[Al Ahram] A 14-year-old dressed as a clown was locked away Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! Monday near Gay Paree for attempting to attack a woman, as a strange phenomenon of fake, evil clowns terrorising passers-by spreads in La Belle France. I think I've commented before on the fact that we live in an age of evil clowns and sympathetic vampires.
Complaints have poured in recently over "armed clowns" wreaking havoc in various parts of the country, and police have detained several people dressed as the pranksters -- some carrying pistols, knives and baseball bats.
The phenomenon has even prompted anti-clown vigilantism, forcing police to step in to try and quell the hysteria by saying there have only been a few sightings of the terrifying clowns.
On Monday, a woman who had just got out of her car in Chelles called the police, saying two clowns -- one of whom was armed with a fake axe -- had attacked her, a source said.
They escaped when a passer-by armed with a baseball bat tried to stop them, and one of the pranksters was subsequently detained when police spotted him, white make-up still all over his face.
In a separate incident just half an hour afterwards, a dozen people wearing the smiling, white masks associated with the Anonymous hacktivist collective attacked three youths at a station in Melun, also in the Gay Paree suburbs, stealing their mobile phones, the police source added.
The phenomenon of dressing up as an evil clown and terrifying passers-by -- a trend which has also been seen in the United States and Britannia -- cropped up in the north of La Belle France in early October.
In the town of Bethune, a 19-year-old received a six-month suspended jail term last week for threatening passers-by while dressed as a clown.
These "clowns" have been "mostly spotted outside schools, but also on public roads, in bushes, in a square. Their targets are often young children or teenagers, but also adults," a police source in northern La Belle France told AFP.
And the phenomenon has spread to the south.
Police on Saturday night arrested 14 teenagers dressed as clowns and carrying weapons in the Mediterranean port town of Agde.
In the nearby city of Montpellier, a man disguised as a clown was arrested after beating up a pedestrian with an iron bar.
Theories abound as to the origin of the not-so-funny trend of violence in a country where Halloween has yet to take hold.
The suggestions include a challenge launched on social networks, a popular video on YouTube showing a terrifying clown pranking people or even a recent episode of the popular TV series American Horror Story featuring Twisty the killer clown.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Better safe than sorry; clowns are at best, creepy. (Except for the late Red Skelton.)
[USAToday] As more U.S. troops head to West Africa, the Pentagon is developing portable isolation units that can carry up to 12 Ebola patients for transport on military planes.
The Pentagon says it does not expect it will need the units for 3,000 U.S. troops heading to the region to combat the virus because military personnel will not be treating Ebola patients directly. Instead, the troops are focusing on building clinics, training personnel and testing patient blood samples for Ebola.
"We want to be prepared to care for the people we do have there just out of an abundance of caution," Defense Department spokeswoman Jennifer Elzea said.
She said prototypes would be tested in the next month before being deployed in the field by January.
Good call, guys. Also, from CBS, the Army takes precautions:
U.S. soldiers returning from Liberia are being placed in isolation in Vicenza, Italia out of concern for the Ebola virus, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.
The soldiers being monitored include Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams who was the commander of the U.S. Army in Africa but turned over duties to the 101st Airborne Division over the weekend, Martin reports. There are currently 11 soldiers in isolation.
They apparently were met by Carabinieri in full hazmat suits. If the policy remains in effect, everyone returning from Liberia - several hundred - will be placed in isolation for 21 days. Thirty are expected in today, Martin reports.
A Pentagon front man calls it "enhanced monitoring." The soldiers are confined to a building and unable to see their families, Martin reports. The decision made by the Army and applies only to soldiers returning from Liberia. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will decide whether to make isolation apply to members of all services returning from Liberia.
A 25-bed hospital in Monrovia, Liberia's capital, should be fully operational in the first week of November. American doctors and nurses will care for infected health care workers there. About 600 U.S. service members are now in Liberia - which was established almost 200 years ago for former slaves from America, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. The U.S. also set up Ebola testing labs.
#1
Were these soldiers physically close to Ebola patients and/or infectious material?
If so, the quarantine is warranted.
However why is the Obama administration insistent that civilians who were close to Ebola patients in Africa should suffer no such temporary restrictions?
#2
Why? because if they are quarantined, the soldiers would be unable to vote. unlike the ebolians from the blue states, they can waltz their happy- disease carrying ass into the polling place and vote for the Donk of their choice. at least once.
#4
As more U.S. troops head to West Africa, the Pentagon is developing portable isolation units that can carry up to 12 Ebola patients for transport on military planes.
The units will likely be carrying critically ill liberians and future democratic voters to the U.S. for treatment, not GI's.
Posted by: chris ||
10/28/2014 7:49 Comments ||
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#6
The troops in question have largely come from Ft Hood, Ft Sam Houston, and Ft Bragg.
The significance of Vincenza is it's the location of Caserne Erdele, the main base of the 173rd Abn Brigade, which is NATO's airborne contingent from the US. Mostly the 173rd is in Poland and the Czech Republic right now, and it allows large transports to fly directly onto base without possibly compromising Rahmstein.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
10/28/2014 8:16 Comments ||
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#7
Wonder how comfortable the local Italians are with all that? The airfield was not near Caserma Ederle, (SETAF 74-77).
[NYPost] A 5-year-old boy who just returned from West Africa was transported to Bellevue Hospital Sunday with possible Ebola symptoms, according to law-enforcement sources.
The child was vomiting and had a 103-degree fever when he was carried from his Bronx home by EMS workers wearing hazmat suits, neighbors said. "He looked weak," said a neighbor. "He was really, really out of it."
The boy returned with his family from Guinea Saturday night and five members of the family were being quarantined inside their apartment, sources said.
#4
the US had it right - was it NYC? New Jersey - compulsory quarantine. Then that nurse is threatening to sue because she didn't like it.
For all the "heroes" going to volunteer in West Africa, that should just be part of the cost: compulsory quarantine. Don't go and be a hero if you don't like it!
#5
Maine's Ebola protocols mean quarantine for nurse
Total 21-day quarantine since last possible contact, but can be at home with partner... whose own quarantine, if doesn't move out for the duration and should Nursie test positive, begins on the day she came home.
[Iran Press TV] Australia has temporarily stopped processing visas for people from West African countries worst hit by Ebola in an effort to prevent the virus from entering the country.
Australia's Immigration Ministry said in a report to the parliament on Monday that the new rules would apply to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said non-permanent or temporary visas already granted to people from the three countries, who have not yet departed for Australia, would be canceled.
"These measures include temporarily suspending our immigration program, including our humanitarian program, from EVD (Ebola Virus Disease) affected countries," he said, adding, "This means we are not processing any application from these affected countries."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
You've got to admit, the convicts usually get it right. Hat tip to them once again. Wish we had a similar level of leadership in Washington. Hell! I wish we had any leadership in Washington.
#4
it begs the question though: WHY was the Department of Immigration accepting "humanitarian" intake from Guinea? the civil war ended there years ago. they held free elections in 2010. "humanitarian" resettlement is for people from warzones in fear of their lives of which there are many, and Guinea is NOT one. Nor is Liberia. Nor is Sierra Leone.
[ENNAHARONLINE] The corpse count from the Ebola epidemic rose to 4,922 out of 10,141 known cases in eight countries through Oct. 23, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday.
The virus, which reached Mali through a two-year-old girl who died on Friday, now threatens Ivory Coast, having infected people virtually all along its borders with Guinea and Liberia.
Ivory Coast is the world's biggest cocoa producer. The Ebola outbreak has hurt the economic growth that has been raising living standards in the region.
The three worst-hit countries of West Africa -- Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- account for the bulk of the world's worst Ebola outbreak, recording 4,912 deaths out of 10,114 cases, the WHO said in its update.
The overall figures include outbreaks in Nigeria and Senegal ... a nation of about 14 million on the west coast of Africa bordering Mauretania to the north, Mali to the east, and a pair of Guineas to the south, one of them Bissau. It is 90 percent Mohammedan and has more than 80 political parties. Its primary purpose seems to be absorbing refugees... , deemed by the WHO to be now over, as well as isolated cases in Spain, the United States and a single case in Mali.
But the true toll may be three times as much: by a factor of 1.5 in Guinea, 2 in Sierra Leone and 2.5 in Liberia, while the death rate is thought to be about 70 percent of all cases.
The WHO has said that many families are keeping infected people at home rather than putting them into isolation in treatment centres, some of which have refused patients due to a lack of beds and basic supplies.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Is/was Samantha Power going to be quarantined for 21 days when she returns/returned from West Africa ebola inspection tour? It only seems right.
#4
Elementary JohnQC. It is an exponential growth. If there were two active cases today then in three weeks there would be four. So, since there are at least a thousand active cases now, in three weeks there will be two thousand. Except reporting spotty, so there are really three thousand active cases now, and there will be 6,000 in three weeks.
Anyone reading this who doesn't have a month or two worth of food stashed, really needs to get that.
#5
I've not been keeping track, as closely as I should have, in order to be making comments - but with the news about Ebola screaming from every corner of every news website - I'm pretty sure that they were all recording around 10,000 infections and 5,000 deaths ten days ago - with predictions that by October month-end, there would be 20,000/50,000/250,000 (pick a large number) dead.
I'm not trying to make light of the problem, but - I think that the Draconian countermeasures that have naturally arisen in the hard-hit areas in the face of the pestilence have - in fact - served their purpose well.
Although this "epidemic" has been worse than previous outbreaks, the region does have a past history - numbering upwards of a dozen instances - of having previously contained emerging outbreaks.
Necessity is indeed the mother of invention - and DIRE necessity creates a very motivated mother.
My guess is that this thing has peaked, and is on its way in the right direction.
#6
the region does have a past history - numbering upwards of a dozen instances - of having previously contained emerging outbreaks.
The virus may be different this time around - the little sumbitches do mutate. But Africa itself is different. More people and a whole lot more connectivity.
Roads and transportation mean you can get to another village/city/country pretty quick compared to years gone by. And once you are in a city, there are buses and planes to take you anywhere...
[Al Ahram] A Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... n court sent three lawyers to prison for terms of between five and eight years on Monday for criticising the country's judiciary and justice system in messages on Twitter, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Since the 2011 Arab uprisings, the US ally has grown increasingly intolerant of any dissent or criticism aimed at the government, the country's ruling Al Saud family or the official clergy which provides judges for its Sharia Islamic courts.
The three lawyers, who were not named by local media, were convicted of prejudicing public order through tweets which contained opinions against the ruler, and expressed contempt for the judiciary and undermined it, SPA reported.
Reform of the kingdom's judiciary and legal system is a main battleground between arch conservatives and relative liberals. It is seen as important by both human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... activists who want to improve legal safeguards for defendants and foreign investors who want sentencing to be more predictable.
King Abdullah announced changes to the judicial system in 2007, including non-Sharia training for judges, the introduction of specialised criminal courts and a means of officially recording verdicts, a prelude to establishing precedent.
Conservative judges, holy mans and some officials in the Justice Ministry have strenuously attempted to block the reforms, however, because they see them as undermining Islamic law, liberal lawyers and other legal sources say.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2014 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] British Prime Minister David Cameron has said that he will fight against the European Union's demand for an extra contribution to the bloc's budget.
While addressing the British parliament on Monday, the premier said the UK would not pay anything like the 2.1 billion euros the EU has requested.
"It is not just about the scale of the money being demanded. It is also the timetable," Cameron said, adding, The (European) commission admits it does not actually need this. So there is no pressing need for the money to be paid.
The British prime minister went on to say that he would not permit the UK taxpayers' money to be funneled into the EU.
The European Union has to change. It has to regain trust and that starts by understanding and respecting the fact that these payments and adjustments are about the hard earned taxes of its citizens. This is just one of the many challenges in our long campaign to reform the European Union, but it is vital we stick to the task, he added.
On Thursday, Brussels, the EU's de facto capital, demanded that the UK pay the extra amount by December after a recalculation of the country's national income found that Britain's economy has enjoyed better-than-expected performance in comparison with other European countries since 1995.
Cameron has also warned that such behavior would certainly affect Britain's decision on whether to remain in the EU.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2014 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] US President Barack Obama We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us... on Monday hailed "successful" Ukrainian elections that saw pro-Westerners score a big win in parliament, and urged Russia to ensure free and fair December ballots in the east.
"Yesterday's parliamentary vote represents another important milestone in Ukraine's democratic development. We look forward to the convening of the new parliament and the quick formation of a strong, inclusive government," Obama said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Almost all the enterprises hailed as successes by President Obama have unfortunately rather quickly gone bankrupt or otherwise turned into disasters. Praise from Obama is like a Kiss of Death. Thus this announcement seems to be bad news for Ukrainians.
The saving grace though is that the President's statement seems to be a cover for the advice in the last paragraph. An inclusive government presumably means one containing some Putin supporters, which is not going to happen.
The congratulation can be construed as being contingent on accepting that advice, so may not count, and hence dire consequences for Ukrainians may not transpire or may be delayed.
[Ynet] Plan includes 660 units in Ramat Shlomo and 400 in Har Homa; move seen as bid to placate PM's rightwing base.
All the usual suspects will be displeased, of course.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing forward plans for a spate of building projects in Jerusalem, beyond the Green Line, just as the Knesset returns for its winter session. On Monday night, the prime minister will order the advancement of plans for more than a thousand units in Jerusalem, all over the Green Line.
According to details confirmed to Ynet by officials in the Prime Minister's Bureau, the plans include approximately 660 housing units in Ramat Shlomo and another 400 in Har Homa.
In addition, Netanyahu has ordered the promotion of infrastructure projects in the West Bank ‐ in particular roads - for security and safety needs. The directive comes after a report Sunday that the government intends to build some 2,000 more housing units in the large settlement blocs in the West Bank.
On Tuesday, the Jerusalem District Committee for Planning and Building will once again discuss a plan for 1,531 units to be built in Ramat Shlomo. The plan received final approval in November 2013.
Part of the land involved has already been handed over to contractors by the Israel Lands Administration. The new discussion will not deal with the housing units themselves, but rather objections to the technical stages of implementation, such as construction permits.
It seems that Netanyahu is seeking to mollify his base on the right for Monday's start of the winter session, which is expected to be stormy, and before making any significant decisions on controversial issues such as the High Court bypass bill or the conversion bill.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Al Ahram] A 14-year-old dressed as a clown was 
[Iran Press TV] Australia has temporarily stopped processing visas for people from West African countries worst hit by Ebola in an effort to prevent the virus from entering the country.
