked by endless tunnels that merge and separate, leading to escape routes among the sewer system or amid the brambles of a dry river bed.
To smoke them out of their holes the Italian authorities formed a special military unit composed of elite and highly trained soldiers known as the Carabinieri Heliborne Squadron, or the Cacciatori, literally: the hunters.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/22/calabria-cacciatori-hunting-italy-underground-mafia-bosses-ndrangheta
Just remember, when Lindsey Graham says he didn't see anything in the hearings that changed
his mind
Ask him, "How would you know if there was anything? You said you weren't going to watch."
or you could say, "You didn't watch! So of course you saw nothing!"
Who Is The Ethnic Serb Nationalist Slated To Lead Bosnia-Herzegovina?
Without a government for more than a year due to ethnic-political discord, Bosnia-Herzegovina took a big step toward resolving its leadership deficit when Bosnian Serb nationalist Zoran Tegeltija was nominated as prime minister on November 19.
Tegeltija is a close political ally of ultranationalist Milorad Dodik, the Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency and the leader of Republika Srpska's ruling Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD). Tegeltija has been a member of the SNSD for more than two decades.
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Dodik and the SNSD declared Republika Srpska's neutrality in 2017 and, since then, have blocked efforts to move Bosnia-Herzegovina toward NATO membership.
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Tegeltija, 58, is an economist and finance expert from Mrkonjic Grad -- a small town in Republika Srpska's western region of Bosanska Krajina where Bosnian Serbs suffered atrocities at the hands of Croat and Bosnian Croat forces at the end of the Bosnian War.
https://www.rferl.org/a/tegeltja-ethnic-serb-nationalist-prime-minister-bosnia-herzegovina-/30283267.html
In Syria, A Mutilated Corpse, Video Evidence, And New Scrutiny For Russian Mercenaries
The graphic video shows four men in camouflage gear exchanging jokes in unaccented Russian as they pour flammable liquid over a man's mutilated corpse strung up on two wooden beams.
Before setting it alight and watching it burn as they pose for the camera, they scrawl a Russian phrase praising the country's airborne forces on its chest.
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The newspaper ties the men to Vagner, a shadowy Russian mercenary group widely believed to be spearheading the expansion of Russian influence across Africa and the Middle East.
In its report published late on November 20, Novaya Gazeta identified one of the men shown in the clip as a former police officer from the southern Russia region of Stavropol who promised to "represent the interests of Russia abroad" in a form he allegedly submitted to Vagner upon joining the organization in 2016.
link
https://www.rferl.org/a/in-syria-a-mutilated-corpse-video-evidence-and-new-scrutiny-for-russian-mercenaries-/30285242.html
needless to say, the Russian government, "Knows Nothing! Nothing!"
Man found guilty of killing heavily pregnant ex-wife with crossbow
A man has been found guilty of murdering his pregnant ex-wife with a crossbow as she fled up the stairs, say police.
Sana Muhammad, a 35-year-old mother-of-five was killed on November 12, 2018, at her home in east London.
She was eight-months pregnant at the time.
Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo, 51, had hidden in the shed at the end of Sana's garden armed with two crossbows.
https://www.euronews.com/2019/11/22/man-found-guilty-of-killing-heavily-pregnant-ex-wife-with-crossbow
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