Two-year-old Yueyue, who was run over by two vans in southern China and ignored by several passers-by, has died A severely injured Chinese toddler has died one week after she was run over by two vans. The plight of the two year old girl, nicknamed Yueyue, was ignored by passers-by only to grab the attention of millions around the world. She was hit twice by vehicles on a market street, but around a dozen people walked or rode past before a woman stopped to help. The chilling footage of the incident in Foshan, southern China, sparked a national outpouring of grief and concern. Some argued it could have happened anywhere in the world, while others saw it as a peculiarly Chinese phenomenon or argued it epitomised moral decline and increasing selfishness in a fast-developing society. Doctors said at the time that Yueyue’s injuries were severe and warned that she was unlikely to survive. On Friday morning the Guangzhou military district general hospital announced she had died shortly after midnight due to brain and organ failure. “Her injuries were too severe and the treatment had no effect,” intensive care unit director Su Lei told a press conference. Microblogs were flooded with messages of sadness and sympathy, with some users hoping that her death might prove a turning point for society. “Yueyue has left at last. Besides the sadness, can one life get society’s ‘non-indifference’ back in return?” asked one. “If Yueyue’s unfortunateness can reflect anything, I think we shall not blame the others, but examine ourselves. Maybe we walk too fast and some precious things are left on the road.” Police have detained the drivers of both the vehicles that hit Yueyue on suspicion of causing a traffic collision but have not said what charges they will face. Some of those who passed by the injured girl have said they did not see her, while others said they were too frightened to help. Many in China have suggested that fear of extortion, rather than indifference, was to blame for people ignoring her. The country has seen several high-profile cases where people have successfully sued passers by who helped them – claiming they caused the injuries. Some citizens and scholars have called for a Good Samaritan law, but others have argued that the issue is a moral and social one rather than a legal problem. Yueyue’s rescuer has been lauded as a heroine for stopping to assist her, but has gone home to the countryside after being overwhelmed by the public attention. China Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Forensic report says Muammar Gaddafi was shot in arm upon capture, then in the head while being driven away Muammar Gaddafi died from a bullet wound to the head received in crossfire between government fighters and his own supporters after he had been captured in Sirte, the Libyan interim prime minister has said, citing a forensic report. Conflicting reports have emerged about how exactly Gaddafi died. He was captured after a Nato air strike hit his convoy as it tried to break away from the siege of his hometown. “I am going to read to you a report by the forensic doctor who examined Gaddafi,” Mahmoud Jibril told a news conference in the capital, Tripoli. “It said: ‘Gaddafi was taken out of a sewage pipe … he didn’t show any resistance. When we started moving him he was hit by a bullet in his right arm and when they put him in a truck he did not have any other injuries.’”‘When the car was moving it was caught in crossfire between the revolutionaries and Gaddafi forces in which he was hit by a bullet in the head.’” “The forensic doctor could not tell if it came from the revolutionaries or from Gaddafi’s forces,” Jibril said. Gaddafi had been alive when he was taken from Sirte but died a few minutes before reaching hospital, the prime minister said. Jibril said DNA samples and blood was taken from the body. Also removed were samples of Gaddafi’s hair but that turned out to be “fake”, seemingly confirming widespread rumours that Libya’s feared ruler of 42 years had hair implants. Libya’s National Transitional Council had been in touch with the international criminal court, which had wanted to try Gaddafi for crimes against humanity, Jibril said. It had wanted a forensic expert to inspect the body before the burial, he said, but after seeing the NTC’s own report the court agreed that would not be necessary. Gaddafi’s son Mutassim was also killed on Thursday. “As for Mutassim there is a wound in the head and a break in the skull and five bullets in the back and one in the neck,” Jibril said. Muammar Gaddafi Libya Middle East Africa guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Forensic report says Muammar Gaddafi was shot in arm upon capture, then in the head while being driven away Muammar Gaddafi died from a bullet wound to the head received in crossfire between government fighters and his own supporters after he had been captured in Sirte, the Libyan interim prime minister has said, citing a forensic report. Conflicting reports have emerged about how exactly Gaddafi died. He was captured after a Nato air strike hit his convoy as it tried to break away from the siege of his hometown. “I am going to read to you a report by the forensic doctor who examined Gaddafi,” Mahmoud Jibril told a news conference in the capital, Tripoli. “It said: ‘Gaddafi was taken out of a sewage pipe … he didn’t show any resistance. When we started moving him he was hit by a bullet in his right arm and when they put him in a truck he did not have any other injuries.’”‘When the car was moving it was caught in crossfire between the revolutionaries and Gaddafi forces in which he was hit by a bullet in the head.’” “The forensic doctor could not tell if it came from the revolutionaries or from Gaddafi’s forces,” Jibril said. Gaddafi had been alive when he was taken from Sirte but died a few minutes before reaching hospital, the prime minister said. Jibril said DNA samples and blood was taken from the body. Also removed were samples of Gaddafi’s hair but that turned out to be “fake”, seemingly confirming widespread rumours that Libya’s feared ruler of 42 years had hair implants. Libya’s National Transitional Council had been in touch with the international criminal court, which had wanted to try Gaddafi for crimes against humanity, Jibril said. It had wanted a forensic expert to inspect the body before the burial, he said, but after seeing the NTC’s own report the court agreed that would not be necessary. Gaddafi’s son Mutassim was also killed on Thursday. “As for Mutassim there is a wound in the head and a break in the skull and five bullets in the back and one in the neck,” Jibril said. Muammar Gaddafi Libya Middle East Africa guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The Occupy Wall Street movement passes the one-month mark today, and has also reached another milestone–the once fledgling movement has raised $300,000 in donations, according to the Associated Press. Saturday was perhaps the biggest day yet for the protests over income inequality and corporate influence on politics. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world
Continue reading …The Occupy Wall Street movement passes the one-month mark today, and has also reached another milestone–the once fledgling movement has raised $300,000 in donations, according to the Associated Press. Saturday was perhaps the biggest day yet for the protests over income inequality and corporate influence on politics. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world
Continue reading …‘Pleas helpp.’ Exchange student begs State Dept to get him out of factory job
October 21, 2011 No CommentA Moldovan student on a State Department foreign exchange program wrote the department a pleading e-mail complaining of the working conditions at a Hershey packing factory, The New York Times’ Julia Preston reports. “Pleas hellp,” Tudor Ureche, a college student who was participating in the U.S. government’s J-1 visa program, wrote in the email. He added that
Continue reading …According to Gallup, a record 50 percent of Americans now support legalizing marijuana, up from only 12 percent in 1969, the first time Gallup polled on the issue. Not surprisingly, support for legalization is highest among liberals and young people, while only 31 percent of people over 65 say pot should be legalized. Sixteen states
Continue reading …Don’t tell Occupy Wall Street: Cain’s 9-9-9 plan would be boon for private equity titans
October 21, 2011 No CommentUnder Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan, the managers of private equity funds–one of the most lucrative financial structures on Wall Street–would pay, on average, an income tax rate of just around 6 percent. That’s less than the 9 percent rate most workers would pay, and it’s a huge dropoff from the best assessment of the
Continue reading …Don’t tell Occupy Wall Street: Cain’s 9-9-9 plan would be boon for private equity titans
October 21, 2011 No CommentUnder Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan, the managers of private equity funds–one of the most lucrative financial structures on Wall Street–would pay, on average, an income tax rate of just around 6 percent. That’s less than the 9 percent rate most workers would pay, and it’s a huge dropoff from the best assessment of the
Continue reading …The number of corruption-related investigations of U.S. Customs officials has more than tripled since 2006, the Los Angeles Times reports. Sources told the paper that since the Customs force on the border has expanded so rapidly in the past five years, authorities have been more lenient about red flags that suggest applicants for Customs jobs
Continue reading …