Random News Stories

[Junkenstein]

Cheap HA HA?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26192373

Former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan has been questioned by police over phone hacking, the BBC understands.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed a 48-year-old journalist was interviewed under caution on 6 December.

The journalist, understood to be Mr Morgan, was questioned as part of Operation Golding, the investigation into illegal interception of voicemail messages at Mirror Group Newspapers.

Mr Morgan is now best known as a talk show host in both the UK and the US.

He was editor of the Daily Mirror from 1995 to 2004, when he was sacked after the newspaper conceded that photographs of British soldiers abusing an Iraqi were fake.

Shock. Horror. Never expected such things etc, etc.

[Junkenstein]

So interesting things have been bubbling in Venezuela for a while:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-26220184

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro is expelling three US consular officials, accusing them of meeting students involved in anti-government protests.

The country has seen growing political tension and rallies, with three protesters dying in clashes last week.

An arrest warrant has been issued for opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, who has pledged to lead a march in the capital Caracas on Tuesday.

The US has expressed concern about arrests of opposition protesters.

Mr Maduro did not name the US officials being expelled, when he made the announcement in a national TV broadcast, but said the foreign ministry would give details later.

"It's a group of US functionaries who are in the universities. We've been watching them having meetings in the private universities for two months. They work in visas," the president said.

"Venezuela doesn't take orders from anyone!" he added.

Needless to say, the whole thing is a clusterfuck with no one exactly looking good here. The only question is who's going to look the worst when it's done. That's still up in the air.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26220304

A year-long UN inquiry into rights abuses in North Korea is due to be published, and is expected to urge punishment for systematic violations by the state.

Good luck with that. No, really. What are you going to fucking do exactly? Invade? Economic sanctions?

Jared Genser, an international human rights lawyer who has campaigned to stop crimes against humanity in North Korea, said the findings were both ground-breaking and unremarkable.

"They're ground-breaking in that it's the first time that the United Nations as an institution has found that crimes against humanity are being committed against the people of North Korea," he said.

"Of course, it puts a huge burden on the United Nations to then take the next set of steps.

"But of course it's also unremarkable in the sense that those of us who have worked on North Korea human rights for many, many years are aware of the sheer weight of evidence coming out of North Korea over decades now... And so the real question now is, what next?"

Taking all bets but the house favourite is "Nothing".

[Junkenstein]

Australian immigration policy is a little unusual:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26167899

The previous Labor government decided to re-establish offshore processing camps on Nauru and Manus Island in 2012, after ending the policy - known as the Pacific Solution - in 2008.

It also said that people found to be refugees would be settled in Papua New Guinea, not Australia, a policy the current Liberal-National government has agreed to uphold.

I have a horrible suspicion that if the UK could get away with something similar it would. If one of the channel islands ever loses it's tax exempt status it wouldn't surprise me to see it turned into a similar arrangement.

[Junkenstein]

Satanic panic bullshit abounds:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-26219461

A Pennsylvania woman jointly charged with murder with her husband has claimed she has killed at least 22 other people.

Nineteen-year-old Miranda Barbour made the claims in an interview with a newspaper while in prison.

Miranda and Elytte Barbour are currently charged with killing Troy LaFerrara after meeting him online.

As well as admitting that murder, she also claimed a six-year killing spree around the US.

She claimed it was part of an involvement in a satanic cult, that began in Alaska when she was 13, before moving to North Carolina.

I wonder if any other cult members will actually turn up this time. I'm not holding my breath.

[Telarus]

What was the term used, "Pivot the Pacific"?

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/02/17/us-military-exercises-in-asia-meant-to-send-signal-to-china-say-experts/

[Salty]

Ok, this, if true, is some fucked up shit.

Ape used as sex slave.
http://m.vice.com/read/yo1-v14n10

[Pæs]

[Junkenstein]

Ok, this, if true, is some fucked up shit.

Ape used as sex slave.
http://m.vice.com/read/yo1-v14n10

Did the clients realize that they were in fact getting an orangutan?

Oh yeah, they would come in especially for it. You could choose a human if you preferred, but it was a novelty for many of the men to have sex with an orangutan.

How did you get her away from there?

It took us over a year to rescue her, because every time we went in with forest police and local officers we would be overpowered by the villagers, who simply would not give her up. They would threaten us with guns and knives with poison on them. In the end it took 35 policemen armed with AK-47s and other weaponry going in there and demanding that they hand over Pony. It was filmed by a local television crew and in the background of the film when we are unchaining Pony you can hear the madam crying hysterically, screaming, "They are taking my baby, you can't do this!" There is no law enforcement in Indonesia so these people didn't face any sentence or anything for what they had done.

Well that's a nice dose of fucked up to kick off today.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Ok, this, if true, is some fucked up shit.

Ape used as sex slave.
http://m.vice.com/read/yo1-v14n10

I love that tiny little shred of battle weary optimism. The faint echo of a glimmer of hope that humanity might be somehow redeemable 

[Salty]

Ok, this, if true, is some fucked up shit.

Ape used as sex slave.
http://m.vice.com/read/yo1-v14n10

I love that tiny little shred of battle weary optimism. The faint echo of a glimmer of hope that humanity might be somehow redeemable 

Yeah, I was thinking of a certain conversation RE humanity's propensity for diversity when I posted this and thought, "Thanks, assbags, here I am trying to make a good case for why you aren't all scum, and you have to shave an orangutan for sex work. Thanks. Fuckers."

[Junkenstein]

If it's any consolation, it made me do my special laugh. All day.

ETA - Also responsible for causing me to accuse various people of being the kind of people who would bugger a monkey just for the novelty. Most of the allegations I believe to be accurate. They're fucking feral round these parts.

[Salty]

It makes a great point to bring up to anarchists.

[LMNO]

It makes a great point to bring up to anarchists.

"If you abolish the State, you all end up as a bunch of monkey-fuckers."

[P3nT4gR4m]

One man's anarcho-utopia is another man's orangagangbang