The brutal slaying marked the 22nd hate crime targeting gays in New York City this year, compared to 13 incidents at the same time last year, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said, as quoted by Reuters. Greenwich Village, the trendy New York neighborhood which many artists call home, has witnessed its share of historic victories for gay rights advocates. That legacy has given the neighborhood its reputation as a tolerant safe haven for the gay community. Until now, that is. Early on Saturday morning, Marc Carson was walking with his companion on Sixth Avenue at Eighth Street – not far from the Stonewall Inn, the site of the famous 1969 gay rights riot – when a man approached the couple and uttered an anti-gay slur. The assailant then asked if the two “want to die here” before shooting Carson point-blank in the face. Carson, 32, was rushed to the hospital where he died of his wounds. The killer, identified as 33-year-old Elliot Morales, fled the scene, but was quickly apprehended by police. Morales appeared on Sunday in Manhattan criminal court, where he was charged with committing murder as a hate crime. He is being held without bail and two of his companions are cooperating with police, The NYPD said it is investigating possible links between Saturday’s killing and other incidents. Last week, also in Greenwich Village, a man was beaten up after leaving a bar. He told investigators the assailant had uttered anti-gay remarks before attacking him. In May, two couples in midtown Manhattan were assaulted by groups of men, in what are thought to have been hate crimes against homosexuals. A spokesman for Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) called the killing “a stark and sobering reminder of the rife homophobia that still exists in our culture.”Too many victories, too soon?Following Saturday’s brutal slaying, some American media outlets asked the question whether recent gay rights victories may have contributed to the incidence of hate crimes against homosexuals.As Reuters put it, the spate of violence against gays could represent“a backlash against the recent advance of gay marriage laws across the United States.” Last week, the Minnesota Senate narrowly passed the same-sex bill, thus becoming the 12th US state to legalize same-sex marriages.Opponents of the bill questioned the speed with which the measure was being adopted, as well as fears that the interests of people opposed to such legislation are not being given due consideration.However, it is not just the issue of same-sex marriages that the American public – many of whom believe that marriage is an institution reserved for male and female partners – is being forced to consider.Alongside the same-sex marriage debate, Americans were also asked to accept homosexuality in perhaps the most conservative of national organizations, the Boy Scouts of America.The Supreme Court in 2000 recognized the First Amendment right of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA)“to select its leaders and members based upon the assertion by the BSA that homosexual activity was inconsistent with the Scout Oath and Law.” Despite the ruling, the BSA was placed under constant pressure to reverse its position on homosexuality within its youthful ranks. This week, delegates from the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America will gather in Grapevine, Texas, to vote on whether to include in its bylaws the accompanying clause:“No youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.” Many individuals are wondering aloud why an organization that is devoted to nurturing the minds and bodies of boys is being forced to consider questions involving sexuality in the first place.Public demonstrations opposing the new resolution have been organized by a group called OnMyHonor.net, which claims the pending proposal “requires open homosexuality in the Boy Scouts.” … Read More
Indian pitcher aims for major leagues
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Hurricane Sandy dumped 11 billion gallons of sewage into New York water
study released Tuesday from Climate Central revealed that some 11 billion gallons of raw and partially treated sewage were introduced into the water surrounding New York and New Jersey as a result of Sandy-induced damage. There were also six sewage spills larger than 100 million gallons in Gotham alone. Almost all of the damage – 94 per cent – in New York was blamed on overflow in area sewage plants, located in low-lying areas so gravity is able to pump and treat wastewater. Some facilities were shut down by power outages while others were completely swamped by floodwater. New York City will have to spend roughly $2 billion to repair the plants, according to the New York Observer. “Our sewage infrastructure isn’t built to withstand such surges, and we are putting our property, safety and lives at risk if we don’t adequately plan for these challenges,” report author Alyson Kenward told the Village Voice. “Sandy showed the extreme vulnerability of the region’s sewage treatment plants to rising seas and intense coastal storms.” Hurricane Sandy killed 159 people and caused $70 billion in damage across eight states, each of which was affected by sewage overflow. Kenward told the New York Daily News that residents should have little to fear regarding long-term health effects because the sewage becomes less threatening as it dissipates through the water. The environmental effects, however, are yet to be seen. Enough sewage leaked to completely cover Manhattan’s Central Park and fill it eleven feet high, the report noted. One of the worst affected stations was Bay Park Treatment Plant on Long Island. “The storm left this coastal plant completely out of operation for at least 42 hours after the storm,” the authors wrote. “Since the tidal flooding was so severe, operators were unable to provide even conservative estimates to the amount of non-salt water that escaped the plant. However, based on average daily flows through the plant, we estimate that at least 104 million gallons of untreated sewage overflowed into Rockaway Channel.” Last year, six months before Hurricane Sandy ravaged the eastern coast of the United States, Climate Central’s Dr. Ben Strauss testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee that because sea levels have risen nearly a foot since 1880, only a small bit of water – or sewage – could doom someone’s home. “Just a few extra inches could mean the difference to flood a family’s basement, or New York City’s subway system, disabling it for months,” he said. … Read More
U.S. pilot found living in Vietnam village 44 years after being declared MIA
A Canadian documentarian says in a new film that an elderly man he found living in a remote Vietnamese village is former U.S. Army Green Beret Sgt. John Hartley Robertson, who was presumed dead 44 years ago. According to The Independent, filmmaker Michael Jorgensen claims that the man found in a…
IDF teargas Palestinian youth protesting ruthless beating
The youths set tires on fire and threw rocks at Israeli soldiers, which used teargas to disperse the protesters.Violence erupted after Friday prayers in Silwa as hundreds of village men streamed past Israeli troops who tried to block their path. The Palestinians gathered in al-Zir’s apricot grove in protest.“Our land, its stones and its soil, is our right. Sleeping on it by night and tending to it by day, without fear of attacks by hateful settlers, is a matter of our very existence,” the local imam told the worshipers at Friday prayers. The outrage was sparked by the brutal beating of a 60-year-old former judge Ahmad al-Zir. Israelis allegedly attacked him with steel pipes as the man was tending his land between the Ofra settlement and the Palestinian village of Silwad on Thursday.“They were hitting him again and again on the head, cursing him and telling him to shut up,” said Mahmoud Hussein, a relative and an eyewitness of the alleged attack Reuters reports.Village youths tracked down the Israelis to their encampment and burned down one of their improvised homes. Israeli forces were sent to the scene late Thursday to disperse the angered Palestinians. They fired at the protesters, wounding two with live bullets, including one in the chest, medics said.IDF officials have described the incident as a “clash between Israeli and Palestinian civilians.” The alleged beating is under investigation, said an Israeli army spokesperson.Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinians suffered tear-gas inhalation during clashes near Mount Hebron in the West Bank after the Israeli troops attacked a weekly march against the closure of the road link between Hebron and its southern villages, the march coordinator told Ma’an. At least one person was reportedly struck by a tear-gas canister.The escalation comes amid disputes over the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank where Palestinian youths frequently hurl stones at settlers’ cars and Israeli soldiers. There are some 120 official settlements, such as Ofra, and also more than 100 built without official authorization in the West Bank. … Read More
New York ordered to pay up over NYPD’s destruction of Occupy property
The City of New York will pay over $365,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by people whose property was damaged and destroyed when the NYPD raided Zuccotti Park, dispersing Occupy Wall Street protesters, on November 15, 2011.The crux of the lawsuit was the destruction of the People’s Library, in which NYPD officers damaged and disposed of 5,500 publicly donated books gathered over a two-month period. In the days following the midnight raid, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg initially claimed the library was still intact but was eventually forced to admit that he presided over its destruction.Occupy activists have since rallied around the dismantling of the library, citing it as evidence of the government’s commitment to suppressing criticism and a free exchange of ideas while comparing Bloomberg to book-burning Nazi-era Germany and other totalitarian states.The plaintiffs sought $47,000 in damages and promised not to settle unless they received that amount, which they eventually did. The city will also pay $186,350 in fees and costs to Occupy Wall Street’s lawyers.“Our clients are pleased,” Norman Siegel, the attorney for Occupy Wall Street, told the Village Voice. “We had asked for damages of $47,000 for the books and the computers, and we got $47,000. More important – we would have not settled without this – is the language in the settlement. This was not just about money, it was about Constitutional rights and the destruction of books.”The city will also pay $75,000 for destroying property owned by Global Revolutions TV, a media station that livestreamed the activity in the park, another $49,850 in court and lawyer fees, and an $8,500 check will go to Times Up New York.Not long after the lawsuit was filed attorneys for the city tried to enlist Brookfield Properties, the owner of Zuccotti Park, as a co-defendant. Despite sending in NYPD officers and workers from the department of Sanitation to clean up the park, the city alleged that Brookfield was liable for the destructive results of the raid. Brookfield properties, which hired a carting company for the mass eviction, will pay the city $15,666.67, as per the court settlement.Siegel outlined the goals of the lawsuit last year.“My sense was the Bloomberg administration was not prepared to say it did anything wrong,” he said. “But we want a declaration, for historical purposes, that the government can’t do what it did on November 15 and get away with it.” … Read More
6.2 magnitude earthquake shakes Russia’s far east, close to China and North Korea
The epicenter of the quake was about 9km from the Russian village Zarubino and about 62km northeast of the North Korean city of Aodzhiri. No casualties or damage have been reported.The earthquake struck at a depth of 349.2 miles.DETAILS TO FOLLOW … Read More
