Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, January 22, 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: I'm Alright by Kenny Loggins
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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Antibiotic Resistance Will Kill 300 Million People By 2050
By Anthony King and ChemistryWorld
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The true cost of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) will be 300 million premature deaths and up to $100 trillion (£64 trillion) lost to the global economy by 2050. This scenario is set out in a new report which looks to a future where drug resistance is not tackled between now and 2050.
The report predicts that the world’s GDP would be 0.5% smaller by 2020 and 1.4% smaller by 2030 with over 100 million premature deaths. The Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, chaired by Jim O’Neill, is significant in that it is a global review that seeks to quantify financial costs.
This issue goes beyond health policy and, on a strictly macroeconomic basis, it makes sense for governments to act now, the report argues. "One of the things that has been lacking is putting some pound signs in front of this problem," says Michael Head at the Farr institute, University College London, UK, who sees hope in how a response to HIV came about. "The world was slow to respond [to HIV], but when the costs were calculated the world leapt into action."
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"When we understand a threat, governments respond with energy and with money," Outterson says. The US recently agreed to put over $5 billion into fighting Ebola. "The threat posed by bacterial resistance is even greater than that of Ebola," he adds. "If this report accurately predicts the world we live in in 2050, then we will have failed on a monumental scale to preserve a global public good."
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NASA Spent $349 Million on a Test Tower It May Never Use
By Sarah Zhang
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In the Washington Post today, David A. Fahrenthold writes about the troubled history of the A-3 test stand at the NASA's Stennis Space Center. Even after its associated spaceflight program was canceled in 2010, construction on A-3 continued thanks to a sneaky amendment by Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi. And now, NASA will continue to spend $700,000 a year maintaining the unused structure.
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The A-3 test stand, however, has now been mothballed. Its vacuum chamber was designed specifically to test a rocket engine that would ignite after leaving the Earth's atmosphere and take a spacecraft to the moon. We aren't going to the moon anymore. There are currently no plans to use this rocket soon, according to the Post, or anything like it that could make use of A-3.
A-3 is emblematic of NASA's lack of a clear goal. As it's skipped from one mission to another, the agency has inspired little vision but a lot of pork barrel spending. When the Post confronted Senator Wicker about his amendment continuing to fund A-3 years after it was clearly not going to be used, he laughed and said, "Just talented legislating."
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NASA Goddard instrument makes first detection of organic matter on Mars
By (ScienceDaily)
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The team responsible for the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on NASA's Curiosity rover has made the first definitive detection of organic molecules at Mars. Organic molecules are the building blocks of all known forms of terrestrial life, and consist of a wide variety of molecules made primarily of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms. However, organic molecules can also be made by chemical reactions that don't involve life, and there is not enough evidence to tell if the matter found by the team came from ancient Martian life or from a non-biological process. Examples of non-biological sources include chemical reactions in water at ancient Martian hot springs or delivery of organic material to Mars by interplanetary dust or fragments of asteroids and comets.
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"We think life began on Earth around 3.8 billion years ago, and our result shows that places on Mars had the same conditions at that time -- liquid water, a warm environment, and organic matter," said Caroline Freissinet of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "So if life emerged on Earth in these conditions, why not on Mars as well?" Freissinet is lead author of a paper on this research submitted to the Journal of Geophysical Research-Planets.
The organic molecules found by the team also have chlorine atoms, and include chlorobenzene and several dichloroalkanes, such as dichloroethane, dichloropropane and dichlorobutane. Chlorobenzene is the most abundant with concentrations between 150 and 300 parts-per-billion. Chlorobenzene is not a naturally occurring compound on Earth. It is used in the manufacturing process for pesticides (insecticide DDT), herbicides, adhesives, paints and rubber. Dichloropropane is used as an industrial solvent to make paint strippers, varnishes and furniture finish removers, and is classified as a carcinogen.
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As part of Curiosity's plan for exploration, an important strategic goal was to sample rocks that represent different combinations of the variables thought to control organic preservation. "The SAM and Mars Science Laboratory teams have worked very hard to achieve this result," said John Grotzinger of Caltech, Mars Science Laboratory's Project Scientist. "Only by drilling additional rock samples in different locations, and representing different geologic histories were we able to tease out this result. At the time we first saw evidence of these organic molecules in the Cumberland sample it was uncertain if they were derived from Mars, however, additional drilling has not produced the same compounds as might be predicted for contamination, indicating that the carbon in the detected organic molecules is very likely of Martian origin."
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'Barbaric' year for journalism as 66 slain
By (Al Jazeera)
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In its annual report published on Tuesday, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said there was an "an evolution in the nature of violence against journalists" with carefully-staged threats and beheadings being used for "very clear purposes."
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"The murders are becoming more and more barbaric and the number of abductions is growing rapidly, with those carrying them out seeking to prevent independent news coverage and deter scrutiny by the outside world," it said.
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The media watchdog said that, though there was a slight drop in the number of murdered journalists this year, down from 71 last year to 66, a total of 720 reporters had been killed since 2005.
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RSF also highlighted several cases of journalists being punished by their governments, including Khadija Ismailova, whose work in Azerbaijan on government corruption has made her a target of smear campaigns, blackmail and spurious legal charges.
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International |
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Boko Haram could 'disenfranchise Nigeria voters'
By (BBC)
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At least 1.5 million people displaced by the Islamist insurgency in north-east Nigeria may not be able to vote in elections if the law is not changed, an electoral official has told the BBC.
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Ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari will challenge President Goodluck Jonathan in the February election.
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However, Boko Haram has stepped up attacks since then and has declared an Islamic state in areas it controls.
'Staggered voting'
. . . people could "transfer" their registration to where they were living but it also stated that they needed to vote where they were registered, Mr Dazzang said.
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UK cops demand list of attendees at university fracking debate
By Cory Doctorow
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Canterbury Christ Church University refused to give the Kent police a list of the attendees at a debate on fracking, despite the cops insistence that they needed to have the names to assess "the threat and risk for significant public events in the county to allow it to maintain public safety."
One of the speakers at the debate, Ian Driver, a Green party councillor in Thanet, has been subjected to extensive police surveillance, though he has no criminal record: the police logged 22 public meetings and demonstrations he helped to organise about gay marriage and animal exports.
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The request follows disclosures that police have been monitoring political activities at universities around the country, and spying on groups that use non-violent methods to further their aims. Last year it was revealed that police attempted to recruit an activist to become an informant and pass on information about Cambridge University students and other protesters.
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Russia: TV astrologer predicts rouble will hold out
By (BBC)
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The Russian media are full of financial experts trying to explain the sharp fall in the rouble exchange rate, but one pro-Kremlin channel is predicting better times ahead - with the help of a top astrologer.
Pavel Globa, whose public career of sometimes wayward political predictions dates back to the Soviet era, tells LifeNews TV viewers that the rouble won't fall below 100 to the euro and the economy will recover by 2017. "We won't see a default in 2015, although next year won't be easy for us," he says, while repeatedly pointing out that he is "no expert on exchange rates". Mr Globa has made something of a comeback in pro-government media this year because of his 2009 prediction that Ukraine would disintegrate into three separate states.
. . . "This moonstruck charlatan was saying the opposite at the start of the year," complains one person on the LifeNews website. "Let's have a witch-doctor with some drums on next," another suggests, which receives the response: "Don't worry, that will happen."
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USA Politics, Economy, Major Events |
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NY State Official Raises Alarm on Charter Schools — And Gets Ignored
By Marian Wang
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Add another voice to those warning about the lack of financial oversight for charter schools. One of New York state's top fiscal monitors told ProPublica that audits by his office have found "practices that are questionable at best, illegal at worst" at some charter schools.
Pete Grannis, New York State's First Deputy Comptroller, contacted ProPublica after reading our story last week about how some charter schools have turned over nearly all their public funds and significant control to private, often for-profit firms that handle their day-to-day operations. The arrangements can limit the ability of auditors and charter-school regulators to follow how public money is spent – especially when the firms refuse to divulge financial details when asked.
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The charter-school debate in New York, as elsewhere, is politically fraught. De Blasio's cautious stance on charters has put him at odds with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose financial backers include some big-dollar charter-school supporters. The state comptroller's office has faced repeated lawsuits from charter groups and operators challenging its authority to audit charter schools.
To Grannis, though, his efforts aren't about politics. His office is "agnostic on charters," as he put it. His office also audits the finances of traditional public-school districts, he pointed out.
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Jeb Bush on Climate Change: "I'm a Skeptic"
By James West
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Today, Jeb Bush, the former Republican Governor of Florida, announced that he would "actively explore" running for president in 2016. If elected, he'd have control over much of the US response to global warming. So how would Bush address the global climate crisis? |
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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:
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He came to fame, of course, in the early ‘70s as one-half of folk-rock duo Loggins and Messina, producing such hits as “Danny’s Song,” “House at Pooh Corner” and “Your Mama Don’t Dance.”
When they parted, he moved more toward adult contemporary pop with his 1977 solo debut “Celebrate Me Home.” In the ’80s, he went Hollywood in a big way, scoring smash hits with movie soundtrack songs, including “I’m Alright” (“Caddyshack”), the title track for “Footloose” and “Danger Zone” (“Top Gun”). . . .
“I have to say those films made good choices on me. And I don’t mean that arrogantly,” he says. “I mean that as luck would have it, those were the films that were presented to me that I liked. And this was a new challenge, to write music for films. In those days, pop music in big-money films was never done. Up to that point, you had the Henry Mancinis and the more straight soundtrack writers, so using individual songs as thematic pieces for a movie was a brand new idea.”
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Those soundtrack songs were the last in his run of big hits, forever associating him with ’80s sound and fashion. Since then, he’s done the mix of solo albums, hit-filled tours and children’s music, now adding a Nashville group that pulls a few styles together.
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“Pop radio has evolved to a different kind of thing, and it’s extremely young now, I guess it always was. Pop music, rock ‘n’ roll is supposed to be music by teenagers, for teenagers, and I ain’t one of them, so it’s probably not appropriate to pretend I am.
Back to what's happening:
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Environment and Greening |
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Cheaper oil could damage renewable energies, says Richard Branson
By John Vidal
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According to Branson, who part-owns Virgin airlines and has invested an estimated £300m in a succession of green fuel, solar and other clean-tech energy developments, the dramatic rise of renewables over the last few years has hurt oil producing countries as much as fracking. “Before the oil price collapsed, solar was actually cheaper [than oil]. If oil goes down to $30-$40 a barrel, then it will make it much harder for clean energy. Governments are going to have to think hard how to adapt to low oil prices,” he said.
Branson was talking ahead of the merger of his not-for-profit low-carbon thinktank Carbon War Room with the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). The latter was set up in 1982 by the west’s most celebrated energy-theorist, Amory Lovins. The two philanthropic organisations that Branson and Lovins head are unique in that they both advise businesses and governments how to reduce carbon emissions.
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According to Lovins, the energy revolution is now in full swing, but many industries have not taken advantage of it. “The unsubsidised cost of electricity from the most cost-effective new onshore wind projects beats all other forms of generation. Solar PV modules have dropped in price by about 80% since 2008, while LED lights are 85% cheaper than five years ago. The integration of various clean technologies, like electric cars, batteries and solar panels, are mutually reinforcing the drive towards competitiveness.”
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But Branson and Lovins are expected to disagree on some energy matters. The businessman is a known advocate of nuclear power, while Lovins earlier this year called Britain’s plans to build a new generation of reactors as“unbelievable”. “Nuclear prices only go up. Renewable energy prices come down. There is absolutely no business case for nuclear. The British policy has nothing to do with economic or any other rational base for decision making.”, he said.
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Most Americans are clueless about how climate change will affect their health
By John Light
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Back in October, the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication surveyed 1,275 Americans about their views on global warming. Yesterday, the organization announced that very few of those they spoke to — only 3 in 10 — had thought a “moderate amount” or a “great deal” about how climate change will impact health. Most hadn’t considered the matter. Less than a fifth of all Americans could come up with a way in which climate change is affecting health, or could name which groups would be most vulnerable. (Of course, according to separate Yale survey, 19 percent of Americans don’t accept that climate change is happening at all.)
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Once the survey got them thinking about global warming and health, half of respondents said agencies like the CDC, FEMA, and NIH should be doing more to prepare for climate change … though only a third wanted to increase agencies’ funding to enable them to do so.
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But even if most Americans aren’t thinking about climate change, the Obama administration is trying to make sure that healthcare providers are. As part of its Climate Action Plan, the administration released a “climate resiliency guide” for the healthcare sector yesterday, detailing best practices. It makes a range of suggestions, from rebuilding hospitals to prepare for severe weather — making sure that backup electricity, water, and heat are available on-site — to having healthcare workers coordinate with urban planners on transportation to make sure that doctors and others can get to work during an emergency. Representatives of major healthcare organizations visited the White House yesterday to endorse the report and pledge to put its recommendations into practice.
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California's water woes quantified
By Jonathan Amos
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Scientists have assessed the scale of the epic California drought and say it will require more than 40 cubic km of water to return the US state to normal.
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Grace data indicates total water storage in these basins - that is all snow, surface water, soil moisture and ground water combined - has plummeted by roughly 15 cubic km a year.
This number is not far short of all the water that runs through the great Colorado River (nearly 20 cubic km), which is one of the primary sources for import into the state.
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Rather worryingly, a lot of the deficit - two-thirds - is accounted for by reductions in ground water, which constitutes an unsustainable level of extraction.
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Science and Health |
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Scientists trace nanoparticles from plants to caterpillars: Are nanoparticles getting in our food?
By (ScienceDaily)
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The study, one of the first to examine how nanoparticles move through human-relevant food chains, found that nanoparticle accumulation in both plants and animals varied significantly depending upon the type of surface coating applied to the particles. The research is available online in the American Chemical Society's journal Environmental Science & Technology.
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"In industrial applications, nanoparticles are often coated with a polymer to increase solubility, improve stability, enhance properties and for other reasons," said study co-author Pedro Alvarez, professor and chair of Rice's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. "We expect surface coatings to play a significant role in whether and how nanomaterials may accumulate in food webs."
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Koo and colleagues found caterpillars that fed on plants containing quantum dots gained less weight and grew more slowly than caterpillars that fed on untainted leaves. By examining the caterpillar's excrement, the scientists were also able to estimate whether cadmium, selenium and intact quantum dots might be accumulating in the animals. Again, the coating played an important role.
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Fat 'breathed out' of body via lungs, say scientists
By Michelle Roberts
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Fat can be breathed out as well as burned off as you lose weight, biochemists who have studied metabolism at a microscopic level say.
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Fat from food is stored in the body in cells called adipocytes. It is stored as a compound called triglyceride.
Triglyceride consists of three kinds of atoms; carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, and this means that when it is broken down around a fifth of it forms water (H2O) and four-fifths becomes carbon dioxide (CO2).
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They estimate that an average person loses at least 200g of carbon every day and roughly a third of that occurs as we sleep.
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Technology |
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The ethics of hacked email and otherwise ill-gotten information
By Kelly McBride
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Sony and Aaron Sorkin both got it wrong. There are journalism ethics to mining emails hacked by someone else. But the question is not whether or not to mine them, but rather how.
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As a journalist, your ethical obligations remain the same whether information is delivered directly to you by a confidential informant, or simply posted to a public website. Your first priority is accuracy. Can you verify that the information itself is true? Or are you just repeating it? On top of that, how can you supplement accuracy with both precision and context to add value to the information?
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Rather than insisting that journalists delete information they’ve published, Sony lawyers would have perhaps gained more traction and public sympathy if they had reminded newsrooms of their obligation to verify truths.
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Researchers Figured Out How to Prevent That White Film on Chocolate
By Andrew Liszewski
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It doesn't hinder how it tastes in any way, but that white film that often appears on the surface of chocolate after a while looks really unappealing. Known as fat bloom, it affects even the highest quality of chocolate, and most often chocolate-covered treats. But it's only recently that Fraunhofer's researchers were finally able to figure out why chocolate coatings were more prone to the effect.
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In order to achieve a shiny finish, chocolate-coated treats are immediately chilled after passing under a waterfall of melted chocolate, which will quickly solidify and crystallize the coating. The faster the coating can solidify, the longer it takes for fats to rise to the surface and create that white film.
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The researchers also identified certain types of fats often used in fillings that actually contribute to a softer chocolate coating, which also make it easier for fats to bloom on the surface. So while there's no quick and instant fix to the problem, but knowing is half the battle and there are ways to avoid the trouble spots. So the next time you open a box of chocolates from two Christmases ago, it might look as shiny and delicious as the day they left the factory.
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Cultural |
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Looking back: Schools as killing fields
By (Al Jazeera)
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On Tuesday, seven armed men entered a school in the northwestern Pakistani town of Peshawar. The attackers, dressed in army fatigues and strapped with suicide bombs, rounded up students and teachers of the school and opened fire.
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As recently as August 2014, Israel bombed a school, sheltering some 3,000 Palestinians, during their invasion of Gaza, In Nigeria, the armed group Boko Haram has repeatedly raided schools over the past five years, killing indiscriminately in the name of opposing Western education. The abduction of more than 200 girls from Chibok in April 2014 as also stands out in its heinousness.
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United States | 20 April 1999: Two students, dressed in trench coats, entered the Columbine High school in Littleton, Colorado, opening fire indiscriminately on students. Twelve students were killed along with a school teacher and 20 others were injured. The attackers then killed themselves.
The tragedy sparked a national conversation on gun control laws, bullying in school and even violence in popular culture. The incident also prompted the production of Michael Moore's award winning documentary 'Bowling for Columbine' - focusing on gun-control law in the US.
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Russia | 1 September 2004: Chechen rebels, calling for recognition of Chechnya at the UN and for the Russian withdrawal from Chechnya, took over a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, in Russia.
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After three days, Russian security forces, using heavy weaponry, stormed the school. In the firefight that ensued, more than 300 people were killed, including more than 185 children.
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Media say rapes still India's 'biggest shame'
By (BBC)
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Two years after the horrific gang rape and murder of a student in Delhi, sexual assaults against women continue to be India's biggest shame, papers say.
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"While on paper, landmark reforms have been ushered in, many challenges have cropped up in enforcing them," The Times of India of India says in another report.
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The Times of India adds that these courts have not been "able to deliver desired results" and also points out "massive gaps in policing and governance".
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Papers also say that the mind-set of the "patriarchal" political class in the country remains incompatible with women's rights.
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"We have allowed the gender discourse to become so one-sided that women who go out at night are frowned upon and women who beat up men are celebrated," she adds.
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Dalai Lama concedes he may be the last
By (BBC)
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Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has said he realises that he may be the last to hold the title.
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Whether another Dalai Lama came after him would depend on the circumstances after his death and was "up to the Tibetan people", he said.
He pointed out that the role no longer included political responsibilities; in 2011 the Dalai Lama handed these to an elected leader of the Tibetan government in exile, Lobsang Sangay.
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China has said repeatedly that it will chose the next Dalai Lama.
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"There is no guarantee that some stupid Dalai Lama won't come next, who will disgrace himself or herself. That would be very sad. So, much better that a centuries-old tradition should cease at the time of a quite popular Dalai Lama."
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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. |