Source: Guardian UK

Chad looks set to become the 37th country in Africa to outlaw homosexuality after government ministers voted to make same-sex relations a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

The decision, yet to be ratified by the country’s president, was condemned by human rights groups as another setback in the struggle for gay rights on the continent. Chad’s penal code is more than half a century old and does not explicitly mention homosexuality.

But section 361 of a draft new code states the punishment for anyone who has sexual intercourse with someone of the same sex is 15 to 20 years in jail and a fine of 50,000-500,000 Central African francs (£60-£600), according to a document seen by Agence France-Presse.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/22/chad-37th-african-state-seeking-ban-homosexuality

Source: Talking Points Memo

The wife of an anti-gay activist divorced him to be with a woman just before he started as president of a Texas anti-gay group, according to court documents reviewed by Lone Star Q.

Jonathan Saenz worked as a conservative consultant in Texas for Liberty Legal Institute, where he focused on abortion and religious freedom issues.

His wife, Corrine Morris Rodriguez Saenz, was dating a women when she filed for divorce from her husband in August 2011, according to court documents.

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/anti-gay-leader-wife-another-woman

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I try to tell people God has a sense of humor.

Source: News 965

President Barack Obama's approval rating is the lowest of his presidency, while Russia's president is enjoying some of highest approval ratings of his lengthy rule.
Russians are doing their part to show their national pride and belittle the United States and our president.

A Russian used a laser to project embarrassing, unflattering and outright racist images of Barack Obama on the side of the US Embassy in Moscow. The night of 4 August, activists of the initiative group of Moscow students projected for the United States Embassy building an unusual picture. Image resembled the face of Barack Obama. The composition was the animation and the painted mouth US president dived banana. At the end of the action on the building of the American embassy was projected inscription: "HappyBirthday Obama"

Read more: http://www.news965.com/news/news/local/russians-mock-obama-racist-images-us-embassy-mosco/ngxJQ/

Source: alarabiya.net

Two Indian women have designed a new line of “anti-rape” jeans which send distress signals to local police in the event of a sexual assault, the British daily the Daily Mail reported Thursday.

The collection, which was created by Siksha Pathak and Anjali Srivastava, aims to help in the fight against the growing number of sexual harassment incidents in the world’s largest democracy.
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Each pair of jeans in the collection, which costs around $4 in India, includes a small electronic device that sends a signal to the closest police station when activated.

Read more: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/variety/2014/06/27/New-anti-rape-jeans-to-combat-abuse-crisis-in-India-.html

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Isnt it a shame that we need this in 2014?

Source: Yahoo News

Geneva (AFP) - West Africa's Ebola unprecedented outbreak is among the "most challenging" for health workers since the deadly disease emerged elsewhere in Africa four decades ago as the suspected death toll topped 100, the WHO said Tuesday.

Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said the agency was concerned about the spread of the virus from its epicentre in the forests of southern Guinea.

"We have not had an Ebola outbreak in this part of Africa before," said Fukuda, whose agency has rushed scores of aid workers to the region to contain the epidemic.

"This is one of the most challenging Ebola outbreaks we have ever faced," he said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/west-africa-ebola-outbreak-among-most-chilling-ever-154200277.html

Source: Stars & Stripes

NORFOLK, Va. — He was a good kid from a humble family who seemed always to want to please his teachers and coaches. He got decent grades and played football and wrestled while in high school in Hagerstown, Md. He wanted to be a cop.

After graduation, Mark Mayo chose his path. He enlisted in the Navy, left home and trained to become a master-at-arms - a military police officer.

Soon he was in Bahrain, then Spain, then Norfolk.

He died here, at age 24, doing a job he loved.


Read more: http://www.stripes.com/news/us/base-commander-sailor-killed-on-norfolk-ship-was-heroic-1.274740#.UzSbba1dU5O

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Obviously this young man had a bright career ahead of him. No telling how many others may have been killed if not for him.

Source: Fox NY

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - Four young men were convicted of gay sex and whipped publicly as punishment Thursday in an Islamic court in northern Nigeria, a human rights activist said.

The four were among dozens caught in a wave of arrests after Nigeria strengthened its criminal penalties for homosexuality with the new Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act in January.

The men could face further violence in prison if human rights organizations do not come up with an additional fine of 20,000 naira ($120) each meted out Thursday by a judge in Bauchi city, Dorothy Aken'Ova, convenor of the Coalition for the Defense of Sexual Rights Network, told The Associated Press. The four were sentenced to 15 strokes plus a year's imprisonment if they cannot pay their fines.




Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/story/24901867/4-accused-gays-whipped-in-north-nigerian-court

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What in the hell is going on in the world?? What year is this?

Source: Atlanta Journal

MIDDLESBORO, Ky. — A snake-handling pastor who appeared on the National Geographic television reality show "Snake Salvation" has died after being bitten by a snake during a weekend church service in Kentucky.

Jamie Coots was handling a rattlesnake at his Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name Church in Middlesboro when he was bitten on the hand Saturday night, another preacher, Cody Winn, told WBIR-TV (http://on.wbir.com/1cLrs8A ). After the bite, Coots dropped the snakes, but then picked them back up and continued on. Within minutes, Winn said Coots headed to the bathroom.

"He had one of the rattlers in his hand, he came over and he was standing beside me. It was plain view, it just turned its head and bit him in the back of the hand ... within a second," Winn said.


Read more: http://www.ajc.com/ap/ap/entertainment/snake-handling-ky-pastor-dies-from-snake-bite/ndQnk/

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Never saw THAT coming.

Source: Wash Post

Watch this video, taken from a police raid in Des Moines, Iowa. Send it to some people. When critics (like me) warn about the dangers of police militarization, this is what we’re talking about. You’ll see the raid team, dressed in battle-dress uniforms, helmets and face-covering balaclava hoods take down the family’s door with a battering ram. You’ll see them storm the home with ballistics shields, guns at the ready. More troubling still, you’ll see not one but two officers attempt to prevent the family from having an independent record of the raid, one by destroying a surveillance camera, another by blocking another camera’s lens.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2014/02/04/scenes-from-a-militarized-america-iowa-family-terrorized//?print=1

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This "no knock" shit has got to stop.

Source: NY Times blog

With just days left until the start on Friday of the Sochi Winter Olympics, Human Rights Watch released a video on Tuesday that highlights the disturbing violence and discrimination that gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people face in Russia.


In a statement accompanying the footage, Human Rights Watch urged the Russian authorities to address the “deteriorating situation” of abuse against LGBT people and activists, saying that a failure to act has exposed them to further harassment and violence and has emboldened attackers.

Read more: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/rights-group-releases-video-of-lgbt-attacks-in-russia/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&src=twr&_r=1&

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And this is before the Olympics. Wonder how much repression we'll see DURING?