California Tour Bus Smash Into Trailer – 13 Killed, 31 Injured

A tour bus smashed into the back of a tractor-trailer on a Southern California highway early Sunday morning. The accident left 13 people dead and 31hurt, authorities said.

California Highway Patrol (CHP) Chief Jim Abele told reporters that the bus was moving west on Interstate 10 when the accident happened near Palm Springs, a city about 100 miles (160 km) east of Los Angeles.

Due to the bus’ velocity, the truck’s trailer drove about 15 feet into the bus. The bus driver was among the 13 killed, Abele said. He believed the 31 injured passengers had minor to moderate injuries. Some, however, could be worse, he added.

“In almost 35 years, I’ve never been to a crash where there’s been 13 confirmed deaths. So it’s tough. It’s tough for all of us,” Abele said.

Several survivors described the majority of the passengers, all of whom were adults, were sleeping when the crash occurred, Abele said. He said the bus had been checked just last April and there was no sign of mechanical problems.

Images from the incident showed the front of the tour bus jammed inside the rear of the trailer. They also showed emergency workers using metal ladders to access the inside of the bus.

Officials said the injured were being treated at hospitals. All westbound lanes of the interstate were sealed off near the crash and would likely be reopened around 4 p.m., Abele said.

Abele said the bus seemed to be transporting casino-goers back to Los Angeles from the Red Earth Casino after a night of gambling.

USA Holiday Bus, the Los Angeles-area bus company involved in the crash, could not immediately be reached for comment. The driver was one of the company’s owners, the local Desert Sun newspaper reported.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it is sending an investigative team to the site to investigate the crash.

Abele said it was unclear whether the bus was speeding or if alcohol, drugs or fatigue was a factor in the crash. However, it was traveling “significantly faster” than the tractor-trailer, he added.

 

 

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Former Fat Boys rapper Prince Markie Dee wows World Series of Vaping conference

Afghanistan; Drastic Increase of Opium Production Worries UN

The United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reported an increase of 43% in opium production in Afghanistan on 2015. The poppy plant produces opium and other powerful medicinal painkillers like morphine.

According to UNODC, there was an increase in the farm area used for opium by 10% to 201,000 hectares of land. Improve farming condition generating greater harvest in the farm increasing the overall production. Yury Fedotov, the Executive Director of UNODC said that the data shows “a worrying reversal in efforts”.

Largest producer of opium

Afghanistan is the foremost producer of opium in the world. Opium is the main ingredient needed to produce heroin. Several nations grow their own supply and closely monitors production of the plant. They use it strictly for medicinal purposes.

In Afghanistan, cultivating the plant is also illegal; nevertheless, it attracts farming communities in the impoverished region in the country. Since the mass production of opium in the country is used mainly for the  illegal drug trade.

Taliban uses the tax money it collects from the poppy production in areas it controls to fund its military needs.

The Afghanistan government created a state policy to destroy poppy crops. However, allegations of corruption often surround government officials since the crop is so widespread in many government-controlled regions.

A local farmer told Justin Rowlatt of BBC’s South Asia that the local government knew about his crop in the north-east. He said, “They also know it is the only way anyone can make decent money.”

Paltry amount of poppies destroyed by authorities

The provincial authorities destroyed 255 hectares or 877 acres of poppy farms. It was a measly feat compared to the 4,000 hectares and down more than 90% of the poppies eradicated since 2015. During the eradication effort, seven insurgents and one officer died in the operations. Another seven people were also injured.

54% of the total opium production is located in the southern region of Afghanistan. It is also the most productive area in the country. Along with the Taliban forces’ presence, Helmand province is the single largest producer. The area claims more than 80,000 hectares of poppy farming.

Helmand province often serves as an area for conflicts between the Taliban fighters and Nato-led coalition forces. In 2014, the Nato-supported forces withdrew from the region. The Taliban fighters assaulted the capital Lashkar Gah in early October.

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Facebook Soon to Limit Censorship, Allowing Offensive but Newsworthy Posts

Facebook will no longer give emphasis on censorship than it had before. They will soon allow more offensive images or stories that feature violence and nudity as long as the content is newsworthy or important to the public.

“Our intent is to allow more images and stories without posing safety risks or showing graphic images to minors and others who do not want to see them.” Joel Kaplan, Facebook’s VP of global policy said.

This decision came due to embedded controversy about Facebook censorship of the historic ‘Napalm Girl’ naked photo from the Vietnam War, which was posted by a Norwegian Journalist. After all the criticisms and accusations, the social network giant reinstated the post with all the shares and traffic.

Facebook again removed a video showing the aftermath of a fatal shooting of Philando Castile and blames ‘technical glitch’.

According to Facebook’s VP of News Feed Adam Mosseri last month admitted that Facebook tries to “automatically detect content that violates our standards. And we actually had a sort of miscategorization.”

On the third time, the network also had apologized and reinstated the Swedish Breast Cancer Awareness Video. While last July, Facebook explains its censorship policy to Techrunch, obviously it needs a better way of implementation, which apparently is what’s coming.

On the other hand, Facebook recently made a survey of its community asking them about the things they wanted not censored.

“In the weeks ahead, we’re going to begin allowing more items that people find newsworthy, significant, or important to the public interest — even if they might otherwise violate our standards,” Kaplan said.

To reinforce the proposed policy change, TechCrunch has suggested that Facebook add warnings about graphic content that users will view and prohibit contents that might be offensive to minors. In addition, they suggested installing a content flagging option that something is “graphic but newsworthy”, which would allow users to alert the company about the content that needs warning but shouldn’t be deleted.

Facebook does not function as a media outfit

Meanwhile, Facebook reiterated that they operate as a technology platform, not a media company. They give the users what they want to see and they don’t have editorial responsibilities to prevent censorship even if the post/s content is offensive.

On stage at TechCrunch Disrupt, Mosseri said, “We think of ourselves as a technology company. We know we play a meaningful role in media, yet, our responsibility is to make sure we’re a platform for all ideas. We’re not in the business of deciding which ideas people should read about.”

For some time Facebook has been struggling with the censorship issue, the company decided to relax its community standards especially on posts concerning the public’s interest. The social network should start making a flexible censorship to address the issue. It is, after all, their responsibility as a media company.

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Trump Shows Gains Amidst Women’s Accusations and Election Rigging Comments

A survey released on Friday shows Donald Trump gained almost half the lead against his opponent Hillary Clinton. A string of controversies followed the Republican candidate over the past weeks. Despite the sexual harassment accusation of women in the past and his dubious allegations over the election process as rigged, Trump still gains American voters this week.

The Democratic candidate and the former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton lost her momentum in the recent poll survey. According to the Reuters/Ipsos poll, a survey made on October 14 to 20, Trump cut her lead by half. A momentum gained with a few weeks left before the November 8 election.

The survey shows a four point lead of Clinton who is at 44% and Trump now at 40%. A big difference compared to a survey made on October 7 to 13 which shows the real estate mogul’s score at only 37% while Clinton at 44%.

In the recent survey, Clinton also diminished her lead in a separate four-way poll against other party candidates. The Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson scored 6% and the Green Party candidate, Jill Stein who scored the lowest at 2%. The Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton scored at 43% while the Republican candidate, Donald Trump at 39%.

The survey also revealed that 63% of Americans, including a third of Republicans, believed that Trump committed the sexual assault in the past. Although the Republican candidate denied the recent complaints, calling the allegations as “totally and absolutely false.”

Correspondingly, the recent analysis showed Trump’s lead reduced to what it was before the controversial video was released on October 7. The video highlighted Trump’s bragging about groping and kissing women. Since early 1980’s to 2007, several women surfaced accusing Trump of sexual harassment.

The poll included a series of questions that asked correspondents on how they perceived Trump’s conduct around women. The poll pointed out that 63% of American adults, including 34% of likely Republican voters agreed with the statement “I believe Donald Trump has committed sexual assault in the past”.

However, even if correspondents believed that Trump “committed sexual assault” they were still backing up Trump on his candidacy. For them, they still agree that, “whatever Trump did with women in the past is less important to them than what he may do as president”.

Looking for something different

A voter from North Dakota, Evelyn Brendemuhl aged 83 said, “I’m embarrassed that our country can’t come up with better candidates, to be honest with you. But he’ll appoint more conservative judges, and she’s (Clinton) pro-abortion, and I’m not for that.”

Meanwhile, other voters are rooting for a change of policy around the White House. A 59-year-old Republican from Colorado, Gary Taylor considered seeing “something different than the last eight years” in the White House”.

Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted the online survey in English in all 50 states, which has a credibility accuracy of 3% variation. It comprises of 1,640 likely voters who had given their voting history, registration status and intention to vote.

The survey concerning Trump’s sexual harassment allegations includes 1,915 American adults with 546 Republicans who are likely to vote. The survey also has a credibility interval of 3% for American adults surveyed and 5 points for Republican voters.

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Schiaparelli most likely exploded in Mars landing: Crash site found.

Cubs Advances to World Series

The Chicago Cubs attained the National League pennant on Saturday. They beat the the Los Angeles Dodgers with pitching and power on their way to reaching their first World Series in 71 years.

The Cubs trounced Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, the best pitcher of the new generation, in a 5-0 victory that gave them the National League pennant, 4-2.

The only remaining roadblocks to their championship dream is the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Curse of the Billy Goat.

With an opportunity to end the longest title drought in major North American professional sports,standing at 108 years, and wipe off a fabled curse, the long-woeful Cubs travel to Cleveland on Tuesday to start their best-of-seven Major League Baseball championship.

Willson Contreras and Anthony Rizzo blasted home runs to back the two-hit pitching of Aroldis Chapman and Kyle Hendricks that sent Cubs fans into a frenzy. The players rocked the 102-year-old stadium in Chicago and erupted a city-wide celebration.

Following a transformation by a new management led by team president Theo Epstein, the Cubs will enter the 12th Fall Classic as favorites after a major league-leading 103 regular season wins. Epstein is the same person who helped Boston Red Sox get rid of the Curse of Bambino and win their first Series in 86 years.

The Indians, in their own history of sporting futility, have gone without a World Series title since 1948.

But no club even comes close to the ordeal of the Cubs. The teams’s deprived fans have waited four decades longer than their Cleveland equivalent.

The Cubs were a former power in the major leagues. They won their second World Series in a row in the fifth edition of the Fall Classic in 1908.

The Cubs performed as a solid team over the next few decades but kept falling short in the World Series. As a result, they were runners-up in six World Series in the years followed. In 1945, they once again won the National League pennant for another crack at the title.

The current Cubs look well stocked to end the drought.

Dream Team

The team was assembled by a collection of draft choices, shrewd trades and sound spending on the free agent market. This latest edition of the Cubs have a young, power-hitting team boasting first baseman Rizzo, third baseman Kris Bryant and shortstop Addison Russell.

They backstop a veteran starting rotation secured by Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta, John Lackey, National League ERA leader Hendricks and Jon Lester.

Led by manager Joe Maddon, the Cubs went from 101 losses in Epstein’s first season in charge in 2012 to one step from baseball heaven. The team brought in Maddon in the previous season as the last piece of their championship puzzle.

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Sexually Transmitted Disease is at its ‘Highest Level’

On Wednesday, Federal authorities said that Sexually Transmitted Disease increased drastically compared to the previous years. they also said both federal and local health offices funds were not enough to cure the epidemic.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1.5 million cases of Chlamydia {the most common Sexually Transmitted Disease}. Furthermore, roughly 400,000 cases of Gonorrhea and almost 24,000 cases of Syphilis were turned up.

“The STD epidemic is getting worse in the United States and, in fact, is at its highest levels yet,” said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention

Based on the CDC report, 2014 is a record year for STD and it is getting worst.
“Last year was the first year that we saw increases but those increases are actually continuing and at a higher rate,” Mermin said.

The new numbers translate to a 19 percent increase in Syphilis cases, a 13 percent rise in Gonorrhea and a 6 percent increase in Chlamydia, Mermin said.

While some of the new numbers may be due to better reporting of cases, most of the rise appears to be a real increase in new infections, he added.

Records shows, Gay and bisexual men got the highest number of new STD cases. The highest proportion was from young adults between late teens and early 20s.

“Half of all STDs occur in youth under age 20,” Mermin said.

CDC officials said, “Part of the increase may be due to better treatment for HIV, which may make people believe — usually wrongly — they do not need to use condoms.”
Also, CDC identified budget cuts to federal and local health clinics as a major factor in the high rates of STDs.

“That is correlated with an eroding infrastructure for sexually transmitted disease clinics,” Mermin said. “In 2012 alone, half of state public health programs had to close some of those clinics.”

“That means young people most vulnerable to new infection have fewer places to go for help, advice, testing, and treatment”, he said.

All these three epidemic diseases can be treated thru antibiotics. However, people who were infected showed no symptoms in early stage and didn’t even realize they were infected.

Sex Education for the Youth

Mermin strongly stressed in a statement. “Parents and providers and teachers can provide young people with safe and effective ways to prevent STDs,” he said. “Good sex education prevents STDs.”

“There is no evidence that talking about sexually transmitted disease prevention increases sexual activity,” he said.

Babies at risk

According to CDC statistics, some pregnant women give birth to babies infected with Syphilis. Mermin said there’s no excuse.

“Clinicians can make STD screening a standard part of clinical care,” he added, “the way to prevent infants from dying of syphilis is to help women get diagnosed and treated when they are pregnant.”

Congenital syphilis cases hit a record high in 2015 while more than 430 babies were born with syphilis. In addition, up to 40 percent of babies born to women with untreated syphilis may be stillborn or die from the infection as a newborn,” the CDC said.

While some women get no prenatal care at all — about 22 percent of women whose babies were born infected had no prenatal care in 2014 — others may be tested early in pregnancy. He cautioned though that this may not be done later on, he said.

CDC reports show that 43 percent of pregnant women with syphilis who did see a doctor or other health professional while pregnant nonetheless got no cure for the infection.
All pregnant women should be tested again in the third trimester of pregnancy, he said.

Dating apps a tool for prevention

Some reports have linked dating and hook-up apps with an increase in STDs in some communities. Nevertheless, Mermin said there is no hard evidence to show cause and effect. And he said such apps can be tools for good.

“The dating apps can also be vectors of prevention by increasing the amount of prevention information that people can see and also by linking people to STD and HIV testing,” he said.

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‘Bring Your Own Semen’ Cookery Class coming to London

The unusual cooking class called ‘cooking with Semen’ is coming to Shoreditch London.

The strange class will go ahead if there will be at least 30 participants to register interest at Wonderush. This is a subscription platform to find and book a variety of local classes and experiences.

The session will run on a BYOS {Bring Your Own Semen} basis, wherein participants will be taught how to sex up their meal using their own bodily fluid. The participants are required to bring their own or their partner’s fluids to be used as the main ingredient of different appetizers, mains, desserts, and drinks.

The recipes include “Victoria spooge cake”, “jerk chicken” and “Schlong Island iced tea”.

“The health benefits of semen have long been debated, but for the first time ever, amateur chefs will be taught how to use it as a cooking ingredient in appetizers, mains, desserts and drinks,” the advert reads.

Surprisingly, this strange cooking method using ‘semen’ isn’t a new thing.

Back in 2011 Paul ‘Fotie’ Photenhauer proudly oversaw the publication of ‘Natural Harvest: A Collection of Semen-Based Recipes’ and created his own list of cocktail recipes using “man-made” ingredients.

Recently he said: “If you want your partner to swallow, you should be willing to eat your own semen – I mean, it’s your semen.

“Then I started thinking about it. People eat all kinds of weird shit. Eggs are the menstruation of chickens. Milk is the mammary excretion from cows. Semen is… at least it’s fresh and you know who the producer is.” He added.

Citing the new strange class, Alix Fox a renowned sex educator said, “While the idea of bringing cum into the kitchen will doubtless appall many people, some individuals find the idea of consuming such an intimate substance an incredible turn-on.”

Meanwhile, Wonderush founder Nelson added: “I know some people will find this hard to swallow, but the idea of cooking with semen isn’t as farfetched as one might think.

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Colombian Airline Resumes Flights to Venezuela After Warplane Scare

Venezuelan warplanes approached a Colombian Avianca airline AVT flight on Friday. The incident caused a diplomatic incident and triggered the airline to stop its flights to and from the socialist country.

Following the cancellation of transport to Venezuela when Venezuelan military aircraft briefly approached a passenger jet flying from Madrid to Bogota on Friday evening, Avianca said it would restart flights on Sunday. The unpleasant episode resulted in diplomatic conversations and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordering an investigation.

Avianca, in a statement on Saturday evening, said, “After clarifications between the governments of Colombia and Venezuela about the incident registered last night in Venezuelan skies with an Avianca plane, the Colombian civil aviation authority has authorized the restart of operations to and from Venezuela,”

History of distrust between the two countries

For years, the South American neighbors have had an unstable relationship. Venezuela’s socialist government every so often charges Colombia of incitement. It also asserts in the other direction that Caracas has backed Colombian guerrillas.

Avianca’s flights were avoiding Venezuela on Saturday as data from online tracker FlightRadar24 showed. Further, a source from the airline company verified that flights to Venezuela had been stopped.

Flight data also showed the Avianca Boeing Dreamliner took a quick turn when coasting over west Venezuela around 2000 local time (2000 EST/0000 GMT) on Friday. This was consistent with a statement about the incident issued by the Colombian defense ministry.

The statement said that defense and foreign ministers of both countries discussed the plane incident. It also said President Maduro personally ordered the investigation on the incident.

Venezuelan warplane on “navigation mission”

During a visit to cacao growers on Saturday afternoon, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said that the ministers have spoken and cleared it all up, there’s no need to worry.

The Colombian statement mentioned Venezuelan authorities as saying its warplane was on a “navigation mission”. Venezuelan authorities did not directly respond to a request for comment.

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