Apr
15
2013
Hundreds of British Asians will gather in Parliament Square on Tuesday to urge MPs to introduce legal protection for those from traditionally lower-caste backgrounds.
A coalition of community groups, human rights organisations and politicians has been campaigning for a change in the law that would make it an offence for people to discriminate on the grounds of caste.
A report on the issue commissioned by the government three years ago estimated that there were between 50,000 and …
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Apr
15
2013
From the homeowner who died fighting a foreclosure based on a typo to the family evicted at gunpoint at 3am, there is no shortage of heartbreaking stories of improper evictions. But while victims of wrongful foreclosures are frequently too small to find justice, the banks perpetuating the crimes against them remain far too big to be held accountable. The most recent entry in the “banks got bailed out, we got sold out” saga is the …
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Apr
15
2013
BEIJING — A Chinese magazine’s report on abuses at a notorious labor camp is giving reformers added ammunition in a campaign to abolish a part of the penal system that China’s government says needs change.
The report this week in Lens magazine documents the long hours worked by female inmates at the Masanjia labor camp and the punishments for breaking rules or not meeting production quotas for cutting fabric, making button holes, sewing and ironing clothes …
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Apr
15
2013
There are certain facts of life reflected by the FY 2014 Obama budget proposal: first, anything really worth having is going to be hard to get; and, the regrettable corollary — some things you don’t want are a lot closer to reality.
There are new and even historic anti-poverty proposals in this budget. But the better they are, the more they fall into the “hard to get” category. On the other hand, Social Security cuts in …
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Apr
15
2013
War on Whistleblowers, a documentary by Brave New Foundation, premieres this week in Washington, D.C., and New York City. The film explores whistleblowing in concept and practice, and profiles five men in recent years who have suffered great loss to expose wrongdoing and corruption in the American deep state.
The documentary moves at a thoughtful pace, and introduces viewers to the surprisingly profound dilemma that would-be whistleblowers face, and the hard path that follows once the …
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Apr
15
2013
Summer ice is melting at a faster rate in the Antarctic peninsula than at any time in the last 1,000 years, new research has shown.
The evidence comes from a 364-metre ice core containing a record of freezing and melting over the previous millennium.
Layers of ice in the core, drilled from James Ross Island near the northern tip of the peninsula, indicate periods when summer snow on the ice cap thawed and then refroze.
By measuring the …
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Apr
15
2013
On the morning of May 3, 2010, three agents of the Food and Drug Administration descended upon the Houston office of Cetero Research, a firm that conducted research for drug companies worldwide.
Lead agent Patrick Stone, now retired from the FDA, had visited the Houston lab many times over the previous decade for routine inspections. This time was different. His team was there to investigate a former employee’s allegation that the company had tampered with records …
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Apr
15
2013
They hail from New York, the Silicon Valley, Arkansas, Los Angeles and elsewhere. They are a rich and diverse lot, including Republicans, liberals, Hollywood notables and international corporate executives.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, L.A. philanthropist Eli Broad, Netflix founder Reed Hastings, pomegranate juice titan Lynda Resnick, anti-Obama mega-donor A. Jerrold Perenchio and the widow of Steve Jobs.
Together, they smashed records for spending by outside groups in last month’s L.A. Board of Education elections. These major …
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Apr
15
2013
In gushes, drips, and spills. With leaks, derailments, and ruptures. Oil companies from North and South America have littered the world with more than 1,185,000 gallons of crude oil, tar sands, and other fossil fuel waste in the last month. Tcktcktck has a new infographic that tells the toxic tale…
Click here for the graphic …
Apr
15
2013
Fazil Say, one of Turkey’s most famous classical musicians, has been convicted of blasphemy for posting a series of tweets that prosecutors say insulted Islam.
A court in Istanbul today gave the internationally acclaimed pianist a 10-month suspended jail term for “insulting religious values of a part of the population.” He will not be sent to prison unless he is convicted of reoffending within five years.
Say, who was not present in court, has denied the charges …
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