The Raw Story

A non-profit news blog, focused on providing independent journalism.

Friday, 13 March 2015

Video shows cop choking out child until he goes limp, child left with brain injury

[embedded content]Louisville, Kentucky - Louisville Metro Police Officer Jonathan Hardin, 31, has been arrested for assaulting a child at the school where he was working as a resource officer.Surveillance video released after it was played during a probable cause hearing on Thursday shows Hardin choking out a 13-year-old student back in January. This was only five days after the officer allegedly assaulted another 13-year-old student in an unrelated incident.Hardin was also named in a civil suit with two other officers who have been accused of...

New bionic heart would work without beating

© BiVACOR Scientists at the Texas Heart Institute claim that they are co-developing a bionic heart that can perfectly replicate the function of its biological counterpart, but without actually beating.The researchers, who are working on the heart along with Houston-based private-sector medical research and engineering firm BiVACOR, told that the average human heart needs to beat 42 million times per year. An artificial heart that had all of the...

Coral pyramids in Micronesia date back to Middle Ages

© Jean-Paul HobbsResearcher Zoe Richards inspects the corals used to build a royal tomb at Leluh known as Bat. On a remote Pacific island not much bigger than Manhattan, there are ancient pyramids built out of living coral. New evidence reveals that these tombs could be up to 700 years old — much older than experts had previously thought.The royal tombs are tucked away in an artificially built ancient city called Leluh just off the mainland of Kosrae,...

State Dept. forced to shut down email after cyber attack

© Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesThe US Department of State logo is displayed inside the media briefing at the US Department of State in Washington. The State Department shut down large parts of its unclassified email system today in a final attempt to rid it of malware believed to have been inserted by Russian hackers in what has become one of the most serious cyber intrusions in the department's history, U.S. officials told ABC News."The Department...

U.S. asks Vietnam to stop helping Russian bomber flights

The United States has asked Vietnam to stop letting Russia use a former U.S. base to refuel nuclear-capable bombers engaged in shows of strength over the Asia-Pacific region, exposing strains in Washington's steadily warming relations with Hanoi.The request, described to Reuters by a State Department official, comes as U.S. officials say Russian bombers have stepped up flights in a region already rife with tensions between China, U.S.-ally Japan...

Ukraine's ex-PM, Russian political analyst, 12 individuals latest target for US sanctions

© European Press Agency/Shawn Thew US has imposed sanctions on former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and 13 more people in connection with the situation in Ukraine, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.Sanctions were also imposed against Eurasian Youth Union and Russian National Commercial Bank. Russian public figure, leader of the International Eurasian Movement Alexander Dugin was also put on the sanctions list.Former Ukrainian Health...

Listening to music enhances activity of genes involved in learning and memory while down-regulating genes associated with neurodegeneration

© rubchikova / FotoliaA Finnish study group has investigated how listening to classical music affected the gene expression profiles of both musically experienced and inexperienced participants. All the participants listened to W.A. Mozart's violin concert Nr 3, G-major, K.216 that lasts 20 minutes. Although listening to music is common in all societies, the biological determinants of listening to music are largely unknown. According to a new study,...

Tropical cyclone Pam batters islands of Vanuatu

© abc.net.auA resident assesses damage caused by Cyclone in Tarawa, Kiribati, on March 11, 2015. ( Tropical Cyclone Pam may have weakened somewhat Saturday morning, but it was still pounding the islands of Vanuatu after hours of fierce winds and torrential rain."#CyclonePam still tearing through #Vanuatu. 'Much bigger than expected,' says our colleague in Port Vila. Initial reports of devastation," tweeted the Australian branch of UNICEF.Pam, one...

Houston man stuck in traffic films mysterious flying object in sky

A UFO sighting in a Houston suburb was apparently convincing enough to make the local news, when a man stuck in a traffic jam decided to pass the time by pointing his cell phone camera at the sky and seeing what was up there. One of the photos he snapped, he believes, reveals a mysterious flying object in the sky."I found out it was a UFO, it absolutely was one," Alfonso Servin, who took the picture said, as quoted by the local .Back on February...

The Milky Way galaxy may be more enormous than we ever imagined

How big is the Milky Way? bigger than we thought, it seems.Surprising new research suggests that our home galaxy is about 50 percent bigger than previously thought, spanning some 150,000 light-years across rather than the 100,000 light-years that has been the generally accepted number.We know quite a lot about the Milky Way, so how can it be that we're just now realizing that we were so wrong about its size? It turns out that what seemed to be concentric...

Why the dollar is rising as the global monetary bubble craters

Contra Corner is not about investment advice, but its unstinting critique of the current malignant monetary regime does not merely imply that the Wall Street casino is a dangerous place for your money. No, it screams get out of harms' way. Now!Yet I am constantly braced with questions about the US dollar and its impending demise. The reasoning seems to be that if America is a debt addicted dystopia - and it surely is - won't the US dollar sooner...

New York City: Film an idling vehicle, get paid

© propelit.net If you see something, they'll pay something.Two city lawmakers want to recruit everyday New Yorkers to help battle the scourge of idling vehicles by paying them for video footage that results in fines.City Council members Helen Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) and Donovan Richards (D-Queens) will introduce a bill Wednesday that would give citizens up to 50 percent of the summons revenue if they catch someone breaking the idling law, take a...

Say what? CIA director blames social media for strength of IS

© Reuters / Stringer The internet has "greatly amplified" the Islamic State's campaign of terrorism and has consequently stifled attempts to diminish the spread of the extremist group's ideologies, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency says.Speaking Friday at the Council on Foreign Relations, CIA Director John Brennan said the group calling itself the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) has been so successful at staying intact and...

Hawaii blizzard continues, snow removers and observatories evacuated

March 12. 2015: Just before noon on Thursday, the blizzard allowed summit webcams to glimpse the observatories partially buried in snow. Rapidly accumulating snow drifts reportedThe blizzard warning continues for the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, as snow is piling up high.The National Weather Service says the warning is in effect for Hawaii Island's higher elevations - anything above 11,000 feet - until 6 p.m. Thursday. Forecasters expect...

The Trans-Pacific Partnership clause everyone should oppose

© ReutersA police woman removes a woman protesting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on Capitol Hill in Washington January 27, 2015 The United States is in the final stages of negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a massive free-trade agreement with Mexico, Canada, Japan, Singapore and seven other countries. Who will benefit from the TPP? American workers? Consumers? Small businesses? Taxpayers? Or the biggest multinational corporations...

China blasts 'paranoid and hysterical' U.S. over its criticism of UK for joining Beijing World Bank

© Sputnik/ Sergey Guneev An editorial in the Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency blasts the US government for its attempts to steer Britain away from China's new infrastructure investment bank.The United States has launched into paranoid hysteria by criticizing the United Kingdom for joining the Beijing-headquartered Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), China's state-run Xinhua news agency announced on Friday."The US has again launched...

The tricks and lies of corporate junk science

© unknownScience has been hijacked by corporate junk science, which pretends to be real science but is actually highly fraudulent. Corporate junk science is an all-pervading presence in our society. It's everywhere. The scientific journals of the entire world, offline and online, have been flooded with so much fake science that it has, sad to say, become practically impossible for the average person to wade through all of it and sort out the wheat...

Mysterious booms continue to shake houses in Port Angeles, Washington

© Peninsula Daily News A new round of booming noises has disturbed residents of west Port Angeles and Joyce, who say the mysterious sounds shake their homes.The rattling noises were reported at about 12:21 p.m. Wednesday, almost exactly two weeks after the last round of booms heard on the afternoon of Feb. 25, and again at about 9:35 a.m. Thursday."It sounded like it came from the direction of the Strait [of Juan de Fuca]," said Jim Haugen, who...

Treasury Secretary: Once again the U.S. is about to hit the debt limit

© J. Scott Applewhite, AP Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told Congress on Friday that he'll once again have to take measures to keep the federal government under the legal debt limit after a suspension of the limit expires Sunday.Beginning Monday, Lew said the Treasury Department will take "extraordinary measures" to keep the government from defaulting on its debt. Those include a halt to new investments in federal employee pension funds, a moratorium...

Slovakian PM: Western sanctions on Russia are not in the interests of Slovakia and Czech Republic

© EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQSlovak Prime Minister Robert Fico Sanctions imposed by Western nations on Russia over the crisis in Ukraine "are not in the interests of Slovakia and the Czech republic", Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Friday.Addressing a congress of the Czech Social Democratic Party in Prague, Fico noted unanimity of opinion among the Slovak and Czech authorities on sanctions against Russia. While urging European politicians to...

Putin approval rating at 88%, highest point in 15 years of his presidency

© Alexei Nikolsky/Russian presidential press service/TASS , winning 88% performance approval and the highest vote of confidence in his presidency recorded over 15 years, pollsters say.This was announced at TASS headquarters on Friday as Russian Public Opinion Research Center head Valery Fedorov unveiled latest results from annual assessments carried out since Putin was first elected head of state.Pollsters gathered views among 1,600 survey respondents...

North Korean Foreign Minister makes surprise visit to Moscow

© REUTERS/ Vasily Fedosenko North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong, who has arrived in Moscow on an unscheduled visit, met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.The two top diplomats "exchanged opinions about bilateral relations, situation on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia, as well as on several international issues of bilateral concern," the ministry said in a statement. The North Korean...
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