PERU ( Lima - 500 Dolphins Die in Northern Peru )

LIMA – At least 500 dolphins were found dead in the past few weeks on different beaches in northern Peru and the cause of death is still under investigation, media reports said.

The Peruvian Sea Institute (Imarpe) sent a team of scientists to investigate why the dolphins beached themselves in the northern regions of Lambayeque and Piura, the El Comercio newspaper reported.

Other beachings of dolphins occurred in the past two years in northern Peru.

The team covered a 142-kilometer (88-mile) stretch of coast on Jan. 28-29, traveling from Pimentel, a resort city in Lambayeque, to the southern part of the reserve in Illescas, located in Piura, the newspaper said, citing officials.

Experts found at least 400 beached dolphins, with the discovery coming after about 100 other dolphins beached themselves in recent weeks.

Fishermen told the Imarpe team that the dolphins were caught in nets regularly and drowned, the newspaper said.

The scientists, however, confirmed that some young and adult dolphins died at sea and others arrived on the beaches near death.

Tests conducted on tissue samples in Lima determined that the marine mammals were not poisoned by fishermen and did not die from the effects of extractive activities in the regions.

The marine mammals may have died from ingesting toxic algae, the head of Imarpe’s Lambayeque office, Jaime de la Cruz, told El Comercio.

Officials are concerned about the deaths because dolphins approach the coast at this time of year to mate and feed, De la Cruz said.

In 2012, about 800 dolphins were found dead in central and northern Peru, with Imarpe concluding in a report that the animals died from natural causes.

Contact with fishing vessels, pesticides, pollution from heavy metals and seismic mining exploration were among the human causes ruled out.

The report, however, also ruled out some possible natural causes of the deaths, including lack of food, bacterial infections, viral infections and biotoxins.

Hundreds of seabirds were also found dead in northern and central Peru in early 2012.

The deaths of more than 1,200 pelicans were due to lack of food because of the migration of cold water fish as a result of the warming of ocean waters, officials said.

Hundreds of dead seabirds were found along a 200-kilometer (124-mile) stretch of beaches in the Piura and Lambayeque regions in early 2012, Peruvian media reported

MOSCOW ( Student Kills Police Officer and Teacher at Russian High School )

MOSCOW – A student equipped with two rifles on Monday killed a teacher and a police officer and took 24 classmates hostage in one of the rooms of his Moscow high school before turning himself in to authorities.

“We’re trying to clarify his motives. According to our information, (shooter) Sergei Gordeyev is an outstanding student and the most likely thing is that he suffered an emotional fit of rage,” the spokesman for the Russian Attorney General’s Office, Vladimir Markin, told the press.

He added that Gordeyev, a 10th-grader, fired at least 11 shots. Both guns belonged to his father and were properly registered.

Gordeyev came to his school shortly after midday and, after threatening the guard, entered the building and shot a geography teacher, who died soon thereafter.

Then, he entered a biology classroom, where he took 24 students and another teacher hostage and from there fired on police officers who had been sent to the school after the guard reported the incident, seriously wounding two officers, one of whom later died.

Moscow police chief Anatoli Yakunin said that Gordeyev’s father was persuaded to speak with his son by telephone.

After a 15-minute conversation by cell phone, the student’s father put on a bulletproof jacket and entered the school.

Inside the classroom where the boy had taken refuge, father and son spoke for a half hour and after that conversation Gordeyev released his hostages.

During the incident, police cordoned off the school, to which a dozen ambulances and a helicopter were sent.

The incident comes just three days ahead of the opening of the Winter Olympics in the southern Russian city of Sochi.

The games will take place amid heavy security amid concerns about possible terrorist attacks.

JAPAN ( Cops " forced to eat 15 burgers " and donuts )

Police officers forced to eat 15 burgers at a time to toughen them up

Crime Feb. 01, 2014 - 06:45AM JST ( 51 )

TOKYO —

A police sergeant in Osaka has resigned his post after he was reprimanded for forcing subordinates to binge on 15 hamburgers at a time to “toughen them up”.
The unidentified traffic sergeant, 40, stepped down from his position on Dec 25, the mass-circulation newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun said.
He repeatedly ordered four younger officers to, in one sitting, stuff themselves with bulk meals such as 15 hamburgers, 15 donuts, four large-sized cups of instant fried noodles, or 3-4 liters of coffee-flavored milk, the report said.
“After finding they were not working hard enough, I did it in order to toughen them up,” the unnamed sergeant was quoted as telling investigators of the Osaka prefectural police headquarters.
The younger officers, in their 20s and 30s and assigned to two community police stations, were forced to binge on the meals when the sergeant visited them at work over a period of 10 times since early 2010, the report said.
He ordered the young policemen to buy the food and drink themselves out of their own pockets, and consume it inside their tiny “koban (police box)” stations as he watched.

Syria ( Assad barrel bomb kills 83 in Aleppo )

BEIRUT: Syrian military helicopters dropped more improvised “barrel bombs” on the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday, a monitoring group said, bringing the death toll to at least 83 people in the latest episode of a campaign many consider a war crime.
Most of the victims killed since Friday have been civilians from the city’s eastern districts, including women and children, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a broad network of sources across Syria.
The use of barrel bombs — oil drums or cylinders packed with explosives and metal fragments — has drawn international condemnation, including from Syria’s opposition delegation and their Western backers at recent peace talks in Switzerland.


The first round of negotiations wound up on Friday without making progress toward ending Syria’s three-year civil war or reducing its violence, which regularly kills more than 100 people every day.
Western powers proposed a UN Security Council resolution in December to express outrage at the use of barrel bombs, which they say indiscriminately target innocent civilians. The weapons have killed well over 700 people in Syria in the past six weeks.
But Russia, a staunch ally of President Bashar Assad, has repeatedly blocked such plans in the Security Council.
Syrian authorities say they are battling rebels controlling large portions of Aleppo, once Syria’s business hub and largest city, which is now split between government and rebel forces.
The Observatory said there was “heavy congestion” at a checkpoint in a southwestern neighborhood after the government closed it to traffic, preventing residents from fleeing the bombardment and related clashes further east.
The military also used barrel bombs in the suburbs of the capital Damascus over the weekend and carried out traditional shelling and air strikes in several other cities and villages around the country, the Observatory and other activists said.
Their reports could not be independently confirmed.
To the north of Aleppo, militants from the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized control of a border area with Turkey called Al-Raa’i, the Observatory said.
ISIL freed more than 400 people from a prison in the area who had been held by the rival Liwa Al-Tawhid unit, and clashes between the two groups continued nearby, according to the monitoring group

Nigeria ( 53 murdered by armed muslims in Church during service ) Jihad watch

Nigeria: 53 murdered as armed Muslims enter church during service, lock doors, slit throats of those trying to escape



When you meet the unbelievers, strike at their necks…” — Qur’an 47:4
An update on this story. “Nigeria: death toll rises in Boko Haram attacks,” by Carey Lodge for Christian Today, February 1 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

The number of fatalities resulting from attacks in Nigeria on 26 January has risen to at least 138.
Islamist terror group Boko Haram, officially labelled a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organisation’ by the US government in November last year, is suspected to have coordinated the violence.
‘Boko Haram’ translates as ‘Western education is sacrilege’. The group has ties to Al-Qaeda and is responsible for over 2,000 deaths in Nigeria since 2009. Its leadership has declared it aims to cleanse the country of Christians, eradicate Nigerian democracy and replace it with an Islamic state guided by Sharia law.
On Sunday, armed militants attacked a church in Adamawa State in the north-east of the country. They locked the doors before the end of the service and shot at the congregation, slitting the throats of those who tried to escape. They also detonated bombs before going on a four hour rampage, burning houses and taking hostages from the village.
Initial reports recorded 22 casualties. However, that number has now risen to 53, with dozens more wounded.

CAMP PENDLETON ( Female Marine enters pro MMA with 20 sec knockout )

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – The night air vibrated with energy as Sgt. Misha Nassiri and her opponent entered the ring. They stared each other down while the referee addressed the basic rules of the match. The ring’s entrance was locked, the ref shouted “fight,” and violent roars shot from the audience as the fighters closed in on each other with violent swiftness. The opponents tapped gloves and the mayhem commenced.

 Nassiri, an ammunition technician with Headquarter Battalion, 1st Marine Division, and a native of San Diego, wasted no time and began assaulting her opponent with a dizzying flurry of well-placed punches and kicks. Only seconds later it was over.

Nassiri entered the professional MMA world with a technical knockout and a revitalized level of confidence during a mixed martial arts competition in Valley Center, Calif., Jan. 18, 2014.

“The pace of the match took me by surprise,” said Nassiri, “Coming into the fight I was really nervous, but the second I got inside the ring all of my stress and worries disappeared. I was in kill mode.”

Nassiri trained in martial arts nearly her entire life, starting with karate at age 3. She spent the majority of her childhood and teenage years living in the Netherlands and moved back to the United States when she was 16. The move forced Nassiri to acclimate to American culture, but her interest in combat sports followed her to America.

“Living in the Netherlands made me open to a lot of experiences,” said Nassiri. “It made me more willing to try new things. In a way, my experiences there motivated me to get into MMA. It was new, and gave my martial arts training an exciting new focus.”

Nassiri joined the Marine Corps Sept. 7, 2010, eager to serve her country. She quickly discovered that the dedication, discipline and hard work necessary to be a professional fighter mirrored many standards of the Marines.

As an ammunition technician, Nassiri is responsible for handling, transporting and storing ammunition and other hazardous materials. Her job requires her to work well under pressure with precision and accuracy, traits that translate well in her MMA career. The Marine Corps lifestyle constantly reinforces the importance of hard work and Nassiri brings the same mentality to the ring.

“There are certain expectations that come with being a Marine,” said 1st Lt. David Foran, a logistics officer with Headquarters Battalion, 1st Marine Division, and a native of Dauphin, PA. “A Marine has to be strong willed and have a good work ethic to be successful in the Marine Corps. Nassiri exemplifies what it means to be a Marine.”

With the added responsibility of the Marine Corps, Nassiri constantly attempts to find the proper balance between her job and MMA training. Little sleep, shorter lunches and minimal free time is the price that Nassiri pays to become a better fighter.

“Balancing the Marine Corps and my MMA isn’t easy,” said Nassiri. “I try to use every second of every day to do something productive. If I’m not working, I’m training. It’s tiresome, but at the end of the day the aches and pains are all worth it when I see improvement and get closer to my goals.”

Nassiri’s training translates into more than just better performance in the ring, it has become inspiration for others to set goals in their own lives.

“She is hardworking, dedicated and disciplined,” said Foran. “She leads from the front and has a fast paced and aggressive leadership style. She provides her Marines with a good example and I think a lot of that stems from her MMA training.”

Nassiri’s lifestyle is anything but normal. Fighting is not just recreation for her, it’s become a second profession and part of her identity. Whether she is in the ring or out, Nassiri finds new ways to challenge herself and inspire others.

Read more: http://www.dvidshub.net/news/119783/female-marine-enters-pro-mma-with-20-sec-knockout#.Uu_Pzpp3vIU#ixzz2sHSsn3m6

Hawaii ( Marine Corps Base - charlie company 1st Battalion )

Marine Corps Base Hawaii COMCAM

Photo by Lance Cpl. Aaron Patterson

 

U.S. Marine Corps Pfc. Daniel Stillwell (right), a machine gunner assigned to 1st platoon, charlie company, 1st Battalion, 3D Marines, fires down range with the M240 Bravo machinegun during a live fire exercise at Range 1, aboard Camp Pohakuloa, Hawaii, Jan. 27th, 2014. The Marines with 1st platoon, charlie company, attend Range 1 to improve squad maneuverability and critical thinking skills while facing simulated heavy enemy fire in support of operation Lava Viper. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Aaron S. Patterson/Released)