Tensions are rising in the South China Sea after a US warship traveled through disputed waters. Washington says its protecting freedom of navigation, but China calls the American naval maneuver a provocation.
Category Archives: Viva!
Despite risks, Carson not backing off Nazi, slavery examples
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (AP) — On the eve of his party’s third debate, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson promised not to curb his penchant for using extreme examples to prove his points, such as equating abortion with slavery and comparing Islamic State fighters to patriots of the American Revolution….
China summons US ambassador to protest ship near reef
BEIJING (AP) — China summoned the American ambassador to protest the U.S. Navy’s sailing of a warship close to one of China’s artificial islands in the South China Sea, in an act that challenged Chinese sovereignty claims….
Seeking paths for peace
Voices were heard in El Salvador this week looking for alternative ways to end the cycle of gang violence in the country.
On Monday, the government released its draft proposal of a law for rehabilitation and “re-insertion” of gang members into society. In announcing the proposal, the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Benito Lara, stated that the law was aimed at youth who had come under the influence of the gangs, to give them a reason to make the decision to exit. The law would seek to slow the growth of gangs through programs of formal and informal education, job creation, and productive projects leading to a culture of peace.
Lara emphasized that this law did not provide for amnesty for gang members, nor was it directed at those who had committed serious crimes. The law now goes to the National Assembly for debate, where a central question will be how to finance the programs.
On Tuesday, marchers converged on Plaza Salvador del Mundo clamoring for an end to violence. The march was convened by member churches of IPAZ, the pastoral initiative for life and peace, including the Anglican and Lutheran churches of El Salvador. Among the marchers were family members of gang members who joined their voices to those seeking to stop the violence.
Coverage of the march from ContraPuntoTV
With notice that families of gang members would be in the march, the police were stopping buses on the way to the march, making people get out, and searching for those wanted for crimes. Media coverage was summarized by this headline in La Prensa Grafica: Family Members of Terrorist Groups Will March for Peace.
The hundreds of marchers today were only a shadow of the tens of thousands who filled the same space seven months ago in a similar march for peace on March 26. Tragically the daily, weekly and monthly tally of murders has only increased since March.
Shell halts Carmon Creek oil sands project in Alberta, Canada
Tar sands site had been slated to produce 80,000 barrels a day but lower global prices, cost-cutting and lack of infrastructure contribute to shelving
Royal Dutch Shell will halt construction of its Carmon Creek thermal oil sands venture in Canada due to “uncertainties” facing the project, including a lack of infrastructure.
The decision to stop the project in the western province of Alberta comes as Shell cuts costs and a shortage of pipeline capacity constrains growth in the Canada’s oil sands industry.
As Allies Tap Their Feet, de Blasio Moves Toward Endorsing Clinton
Atacama Desert in Chile becomes floral wonderland
Chile’s Atacama Desert is one of the driest places on Earth, but parts of the landscape are now covered in flowers after a year of unprecedented rain.
Israeli NGO sues Facebook over Palestinian posts
PNN/Bethlehem
According to the Israeli media, 20.000 Israelis joined the Israeli NGO Shurat HaDin – The Israeli Law Center on a civil lawsuit against Facebook on accusations of ignoring widespread Palestinian posts calling for violence against Jews.
The suit was filed this last Monday in the New York State Supreme Court in Brooklyn by three attorneys — Robert Tolchin of New York; Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the director of the Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center, and Asher Perlin of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
According to The Times of Israel newspaper, the 20,000 Israeli plaintiffs claim that the Facebook posts have inspired many recent “terror attacks” and that “Facebook’s algorithms and platform connects inciters to terrorists who are further encouraged to perpetrate stabbings and other violence attacks against Israelis”.
The suit alleges that Facebook has a “legal and moral obligation” to block much of this content but that it chooses not to. The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction against Facebook requiring the social network to “immediately remove all pages, groups and posts containing incitement to murder Jews; to actively monitor its website for such incitement that all incitement is immediately removed prior to being disseminated to masses of terrorists and would-be terrorists; and to cease serving as matchmaker between terrorists, terrorist organizations, and those who incite others to commit terrorism.”
They are also arguing that Facebook is “far from a neutral or passive social media platform and cannot claim it is a mere bulletin board for other parties’ postings” and that “the terrorists do not come on their own; they write posts and encourage their friends to kill Jews,” Israeli attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of Shurat HaDin, told Fox News. “Facebook has been transformed into an anti-Semitic incubator for murder.”
According to the israeli newspaper Haaretz, in a news release Darshan-Leitner also state that “Facebook wields tremendous power and this publicly traded company needs to utilize it in a way that ensures that Palestinian extremists who are calling to stab Israelis and glorifying the terrorist that do, are not permitted to do it on its platform.”
Star Trek ‘tractor beam’ invented by British scientists
Rhythm without the blues: how dance crazes make us feel a step closer
Doing energetic dance routines together makes people feel more connected and raises their pain threshold, psychologists have found
Psychologists in Oxford may have unravelled the mysterious appeal of Gangnam Style, the Macarena, and the Village People’s YMCA, all in one fell swoop.
The dance crazes rose to prominence in three separate decades, but all require an unwavering dedication to synchronised movement and exertion that seems natural only to wedding reception DJs.
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