Wreck of German U-boat ‘Attacked by Sea Monster’ Found off Scottish Coast

Exorcism: A Job Too Daunting For Young Priests

An 18^th Century fresco in Fr. Vincenzo Taraborelli’s Roman church shows a possessed woman being held with her mouth open and little devils coming out of her body. “She’s being freed,” he said.

It is a scene Fr. Taraborelli, says he knows well. The 79-year old priest has performed exorcisms – the Catholic ritual of driving out evil spirits – for the past 27 years.

He stumbled into the job when a fellow priest needed assistance. The senior priest didn’t study it and he didn’t know what to do, but his colleague told him what to do, he said.

He has since become one of Rome’s most in demand exorcists, and the Catholic Church is straining to find younger successors.

He often sees up to 30 people a day as he works three days a week from a windowless room behind his church near the Vatican.

Before doing exorcisms, he urges people to see a psychiatrist or a psychologist, and requests them to bring him their prognosis, the priest said. He is in touch with several psychologists who send their patients to him.

A cabinet is lined with many small statues of angels on one side of the room. He stores a supply of sweets in a drawer to hand out to visitors. An official document showing his qualification as an exorcist hangs on the wall.

Before anything else, the father says he gets the room ready. If the person is not doing well, he tries to calm him down by reassuring him. He invites him to join him in prayer, but many are already disturbed when they come to him.

His most noteworthy case concerned a married woman he treated for 13 years.

Another man, who was a Satanist, wanted her,” he remembers. “She refused. So this man told her: ‘You’ll pay for this.’ He cast so-called spells to attract her to him, twice a week.

Then they came to him. He started to pray as she went into a trance. She blurted out insults and blasphemies, and he quickly understood that she was possessed.

As the ritual continued, her condition started to worsen so Fr. Taraborelli told the devil: “in the name of Jesus, I order you to go away”, she started to vomit little metal pins. Aside from pins, she would also vomit hair braids, pieces of wood, little stones, the priest continued.

The concept of possession by the devil is an accepted belief within the Catholic Church. As in the recent killing of 85-year-old French priest Fr. Jacques Hamel in his church in Rouen, France, it is sometimes used to explain murderous behavior.

When two Islamist extremists rushed into the church and knifed Fr. Hamel, he tried to fend them off by shouting “Be gone, Satan!” – an obvious attempt at exorcism.

However, many doubt the whole origin of exorcism and demonic possession.

Non-believers claim the supposed possession by evil spirits is simply a medieval myth or superstition. Those who maintain to be influenced by evil spirits are people suffering from easily justifiable psychiatric or psychological problems, they say.

Fr. Taraborelli rebuffs the cynicism. He argues that someone who isn’t a believer doesn’t believe in the devil either. “But someone who believes knows that the devil exists, you can read it in the gospel,” he added.

No takers of job as exorcist

Fr. Taraborelli shows no indication of desiring to give up his work and his mobile phone rings regularly.

But younger priests are not specifically interested by the prospect of devoting hours in windowless rooms, reading exorcism rites to troubled believers.

“I told the bishop that I can’t find anyone willing to do this. Many of them are scared. Even priests can be scared. It’s a difficult life,” he said.

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Woman Armed with Baseball Bat Shot Dead by NYPD Officer

An emergency call on a domestic disturbance turned deadly on Tuesday. A New York police sergeant is under investigation for fatally shooting a 66-year old woman who assaulted the officer with a baseball bat. According to an assistant police chief, they are looking for a justification why the officer chose to shoot the woman instead of tasing her.

The latest shooting incident of the elderly woman initiated another intensified scrutiny over the entire law enforcement establishment in the United States. Citizens are concerned about police authorities using excessive force against the minorities and the mentally ill.

Domestic Disturbance Call

According to the New York Police Assistant Chief, Larry Nikunen, the police received an emergency call about an emotionally disturbed person in an apartment in the Bronx. The woman’s neighbor called the police complaining that the woman is acting irrationally.

In a news conference, Nikunen recalled the series of events that took place prior to the shooting. He said that the woman was clutching scissors when the sergeant entered the bedroom. The officer persuaded the woman to put the scissors down. However, she suddenly charged the officer while picking up a baseball bat.

Nikunen said during the conference, “As she attempted to strike the sergeant he fired two shots from his service revolver, striking her in the torso”. He also added that the NYPD is investigating the reason as for why the sergeant did not use a Taser instead of opening fire to the rushing woman.

Doctors pronounced the woman dead at the hospital. Authorities did not mention the identity and race of both the police officer and woman.

Ruben Diaz Jr., the Bronx President considered the incident as an “outrage” because of the shooting of a “mentally disturbed” person. The former state lawmaker requested the state attorney general for an investigation regarding the shooting.

Regular occurrence

This is not the first time that the police was called in for the same domestic disturbance call. Diaz said, “This elderly woman was known to the police department, yet the officer involved in this shooting failed to use discretion to either talk her down from her episode or, barring that, to use his stun gun.” He then added, “That is totally unacceptable.”

Last month, a similar occurrence generated scrutiny when an officer in El Cajon responded to a call on a mentally disturbed man. The police shot the man who pointed an object directly to the officer that turns out to be a vaping device.

As of late Tuesday, no statement was released by a lawyer from the New York Police Officer’s union.

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Hong Kong Legislators Walked Out To Halt Pro-Freedom Lawmakers Swear-in

Pro-Beijing lawmakers staged a walk-out to prevent a pair of newly elected Pro-Independence legislators to swear-in-oath.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, is now governed by China under the “One Country, Two Systems” principle since 1977.

Earlier this week, the government failed unprecedented legal attempts to stop the two legislators swear-in.

The Pro-Beijing lawmakers marched out of the legislative chamber, depriving the chamber of the quorum needed to continue.

Now it is unclear on when the two legislators would be able to swear-in office.

“In an unprecedented move, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive CY Leung has intervened in this whole process. He’s trying to get two of the pro-democracy candidates disqualified from parliament,” reported by Al Jazeera’s Sarah Clarke, reporting from Hong Kong’s Legislative Council.

“Leung’s case is being mounted on the grounds that he believes last week’s oath-taking was invalid and disrespectful to Hong Kong’s basic law.”

The government has raised the concern to the High Court, challenging the decision of the legislative body to allow Baggio Leung, 30, and Yau Wai-ching, 25, to retake their oaths.

Yau and Leung incited fury after the pro-Beijing establishment and other legislative officials disallowed their oaths last week.

Then the two displayed a banner saying “Hong Kong is not China”, while pledging allegiance to the “Hong Kong Nation”. They used derogatory language some legislator portrayed offensive.

The two newly elected legislators are determined to force the issue of self-determination and independence onto the mainstream political agenda.

The government’s request for a judicial review is scheduled to take place on November 3.

‘Traitors’ and ‘Dogs’

Hundreds of pro-Beijing protesters occupied the grounds of the chamber. Some carried placards of the two dressed in Japanese Army Uniforms, branding them as “traitors” and “dogs”. A number chanted that the pair should resign to defend China’s “dignity.”

The judicial review set on November will be a test to see if the rule of law and the separation of government and the legislative body are present in the self-governing global financial hub.

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US Anticipates Use of Chemical Weapons by Islamic State in Mosul Conflict

As the Islamic State tries to fend off an Iraqi-led assault on the city of Mosul, the United States anticipates Islamic State to utilize crude chemical weapons, US officials say. Though they added that the group’s technical ability to create such weapons is extremely limited.

One official said that the US is wary of the militant group given their use of a mustard agent in the months preceding Monday’s commencement of the Mosul offensive. Consequently, US forces have started to consistently collect shell fragments to test for potential chemical agents.

A second official said that in a formerly undisclosed incident, US forces verified the existence of sulfur mustard agent on Islamic State munition fragments on October 5.

The attack was aimed at local forces, not coalition or US troops.

US officials believe that conventional weapons are still the most serious risk for attacking Kurdish and Iraqi troops. They don’t think Islamic State has been effective so far at developing chemical weapons with specifically fatal results.

Sulfur mustard agent causes exposed skin and lungs to swell up. However, that would not be fatal at low doses.

Close to 5,000 US forces are in Iraq. At least 100 of them are inserted with Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces involved with the Mosul offensive. They are assigned in an advisory role counseling commanders. The advisers also help ensure coalition air-power hits the appropriate targets, officials said. They added that those forces are not at the frontlines.

The collapse of Mosul would signify the fall of the ultra-hardline Sunni jihadists in Iraq. On the other hand, this could also lead to sectarian bloodletting and land grabs between factions that fought each other following the downfall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

One million potential humans shields for IS

US President Barack Obama appraised on Thursday that around 1 million civilians were still in Mosul. This creates a challenge for Iraq and its Western allies attempting to drive out the group through force.

Thomas Weiss, the Iraq chief of the International Organization for Migration, said on Tuesday he expected Islamic State forces to use Mosul residents as human shields. He also voiced out his concerns about the risks of chemical agents.

Weiss added that the IOM had not managed to secure many gas masks yet.

The allied assault could lead to a complicated, prolonged battle, as attacking Iraqi forces remain 12 to 30 miles from the city itself. US officials believe that ISIL is most likely to use chemical weapons later in the campaign.

The leader of Islamic State was reported to be among thousands of fanatical militants still in the city. This suggests the group would go all out to hold off the coalition.

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US Health Care Quality Remained ‘Largely Flat’

Over the last decade, the US quality of outpatient care shows no significant change despite all the government efforts and encouragement to improve the quality of care it currently delivers.

In a statement released via email, the Lead Study Author Dr. David Levine of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard University in Boston said, “overall, the quality of outpatient care has remained largely flat; there are some areas of improvement, but we also see areas of decline,”

“The take-home for patients: there is likely recommended care that you are not receiving but should, and there is likely extra care that you are receiving and could be harmful to you,” He added.

According to the survey conducted by Levine and his fellow worker from nationally representative sample of patients, clinicians, hospitals, pharmacists and employers gathered from 2002 to 2013.

Every year, the survey has more or less 21,000 to 27,000 people.

Based on JAMA Internal Medicine research study, the number of patients receiving recommended medical care increased from 36% to 42%. For example, more patients received treatments needed for conditions like high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, asthma and heart failure.

On the other hand, the ratio of patients who needs counseling for weight loss, exercise and smoking cessation grew from 43% to 50%. Furthermore, the number of patients recommended for cancer screenings spiked from 73% to 75% and avoidance of inappropriate cancer screenings increased from 47% to 51%.

Meanwhile, Patients’ satisfaction improved, 77% of patients participated in giving a high rank for their care experience while the ratio of participants giving a high rating for physician communication jumped from 55% to 63%, then high marks for access to care rose from 48% to 58%.

Still, some other measures got worse

The number of cases when patients avoided inappropriate medical care such as opioids for headaches or MRIs for back pain went down from 92% to 89%. Skipping unnecessary antibiotic use for things like the flu or acute bronchitis dropped from 50% to 44%.

Studies show, most Americans are more prone to sickness, get older, less white but get more educated on average. Adult Americans also became less interested in smoking and most likely to live with multiple chronic diseases.

In a statement authors said, ‘One limitation of the study is that the quality measures included don’t address all outpatient care’,

“The quality assessment in the study also doesn’t account for how easy or difficult it may be to achieve certain measures, making it impossible to say how care for heart disease may have changed relative to treatment for diabetes” authors added.

While Elizabeth McGlynn, author of an accompanying editorial and vice president at Kaiser Permanente Research in Pasadena, California said, “Even so, the findings add to a growing body of evidence suggesting there’s room for outpatient care in the U.S. to improve.”

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New Indonesian Law: Chemical Castration To Pedophiles

President Joko Widodo approves a chemical castration policy that could “wipe out” growing numbers of child sex offenders.

Earlier this month, after a series of parliamentary debates, the government passed the law authorizing chemical castration for pedophiles. The president said, “Our constitution respects human rights, but when it comes to sexual crimes there is no compromise.”

“We are strong and we will be very firm. We will hand out the maximum penalty for sexual crimes.” He added, “In my opinion… chemical castration, if we enforce it consistently, will reduce sex crimes and wipe them out over time.”

In an interview conducted by BBC’s Journalist Yalda Hakim, President Widodo (also known as Jakowi) talked about issues including corruption, recent tax amnesty, government position on homosexuality, and the growing tension in the South China Sea.

Earlier this month, the Indonesian government posted an advertisement to discourage members of the LGBT not to apply for the New Youth Ambassador Position.

Applicants participating in “sexually deviant behavior” are not welcome to apply, the government said.

“We are the world’s largest Muslim nation and we have religious norms. You have to remember that and know that. We have social norms,” they don’t mean to discriminate LGBT minorities, said the President.

On the other hand, Indonesia’s increase of military presence in the South China Sea especially around Natuna Island aims to stop illegal fishing in the area. The president said, “This are our natural resources, this is Indonesian wealth. So from now on illegal fishing vessels cannot play around with us.”

“The second thing is Natuna is our territory. Natuna is in Indonesia. So if we want to do military operations, war games, then it’s our right. In terms of sovereignty I will never compromise,” he added.

‘Consistent harshness’

“We are harsh and strict on corruption. We will be consistent in our harshness to improve the situation,” said the president.

President Jakowi added “Nine ministers, 19 governors, 300 more local leaders [and] 100 parliamentarians are in jail because of corruption,” as part of their fight against corruption.

Tax Reform will be ‘good for the country’

Thousands of Indonesian workers recently protested in Jakarta against the new tax amnesty scheme.

The government initiated the tax reform to cover the budget deficit. Nevertheless, unions say it’s unfair to pardon wealthy businessmen for not paying their taxes.

“It’s not really about how much money we earn from it, how much money is repatriated.” President Widoko said, “The most important thing is this is the start of reforming the tax system in Indonesia.”

“We want to expand the tax system, we want to improve the tax system and we want to build trust and faith among people in our tax system so that industry and businesses that pay tax, they believe that their money will go to the good of the country and be used to build things,” he added.

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Serena Williams Loses Shot at WTA Finals Due to Shoulder Injury

Serena Williams, the 22-time grand slam champion will pass up another WTA Finals in late October because of her prominent shoulder injury. This means, she will be missing out on the year-end prestigious event for two consecutive years.

The shoulder injury appears to torment the former grand slam champion since she also failed to participate in the entire Asian swing. She also struggled with the injury in the second half of the game season.

She posted a message on WTA’s website saying, “It’s been a really tough year for me. I’ve been dealing so much with these shoulder injuries. My doctor insists that I stay home and heal it… so I can have a chance to play next year.”

Plagued by Health Concerns

The 35-year-old tennis star withdrew from two other significant events, the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open and the China Open last September because of her injuries.

In September, Williams suffered a loss due to a knee injury. The injury hampered her chances of winning at the US Open against the Czech’s tennis player, Karolina Pliskova in the semifinal match. She told CNN that she was eager to join the Singapore tournament despite her health issues. In 2015, she retreated from the WTA Finals and the US Open to “address her health”.

However, in July she won another grand slam title at Wimbledon, matching the record of Steffi Graf’s Open Era record.

Sadly, she lost two grand slam finals. Her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou said it was a “bad” season for Williams.

Kerber takes Williams’ place

Williams now out of the Singapore season event, means the German tennis player, Angelique Kerber would rank as number 1. Kerber took Williams spot after winning the US Open making headlines in Singapore as she nudges a rank in the tennis world. She broke Williams’s record for having a 186-week lead control in the world rankings.

With one place remaining in the ranking, the race for the world’s ranking will be challenged by Johanna Konta, Svetlana Kuznetsova or Carla Suarez Navarro.

Williams is anticipated to join the 2017 Australian Open in Auckland this January for the first grand slam of the season.

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