Philly Transit Cops Help Deliver Baby on Train

Protester in St. Louis area charged with arson

Source: The Associated Press

Dec. 27, 2014 3:49 PM EST

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A protester who advocated for peaceful demonstrations in Ferguson has been charged with setting fire to a convenience store in a neighboring suburb.

A St. Louis County jail official said 19-year-old Joshua Williams was being held Saturday on $30,000 bond on charges that included arson.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports media outlets and store surveillance captured images of a man trying to set a pile of wood on fire early Wednesday outside a QuikTrip in Berkeley. Charges filed Saturday said Williams confessed in a videotaped interview.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/487e1ec66d334f12a7471966f03a088b/protester-st-louis-area-charged-arson

John Paul II gunman lays flowers at Vatican tomb

Source: The Associated Press

Dec. 27, 2014 3:45 PM EST

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Turkish gunman who shot and wounded John Paul II in 1981 laid white flowers Saturday on the saint's tomb in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican officials said.

The surprise visit by Mehmet Ali Agca, believed to be his first time in the Vatican since the assassination attempt, lasted a few minutes, a Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, said. As with other flowers left by visitors to the tomb, the blossoms were later removed by basilica workers.

Benedettini said there are no legal matters pending against Agca in the Vatican and he was free to visit. Agca's trip came on the 31st anniversary of his meeting with the pope.

John Paul, who forgave his attacker, visited Agca in a Rome prison on Dec. 27, 1983, and later intervened to gain Agca's release in 2000. Agca was extradited to Turkey For the 1979 killing of a Turkish journalist and he completed a 10-year sentence there in 2010.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2b38e6864536468fa7e3ca0dd10bdcea/agca-leaves-flowers-john-pauls-tomb-vatican

Islamist gunmen attack African Union base in Somalia

Source: Reuters

By Abdi Sheikh and Fiesal Omar
MOGADISHU Sat Dec 27, 2014 2:19am EST

(Reuters) - Eight Islamist gunmen infiltrated the main African Union (AU) base in Mogadishu on Thursday and killed three peacekeepers and a civilian contractor, the AU mission in Somalia said.

Somali militant group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, which lasted several hours, and said it had killed 14 peacekeepers. Witnesses reported hearing bomb blasts and volleys of gunfire through the day.

"We targeted the enemies at a time they were celebrating Christmas," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military operations spokesman, told Reuters.

In the past, al Shabaab has exaggerated the number of soldiers it has killed, while officials have played down losses.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/27/us-somalia-security-idUSKBN0K503C20141227?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

Mayor, VP to speak at slain NYPD officer's funeral

Source: The Associated Press

By JONATHAN LEMIRE and MIKE BALSAMO
Dec. 27, 2014 1:14 AM EST

NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of people were expected to attend the funeral of a New York City police officer shot to death along with his partner one week ago in a brazen daylight ambush that shook the city and put an end to large-scale local protests criticizing police following a series of high-profile deaths in police custody.

Vice President Joe Biden and Mayor Bill de Blasio were expected to speak Saturday at the funeral of Officer Rafael Ramos, who was described the day before during an eight-hour wake attended by thousands of police officers from New York and across the country as a selfless, caring and compassionate man.

"What happened to my father was a tragedy," Ramos' son, Justin Ramos, said in a tearful eulogy viewed by hundreds of officers in the street who watched on giant television screens outside the crowded Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens. "But his death will not be in vain."

Ramos, a 40-year-old married father of two, was studying to become a pastor and kept Bible study books in his locker, his commanding officer said.



Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/05cdaf922713443a97c5ab26bd2c7649/mayor-vp-speak-slain-nypd-officers-funeral

China’s Industrial Profits Drop Most in Two Years Amid Slowdown

Source: Bloomberg News

Dec 27, 2014 2:04 AM GMT-0330

China’s industrial profits fell the most in two years last month, the latest data to show a deepening slowdown in the world’s second-biggest economy as pressure grows on the nation’s central bank to ease monetary conditions.

Total profits of China’s industrial enterprises in November dropped 4.2 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said today in Beijing. That followed October’s 2.1 percent decline and a 0.4 percent increase in September. It’s the biggest slide since August 2012, when profits slumped 6.2 percent.

Mired in industrial overcapacity, factory-gate deflation and a housing slump, China is headed for its slowest full-year economic expansion since 1990. A Chinese factory index fell to a seven-month low in December, while growth in aggregate financing, the broadest gauge of credit, trailed estimates in November, and imports unexpectedly dropped amid weak demand.

China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rallied 2.8 percent yesterday -- extending a two-day gain to 6.2 percent, the strongest in five years -- amid speculation the government will further ease monetary policy to support the economy after cutting interest rates last month.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-27/china-s-industrial-profits-drop-most-in-two-years-amid-slowdown.html

‘Feed the Pigs’: Woman Arrested After Throwing Bacon in Police Department

Bill Maher, Prophet?

This discussion took place in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombing, and the subsequent apprehension by authories of Dzhokar Tsarnev, one of the terrorists. No one had yet even heard of Ferguson, MO, or of Eric Garner, or Houston's Jordan Baker. And I haven't a doubt, not even one, that other members of this website can contribute other names, other localities, and other outrages which my very imperfect mind has neglected to mention.

Local, federal investigations into gym mat death continue

Source: CNN

By Victor Blackwell, CNN
updated 9:27 PM EST, Fri December 26, 2014



(CNN) -- Despite concluding there was no foul play in the death of a Georgia teen nearly two years ago, a sheriff's office conducted additional interviews on the case as recently as this month.

The parents of Kendrick Johnson, who was found dead inside a rolled-up gym mat at his school in Valdosta, Georgia, have been unwavering in their belief that their son was murdered, even after the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office ruled the death accidental and closed the case 18 months ago.

The details of the recent interviews, conducted by the sheriff's office between November 24 and December 15, were provided to CNN in response to a public records request.

The sheriff's office interviewed about two dozen current and former Lowndes High School students who were on the school's wrestling team on January 10, 2013, the day Johnson disappeared. His body was found the next day.


Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/26/justice/georgia-kendrick-johnson-teen-gym-mat-death/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

The Opiate of The Masses

Even if you believe in the Christ story, you know full well that "Jesus" was "born" in October or, more likely, early March.

But, ultimately, it doesn't matter if you're a Jew, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Scientologist, Pagan, or Gun-Worshipper. All are human constructs, designed to distract us from importance, or, when that occasionally fails, whip us back into sheephood.

Enjoy your day!