Let's be honest, every September of every year, someone somewhere makes a
YouTube video about how the world is going to end in the month of
September. It's really interesting. You can google end of the world,
2011, 2012, 2013, etc etc and you will see there is a video every year.
I am going to start by saying I don't want the world to end. I believe
there is good in all races and religions, they just need to throw out
dogmas, and learn to coexist. The final frontier will never be conquered
if we end up destroying ourselves. I think Russia, China, the USA all
know this deep down inside. I am not saying we are all the best of
friends, but no one wants to destroy the Earth, and now we are finally
educated enough to know the consequences of that action. All of us.
This doesn't stop YouTubers though. According to the new videos about
this September we are going to have a global climate change, (and not
because of global warming) This climate change will be the direct effect
of a polar shift. My first thoughts on this theory is that, the people I
know from the news etc, can't even predict the correct path of
hurricanes, much less a near earth object (NEO), or an extinction level
event (ELE). Instead I rely on our ancient past, and what they left
behind, like the great pyramids of Giza, and see that we have have had
no extinction event in our immediate past. All of the nuclear fallout
mankind has EVER experienced, has been a direct result of our own doing.
Still you have people that say there is a 9th planet moving in an
elliptical orbit and wipes us all out every 3600 years. This can
literally be proven wrong by looking at the pyramids, geological bedrock
information never lies. We can even tell you how Egypt looked back then
based on the erosion markings on the side of the Sphinx.
I am not saying that we won't have an extinction level event in our
lifetime. I am just saying it doesn't happen every 3600 years, I think
it happens every 10,000-20,000 years. Now I don't have proof of this of
course, but let's take a moment to think of what mankind as a whole
would do if there was a meteor/asteroid/planetoid on a collision course
with our Earth. Once visible with our telescopes in space, the
governments, and military will know before any of the citizens. Do you
think they will make an announcement? Highly doubtful. It seems more
likely that they would try to build an ark deep underground, wait for
all the chaos to ensue, and then come back up once the slate has been
wiped clean. We have stories of this in the bible, ancient Sumer, and
even from Plato in 360 B.C (the lost city of Atlantis).
Why haven't we found the lost city of Atlantis? We are the lost city.
Once the Earth was wiped out previously, selected groups went
underground, and they waited for the Earth to calm down before they came
back up, they then separated into smaller groups recolonizing the
world. So why aren't we more advanced? Simple. Our knowledge was lost
with our ancestors, one lifetime, one group, is not enough to teach all
we know and understand to the next generation. Things get lost, and we
had to make all of our scientific discoveries all over again. This was
their mistake, we cannot make the same mistake again.
Read more: http://www.strangeconspiracies.com/
A widely-circulated hoax article is making claims that has provoked bemusement and bewilderment on Icelandic social media.
Over
at least the past week now, numerous Icelandic women on Facebook have
attested to being practically spammed with friend requests from
non-Icelandic men that they do not know. It turns out that this may be
linked to this article, which makes the following claim: “Perhaps
the most prominent of our attention the story that it’s because of the
high proportion of females than males have resorted government of that
country to the solution is to grant $ 5,000 per month per immigrant
marries Icelandic, and that the priority in this resolution will go to
North Africa’s population”
In case you were in doubt, everything about this claim is false.
First of all, the latest population data
actually shows slightly more men than women in Iceland, with 1,007 men
for every 1,000 women in general; in Reykjavík, there are 985 men for
every 1,000 women, but in the countryside the ratio is 1,129 men for
every 1,000 women.
Second, the Icelandic government absolutely
does not have any kind of grant in place for immigrants who marry
Icelanders, regardless of gender.
As such, if you do want to marry
an Icelander, you should do so without the expectation of a cash
payout, because none will be forthcoming.
Iceland’s Foreign Ministry has received dozens of inquiries from men
interested in taking up the Icelandic government’s offer of $5,000 to
marry an Icelandic woman and make up for the lack of men in the country.
Unfortunately for the interested gentlemen, news of the exciting
offer is a not-so-elaborate hoax posted on a website called ‘The Spirit
Whispers’.
“Because of the high proportion of females than males have resorted
government of that country to the solution is to grant $ 5,000 per month
per immigrant marries Icelandic,” reads the article, in decidedly ropy
English.
Priority apparently goes to men from North Africa, but all those
“interested in this offer” were encouraged to leave a comment under the
article.
Despite the exceedingly questionable nature of the posting, dozens of
men have reportedly contacted Iceland’s Foreign Ministry to get more
information on this too-good-be-true offer.
Every enquiry has been personally answered – obviously to the effect
that the piece is a complete hoax and that there is absolutely no
initiative in place to pay foreign men to come to Iceland and marry
local women.
Posted:
Dec 02, 2016 4:43 AM
Updated:
Dec 02, 2016 4:43 AM
CBS 58— So many questions remain in the homicide of a 7-year-old boy, who police say was abused.
Trevion
Winningham was taken to the hospital on Tuesday with numerous injuries.
He died just a few hours later. Four people have been arrested: two
women for physical abuse of a child and two men for not doing anything
to stop it.
One of the women in Trevion’s death was convicted back
in 2003 of child neglect causing death. A child abuse expert says it
points out a shortcoming of the system.
“One of the things that we
learned from reviewing child abuse cases, is often there was a report
by someone,” said Susan Conwell, the executive director of Kids Matter
Inc.
Conwell, who is no involved in Trevion’s case, says what happens after the report needs to improve.
“I
do think one of the real struggle's we're having in this community is
that we're not always identifying escalation in abuse,” Conwell said. “I
think the hardest part is when somebody has a history of abuse and then
they abuse another child.”
Court records show the previously
convicted women was found guilty in the death of a 1-year-old boy, after
investigators say the baby was tortured for nearly two weeks.
The
2003 criminal complaint details the child’s injuries saying, "the left
arm of the baby was broken in two separate places." He also had bruises
and marks covering his entire body including "bruises between the eyes."
The woman was sentenced to just 18 months in prison, and four years extended supervision, which ended in 2008.
“Obviously it's devastating,” Conwell said of the boy’s death. “That's something we have to get a lot better at preventing.”
Conwell
says there are signs of abuse to watch for-- unexplained or untreated
bruises and injuries. For very young kids, Conwell says the rule is "if
they aren't cursing, they aren't bruising" meaning kids that aren't
mobile, rarely injure themselves.
“I just want to encourage people to continue to be vigilant on behalf of kids,” Conwell said.
If
you suspect a child is being abused there are several resources. The
National Child Abuse Hotline is staffed 24/7 1-800-4-A-CHILD
(1-800-422-4453).
In Milwaukee County you can call 414-220-SAFE (7233).
For more ways to report- click here.
Image copyrightPAImage caption
Drusilla Sharpling said accounts of abuse given to the inquiry can be passed to police anonymously
An average of 80
child sex abuse cases a month have been referred to police over the last
year following victims' testimony to an independent inquiry.
The cases emerged as part of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
Drusilla Sharpling, from the inquiry's panel, said it was not known whether all of the allegations were new.
The figures were revealed as the inquiry's Truth Project published its first report.
The
project was set up to enable victims to speak anonymously to the
inquiry and has attracted interest from 500 people wanting to share
their experience, the IICSA said.
It said referrals to the
dedicated police team were a result of written submissions and reports
received by the inquiry as well as evidence given to the Truth Project.
The
cases are being handed to Operation Hydrant, the national body
coordinating investigations of non-recent sexual abuse of children
between police forces.
'You're just scum'
Anonymous summaries of 45 accounts given to the inquiry have been published, recounting abuse in unnamed religious institutions, schools and care homes.
The accounts include:
'Tina' who was groomed by a married teacher who went on to rape her every night. She said the abuse destroyed her personality
'Greg' who was abused by a priest. He considered killing himself and said he was left "an emotional wreck"
'Joe'
who was abused in a custodial institution by a staff member who told
him: "You do what I want, nobody cares about you. You're just scum. You
can disappear"
'Martin'
who was abused by someone linked to his church, causing psychological
damage throughout his life. He said "instead of heading towards the
cliff edge" he had "managed to pull myself out of it"
Ms
Sharpling said: "It would be rare, in my experience, not to make a
referral from the Truth Project because most people are coming to report
child sexual abuse and that is a crime.
"Where somebody reports
child sexual abuse they are clearly reporting a criminal offence. Our
terms of reference require us to report those matters to the police.
"We can do so anonymously if that person wishes."
Participants
called for the inquiry to recommend a legal requirement for
professionals to report child abuse, better training for those working
in institutions, and better counselling for victims.
One said: "I think that we need to stop sweeping child abuse under the carpet and take away the stigma."
A 45-year-old man who was arrested after police found a woman
chained up on his property killed at least seven people, police said,
adding that the discovery helped solve a 13-year-old murder case.
Todd Kohlhepp admitted that he had killed four people at a motorcycle shop in Spartanburg County in 2003. “God is good,” county Sheriff Chuck Wright said, as cited by AP, adding that the community is no longer wondering who is responsible for the “four people who were brutally murdered.”
Kohlhepp also led police to the graves of two of his other victims on his property. “He’s been very cooperative. He told us some stuff nobody else ought to know,” Wright said.
The revelation follows the discovery of a body on Kohlhepp’s
property near Woodruff on Friday. That victim was identified as
32-year-old Charles Carver, the boyfriend of the woman found locked and
chained up a day earlier.
The woman told security forces that
Kohlhepp shot her boyfriend dead in front of her – a statement supported
by the coroner, who said that Carver had died of multiple gunshot
wounds.
The couple went missing on August 31, when the woman went
to do some cleaning at Kohlhepp’s house, and her boyfriend accompanied
her, a friend of the surviving victim told AP.
Authorities found Kohlhepp’s property by using the last known location of their cell phone signals.
The seven victims may be just the beginning, though, as police say that more bodies could be found.
Kohlhepp
was 15 when he was first convicted for raping a neighbor after forcing
the girl into his house at gunpoint and tying her up. Afterwards, he
told the girl that he would murder her six-year-old and three-year-old
siblings, whom she was babysitting, if she called the police. READ MORE: ‘Chained like a dog’: Missing woman found on sex offender’s property
Kohlhepp’s
father said in court that the only emotion his son could show was
anger, while a neighbor branded 15-year-old Todd as a “devil on a
chain.” His probation officer wrote in 1987 that the teenager was smart,
angry, and felt the world owed him something. “It is this type of individual, one with little or no conscience, who presents the greatest risk to the community,” the officer wrote, as quoted by WHNS-TV broadcaster.
The
only person who defended Todd at the time seemed to be his mother, who
wrote the judge to request that her son be sent to his grandparents
instead of prison. “He even walked the girl home. Does that sound like a dangerous criminal?” the letter said.
Despite
being a registered sex offender, Kohlhepp managed to obtain a private
pilot’s license after his serving time. He also set up a real estate
company with over a dozen agents.
When applying for his real
estate license in 2006, he admitted to committing a felony, but lied
about the nature of his crime, saying he was arrested in a crackdown on
gun violence when police arrived in response to an argument he was
having with his girlfriend.
Read more: https://www.rt.com/usa/365529-kohlhepp-killed-seven-chained-woman/
Majority of the sex workers are at risk of contracting the deadly HIV/AIDS virus
Moses Bikala
The rising number of child prostitutes operating on the streets of
Bugiri has been blamed on the reluctance of police to take action
against men found to be buying them.
Currently there are over 600 child prostitutes operating in the busy trading centres of Naluwerere, Busowa and Idudi.
The Bugiri Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) George William Omuge
while speaking during the belated World Day against Child Labour held
at Hindocha Primary School playground on Sunday said majority of the
child prostitutes are lured into the vice by their peers with a hope of
earning huge sums of money from peddling sex to long distance truckers.
He said police has failed to take action against men who frequently buy the child prostitutes yet its illegal.
Omuge said majority of the sex workers are at risk of contracting the
deadly HIV/AIDS virus because they normally engage in risky sexual
behaviours like having unprotected sex with the truckers.
He said there have been reports of children below the age of 18 being
employed to work as casual labourers in gold mines at Bude and
involvement in selling of roasted maize and pancakes in busy trading
centres.
Omuge said employing minors is an offense punishable by courts of law
and cautioned people against it to avoid the repercussions.
The deputy country director World Education, Elton Babu said the
organization is compiling a report about the number of child prostitutes
operating in the district as a way of seeking a solution to the
problem.
He said some of the children are lured to join the illicit business
by their parents with a hope of supplementing their house hold income.
The labour officer Bugiri, Isaac Mweru said they have on several
occasions tried to sensitize parents about the dangers of encouraging
their children join the illicit business of prostitution in vain.
Sexual assistants meet carnal needs, but they are also trained to help the handicapped discover and manage their sexuality.
Tomas Pik has lost nothing of his lust for life despite the crippling
disease that confined him to a wheelchair five years ago as the nerves
in his limbs withered.
The 26-year-old Czech has relied on
prostitutes to meet sexual needs, but says many refuse after they learn
he has the rare neurological disease Friedreich's ataxia, the symptoms
of which he first experienced a decade ago.
"Being handicapped,
you don't have much self-confidence, and when a prostitute turns you
down, it's quite the blow," he told AFP in the Czech capital Prague.
Now there is a new paid service on offer for the country's disabled, one without the risk of rejection.
Sexual assistants meet carnal needs, but they are also trained to help the handicapped discover and manage their sexuality.
The
EU member of 10.5 million people is the first ex-communist country
where the service is on offer, following nations such as the
Netherlands, an early pioneer in the practice, Denmark, France, Germany
and Switzerland.
It took about two years to get the service up
and running using know-how provided by Swiss partners, according to
Lucie Sidova, head of the Rozkos bez rizika (Risk-free Pleasure)
organisation helping women in the sex industry.
Sidova told AFP that like prostitution, the service is not a crime under Czech law.
Pik,
a bespectacled second-hand charity shop worker, runs a Facebook page
promoting sexual assistance and never misses an opportunity to spread
the word.
Sipping coffee from a cup he has trouble holding, Pik
explains that specially trained sex assistants are not out to retain
clients, but to ultimately help them find a lover of their own.
Hugs, kisses, nudity
"The
task of a sexual assistant is to teach the disabled how to engage with
their sexuality and sex toys and the right way to masturbate because no
one else will talk to them about that kind of thing," he said.
"The
sexuality of disabled people is a big taboo here," added Pik, who has
had one tantric massage from an assistant since the service got the
go-ahead from authorities late last year.
Lucie
Sidova, chief of the Risk-free Pleasure organisation, helping women
working in the sex business, speaking in Prague. The Czech Republic is
the first ex-communist country to allow sexual assistance to the
handicapped. (AFP/Risk-free Pleasure Organiation)
The range of services varies -- sexual assistants can go as far as
intercourse with their clients, but some draw the line at massages and
instruction.
"I don't offer penetration or even oral sex but
only touches, tantric massages, hugs, kisses, nudity," says Iva, an
assistant from a town northeast of Prague who calls herself a sex
teacher.
"Some people with mental disabilities or complex handicaps can't even say what they want so I have to use pictures to find out."
Iva
is one of five sexual assistants working with Risk-free Pleasure. They
charge up to 1,200 koruna (45 euros, $50) per session.
"Many disabled people don't have a partner. They are, say, 35 years old, so I open the door to sexuality for them," says Iva.
She insists on only meeting a client a handful of times at most to prevent him from developing too close of a bond with her.
Risky business
"Disabled people are often full of pent-up sexual energy," she said, adding that some may be impulsive and aggressive at times.
"When
they release that sexual energy, and it's the strongest energy you'll
find in the body, their mood improves and they are easier to handle,"
Iva told AFP.
Although sexual assistance itself is not illegal,
the Risk-free Pleasure NGO still walks a fine line as they can advertise
the service but cannot themselves put assistants in touch with clients.
That could carry charges of procurement, or pimping, which is a broadly
defined crime under Czech law.
The service is still in its
initial phase -- Iva said she only had two clients in January -- but
Lucie Sidova is hoping to boost the current roster with additional
assistants, including men, in the future.
She said they have already received one thank you letter from a man who used a sexual assistant.
"After
many years of looking for a partner in vain, his self-confidence grew
so much that he told us he wasn't coming to the next session, that he
has a girlfriend now."
On arrival at the airport in China, she was welcomed by certain woman.
Prostitution remains widespread in many parts of the world. (AFP/Getty Images)
A Ugandan victim of human trafficking in Asia, Alicia Namutebi, has said that she was saved by "the grace of God".
The
mother of three was taken to Thailand in 2002, spent about four months
there and later returned to Uganda with the help of Ugandans who helped
her renew her passport.
Speaking during a workshop organised by
Platform for Labour Action (PLA) in Kampala, Namutebi said a certain man
who found her selling shoes at Gazaland Complex in Kampala later
convinced her that she would get a teaching job in Thailand.
“I
didn’t have a passport, so he helped me to process for it in concerned
offices. He then told me that I would pass through China."
On
arrival at an airport in China, she was received by a certain woman,
with whom they went to her home. Namutebi spent the following two weeks
at the women's place.
“Later the woman told me that the only job
that was available was prostitution. She then took me to a street where
there were a lot of Ugandan girls involved in commercial sex.
“On
coming back [from day one on the streets], I told the woman that there
was nobody who bargained for me. The woman chased me and the only option
was going to the street," she told her attentive audience.
On the street, Namutebi met a black woman married to a white man, who offered to take me to Thailand.
“I
rejected but the woman said that there was no other option. Men could
come, park their cars and we could scramble to pull them to buy us," she
told of her desperation.
She told of how once she was 'bought' [her services] at $300 (about sh1m) that was given to "my boss" instead (the black woman).
But then, there was a twist of events.
“I
told him to go and have his money refunded because I could not manage
what he wanted. The man said 'sorry', he removed a Bible and gave it to
me, and I spent the whole night reading."
The next day, the man took her to church where he showed her Ugandans.
“I
narrated to them how I had been promised a job of teaching but later
ended up in commercial sex. They took me to the Ugandan consulate in
Bangkok, Thailand where my passport was renewed,” Namutebi told the
workshop.
"These volunteers later mobilized for my return ticket to Uganda."
She arrived in Uganda in August 2002. “I have settled now. I am working for my children."
But
unlike Namutebi, who got a lucky break out of prositution, many
Ugandans, with untold stories, remain locked up in the claws of the
practice abroad.
Meanwhile, PLA's rights and social protection
manager, Joy Katoono, said research shows that the biggest percentage of
human trafficked victims from Uganda were taken to Arabia, followed by
Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar.
JAKARTA
(Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A survey of ads for jobs in Asia and the
Middle East found that foreign domestic workers are paid most in Hong
Kong, yet earn a fraction of what they would make if they worked in
wealthier countries.Activists
said the survey highlighted the need for action to tackle the low
salaries of migrant domestic workers in the two regions and help stamp
out exploitation.
Of the
major countries employing migrant domestic workers in Asia and the
Middle East, salaries are highest in Hong Kong, at $567 a month,
according to the study by HelperChoice, a website that connects
employers with domestic workers seeking jobs.
Domestic
workers, mostly women from poorer South and Southeast Asian countries,
often earn more than they could back home, but far below the monthly
minimum wage domestic workers earn in countries such as Australia
($2,230) or France ($1,866), based on 40 hours of work per week,
HelperChoice said.
"What
the survey shows is how poorly paid domestic workers are in Asia and the
Middle East," said Eman Villanueva, a spokesperson from the Hong
Kong-based Asian Migrants Coordinating Body, an umbrella group
representing foreign domestic helpers in the financial hub.
He
said a foreign domestic worker's salary in the city – about $1 to $1.40
an hour based on 12 to 16 hours of work a day - is only a third of Hong
Kong's minimum wage.
"If
other countries in Asia and the Middle East are even lower, that's a
really, really sad situation for domestic workers," Villanueva told the
Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Activists
said the findings highlight the poor treatment of maids in Asia and the
Middle East, where nearly half of the world's 52 million domestic
workers are employed, according to the International Labour
Organization.
Families in
Asia and the Middle East rely heavily on domestic workers to cook, clean
and care for children as well as the elderly.
Hong
Kong, which has more than 300,000 foreign domestic workers, mainly from
the Philippines and Indonesia, has set a minimum wage for these workers
at $556 per month, but Villanueva said they have been pushing for a
hike to at least $645 a month and better terms.
He
said current employment regulations – similar across Asia and the
Middle East - require a domestic worker to live with their employers
without regulated working hours, encouraging abuse and exploitation.
"It
creates a situation where a worker is working 24 hours non-stop. When
the baby cries or when there is something to attend to, the employers
can just knock on our door," said Villanueva, a Filipino who has been a
domestic worker in Hong Kong for 25 years.
The
average salary for a domestic worker is $439 in Singapore, $431 in
Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and $388 in Kuwait, according to the
HelperChoice study.
By
comparison, in Thailand, the average salary for foreign maids from
neighbouring Myanmar is between $123 and $143, according to a survey by
the MAP Foundation, a migrant rights group based in Chiang Mai,
Thailand.
(Reporting by Beh Lih Yi @behlihyi, editing by Alisa Tang. Please
credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson
Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, corruption and
climate change. Visit news.trust.org to see more stories)
The raid in Dallas followed allegations that adult and child
sex-trafficking victims had been forced into prostitution through ads on
the adult classified ad portal.
By DON THOMPSON and TERRY WALLACE
Associated Press
October 6, 2016 — 10:57pm
Associated PressThis
photo released by the Texas Office of the Attorney General shows Carl
Ferrer. State agents have raided the Dallas headquarters of adult
classified ad portal Backpage and arrested Chief Executive Officer
Ferrer. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleges that adult and child
sex-trafficking victims had been forced into prostitution through escort
ads posted on the site.
DALLAS — State agents raided
the Dallas headquarters of adult classified ad portal Backpage and
arrested Chief Executive Officer Carl Ferrer on Thursday following
allegations that adult and child sex-trafficking victims had been forced
into prostitution through escort ads posted on the site.
Ferrer, 55, was arrested on a
California warrant after arriving at Houston's Bush Intercontinental
Airport on a flight from Amsterdam.
"Making money off the backs
of innocent human beings by allowing them to be exploited for modern-day
slavery is not acceptable in Texas," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton,
a Republican, said in a statement.
California Attorney General
Kamala Harris said that Ferrer was arrested on felony charges of pimping
a minor, pimping, and conspiracy to commit pimping. He is being held in
lieu of $500,000 bond and will face an extradition hearing before he
can be returned to California.
"Raking in millions of
dollars from the trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable victims is
outrageous, despicable and illegal," said Harris, a Democrat who is
running for the U.S. Senate in next month's election. "Backpage and its
executives purposefully and unlawfully designed Backpage to be the
world's top online brothel."
An attorney representing
Backpage, Liz McDougall, did not immediately respond to telephone and
email messages left by The Associated Press.
The site's controlling
shareholders, Michael Lacey, 68, and James Larkin, 67, have been charged
with conspiracy to commit pimping, Harris said in a statement. Neither
of them has been taken into custody by late Thursday although warrants
have been issued for their arrest. Under California's law, felony
pimping is defined as making money off of prostitutes or soliciting
customers for prostitution.
Lacey and Larkin are former
owners of the Village Voice and the Phoenix New Times. An attorney who
previously represented the two men, Michael Manning, did not immediately
respond to a telephone message from The AP.
Backpage advertises a wide
range of services, but the California arrest warrant alleges that
internal business records obtained through a search warrant show that 99
percent its revenue came from its adult services section between
January 2013 and March 2015. California officials said the site collects
fees from users who use coded language and nearly nude photos to offer
sex for money.
Worldwide revenue from sex
ads topped $3.1 million in just one week last year, according to a court
affidavit. It says Ferrer expanded Backpage's share of online sex
marketing by creating affiliated sites including EvilEmpire.com and
BigCity.com with related content.
The site operates in
hundreds of cities worldwide, authorities said, including more than 30
in California. It collected $2.5 million per month just from California,
or more than $51 million during the 29 months covered by the internal
revenue reports.
Larkin and Lacey each
received $10 million bonuses from the website in September 2014,
according to the court filing. It says Backpage was created in 2004, but
since 2014 has been owned by a Netherlands-based company that has
Ferrer as its only named partner.
California authorities said
the state's three-year investigation found many of the ads include
victims of sex trafficking including children under the age of 18.
One of the advertisers,
identified only as 15-year-old "E.S.," ''was forced into prostitution at
the age of 13 by her pimp," according to an affidavit filed with the
complaint. She used other online advertising services until they were
shut down, the court filing says, when she turned to Backpage.
"I mean really, coming from
someone my age, there is too much access, like it's too easy for people
to get on it and post an ad," she told California Special Agent Brian
Fichtner, according to his affidavit.
California officials said
their investigation was prompted in part by the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children, which reported 2,900 instances to
California authorities since 2012 when suspected child sex trafficking
occurred using Backpage.
The criminal complaint
includes allegations that five minors, three of them including "E.S."
under age 16, paid to post advertisements on Backpage.
The charges against Ferrer could bring him nearly 22 years in prison, while Larkin and Lacey face a maximum six years.
Backpage has been the
subject of recent Senate hearings into its classified ads. Last month,
the Supreme Court refused to block a Senate subpoena seeking information
on how Backpage screens ads for possible sex trafficking.
U.S. Sens. Rob Portman,
R-Ohio, and Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, chairman and ranking member of
the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, issued a statement
hailing the criminal charges resulting from what they called "the
scourge of online sex trafficking."
They put the site's
estimated annual revenues at more than $150 million, calling it "a
market leader in commercial sex advertising."
(London,
UK) -- Qatar a tiny Persian Gulf Peninsula albeit vastly affluent and
notorious for supporting Al Qaeda-inspired terrorists in war-scarred
Syria , has tarnished its already infamous reputation by causing an
ignominious scandal involving a female member of royal family.
In spite of the Qatari
Royal Court (Diwan Amiri) desperately seeking to somehow vindicate this
public disgrace ,paying no attention to this dishonorable sin, the
Qatari King , a close US ally, allows private wahabi charities
(wahhabism is a Saudi-based deviant so-called Islamic sect) to raise
billions of dollars for CIA-backed Al Qaeda rebels in Syria.Qatar has
also been a big source of arming dozens of fanatic militias in Iraq and
Syria, in order to overthrow the democratically-elected establishment in
those countes.
The 34-four-year-old
Qatari Monarch (Tamim bin Hamad) has once purportedly said: "I'm not a
patriarch for my family member's because Qatar is not actually a country
or a nation, rather it is a big Natural Gas and Oil firm, and thus I
grant this natural privilege to all my siblings to enjoy their own
private carnal desires".
The British newspaper
'Financial Times' revealed on Thursday a heavy-caliber scandal when the
British security service (MI6) with the assistance of Scotland Yard had
broken into a sumptuous room in Excelsior London Hotel after
receiving many complaints, only to find the Qatari Princess engaging in
shamful orgy with seven men.
According to the
newspaper, the Scotland Yard was surprised when it checked the ID of
the female culprit only to find that she is a Qatari princess and
discovered her in the most obscene position , having sex with seven
Europeans men inside the room.The Princess, during the
preliminary investigation openly admitted that she is a member of Qatari
Royal Family, and King's half-sister.
She also had admitted that
through a Saudi intermediary [pimp]she brought in men of special
physical qualities who have specific experiences ,in exchange of a
exorbitant money.
The Qatari Princess asked
her Saudi intermediary ,this time, to bring seven men at once
altogether , and asked him to stay in the hotel lobby during the nightl
until all seven men leave, for fear of possible violence by anyone of
them, as had happened previously in past secret visits.
The princess also admitted
that her intention was not to damage her country's reputation and as
far as she knew this was not in violation of the British law.Ironically,
police reminded her it is against the British law to use men who had a
criminal record.
A source within the
'Financial Times' divulged the story , though the case will not affect
the Qatari-British relationship as the Princess enjoys the diplomatic
immunity.
The British police
notified the Qatari Embassy of the incident, but the latter did not care
at all about anything other than preventing the scandal to be further
disclosed.
'Financial Times' tried to
obtain further details regarding the story , but the Qatari Embassy
sought to prevent the scandal from spreading by trying to bribe local
newspapers --£500 million-- , but 'Financial Times' allegedly rejected
the alluuring offer, and has published the story.
U.S. Marines Brig. Gen. John Jansen of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade and Maj. Gen. Andre... Read more
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — U.S. and Philippine forces opened joint
combat exercises under some uncertainty on Tuesday, days after the
Philippines' new leader said they would be the last such drills of his
six-year presidency.
Marine commanders from both sides said at the opening ceremony that
the exercises, involving 1,100 American and 400 Filipino military
personnel, are aimed at improving readiness by the two countries to
respond to a range of crises while deepening their historic ties.
Angered by U.S. criticism of his deadly anti-drug campaign, President
Rodrigo Duterte said last week that the maneuvers would be the last of
his term, which began in June. His foreign secretary later said the
decision was not final, sparking questions as to whether other annual
U.S.-Philippine military exercises would proceed as planned.
U.S. Embassy officials said Washington has not been formally notified
by the Philippine government of any move to scrap other planned drills.
Such a move by the Philippines would impede Washington's plans to
expand the footprint of U.S. forces in Southeast Asia to counter China.
A Philippine military spokesman for the ongoing exercises, Capt. Ryan
Lacuesta, sidestepped the question of whether Duterte's remarks have
affected the troops and the atmosphere of the drills, partly staged to
improve camaraderie between the two combat forces.
"As much as I would like to answer that question, I would leave that to higher authorities," Lacuesta said Tuesday.
U.S. Marine Brig. Gen. John Jansen said that aside from promoting
regional security, the exercises have helped save lives in terms of
fostering more rapid and organized responses to disasters like the
deadly 2013 devastation wrought by Typhoon Haiyan in the central
Philippines.
Citing a much-awaited drill that involves American and Filipino
marines wading ashore in an amphibious beach landing and in boat raids,
Jansen said the exercise "is not just about projecting power from the
sea, it is about growing a capability."
Duterte, who describes himself as a leftist leader, has had an uneasy
relationship with the United States, a key treaty ally. He has said he
is charting a foreign policy not dependent on the U.S., and has taken
steps to revive ties with China that had been strained under his
predecessor over long-standing territorial conflicts.
Duterte has announced publicly that he will not allow the Philippine
navy to conduct joint patrols with the U.S. military in the disputed
South China Sea because it could spark an armed conflict in Philippine
territory. He has also said he wants U.S. forces out of the southern
Philippines, where he said minority Muslims resent the presence of
American troops.
Still, Duterte has said he will not abrogate a 1951 Mutual Defense
Treaty with the U.S. and will maintain the long alliance with America
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/719a579d1e394e3ba5e8499667e60a3b
Monday, 3 October, 2016
West
Yorkshire Police and the West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner
joined partners from the public and private sectors to host a Modern
Slavery summit.
The aim of the event, which was held on Thursday
29 September at West Yorkshire Police’s Carr Gate facility, was to bring
together partners from the business, banking and public sectors to work
together to tackle this most awful crime.
Over 140 delegates
from a cross section of businesses from the banking and recruitment
sectors and representatives from academia attended the event.
Key
note speakers included Kevin Hyland - the Independent Anti-Slavery
Commissioner and Paul Broadbent – the Chief Executive of the Gangmasters
Licensing Authority. Mark Burns-Williamson, West Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner said:
"Human trafficking is a vile crime perpetrated by money driven criminals who have no regard for the suffering of their victims.
"Being
the lead Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for human trafficking and
modern day slavery, here in West Yorkshire we are leading the way both
regionally and nationally in tackling traffickers and criminal gangs, as
well as rescuing and supporting the victims.
"In conjunction
with anti-human trafficking charity Hope for Justice and other partners
we have trained thousands of frontline officers and staff on spotting
the tell-tale signs of this crime. We created 2 years ago a dedicated
team of detectives to investigate reports and tackle the perpetrators
head on. We also established the West Yorkshire Anti-Trafficking Network
at the same time and this year I helped launch the national PCC network
in the Home Office to share good practise and promote true joined up
partnership working. The only way we can tackle this crime is to work
together and this event with partners from across the public and private
sectors was the latest step in developing our approach with key
partners. I was therefore delighted with the take up for this event and
the input from all our speakers and participants.
"It was a
really constructive and excellent event and I would like to thank all
those who attended and share our vision of bringing an end to modern day
slavery and human trafficking."
The West Yorkshire Police Temporary Chief Constable Dee Collins, said:
"Modern
Slavery is a harrowing subject to discuss but this event was a very
powerful reminder that there are lots of people and organisations out
there who can make a massive difference.
"The event itself could
not have gone any better – we had support from so many people who came
along, and listened and contributed to the discussions.
"It is
vital that we get it right ‘on the ground’ in terms of how we safeguard
vulnerable victims and deal with those looking to profit from the misery
of others. West Yorkshire Police is only one of only a handful of
Forces to have a unit dedicated solely to tackling this insidious
crime.
"It is also vital that we get it right at a strategic
level too. Modern Slavery is an issue that can affect various
organisations and sectors – no one can or should work in isolation to
tackle it.
"That is why we held this summit – to discuss and
share best practise and to learn from others so that we can then ensure
that together we are doing everything possible.
"Everyone has a
role to play – from the police officer ‘on the beat’ to the bank cashier
taking a payment – the approach to tackling Modern Slavery must be a
joint one."
The conference heard from keynote speakers about the
crime and what can be done to stop it and the steps that can be taken to
safeguard victims of it.
During the lunch interval at the event the Leeds based theatre company, Bughlight staged a short play about modern slavery.
Participants at the conference were also shown a hard-hitting video about modern slavery and the impact it has on victims.
Read more: https://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/news/modern-slavery-conference-held-tackle-awful-crime
Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) worship.
Engage Now Africa, an international NGO committed
to ending poverty in Africa has launched a campaign dubbed
“Trafficking-free Road Campaign” to empower leaders of the Ghana Private
Road Transport Union (GPRTU) in the Central Region.
The 1-day sensitization forum saw over 150 beneficiaries who represented
103 branches of the GPRTU in the Central Region sensitized and
empowered on the tricks of child trafficking and how to curb it.
The participants were also handed anti-slavery branded stickers,
certificate of participation including 30 minutes video documentary on
child trafficking.
They were also tasked to show the video to their members within the
branches and also get them copies to show in their vehicles on daily
basis.
Director of End Modern Slavery of Engage Now Africa, David Kofi Awusi
remarked, “our goal is to record zero modern slavery or human
trafficking on all our roads in Ghana”.
Speaking during the launch of the campaign at Oguaa Teachers Hall in
Cape Coast on Wednesday, September 28, 2016, David Kofi Awusi said: “We
believe the first step towards ending modern slavery is through
sensitization and prevention hence the launch of our newest innovative
campaign today”.
He further noted: “The greatest strength of this campaign is our strong
collaboration with the GPRTU leaders and drivers so that the drivers
willingly commit to showing the video documentary on their vehicles
consistently and also report cases of trafficking at the police
checkpoint for intervention”.
“This way, on daily basis, passengers and ordinary Ghanaians both in the
cities and remote communities will be sensitized and empowered to know
how to resist, identify and report cases of trafficking in its various
forms”, David Kofi Awusi added.
The participants pledged support and willingness to get drivers within
their respective branches to show the documentary to passengers on daily
basis to enable the campaign run smoothly.
Modern slavery [or human trafficking] is rampant in Ghana growing at a
fast alarming rate with over 190,000 people being victims.
About 49,000 of these victims, mostly children, are already engaged in
the act on the Volta Lake alone. Out of this number, over 21,000 of them
are forced into hazardous labour like diving into a deepest depth of a
river to remove a trapped net including other dangerous works that put
the lives of these children at risk.
Engage Now Africa is currently working in Ghana with the mission “to
engage and strengthen individuals, families, and communities to end
poverty by instilling hope and teaching principles of sustainability in:
education, micro-credit, clean water, medical services, orphan support,
and eradication of modern slavery”.
Tiny babies are abandoned in villages because Amtambahoaka
tribe believe twins are a curse that will bring death to their families
Eyes screwed up tight, she forces out a tiny weak cry as I cradle
her. Weighing only 3lb, there is barely enough of this premature baby to
fill the palms of my hands.
In the UK, her precarious start to life would be deemed unlucky even
in the protective warmth of a UK hospital incubator with a loving
family around her.
But here in Madagascar, an island haunted by black magic and taboos,
this child’s sinister misfortune runs much deeper than that.
There is no incubator to protect her. Only a tatty mosquito net. There is no loving mum and family. Only flies circling her cot.
She is a Bad Luck Baby. Abandoned by her frightened mother simply because she was a twin – a quirk of nature seen here as a terrifying curse.
The elders of her Amtambahoaka tribe believe raising twins brings misfortune, even death, to their families.
In the past, newborn siblings were often taken out into the bush and
left there to die. Today, civilisation has made some inroads into the
remote south east corner of this island state off the coast of Africa.
Most end up in centres where they are put up for adoption. Many go on to start new lives in France, Italy, Sweden and Canada.
But the dark ages-old taboo out in the bush remains unbreakable. And
as a mother, cradling this little victim whose sibling had already died,
I want to find out how superstition can be stronger than the maternal
bond to a child. Orphaned: Twins in Madagascar
That is why I am here with Channel 4’s Unreported World TV
documentary team investigating the extraordinary story of the
Amtambahoaka twins.
The nurse who handed the baby to me at a fly-blown hospital in the
coastal city of Mananjary tells me the child’s mother lives in a village
which is a a three-hour ride away on a bumpy speedboat down the
Panagalanes canal.
When we get there, the villagers tell us the young woman who had
given birth to twins was already back out in the fields planting rice.
Her name is Cecile, and she is 20 years old. She looks frightened
when we approach her but Cecile, her husband Adreobert and her mother
agree to talk at the tiny wooden hut that is their home.
Cecile tells us that, with no ante-natal care at all, she had no idea
she was carrying two babies. “When they were born I was shocked,” she
says.
“And scared for her life,” her husband Adreobert cuts in. While I was
trying to understand her fear, I saw a tell-tale dark patch of leaking
breast-milk growing on her T-shirt.
Just talking about the tiny babies she felt forced to give away was making her body produce breast milk.
“We want to keep our twins,” Cecile’s mother tells us. “But it is up
to the chiefs. If it changes we will keep our babies. But if not, we
will have to keep abandoning them.”
We are determined to meet the tribal chiefs responsible so we can ask
them why they promote a taboo that tears families apart. But they don’t
see it that way.
At a gathering of the senior elders of the Antambahoaka, one of the
oldest tells me bluntly: “Keeping twins is like eating your own s**t.”
Yet villagers are starting to rebel. On the outskirts of Mananjary,
we visit seven defiant families, all with twins. They live in makeshift
tents after being forced to leave their villages as outcasts.
One mum there, Carolin, must be the unluckiest woman in Madagascar – she has three sets of twins.
She says: “We had to move over 30 times before we came here, because
people think that even renting us a home with twins will bring bad luck.
“Most of my family would ignore me if they saw me on the street – but nothing will ever make me give up my babies.”
Across the city there is a centre for abandoned children where more
than a dozen pairs of twins are currently being given shelter. Since it
opened in 1987, hundreds of twins have passed through its doors. Julie
Rasoarimanana, who runs the centre, tells me not a single parent has
ever returned to reclaim their children.
A few days later, back at the hospital, we discover that our
surviving Bad Luck Baby’s luck has changed. She has been adopted by
Juliet, a local schoolteacher from a different tribe who named her
Nvayo, which means “to rise”’.
On our last day in Mananjary, we visit Nyavo in her new home, where her new mother is gently rocking her to sleep.
For this twin at least, good fortune has defeated superstition.
Unreported World: The Cursed Twins is on Channel 4, Friday May 9, at 7.30pm
A new report has
called for the practice of some British Asian men mistreating women and
leaving them soon after getting married in South Asia, to be treated as a
form of domestic violence.
Academics at the University of Lincoln
have discovered that these men have been taking thousands of pounds
from their new wife's family and using the women as domestic slaves for
their in-laws.
These "disposable women", as the report calls
them, are also often physically abused and then abandoned either once
they have moved to the UK, or - more commonly - while still in India.
Some
are brought temporarily to the UK but later taken on a pretend holiday
back to India, where they have their passport taken away.
Many
women hide the fact that this has happened to them, so academics spent
more than a year finding 57 women in India who had experienced the
phenomenon and would share their stories.
Dream wedding
Marriage
for Sunita, not her real name, began how she had always dreamed it
would in a grand venue in India's Punjab region, with hundreds of guests
and a beautiful red dress.
"Everything was great," she says, as she runs through photos of her big day on her phone.
After
the wedding, her new husband stayed with her for a month in India
before returning to his home in the UK. Sunita expected him to come back
to India shortly afterwards and take her back to live with him there,
but things then started to go wrong. "It was coming up to a year and he still didn't return," she
says. "I asked him many times 'Come back to India, when are you
coming?' but he would just say 'Not now, another time'.
"He demanded a lot from me too. At times 'give money' and at other times 'give furniture'."
Sunita's
husband eventually stopped talking to her on the phone. She hasn't seen
him since and has also since found out he was already married to
another woman in the UK.
As is common in India, and some other
countries in South Asia, Sunita's family had given her husband's family
almost £3,000, as well as around £4,000 in gold as a dowry - money or
goods given by the wife's family to the husband's when they get married.
Find out more
The Victoria Derbyshire programme is broadcast on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel.
Sunita says her husband and in-laws were also physically abusive towards her.
"When I used to question if he had a wife [in the UK], and why did he marry me - they would beat me just for asking."
Her
family is not rich and her father is watching on as she speaks, clearly
devastated by what has happened. He spent thousands of pounds on a
marriage he thought would give his daughter a happy future.
"I'm very upset. I'm finding it hard to talk about. He made [sexual] relations with me, my life is ruined," she says. Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
Dr Sundari Anitha says the stigma surrounding abandoned wives is "massive"
Researchers point out that this problem also exists
in Pakistan and Bangladesh - countries where marriages to people living
in the UK, the US, Canada, and other nations with a large South Asian
diaspora are common.
Dr Sundari Anitha, from the School of Social
and Political Sciences at the University of Lincoln, spoke to women
personally affected on a number of trips to Punjab, Delhi and Gujarat in
India.
She met women who had paid as much as £25,000 in dowry
before being abandoned, women raped by their new husbands, some who were
used to have a child and then abandoned and others left in India to act
as carers and domestic slaves for their in-laws.
She says patriarchal culture in South Asia means being abandoned can ruin a woman's life.
"The
stigma is massive and it even has an impact on other people in the
family. So a woman's sister will find it harder to get married. She will
find it harder to get a job, she faces financial insecurity and she's
seen as damaged goods - primarily because the assumption is she's had
sex."
The report recommends that the British state recognises
abandonment as a form of domestic violence and offers protection to
women "disposed of" by British men, even if they never travel to the UK.
Image caption
Pragna Patel says recognising abandonment as domestic abuse will improve legal rights
Pragna Patel, director of campaign group Southall
Black Sisters, worked with academics on the study and says this would
offer recourse to some sort of justice for women who at the moment have
none.
The group says that the constituent parts of abandonment -
such as blackmail, fraud, emotional abuse, financial abuse, controlling
and coercive behaviour and domestic servitude - can be prosecuted under
existing laws, but that "few, if any, perpetrators face any
consequences".
The victims may be unaware of their rights or feel too ashamed or frightened to report their abuse, it is suggested.
Ms
Patel explains, however, that "once it is recognised as domestic
violence then all the legal avenues that should be open to women either
to seek protection or prosecution, or other legal remedies, would be
available to abandoned women".
She says that in the last month,
staff at Southall Black Sisters have encountered a case in which a man
had married and abandoned five different women - each time profiting
financially.
"It's like a business for him," she says. "The
perpetrators are British nationals. If the British state turns a blind
eye or is indifferent to this abuse then it is contributing to this
culture of impunity - these men are not held to account by anyone.
"We have to wake up to the fact that violence in transnational spaces is a new and emerging form of violence against women."
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-37472233?post_id=1107237902639582_1416001658429870#_=_
