For two years, Giorgos and Evgenia Kouzilos and their three children have been living without electricity. Athens says 300,000 households in Greece can’t afford the bill.
In an interview by oil lamp, Mr. Kouzilos said: “It’s really tough for my wife and children. We try to finish activities such as helping the kids with their homework while there’s still daylight.”
Michalis Tsaoussoglou’s family is among the one in five who went hungry last year. He says he drove trucks for 35 years and paid his taxes but has been unemployed for five years now, and so he goes to a food bank in the outskirts of Athens. He owes six months rent and a year of electricity, but he hasn’t brought in a single euro in that time.
Mr. Tsaoussoglou said: “As it is, I feel useless, as if I’m dirty, like I don’t exist.”
The Prolepsis Institute of Preventive Medicine and Occupational Health says 54 percent of Greeks are not adequately fed.
Syriza‘s first law gives poorest Greeks free food vouchers and electricity
Thursday 5th March 2015
NEW ruling party Syriza used its first legislative act in parliament on Tuesday night to confront the country’s “humanitarian crisis” by offering free food vouchers and electricity to impoverished citizens.
“The deep recession due to austerity policies and the economic crisis in the past six years had a dramatic social impact,” read the government Bill.
“This draft law aims to tackle the humanitarian crisis through measures which ensure access to basic goods.”
The oldest ringed herring gull in our country turned up last weekend in Leeuwarden‘s [capital of Friesland province] new district Blitsaerd in front of the lens of nature photographer Ruurd Jelle van der Ley …
Meanwhile, the seagull has reached the respectable age of 28 years and eight months. On July 3, 1986, on Ameland island, this bird got two colored rings. An orange one with letter A and a green one with letter Y. Birdwatchers know him as OAGJ or Green J. he lost the orange ring about six years ago. Thanks to the remaining green ring and the fact that he walks with a slight limp he is still recognizable.
Scores of teal in the south-eastern part of the northern lake. Their mating season has started. One can hear them whistling.
It is mating season for two great crested grebes in the canal along the railway as well. They dance in the water together. One of the birds brings its partner algae as a sign of love.
Recently, the reserve has been extended with what used to be pasture land. A bridge leads to the new part of the reserve, but there are no footpaths yet.
Legend had played an influential role in advocating the culture of freedom and tolerance through the art of music.
The words spoken by Legend before his audience in Bahrain reflected his civilized thoughts about humanitarian issues regardless of sex, race, color or belief. The opposition commends Legend’s call and prayer ”for the people of Bahrain. And for those who stand for justice, accountability, freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom to organize without fear of retribution, please know that I stand with you”. The Bahraini opposition will continue its movement to achieve the humanitarian values it shares with Legend, wishing him more success in his support to rights and freedoms for all.
The opposition also takes the opportunity to urge the Bahraini Authorities to engage in the establishment of a culture of human rights and tolerance to prevent hate.
The National Democratic Opposition – Manama, 4 March 2015
This video is called Bahrain : Opposition demand to be truly represented through truly elected government.
Ferguson issued on average nearly three warrants per household last year — the highest number of warrants in the state, relative to its size. We speak to Michael-John Voss, managing attorney at ArchCity Defenders, one of the groups that has filed a lawsuit against Ferguson and Jennings. We are also joined by Allison Nelson and Herbert Nelson Jr., two of the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuits.
Ferguson Police “Believe” Four People Arrested In Protests, Refuse To Release Charges
The demonstrations came Wednesday night after a Justice Department civil rights investigation found a pattern of racial bias and unconstitutional use of force among Ferguson police officers. Police on Thursday wouldn’t disclose the charges of those arrested, saying the information was “private.”
Originally posted on March 4, 2015, at 7:02 p.m. Updated on March 5, 2015, at 1:01 p.m.
What We Know So Far
The Justice Department on Wednesday released the results of two civil rights investigations, one into the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and one into the Ferguson police department.
Investigators concluded there was not enough evidence to charge Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Brown, a black teenager who was unarmed.
Michael Brown’s parents said Wednesday they were “saddened” and “disappointed” by the decision.
Attorney General Eric Holder said about not charging officer Darren Wilson, “I…know these findings may not be consistent with some people’s expectations.”
Three city employees have been placed on administrative leave, including one who was fired, after the DOJ found racist emails.
Updates
Posted at 12:58 p.m., March 5
A group of protesters gathered outside the Ferguson police department on Wednesday night. A dispatcher told BuzzFeed News she “believed” four were arrested, and wouldn’t give out charges because that information was “private.”
DOJ REPORT DETAILS FERGUSON POLICE DEPARTMENT’S TRANSGRESSIONS “A damning report released by the Justice Department on Wednesday heavily criticized the operations of the police department and municipal court in Ferguson, Missouri, where Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen, was shot and killed by a white police officer in August. DOJ’s civil rights investigation into the Ferguson criminal justice system found that authorities have routinely violated the rights of black citizens and have used tickets to generate revenue for the city.” Read the most shocking parts of the report. So far, one police department employee has been fired and two more are on leave in light of the investigation. [Ryan Reilly and Mariah Stewart, HuffPost]
Ferguson: A City Where Policing, Discrimination and Raising Revenue Went Hand in Hand: here.
US ATTORNEY General Eric Holder says leaders in Ferguson, Missouri, must take ‘immediate, wholesale action’ after a report of widespread racial bias in its law enforcement: here.
Ferguson Police Racist, Unconstitutional, Justice Department Says: here.
The US Justice Department announced Wednesday that it will not bring federal charges against Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Missouri police officer who fired at least six bullets into Michael Brown last August, killing the unarmed teenager: here.
Mar 5, 2015 12:07 PM EST. ST. LOUIS — Lawyers for the parents of an unarmed, black 18-year-old who was fatally shot by a white police officer in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson said Thursday that they would file a civil lawsuit in Michael Brown’s death: here.
The U.S. Justice Department report on the Ferguson Police Department — which among other things alleged police targeted blacks and used arrests as a revenue-generating scheme — echoes some incidents that occurred over the last decade in southeast Los Angeles County. Residents in blue-collar, predominantly Latino southeast L.A. County complained for years that they were unfairly targeted by city officials for profit: here.
Chilean Birdman Leads Efforts to Save Seabird in World’s Driest Desert
Naturalist Jürgen Rottmann strives to protect Peruvian tern’s nesting sites amid Chile‘s growing seaport
Katarzyna Nowak
February 28, 2015
Jürgen Rottmann—a naturalist and ornithologist widely known as the David Attenborough of Chile—rehabilitates giants.
He’s lived for 44 years in what is today a raptor rehabilitation center —overseen by the Union of Chilean Ornithologists—in Talagante, outside Santiago, caring for some of the largest birds in existence: emblematic Andean condors (longest wingspan among raptors), huge Chilean blue eagles, and southern caracaras, long-legged raptors with naked cheeks, black crests, and streaked chests. (He also looks out for an enormous helmeted water toad that lurks in a tangled bank of vegetation.)
This video is about the Talagante raptor rehabilitation center.
Almost 900 miles (1,450 kilometers) to the north of the animal rescue center lies a barren desert where Rottmann has cultivated a soft spot for a tiny creature—a seabird not much bigger than his hand—the elusive and very rare gaviotín chico, or Peruvian tern.
This tern has flourished for millennia along a thin strip of coastline from northern Chile to Peru where the Atacama Desert meets the zone of rich upwelling in the Pacific Ocean known as the Humboldt Current.
No more than a thousand of the birds may survive today, largely because of human activities in northern Chile’s Mejillones Peninsula, a critical tern nesting area—and the site of a port complex, from which copper, vital to Chile’s economy, is exported.
Rottmann and his field team have since spent years in the desert monitoring tern nesting sites, which are now clearly signed and demarcated; observing the habits of the terns and their predators; and even filling in pits and trenches made by the military in the terns’ habitat.
This video, in Spanish, is called Gaviotín Chico o Chirrío (Sterna lorata) Península de Mejillones – Antofagasta – Chile.
