Society's ChildS


Card - VISA

California man faces 13 years in jail for scribbling anti-bank messages in chalk

Bank of America
© AFP Photo / Mark Ralston
Jeff Olson, the 40-year-old man who is being prosecuted for scrawling anti-megabank messages on sidewalks in water-soluble chalk last year now faces a 13-year jail sentence. A judge has barred his attorney from mentioning freedom of speech during trial.

According to the San Diego Reader, which reported on Tuesday that a judge had opted to prevent Olson's attorney from "mentioning the First Amendment, free speech, free expression, public forum, expressive conduct, or political speech during the trial," Olson must now stand trial for on 13 counts of vandalism.

In addition to possibly spending years in jail, Olson will also be held liable for fines of up to $13,000 over the anti-big-bank slogans that were left using washable children's chalk on a sidewalk outside of three San Diego, California branches of Bank of America, the massive conglomerate that received $45 billion in interest-free loans from the US government in 2008-2009 in a bid to keep it solvent after bad bets went south.

Newspaper

President al-Assad gives interview to the German newspaper

Assad
© Unknown
President Bashar al-Assad gave the following interview to the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper:

Interviewer: Mr President, how do you view the situation in your country? The Syrian Army has lost control over large parts of Syria, in other words those areas are outside the control of central government. What's your take on the situation?

President Assad: Your question requires us to put things into their proper context: this is not a conventional war with two armies fighting to control or liberate particular areas or parts of land. What we are in fact dealing with is a form of guerrilla warfare.

As for the Syrian Army, there has not been any instance where our Armed Forces have planned to enter a particular location and have not succeeded. Having said this, the Army is not present - and should not be present - in every corner of Syria. What is more significant than controlling areas of land, is striking terrorists. We are confident that we can successfully fight terrorism in Syria, but the bigger issue is the ensuing damage and its cost. The crisis has already had a heavy toll but our biggest challenges will come once the crisis is over.

Arrow Down

New Jersey hospital deports unconscious Polish stroke victim

Stroke Victim
© Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP
A US hospital deported an unconscious stroke victim after noticing that the patient was an undocumented immigrant from Poland. Polish health officials are furious that the man was "dumped on their doorstep" before the transfer was approved.

"Imagine being carted around like a sack of potatoes," Polish Consul General Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka told New York Daily News, describing the incident in which 69-year old Wladyslaw Haniszewski was unconsciously deported to his homeland.

Haniszewski, who suffers from a blood disease, lived in Perth Amboy, N.J., for 30 years. He recently lost his job, apartment, and health insurance, and was forced to move into a homeless shelter, the Daily News reports.

After the man suffered a dangerous stroke, a friend named Jerzy Jedra took him to the New Jersey hospital for treatment. When officials at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital noticed that the patient had no health insurance and lived in the US without documentation, they sent the comatose man to Poland. US hospitals are legally required to provide emergency care to anyone who needs it, but are allowed to deport stabilized undocumented immigrants.

But in order to deport someone, a US hospital must first get consent from either the patient, a family member, or a court guardian. Officials at the Polish consulate claim that no one was contacted, and that Haniszewski's family was never informed that the man was deported.

Pistol

5-year-old U.S. girl fatally shoots herself

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Police say a 5-year-old girl fatally shot herself when her mother locked her inside their home and went to the store.

The New Orleans Police Department said in a news release the girl was home alone Sunday, somehow found her mother's revolver, and accidentally shot herself in the head.

Bizarro Earth

Woman driver kills her husband AND herself in freak car parking accident as she practiced reversing with six-year-old daughter in car

A six-year-old girl witnessed the horrific moment both her parents were accidentally killed as her mother tried to reverse into a car-parking space.

The 41-year-old mother was being directed by her husband when the tragedy happened, in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China.

According to Qianjiang Evening News, the newly-qualified driver was practicing the manoeuvre in her Lexus RX270 SUV when she accidentally backed up too far, pinning he husband against the wall.

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© WeiboTragedy: The 41-year-old mother was being directed by her husband when the tragedy happened, in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China.

Megaphone

Michael Hastings was not working on Jill Kelley story, wife says

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© Paul Morigi / AFP/Getty Images / May 1, 2012Journalist Michael Hastings in Washington in May. He died last week in a one-car crash in Los Angeles.
Journalist Michael Hastings, who died last week in a fiery single-car crash in Hancock Park, was not working on a story about Florida socialite Jill Kelley, his wife said.

Elise Jordan posted a message on Twitter on Tuesday morning: "To correct the record, since I've seen it erroneously reported a few times: @mmhastings was not working on a story about Jill Kelley."

People 2

Social media sparks riot at Lauderhill Mall

SWAT was also at the mall, located at 1267 NW 40th Avenue.

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The scene at Lauderhill Mall on Tuesday.
Authorities said two people were transported to the hospital with minor injuries after a fight at the Lauderhill Mall Tuesday.

Hundreds of people, mostly teens, swarmed the mall at 1267 NW 40th Ave. and created a chaotic scene, and police from Lauderhill, Plantation and Sunrise as well as the Broward Sheriff's Office responded to break up the crowd.

Lauderhill Police Lt. Mike Butkus said the incident was the result of a social media message.

"What that message was, we don't know. Essentially that's what was used and we believe it was to fight somewhere in the mall, over what, we do not know," Butkus said.

The power and reach of social media was evident as police estimate 200-300 kids showed up. Some of them made it inside the mall, where police quickly broke up fights.

One of the two people hurt was taken to the hospital for treatment for a punch to the head, according to police.

While police and heavily armed SWAT members helped disperse the crowd, a young man who wanted to be called "D" explained to NBC 6 that he heard it started with two girls fighting. Others showed up to settle a "beef" or argument with other kids.

"Whatever pressure you had against anybody, you had to come out today," D said.

While police made no arrests, they didn't take any chances of amped-up teens sparking a new brawl. Two officers remained on scene to show a presence into the night.

Bad Guys

Himalayan massacre spells end for Pakistan mountaineering

Hospital staff and rescue workers
© Reuters/Mian KhursheedHospital staff and rescue workers move the body of one of the nine foreign tourists killed by unidentified gunmen near the Nanga Parbat peak, from an ambulance to a hospital morgue in Islamabad June 23, 2013.
Islamabad - Pakistan's once thriving mountaineering industry is reeling from the killing by militants of 10 foreign climbers, a massacre likely to drive away all but the hardiest adventurers from some of the world's tallest and most pristine peaks.

A tour company present during the attack said gunmen dressed as police ordered tourists out of tents at the 4,200-meter (13,860-foot) base camp of Nanga Parbat, the country's second highest peak, late on Saturday night, then shot them and a Pakistani guide.

The attack on the last peak over 8,000 meters (26,400 feet) in the western Himalayas has been claimed by both the Pakistani Taliban and a smaller radical Islamist group.

The foreign victims included two citizens from China, one from Lithuania, one from Nepal, two from Slovakia, three Ukrainians, and one person with joint U.S.-Chinese citizenship.

Manzoor Hussain, president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said at least 40 foreigners including citizens from Serbia, Italy, Ireland, Denmark and the United States, among several other nationalities, were evacuated from a higher camp.

A group of Romanians is believed to be scaling the mountain from another side. Some other groups booked for climbs this summer have already cancelled, one company said.

Hussain said the attack was a "fatal blow" for his efforts to attract more climbers to the Hindu Khush, Karakoram and western Himalayan ranges, home to many unexplored summits.

Star of David

Collision course - plan to displace tens of thousands of Bedouin passes first Knesset vote

The implementation of the Prawer Plan for unrecognized villages in the Negev has become a major policy objective for the Netanyahu government.
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© ActivestillsRiot Police face a Bedouin during an evacuation of the unrecognized village Al-Araqib
Following one of the most heated debates the Israeli parliament has seen in recent years, the Knesset approved the Prawer-Begin Plan for the Arrangement of Bedouin-Palestinian Settlement in the Negev yesterday (Monday). Commonly referred to as the Prawer Plan, the new legislation will allow the government to destroy dozens of so-called "unrecognized" villages in the South and remove between 30-40,000 Bedouin from their homes.

According to the plan, those Bedouin citizens who have registered land claims will be offered monetary compensation or land in an area designated for resettlement.

Following demands from the right-wing Jewish Home party, a new article was added to the bill at the last minute, stipulating that the government's compensation offer will expire after a certain period of time; failure to comply with the process will not only result in forced removal to the relocation zones but also a loss of monetary compensation or land, which would have previously been offered.

This is the largest attempted eviction of a native Palestinian population by Israel in decades. At the end of the process, all remaining Bedouin land claims will be erased from the state record.

During the Knesset debate, several Palestinian members of Knesset tore the bill before leaving the room. Due to opposition to the bill from the Right - settler groups object to giving any land rights to the Bedouin - none of the Likud ministers were willing to defend the bill in the name of the government. The offer ended up passing in a very narrow vote, 43-40, thanks to the support of Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid party, which also sent one of its ministers to defend the law.

Bizarro Earth

Crazed man found naked and bloody outside school after ripping off part of his genitals while high on 'magic' mushrooms

A 41-year-old man from Ohio has been found naked and bleeding profusely on the grounds of a Michigan school after police say he ripped off a part of his genitals while high on drugs.

The bizarre incident took place at around 1am Tuesday when Washtenaw County sheriff's deputies responded to a report of a burglary at Ypsilanti Middle School at 105 North Mansfield street.

Officers who arrived on the scene discovered a naked man kneeling outside the school and covered in blood from the waist down, with his penis partially detached, according to Sgt. Geoff Fox.

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Under the influence: A 41-year-old man found naked a bleeding after partially cutting off his genitals told police in Michigan that he got high on hallucinogenic mushrooms
According to police, the 41-year-old was near death when he was discovered outside of school due to extensive blood loss and shock.

An initial toxicology test performed on the man's blood did not turn up evidence that the mushrooms were laced with another substance, AnnArbor.com reported. Police say the 41-year-old does not have a history of mental illness.

According to the officer, the 41-year-old was screaming and making incoherent statements before being taken to a local hospital along with his mangled privates, according to the Detroit Free Press.

'He mutilated his genitals with his bare hands,' Fox said, adding that the suspect had no recollection of what happened.

The man, who has not been named, later told investigators that he ingested some 'magic' hallucinogenic mushrooms earlier in the day while visiting friends in town.

Sgt. Fox said that the suspect later broke a window to get inside the middle school, setting off an alarm, but he did not steal anything. He is now facing a burglary charge.

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First aid: The man was rushed to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Superior Township along with his mutilated privates for treatment
The 41-year-old was initially treated at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Superior Township and was later transferred to University of Michigan Health System, where he is listed in stable condition.

According to police, the 41-year-old was near death when he was discovered outside of school due to extensive blood loss and shock.

An initial toxicology test performed on the man's blood did not turn up evidence that the mushrooms were laced with another substance, AnnArbor.com reported. Police say the 41-year-old does not have a history of mental illness.