President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 including a separate section that could allow the military to indefinitely detain American citizens on suspicions of supporting terrorism. His signature means indefinite detention without charge or trial will be extended.”
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China’s wealth gap has widened so much that the country now one of the most unequal outside of sub-Saharan Africa. A respected Chinese institute found this week that China’s Gini coefficient, a number that represents income inequality, has soared from 0.41 a decade ago to 0.61 today. Anything over 0.5 is considered to be destabilizing, and South Africa, where opulent […]
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A young girl not from China was forced into a marriage to a man that she didn’t know. She also didn’t know the language, so she was not totally aware that she was married and because her husband forced himself on her she was also pregnant. Since the girl was only 16 she didn’t know that she was going to […]
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If you don’t have money in your savings to cover an emergency bill of at least $500 you are not alone. About 46% of Americans don’t have the money to cover any emergency which is lower than it was in 2013 when it was 50% according to a Bankrate report. Some Americans say that they have enough in their savings, […]
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China will further step up the supervision of genetically modified food technologies to prevent commercial cultivation of unauthorized varieties, a senior rural affairs official said. The call follows several suspected cases of farmers illegally growing genetically modified crops in the country. “We need to work to prevent unauthorized varieties from entering markets illegally, starting from the very beginning of the […]
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Thousands of pigs were found dead in rivers supplying Shanghai’s water, a grisly discovery that has drawn attention again to China’s toxic pollution, which contributes to some 700,000 deaths each year. Here are some points of concern: WASTE Tai Lake—a massive basin that holds China’s third largest body of freshwater, providing water for 30 million people—has been classified as a […]
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Beijing Mass arrests: In one of the biggest crackdowns on civil society groups in decades, Chinese authorities have detained and questioned at least 238 lawyers and human rights activists over the past two weeks. At least 20 activists remain incarcerated, and the whereabouts of six of them are unclear. Maya Wang, a researcher with Human Rights. Watch, said those still […]
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Chicago Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. plead guilty this to spending $750,000 of campaign funds on luxury items for personal use, including furs, jewelry, and celebrity memorabilia. Jackson, 47, represented Illinois’s 2nd Congressional District for 17 years before taking a medical leave for bipolar disorder. He allegedly used campaign funds to buy such items as a $43,350 gold-plated Rolex watch, a […]
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The Republicans have a euphemism for undocumented workers— illegals — said Peter Beinart. With a tone of disgust, that single, dehumanizing noun has become the GOP presidential candidates’ preferred way to describe the millions of human beings picking our produce, cooking our food, cutting our lawns, and watching over our kids. It’s “the latest in a long line of euphemisms […]
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How did the U.S. debt get so high? The crucial turning point came back in 2001, said Lori Montgomery. At the time, Uncle Sam was actually running surpluses, and “the outlook was so rosy” that forecasters were predicting the U.S. could pay back every dime it had ever borrowed. That’s when President George W. Bush made a pivotal decision: Rather […]
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