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Cutter-wielding man takes child hostage in Spanish crèche
A man armed with a cutting implement has taken a child hostage in a crèche in a town near Madrid on Tuesday, Efe news agency reports.
The assailant initially took several people hostage, but later they were released with only one child remaining held, the news agency reported citing security sources.
The Civil Guard arrived at the scene of the hostage crisis in the town of Colmenar del Arroyo and cordoned off the area around the creche.
Sources told Efe that the man who is a local resident was “very upset” and was wielding a sharp metal weapon, possibly a box-cutter.
Colmenar del Arroyo is a small town located some 60km west of the Spanish capital, with a population of about 1,600 people.
More Fatalities Reported After Second Major Earthquake Hits Nepal
By Sally Hayden
May 12, 2015 | 7:00 am
Another earthquake has hit Nepal killing at least 37, just over two weeks after a 7.8 earthquake resulted in the deaths of more than 8,000 people. This time the epicenter was close to the base camp of Mount Everest and it had a magnitude of 7.3, according to the US Geological Survey.
Nepal's National Emergency Operation Center (NEOC) measured the earthquake as 7.1 and said the epicenter was located between Dolakha and Sindhupalchowk, north of Kathmandu.
Information on casualties is still emerging. The NEOC reported the death toll as , though they have since revised that figure down to 37. The Ministry of Education also announced that all schools in affected districts would be closed for two weeks.
The Times of India reported two deaths in the Indian state of Bihar, which borders Nepal, one which occurred after a wall toppled over.
NGO Care International — who had staff delivering aid in Nepal when the earthquake struck — reported it had caused roadblocks.
Related: 'The Ground You Think Is Solid Suddenly Gives Way': At Least 4,000 Dead in Nepal Earthquake Tragedy
Tremors were felt as far away as the capital Kathmandu, as well as in the Indian capital of New Delhi and the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka.
Nepal's police have appealed to people to avoid the roads and try not to clog up the phone networks. Hours before the latest quake, they had published an updated death toll from the April 25 earthquake, recording 8,151 fatalities and 17,868 people who were injured.
Kent Page, emergency spokesperson for UNICEF in Nepal, told VICE News he was in a school in Kathmandu when Tuesday's earthquake struck.
"It was terrifying, a very scary experience. The whole building started shaking, the ground started moving under our feet," he recounted. "We all ran out into a small courtyard and the shaking and swaying just carried on. I think it lasted a minute but possibly a lot longer."
Now, he said, "people are out on the roads, on the streets, sitting out wherever there's grass, nobody's in buildings anymore."
Map of the May 12 earthquake. Screenshot via US Geological Survey
Related: Earthquake in Nepal (Dispatch 1)
In a statement sent to VICE News, UNICEF worker Rose Foley described the moment the earthquake hit. "We dived under tables in the UNICEF building as it rocked from side to side," she said. "The shaking seemed to go on and on."
Foley added: "We got out to safety as soon as possible. Sitting out in the open it felt like I was on a boat on rough seas as aftershocks hit."
At least half a million people were left homeless in Nepal by last month's earthquake.
Another fourteen black on white murders
We have been working to create a comprehensive look at black on white murders for the years 2014 and 2015
We have been working to create a comprehensive look at black on white murders for the years 2014 and 2015. Many media bosses openly admit that they censor black on white crime. We have been working to collect the biggest sample size of black on white murders possible.
From information we have already collected, many important conclusion can already be drawn. People who drive taxi cabs, deliver pizza, or deliver other food items are probably in much greater danger of being killed on the job than police officers. The overwhelming majority of these killings seem to be black on white and black on Asian. For people who delivery food or drive a cab, this is important information that they should be aware of. They should not be put in greater danger by having this information censored in the name of political correctness.
Also, large numbers of young white males and females are being murdered while trying to buy marijuana off of black dealers. The perps never acquire any significant monetary gain from the murders. They simply kill the victim for the fun of it and to gain street cred. The media often blames the white victim and calls it “a drug deal gone bad.”
We also find that a very high percentage of black on white murders are random. Usually the perps are never charged with capital murder and in many cases they are only charged with manslaughter or aggravated assault! Since such a high percentage of black on white murders are random events, it suggests that a high percentage of white victims of unsolved murders were killed by a black perpetrato. Since random killings are more likely to be unsolved.
This is information is not being disseminated in the “mainstream” media. You will only learn about it here.
It is important that the public has as much information as a possible on crime, so they can avoid becoming a victim. Many “mainstream” media outlets openly admit that they place political correctness ahead of public safety.
Our 2014 sampling of black on white murders is now up to 412.
Our 2015 sampling of black on white murders is already up to 96.
We have also tried to find actual cases of white on black murders, in which the victim was not committing a felony at the time. We have asked the Southern Poverty Law Center [SPLC], #BlackLivesMatters, and various other left-wing groups for examples of white on black murders for 2014 and 2015. So far we have only found four in 2014, and two in 2015.
To read about other black on white crimes, click here.
4/27/15 – Ana Charle, 36, was murdered by a black male while working at a homeless shelter in New York City, NY.
4/24/15 – David Fuller, 26, was shot and killed by a black male while delivering pizzas in Flint, MI.
4/22/15 – A father and son were killed execution style when two black males invaded their home in Metairie, LA.
4/20/15 –Aiden Louis Bard, 8, died from being burned in a scalding hot bath by his black DCFS caregiver in Deerfield, IL.
4/17/15 – Cassandra Cassidy, 24, was shot and killed by multiple black males in a car in Las Vegas, NV.
4/17/15 – Samantha J. Fleming, 23, was stabbed to death in her home by a black female in Gary, IN. Police say the perp pretended to be a government worker.
4/15/15 – Floyd Valachovic, elderly, was beaten to death by a black male in St. Stephens, SC.
4/2/15 – Cheri Amber Houston, 28, was killed by a black male in Lake County, FL.
3/26/15 – Destiny Asher, 23, was shot and killed by a black male who wanted to rob her and her friends in Indianapolis, IN.
4/11/15 – Nils Johnson, 39, was beaten to death by a black male in Oak Park Heights, MN.
1/2/15 – Lee Rappuhn, 36, was shot and killed by a black male while driving his car in Flint, MI.
11/15/14 – Catherine Walker, 38, was stabbed to death by a black female in Honolulu, HI.
5/1/14 – Harold E. Collins, 66, was killed by multiple black male perpetrators while he was working in his coin shop in Monroe, LA.
60% of Russians see US as threat & hindrance to development - poll
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow (RIA Novosti/Iliya Pitalev)
Over half of Russians think the United States poses a threat to their country and will create barriers for Russia’s economic development, but only 5 percent thought the US could defeat Russia in an all-out war.
The share of Russians who perceive the United States as a general threat is 59 percent, according to the latest research released by the independent pollster Levada Center on Tuesday. This is up from 47 percent in 2007. The share of Russians who don’t see any threat coming from the US is 32 percent now as opposed to 42 percent in 2007.
When asked to elaborate on the possible nature of Russia-US antagonism, 48 percent said the United States was purposefully creating various barriers in order to hinder Russia’s development. Thirty-one percent said they feared a US military invasion on Russian territory and 31 percent thought the US was imposing alien ideas and values on their country through non-military means. Only 24 percent of respondents said they feared the US could impose direct control over Russia’s political course.
When Russians were asked what their expectations were in case of a real military conflict with the United States, 52 percent said that it would end in mutual annihilation. A third answered they thought Russia would win this war and only 5 percent said they expected the United States and NATO to defeat Russia.
At the same time, the majority of Russians – 55 percent - said they didn’t expect their country to be the first to use nuclear weapons, even in the case of war with the US and NATO (13 percent completely ruled out such possibility and 42 percent said such a development was extremely unlikely).Seven percent said that this was possible.
Levada Center’s leading researcher Karina Pipiya said in comments to Izvestia daily that the shift in public moods was due to the spreading of the idea that Russia historically follows its own path of development. Such a position is now shared by the Russian authorities and general public. Therefore, most Russians blame any attempts to counter their country’s course in foreign and domestic policy as a move aimed as containing and weakening Russia’s influence and strength, Pipiya said.
The researcher noted that a different recent poll showed that 57 percent of Russians believe the authorities shouldn’t pay any attention to criticism from the West.
In April, the Levada Center conducted a poll that showed 55 percent of Russians want their homeland to pursue its own way of development and only 17 percent think Russia should take the same path as Western nations. Nineteen percent of respondents said Russia should return to the ways of the Soviet Union.
Twelve percent tend to the view that Russia will join “the path of great Eastern nations,” like China and India.
'Hide & seek' star systems: Milky Way may harbor hidden galaxy
Image from wikipedia.org
Numerous ancient galaxies, previously thought to have been destroyed after colliding or merging with each other, have probably been playing 'hide-and-seek' with scientists for years, obscured by discs of 'stolen' stars from other galaxies.
Scientists now say the Milky Way, the galaxy that contains our Solar System,may also be concealing one.
In 2005, astronomers detected an array of compact spherical galaxies dating from the early universe. The galaxies (only about a third the size of similarly shaped ones in our own cosmic arena) were abundant some 11 billion years ago. Now they are almost extinct. It was previously believed that galaxy interactions were to blame for their demise.
However, there were many gaps in knowledge, such as: "It was known that there are not enough mergers; this was an unexplained problem," according to Alister Graham of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.
"Pretty much all of the compact massive galaxies were thought to be missing from the nearby universe," Graham told the New Scientist. "Very few compact massive galaxies had been found locally, just a handful."
The Swinburne scientists, led by Graham, managed to shed light on the mystery when they began to scrutinize surveys of galaxies in the local universe only to find that many had been wrongly characterized. Thorough analysis of images has revealed that as many as 21 galaxies that originally looked like "giant elliptical galaxies" - big 3D clouds of stars - proved to be flat 2D disc galaxies with bulges in the middle, according to the New Scientist.
Those bulges have "exactly the same physical mass and compact size as the galaxies in the early universe," Graham stated. It basically means the majority of compact spheroids aren’t missing, but have been hiding behind a disc they grew by gathering hydrogen gas and stars from smaller galaxies.
"The original, compact spheroid of stars remains basically unchanged in their centers," Graham noted, adding they were "hiding in plain sight," misleading astronomers.
Our own galaxy's central bulge may once have been one of these compact galaxies, according to the scientist.
There are 1,000 times more of these galaxies-within-galaxies in the local universe than previously thought, about as many as there were in the early universe, scientists believe.
Cashless Denmark: Should total e-commerce be embraced?
With Denmark moving towards a completely cash-free economy there has been a heated debate between the experts who think it’s a natural thing caused by technological development and those who warn that total traceability has a dark side.
The Danish government has proposed that certain businesses such as petrol stations, restaurants and clothes retailers should no longer be legally required to accept cash. Moreover, a third of the Danish population already uses a mobile payment app when making transactions.
Is this trend a natural pace of progress or are officials blinded by seemingly posh perspectives? RT has spoken to George Harrap, CEO of Bitspark, a Bitcoin startup, and Robert David Steele, IT strategic analyst and innovator, whose biography can be found on robertdavidsteele.com.
Iris Scanners, Widely Used By US Military, Could Be Coming To A Police Department Near You
Iris scans could become part of a routine traffic stop, thanks to technology being developed by researchers at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University that can grab an image from a distance of 40 feet. The technology would allow police to take an image the second a driver glances into the rear-view mirror.
“It’s no different than a camera taking a picture of you,” said Marios Savvides, a research professor at CMU’s computer engineering department and the director of the CyLab Biometrics Center. “You could be anywhere within a 6- to 12-meter radius and it will find you and zoom in and capture your iris.”
The technology would be a major development for iris biometric scanners, which have been hampered for years by accuracy at long distances. But adoption also would create legal questions by relying on technology that’s similar to the local license plate databases that have been in use in Virginia, California and other municipalities.
“It could be used surreptitiously,” said Jennifer Lynch, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation…
After Major Nepal Earthquake, Himalayas Drop Several Feet
Moving a mountain is considered about as possible as emptying an ocean with a teaspoon. Sure, over time, the rocky peaks of a mountain can be worn down and moved by millions of years of weathering and erosion, but moving it in one fell swoop? Impossible.
Fed said to have debt ceiling plan involving market interventions
The Federal Reserve drew up extensive plans for handling a U.S. debt default that included scheduling deferred payments and lending cash to investors, according to a lawmaker who cited Fed documents.
America courted disaster in 2011 and 2013 when political fights over the national debt nearly left the federal government unable to pay its bills.
Analysts and officials warned that missing payments could lead to economic calamity, and details have only slowly emerged over how financial officials braced for the unthinkable.
Ex-CIA officer jailed for 3.5 years in Iran leaks case
A former CIA officer has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for leaking details of a secret mission to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Jeffrey Sterling had faced a recommended sentence of 20 years or more under federal sentencing guidelines for violations of the Espionage Act.
A jury convicted him in January of telling New York Times journalist James Risen about a classified plan to trick the Iranian government by slipping flawed nuclear blueprints through a Russian intermediary.
Prosecutors sought a stiff sentence at Monday’s hearing in federal court in Alexandria. The defense said his punishment should be more in line with that of former CIA Director David Petraeus. He got probation last month for leaking classified information to his biographer, who was also his mistress.
‘Gay Propaganda’ to Defend Sweden From Russian Submarines – Peace Activists
Activists from the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society (SPAS) decided to use ‘gay propaganda’ to fend off alleged Russian submarines lurking around Swedish waters, Swedish TV channel SVT reported.
“Welcome to Sweden. Gay since 1944. This way if you’re gay.”
Pro-ISIS hacking crew threatens attacks on US and says that it already accessed info of ‘American leadership’ but won’t say who
Members of the extremist group Islamic State threatened more cyber warfare attacks against the US and Europe in a video released Monday.
Social media reports from those friendly to ISIS had announced earlier in the day that they were going to release a ‘Message to America’.
After the group’s self-proclaimed 2pm EST deadline, it reportedly released a video saying that they had hacked into websites of ‘the American leadership’ though no politicians or influential individuals were named.
The video begins by showing instances of previous successful hacks on US authorities by the so-called Cyber Caliphate, including January’s takeover of Central Command’s Twitter account in which an ‘I love you ISIS banner’ was posted.
Former Soviet spy: We created Liberation Theology
Espionage deep in the heart of Europe. Secrets in the KGB. Defection from a communist nation. Ion Mihai Pacepa has seen his share of excitement, serving as general for Communist Romania’s secret police before defecting to the United States in the late 1970s.
The highest-ranking defector from communism in the ‘70s, he spoke to CNA recently about the connection between the Soviet Union and Liberation Theology in Latin America. Below are excerpts of the interview. All footnotes were provided by Pacepa.
In general, could you say that the spreading of Liberation Theology had any kind of Soviet connection?
Yes. I learned the fine points of the KGB involvement with Liberation Theology from Soviet General Aleksandr Sakharovsky, communist Romania’s chief razvedka (foreign intelligence) adviser – and my de facto boss, until 1956, when he became head of the Soviet espionage service, the PGU1, a position he held for an unprecedented record of 15 years.
Catholic church warms to liberation theology as founder heads to Vatican
For decades, Gustavo Gutiérrez, a Peruvian theologian and Dominican priest, was treated with suspicion and even contempt by the Vatican’s hierarchy, which saw him as a dangerous Marxist firebrand who used faith as an instrument of revolution.
Gutiérrez was the founder of a progressive movement within the Catholic church known as liberation theology, and while he was never censured in the manner that some of his philosophical compatriots were, there were often rumblings that Gutiérrez was being investigated by Pope John Paul II’s doctrinal czar, a German cardinal named Joseph Ratzinger who would later become Pope Benedict.
But when the 86-year-old Peruvian arrives in Rome this week as a key speaker at a Vatican event, he will be welcomed as a guest, in a striking show of how Pope Francis – the first Latin American pontiff – has brought tenets of this sometimes controversial movement to the fore of his church, particularly in his pronouncements against the blight of poverty and the dangers of capitalism.
In its height in the late 1960s and 1970s, liberation theology – a distinctly Latin American movement – preached that it was not enough for the church to simply empathise and care for the poor. Instead, believers said, the church needed to be a vehicle to push for fundamental political and structural changes that would eradicate poverty, even – some believed – if it meant supporting armed struggle against oppressors.
SWAT team shot Muhammad cartoon event gunmen, police chief says
Authorities had “absolutely no information” about an imminent threat to the prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, where two gunmen opened fire last week, police said Monday, revealing new information about how officials responded to the May 3 attack.
Armed with assault rifles, Elton Simpson, 30, and his roommate Nadir Soofi, 34, shot and wounded a security guard outside the event, but were shot to death by police before they could kill anyone, police have said.
In a news conference Monday, Garland Police Chief Mitch Bates said SWAT team members, not a traffic officer, fired the final shots at the suspects seconds after the attack began. It had previously been reported that a Garland traffic officer with a service pistol had confronted and killed the suspects.
North’s missile test prompts worries in Seoul
Jolted by North Korea’s firing of a ballistic missile from a submarine, politicians in the South demanded that the military completely rewrite its defense strategy.
But the minister of defense said Monday the country is fairly capable of countering existing threats from the North and is also improving that ability.
The ruling Saenuri Party called an urgent meeting with top military officials including Minister of National Defense Han Min-koo and Adm. Choi Yoon-hee, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Monday morning to address the North’s test-firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). The North’s state-run media reported Saturday that the launch from the submarine took place successfully on Friday with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un observing firsthand.
A submarine capable of launching a ballistic missile is a security nightmare for not only Seoul but also Washington and Tokyo, although military experts said the North’s program is at an early stage and operational deployment is still years away.
At the emergency consultation between the ruling party and the Ministry of National Defense, Floor Leader Rep. Yoo Seong-min said the North’s SLBM test requires the South to rethink its missile defense system.
North Korean submarines ‘could fire nuclear missiles at America within two years’
North Korea’s neighbors have described terrifying images of submarines firing ballistic missiles “very serious and concerning” and warned the weapons could be used on the United States within just two years.
Dictator Kim Jong-un was pictured watching the offshore test launch at the weekend, which came just days after the volatile and secretive nation threatened to attack sworn enemy America with nuclear weapons.South Korean officials claimed the communist country could perfect the devastating ballistic missile technology – with capability of reaching US mainland from an undetectable distance – within two to three years.
Kim Min-seok, South Korea’s defense ministry spokesman, said: “We urge North Korea to immediately stop developing submarine-launched ballistic missiles which hinder the stability of the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia.”
A Bin Laden conspiracy? Report alleging coverup draws denials all around
A spectacular story alleging a high-level coverup of the true details of the killing of Osama bin Laden is prompting aggressive pushback in Washington.
The controversial report suggests many of the best-known details of the death of the al-Qaida leader were actually fabricated by the U.S. government.
It’s written by a legendary journalist whose reports exposed atrocities during the Vietnam War in the 1960s, led to an overhaul of the CIA’s civilian oversight in the 1970s and revealed prisoner abuse after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
But this time Seymour Hersh got it wrong, his critics say — and they piled on Monday.
“I can tell you that the Obama White House is not the only one to observe that the story is riddled with inaccuracies and outright falsehoods,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
He quoted a former deputy CIA director who said every sentence was wrong and a CNN security reporter who opined that what’s true in the report isn’t new and what’s new isn’t true: “No one here is critically concerned about it,” the White House spokesman added.
Bird flu found in Indiana; 15th state to report it
A strain of avian flu that until now had been found only in the Western United States has cropped up in Indiana, bringing the total number of states affected by the virulent outbreak to 15, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Monday.
The eastward spread of any strain of the highly contagious H5 virus is worrying to farmers and investigators, who have hoped that warmer spring weather would help lower the number of infections in birds and curtail the virus’ spread.
The highly pathogenic H5N8 strain had been seen only in the Pacific flyway during this outbreak. Federal and state officials have confirmed it in commercial chicken and turkey farms in California and a backyard poultry flock in Oregon. It was also found in captive falcons in Idaho and Washington, according to the USDA.
