SPORTS INSIDER - Sports News

SPORTS INSIDER - Sports News

Why Nice Doctors Are The Best Doctors

November 24, 2015

Studies have shown that a doctor with a good bedside manner, in
addition to being pleasant to be around, can actually be good for your
health and wellness. In this article we will discuss how you can make
sure that you find the right doctor and keep you from falling into the
hands of ‘less than kind’ physicians. Health and ...

Increase Retirement and Become Financially Independent



 

Home » INDEPENDENT NEWS » Increase Retirement and Become Financially Independent

Increase Retirement and Become Financially Independent

in INDEPENDENT NEWS

Age is never a factor in learning anything as you can learn anything
and everything at any age. This is same with people who are at the age
of their retirement. Now with the advancing technology of internet you
have lot more opportunity to do many things even after you retire and be
financially free and have no financial dependency on any one. Internet
marketing has come as a great opportunity and this is not at all a joke.
You just need to do some kind of research and you will get so many
kinds of internet marketing. It is believed that when you get retired
you are not able to do many things even if you are with your family and
they support you but you are not financially secured. With the option of
internet marketing, there is nothing called retirement as you can be as
involved with your work as you were in your regular job.
Let us follow a procedure of the way by, which you can do this
internet marketing. First of all the necessary thing is you must have
that feeling to start the work and this can only come when you start
achieving small placed goals. The most important thing is you should
start writing your own aims, which would include things you would like
to do, places you would like to visit etc. start with short-term goals
and make it achievable through your means. This will give you an
initiative that you can start working and you should earn your own
money. Soon, start your research work as what rather work you can do in
your retirement. Search for all kinds of online business or work from
home opportunities. Look out that you do not get held into any scam
websites.

There are options like affiliate marketing, freelance writing and
website promotion too. You can choose one of the things and either you
can join some website and work with your client or you can start your
own work from home business by promoting your own products. Look out at
the business that you can get with promotion of your product. There
should be enough income streams that should come as your income
opportunity for your work from home business. Look out for all the
marketing strategies, as you need to follow some to get good business in
your income opportunity. You must consult it with your family and
friends and get to start with a good and established company too.

There are two most necessary things to be kept in mind with this
work, and that is you should be focused. That simply means that you
should keep complete focus on your business. It takes some time to start
your business and many people do not have so much patience so you
should keep your patience with you. Secondly you must be punctual person
and you should plane your week ahead. This planning includes, getting
well informed and educated about your business and listing the methods
that you will undergo to achieve all your aims in short time. Being
punctual and hardworking is the key to success and with these things in
your mind you will surely be having great option for your retirement age
too.

Do visit Irsan’s latest website at black and decker bread maker which
contains the best prices on bread maker machine and other information
about bread maker machines.

Going Against the Grain

Going Against the Grain

Going Against the Grain

by Duffernutter Going Against the Grain   Her words ring loud in every ear, her thoughts capture most minds, her efforts never seem to tire, and her stealthy acts heals one and all! Wanda McKiver has infused new life into the African-American community and the entire literary world remains awe-struck at the politic move that

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Racism Still Rampant in Argentina as Immigration-Friendly Film Festival Takes Place

Racism Still Rampant in Argentina as Immigration-Friendly Film Festival Takes Place

Racism Still Rampant in Argentina as Immigration-Friendly Film Festival Takes Place

by Duffernutter Racism Still Rampant in Argentina as Immigration-Friendly Film Festival Takes Place Like the United States, Argentina is a country of immigrants. Although the majority of them came from Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, today it is the destination for many Bolivians, Peruvians, and Paraguayans. For many immigrant groups, Buenos

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Six men executed in Egypt

Egyptian authorities have hanged six men convicted of having carried out, or for having participated in the planning of, a deed which several soldiers were killed.

The trials and executions strongly criticized by several human rights organizations. Amnesty International said that the men's trials were "grossly unfair" and that the only witness was an anonymous police officer from the security services.

According to prosecutors, the men were members of the Sinai-based jihadistorganisationen Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis which has ties to the Islamic state (IS) in Iraq and Syria. The group has carried out several deadly deeds in Egypt.

The Egyptian newspaper madamasr.com has studied the cases and according to the newspaper, they have been executed fighters in Syria. Some of them were arrested when they sought visas to Turkey in order to travel to Syria again.Three of those executed sat in military prison, al-Azouly at the time of the alleged crimes, according to the newspaper.

Eight days after the quake, Nepal struggles to get up

The narrow streets that lead to the district Bakhtapur have become a dumping ground beneath debris which may contain more bodies in the tragedy of Nepal inhabitants.

On Saturday, the day it happened the earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale.

I am shocked that people think that Kathmandu is destroyed. Not so. There are many collapsed buildings, and others badly damaged, but not that the city is in ruins. Is a city in shock, collapsed, but not destroyed. The greatest harm comes from places like Baktapur, Shakhu.

Where’s the lie tho?

Where’s the lie tho?

Russia and Greece to ink Turkish Stream gas pipeline deal within days - Greek minister

Russia and Greece are to sign a memorandum of cooperation on the construction of a new pipeline in the Turkish Stream project which will deliver Russian gas to Europe via Greece, according to the Greek energy minister.

The memorandum is expected to be signed in the next few days, Greek Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis said in an interview with the Sputnik news agency, adding that the pipeline would be not only a route between Greece and Russia but would as well be very important for Europe.

“The visit of the government delegation, the meeting of Tsipras and Putin open the way for the pipeline which will begin at the border with Turkey and end at the border with Macedonia in the direction of Central Europe. This pipeline is extremely important for energy security and cooperation in Europe," Lafazanis said.

The minister said that Athens expected to "receive significant financial dividends for the pipeline's operations,” and that the pipeline will bring “extremely important profits to Greece, first of all, cheaper gas.” Currently Russian gas covers 66 percent of Greece’s energy needs.

The Turkish Stream gas pipeline could help Greece become one of the main energy distribution centers in Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday during his meeting with the Greek delegation. Athens could earn hundreds of millions of euro through gas transit annually if it joins the Turkish Stream pipeline project, he added.

The Russian President also stressed that Greece could use revenues from potential joint projects with Russia to pay off its debt to international creditors.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who was in Moscow on Wednesday on an official visit, voiced his interest in the project as he sees it as a way to boost jobs and investment in the country.

TURKISH STREAM PROJECT

In December, the CEO of Russian energy major Gazprom Aleksey Miller announced the construction of the Turkish Stream pipeline to Turkey with an annual capacity of 63 billion cubic meters of gas. Around 14 billion cubic meters of gas are to be supplied to Turkey, with the rest being pumped to a hub on the Turkish-Greek border for customers in Europe.

The new pipeline running under the Black Sea replaces the South Stream project. Last year, Russia scrapped South Stream because of objections from the EU over its construction. It was to supply gas to Southern Europe via Bulgaria, avoiding Ukraine. Instead, Russia said it would redirect the new pipeline to Turkey.

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Short on Cash, "Poor Americans Ending Up in Modern-Day Debtors' Prison" Over Traffic Fines

For ages, those who were too poverty-stricken to pay judgments and other outstanding debts were locked up, and forced to work it off under prison labor, along with the cost of incarceration.

But it fell out of fashion, and became an unlawful and unconstitutional form of punishment in the U.S. back in the 1830s, as well as in most other countries. The 14th Amendment strengthened equal protection under law, that is until recent decades. With new found economic pressures and plenty of new fines and offenses, debtors’ prisons are back.

And it is a harsh reality for thousands of struggling Americans. Many more could join them if they aren’t careful.

CBS Money Watch carried another in depth report on the growing trend of debtors’ prisons, a de facto result of thousands of Americans who are too poor to pay for heavy fines levied by private institutions contracted by municipal governments, or otherwise unable to keep up with the multiple demands of violations for traffic and other offenses:

For teenager Kevin Thompson, a traffic ticket ended up costing him not only his driver’s license, but also his freedom.

In his account of the experience, Thompson says he was ordered to pay $810 in fines by Georgia’s DeKalb Recorders Court, an amount that was out of reach for the low-income auto shop and tow truck worker. Instead of working with Thompson to find another way to pay, such as through community service, the court handed off Thompson to a for-profit probation company called Judicial Correction Services (JCS). JCS told Thompson he had 30 days to pay the fine, but also gave him erroneous legal information, such as overestimating the cost of a public defender.

Thompson notes that the court later took up a JCS officer’s recommendation to incarcerate him, resulting in a five-day stint in jail for failing to pay the fine.

Thompson, whose case was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, is just one of the poor Americans ending up in a modern-day version of the debtors’ prison, an antiquated punishment that was eliminated by the U.S. in the 1830s.

The problem is exacerbated by the motive of private profit, and the collusion between public office and private contractors:

A rash of new cases are coming to light as municipal courts increasingly outsource probation to for-profit companies like JCS, which make their money by tacking on their own fees to traffic violations. They typically don’t charge the courts or municipalities for their services.

“Since 2009, we have been hearing increasing reports that people are being jailed for a failure to pay fines and fees,” Nusrat Choudhury, staff attorney in the ACLU Racial Justice Program, told CBS MoneyWatch. “We’ve observed that for-profit corrections companies are proliferating. They offer what appears to be a win-win to local governments because they offer to generate revenue from people who are too poor to pay on probation day.”

Thousands of courts across the country are using private companies to deal with individuals sentenced to probation and collect hundreds of millions of dollars in the process.

Added fees and monthly surcharges for probation periods create a “snowballing” effect where costs can quickly pile up into unmanageable sums of debt, making often petty infractions a road to endless entanglement with the criminal justice system, tacked with significant costs.

In the ACLU’s view, the relationship between municipalities and for-profit probation companies creates a financial incentive to generate profits at the expense of probationers’ rights.

“The profit incentive pushes the private probation companies away from identifying indigent people,” Choudhury said. “Because indigent people must by law have their fines waived, that cuts into company profit. The profit motive is distorting the proper functioning of the system.”

As SHTF previously reported, the specter of debtors’ prisons is a growing problem– officially outlawed in the 1830s in the United States, but back in unofficial form through a series of public-private criminal justice processes that can involve confusing fees and extra hoops to jump through.

In many states, simple traffic violations, failure to maintain auto insurance, as well as DUI, carry extra penalties known as “surcharges” paid to private collection agencies that can dwarf the amounts already demanded by courts for the initial offense.

For others, failure to pay certain fees or courses as part of a probationary agreement can trigger additional penalties. While the individuals caught up in this system may well be guilty of certain offenses, the punishment is often excessive, particularly when further penalties are added for failure or inability to keep up with payments and stiff fines.

The general economic woes for Americans in search of well-paying jobs and decent opportunities is certainly not helping matters, either.

Part of the problem is blamed on probation officers ‘not trained in Constitutional rights’ who apparently made routine threats to those caught up in the system:

The Human Rights Watch report noted that for-profit probation companies, while unable to send people to jail, “routinely threatened to have them jailed for failing to make payments or for falling into arrears.” The companies end up with “a great deal of coercive power,” it added.

Bail costs alone have proved a barrier too difficult for many to overcome, with hundreds of thousands stuck in jails awaiting trial or assistance with bail money, never mind what their crime may be:

It’s not only failure to pay traffic tickets that are landing Americans in jail.Across the country, there are at any moment 730,000 people who are locked up in a local jail because they’re too poor to post bail, according to a report issued last month by the nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice.

The numbers are as astounding as the United States prison population itself, which makes up a full quarter of the entire global prison population. Those prisoners, too, often have additional debts and penalties added onto their sentences, which they are able to “work off” for pennies a day while laboring for some of the world’s largest multinational corporations (who would profit from American prison labor even above cheap offshore labor).

Of course, many of those debts are really impossible to pay off, so it remains a weight on those who have served their time, however reformed.

The collusion and cross-interests of public-private partnerships absolutely impede on the rights of individuals, including those who are guilty of their crimes, but unfairly/excessively punished, or punished by a para-government system that amounts to corporatism – better known but less understood as “fascism.”

A commenter named “THEHardTarget” said it well:

Folks, this is fascism; when there is very little demarcation between government and business. When corporations actually direct what the government does by first, buying it, then taking over government’s services for profit and then becoming it. Imagine what would have happened if we had privatized social security when Bush wanted to do it. A lot of people’s only source of retirement would have gone down in flames in 2008.

New System for Police to “Detect Gunshots” is Also Recording Your Private Conversations

It’s been almost a week since New York Police Department deployed a new ShotSpotter gunshot detection system. However, the innovation has raised privacy concerns among New Yorkers while tracking loud bangs, the system records private conversations.

Questions arose after New York Police Department deployed 300 hidden microphone sensors around the city. They are aimed at identifying the sound of gunshots, and then activate nearby cameras and immediately alert law enforcement officials.

The two-year pilot program will cost New York a total of $1.5million annually.

Both the mayor Bill de Blasio and police commissioner William Bratton say that ShotSpotter should help officers to respond more quickly to shootings. According to statistics, in 75 percent of cases when people hear a gun shot sound, they do not report it to the police.

The ShotSpotter is aimed at fixing that. Its sensors are connected to thousands of cameras set up around the city as part of the its Domain Awareness System, an all-seeing intelligence-analysis complex that collects and analyzes data captured by surveillance cameras, gunshot detectors, license plate readers, Geographic Information Systems mapping and social media feeds.

Four years ago the department tested another system, but rejected the technology, as it could not identify the difference between real gunfire and similar sounds, like a car backfiring. Today’s system is said to be more sensitive.

Police commissioner William Bratton, who used to be a member of ShotSpotter’s board of directors, before returning to the NYPD in January 2014, says in the future, ShotSpotter will be able to identify which type of a gun was used, and whether multiple shots were fired from different guns.

But the system and especially how capable it is of recording people’s voices has raised serious privacy concerns.

“The concern is that if conversations are capable of being intercepted, that’s a bigger problem. That’s like a Big Brother. And that’s not about one’s safety that’s just now meddling everyday conversations of people. And the question is what police is going to do with those conversations?” lawyer Frank Camera told RT.

A display of the NYPD ShotSpotter gunfire-detection system is seen in New York March 16, 2015 (Reuters / Shannon Stapleton)

In January, Camera defended two people arrested after a loud street quarrel ended with fatal shooting the previous month. They were detained and accused, with the ShotSpotter recording of the altercation – in which both men can be heard arguing – likely to be used as evidence.

Camera says the talk was recorded very clearly, while the detecting system was aimed only for gunshots.

Devices have been installed across 15 square miles in New York districts with both the highest rate of shots fired and gunshot victims. But what disturbs ordinary New York residents is that it’s unclear exactly where they are placed. A draft law approved by New York City Council obliges police to make quarterly reports specifying what exactly ShotSpotters recorded. And it’s still unknown if and how his information will be used later.

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SOURCE: RT

The Order of Chaeronea

The Order of Chaeronea

Poet, radical freethinker, and early gay rights activist George Cecil Ives founded a secret society called the Order of Chaeronea, which was established to end the oppression of homosexuals and offer a safe space for gay men to communicate. It was named after the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC), where hundreds of men from the Sacred Band of Thebes, all of them lovers, were killed. “An elaborate system of rituals, ceremonies, a service of initiation, seals, codes, and passwords were used by the members. The Secret Society became a worldwide organization and Ives took advantage of every opportunity to spread the word about the “Cause.” Ives unsuccessfully tried to recruit Oscar Wilde after they met at the Author’s Club in 1892. Just a few years later, Wilde’s sexuality would land him on trial for gross indecency, after which he was imprisoned.

The shadow network

For the last two decades, US foreign and intelligence strategies have resulted in a global ‘war on terror’ consisting of prolonged military invasions in the Muslim world and comprehensive surveillance of civilian populations. These strategies have been incubated, if not dictated, by a secret network inside and beyond the Pentagon

.

Established under the Clinton administration, consolidated under Bush, and firmly entrenched under Obama, this bipartisan network of mostly neoconservative ideologues sealed its dominion inside the US Department of Defense (DoD) by the dawn of 2015, through the operation of an obscure corporate entity outside the Pentagon, but run by the Pentagon.

In 1999, the CIA created its own venture capital investment firm, In-Q-Tel, to fund promising start-ups that might create technologies useful for intelligence agencies. But the inspiration for In-Q-Tel came earlier, when the Pentagon set up its own private sector outfit.

Known as the ‘Highlands Forum,’ this private network has operated as a bridge between the Pentagon and powerful American elites outside the military since the mid-1990s. Despite changes in civilian administrations, the network around the Highlands Forum has become increasingly successful in dominating US defense policy.

Giant defense contractors like Booz Allen Hamilton and Science Applications International Corporation are sometimes referred to as the ‘shadow intelligence community’ due to the revolving doors between them and government, and their capacity to simultaneously influence and profit from defense policy. But while these contractors compete for power and money, they also collaborate where it counts.

Related: The Rothschild Family

FBI would rather shield its surveillance powers from judicial review than prosecute criminals

A non-disclosure agreement signed by the Erie County Sheriff's Office shows that the FBI would rather protect its power to use stingrays from public scrutiny and constitutional challenge than prosecute criminals.
Writing to order the release of documents sought by the NYCLU in a public records lawsuit against the Sheriff's Office, Judge Patrick NeMoyer describes the content of a non-disclosure agreement pertaining to cell site simulator technology.

[T]he Sheriff’s Office is instructed, upon the request of the FBI, to seek dismissal of a criminal prosecution…in lieu of making any possibly compromising public or even case-related revelations of any information concerning the cell site simulator or its use.

In February, The Washington Post published a story about a person who personally benefited from the government's refusal to openly discuss its use of stingrays. In a Florida armed robbery case, prosecutors offered a defendant "the deal of the century" instead of submitting evidence about its use of a stingray in court. Facing years in prison, the man accepted a plea of six months probation after his lawyer demanded that prosecutors present evidence about police use of the stingray.
In light of the New York judge's description of the non-disclosure agreement signed by Eerie County's Sheriff, it seems highly likely the Florida robbery suspect benefited from a well established, federal policy—not a one off decision based on local prosecutorial discretion.
The FBI's interest in shielding stingray surveillance from public scrutiny and judicial review hasn't prevented a relatively open conversation in media and privacy circles about the widespread law enforcement use of these powerful tools. It has, on the other hand, prevented courts from ruling on the constitutionality of stingray spying. Just last week, Virginia became the first state to pass a law explicitly requiring a warrant for stingray surveillance.
The Eerie County judge who ruled in favor of the NYCLU in the state records lawsuit revealed a lot of information about stingrays in his decision, made public today. Among other things, Judge NeMoyer writes that documents submitted by the Sheriff's office for his review show that the police used their stingray equipment 47 times between May 1, 2010 and October 3, 2014. According to the judge's description of documents describing these searches, the Eerie County Sheriff's Office and local law enforcement who used their stingray only obtained a court order to do so once, in the October 2014 case.
Stay tuned for more information about the Eerie County Sheriff's deployment of stingrays, as the documents described by the judge become available for public review. And congratulations to the New York Civil Liberties Union on their victory. Happy Sunshine Week!

Every year, COWS kill more people than SHARKS,yet nobody ever makes a horror movie about them

Esther Inglis-Arkell

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Every year, cows kill more people than sharks. And yet nobody ever makes a horror movie about them, and there's no Cow Week. These deadly beasts have managed to stay completely under the radar... until now. Find out just why cows are so deadly.

Deliberate Attacks on People

In the United States, the CDC estimates that about twenty-two people are killed by cows each year, and of those cow attacks, seventy-five percent were known to be deliberate attacks. One third of the killings were committed by cows that had previously displayed aggressive behavior.

People know that bulls are dangerous, and it's true. When animal behaviorists analyzed 21 cases that occurred across a four-state area, they found that bulls were responsible for ten of the deaths. Cows were responsible for six deaths. What's really chilling is that, in five cases, people were killed by multiple cows in group attacks.

Group attacks can be surprisingly well-coordinated. When they're feeling defensive, cows will gather in a circle, all facing outwards, lowering their heads and stamping the ground. When they're feeling offensive, certain cows lead the charge. One man, who was attacked while walking his dog along a path, reported, "I fell forwards and rolled into a ball and every time I tried to get up they jumped on me; they were rolling me along the hill with their legs trying to get me to open up. There were seven or eight cows. There were a couple leaders."

Even the people who survive cow attacks rarely brush them off. In 2014, a mountaineer and cyclist was leading a race through a pasture when a group of cows attacked him. He received fractures on eight ribs, a shoulder, and a part of his spine. A woman, attacked the same year, got six broken ribs and a punctured lung. Cows mostly trample and kick people, but if they get their head beneath their victim they can literally throw a person into the air and let them fall back down on the ground.

Humans may not be able to trust cattle, but non-humans have been known to employ cows as security. Sheep raised with cows will run into the center of the cow-herd when faced with a threat, knowing that if things get hairy, the cows will take care of business.

Battle Cows

Because they move slowly and require a lot of grass and water, cows are impractical standard weapons of war. That hasn't stopped people from using them as improvised weapons, especially if the other side was dumb enough to bring them along. A herd of cows' potential to do damage is even more infamous. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with old Westerns knows what's going to happen when someone shouts, "Stampede!"

George Armstrong Custer wrote a memoir in which he described Native Americans inducing cattle to stampede as either a distraction tactic or an outright attack. No matter what the purpose, soldiers knew that they had to take the cattle in hand before doing anything else. Another book, tellingly entitled The Uncivilized Races of Men in All Countries of the World and written in 1878, recounts the conflict between the Boers and the Zulu. The author, Reverend John George Wood writes, "The Zulus have sometimes outwitted the Boers, by introducing inside of a camp at night, scouts, who speared the cattle frightening them into a stampede." Both books insist this is not the right way to fight a war, but admit the tactic is a good one. A stampede of cows is a scary thing.

Kamikaze Cows

Cows don't have to intend anyone's death in order to kill them. Any fifteen hundred pound animal can do a lot of damage, which is why some motorists, driving beside cliffs in rural country, have been amused by signs warning them about falling cows. It wasn't so much of a joke when, in Switzerland, over the course of a few weeks, twenty-eight cows either fell or jumped over a cliff. A man in Brazil was killed by a cow that fell on his car. And, in Indiana, drivers along a highway were startled when a trailer on an overpass tipped over and rained cows on them. A bull survived the fall and ran amok on the highway, attacking a tow-truck driver.

The Summer of the Cow

Many people think that the book Jaws (which became an iconic movie) was based on the events that occurred in July of 1916. Over twelve days, five people along the coast of New Jersey were attacked by sharks. Four of them died. It was called "the summer of the shark."

People would be embarrassed to call summer of 2009 "the summer of the cow," but in eight weeks, in Britain alone, cows racked up the same number of casualties. (That was also the summer that cows started jumping off the cliff in Switzerland.)

Two of the victims were walking their dogs — and dogs are often a factor in cow attacks. Cows become agitated by the quick-moving dogs and attack the dog. When the owner steps in to try to save their dog, the cows turn on them. Sometimes, however, factors beyond anyone's control can instigate aggressive behavior. The fourth casualty, a farmer, was probably trampled after a passing fire engine startled his cows.

After the multiple deaths, the cows turned on a politician. David Blunkett, a British Member of Parliament, was attacked by cows as he walked his dog. He escaped with only a black eye and a cracked rib, but it started people talking about safety measures around cows. The usual commonsense precautions figured highly on most how-to lists. Walkers were to give cows a wide berth and keep control of their dogs.

Then things got weird. One list of tips includes, "Remember, you are in charge. You need to know you're in control for the cows to know you're in control."

How, exactly, are we supposed to do that?

Warning: They've Got a Taste For Blood

It's possible that all the trouble we have with cows goes back to one spectacularly ill-advised news story. In 1931 Time magazine published an article about the positive effects of feeding a cow meat. The article starts off by saying, "Dairymen on the Didsbury Jersey farms at Didsbury, Alberta, last week argued that it was a meat diet which caused one of their cows, Waikiki Xenia's Fanny, to produce almost pure cream." Who could resist the potential for profit? Perhaps farmers tried it, and turned their cows into blood thirsty killers.

Or perhaps it was something that was always natural to them. A cow in India made headlines a few years ago for eating about fifty chicks, one of them on camera. In an article about meat-eating deer, one io9 reader with nerves of steel, reported to us that cows occasionally also eat barn kittens.

Suicide bombers set off explosives near two churches in the eastern city of Lahore Pakistan

A Christian woman mourns for a family member who was killed from Sunday's suicide bombing attack. 

Suicide bombers set off explosives near two churches in the eastern city of Lahore on Sunday as worshippers were gathered inside, killing 14 people, officials said, in the latest attack against religious minorities in the country.

In the tense aftermath, angry mobs burned to death one person they believed was involved in the attacks and tried to lynch another, said Haider Ashraf, deputy inspector general for Lahore. Two police who were protecting the churches were also killed in the explosions, which he said were caused by suicide bombers.

At least 70 people were wounded, said Zahid Pervez, the provincial director general of health, who gave the death toll.

The explosions occurred in quick succession in the Christian neighbourhood of Youhana Abad at two churches while parishioners were celebrating Sunday services inside. The churches are about 600 metres apart.

A spokesman for a Pakistani Taliban faction claimed responsibility, saying it was the work of two suicide bombers.

One unidentified witness told Pakistan's Geo television that the main gate to one of the churches targeted was closed so people were using a smaller gate.

"One bomber exploded himself near that gate, that created chaos and during the course there was another blast," he said.

In the aftermath of the blasts the mood quickly turned violent. Much of the country is on edge after years of militant violence including an attack on a Peshawar school in December that killed 150 people — mostly students.

Local television footage showed an angry crowd beating a person they thought was connected to the attack, while others attacked buses in the city.

Militants appear to be targeting minorities more intensively recently, including attacks on a string of mosques belonging to members of the Shia Muslim minority sect. In 2013, twin blasts at a church in Peshawar killed 85 people.

"There will be more of such attacks," warned Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the Taliban faction, in a statement emailed to reporters.

Life in Pakistan can be fraught with danger for religious minorities, especially Christians. They have been targeted by extremist Sunni Muslim militants who object to their faith and see them as being closely aligned with the West. They are also often discriminated against in the wider society.

Turkey’s Family Ministry Says Minecraft Promotes Violence, Must Be Banned

Turkey wants to ban Minecraft. The Family and Social Policies Ministry of Turkey has concluded that the popular video game encouraged children to resort to violence, hence must be banned in the country.

A report prepared by Turkey’s Children Services General Directorate, explained: “Although the game can be seen as encouraging creativity in children by letting them build houses, farmlands and bridges, mobs [hostile creatures] must be killed in order to protect these structures. In short, the game is based on violence”.

A spokesperson from Mojang, developer of Minecraft sold to Microsoft for $2.5 billion in 2014, responded to the possibility of Minecraft’s ban in Turkey:

“Minecraft is enjoyed by many players in a wide variety of ways. Many enjoy the creative freedom that’s presented by Minecraft and its tools; some are more interested by the opportunity to explore a landscape without boundaries and to go on exciting adventures with friends. We encourage players to cooperate in order to succeed, whether they’re building, exploring, or adventuring.

“The world of Minecraft can be a dangerous place: it’s inhabited by scary, genderless monsters that come out at night. It might be necessary to defend against them to survive. If people find this level of fantasy conflict upsetting, we would encourage them to play in Creative Mode, or to enable the Peaceful setting. Both of these options will prevent monsters from appearing in the world”.

The report claims that players must kill hostile creatures in order to protect their creations, therefore kids would lose empathy for real animals. The report further claims that the game would lead to social isolation and would expose children to online bullying.

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Soccer player gets 8 years in prison for killing referee

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A widow held up a red card, signaling ejection, as a weekend soccer player was sentenced Friday to at least eight years in prison for a punch that killed a Detroit-area referee.

The case against Bassel Saad has put a spotlight on out-of-control recreational athletes and inspired Michigan lawmakers to consider new crimes for assaults on sports referees.

The death of John Bieniewicz was "senseless, meaningless," his wife, Kris Bieniewicz, told the judge. "All because of a call on a soccer field. It's a game. It's a game that we teach our kids as soon as they can walk."

Saad pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, admitting he punched Bieniewicz during a game last summer at a Livonia park. Bieniewicz, 44, was preparing to call a penalty that would have ejected the Dearborn auto mechanic.

Bieniewicz died two days later.

A red card signals ejection in soccer. Kris Bieniewicz pulled one from her pocket at the end of her remarks in court, although Saad had his back to the gallery and didn't see it.

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A Wayne County deputy directs Bassel Saad, left, into the courtroom of Wayne County Circuit Court Ju …

She said the sentence and plea deal were generous, adding: "It will always be murder in my eyes."

"One man has enough pent-up frustration, enough vengeance in his heart, that with one blow he can take my husband's life and in the process destroy not only my family but his family," Bieniewicz said.

Saad, 37, will be eligible for parole after eight years. The maximum punishment is 15 years in prison, and he also could be deported. He expressed remorse and said he prays daily for the Bieniewicz family, which includes two children.

"I hope he's with us, he can hear me. ... I hope one day they forgive me," Saad said.

The sentence followed terms of a plea deal reached in February that trumps an initial charge of second-degree murder. Saad was ordered to pay $9,200 in funeral expenses.

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FILE- This undated file photo provided by the Livonia Police Department shows Baseel Abdul-Amir Saad …

"For better or for worse, you've come to personify all that's wrong with many people's belief about the escalation of violence in sports," Wayne County Judge Thomas Cameron told him.

The victim's sisters and mother referred to Bieniewicz as a selfless son and sibling who didn't miss a family member's birthday and was a natural confidante.

"Our hearts are broken," mother Barbara Bieniewicz said.

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