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Starving Syrians butcher a zoo's LION to eat in worst sign yet of how desperate civilians are for food


A picture circulating on social media appearing to show Syrian rebels butchering a zoo lion is the latest evidence that residents of the war torn country are starving, according to activists.
The photograph, which has not been independently verified, shows three men standing around the body of a lion.
One of them is holding the lion's head while another appears to be cutting meat from the animal's hind legs.


What appears to be a chunk of meat can be seen laying on the ground next to the emaciated looking lion.
The animal is thought to be from the Al-Qarya al-Shama Zoo.
While some reports suggest that the men are skinning the animal to use its coat to keep warm, others have suggested that the animal was already dead.
    Residents in areas hardest hit by the civil war, including the eastern area of Ghouta, were residents have reported desperate food shortages.
    Last month a cleric issued a fatwa to allow starving people in the region to eat cats and dogs.
    'We issued a religious edict allowing people to eat dog and cat meat. Not because it is religiously permitted, but because it is a reflection of the reality we are suffering,' said Sheikh Saleh al-Khatib.
    'People here have nothing for their children. I am on strike because I want to help save food for others.'
    Hunger
    Hunger: A boy eats maize as people shop in Aleppo but many others are said to be struggling for food in areas of Syria
    According to the Daily Telegraph, the United Nations said today that civilians are going hungry in beseiged areas as they are inaccessible.
    The UN handed out food to 3.3million people in Syria in October.
    The World Food Programme added that the nutritional state of those trapped by fighting in parts of Damascus and rural areas has deteriorated significantly in recent months.
    The picture has emerged as a report by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has revealed that a growing number of Syrian refugee children in Lebanon and Jordan are fast becoming primary providers for their families.
    With the Syrian conflict in its third year, the 61-page report highlights the plight of the children, who are growing up in fractured families, missing out on education and increasingly going out to work to help support extended families in exile.
    More than two million Syrians fled their homes because of the country's raging conflict, seeking shelter in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. At least half of the refugees - 1.1 million - are children.
    Refugees: A UN report has revealed that children are becoming the main providers for many refugee families at makeshift camps in countries such as Lebanon and Jordan. Pictured is a camp in Lebanon
    Refugees: A UN report has revealed that children are becoming the main providers for many refugee families at makeshift camps in countries such as Lebanon and Jordan. Pictured is a camp in Lebanon
    Of those, some 75 percent are under the age of 12, the UNHCR report said.
    Children as young as seven work long hours of manual labor in fields, farms and shops for little pay, sometimes under dangerous or exploitative conditions, the report added.
    In Jordan's sprawling Zaatari refugee camp, most of the 680 small shops employ children, the report also said. 
    A UNHCR assessment of refugee children living outside of the camp found that in 11 of the country's 12 provinces, nearly every second refugee household surveyed relied partly or entirely on income generated by a child.
    End of training: Islamist fighters hold up their weapons during their 'graduation ceremony' at a camp in eastern al-Ghouta, near Damascus
    End of training: Islamist fighters hold up their weapons during their 'graduation ceremony' at a camp in eastern al-Ghouta, near Damascus
    Combat ready: Islamist fighters demonstrate their skills during their graduation ceremony at a camp in eastern al-Ghouta
    Combat ready: Islamist fighters demonstrate their skills during their graduation ceremony at a camp in eastern al-Ghouta
    In Lebanon, hundreds of refugee children - many of them girls aged seven to 12 - are picked up daily at dozens of informal refugee settlements dotting the Bekaa Valley and border areas in the north, loaded onto trucks and taken to the fields where they work for six to eight hours and earn up to 6,000 Lebanese pounds per day.
    Many Syrian refugee children in Lebanon also fall into the hands of criminal gangs specialized in exploiting the most vulnerable victims of the conflict. 
    They are seen begging on the streets of Beirut or more frequently selling flowers and gum for their often abusive patrons. 
    Meanwhile, photographs emerged today of a sinister 'graduation ceremony' from a combat training camp in al-Ghouta.
    Islamist fighters were pictured carrying weapons and their freshly learned military skills as they marched during the ceremony near Damascus. 
    The newly graduated fighters, who went through military training, will operate under the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham brigade.
    Masked: The newly graduated fighters, who went through military training, will operate under the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham brigade
    Masked: The newly graduated fighters, who went through military training, will operate under the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham brigade

    Barack Hussein Obama Is The Anti Christ!


     heard a pastor today in the pulpit. The pastor was a good friend. He was talking about the end of days. I walked up to him calmly after service. I said to him, “do you think that Obama is the Anti-Christ?” He looks at me and laughed. Calmly he sits down his bible, leans over, and very calmly said, “Son, if he’s not, he defiantly harbors the spirit.”
    I get home and call up a dear friend. I ask him if Obama is the Anti-Christ. He tells me his verdict is not in, but asks if I remember him talking about the 12th Imam and the Anti-Christ. I tell him sure (after all he believes the 12th Imam is the Anti-Christ). He pauses for a minute and says that President Obama matches 14 out of 16 of the Biblical scripture of the Anti-Christ and 5 out of 7 of the Qur’an and the 12th Imam.
    There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that times are strange.
    So I get looking through my e-mail and Facebook and I’m bombarded with Obama is the Anti-Christ references. Even if it does sound odd, looking at the stuff in these videos may prove that truth is stranger then fiction.
    WATCH HERE:
    There is definitely something strange and very end times with the weather, I do admit.
    The link to Babylon the Great and America is uncanny.
    This one and the next one are just spooky.
    You can even watch his face contort and him make fun of someone who tells him Jesus Christ is Lord.
    There was even a recent survey done that says that 1 in 4 people think Obama is the Anti-Christ.
    The good news for the White House is that three of four respondents to a Public Policy Polling survey say they do not believe that Barack Obama is the Antichrist, the epitome of evil that the Bible explains will come to deceive people during the End Times.
    But on the other hand, 13 percent are convinced he is, and another 13 percent – for a total of one in four across the nation – say they aren’t sure.~ WND
    source 

    Female Teacher, 33, Struck off for Having Sex with Pupil, 16, After Seducing him with Raunchy Facebook Selfies


    A teacher has been struck off for having sex with a 16-year-old boy after seducing him with photographs of herself in various poses on Facebook.

    Mother-of-two Clare Horton, 33, posted a series of self-portraits known as ‘selfies’, before her relationship with the pupil became sexual.

    She showed him pictures of herself in a lacy top and a black dress with a plunging neckline while he was revising for his GCSEs.

    The design teacher claimed she had been simply seeking ‘the hand of friendship’ from the teenager as she went through an acrimonious divorce and they did not have sex.

    But she was found guilty of misconduct and banned from teaching for two years.

    Mrs Horton, who was head of year 11 at the time, sent the teenager messages on Facebook while he was on study leave for his GCSE exams.

    A disciplinary hearing was told she met the schoolboy for a revision time ‘rendezvous’ before driving him back to her home in Newport, South Wales.

    The boy, known as Pupil A, later told police he had sex with the teacher but did not want to press charges because of his ‘strict religious beliefs’.

    Mrs Horton worked at Fitzalan High School in Leckwith, Cardiff, for ten years.

    A Professional Conduct Committee of the General Teaching Council of Wales heard that ‘a number’ of pupils had messaged her on Facebook.

    She agreed to meet Pupil A and drove him to her home, where the pair are said to have had an afternoon sex session before she dropped him off at his home and went to pick up her two young children.

    Rumours quickly spread in the school. After taking two weeks’ sick leave, Mrs Horton told head teacher Catherine Bradshaw that she had ‘slept’ with the boy and handed in her notice.

    The head referred the matter to social services and the police but the Crown Prosecution Service decided to take no further action.

    Mrs Bradshaw said Mrs Horton was well respected and her actions were ‘out of character’.


    In a statement given to the disciplinary hearing in Cardiff, Mrs Horton said she had committed ‘the ultimate sin’, but denied that sex had taken place. She claimed that she simply chatted to the boy before falling asleep on the sofa for a couple of hours. ‘I was in an incredibly emotional state and sexual intercourse was the last thing on my mind,’ said the teacher. ‘All I took from Pupil A was the hand of friendship.

    ‘Because of what was going on at home, teaching was my only lifeline. To be told I was anything other than ugly, fat, useless and worthless was a safety blanket that I foolishly used.

    ‘He was very kind and listened. I was just talking about what was going on with my ex-husband. He made me feel better.

    ‘He slept at my house and so did I. I slept alongside him. We did not have sexual intercourse.’

    The teacher, who broke down in tears while giving evidence, added: ‘Within days of the event, I felt I had committed the ultimate sin. I was in such a bad place mentally.

    ‘The feeling of shame and regret is something I will never be able to get rid of.’ She added that she ‘deserved to be punished’.

    Martin Jones, who presented the evidence at the hearing, said Mrs Horton’s behaviour ‘clearly amounted to a significant breach in the professional boundary between her and pupil A’.

    Panel chairman Helene Mansfield said the teacher’s arguments were ‘unconvincing’. She had displayed ‘a lack of awareness of her responsibilities and abused a position of trust’.

    The panel chairman acknowledged that the teenager had been a former pupil at the time of the incident, ‘albeit by a few days’.

    The disciplinary hearing ruled that Mrs Horton had engaged in an inappropriate and sexual relationship with the pupil that amounted to misconduct.

    She was given an indefinite prohibition order and told she would have to wait two years before reapplying to teach.

    SEAL Team 6 Bin Laden Shooter Says Suspect Did Not Look Like Bin Laden


    When news first broke about Osama Bin Laden’s death, the world, especially American, rejoiced. But it wasn’t long before people started calling cow dung!

    According to an article in the associated press, the Pentagon was never able to produce pictures of Bin Laden on the aircraft carrier that allegedly dumped his body at sea. Nor was the Pentagon able to produce a death certificate.

    A couple of months ago, a journalist shared a letter from a special forces friend, who stated that he had friend in the Navy Seals who had told him that the entire case was a fraud, perpetrated by the U.S. Government merely to secure President Barack Hussein Obama’s re-election.

    (Anonymous Message From Special Forces Soldier on the Fake Death of Osama Bin Laden to Re-elect Obama)

    I’ll tell you something you that will make you think…Did you ever ask yourself why our Government never showed (undeniable) proof of the dead body of Osama Bin Laden? And why nearly the whole SEAL TEAM SIX got killed in strange circumstances? Helicopter crashes, parachute accidents etc.?

    Well,I have a friend in that team who told me that they never made a capture of Bin Laden…it was a set up from Obama to get elected again as President. No Sailor or Soldier had ever seen the funeral or the dead body of Bin Laden on board the aircraft carrier.

    People say that Osama died years ago in a Drone strike… and Navy Seals are not allowed to give any information about that mission were Bin Laden was captured.

    We believe our Government- everything they tell to us- like dumb sheep. They manipulate us with the media which is also working for the government.

    America is dying step by step, because of stupid people who still believe or support Obama. He is the modern Anti-Christ, who will lead us into a 3′rd World War ! It´s just a question of time…you will see !

    Obama is even supporting the Muslim Brotherhood!

    The Muslim Brotherhood has already infiltrated our senate and congress. One day Islam will rule, and they will slaughter us like they slaughter their own people. We have to stand up against this, otherwise we´re lost!

    Cruel truths of the angora fur trade revealed in shocking footage which shows rabbits having hair PULLED out... because the traders make more money

    Factory horror: An angora rabbit is tied up and its skin stretched as it is being cut with an electric shear
    The horrific truth of the angora fur industry is revealed in these shocking images from a Chinese workshop.

    The rabbits are tied up and stretched out before workers rip out the fur by hand, leaving the rabbits bleeding in their cages.

    In a video recorded by PETA in China, where 90 per cent of the world's angora fur is sourced, the animals can be heard screaming in pain.

    The animals are kept for two to five years, with their fur being yanked out every two-three months, according to PETA Asia.

    When the fur has been plucked, the animals are thrown into tiny cages to recover.

    Once a bunny has outlived its purpose, it is killed and skinned.

    ‘PETA UK is appealing to shoppers this holiday season’, says PETA UK Associate Director Mimi Bekhechi.

    ‘Please take the time to read the label on that sweater or scarf. If it says "angora," leave the item on the rack.’

    Rabbits who have their fur cut or sheared also suffer: during the cutting process, their front and back legs are tightly tethered and the sharp cutting tools inevitably wound them as they struggle desperately to escape.

    PETA reports that the traders keep the animals in solitary in barren wire cages that harm their sensitive feet.

    They are denied solid flooring, bedding and the vital companionship of other rabbits.

    In China, there are no penalties for animal abuse on rabbit farms and no standards that regulate the treatment of animals.

    Pain and suffering: The terror in the animal's eyes is unmistakeable as a worker with a Chinese angora trader stretches it out and yanks out its fur
    Animal cruelty: The angora rabbits are alive throughout the plucking and are kept for several years, plucked every few months, before their throats are slit
    Torture: The Chinese fur traders use the plucking technique as it results in better quality fur and more money
    Shocking truth: The animals are constantly injured from throughout the plucking as they struggle to break free
    Left to recover: After the rabbit had had all its fur yanked out it is thrown into a cage to regrow its fur in complete solitude
    Monopoly on cruelty: An estimated 90 per cent of the world's angora fur is sourced from China 
    No hope: This young bunny is in the process of regrowing its fur while recovering from an eye infection in a naked steel cage
    Locked up: The cages injure the rabbit's feet and the insanitary conditions see many of them, such as this one, suffer infections and illness
     source


    If We Find Alien Life, What's Next?


    Humanity should start thinking about how to interact with alien species long before coming into contact with extraterrestrial life, experts say.
    Coming up with a strict set of guidelines that govern the way people on futureinterstellar space missions study and interact with aliens is imperative before anyone blasts off to a distant world, according to attendees at Starship Congress in August.
    While a "prime directive" — the rule that prevented Star Fleet officers from interfering with the business of alien life-forms on TV's "Star Trek" — might be a little extreme, such a rule could help govern interactions between aliens and humans. [13 Ways to Contact Intelligent Alien Life]
    "In the event that we discover evidence of intelligent life on another world, that will be a social, cultural and technologically influential event to human affairs which will need to be managed with great care and to ensure our culture and their culture remains intact and not disrupted by this new knowledge," Kelvin Long, the founder ofProject Icarus, said during a panel on Aug. 16.
    People traveling to distant stars will be carrying tangible and intangible aspects of human culture with them, so it should be curated responsibly before being sent to analien planet, one expert said.
    "I think it comes down to how we're going," Armen Papazian, the CEO of the International Space Development Hub, said. "Do we trust that this is a beautiful universe, an incredible cosmos? Do we really believe that it's an amazing landscape, it's a bed of stars? What do we think we're going out there to find and are we going to embrace it or are we going to utilize? Are we trying to export our scarcity economics or are we trying to enjoy the abundant cosmos? … Whatever we are here, we're going to export wherever we go."
    It's possible that humans in the future will have no desire to land on exoplanets after free-roaming in space for years at a time, Icarus Interstellar president Richard Obousy said.
    "I'm not convinced that when we have the capabilities to build starships … that we'll want to go from one gravitational abyss to another gravitational abyss," Obousy said. "I'm not convinced that settling on planets or even moons is going to be necessary."
    Humans can't help but explore and interact with the world around them, Icarus Interstellar's James Benford said during the panel.
    "We won't leave them alone," Benford said. "We would like to explore alien ecology extensively to understand if there are any interactions leading to incompatibilities. We would need to establish human research stations to do that because it's a complex problem. It seems unlikely that there would be interference between separately evolved ecologies, especially if we minimize contamination and wear the appropriate suits."
    Les Johnson, of the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop, takes Benford's ideas a little further. Johnson and his group have developed three moral principles that he hopes will serve as a guide for any interactions with all kinds of extraterrestrial life:
    • Learn all you can learn before risking any kind of direct interaction
    • If it seems to be alive, leave it alone.
    • Avoid bringing samples to the home world because it might not be totally incompatible with our ecosystem.
    When developing a strategy for first contact, it might also be important to think about the mental and physical well-being of the aliens with whom humans could come into contact, panel members stated.
    Finding out that a more advanced civilization exists somewhere in the universe could be as jarring for humans around the globe as it was for native peoples when the conquistadors came to North America for the first time, Benford said.
    "It wasn't just guns, disease and steel, it was the shock of finding out that you're not even No. 1, you're not even No. 3," Benford said. "That is a thing to really worry about."
    In spite of all of these rules, it will be up to the people on the starship to ultimately enforce or do away with whatever rules were in place before they left the planet.
    "A vibrant interstellar civilization will be essentially ungovernable, and that observing such guidelines will be strictly left up to each and every first contact team to obey or not obey at their discretion," Johnson said. "When someone is several light-years from home and they've encountered something they never encountered before, they're going to be making the decisions regardless of what the guiding moral principles might have been when they left home."

    source

    Drones Causing Worldwide Spike In UFO Sightings

    There was once a time when UFO sightings turned out to be easily identified objects like weather balloons, lenticular clouds, satellites, meteorites, planets, conventional aircraft, weather anomalies and other normal things.
    Now, here come the drones, the newest addition to the growing list of misidentified things in the sky that many people claim are ships from another part of our galaxy. (Watch the HuffPost Live video above)
    Here's the big problem with all of this: Not only do these unmanned objects look like UFOs or flying saucers, a lot of them are deliberately and inexpensively created to look like UFOs or flying saucers.
    It's a simple equation: More drones in the sky = more UFO reports.
    From a "flying saucer" drone created by a Canadian science center to deliberately fool people at a baseball game (see image above), to a news agency's hovering, camera-mounted craft observing a large crowd of protestors in Moscow, drone technology is used for military purposes as well as consumerism trickery.
    ----------------------------
    CORRECTION: Upon looking back at the HuffPost Live video interview at the top of the story, this reporter discovered that he gave an inaccurate statement about UFOs. He said, "Literally, 4 to 5 percent of every UFO sighting or report can be easily explained if you give it a chance to be explained." What he meant to say (and thought he said) was that 4 to 5 percent of UFO reports can't be easily explained. Those are figures that have stood the test of time ever since the U.S. Air Force ended Project Blue Book -- its more than 20-year study of UFOs -- in 1969. Your reporter regrets the slight error.

    Paranormal Radio Host Art Bell Mysteriously Disappears From SiriusXM


    The much ballyhooed return of paranormal radio host Art Bell ended in just six weeks.
    The master of UFOs, fringe science and conspiracy theory is apparently at odds with SiriusXM over live streaming for his millions of fans.
    The 68-year-old co-creator of the hugely successful "Coast to Coast AM" retired from his full-time role of master of the macabre in 2003, after 15 years. Over that span, he went from mainstream talk to a highly successful foray into unexplained phenomena, turning the syndicated juggernaut into the most listened to overnight show in North America.
    The late night show's reins were comfortably taken over by the popular George Noory.
    This past July, SiriusXM Satellite Radio announced that Bell would launch a new, live, nightly call-in show, "Art Bell's Dark Matter," in September.
    But since Bell's new program Sept. 16 premiere, there have been, according to Bell on his website, many problems with streaming his show.
    "Many thousands of my listeners came on board when it began but they have fallen off because of that reason," Bell said. "It's a systemic problem. For a caller-driven show like this one, speaking only to people on cell phones in moving vehicles is somewhat difficult.
    "The show also is being pirated, oh you have no idea. We are all over the Net right now, from YouTube to a server in England, for example, that's streaming the show live. And because of all this, I have asked SiriusXM to alter their normal method of doing business and allow free streaming for everybody from artbell.com.
    "If we get the opportunity to do this streaming, we will kick some serious butt...If not, we may not have a viable situation going forward."
    It appears that SiriusXM has decided not to work things out for Bell, as his website now indicates he posted the following on his Facebook page:
    "Sometimes when you are 'all in' you win, sometimes lose. By mutual agreement, Dark Matter will no longer air as of tonight."
    HuffPost's call to SiriuxXM for a comment on this Bell rumor was not returned. When we contacted Noory (pictured at left), the top overnight radio host in the country, for his reaction, he merely said, "No comment."
    Plus, an unnamed source scheduled for an appearance on Bell's show received an email from someone in Bell's camp, which stated: "I regret to inform you (and all upcoming guests) that "Art Bell's Dark Matter" program will no longer be airing live shows effective immediately. I'm really thankful for your efforts with regards to being on the program and I truly apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
    "Should events change in the future, I'll be sure to let you know."
    The show had only been on the air since Sept. 16, and tonight's program is a scheduled repeat, after only being on SiriusXM for just six weeks.
    And once again, Art Bell's radio voice is quiet.