"On February 11, Mubarak, the head of the corrupt regime in Egypt stepped down ... but the regime itself stayed very much in its place"

"Could Mubarak's impending death be a game changer in the Egyptian revolution?"

Things are not always what they seem ...

The Egyptian revolution lasted for amazing 18 days. The president was forced to step down. The power was restored to the people. The mass crowd cheered and screamed in jubilation. Everybody returned home happy.

Dictatorship was overthrown and democracy has finally won and freedom prevailed... The revolution has come to a happy ending.

A wonderful and thrilling story, but unfortunately far from true or over...

Five months ago the whole world was captured by the incredible scenes of millions of Egyptians pouring into Tahrir square literally seizing and taking control of the square, not by force but through peaceful demonstrations and refusing to leave the place before they have toppled the dictator, Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power for almost 30 long years.

Throughout those 30 years, like in any dictatorship ruled by one party, Egypt has witnessed one of its most corrupt and darkest eras. And as the political corruption was infiltrating all aspects of life the deterioration symptoms began to clearly manifest itself on the socio-economic life in the country.

Mubarak rule ignored everything that related to the human rights and the development of the people in Egypt, his party known as the National Democratic Party - NDP- did not care much for the welfare of the Egyptians, their education or their health care and even neglected the historic and strategic file of the river Nile.

The dismembered body of a missing 8-year-old Hasidic boy was found early today at two locations in Brooklyn -- with police arrested a suspect in the grisly slaying who had the child's severed feet in his freezer, authorities said.

Police made the gruesome discovery after raiding a Kensington home and arresting 35-year-old Levi Aron, who led them to parts of missing boy Leibby Kletzky's body, stuffed in a red suitcase and hidden in a Dumpster outside an auto repair shop about two miles away, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said during a news conference this morning.

While popular TV shows of past generations, such as Happy Days, focused on values including benevolence, self-acceptance and tradition, today's shows emphasize fame as the No. 1 value, according to a new study.

Researchers reviewed the values of characters in popular television shows for 9- to 11-year-olds, from 1967 to 2007, with two shows per decade evaluated. (For example, the researchers evaluated The Andy Griffith Show and The Lucy Show in 1967, Laverne & Shirley and Happy Days in 1977, and American Idol and Hannah Montana in 2007.)

The shows were evaluated for 16 values, including community feeling (being part of a group), spiritualism, tradition and popularity. Although community feeling was the No. 1 value in 1967, 1977 and 1997, by 2007, it had fallen to No. 11. In 2007, the top five values were fame, achievement, popularity, image and financial success.

"The rise of fame in preteen television may be one influence in the documented rise of narcissism in our culture," study researcher Patricia M. Greenfield, a psychology professor at UCLA, said in a statement. "Popular television shows are part of the environment that causes the increased narcissism, but they also reflect the culture."

The confirmed death toll in a Russian riverboat accident reached 100 Wednesday after divers recovered more bodies from the sunken vessel, an Emergency Situations Ministry official said.

Twenty-nine of the 208 people who were aboard the ageing, overcrowded boat when it sank in the Volga River Sunday were still unaccounted for and feared dead.

Officials say 79 people survived Russia's worst river accident since 1983.

The Bulgaria, a 79-metre river cruiser built in 1955, listed onto its right side during a thunderstorm and sank in minutes in a broad stretch of the Volga in the Tatarstan region, trapping many passengers inside, survivors said.

Jumped into Hudson Tuesday morning

A former Orange County banker leaped off the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge Tuesday morning, killing himself as bridge workers watched helplessly.

State police identified the man as William Myers, 65, of Middletown. Myers had been the CEO of two banks, one of which he founded during a career that had turned rocky in recent years.

State police Senior Investigator George Mohl said a passing motorist saw Myers park a 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt in a westbound lane, walk to the edge of the bridge and jump over the side. A Bridge Authority employee notified state police at 9:45 a.m.

Camden now has another crime-fighting tool at its disposal, with 51 new cameras keeping an eye on trouble.

It's called the "eye in the sky" program.

Before the summer is out, there will be a total of 81 cameras, helping police respond more quickly- and helping to solve crimes.

And extra help is desperately needed in Camden, since the city laid off 160 officers in January.

The city has hired back 75 so far.

But with fewer officers than last year, Camden is seeing more crime the first half of this year:

The night before Damon's steaks opened for business in late may, burglars broke in and stole about $3,000 worth of food and equipment. So naturally, the owner called 911.

The European Commission is promising tighter rules on 'legal highs' despite surveys indicating that most people think such action should be based on medical evidence.

Synthetic drugs - the most infamous was labelled meow-meow by the tabloids - mimic the effects of illegal substances like ecstasy and speed. Sold online or through "head shops" as bath salts or plant food they can be entirely synthetic versions of existing drugs or plant-based products, often cathinone, extracted from khat.

The EC said it found 41 new substances available, compared to 24 last year: so the ban is working well. Since 2005 Brussels has recorded 115 substances. In 2009, 24 were logged and in 2008 another 13.

The Commission currently runs an early-warning system for new substances. It said this was working well but was in danger of being overrun by the number of new products hitting the market.

Eurocrats will consider changes to criminal law, new types of monitoring and aligning drug control with food and drink safety measures. It will report back with options to consider in the autumn.

A man has been arrested and jailed after authorities say he pelted a flight attendant with peanuts and pretzels on a Southwest Airlines plane from Los Angeles to Utah.

Pogos Paul Sefilian, of Sandy, Utah, faces a federal charge of interference with a flight crew.

Authorities say Sefilian was on a flight Monday evening when he attempted to smoke an electronic cigarette. A complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court says a flight attendant repeatedly told him it was against airline policy and to put away the device.

Authorities say Sefilian became enraged and threw peanuts and pretzels at the flight attendant.

He remained held. His attorney declined to comment.

Source: The Associated Press

San Jose budget cuts aren't hurting all businesses, and in fact, one group in particular seems to be cashing in on the city's economic woes: prostitutes.

Prostitution has made a rapid comeback to San Jose street corners in the past few weeks, according to NBC Bay Area sources.

After police budgets were slashed July 1, San Jose PD's Vice Unit was disbanded, said San Jose Police Department spokesman Jose Garcia. This meant that part of their job responsibility - cracking down on prostitution and brothels - was reassigned to the police department's Covert Response Unit.

The CRU was originally responsible for narcotics busts in the area and despite the newly added responsibilities, the unit's size increased by one officer. It now totals 14. Sources say the result has been an increase in illegal prostitution.

"We're fairly confident that they will be able to address those issues, however, it may not be as fast as we traditionally were able to do that," said Garcia.

Should cats be treated like dogs, when it comes to licensing and immunization requirements?

The San Diego city auditor's office recommends doing just that -- for the sake of health, safety and "cost recovery" for taxpayers.

According to formulas used by the Humane Society of the United States, there are an estimated 373,000 cats in San Diego.

If just 5 percent had been registered at $25 a head, the auditor's office says the city could have saved $536,000 over the past three fiscal years.

Cat owners say the idea defies logic and accounting principles.