Society's ChildS


Handcuffs

US: Unable to Pay Child Support, Poor Parents Land Behind Bars

Judges can jail alleged defaulters - who are not covered by the presumption of innocence - without a trial



It may not be a crime to be poor, but it can land you behind bars if you also are behind on your child-support payments.

Thousands of so-called "deadbeat" parents are jailed each year in the U.S. after failing to pay court-ordered child support - the vast majority of them for withholding or hiding money out of spite or a feeling that they've been unfairly gouged by the courts.

But in what might seem like an un-American plot twist from a Charles Dickens' novel, advocates for the poor say, some parents are wrongly being locked away without any regard for their ability to pay - sometimes without the benefit of legal representation.

Mr. Potato

Insane Psychologists: Are You Shy? Then You Have a Mental Disorder

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© Worldwide Magazine
The mad claim that 165million Europeans suffer from 'mental illness' confirms that normal emotional states are now seen as diseases.

'Mental health disorders are Europe's largest healthcare challenge in the twenty-first century', announced Hans-Ulrich Wittchen this week.


A professor of psychology and psychotherapy at the University of Dresden, Wittchen wasn't saying anything we haven't heard before. The World Health Organisation has also gleefully predicted that by 2020, 'depression will be the second leading contributor to the burden of disease'. Still, the magnitude of Wittchen's Europe-wide diagnosis is more than a little shocking: 38 per cent of Europeans, he said, are suffering from a mental disorder. That's about 165million people.

Wittchen arrived at these shocking results, published in Neuropsychopharmacology, after a three-year-long review of data from previous studies involving over 500million people in 30 European countries. Therein he discovered that nearly 40 per cent of those 500million were suffering from one of nearly a hundred mental or neurological problems, the most common of which were anxiety disorders, insomnia, depression, alcohol and drug dependence, and dementia.

Gear

US: Unruly Passengers Create Tense Moments Aboard AA Flight From LAX To JFK

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American Airlines Jet
3 Travelers Lock Themselves In Lavatory; Fighter Jets Shadow Plane To NYC

It's just not a day to be messing around.

That's what three passengers on board an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to John F. Kennedy Airport found out on Sunday afternoon.

Sources told CBS News, the three passengers on Flight 34 were disruptive, moving in and out of lavatories, even at one point locking themselves inside. Considering the heightened state of security and general uneasiness air travelers are feeling due to the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on New York City and Washington D.C., security officials are leaving nothing to chance.

The unruly passengers eventually returned to their seats. They were later questioned by federal authorities and cleared, 1010 WINS' Sonia Rincon reported. At least one federal air marshal was on board and at no point was the cockpit in danger.

There was "no nexus to terrorism," FBI spokesman J. Peter Donald said.

Gear

US: 3 Detained in Detroit After Airline Flight

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© Detroit News/Elizabeth ConleySecurity checks out a Frontier Airlines plane on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011 at Detroit's Metropolitan Airport.
Police detained three passengers at Detroit's Metropolitan Airport on Sunday after the crew of the Frontier Airlines flight from Denver reported suspicious activity on board and NORAD sent two F-16 jets to shadow the flight until it landed safely, the airline and federal officials said.

Frontier Flight 623, with 116 passengers on board, landed without incident in Detroit at 3:30 p.m. EDT after the crew reported that two people were spending "an extraordinarily long time" in a bathroom, Frontier spokesman Peter Kowalchuck said.

The Airbus 318 taxied to a pad away from the terminal and police took three passengers into custody, Kowalchuck said. The three escorted off the plane in handcuffs included two men and a woman, passenger Ilona Hajdar, of Charlotte, Mich., told The Associated Press.

She said she realized there was a problem when the plane's bridge didn't extend at the gate. The plane then rolled to a remote spot on the airfield. After about a half hour, police SWAT boarded.

Vader

Texas, US: Mom Says Prickly School Cop Killed Her Son

school bus
© Courthouse News Service
San Antonio - A 14-year-old boy got into a fight at a school bus stop and the school district's police officer responded by shooting him to death, the boy's mother says. She says the cop had been reprimanded 16 times in the previous 4 years, suspended without pay 5 times, and "recommended for termination for insubordination," but the school kept him on the force "without remedial training."

Denys Lopez Moreno sued the Northside Independent School District, of San Antonio, the district's Chief of Police John Page and the alleged shooter, Daniel Alvarado, in Federal Court.

Lopez says her son, Derek, got into a fight with another boy at a school bus stop and punched the other boy once, in November 2010.

"Defendant, Alvarado, having responded to a call regarding a bus with a flat tire, witnessed Derek strike the other boy. He ordered Derek to 'freeze.' Derek hesitated and then ran from defendant Alvarado," according to the complaint.

Smoking

If You Don't Buy Me Toys, I'll Start Smoking Again: Threat to Mother from Four-Year-Old Boy Who First Started Lighting Up Aged TWO

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© ABC/Splash NewsAldi Rizal who gained infamy as a two year old smoker is now a chubby 4-year-old living in Sumatra, Indonesia
An Indonesian child who gained worldwide infamy for smoking aged just two years old has quit. But has told his mother he will smoke again unless she buys him toys.

Ardi Rizal was found by a US news show and became famous when a shocking video of him puffing on a cigarette went viral.

The show found that Rizal wasn't an isolated case in the country however when they discovered another smoker aged just two called Chairul, who lives in a fishing village in Eastern Java.

He was shown lighting up a cigarette straight after waking up from a nap, with help from his granddad.

Evil Rays

US: Woman Bites Flesh from Man's Face in 'Vampire' Attack

A St. Petersburg man who had dozed off in his motorized wheelchair woke up to find himself being attacked by a woman, according to police.


Morton Ellis, 69, said he fell asleep after parking his wheelchair on the porch of a vacant Hooters to escape the rain.

He said the woman, 22-year-old Josephine Rebecca Smith, told him she was a vampire as she bit off chunks of his face and part of his lip.

Heart - Black

UK: Man Jailed for Dead Girl Facebook 'Trolling' Insults

Natasha MacBryde
Natasha MacBryde threw herself under a train after being bullied
A Berkshire man has been jailed for posting abusive messages online about a schoolgirl after she committed suicide.

Sean Duffy, 25, of Reading, was handed an 18-week sentence for posts on social networking sites about Worcestershire teenager Natasha MacBryde.

He previously pleaded guilty at Reading Magistrates' Court to sending indecent or offensive communications.

Police said Duffy also posted abuse about dead teenagers in Northumberland, Gloucestershire and Staffordshire.

Duffy, of Grovelands Road, admitted two offences of "trolling" a term used to describe the trend of anonymously seeking to provoke outrage by posting insults and abuse online.

Evil Rays

'Wi-fi Refugees' Shelter in West Virginia, US Mountains

Dozens of Americans who claim to have been made ill by wi-fi
© BBCDozens of Americans who claim to have been made ill by wi-fi and mobile phones have flocked to the town of Green Bank, West Virginia
There are five billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide and advances in wireless technology make it increasingly difficult to escape the influence of mobile devices. But while most Americans seem to embrace continuous connectivity, some believe it's making them physically ill.

Diane Schou is unable to hold back the tears as she describes how she once lived in a shielded cage to protect her from the electromagnetic radiation caused by waves from wireless communication.

"It's a horrible thing to have to be a prisoner," she says. "You become a technological leper because you can't be around people.

"It's not that you would be contagious to them - it's what they're carrying that is harmful to you."

Ms Schou is one of an estimated 5% of Americans who believe they suffer from Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS), which they say is caused by exposure to electromagnetic fields typically created by mobile phones, wi-fi and other electronic equipment.

Cult

Pope Accused of Crimes Against Humanity

pope benedict
© Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesPope Benedict XVI
The Pope and top Vatican cardinals have been accused of possible crimes against humanity for sheltering guilty Catholic priests, in formal complaints to the International Criminal Court.

The Centre for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based non-profit legal group, requested an ICC inquiry on behalf of the Survivors Network, arguing that the global church has maintained a "long-standing and pervasive system of sexual violence" despite promises to swiftly oust predators.

The Vatican said it had no immediate comment on the complaint.

The complaint names Pope Benedict XVI, partly in his former role as leader of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which in 2001 explicitly gained responsibility for overseeing abuse cases; Cardinal William Levada, who now leads that office; Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state under Pope John Paul II; and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who now holds that post.