All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

SUV Driver Kills 5-Year-Old Girl In Sunset Park: Gothamist

A 5-year-old girl was struck and killed by an SUV driver while crossing a street near her home in Sunset Park yesterday afternoon. According to the NYPD, Kiko Shao was “running northeast” on 55th Street towards 5th Avenue around 3:20 when the unnamed 28-year-old driver of a 2002 Cadillac Escalade hit her. Shao was pronounced DOA at Luther Medical Center. The driver remained at the scene and has not been charged, but like most of these horrific incidents, the investigation remains technically “ongoing” until it’s mostly forgotten by the general public.

via SUV Driver Kills 5-Year-Old Girl In Sunset Park: Gothamist.

Clashes in Jerusalem after Aqsa ban | Maan News Agency

Dozens of Palestinians suffered tear-gas inhalation after clashes broke out between Palestinians and Israeli forces in different areas in Jerusalem, a Ma’an reporter said.

Israeli forces suppressed demonstrations that launched from different areas in Jerusalem supporting the al-Aqsa Mosque and condemning repeated “raids” during the Jewish holidays.

Demonstrations were held at five gates leading into the Old City, and Israeli forces confronted demonstrators with tear gas and stun grenades.

Five Palestinians were arrested during the clashes across the city.

Earlier, Israel restricted access to the mosque for men to only those aged under 50, citing security concerns.

via Clashes in Jerusalem after Aqsa ban | Maan News Agency.

Former braceros’ march across U.S. for back pay ends in D.C. | Latina Lista

A group of elderly migrant laborers ended a cross-country protest Thursday outside the White House, hoping the U.S. would prod Mexico to pay money owed to them for work they did decades ago.

“We want Washington and the whole world to know that the Mexican government stole our money,” the group of 20 “ex braceros,” or migrant laborers, and activists sang. They ended their 22-day cross-country trip, demanding the U.S. government open the Bracero Program files and aid them in obtaining the 10 percent of their wages in savings accounts they claim the Mexican government never paid them.

The U.S. established the Bracero Program in 1942 to give visas to guest laborers who replaced domestic workers who were fighting in World War II. It employed several thousand Mexican agricultural and railroad workers until the program ended in 1967.

via Former braceros’ march across U.S. for back pay ends in D.C. | Latina Lista.

Official: 250,000 Palestine refugees fled Syria camps | Maan News Agency

Some 250,000 Palestinian refugees have been forced to leave their refugee camps in Syria due to violence in the country, a senior Fatah official said Thursday.

Muhammad Ishtaya’s remarks came in a meeting with the deputy commissioner-general of the UN refugee agency UNRWA Margot Ellis, who is responsible for Syria’s Palestinian refugees.

He added that the number of Palestinian refugees in Syria was nearly 600,000 of which 250,000 have fled.

via Official: 250,000 Palestine refugees fled Syria camps | Maan News Agency.

If all of Orlando, Florida had to pick up and move to Buffalo, New York with nothing but what they could carry in arms or a car, do you think it would be a hardship for all and would you think we ought to help?

Sri Lanka president uses his time in U.N. spotlight to lash out – latimes.com

The world body has repeatedly chastised Rajapaksa, culminating in charges by its chief human rights official this week that he was turning his island nation, just four years removed from a three-decade insurgency, into a dictatorship.

The State Department’s most recent human rights report blamed Rajapaksa’s government for concentrating power in the hands of family members, bullying activists and journalists, incapacitating the judiciary and repressing minority Tamils, the ethnic group that launched the war. A 2011 U.N. report cited evidence that Sri Lanka’s military had killed as many as 40,000 civilians, mostly Tamils, in the closing months of the conflict.

Rajapaksa has denied wrongdoing and accused critics of meddling in his country’s affairs. At the podium Tuesday, he suggested that the U.N. was the victim of “manipulation” by foreign agendas and blasted “the growing trend in the international arena of interference by some in the internal matters of developing countries, in the guise of … human rights.”

via Sri Lanka president uses his time in U.N. spotlight to lash out – latimes.com.

Ultra-Conservative Jewish Israelis may tour the Mosque with police protection but Israel bans Muslims under 50 from Aqsa mosque | Maan News Agency

Israeli police imposed restrictions on Palestinian worshipers on Friday, banning Muslims under the age of 50 from entering the holy site.

A police spokeswoman said women of all ages would be allowed to enter the compound as well as men above 50.

The spokeswoman, Luba al-Sumri, said that the restrictions would help maintain order after clashes at the site during visits from right-wing Israelis worshipers.

Police deployed at gates leading to the mosque in the Old City and scrutinized IDs starting Thursday.

via Israel bans Muslims under 50 from Aqsa mosque | Maan News Agency.

Rare colour photos of WWII-era China taken by William L Dibble: Shanghaiist

This is a rare collection of colour photographs taken by William L. Dibble. This little-known photographer arrived in China as a member of the “Flying Tigers,” the American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force that fought the Japanese during World War II. Dibble’s photographs depict China before Communist takeover; they show a changing urban China alongside its age-old rural activities, as well as American air force soldiers working and living alongside Chinese people.

via Rare colour photos of WWII-era China taken by William L Dibble: Shanghaiist.

Most of Syria’s toxins can be destroyed more easily than officials initially thought – The Washington Post

In private briefings to weapons experts, White House officials said analysts had concluded that Syria possesses more than 1,000 metric tons of chemical weapons, of which about 300 metric tons are sulfur mustard, the blister agent used in World War I. Nearly all of the remainder consists of chemical precursors of the nerve agent sarin, described as being “unweaponized” and in “liquid bulk” form, according to two people who attended White House briefings.

Weapons experts not privy to the briefings described the findings as encouraging.

via Most of Syria’s toxins can be destroyed more easily than officials initially thought – The Washington Post.