Odd Stories: Coin With Sex Imagery Discovered

London – An amateur archaeologist with a metal detector has discovered a coin with the image of a man and woman having sex. On the opposite side is XIIII – note we currently use the Roman numerals XIV for the same number – which historians say may represent the original owner of the coin paid Roman coins, or one day's pay in the first century, to get it.

At the moment experts say it's the first of its kind found in England. The bronze coin was preserved by mud for approximately 2,000 years until it was found.

The amateur archaeologist is pastry chef Regis Cusan, who found it in West London. “The day I made the find it was a very low, early tide and raining heavily. At first I thought it was a Roman coin, because of the thickness and diameter,” he said. “When I rubbed the sand off the artefact the first thing I saw was the number on one side and what I thought was a goddess on the other. Little did I know at the time it was actually a rare Roman brothel token. To find something like that is a truly exciting find.”

The coin, which brings the harsh realities and history of the sex trade industry to light once more, has been donated to the Museum of London. It will be on display for the next three months.

Odd Stories: Student Must Pay $210.79 Fine for Doughnut

Powell, Wyoming - A Northwest college student has to pay $210.79 for a doughnut.

Zach O'Dell was accused of eating the doughnut without paying when he was with friends in a store in November.

There will be no trial for the deed because O'Dell has agreed to pay 200 dollars for the fine, 10 dollars for court costs, and the 79 cents for the original cost of the doughnut.

Even though O'Dell offered to pay for the doughnut after finding out it wasn't paid for by his friends the store ownder, Brent Foulger, said “There is no gray area; it’s either paid for or not paid for,” citing in the past he has had things stolen from his store by the college-age crowd.

City attorney Sandra Kitchens said if in six months O'Dell has stayed out of trouble the charge will be dropped from his record.

Odd Stories: Orangutan Gets Birth Control Implant

Cleveland – Veterinarians got a lesson at Cleveland Clinic from a physician when it comes to installing a birth-control device in an orangutan.

One doctor, Judith Volkar, had a major hand in it. After she showed several vets how to put in a new birth-control device, she was found herself watching as Albert Lewandowski did the procedure on an orangutan named Kitra. Nobody in the United States has ever done it before to an orangutan.

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo curator Geoffrey Hall said the zoo may want Kitra to breed someday, but at the moment they don't want her to do so, which led to this surgery before she was introduced to four other orangutans.

Kitra was awake within two hours with no apparent side-effects.

Odd Stories: State Representative Wants to Bring Back Public Hangings

Raleigh - Claiming he was “tired, angry, and upset” about an inmate's letter to a newspaper a North Carolina state representative said he accidentally sent an email, calling for the reinstatement of public hangings and meant for another member of congress, to the entire general assembly.

Republican Larry Pittman's email stated "We need to make the death penalty a real deterrent again by actually carrying it out. Every appeal that can be made should have to be made at one time, not in a serial manner. If murderers (and I would include abortionists, rapists, and kidnappers, as well) are actually executed, it will at least have the deterrent effect upon them. For my money, we should go back to public hangings, which would be more of a deterrent to others, as well."

The email was a response to a letter death row prisoner Danny Robbie Hembree Jr., in prison after he suffocated a teenager in 2009, sent to the Gaston Gazette. Hemree wrote about how jail isn't that bad and he's “a gentleman of leisure.” He included a statement in which he said the judicial system is likely to keep him alive for decades.

When contacted about it by WRAL he affirmed he wrote and sent the email but "I was filled with anger, disgust, and frustration, as well as a profound sense of grief for the family of the young woman he killed. I felt a need to vent some of these feelings and intended to do so to him alone. In the process, I got a bit carried away and overstated my case. I am sure I am not the only one who has ever done that."

Odd Stories: Man Gets Arrested for Trespassing in a Jail

Flagstaff, Arizona – After being serving his sentence for trespassing, a man was arrested for the crime again without leaving the jail.

Martin Batieni Kombate was arrested the previous week for the crime but when officers arrived to escort him out of the Coconino County Sheriff's Office jail, he refused to leave because he didn't know where his wallet was located. After telling an officer from the Flagstaff Police Department who was sent to talk to him he wouldn't leave until he found his wallet, he was arrested again for trespassing.

Odd Stories: Teens Caught Using CNN Computers for Facebook

Aldayne Fearon

Francis Mutemwa

Atlanta - Two teenagers are in jail after they broke into CNN's newsroom in the early morning hours of January 27^th.

Aldayne Fearon and Francis Mutemwa were found by police checking their Facebook pages according to police. They were discovered after CNN's security notified the officers “someone [was] in their secure area newsroom.”


It appears Fearon and Mutemwa drove to the CNN building, climbed over a ledge, “and started working on two computers” according to spokeswoman for the Atlanta police Kim Jones.

The two are facing charges of criminal trespassing.

BP to Cover 42-Billion in Oil Spill Costs

United States/Great Britain - British Petroleum will likely have to pay the entire bill of $42-billion after it failed to transfer some of the cost to Transocean, a contractor it worked with when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ruled BP must uphold a clause in its deal with the company protecting it from compensatory damage claims filed against it. However he has left open the chance Transocean will have to pay some or all punitive damages and civil penalties the U.S. government may impose upon it under the Clean Water Act.

It's estimated BP will have to pay anywhere from 3.5 to more than 20-billion dollars in civil fines alone to the workers of the Gulf.

The ruling was most likely influenced by the fact that while Transocean owned the rig itself, BP owned most of the Macondo well that blew up, leading to the spill.

Initially, according to Reuters, BP sought to shift the cost of the disaster, to Transocean.

Lou Colasuonno, Transocean's spokesman, said the ruling is a victory and it "discredits BP's ongoing attempts to evade both its contractual and financial obligations."

Police Arrest Cat Owner for Cruelty

Percy Love

Chicago - Percy Love, a 22-year-old Southwest Side resident was arrested Monday afternoon after officers witnessed him take a running start and kick his black cat named Nightmare into the air. The cat, just under a year old, went flying 15-18 feet high and Love ran after the feline with both hands in the air in the "field goal" gesture. As he ran towards the cat, officers noted that he was also laughing with enjoyment.

Currently held on $50,000 bail, Love's charged with one count of animal cruelty. He told the arresting officers, "This is my cat Nightmare. He is tough, we play like that all the time -- it's just a cat."

Nightmare

Chicago's Animal Care and Control representative Cherie Travis stated how though the kitten didn't suffer any life-threatening injuries, vets are still performing X-rays to insure no internal damage has occurred to the cat.

During a hearing January 24, the court gave Animal Care and Control ownership of Nightmare.  Travis said she had high hopes for Nightmares' possible adoption.

"He's a very friendly cat, hopefully he'll be up for adoption soon," she said.

New York Mesothelioma Attorney Urges Canada to Keep Mine Closed

Quebec, Canada - Following 130 years of mining in Canada's Jeffrey Mine, pressure from activists against the mine's export, asbestos, has led to a temporary seizure of operations. One Mesothelioma attorney working from New York insisted all of Canada's asbestos mines stay closed as asbestos' carcinogenic side-effects on human health have recently "come to light".

"Too many lives in America and around the world have already been lost due to asbestos exposure," said attorney Joseph W. Belluck of Belluck & Fox, LLP. Belluck's comment came in addition to pressure from asbestos activist Stacy Cattran. Cattran commented on how Roshi Chadha, a known asbestos exporter, was also a board member on two medical institutions in Montreal. Cattran's opposition against Chadha was successful during her campaign to have him leave the Canadian Red Cross prior to the new demonstrations.

When opened, Canada's asbestos mines were famous for the level of job security and income the mineral brought to the country. First recognized for its use in fire-resistant products, paints, roofing materials, and other construction related items, it wasn't until studies proved how asbestos exposure led to a high risk of developing mesothelioma that the mines caused people to worry. Though mesothelioma's not the only potentially fatal consequence of exposure to asbestos fibers, the mines continued to export the mineral.

When the true danger of asbestos gained media coverage, a total of 52 countries subsequently banned the mineral.

Quebec, the center of attention on the debate of asbestos mining, has had a love-hate relationship since the opening of the Jeffrey Mine in the 1890's. Political figures have shown little attention to its effect on human health and it was during the Asbestos Strike of 1949 that the full-force of a midnight walk-out led to growing attention to the dangers of asbestos dust.

Aside from Belluck a descendant of Canada's first asbestos mine owner, Susan Henry, is a part of a letter-writing campaign to the Canadian government expressing concern for miners in the mines and how little is being done in the name of profit.

Henry stated, "Although my great-great uncle, Andrew S. Johnson, founded his mine in good faith, the intervening years have revealed the very dangerous nature of asbestos. It is deeply disturbing to me that we are now poised to ramp up exports to developing countries, when we are fully aware of how lethal this mineral can be."

With Quebec's work-related deaths, the largest of which are related to asbestos, the evident toll that the carcinogenic exports having on the community's somehow being overlooked. In 2009 alone, 102 of 185 deaths compensated by Quebec Workers' Compensation Board were due to asbestos exposure. Sadly experts believe the toll will go up as it can take several decades for mesothelioma and other medical conditions associated with asbestos to be discovered and slowed.

Due to asbestos-related diseases causing a rapid deterioration at the time of symptoms, Belluck explained that it's the patients who should seek medical help promptly after experiencing any of the symptoms. Following a diagnosis they should then consult a qualified mesothelioma attorney for legal representation.

Computer Program Lands Man on Iran's Death Row

Iran - A Canadian man on a trip to Iran is now facing the death penalty thanks to a program he made.

Saeed Malekpour was visiting his father, who was dying in Iran, when he was arrested because his photography program was used to upload pornography. Amnesty International stated he was held in Tehran's Evin Prison for a year without knowing his charges.

Although he initially confessed to the crimes, which was televised, he later said he was tortured into giving them. 

He also says he has yet to be consulted by a lawyer.

He was given the death penalty in October 2010, but it was overruled by the country's Supreme Court. The sentence was reinstatedlast week however when he was sent back for a reassessment.

Although Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird condemned Iran's decision, it doesn't mean much as they don't carry much muscle in the country.

U.S. Navy Sued Over Possible Effect of Sonar on Whales

United States - Conservationists and Native American tribes are suing over the U.S. navy's expanded use of sonar in training exercises off the country's west coast, saying the noise can harass and kill whales and other marine life.

In a lawsuit being filed Thursday by the environmental law firm Earthjustice, the Natural Resources Defence Council and other groups claim the National Marine Fisheries Service was wrong to approve the navy's plan for the expanded training.

They said regulators should have considered the effects repeated sonar use can have on those species over many years and should have restricted where the navy could conduct sonar and other loud activities to protect orcas, humpbacks and other whales, as well as seals, sea lions and dolphins.

Instead, the navy is required to look around and see if sea mammals are present before they conduct the training.

Balance training needs with environmental stewardship, says lawyer

Kristen Boyles, an attorney with Earthjustice, said it's the job of the fisheries service to balance the needs of the navy with measures to protect marine life.

"But it can't be possible that it's no-holds-barred."

In 2010, the fisheries service approved the navy's five-year plan for operations in the Northwest Training Range Complex, an area roughly the size of California that stretches from the waters off California to the Canadian border. The navy has conducted exercises there for 60 years but in recent years proposed increased weapons testing and submarine training.

The environmental groups want the permit granted to the navy to be invalidated. They are asking the court to order the fisheries service to study the long-term effects of sonar on marine mammals, in accordance with the Endangered Species Act and other laws.

Regulators determined that while sonar use by navies has been associated with the deaths of whales around the world, including the beaching of 37 whales on North Carolina's Outer Banks in 2005, there was little chance of that happening in the U.S. Northwest. The short duration of the sonar use, typically 90 minutes at a time by a single surface vessel, and reduced intensity would help prevent whale deaths, they said.

Regulators required the navy to shut down sonar operations if whales, sea lions, dolphins or other marine mammals were spotted nearby.

Lawsuit says sonar can impact marine life and habitat

The lawsuit, being filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, claims that the navy's sonar use in the Northwest might be strong enough to kill the animals outright. But even if it doesn't, it claims, the repeated use of sonar in certain critical habitats, such as breeding or feeding grounds, over many years could drive those species away, making it more difficult for them to eat or reproduce. The fisheries service should have ordered the navy to keep out of such areas, at least seasonally, the environmental groups said.

A spokeswoman for the navy declined to comment on Wednesday, saying she had not seen the lawsuit, and the fisheries service did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

The plaintiffs include People for Puget Sound, a Seattle-based non-profit, and the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, which represents 10 Northern California American Indian tribes.

Mayor Recieves Tacos for Racist Comment

East Haven, Connecticut – After telling a reporter he will “Eat some tacos” to address the acts of police against the city's Latino population, Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. found himself receiving prank callls and hundreds of tacos.

The tacos came from the group Reform Immigration for America, which sent 400 tacos as a sign of protest for his remarks. Marturo Jr. however, wasn't able to take or see them at the moment, as he was attending a meeting. Instead of letting them go to waste, a soup kitchen accepted the food, but left one in for the mayor as a symbolic sign from the immigration group.

Maturo's remarks came after the U.S. Justice Department started investigating a civil rights claim in 2009 which showed there was a bias against Latino people. About the issue, Maturo said “I might have tacos when I go home; I'm not quite sure yet.” He followed that up with comments about eating foods like spaghetti and telling a reporter “Go for it, take your best shot” to make the comment imply something unintended.

Maturo said he won't talk about the joke anymore, and admitted it was a bone-headed comment, as well as seeing how it could be interpreted as racist.

Although he isn't likely to resign, he has apologized to the Latino community several times.

State Legislatures Weakening Teacher Tenure Rights

By Kimberly Hefling

Washington - The National Council on Teacher Quality finds teachers are seeing tenure protections weakened as states seek flexibility to fire teachers. Some states have essentially nullified tenure altogether.

The revisions come as states replace virtually automatic "satisfactory" teacher evaluations with those linked to performance and base teacher layoffs on performance instead of seniority. Unions argue the changes lower morale, deny teachers due process and target older teachers.

Tenure is designed to protect teachers from arbitrary or discriminatory firings by spelling out how teachers can be dismissed after a probationary period, but critics say it's too easy to earn.

The council seeks to improve the quality of teaching. It says eight states require student performance to be central to whether a teacher is awarded tenure, which is up from none in 2009.

New York Serial Killer Sentenced to 200 years in Prison

New York City - Maksim Gelman, a native of Ukraine, was unapologetic and rude while receiving his sentence on January 17. The 24-year-old pled guilty in November of last year to killing four people and injuring four others.  He showed so impolite during his sentencing at one point he had to be removed from the courtroom.

Gelman's cackling, along with his insulting of Judge Vincent Del Giudice, led the official to comment to Gelman, "You are a violent predator and sociopath."

During the two-day murder spree that started February 11 in Brooklyn, an irate Gelman stabbed his stepfather after becoming angry he couldn't use his mother's car. After stealing the vehicle, Gelman drove to Yelena Bulchenko's home.

The knife Gelman used to stab his victims

Friends of Bulchenko's stated that Gelman was obsessed with his girlfriend and took the break-up badly. relationship. An enraged Gelman claimed Bulchenko was a heroin addict and set him up for a robbery.

When he reached the Bulchenkos' home, he discovered Yelena wasn't home, causing him to lash out at his mom and stabbed her to death. Nine hours later Yelena arrived home to find her mother's body and was then stabbed 11 times by Gelman, who had been waiting on her return.

Following the double-homicide Gelman drove away in his mother's car, rear-ended a vehicle, and non-fatally stabbed the driver. He then stole the driver's car and ran over Stephen Tanenbaum, who later died from his injuries.

Gelman abandoned the vehicle used to run over Tanenbaum, hailed a cab, and attacked the driver. Not long afterward, he ran to another car, attacked the driver, and took his car. Both victims survived the attacks.

While speaking at the sentencing of Gelman, the cab driver, Fitz Fullerton's voice box was still badly damaged, forcing the victim's words to be slightly more than a whisper.

While police were looking for him, Gelman was spotted on a subway train by passengers who recognized his face from news reports and newspaper articles. In an attempt to escape, Gelman switched trains and was arrested shortly after attacking his last victim, an unidentified subway passenger who survived.

Gelman's last victim before being captured by police

Initially Gelman insisted he was innocent, but following psychiatric evaluation and the seeing the overwhelming evidence against him, he Gelman pled guilty on November 30th.  He is currently serving a life sentence of approximately 200 years in prison.

Abortion Safer Than Giving Birth: Study

By Genevra Pittman

New York - Getting a legal abortion is much safer than giving birth, suggests a new U.S. study published Monday.

Researchers found that women were about 14 times more likely to die during or after giving birth to a live baby than to die from complications of an abortion.

Experts say the findings, though not unexpected, contradict some state laws that suggest abortions are high-risk procedures.

The message is that getting an abortion and giving birth are both safe, said Dr. Anne Davis, who studies obstetrics and gynecology at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York, and wasn't involved in the new study.

"We wouldn't tell people, 'Don't have a baby because it's safer to have an abortion' -- that's ridiculous," she told Reuters Health. "We're trying to help women who are having all reproductive experiences know what to expect."

An induced abortion -- like any other medical procedure -- requires getting informed consent from the woman, said Dr. Bryna Harwood, an ob-gyn from the University of Illinois in Chicago who also didn't participate in the new research.

That means women understand and acknowledge the risks of their different options.

What makes it complicated, Harwood added, is when the law interferes and requires doctors to state information that isn't always balanced or medically sound -- usually exaggerating the risk of abortion.

The researchers on the new study combined government data on live births and pregnancy- and abortion-related deaths with estimates on legal abortions performed in the U.S. from the Guttmacher Institute, which conducts sexual and reproductive health research and education.

Dr. Elizabeth Raymond from Gynuity Health Projects in New York City and Dr. David Grimes of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, found that between 1998 and 2005, one woman died during childbirth for every 11,000 or so babies born.

That compared to one woman of every 167,000 who died from a legal abortion.

The researchers also cited a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which found that, from 1998 to 2001, the most common complications associated with pregnancy -- including high blood pressure, urinary tract infections and mental health conditions -- happened more often in women who had a live birth than those who got an abortion.

In their report, published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, Raymond and Grimes write that the findings aren't surprising given that women are pregnant for a lot longer when they decide to have a baby and so have more time to develop complications.

Harwood said previous studies have also shown the safety of legal abortions.

Most abortions have typically been done surgically, she told Reuters Health. But since the abortion drug mifepristone was approved for use in the United States in 2000, the number of medically-induced abortions has been on the rise.

Both methods are now considered equally safe, she said, with the main risk -- though very small -- coming from medication- and procedure-related infections.

Depending on the state, however, doctors legally must go over the risks of abortion in language that may be misleading, researchers said, with skewed lists of possible complications. Others require a 24-hour waiting period in between the counseling and the abortion itself.

Harwood said that laws regarding what's said between the doctor and a woman seeking an abortion often hamper doctors' attempts to inform patients in a balanced way.

"It is certainly an impediment to have the state dictate my informed consent process beyond the usual," Harwood told Reuters Health.

"Abortion care and pregnancy care should not really be any different than consenting people for any other procedure."

Davis agreed that state-mandated discussions have no place in abortion counseling. She said she was glad to see the new report, which helps dispel "misinformation" and "lies" about abortion risks included in some state laws -- such as the idea that abortion is linked to cancer.

"Women who are having abortions are having a safe, common surgical procedure or taking medication for the same reason," she told Reuters Health.

"They should feel confident that the medical care they're having is safe, long-term and short-term.

Psychedelic Mushroom Trips Point to New Depression Drugs

By Kate Kelland

New York - The brains of people tripping on magic mushrooms have given the best picture yet of how psychedelic drugs work and British scientists say the findings suggest such drugs could be used to treat depression.

Two separate studies into the effects of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, showed that contrary to scientists' expectations, it does not increase but rather suppresses activity in areas of the brain that are also dampened with other anti-depressant treatments.

"Psychedelics are thought of as 'mind-expanding' drugs so it has commonly been assumed that they work by increasing brain activity," said David Nutt of Imperial College London, who gave a briefing about the studies on Monday. "But, surprisingly, we found that psilocybin actually caused activity to decrease in areas that have the densest connections with other areas."

These so-called "hub" regions of the brain are known to play a role in constraining our experience of the world and keeping it orderly, he said.

"We now know that deactivating these regions leads to a state in which the world is experienced as strange."
In the first study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal, 30 volunteers had psilocybin infused into their blood while they were inside magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, which measure changes in brain activity.

It found activity decreased in "hub" regions and many volunteers described a feeling of the cogs being loosened and their sense of self being altered.

The second study, due to be published in the British Journal of Psychiatry on Thursday, involved 10 volunteers and found that psilocybin enhanced their recollections of personal memories.
Robin Carhart Harris from Imperial's department of medicine, who worked on both studies, said the results suggest psilocybin could be useful as an adjunct to psychotherapy.

Nutt cautioned that the new research was very preliminary and involved only small numbers of people.
"We're not saying go out there and eat magic mushrooms," he said. "But...this drug has such a fundamental impact on the brain that it's got to be meaningful -- it's got to be telling us something about how the brain works. So we should be studying it and optimizing it if there's a therapeutic benefit."

"FUNDAMENTAL IMPACT"

The key areas of the brain identified -- one called the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and another called the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) -- are the subject of debate among neuroscientists, but the PCC is thought by many to have a role in consciousness and self-identity.

The mPFC is known to be hyperactive in depression, and the researchers pointed out that other key treatments for depression including medicines like Prozac, as well as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and deep brain stimulation, also appear to suppress mPFC activity.

Psilocybin's dampening action on this area may make it a useful and potentially long-acting antidepressant, Carhart-Harris said.

The studies also showed that psilocybin reduced blood flow in the hypothalamus - a part of the brain where people who suffer from a condition known as cluster headaches often have increased blood flow. This could explain why some cluster headache sufferers have said their symptoms improved after taking the psychedelic drug, the researcher said.

The studies, which are among only a handful conducted into psychedelic substances since the 1960s and 1970s, revive a promising field of study into mind-altering drugs which some experts say can offer powerful and sustained mood improvement and relief from anxiety.

Other experts echoed Nott's caution: "These findings are very interesting from the research viewpoint, but a great deal more work would be needed before most psychiatrists would think that psilocybin was a safe, effective and acceptable adjunct to psychotherapy," said Nick Craddock, a psychiatry professor from Cardiff University.

Kevin Healy, chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' faculty of medical psychotherapy said it was interesting research "but we are clearly nowhere near seeing psilocybin used regularly and widely in psychotherapy practice."

Intended Victim of Jeffrey Dahmer in Prison

Milwaukee - A man, known as the man who helped put Jeffrey Dahmer in prison is now one of two men in prison.

Tracy Edwards, who was an intended victim of Dahmer's almost 20 years ago, was sentenced to a year-and-a-half in prison for his involvement in a fight which ended in the death of a homeless man.

He and two other men were arguing last July when one of them fell from a bridge and drowned in the Milwaukee River.

The other man, Timothy Carr, is facing a four year sentence after he admitted his guilt in endangering the third man.

U.N. "Outraged" at Sexual Abuse by Peacekeepers in Haiti

By Thalif Deen

United Nations - The Caribbean nation of Haiti, still struggling to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake, is once again trying to cope with the sexual abuse of minors by U.N. peacekeepers - for the third time in five years.

The two cases of "sexual exploitation and abuse involving minors", reported last week, are traced to U.N. police officers serving with the U.N. Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

"The United Nations is outraged by these allegations and takes its responsibility to deal with them extremely seriously," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters Monday.

In view of the gravity of the situation - and the recurrence of sexual abuse by peacekeepers in Haiti - the United Nations has already dispatched a team of officials to the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince "to investigate these allegations with the utmost determination".

MINUSTAH is emphasising the responsibility and accountability of the chain of command in both preventing and taking prompt action when such allegations arise, Nesirky said.

The mission will take action to support the alleged victims, he added. But he did not disclose the nationalities of the police officers involved.

Unlike cases involving U.N. military personnel - who are answerable only to their home countries - investigations into allegations involving U.N. Police fall under the responsibility of the United Nations.

The civilian and police personnel serving in peacekeeping missions are treated as international civil servants under the authority of the United Nations.

Mariano Fernandez, the secretary-general's special representative and head of MINUSTAH, said: "I want to reiterate my commitment to uphold the policy of zero tolerance of abuse by the staff of the Mission."

Each member of the U.N. personnel, whether he or she is a civilian, member of the military or police, must observe a standard of exemplary conduct, he added.

"This is a commitment that is required when joining the United Nations, anywhere in the world."

"We will continue to take the strictest measures to ensure, where appropriate, that the perpetrators of such acts are punished with the utmost severity," he added.

Back in November 2007, about 108 military personnel from Sri Lanka serving in Haiti were deported to their home country after being accused of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of minors.

One of the expelled peacekeepers was quoted in a local newspaper as saying, rather defiantly, "What do you expect us to do when the U.N. is providing us with free condoms?"

Since the United Nations has no political or legal authority to penalise military personnel, most of them escape punishment for their criminal activities because national governments have either refused or have been slow in meting out justice within their own court systems.

Last year, five U.N. peacekeepers from Uruguay were accused of sexually assaulting a Haitian teenager, which was caught on tape, triggering public demonstrations and anti-U.N. protests in the streets of Port-au-Prince.

But early this month, all five were freed by a Uruguayan military court because the 18-year-old Haitian victim could not be traced.

The Uruguayans have promised to re-open the case if the youth appears in court.

In 2007, it was reported that girls as young as 13 were having sex with U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti for as little as a dollar, Ezili Dant, president of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN), said in a letter to the United Nations.

The continued sexual abuse of minors in Haiti - and also in other peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Cote d'Ivoire - has alarmed the United Nations.

Allegations of abuse have dogged U.N. peacekeeping missions since their inception over 50 years ago.

The issue was thrust into the spotlight after the United Nations found, in early 2005, that peacekeepers in Congo had sex with Congolese women and girls, usually in exchange for food or small sums of money.

The U.N. peacekeeping department instituted a "zero tolerance" policy toward sexual abuse, a new code of conduct for its more than 110,000 peacekeepers deployed around the world, and new training for officers and all U.N. personnel.

But that has not deterred the continued sexual abuse of women and minors in peacekeeping missions worldwide.

The United Nations says it has done much to confront the problem since 1999, when U.N. peacekeepers in Bosnia were reported to have been involved in a sex-trafficking ring.

In 2003, the United Nations issued a "zero tolerance" policy for sexual exploitation and abuse.

Currently, all peacekeepers undergo extensive training with a major focus on sexual conduct.

Environmental Groups Going After Obama and Congress

Washington D.C. - Not even a week after winning the fight against the Keystone XL pipeline, environmental activists are staging a rally hours before Barack Obama delivers the annual State of the Union address. Their main focus is not just the President, but others in Congress who they see as too influenced by the oil and gas industries.


Dressed as referees, the activists are planning to “blow the whistle” at lawmakers who have taken financial contributions from the lobbying groups, but haven't specified who exactly would be the targets.
The founder of one group, 350.org's Bill McKibben, said they plan to keep the environment one of the key issues of the 2012 elections. Some of the other groups are National Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace.


Due to the fact the Keystone XL pipeline would increase the amount of greenhouse gases dramatically as well as destroy a major source of water, environmentalists plan on stopping the project altogether, even going so far as to pledge to not vote in the next election. President Obama, with his disenfranchised base, needs all the votes he can get and the threatened sit-out of the environmental groups would be a devastating blow to his re-election chances.

Sumatran elephants could be extinct in 30 years

JAKARTA, Indonesia  — The Sumatran elephant could be extinct in the wild within three decades unless immediate steps are taken to slow the breakneck pace of deforestation, environmentalists warned Tuesday.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature recently listed the animals as "critically endangered" after their numbers dropped to between 2,400 and 2,800 from an estimated 5,000 in 1985.

The decline is largely because of destruction of their habitat, with forests all across the Indonesian island of Sumatra being clear-cut for timber, palm oil and pulp and paper plantations.

Sumatra has some of the most significant populations of Asian elephants outside of India and Sri Lanka and is also home to tigers, orangutans and rhinos.

"The Sumatran elephant joins a growing list of Indonesian species that are critically endangered," Carlos Drews of the conservation group WWF said in a statement Tuesday. "Unless urgent and effective conservation action is taken these magnificent animals are likely to go extinct within our lifetime."

Indonesia's endangered elephants sometimes venture into populated areas searching for food and destroy crops or attack humans, making them unpopular with villagers.

Some are shot or poisoned with cyanide-laced fruit, while others are killed by poachers for their ivory.

Japanese Officials Didn't Keep Records of Fukushima Daiichi Discussions

Japan - Japanese Energy Minister Yukio Edano admitted no discussions in the days shortly after the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi were recorded.


"It is inconceivable that there were no records kept,” said nuclear engineering professor at Osaka University Kenji SumitaIt. “It may have been difficult to keep official logs during the extreme confusion after the crisis, but they could have taken simple memos. Perhaps there were some goings on that the participants did not feel comfortable being made public."


Only one-page logs with agenda items to be discussed were found according to NHK, which broke the story after attempting to get detail of the discussions.

The current estimate on the time it will take to clean up the area is about four decades.

Dentist Pleads Guilty to Wrongful Dentristry Practice

New Bedford, Massachusetts – A dentist accepted a guilty plea to Medicaid fraud and several other charges related to the use of paper clips instead of stainless steel posts in root canals.


Dentist Michael Clair's other charges include defrauding 130-thousand dollars from Medicaid, assault and battery, illegally prescribing prescription drugs, and witness intimidation.


Although he was suspended in 2002 by Medicaid, he kept filing claims from 2003 to 2005 via the use of local area dentists' names.


His use of the paper clips in place of steel posts may possibly have caused pain and infection in some of his patients.

Update:  Michael Clair has received a year in jail for his medical malfeasance.  Prosecutors were hoping to get a sentence of five to seven years.

One victim's tooth turned black.  The victim's mother, who witnessed Clair's sentencing was outraged the former dentist only got a year in prison. He was also ordered to stay away from his victims and seven of his employees. 


"He put my kids in pain for months...I hope he rots there," she told reporters.


The reason for the light sentence was that he had, in Judge Richard Moses' words is "a lack of a criminal record and certain mental health issues" but didn't elaborate.

Odd Stories: Man Has Five Different Accidents in Same Day

Fort Meade, Florida – One man may have set the record for the most amount of car crashes in a single day.

Curtis Gunter was arrested January 24^th after he hit several cars in five separate incidients in the same day.

Polk County sherriffs finally got him off the road when he swerved to avoid a set of spike strips and crashed into five more cars.

The charges against him include leaving the scene of an accident and reckless driving,

Washington State May Soon Legalize Gay Marriage

Washington - Washington state may soon be the seventh state to legalize same-sex marriage, joining New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the move toward granting marriage equality across the country.

In the past Washington had two other laws, a domestic partnership one passed in 2007, and another granting same-sex couples “everything but marriage” in 2009. This however comes as a significant win for movement motivated to giving gay couples the same rights as heterosexual ones.

Governor Chris Gregoire in the past expressed her support for the law, which was opposed by people like Ken Huterson, Antioch's Bible Church pastor.

"You are saying as a committee and a Legislature that you know better than God," he said. Opponents' only argument against it seems to be that it “goes against traditional marriage and the Bible,” the standard argument.

Four Republicans, two in the House and two in the Senate, are likely to face the wrath of their more religious conservative base. The National Organization for Marriage stated they will spend approximately 250-thousand dollars against each Republican who dares to vote in favor of the new law. However, it seems that may not matter for much longer.

A University of Washington poll, conducted in October of last year, shows a five-year jump in support for gay marriage from 30 percent to 43 percent. Twenty-two percent say they are in favor of giving the same rights to same-sex couples but not calling it marriage.

When asked about the possibility of voting for a referendum which would repeal the new law, 55 percent said they wouldn't vote for it (47 percent of them saying they are strongly in support of it) while 38 percent said they'd vote for the referendum.

If the bill is passed it would go into effect starting in June.

Marine Who Ordered Haditha Attack Gets Plea Bargain

United States - The U.S. Marine who lead his squad into the infamous attack in Haditha which led to the deaths of 24 Iraqi people is getting a paltry sentence of three months, losing two-thirds of his pay, and demoted to private thanks to a plea bargain.

Despite the claims of his former platoon commander and troop members that nothing he did was wrong, the fact remains that Frank Wuterich killed more than a dozen people soon after seeing his friend killed by a bomb. Some of the dead people were women, children, and even an elderly man. None of the military members received any gunfire from those they killed. To this day the deaths, which took place a little more than six years ago, still bring the ire of many Iraqi people and was one of the main reasons Iraqi officials refused to grant immunity to U.S. troops. That refusal caused, in the end, the“withdrawal” of American troops – we still have mercenaries there – from the country, though they still are in the region.

Wuterich said during the trial he “regretted the loss of civilian lives” but still insisted what he was doing was within the rules of the military.

Even though this is one of the most famous cases against the continued occupation of Iraq, not a single member of the squad has been convicted.

Update: Frank Wuterich will not serve ANY jail time.  Instead he will only be demoted to private. For the crime of massacring 24 innocent people for no reason, nobody on that hit squad will see any punishment.

Chris Hedges "Brace Yourself! The American Empire Is Over & The Descent Is Going To Be Horrifying!"