A shocker from J & K – 14 police stations and 48 police posts do not have any toilet!!

#swatchhbharat #policestations #RTI #toilets #drinkingwater Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be shocked to know that it has been revealed by an RTI activist that more than a dozen of police stations and police posts across the state of Jammu and Kashmir do not have any basic amenities like toilet and drinking water. This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 15 February 2015.
The Information has been made available by the Public Information Officer cum AIG Welfare of the Jammu and Kashmir Police Headquarters and it was in response to the application under RTI act and the information is that 48 police posts and 14 police stations in the state do not have any toilet facility.
Moreover, 49 Posts and 23 Police Stations do not have any drinking water facility.
The pet project of Prime Minister Modi is a Swachh Bharat or a Clean India and instructions have been issued to ensure that open toilets are gradually removed and replaced with regular toilet facilities. Awareness is being spread via TV ads and corporate houses are being roped in to take up the cause of schools – especially those meant for girls. This is important because there are reports that girls drop out of schools because there are no proper toilet facilities.
However, the pathetic state of J & K with its police stations minus toilets and drinking water facilities is something that must be addressed on immediate priority.

ESA cargo ship Georges Lemaitre take leave from the ISS to splash down on Sunday

#atv5 #ISS #NASA #georgeslemaitre #ESA #cargoship Georges Lemaitre, the cargo ship of the European Space Agency (ESA) is its fifth and final Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-5) and it has left the International Space Station before its final splashdown on Sunday as revealed in space.com dated 14 February 2015.
The unmanned ATV-5, is named after the 20th-century Belgian priest and astronomer and with its departure from the ISS an era ends – it had been at the orbiting lab ISS for six months.
The reentry of ATV-5 into the atmosphere over the South Pacific Ocean will be documented by the Expedition 42 crew on board the ISS as well as NASA, ESA and other agencies around the world. The aim of the agencies is "to gather detailed information on the mechanics of the breakup of a spacecraft re-entering the Earth's atmosphere."
Of course, onboard sensors in the ATV-5 would also collect information via its temperature-measuring Break-Up Camera. Incidentally, ATVs have been supplying ISS regularly ever since 2008 - the ATV-1 ("Jules Verne") was launched in March of that year. Next came ATV-2 ("Johannes Kepler") which blasted off in February 2011 followed by ATV-3 ("Edoardo Amaldi") in March 2012, and ATV-4 ("Albert Einstein") in June 2013.
The ATVs have brought in a total of about 34 tons of cargo to ISS, the orbiting lab, NASA and, as informed by NASA officials, the ATV-5, which is as big as a double-decker bus, had delivered more than 7 tons of food, scientific experiments, spare parts and other gear when it docked with the station on Aug. 12, 2014.

Rio de Janeiro carnival expected to net $780 million – 5 days of fun assured

#riocarnival #kingmomo #sambaparade #petrobras #brazil The annual carnival of Rio de Janeiro consisting of five days of over-the-top parades and raucous, alcohol-soaked street parties has kicked off as reported in foxnews.com dated 15 February 2015.
This carnival is famous all over the world and people rom far off places gather to join in the fun in spite of major problems that Rio is facing. Problems like more evidence of Brazil's stalling economy, an ongoing drought and a snowballing corruption scandal at state-run oil giant Petrobras. But, these have not dampened the spirit.
As a part of the annual ceremony to mark the official start of the festivities, Eduardo Paes, the Mayor of Rio handed over the keys of the city to King Momo, the mythical jester who reigns over the extravaganza.
Musicians from Unidos da Tijuca, the samba group that won last year's flamboyant parade competition, played a medley of the samba classics that make up the city's tried and true Carnival soundtrack while some dancers showed off their fancy footwork.
The Mayor said the festivities were sure to bring more than a welcome dose of fun. As per estimates, over 450 street parties were expected to bring an estimated 975,000 tourists out onto the streets and these visitors are expected to add nearly $780 million into the local economy.
The carnival would end on Wednesday after the all-night-long samba group parades at the city's Sambadrome, where there would be thousands of musicians, sequin and feather-clad samba dancers and costumed revelers to compete for the title of the year's top group.

140 stranded pilot whales die on Farewell Spit beach in New Zealand

#strandedwhale #pilotwhales #farewellspit #newzealand Nearly 140 pilot whales stranded on Farewell Spit, a New Zealand beach on the northern tip of South Island have died, as reported in news.sky.com dated 14 February 2015. It seems the whales beached themselves and teams of rescuers tried to re-float the mammals on the evening high tide, but they swam aground again overnight in site of them being escorted out to deeper water.
There are another 60 whales and rescuers would once again try to re-float them at high tide later on Saturday, but in case that attempt fails, the whales might be euthanized.
As has been explained by Andrew Lamason, from the Department of Conservation (DOC), the area known as Farewell Spit located around 95 miles west of Nelson, has seen mass pilot whale stranding in the past. The area has been described as a whale trap because of its shallow waters that appear to confuse the animals and reduce their ability to navigate.
It is presumed that they come to hunt for fish and become disorientated and die. Every time they re-strand, it affects their health and there were plenty of young whales among the dead.

Three scantily clad girls engineer jailbreak for 28 hardened criminals from Brazil jail

#jailbreak #novamutum #brazil #prisonguards #orgy The daring jailbreak of 28 hardened criminals from the Nova Mutum public jail near Cuiaba in central Brazil has left the administration red-faced as reported in foxnews.com dated 8 February 2015.
The trio apparently knocked on the door and asked the guards if they could come inside to “chat and drink” and what followed was totally unthinkable.
The escape was engineered by three scantily clad girls who seduced the guards and then gave them spiked drinks. Once they were out to the world, the girls took the keys and freed the convicts. The plan was hatched by one of the inmates who is behind bars on an attempted murder and robbery rap, and the plan was played out to perfection by the girls.
It seems the three scantily-clad women promised the guards an orgy -- and then plied them with drugged cheap whiskey.
The three prison wardens were found inside the jail handcuffed to beds. Missing along with the inmates were guns and ammunition.
Subsequently, eight of the 28 escapees has been recaptured. The three seductresses left behind a bag of lingerie and dominatrix police uniforms.

Timely action by Canadian police foils a mass shooting bid in Halifax

#halifax #massshooting #canada #timberlea The Canadian police have revealed that they have foiled a plot to carry out a mass shooting in the Halifax area on Saturday as informed in bbc.com dated 14 February 2015.
It seems at least two suspects had plans to go to a public venue with the intention of opening fire and kill citizens, and then themselves. As per the opinion of the police, it did not appear to have links to terrorism.
Three suspects were arrested and a fourth apparently committed suicide after police surrounded his home. Two of the suspects are a 19-year-old man from the Halifax suburb of Timberlea and a 23-year-old woman from the US state of Illinois and both of them had access to firearms.
When they had gone to arrest the 19-year-old man from the Halifax suburb of Timberlea, he killed himself. However, a 20-year-old Canadian man was arrested along with the woman at Halifax Stanfield International Airport while the fourth suspect, a 17-year-old Canadian boy, was arrested at a house. Investigators are trying to find out what the roles of the latter two suspects were.
The suspects appeared to have been obsessed with killing and death and had been on a chat stream and also had many photos of mass killing.

Britain fears infestation by super rats due to drastic cuts in pest control budgets

#superrats #huddersfielduniversity With the drastic slashing of pest control budgets by nearly 25% by local authorities, there are genuine fears of a plague of 'super-rats' as revealed in dailymil.co.uk dated 14 February 2015. A situation could come when a search would be launched for a 21st century Pied Piper to tackle the menace of super-rats in Britain.
As per information released by councils there have been deep cuts in the amounts being spent on controlling vermin and it is understood that across 200 local authorities in England, pest control budgets have been cut by 24.4 per cent on average since 2010. Moreover, there has also been a 16 per cent cut in the amounts spent on street cleaning. The net result is possibility of the rat population going out of control.
The problem is that rats in the UK are becoming bigger, and some are becoming immune to traditional methods of control giving rise to the so-called 'super rats' and, these could outnumber humans two to one by next year.
That rats are becoming immune has been shown by genetic testing carried out by Huddersfield University – the results indicate that some rodents have developed a mutation that allows them to survive conventional poisons. This is true in counties like Berkshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Wiltshire, Hampshire and Kent – it was found that all the rats tested have become immune to poison.