Source: New York Times

LOS ANGELES — It seemed like routine business for the student council at the University of California, Los Angeles: confirming the nomination of Rachel Beyda, a second-year economics major who wants to be a lawyer someday, to the council’s Judicial Board.

Until it came time for questions.

“Given that you are a Jewish student and very active in the Jewish community,” Fabienne Roth, a member of the Undergraduate Students Association Council, began, looking at Ms. Beyda at the other end of the room, “how do you see yourself being able to maintain an unbiased view?”

For the next 40 minutes, after Ms. Beyda was dispatched from the room, the council tangled in a debate about whether her faith and affiliation with Jewish organizations, including her sorority and Hillel, a popular student group, meant she would be biased in dealing with sensitive governance questions that come before the board, which is the campus equivalent of the Supreme Court.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/us/debate-on-a-jewish-student-at-ucla.html

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Absolutely disgusting behavior. Can you imagine if the same questions were asked of a black student? A Hispanic one?
ETA: Faculty leader says this is a "teaching moment"? Good lord.

Source: Washington Post

DHAKA, Bangladesh — A prominent Bangladeshi-American blogger known for speaking out against religious extremism was hacked to death as he walked through Bangladesh’s capital with his wife, police said Friday.

The attack Thursday night on Avijit Roy, a Bangladesh-born U.S. citizen, occurred on a crowded sidewalk as he and his wife, Rafida Ahmed, were returning from a book fair at Dhaka University. Ahmed, who is also a blogger, was seriously injured. It was the latest in a series of attacks on secular writers in Bangladesh in recent years.

A previously unknown militant group, Ansar Bangla 7, claimed responsibility for the attack, Assistant Police Commissioner S.M. Shibly Noman told the Prothom Alo newspaper.

Roy “was the target because of his crime against Islam,” the group said on Twitter.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/unidentified-attackers-hack-us-blogger-to-death-in-dhaka/2015/02/26/a7b8944a-be30-11e4-9dfb-03366e719af8_story.html?tid=trending_strip_6

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Source: Washington Post

Venezuela’s turbulent politics appear headed for a new phase of confrontation a day after intelligence agents stormed the offices of the Caracas mayor, Antonio ­Ledezma, seizing the opposition leader for his alleged role in what President Nicolás Maduro called an “endless coup.”

Ledezma will be indicted on charges of “conspiracy,” according to a statement released by Venezuelan state prosecutors Friday night after the 59-year-old mayor’s appearance at a Caracas tribunal. He was taken directly to the Ramo Verde military jail, the statement said — the same facility where another opposition leader, Leopoldo López, has been imprisoned for the past year.

In a speech Friday night, Maduro said he would lay out recordings and videos next week in a special broadcast revealing the “gringo intervention in Venezuela” that Ledezma allegedly conspired with. “In Venezuela, no one is untouchable,” he warned.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/venezuela-on-edge-after-caracas-mayor-arrested-on-coup-plot-claims/2015/02/20/47647515-2198-4419-b686-317f124c8d91_story.html

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Looks like the disintegration is starting a bit quicker than I expected

Source: TelegraphUK

For Jose Perez, a Venezuelan taxi driver from Caracas, the hardest part about watching his wife die from heart failure was knowing just how easily she could have been saved.
The surgeons at the Caracas University Hospital were ready to operate on 51-year-old Carmen, but because of the shortages of medicines now ravaging Venezuela, they had no stocks of the prosthetic artery that would have saved her life.
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“It’s the government who is responsible for my wife’s death, not the doctors,” Mr Perez, 63, told The Telegraph last week. “Things are very bad in this country, and they are getting worse. I feel that we are in a dictatorship. At the start I believed in Chavez, now I can’t look at him. He is in the best place now.”

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/11385294/Venezuelas-socialist-paradise-turns-into-a-nightmare-medical-shortages-claim-lives-as-oil-price-collapses.html

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Source: France24

An international cartoon contest has been launched in Iran around the theme of Holocaust denial, in response to French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo’s decision to publish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

Holocaust denial is not uncommon in the Islamic Republic, an arch-foe of Israel, but the controversial competition is a response to the January 14 issue of Charlie Hebdo, whose cover featured a teary Prophet Mohammed holding a sign saying “Je Suis Charlie” (I am Charlie).

The three-word slogan became a rallying cry across France and much of the world in the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks on January 7 at the magazine's offices, carried out as revenge for drawings published by Charlie Hebdo that mocked the founder of Islam.

Read more: http://www.france24.com/en/20150202-iran-holocaust-denial-cartoon-contest-charlie-hebdo-cover-tehran/

Source: TelegraphUK

Pope's open air mass sets world record for papal gathering, surpassing the 5 million record set by St. John Paul II at the same park in 1995
Six million people turned out to see Pope Francis celebrate mass in the Philippine capital Sunday, making it a world record crowd for a papal gathering.
Pope Francis ended his Asian pilgrimage Sunday with an appeal for the future of the Catholic Church, urging rain-soaked Filipinos to protect their young from sin and vice so they can instead become missionaries of the faith.
He made the appeal personal by embracing a 12-year-old rescued street child who wept in his arms over the plight of children abandoned by their families and forced into prostitution and drug use.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/the-pope/11353460/Francis-is-officially-the-most-popular-Pope-as-six-million-turn-out-for-record-breaking-mass-in-Manila.html

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Two protesters were arrested at the McLean, Virginia, home of former Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday after 20 demonstrators, some in orange prison jumpsuits, walked onto his property to mark the 14th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay prison.

The protesters from the anti-war group Code Pink walked up to the house before police arrived and asked them to leave, said Fairfax County police spokesman Roger Henriquez. Two members who refused to go were arrested on trespassing charges, he said.

Police identified the two as Tighe Barry, 57, and Eve Tetaz, 83, both of Washington DC. The pair face misdemeanor charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct, police said.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/10/us-usa-guantanamo-protesters-idUSKBN0KJ0O320150110

http://abcnews.go.com/US/woman-visits-toys-us-pays-off-everybodys-layaway/story?id=27545537

A woman is being hailed as a layaway angel after she went into a Toys ‘R’ Us store in Bellingham, Mass., on Wednesday and paid off every open layaway account -- giving about 150 customers with items on layaway an early Christmas present.

The generous donor paid $20,000 to wipe the entire layaway balance at that location, a spokeswoman for Toys ‘R’ Us confirmed to ABC News on Thursday.

This incredible act of kindness is a true illustration of holiday giving at its best,” the company said in a statement.
The donor made the payment anonymously, but the Milford Daily News reported that she was a local resident who said she would sleep better at night knowing the accounts had been paid.


>>>I like to post GOOD stories so we dont always see doom and gloom. This article also mentions some others who opened their wallets to strangers<<

Source: News Austrailia


BRITISH police have foiled an alleged plot to assassinate the Queen in a knife attack this weekend at a Remembrance Day event in London, it has been claimed.
Counter terrorist police swooped on addresses in the west of the British capital and in the Thames Valley and arrested four men aged 19 to 27.
Scotland Yard were remaining tight lipped yesterday but confirmed it was an alleged Islamist plot to be carried out on British soil and was part of “an ongoing investigation into Islamist-related terrorism”.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world/four-men-arrested-for-allegedly-plotting-a-terror-attack-to-kill-queen-elizabeth/story-fndir2ev-1227116658248

Source: Atlanta Journal

"After my review of the facts surrounding this matter, I have determined that Mr. Groubert’s actions rose to such an extent that his employment with us must be terminated. The facts of this case are disturbing to me, but I believe this case was an isolated incident in which Mr. Groubert reacted to a perceived threat where there was none. The department’s Use of Force Policy makes clear that officers shall use “only the level of force necessary to accomplish lawful objectives” and that “the use of force must be discontinued when it becomes apparent to the officer that the force is no longer needed.” That protocol was not followed in this case.
Further, this incident occurred in broad daylight. Mr. Groubert had a clear and unobstructed view of Mr. Jones. While Mr. Groubert was within the law to stop Mr. Jones for a safety belt violation, the force administered in this case was unwarranted, inconsistent with how our troopers are trained, and clearly in violation of Department policies. These violations demonstrate behavior that deviates from SCDPS standards and cannot be tolerated. "

Read more: http://www.ajc.com/news/news/national/police-sc-state-trooper-fired-charged-accused-shoo/nhTqg/?icmp=ajc_internallink_textlink_homepage#cmComments

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Unfreaking believable!! They actually fire one without a public uproar!
This type behavior HAS to stop. People are going to stop responding to the police AT ALL.