quote:

Does your friend post on Reddit often?

quote:

Leftist congress members inside the chamber gave protest speeches and hung banners, including a giant one reading, “Imposition consummated. Mexico mourns.”

The PRI ruled for 71 years with what many considered to be an iron fist, using a mix of populist handouts, graft and rigged elections.

Pena Nieto had taken over at midnight in a symbolic ceremony after campaigning as the new face of the PRI, repentant and reconstructed after being voted out of the presidency in 2000.

Before his public swearing in later in the morning, hundreds banged on the tall steel security barriers around Congress, threw rocks, bottle rockets and firecrackers at police and yelled “Mexico without PRI!”

Police responded by spraying tear gas from a truck and used fire extinguishers on flames from Molotov cocktails. One group of protesters rammed and dented the barrier with a large garbage-style truck before being driven off by police water cannons.

quote:

A “gate to hell” has emerged from ruins in southwestern Turkey, Italian archaeologists have announced.

Known as Pluto's Gate -- Ploutonion in Greek, Plutonium in Latin -- the cave was celebrated as the portal to the underworld in Greco-Roman mythology and tradition.

Historic sources located the site in the ancient Phrygian city of Hierapolis, now called Pamukkale, and described the opening as filled with lethal mephitic vapors.... (more in the article)

quote:

A proposed $125 million racial profiling class-action lawsuit was filed Monday in Superior Court against the Peel Police Services Board and Peel Region’s former chief of police

Three civilian plaintiffs and two legal advocacy groups that represent racial minorities are asking for damages as a result of alleged systemic racial profiling in the Peel police force.

None of the allegations have been proven in court. The class action must still be certified by a judge before it can go forward.

Peel police officials did not have a response at press time.

Former chief Mike Metcalf, who retired from the force last year is named in the suit. The Black Action Defense Committee, one of the two advocacy groups, filed a similar class-action suit seeking $65 million two weeks ago against Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair and the Toronto Police Services Board.

quote:

Almost immediately, she faced accusations — within and outside the Liberal party — that she was a parachute candidate, another Michael Ignatieff-type intellectual, coming home to Canada to pursue political ambition without a proper domestic grounding.

She was also attacked during the campaign for an article she wrote in 2008 in praise of former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin — “a feminist role model” — and for her participation in mass layoffs as a media manager.

quote:

Women activists rallied at Sherbourne and Dundas Sts. Monday, near the scene of a recent, outdoor sexual assault to call for a 24-hour-safe place for women.

Female activists rallied Monday near Dundas and Sherbourne Sts., just metres from where a sleeping woman was recently sexually assaulted outdoors by two separate men the same morning.

“All three levels of our government have failed to protect women and girls and it’s intolerable,” Norma Jean Neal, a Regent Park community health worker told a couple of dozen activists and supporters gathered at the intersection around noon Monday. It was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

quote:

A crowd estimated by local news organizations to number between 500 and 800 people took to the streets in downtown Rio to protest, among other things, the local government's plan to increase bus fares to 3 Brazilian reais ($1.26) from 2.75 reais, starting Feb. 8.

quote:

Yaneeka Winter, left, a fourth-year biology student at U of T's Scarborough Campus, shakes the hand of Mayor Rob Ford as he arrives for a candidates' forum on campus Wednesday night.

Slobjob Zizek posted:

Hippies are basically just parasites, so it's not surprising that they are despised by most cultures.

quote:

by Some Residents of George Street
Police Harassment and Intimidation of George Street Residents Intensifies
We are writing this statement as residents of 311 George Street, a collective house situated in Toronto's downtown east. Over the past several years that we have lived here, we have witnessed widespread police harassment of the area's homeless population and have had a number of minor altercations with particularly obnoxious police officers from 51 Division. During the past month, we have noticed increased levels of surveillance and police intimidation tactics directed towards us and other residents of the street.

We believe this increase to be linked to the ongoing efforts to gentrify the neighbourhood, which has accelerated with the City Council's recent approval to redevelop the Seaton House men's shelter. The redevelopment, along with the tentative approval for a massive condominium project on the corner of George and Dundas, is part of a grand "George Street Revitalization Plan," championed by so-called progressive councillors and development speculators alike. George Street North is one of the few remaining obstacles to completely gentrifying a broad section of the district around Allen Gardens.

We have always viewed this talk of redevelopment for what it is: a combination of violence and attrition that aims to erode our neighbourhood and erase its residents.

Early Morning, August 4th, George St.

Just after 1:00 am, one of our housemates noticed a large brown van parked in front of Seaton House. Inside the van were two uniformed police officers and two other men, presumably undercover police. She witnessed the police shove several people off the street and into the van. This is, sadly, common on George Street, especially in the summer. There are frequent busts and arrests, often by undercover cops working in unmarked cars.

After returning home, several of our housemates noticed a police cruiser shining a spotlight into our backyard from the alley behind our house. Again, this is not that unusual so we didn't pay too much mind. After one of our other housemates had left to go to the store, a second cruiser pulled up in front of our house. The street was entirely empty, which is unheard of for a weekend night during the summer, and now multiple police cruisers were positioned around our house. Something was definitely going down. We assumed that the police might be looking for someone in one of the abandoned houses down the street. Then we received word that our comrade had been detained walking back from the store.

This individual, who we'll call Adam, was searched despite his verbal protests, cuffed and put in the back of a cruiser. Across the street, a black SUV with four undercover officers quickly backed up down the street, out of view of those within the house. Adam noted that the uniformed cops appeared to be taking direction from these officers, who a resident of the street later claimed are members of the Toronto Anti-Drug Taskforce. Of the four undercovers, three were male and one was female. The undercover agent who seemed to be in charge was a tall South-East Asian man with a shaved head, roughly 40 years old and wearing a grey track suit.

When asked for information about the house and its residents, Adam responded that he wasn't saying anything without a lawyer present and that if he wasn't under arrest he wanted to speak with counsel immediately. He was told that he would be able to do so "once it was safe" and that the police were responding to a weapons call from "an anonymous source." This was the second time in as many weeks that police had been called to our house for the same bogus reason. On the first occasion, Adam had spoken with the two responding officers, who left without incident. This time they appeared to be taking it much more seriously.

As Adam was being unsuccessfully questioned in the back of a cruiser, those of us inside the house were beginning to freak out a bit. We still had no idea what this was about and were scrambling to get word out to our support networks, sort out legal details, and generally process what was going on outside our gate.

Around this time, two other comrades, "Monica" and "Amanda", both of whom are minors, were walking down the street toward our house, returning after an evening out. As they attempted to enter the gate, the police shouted at them to stop. Adam yelled at them from the back of the cruiser to let the other folks in the house know that he'd been detained. But before they could get inside, Monica and Amanda were grabbed and led away from the house towards the cruiser.

After witnessing this, our housemates "Greg" and “Sarah” came outside to see what was happening. As the rest of us watched from a second story window, we saw a police officer -- assault rifle at the ready -- get out of a second police cruiser and approach the gate, accompanied by a second armed officer. Greg approached the cops and demanded to know what was going on. He was asked to step off the property, which he refused to do. He was also asked to allow the armed officers entry to our house, which he also refused, requesting to see a warrant. The officer with the assault rifle said they didn't need a warrant, that this was an emergency situation and that he could easily jump our fence at any time.

The cops then changed tactics, and told Greg that they just wanted to talk to him for a minute. Greg took a small step over the threshold of the gate to get a better look at Monica and Amanda, and was immediately detained. He made a point of yelling loudly that he was being arrested, had no idea why and that he did not consent to a search. He was detained in the second cruiser with two officers, one of whom was the one with the rifle, the other taking video of the house with a hand-held camcorder. The officers demanded that Sarah also leave the property, which she refused and returned into the house.

At this point, the remaining roommates gathered inside an upstairs bedroom. Sometime in the interim, a third police cruiser had pulled up in front of our house. We were uncertain as to what to do. If we left the house, we felt we faced certain arrest. If we stayed, we were playing a prolonged waiting game with armed cops who said they didn't need a warrant to come into our house. In the absence of any better options, we waited.

We soon got a phone call from Amanda. She and Monica had been released -- it seems the police were looking for "five males". They were asked a lot of questions about our house: who lived there, what they did for a living, etc., but stayed silent and were ultimately released without charge. Barred from entering the house, they were forced to leave in a cab at their own expense. Their phone call made us both more nervous and somewhat relieved: it meant that they didn't intend to mass arrest the whole house, which was good, but it also meant they were looking for specific people, for reasons that were entirely lost on us. We waited some more; a lot of nervous, tired silence followed.

Meanwhile, from the back of a cruiser Adam watched one of the officers pull up a reinforcement requisition application on the dashboard computer. After seeing the cop select an option that read "suspect armed with a firearm", Adam calmly informed the police officer that none of the people inside the house were armed, and to say so was needlessly escalating the situation. The cop responded with some remark about the need for prioritizing officer safety. He then left the car to speak with his commanding officer, who was furious to hear that Adam was reading off the screen. A female officer hurriedly leaned into the cruiser and switched the monitor to a screen-saver. In the other cruiser, Greg was also reading off the computer screen, where he noticed a line on the incident report indicating that the police had "intelligence" that five males in the house had rifles stashed under their beds. This was, of course, not true, but would explain why the cops were looking for "five males".

About 20 minutes later, Adam was informed that the "anonymous source" had also told the cops that there were explosives in the house, and that this was why they were taking such extraordinary precautions. At this point he was uncuffed, handed his phone and allowed to contact his lawyer. As it was nearly 3 AM at this point, Adam simply left a voice-mail explaining the situation and that the cops' claims were bullshit, but that his lawyer might be needed for a bail appearance on Tuesday (court would be closed on Monday for the Civic Holiday). The officer in charge then asked Adam to take them through the house to prove that there weren't any weapons or explosives inside. Adam refused, and suggested they get a warrant. He was told that they didn't need a warrant, and that the ETF (Emergency Task Force; Toronto's SWAT team) was on its way.

Soon thereafter another cop came to ask Adam if he needed anything. Adam asked him what the charge was for calling in a fake bomb threat. The cop looked a bit taken aback, and responded that it was often difficult to prove malicious intent in these types of situations. He then left, and the officer in charge came back with Adam's phone.

Almost 70 minutes after Adam was first detained, those of us inside the house were surprised to see his phone number come up on our call display. We put him on speaker and huddled around the phone. Adam explained that the police were telling him to call us and explain the situation. He informed us of the "anonymous tip" and the cop's threat of bringing in the ETF if those in the house didn't come outside. He let us know that the police didn't have a warrant, and so what we wanted to do was entirely up to us. We told him we needed some time to discuss this.

We figured that we were potentially opening ourselves to arrest by leaving the house, but we also could tell by now that, despite the "emergency situation" rhetoric offered by the cops, at no time had they made an effort to enter the house, or even enter the yard; they had only detained Greg after he stepped over the property threshold. After several minutes of discussing our options -- effectively a choice between the rather terrifying prospect of a SWAT team storming our house, or stepping onto the porch into the relative safety of our yard--we decided to come out.

We walked down the stairs slowly, into the dark of the ground floor, where someone had turned off all the lights. As we opened the door to come outside, we were shocked to see Adam and Greg sitting on the porch, smoking a cigarette, with no police cruisers in sight. Soon after Adam's phone call to us, both of them had been hastily released. It had been just under 90 minutes since it had all began. We went inside and stayed awake for another few more hours, collectively discussing what had happened and trying to make some sense of it. As dawn approached, we retreated to our bedrooms for a few hours of deep, troubled sleep.

Police Intimidation Is a Continuing Reality

At this point, we would like to extend our gratitude to everybody who immediately came to our aid at 2:00 am on a Saturday night. Within minutes of Adam being detained, we had lawyers ready, people to assist with pet care in the event we were mass arrested, and friends spreading the word via social media. On that last front, however, we must respectfully urge some caution and restraint. Several of the messages floating around Twitter and Facebook contained incorrect information (since repeated by a particular right-wing blogger eager to gloat over our supposed arrests) that may have contributed to the spread of confusion and panic. Given the hectic nature of the situation as it was unfolding, this is, of course, understandable, but still ultimately counter-productive. In the future, by all means, support your friends and comrades as best you can in the heat of the moment, but please be careful about what is shared via social media. It can spread rumor and is often used to gather intelligence by police services. Try to exercise your support in other ways and, if you must use social media, stick only to verified facts or public statements released by the affected parties.

And, to those who would try and intimidate us, whether cops or snitches or their respective bosses, you will have to do better. We held together, had each other's backs and have ultimately emerged stronger for it. In a stressful and bewildering situation, we acted in a principled manner, consistent with our values and we saw effective, practical demonstrations of solidarity from the many friends and comrades who rushed to our aid. We've been lucky in many regards: armed police raids are a lived reality for many marginalized people and communities in the GTA (by way of example, see the recent Project Traveller raids) and, for many of us, this was our first direct experience with such heavy-handed police tactics.

However, we do not consider experiences such as ours isolated incidents or simple mistakes; witness the recent police raid in London, ON, supposedly over a single piece of graffiti, but transparently a police attempt to gather information on known activists. We fully expect to hear more stories, similar to ours, as months and years go by and community responses to austerity and repression intensify. Incidents like the attempted raid on our house are merely another indication that there is a fight looming over Toronto's downtown east end, a fight between landlords, developers, the City and their police on one side and the people who live and struggle in the neighbourhood on the other.

A little less than a year ago, after our close friends and comrades next door lost their collective house to a suspicious fire, we wrote that "we have ceased fighting for our ideas and begun fighting for our lives". Faced with assault weapons and surveillance cameras, those words are just as true today. We don't know what to expect next, aside from the certainty that this fight is far from over and that, more than ever, we are ready for its continuance. Between all the fear and anxiety an experience like this produces, there is a kind of comfort in knowing we have the bastards' attention.

Solidarity against police intimidation,

Some Residents of George Street

*names have been changed

quote:

A barrage of at least 50 rockets from the occupied Gaza Strip struck southern Israel, Israeli police have said, a day after Israeli forces killed three Palestinian fighters in the enclave.

There were no immediate reports of casualties after the rockets hit on Wednesday, mainly around Sderot. "It's a barrage such as we haven't seen for two years," a local official said on Army Radio.

The Palestinian armed group, Islamic Jihad, claimed it had fired more than 130 rockets and mortar bombs, although this figure was not verified.

"The al-Quds Brigades responded to aggression with a volley of rockets," the group said in a statement, calling the operation "Breaking the Silence" and vowing more attacks.

In response, Israeli artillery was reported to have hit launch sites inside Gaza. Residents of Beit Hanoun said they saw Israeli fire hit one site nearby.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Wednesday vowed to continue striking Gaza rocket launcher squads.

"We will continue to thwart and hit those that want to harm us, and we will act against them with great force,'' he said.

The Hamas group, which controls Gaza, said it would hold Israel responsible for any escalation.

"We hold the occupation responsible, we warn of the consequences of any escalation and we reiterate that resistance is the right of the Palestinian people to defend itself," said Ihab al-Ghassin, a spokesman for Hamas

The rocket salvos come a day after an Israeli air strike killed three Islamic Jihad members who the group said had fired mortar bombs at

Israeli troops had entered the Gaza Strip through Israel's border fence.

Israel pulled its troops and settlers out of the now-Hamas-run territory in 2005. But it maintains a naval and air blockade and severely restricts the overland movement of people and goods across the volatile border.

Plutonis posted:

quote:

By: Rachel Mendleson News reporter, Published on Sun Oct 06 2013

A night of free art and revelry took a tragic turn for a 19-year-old man, who was stabbed to death in downtown Toronto early Sunday morning amid the lights and crowds of the annual Nuit Blanche festival.
Police have yet to name the victim, who was fatally stabbed outside the Opera House (Four Seasons Centre), near Richmond and York Sts., at around 2 a.m.

Friends have identified him on social media as Rameez Khalid, who is being remembered as “the funny guy” who was “taken too soon.”

Homicide Det. Scott Whittemore said police are seeking a group of five or six young men, who appear to have had a “very short” confrontation with the victim and his friend.
Police believe the same two groups were involved in an earlier altercation at an impromptu rave around the corner, at the foot of the Adam Beck monument on University Ave. and Queen St. W.
Whittemore could not confirm what prompted the scuffle, but said, “We think it was just maybe bravado.”

He said about 300 people were gathered at the “unsanctioned rave,” which was not officially part of Nuit Blanche, at the time.
Christian Poulsen, who organized Saturday’s pop-up rave, which was set up at the busy intersection at 11 p.m., did not witness an altercation. But he said other attendees asked a group of young men to leave the area when they started fighting close by.

“They didn’t want anything to happen at the party and ruin the vibe,” Poulsen said. “People are just there to have fun. Nobody is in confrontation mode.”
Poulsen said police asked him to shut down the party, which he has thrown for many years at different locations during Nuit Blanche, shortly before 4 a.m., so they could secure the crime scene.
By Sunday afternoon, the site of the stabbing was clear, but the area around the monument on University Ave. remained cordoned off with police tape. Forensic investigators gathered evidence from the site, which was strewn with plastic bottles, an overturned umbrella and other garbage.

Whittemore said police have obtained video surveillance footage from surrounding hotels, but the throngs of people on the streets has made it difficult to nail down a “clean description” of the suspects.
“We’re looking for anyone that may have taped the incident to give us a call, or any of the taxi drivers that may have picked up the five or six males that jumped in,” he said. “There were just so many drat people out there last night.”

The stabbing was Toronto’s 48th homicide this year.

Anastasia Saradoc, a city of Toronto spokeswoman for Nuit Blanche, declined to comment on the incident citing the “ongoing police investigation.”

Poulsen said he was concerned it would cast a pall over the annual event, which has been running since 2006.
“I’m really upset that kind of thing is going to end up being a dark shadow on Nuit Blanche’s reputation, because it’s such a great night,” he said.

Danielle Morgan had just come out of an exhibit and was walking along Richmond St. when she saw emergency crews performing CPR on the stabbing victim.
“I never feel unsafe in my city, so it was quite upsetting to see,” she said. “I hope that those unfortunate events don’t affect how people feel about coming out to Nuit Blanche.”
Police also reported another stabbing at Yonge and Dundas Sts., during Nuit Blanche, shortly after 12:30 a.m. A man was transported to hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
With files from Jodee Brown

gadgethugs posted:

gigglin' at their choice of image

Prurient Squid posted:

The Sparts on the otherhand are just crackpot pillocks, they're being pretty crowd friendly in this picture because their usual opening gambit is "We believe North Korea should have nukes". Also, which country is the odd one out?

DXH posted:

I've been thinking of making an Iberopolitics thread

quote:

Alabama legislators will have the opportunity to legalize personal use and cultivation of marijuana for adults 21 and up, create a state-regulated marijuana retail system and legalize industrial hemp production with House Bill 550, introduced yesterday. Alabama might not be the first state that comes to mind when thinking of marijuana legalization, but people in the Cotton State love their herb and Birmingham Rep. Patricia Todd knows it: she's already introduced two medical marijuana bills in the last two sessions. But House Bill 550 is a much bigger step.

The bill is crafted very similarly Colorado's Amendment 64 using language that has been promoted by the Marijuana Policy Project in nearly a dozen other states this year. If passed, HB 550 would allow adults 21 and up to posesss and use up to an ounce of marijuana at a time and cultivate up to twelve marijuana plants in an locked space.

Marijuana would only be sold at state-regulated stores. Marijuana use would not be a right, however and employers could still fire employees who came up positive on a drug test - even if they weren't ever high on the job. Like Colorado, the bill also says that driving under the influence would remain illegal.

Personal sales would not be allowed, but adults over 21 could give away herb to other consenting adults over 21. Communities would be allowed to ban marijuana retail stores - something dozens of Colorado municipalities have chosen to do since the passage of Amendment 64. HB 550 would also legalize paraphernalia possession. Sales would be taxed, with revenue going to state police who would use it to go after illegal drugs in the state. Marijuana wouldn't be taxed any more than alcohol already is in the state.
Importantly, the bill would authorize medical use of cannabis for all Alabamans with a doctor's recommendation, including those under 21. It would also allow patients to designate someone as their caregiver. Basically, Todd tacked her existing medical bill to HB 550.

The bill now has until the legislative session ends on May 20 to move through committee and both the state house and legislature. If passed, it would take effect this October.

The state desperately needs some reform. Currently, possession of any amount for personal use is a misdemeanor with up to a year in jail and $6,000 in fines. If police deem that it is for something "other than personal use", you're facing a felony charge with a mandatory year in prison and up to nine more if the judge feels like it. Fines can get up to $15,000 at that point. Sale of any amount - even a joint - is a felony with an automatic two years in prison, the possibility of 18 more years in prison and $30,000 in fines. Paraphernalia alone can get you a year in jail and $1,000 in fines. Basically, don't ever get caught with pot on Alabama.

kalstrams posted:

I will never go to Louisiana!

quote:

The body of an indigenous leader who was opposed to a major mining project in Ecuador has been found bound and buried, days before he planned to take his campaign to climate talks in Lima.

The killing highlights the violence and harassment facing environmental activists in Ecuador, following the confiscation last week of a bus carrying climate campaigners who planned to denounce president Rafael Correa at the United Nations conference.

The victim, José Isidro Tendetza Antún, a former vice-president of the Shuar Federation of Zamora , had been missing since 28 November, when he was last seen on his way to a meeting of protesters against the Mirador copper and gold mine . After a tip-off on Tuesday, his son Jorge unearthed the body from a grave marked “no name”. The arms and legs were trussed by a blue rope.

Other members of the community said Tendetza had been offered bribes and his crops were burned in an attempt to drive him from the area.

Domingo Ankuash, a Shuar leader, said there were signs Tendetza had been tortured, but the full facts had yet to come to light. He said the family were extremely unhappy with the investigation and what they said was the reluctance of the authorities to conduct a timely autopsy.

quote:

Egypt's justice minister has resigned after raising a public uproar by saying in a TV interview that the children of rubbish collectors workers are too lowly to become judges.

The comments on Sunday by Mahfouz Saber brought a heavy backlash on social media from Egyptians denouncing elitism and what some saw as the arrogance of Egypt's judiciary, already under criticism for harsh sentences against government opponents.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab said in a statement on Monday that Saber resigned out of "respect for public opinion".

In an interview late on Sunday with the private TV channel 10, Saber was asked about charges of favouritism in the appointment of judges.
When he said appointments are made according to objective standards, the interviewer said: "So the son of a sanitation worker could be made a judge?"

"Let's not go too far," Saber replied. "With all due respect to cleaners and those above or beneath them, a judge must hail from an appropriate environment... Thanks are due to a cleaner who raises and educates his children, but there are other jobs that they can take."

He said if the children of rubbish collectors became judges they would face problems and eventually suffer from depression and leave.
On Monday, Shahata Muqdis, the head of Cairo's rubbish collectors, told the Youm Al-Sabea newspaper: "The son of a garbage man can be smarter than your son. And the son of a garbage man won't be ashamed of his father."

'Realistic comments'

There were multiple calls for Saber's resignation. A group of activist lawyers, called Haqaniyah, demanded prosecutors investigate Saber on criminal charges of inciting hatred and violating the constitution.

Saber's comments were particularly embarrassing since they ran contrary to the image that President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi has sought to promote of himself as a leader championing the poor and marginalised.

One of the main objectives of the 2011 popular uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak was social justice.
But little has been done to realise change in what many Egyptians see as an entrenched classist system in a country where nearly half the population of 90 million lives near or below the poverty line.

It was Egypt's 1952 "revolution" - a coup by young army officers that toppled Egypt's Turkish monarchy - that first tried to bring a more egalitarian society.

The coup ended a centuries-old feudal system and introduced socialist policies. Egypt's subsequent presidents came from relatively humble origins - for example, the father of Gamal Abdel-Nasser, who was in office in the 1950s and 1960s, was a postman.

But it never came close to achieving equality or a meritocracy in the country. To this day, the judiciary, the diplomatic service and the officer classes of the armed forces and police are mostly off-limits to the poor.

During Mubarak's 29 years in power, inequality spiralled, with senior government officials and wealthy businessmen forging an alliance that ignored the needs of the country's poor.
"The fault is not with the sanitary worker, but with our classist society," Radwa Aboul-Azm, content manager at a large media company and a popular blogger, wrote on Facebook.
"The minister did no wrong. He made realistic comments that hit us hard over the head. It's like he slapped us."