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07 Apr 2011 17:09

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World: Brazilian school shooting: A heartbreaking atrocity

  • 12 children killed in the worst school shooting in Brazil’s history source
  • » Hard to find the words: Authorities say that a former student, 23-year-old Wellington Menezes de Oliveira, reportedly committed the heinous atrocity. According to a janitor, Dorival Porto Rafael: “He came into the class saying he was going to give a talk. He went to an eighth-grade class, on the [ground floor], and without saying anything took out a pistol from his bag and started firing. The police arrived and he tried to go up to the next floor, but when he saw he was surrounded he shot himself in the head.” An unspecified number of children were also severely wounded. This is horrible; we’ll keep them in our thoughts.

24 Apr 2010 15:54

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U.S., World: Obama on Armenian massacre: “Atrocities,” not “genocide”

  • On this solemn day of remembrance, we pause to recall that 95 years ago one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century began. In that dark moment of history, 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire.
  • President Barack Obama • In a statement regarding the 95th anniversary of the 1915 slayings of many Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey). There’s a lot of controversy around this because Armenians want this labeled as a genocide, but Turkey has pushed very hard against calling it that. It’s a huge diplomatic spat. Obama got around the issue by calling the deaths “atrocities.” It’s surprising how much language can affect the perception of an entire group of people. source