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US judge bars disgraced Turkish Lobbyist Ex-House speaker Dennis Hastert from being alone with children

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Part of the photo, This file photo taken on October 27, 2015 shows,surrounded by US Marshals, former Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert as he leaves the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by AFP)

A US federal judge has ordered that Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the US House of Representatives in Congress, never be left alone with anyone under 18 unless another adult is present who is aware of his conviction related to child sex abuse.

In his ruling on Tuesday from Chicago, US District Judge Thomas Durkin also ordered Hastert to install software that records all his computer activity, from browser history to email correspondence and internet chats.

The judge didn’t explain why the new restrictions on Hastert were called for now, three months into his two-year period of supervised release from prison.

Durkin sentenced Hastert, once one of the country’s most powerful politicians, to 15 months in prison in May 2016 for a financial crime linked to sexual abuse of boys.

Durkin described the former congressman as “a serial child molester” during the sentencing.

Hastert, 75, is America’s longest-serving Republican House speaker from 1999 to 2007 and the highest-ranking politician in US history to have gone to prison.

Hastert pleaded guilty in 2015 to violating banking rules as he sought to pay $3.5 million to a victim referred to only as Individual A to keep him quiet about the sex abuse.

Hastert couldn’t be charged with sexual abuse because statutes of limitation had long since expired.

Among the conditions Durkin set during sentencing in 2016 was that Hastert undergo intensive sex-offender treatment, which is designed to gauge the risk molesters still pose to children.

One common treatment for sex-offenders involves a penile plethysmograph, which gauges a known molester’s physical reaction to specific images.

Syria: Startling picture of five-year-old Syrian captures horror of Aleppo conflict

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syrian-childA photograph of a five-year-old boy who survived an airstrike in Aleppo has highlighted the extent of the civil war in Syria. The image has gone viral around the world.

Covered in dust from head to toe after being pulled from the rubble caused by an airstrike, a young boy sits dazed and bewildered in the back of an ambulance. The survivor of the airstrike in Aleppo on Wednesday has been identified by Syrian doctors as five-year-old Omran Daqneesh.

The photograph is a still taken from a clip posted by the Aleppo Media Center on YouTube late on Wednesday.

The footage shows young Omran being rescued from the wreckage in Aleppo’s Qaterji neighborhood before being taken to the ambulance.

Within hours of being posted on Twitter, the startling image has been shared tens of thousands of times, prompting a huge response across social-media platforms.

President and CEO of the International Rescue Committeee David Miliband tweeted: “The stunned, bloodied face of a child survivor sums up the horror of Aleppo.”

Aleppo has been in a state of siege since government forces, led by President Bashar al-Assad, closed in on the Castello Road, the last route into rebel-held areas of the city. The road was severed nearly a month ago, sparking food shortages and sending prices skyrocketing in the eastern districts.

But in a major push earlier in August, a coalition of rebels, Islamists and jihadists fighting against government-led forces cut off the regime’s own main access road on the southern edges of the city, leaving millions of civilians trapped without electricity or water.

Russia, which has sent troops to help its longtime ally Assad, last week announced three-hour humanitarian pauses over three days in Aleppo.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier slammed the move, saying that the three-hour window did not provide enough time for the necessary aid to be transported into the city. Echoing calls made by the United Nations (UN), Steinmeier demanded a complete ceasefire.

More than 290,000 people have been killed since Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011. Millions have been displaced leading to a refugee crisis across the region and into Europe.

DailyMail: Turkey Child slaves’ making uniforms for Isis: Inside the Turkish sweatshop

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Slave shop turkey

Lost Generation: The children should be at school, but their parents send them to work in the factory to earn 100 Turkish Lira per week

DailyMail EXCLUSIVE – ‘Child slaves’ making uniforms for Isis: Inside the Turkish sweatshop where children as young as nine work 12 hours a day stitching combat gear used in battle by Islamic State.

Syrian refugee children forced to work in a military uniform sweatshop that sells camouflage to ISIS

Unable to go to school and desperate for money on the Turkish border the boys work 12 hour days for £10

Factory owner Abu Zakour has no problem selling uniforms to ISIS: ‘It doesn’t matter where my customers are from’

He also supplies Al Qaeda group Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham and other rebel FSA fighters with military garb

Drawing slowly on his cheap cigarettes, 35-year-old Abu Zakour is hardened as he describes how he employs children as young as nine to stitch the uniforms that end up on the backs of frontline ISIS fighters.

The Syrian boys – and a couple of girls hidden upstairs – are paid a minimum of 40 Turkish lira (£10) a day to stitch, cut and measure out the camouflage material and help their older colleagues piece together the uniforms that get smuggled across the border to rebel groups.

‘My kids are in a school run by an NGO,’ he said, speaking exclusively to MailOnline from his office in the Turkish border town of Antakya. ‘These children could go too but their parents want them to earn money, so what can I do?’

Child labour: A young boy at work making uniforms in Turkey that apparently find their way to Isis soldiers. ‘The only reason that these children work with me is for the money – If there were no war in Syria, these children would be in school—and school would be a much better option for them,’ factory owner Abu Zakour told MailOnline.

So young: About ten children are employed making uniforms being smuggled into Syria to sell to Isisi fighters. They should be in school but their parents send them to work, 

Abu Zakour is a simple businessman – not a revolutionary ideologue or an ISIS sympathiser – but he is also seemingly untroubled by the ethics of kitting out ISIS in camouflage, or by hiring children to do it.

His hulking shape and assertive demeanor marks him as a man not to be messed with. He lived under brutal ISIS rule until he managed to escape Raqqa just six months ago.

Originally from Aleppo, the entrepreneur escaped the incessant shelling of the now destroyed city for the relative safety of Raqqa – the de facto Syrian capital of the terror group. 

While the city was ruled by fanatics, it provided an escape from the daily bombardment of President Assad’s warplanes – until the US-led coalition ramped up bombings on the ISIS nerve centre.

‘I had children working with me in Raqqa too. ISIS wanted children going to Shariah schools, but no one sent their children because there was a lot of bombing. 

‘The first time I was arrested, it was for cigarettes. They found cigarette butts on the floor but just gave me a warning—the second time, they found the ashtray, jailed me three days and gave me 40 lashes. I was arrested a third time, also for smoking…They made a huge problem for people. 

‘In the end, I took my things, and I left. We fled,’ he says from his office in the ‘Halep Garaj’ covered market in Antakya. Out front his shop boasts mannequins dressed in camouflage and smart glass cabinets displaying ‘adventure kit’ – torches, binoculars, pocket knives, gloves and webbing.

Lighting another cigarette he reveals his order sheet and shares his logistical woes of stocking the Syrian rebels with military gear – ISIS are far from his only customers.

‘The main problem for the military clothes are the roads—all of the roads in Syria and from Turkey to Syria are closed.

‘Of course we made far more money with the military clothes than the civilian clothes. There is a big difference between the military clothes and the civilian clothes, but what can we do? Where there is work, there is work.’

From his modest factory in Antakya – which finally shut up shop earlier this year after tightened controls put a stop to smuggling his wares through the border – his workers pay strict attention to the differing stylistic demands of the multitudes of rebel groups in northern Syria.

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Turkey ranks bottom on child inequality: UNICEF report

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AA photo

AA photo

Turkey ranks bottom out of 41 countries for child inequality in health and life satisfaction, according to a recent study by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) measuring disparities between middle and low-income children. 

In its report titled “Fairness for Children: A league table of inequality in child well-being in rich countries,” UNICEF measured how far the gap has widened between the “average” children and those with lowest household income levels, rather than focusing on the gap between the richest and the poorest. For the report, data from 41 countries of the EU and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) were studied across four dimensions: Income, education, health and life satisfaction.

The most drastic negative results for Turkey were noted in health and life satisfaction, where in both cases the country was listed in the bottom two of all compared nations.

The largest relative health gaps, designated by comparing a child with frequent reporting of health symptoms and an “average” child at the median of the health scale, was found in Israel, with 38.9 percent, and Turkey, with 34.5 percent. However, Turkey performed worse than Israel in the frequency of health complaints from children at the bottom end, as some 53.3 percent of disadvantaged children reported one or more health symptoms a day. UNICEF also noted this pattern, remarking that “only Turkey shows both high bottom-end inequality and high frequency of reported health complaints.”

The country also ranked at the very bottom in terms of life satisfaction, where the relative gap between an average child and a disadvantaged child stood at 36 percent. Accordingly, the life satisfaction score of a child at the bottom is 36 percent lower than the average child.

Moreover, some 15.3 percent of Turkish children rate their life satisfaction below 4 on a scale of 0 (“worst possible life”) to 10 (“best possible life”). The figure is noteworthy as the second worst performer, Poland, only sees 10 percent of children report such high degree of dissatisfaction.

Income inequalities were also measured by comparing the household income of the median child and the household income of the child at the 10th percentile, who is poorer than 90 percent of children. The gap between the two was the indicator of income inequality between the average child and poorest children.
The data shows that 22.8 percent of Turkish children are members of households with incomes below 50 percent of the national median income, the highest ratio after Israel and Chile.

UNICEF noted that Turkey’s performance, along with that of Israel, was the worst among the 41 states studied.

“Israel and Turkey rank lowest in the overall league table. They have comparatively high bottom-end inequality in each of the four domains of child well-being for which they have valid data,” it said, arguing that social inequalities among children are unjustifiable as “merit cannot reasonably be advanced as justification for inequalities.”

April/15/2016

source: hurriyetdailynews

Farewell Time: Turkey is ‘Problem Child’ NATO Needs to Ditch “ties with Islamic extremists”

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1030774092With the changing times and different threats the international community is currently facing, Turkey should be removed from NATO, the US magazine American Thinker said.

Turkey’s admission into NATO in 1952 had a clear military purpose — the country’s membership was supposed to help the Western alliance to avoid Soviet expansion in the region. From the Western point of view, it might have been the right decision to make during the Cold War era.

However, right now NATO doesn’t need Turkey and it’s time to ditch Ankara, especially after finding out that the Turkish government has ties with Islamic extremists in the Middle East, the US newspaper said.

“Old adversaries need to be re-evaluated, as do old ‘allies’ — which were never likely allies to begin with… The time has come: Turkey should be removed from NATO,” the American Thinker reported.

Turkey has always been “the problem child in NATO,” the magazine said. The Turkish government has been using its NATO membership as an effective tool to achieve its own political goals, which don’t coincide with NATO’s interests.

In 1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus, causing a split in NATO, which resulted in Greece withdrawing its forces from the alliance until 1980. Then in 2012, after repeated and deliberate airspace violations the Syrian Air Force shot down a Turkish plane causing NATO unwanted headaches.

According to the American Thinker, Turkey has always had Islamic ties due to its complex history. Under the protection of its NATO membership, Turkey managed to increase its influence in the region to the point that it supported ISIL by carrying out illegal oil sales with the terrorist organization, the US magazine said.

Following the rise of ISIL and a series of terrorist attacks in Europe, the EU and the United States need to defeat ISIL. NATO can’t afford to have a country that “pretends to be a friend while stabbing [the West] in the back” and that’s why Turkey needs to be dropped from the Western alliance, the American Thinker explained.

Instead, NATO should find a common ground with Russia since both parties are currently involved in the fight against Islamic extremism.

The Russian Su-24 Fencer bomber was shot down by two Turkish F-16s Tuesday morning while conducting operations over Syria.

One of the pilots from the downed Su-24 was rescued by the Syrian Army Tuesday morning. The other pilot was killed by fire from the ground after ejecting from the plane. A Russian naval infantry soldier also lost his life after an Mi-8 chopper was downed during a rescue operation.

The Turkish president said that Ankara acted in line with its sovereign right to respond to threats, claiming that the Russian jet had violated Turkish airspace. However, flight data released by the Russian Ministry of Defense shows that the Su-24s never entered Turkey, and were attacked while performing legitimate maneuvers over Syria.    

Source: sputniknews

United Nations Slams Israel Over Child Prostitution Epidemic

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1028583109Israel has no clear strategy for addressing child prostitution within its borders, according to a UN report, which says that sex offenders there are not sufficiently prosecuted and punished.

In the wake of the scathing report from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, a source told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that despite growing awareness of the problem, helping juvenile prostitutes “still falls between the governmental cracks.”

Of all the police investigations opened into sex crimes against minors last year, about 45% have been closed, the paper reported.
In its most recent report, the UN committee said Israel has failed to implement a recommendation made in the previous report: establishing a state agency dedicated to children’s rights.
The report also said the number of investigations into people suspected of sex crimes against minors is low to start with, and only a small percentage of those cases actually go to trial.
Moreover, even when convictions are obtained in child prostitution or pornography cases, the sentences don’t always match the severity of the crimes, the report said. It recommended instituting stiffer sentences for obtaining sexual services from a minor, Haaretz reported.
According to latest data compiled by the Knesset’s research center, of the 2,349 cases opened into sex crimes against minors in 2014, only 11% have yet produced a verdict. Almost 45% of these cases were closed – 30% because the criminal was unknown and 13% due to lack of public interest.
Yifat Shasha-Biton, chair of the Knesset Committee on the Rights of the Child, echoed the UN report’s complaint about lenient sentencing.

“A sentence of up to three years for obtaining sex services from a minor is ridiculous,” she said.

A representative of the Social Affairs Ministry confirmed the UN report’s criticism of Israel’s lack of a system for coordinating among different government agencies involved in this issue.
He said his ministry “works to rehabilitate minors employed in prostitution, but doesn’t coordinate with the Education Ministry on preventing [minors] from sliding into prostitution or on locating minors employed in prostitution.”

Source: sputniknews.com

Armenia, Gyumri tragedy: Six-month-old survivor dies in hospital

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f54bd0b4ac3d29_54bd0b4ac3d60.thumbThe six-month-old child who was the only survivor in last week’s brutal murder in Gyumri has died in hospital without regaining consciousness.

Doctors did not manage to save the six-month-old Seryozha Avetisyan, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health told our correspondent.

Nikolay Dallakyan, the director of the Surb Astvatsatsin Medical Center, said earlier today that the child’s condition had sharply deteriorated. The biological death was registered at 5:02 local time.

Despite continuing long-lasting intensive care procedures by leading Armenian and foreign specialists, the child’s condition did not stabilize. The young patient developed cardiovascular, pulmonary and kidney disorders caused irrevocable changes leading to his eventual death.

Turkey, Kurds bury slain child, government denies shooting

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Kurd-childPeople carry the coffin of 12-year-old Nihat Kazanhan, who was allegedly shot dead by police,in Turkey’s Sirnak on J

Sirnak (Turkey) (AFP) – Thousands of mourners on Thursday buried a 12-year-old Kurdish boy who activists say was killed by Turkish security forces, a claim vehemently denied by the government.

Witnesses told AFP that Nihat Kazanhan, 12, was shot while police were patrolling the largely Kurdish Cizre district of Sirnak province near the Iraqi border, where tensions between locals and security forces are high.

It was the latest in a series of deaths undermining the fragile peace process between the Turkish state and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought a bloody 30-year insurgency for Kurdish self-rule.

Activists and pro-Kurdish media claimed that police had fired tear gas and plastic bullets, although there were no protests in progress when the boy was shot.

Angry mourners shouted slogans and flashed victory signs during the funeral of the boy, who died in hospital of gunshot wounds to the head, an AFP photographer reported.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday insisted Turkish security forces had fired neither bullets nor tear gas, and said an investigation had been opened.

Sirnak police department also said in a statement that the security forces were “by no means” involved in the boy’s death, and that there were no clashes at the time of the shooting.

The boy was shot as lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) visited Cizre in a bid to ease tensions in the town, which has seen deadly clashes between PKK supporters and Turkish security forces in recent weeks.

Kazanhan was the seventh person — including another teenager — to be killed in Cizre in three weeks, security sources told AFP.

In October, dozens were killed when Kurds took to the streets in several cities across Turkey to vent their anger at the government’s Syria policy.

The violence has complicated efforts to make peace with the PKK, whose rebellion has left an estimated 40,000 dead.

650 child abuse cases registered every month in Turkey

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Doğan News Agency 

n_71243_1According to Child Watch Centers’ data which only comprises 13 provinces out of 81 in Turkey, 2,792 children suffered sexual abuse last year, while 263 were married despite being underage.

Some 650 cases of child abuse are being registered at the Forensic Medicine Institute (ATK) every month, according to figures provided by the Justice Ministry in response to a parliamentary question.

Some 916 cases were waiting to be inspected by forensic officials at the end of last year, the data also showed.

The response by Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ to main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu also said the number of lingering cases fell sharply from 3,271 in July 2012.

The reports on the mental health reports of victims are completed over a period of six months for children and one year for adults, it also said.

Data collected from Child Watch Centers in just 13 provinces last month showed that 2,792 children suffered sexual abuse last year, while 263 were married despite being underage.

September/03/2014