Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, December 09, 2014.
OND is a regular
community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Creation and early water-bearing of the OND concept came from our very own Magnifico - proper respect is due.
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This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: Let's Have a War by Fear
News below Aunt Flossie's hairdo . . .
Please feel free to browse and add your own links, content or thoughts in the Comments section.
Any timestamps shown are relative to each publication.
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Top News |
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This graphic shows that torture is a global problem
By Sara Yasin and Simran Khosla
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Responsibility for this regime of rendition, detention, and "enhanced interrogation" falls on the shoulders of officials on multiple levels — including Bush, Cheney, their legal counsels, and leadership at the CIA, who together provided the legal rationale for this program. And yet accountability has been scarce. The report details even the lack of accountability for CIA personnel who went beyond the most extreme state-sanctioned techniques. According to the report, the CIA did not properly vet the officers responsible for carrying out their program, including one who "reportedly admitted to sexual assault." In another case, the CIA failed to discipline an officer for the death of a detainee during interrogation.
The reports' findings drew outrage from around the globe and accusations that the United States consistently and hypocritically fails at holding itself to the same standards for human rights as it does for other countries. As Human Rights Watch pointed out Monday and as Tuesday's report confirms, the US has a track record of using some of the very torture tactics that it condemns abroad, including solitary confinement and waterboarding.
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And it's not necessarily a problem that ended with the Bush administration. Gregg Levine over at Al Jazeera America points out that the same grounds used to justify the CIA's torture program were used by the Obama administration to justify drone strikes. Levine goes on to say that we have no way of knowing for sure that the horrors detailed in the report aren't happening anymore.
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Here's a look at how pervasive torture still is — despite world leaders' paying lip service to honoring human rights.
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It's Only Taken Us 5 Years to Forget the Single Biggest Lesson of the Financial Meltdown
By Kevin Drum
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Yesterday the Federal Housing Finance Agency issued new underwriting guidelines that allow some home buyers to take out mortgages with down payments as small as 3 percent. Dean Baker brings down the hammer:
....It is dubious housing policy to encourage moderate income people to take out mortgages on which they are likely to default....I think it's great to help low and moderate income people get good housing. But this policy is about helping banks get their bad mortgages insured by taxpayers.
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. . . If there was a single primary culprit in the collapse of the global economy, it was excessive leverage. It was embedded in exotic financial instruments. It was encouraged by weak banking regulations. It was exploited by traders and executives who all knew they could make a quick buck as long as the music kept playing. In the end, though, it turned Wall Street into a house of cards that didn't have the strength to withstand meaningful losses. When those losses finally, inevitably, materialized, the financial system collapsed.
But it's not just bank leverage that's a problem. Wall Street's most dangerous debt all originated with consumers, who had been relentlessly encouraged to take on ever more debt and ever more leverage for nearly a decade—mostly in the form of risky mortgages that were almost designed for failure thanks to down payment requirements that got steadily weaker as the housing bubble steadily inflated. If you make a 20 percent down payment, your leverage is 4:1. That's fine. If things go south, your house can lose a lot of value and you're still OK. (And so is your bank.) With a 10 percent down payment, your leverage is 9:1. That's more dangerous. But a 3 percent down payment? Now we're talking about leverage of 32:1. That's crazytown territory. Even a moderate setback can wipe you out completely. Put enough loans like that together and then lash them into leverage-soaked financial derivatives that no one truly understands, and a moderate setback can wipe out the entire financial system.
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Detroit poised to exit bankruptcy
By Kim Gittleson
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The city of Detroit will start the process of paying off its creditors on Wednesday, as it officially exits the largest civic bankruptcy in US history.
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In a letter to to Michigan governor Rick Snyder, the city's emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, said Detroit's financial crisis had been "rectified".
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On 7 November, US judge Stephen Rhodes approved Mr Orr's plan for restructuring the city's finances, which involved shedding around $7bn of its $18bn in debt and other obligations.
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However, the city still has a long way to go - and many of the city's pensioners were forced to accept cuts to their future benefits in order to appease creditors.
While the Detroit Institute of Art's famed collection was preserved, other parts of the city - such as a hockey stadium - were turned over to investors.
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International |
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Australia scraps plans to charge for doctor visits
By (BBC)
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A controversial plan to charge a A$7 (£3.7; $5.70) fee to see a GP has been scrapped by the Australian government.
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But the government will cut the amount it pays to GPs to see adult patients by A$5, with doctors to decide whether or not to pass that cost on to patients.
The government had introduced the payment in an attempt to shift some of its health care costs onto consumers.
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"In the end, though, this is a question for the doctors, and what we're saying to the doctors is for adults who aren't on concession cards, we don't think it's unreasonable for you to charge a co-payment," Mr Abbott said.
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Japan secrecy law takes effect amid protests
By (Al Jazeera)
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A strict new state-secrets law that critics charge will help conceal government misdeeds and limit press freedom has taken effect in Japan.
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The law mandates prison terms of up to 10 years for public servants or others leaking state secrets, while journalists and others who encourage such leaks could be imprisoned for five years. Kyodo news agency said that about 460,000 documents would be affected immediately.
"The law says that the act of leaking itself is bad no matter what the circumstances," Yukiko Miki at Clearinghouse Japan, a non-profit organisation that promotes information disclosure, told the Reuters news agency.
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"This is really too much," said Hisako Ueno, 60, a retired teacher at a Saturday protest. "It seems to allow Abe to do virtually anything by saying 'it's for the good of the country' without anybody knowing what they are actually doing."
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Kenya investigates Al-Jazeera over 'death squad' report
By (BBC)
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Kenya has ordered Al-Jazeera be investigated and face possible charges over a report alleging the country's police run death squads.
The report heard from men claiming to be anti-terror officers, who said they killed suspects on government orders.
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"The documentary was deliberately planned and aired at a time when Kenya is seeking support to strengthen its war against terror," the ministry tweeted.
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It also alleged that Western intelligence agencies provided some of the information needed to carry out the assassinations.
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Hungary: Urine sample protest against drug test idea
By (BBC)
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A proposal to make young people in Hungary take annual drug tests has gone down badly with one youth party, which delivered urine samples to the local council in protest.
District mayor Mate Kocsis, from the ruling Fidesz party, wants all 12 to 18-year-olds to be tested for drugs, as well as politicians and journalists, the Hungary Today website reports. But the Young Democrats don't think much of the idea, so several members filled little jars with urine and took them to Budapest's 8th district council offices, where Mr Kocsis works. The group is the youth wing of the opposition Democratic Coalition party. Outside the council building, Young Democrats leader Bendeguz Koppany Szarvas told the press that the mayor should have "nothing to do with our private lives whatsoever", and accused him of seeing all young people as drug addicts.
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USA Politics, Economy, Major Events |
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When Charter Schools Are Nonprofit in Name Only
By Marian Wang
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A couple of years ago, auditors looked at the books of a charter school in Buffalo, New York, and were taken aback by what they found. Like all charter schools, Buffalo United Charter School is funded with taxpayer dollars. The school is also a nonprofit. But as the New York State auditors wrote, Buffalo United was sending " virtually all of the School's revenues" directly to a for-profit company hired to handle its day-to-day operations.
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In the charter-school sector, this arrangement is known as a "sweeps" contract because nearly all of a school's public dollars – anywhere from 95 to 100 percent – is "swept" into a charter-management company.
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"It's really just a pass-through for for-profit entities," said Eric Hall, an attorney in Colorado Springs who specializes in work with charter schools and has come across many sweeps contracts. "In what sense is that a nonprofit endeavor? It's not."
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Take the case of Brooklyn Excelsior Charter School, another National Heritage Academies school. In 2012, state auditors tried to track the $10 million in public funding given to the school, only to conclude they were " unable to determine ... the extent to which the $10 million of annual public funding provided to the school was actually used to benefit its students." From what auditors could tell, the school was paying above-market rent for its building, which in turn is owned by a subsidiary of National Heritage Academies. They also had concerns about equipment charges.
The auditors couldn't ultimately tell whether the charges were reasonable because National Heritage Academies refused to share the relevant financial details. The firm also refused to provide detailed documentation for $1.6 million in costs recorded as corporate services, claiming the information was proprietary, according to the audit.
While the auditors in New York were disturbed by what they found, they could do little more than issue reports with advisory recommendations. "We can't audit the management company," said Brian Butry, a spokesman for New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
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Supreme court: employers do not have to fill pockets while checking them
By (Reuters via The Guardian)
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On a 9-0 vote, the court decided that employees of Integrity Staffing Solutions facilities in Nevada, where merchandise is processed and shipped, cannot claim compensation for the time they spend going through security screening – up to half an hour a day – aimed at protecting against theft.
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The high court reversed an April 2013 ruling by the ninth US circuit court of appeals, which had found that the screenings were an integral part of the warehousing job done for the benefit of the employer and should be compensated.
Employees had sued Integrity Staffing Solutions for back wages and overtime pay, saying they should have been paid for the time spent going through security screenings.
. . . Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, wrote a brief concurring opinion to stress that the high court’s opinion was consistent with Labor Department regulations.
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President Barack Obama’s administration had backed the warehousing company’s position. Both the company and the government said the security checks are not central to warehouse work and instead are more like waiting in line to punch a time clock, an activity some courts have found does not require compensation.
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Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
As the lead singer for the punk band Fear, Lee Ving earned a reputation as a sharp, acid-tongued agitator. His commanding, drill-sergeant vocal delivery and surly attitude helped to build a new breed of bad-tempered hardcore. With songs like "Let's Have a War" and "I Love Livin' in the City," Fear put on a legendarily abrasive stage show, disguising complicated music beneath a blanket of punk-rock attitude.
Still, Ving is not at all what you might expect. College-educated and thirsty for theoretical physics, the clearly intelligent Ving runs his own MySpace page and is starting a record company to release his many musical ventures — everything from out-of-print Fear albums to new recordings by his bluegrass band.
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Well, Black Flag was serious business. I love them for it, but most kids just want to laugh, scream at people and be loud.
Yeah, you're a kid! That's what to do. That's what feeling good is all about! So it all just seemed funny to me. The fact that there were causes also seemed funny to me. . . And we wanted to put across entertaining shows musically and verbally, you know, the banter between the band members and the back-and-forth with the crowd.
That's why it was so great! Because you never knew if you were joking, and it made it very confusing and very excellent.
. . . I wanted the boneheads to think that I was completely serious, that I really wanted to "have a war," and I wanted those that were capable to see the satire in those sort of ridiculous statements and song titles. That way, everybody could go home happy!
Back to what's happening:
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Environment and Greening |
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The Amazon oil spills overlooked by environmental leaders in Lima
By Suzanne Goldenberg
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Over the last few months – as Peru helped guide the United Nations climate negotiations – five separate oil spills along a main oil pipeline through the Amazon have spewed thick black clots of crude across jungle and swamp and carpeted local fishing lagoons with dead fish.
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Oil companies have cleared forests to build roads and helicopter pads. They have cut down a vast swathe of the Amazon for pipelines and other installations, and they have pumped the hot, muddy, toxic waste directly into the rivers.
The Norwegian government pension fund – the world’s largest – dropped its holding in the Spanish firm, Repsol, on the grounds that the company’s operations in the Amazon posed an unacceptably high risk to isolated indigenous tribes. However, Repsol later sold its holdings in that area of the Amazon.
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In June, the government lowered maximum fines for environmental crimes by 50% to welcome oil and gas investors, and barred the environment ministry from sole authority over nominating nature protection areas.
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How the World Trade Center's green ambitions came undone
By James West
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In 2007, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, a state agency created in the aftermath of 9/11 to coordinate rebuilding efforts, introduced aggressive green standards for the tower and its surrounding complex that were “unprecedented in their scope and depth”, according to the building’s architects. The World Trade Center’s towers would be required to attain LEED gold certification, achieve net-zero CO2 emissions (by purchasing green-energy credits) and operate with at least 20% more energy efficiency than the state’s current building code. “Every day is earth day at the World Trade Center,” claimed the port authority.
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Then, three years later, Sandy hit. Around 200m gallons of water cascaded into the lower levels of the site, putting the National September 11 Memorial Museum under at least five feet of water, according to the New York Times. What was unreported, though, was that the flood also destroyed all nine fuel cells.
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In May 2011, Condé Nast signed a $2bn deal to become the tower’s anchor tenant. Built into the terms of the lease was a move-in deadline: the port authority would be liable for penalties or lost earnings if Condé Nast were forced to wait beyond 1 January 2014 to begin the process of moving in.
But the fuel-cell disaster created the real possibility that the port authority and Durst were not going to make the deadline, which was potentially a financial disaster. Part of the problem was a well-documented mistake in the building’s design: a temporary underground structure serving an existing train station was preventing builders from finishing the tower’s giant underground loading dock – the central piece of infrastructure used to haul masses of equipment up and into the tower. Without the loading dock there was no way for tenants to start moving their equipment into the building. And once a new loading dock went in – budgeted to cost $18.4m – it would be all but impossible to remove and replace the dead fuel cells. Nevertheless, with the tight deadline the port authority decided to build the new loading dock. That meant the fuel cells had to come out fast – and finally, after several months, they did.
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Science and Health |
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The most popular deceptive climate graph
By stefan
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The “World Climate Widget” from Tony Watts’ blog is probably the most popular deceptive image among climate “skeptics”. We’ll take it under the microscope and show what it would look like when done properly.
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It is better to plot the surface air temperature. That is what is relevant for us humans: we do not live up in the troposphere, nor do natural ecosystems, nor do we grow our food up there. . .
One needs to scale the CO2 data correctly for an honest comparison with temperature, so that it can actually be used to evaluate climate scientists’ predictions of the CO2 effect. . .
And last but not least one should show honest sunspot data (annual time series) . . .
When done this way the graph looks like this:
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Abortion complication rates are 'very low,' study says
By Danielle Haynes
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The major complication rate of abortion procedures are "rare," less than that of a colonoscopy, researchers at a university in California say.
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The report, published Monday in Obstetrics & Gynecology journal, found that of those abortions, 2.1 percent overall resulted in a complication, with just 0.23 percent having a major complication like a blood transfusion or surgery that required hospitalization.
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"Our study had very complete follow-up data on all of the women in it, and we still found a very low complication rate," said Ushma Upadhyay, PhD, MPH, an assistant professor at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), a program of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at UCSF. "Abortion is very safe as currently performed, which calls into question the need for additional regulations that purportedly aim to improve safety."
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"Many state legislatures have recently passed laws that have the effect of reducing access to abortion by requiring providers to have transfer agreements or admitting privileges with hospitals or to construct their clinics so that they meet the requirements of an ambulatory surgical center," a news release from the university said. "But the researchers said that these restrictions were likely to make women travel further to get abortions or induce them on their own using unsafe methods, both of which may increase the risks for women."
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USDA dumps millions in lunch money on local food
By Nathanael Johnson
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For years, the U.S. has been funding school lunch programs at a level that pretty much only allows for disgustingness. And that hasn’t changed. But the USDA is now parceling out money to help various pilot programs and projects around the country. On Dec. 2, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack went down to Common Market, a sustainable food hub in Philadelphia, to announce a new round of Farm to School grants (details here).
Since 2009, the USDA has provided $160 million for school kitchen equipment, $15 million for making the connections between farm and school, and $5.2 million for training and technical assistance.
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Turning to local food can save schools money in the long run. In California’s San Joaquin Valley, Scott Soiseth has managed to make school lunch popular enough that it’s become a money-making operation. It’s important to note that California provides more money for school lunches than many other states, but for most schools in California that doesn’t translate to radically better lunches or profitability. Soiseth is proof that local food can strengthen the bottom line.
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Technology |
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Eye-Tracking Technology Aims to Take Your Unconscious Pizza Order
By John M. Henderson and The Conversation
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If you prefer to order your pizza without going through all the trouble of actually speaking, Pizza Hut has just the thing for you—“the world’s first subconscious menu.” . . .
This mind-reading menu fuses a tablet computer with an eyetracker. The eyetracker measures your eye movements while you scan through 20 toppings, and decides which of the 4,896 possible combinations you want by measuring the amount of time you spend looking at each one. The tablet lets the diners know what it thinks they want—and waits for conscious approval—before sending the order to the kitchen.
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But can eyetracking really be used to measure unconscious pizza preferences? Well… yes and no. The general idea that looking time reflects preference is based on good science; looking time can reflect many aspects of decision-making and thinking. But this relationship is probabilistic rather than certain. That is, we may spend more time on average looking at things we prefer compared to things we don’t (all else being equal, which is rare in the real world), but for any given item or set of items, there’s no guarantee that a longer look means greater preference. The upshot is that although people on average may look longer at things they like, we cannot use looking time to predict with any certainty what a specific person likes in a specific situation.
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This type of system based on conscious eye movements actually does work. And indeed, systems like this can provide an important computer interface for people who cannot physically use a keyboard or mouse. But because these systems need a relatively long look at each item, most people find them cumbersome and annoying. Why stare at a picture when you can just talk? After all, how hard is it to say “pepperoni”?
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This Artificial Skin Can Feel Pressure, Heat and Dampness
By Sarah Zhang
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Skin is complicated. Our body's largest organ senses touch—but also temperature, pain, wetness, itching, and more. A new, stretchy artificial skin can pick up many of the sensations from the real thing, and it could someday cover a lifelike prosthetic hand.
The bulk of the new skin is composed of a flexible, transparent silicone material called polydimethylsiloxane — or PDMS. Embedded within it are silicon nanoribbons that generate electricity when they're squished or stretched, providing a source of tactile feedback. They can also sense whether an object is hot or cold.
The humidity sensors are made up of capacitors. When the polymer surrounding a capacitor absorbs water, the moisture changes the polymer's ability to store a charge. The capacitors measure that storage change and use it to determine the moisture levels of the environment.
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Cultural |
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Tanzania's albino community: 'Killed like animals'
By (BBC)
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Albino people, who lack pigment in their skin and appear pale, are killed because potions made from their body parts are believed to bring good luck and wealth.
More than 70 albinos have been killed over the last three years in Tanzania, while there have been only 10 convictions for murder, campaigners say.
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"A family of a young girl with albinism had to flee their home twice, in 2011 and 2012, when unidentified men attacked them, saying that they were sent by the father of the home, a fisherman, to get the girls' hair.
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A representative of the Sengerema Albino Society, Mashaka Benedict, told the BBC that even educated people still believe that albino body parts can bring wealth.
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Mr Benedict alleges that prominent people are involved in the "killing business" and this is why very few people have been arrested, charged, convicted or jailed.
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Can Iran 'control' its cohabiting couples?
By (BBC)
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Despite Iran's strict Islamic laws, increasing numbers of young couples are choosing to live together before marriage. It has become so prevalent that the office of the Supreme Leader has issued a statement expressing deep disapproval, as
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In a country where strict Islamic laws mean shaking hands with the opposite sex is illegal, cohabitation is a crime that risks severe punishment.
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At the end of November the head of his office, Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, issued a strongly worded statement calling on officials to "show no mercy" in clamping down on cohabitation.
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Islamic law means it is difficult for women to initiate divorce in the first place. Custody laws automatically favour the father and social stigmas mean life for divorced women is not easy.
Sarah says one reason she decided to live with her current boyfriend was precisely because a previous relationship had broken down when the man's family made it clear they did not think a marriage between the two would last.
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Meteor Blades is known to offer an enlightening Evening Open Diary - you might consider checking that out tonight if you haven't already. |