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People

400 'Cannabis clubs' register in France


The connexion
Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:00 UTC
THE first of an estimated 400 "cannabis social clubs" in France have formally registered their existence.

Fifteen clubs have lodged declarations at their local préfecture, registering as a not-for-profit association.

The clubs bring together growers and consumers of cannabis, who share their produce but do not sell it. They are considered illegal in France, but legally recognised in neighbouring Spain and Belgium.

A notice advising of the formal creation of the French Federation of Cannabis Social Clubs appeared in the Journal Officiel earlier this week.

Local branches have been declared in the Loire-Atlantique, Vendée, Creuse, Charente-Maritime, Indre-et-Loire and Haute-Vienne.
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Smoking

France: Bid to ban parents smoking in car


The connexion
Thu, 28 Mar 2013 00:00 UTC
Cigarette
© Unknown
A LAW has been proposed that would ban parents from smoking in their cars when children are present.

Anti-smoking groups are keen to see the issue of passive smoking in cars debated in parliament, after successfully lobbying for a smoking ban in enclosed public places in 2006.

Socialist senator Yannick Vaugrenard is leading the initiative and has asked the health minister in the National Assembly to take up the cause.

A recent study in the scientific publication Tobacco Control Journal found smoking in vehicles exposed passengers to toxin levels three times higher than the safe threshold set by the World Health Organisation.
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Handcuffs

Man charged with attempting to sell 42,000 pounds of stolen muenster cheese at New Jersey rest stop

Alexa Valiente
ABC News
Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:53 UTC
Image
© New Jersey State Police
Veniamin Balika, 34, of Plainfield, Illinois, was accused of stealing 42,000 pounds of Muenster cheese from a Wisconsin cheese company. He was arrested at a Bergen County rest area on the New Jersey Turnpike on Monday, the result of a joint investigation with the Saddle Brook New Jersey Police Department and the New Jersey State Police.

"He was charged with receiving stolen property and fencing," New Jersey State Police Sergeant Adam Grossman told ABCNews.com. Balika allegedly attempted to sell the load of 1,135 cases of cheese at the rest area.

Kevin Everhart, 50, owner of Pasture Pride Cheese in Wisconsin, where the cheese was from, said he did not realize the cheese had been stolen. "He came in with the proper paperwork," Everhart told ABCNews.com. "He came in as if he was picking up a shipment."
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Bizarro Earth

Florida Sheriff's office distributes flyers with phone sex line number to victims of sexual assault

Shaun Chaiyabhat
clickorlando.com
Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:47 UTC
Image
© Shutterstock
Deputies in Lake County say a phone number written on a pamphlet given to domestic violence and sexual assault victims actually went to a sex hotline instead.

The victims' rights pamphlet handed out by deputies offers an 800 number that connects callers to a recorded message that says, "Welcome to America's hottest talk line. Ladies, to talk to interesting and exciting guys free, press 1 now. Guys, hot ladies are waiting to talk to you."

"We're giving out wrong information and I sure don't want my victims calling a sex line," said Kelly Smallridge, the Executive Director for the Haven, a victim's advocacy group whose number was supposed to appear on the fliers.
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Bizarro Earth

Man accused of trying to kill coworker he was stalking by spiking her heels with acid

Yoko Wakatsuki and Jethro Mullen
CNN
Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:43 UTC
Image
© Shutterstock
It's a case that could make you think twice before leaving your footwear unattended.

Japanese police say they have arrested a man over allegations he tried to kill a female colleague by putting hydrofluoric acid, a highly corrosive chemical, in her shoes.

The alleged attack, which police say took place in December, caused gangrene to develop in the toes of the woman's left foot.

To deal with the problem, doctors had to remove the tips of five of her toes, said Teyuaki Harano, deputy chief of police in Gotemba, the city less than 100 kilometers southwest of Tokyo where the suspect, Tatsujiro Fukazawa, was arrested Thursday.
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Bulb

Three lost girls use light-up shoes and cell phone to signal rescue helicopter

Alexa Valiente
ABC News
Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:20 UTC
Image
Three little girls got lost in the Florida woods Monday night, and their quick thinking helped law enforcement find them.

Two sisters, Grace Shaffer, 6, and Aubrey Shaffer, 9, and their 13-year-old neighbor wandered into a densely wooded area about two miles from their homes in Lakeland, Fla., early Monday evening hoping to see horses.

"They have boundaries set in the front yard," Missi Shaffer, Grace and Aubrey's mother, told ABCNews.com. "They usually stay within those boundaries. We've never had a problem with them wandering off."

The three girls had passed through a barbed-wire fence into a prohibited area on the way to a nearby horse trail.

"As night began to fall, they got disoriented," Donna Wood, Polk County Sheriff's Office public information officer, told ABCNews.com. "They were pretty far into the area and got lost."
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Health

Family in home while Georgia toddler mauled to death by seven dogs in yard

Russ Bynam
Associated Press
Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:47 UTC
Image
© ABCNEWS.com
A toddler who slipped outside through a doggie door was mauled to death by her family's seven dogs in the backyard while the attack went unnoticed by the child's mother and other relatives inside their home, a southeast Georgia sheriff said Thursday.

Bryan County Sheriff Clyde Smith said the child's grandmother told investigators she was lying in bed when she heard the pit bulls and pit bull mixes barking, and she looked outside her window to see them dragging the girl. Smith said she began yelling, "They're killing Monica!"

It was too late. Monica Renee Laminack, who would have turned 2 on June 1, was dead by the time an ambulance arrived Wednesday evening. Animal control officers used drugs to euthanize the dogs at the home on a rural road in tiny Ellabell, about 30 miles west of Savannah. Deputies found the girl's shoes, diaper and shredded clothing scattered across the fenced-in yard, Smith said.

"They had dragged the child all over the yard. ... They tore her clothes all up," Smith said.
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Health

Tulsa dentist may have exposed 7,000 patients to HIV, hepatitis

Shannon Muchmore
Tulsa World
Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:38 UTC
Image
© ABC/KOCO,Oklahoma Board of DentistryDr. Wayne Harrington, an oral surgeon with a practice in Tulsa, Okla., is being investigated by the state dental board, the state bureau of narcotics and the federal Drug Enforcement Agency because one of his patients recently tested positive for hepatitis C and HIV without known risk factors other than receiving dental treatment.
Thousands of patients of a Tulsa dentist may have been exposed to HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C, health officials said Thursday.

Dr. Scott Harrington, an oral surgeon who has been practicing in Tulsa for more than 30 years, voluntarily stopped practicing March 20 after two site visits found multiple violations, including assistants being allowed to unlawfully perform IV sedation, which only a licensed dentist may perform. Allowing this is a felony.

The Tulsa Health Department is setting up free testing clinics for the 7,000 patients who may have been exposed since 2007, when the earliest patient information was available.

Patients before 2007 are advised to call a hotline that will be answered from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The number is 918-595-4500.

The free testing will begin Saturday morning at the North Regional Health and Wellness Center, 5635 N. Martin Luther King Blvd., and continue next week.

Exposure to these diseases through an outpatient dental clinic is rare, and the public should not panic, State Epidemiologist Kristy Bradley said.

"I want to stress that this is not an outbreak," she said.
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People

Human traffickers target aboriginal girls, women

Stephanie Wesley
Native News Network
Thu, 28 Mar 2013 21:56 UTC
diane redsky
© Stephanie WesleyDiane Redsky, Shoal Lake First Nation, says the majority of
human trafficking involves Canadian women, including Aboriginal
women and girls as young as 10.
Thunder Bay, Ontario - The reality of the sex trade in Canada, which involves for the most part victimized young girls hidden in underground sex trade and human trafficking networks, was a topic of discussion during two separate events held in Thunder Bay this March.

Bridget Perrier, co-founder of the anti-prostitution group Sex Trade 101, and Diane Redsky, a project director with the Canadian Women's Foundation, were part of the two dialogues.

On March 6, Perrier sat on a panel that was put on by the Gender Issues Centre at Lakehead University. Perrier told the audience of 40 or so people that she entered the sex trade as a child and exited as woman.
"I still sleep with the lights on,"
Perrier said, who has been out of the world of prostitution for 10 years.

"I still suffer from the effects of the trauma, of prostitution."

On March 6, Perrier sat on a panel that was put on by the Gender Issues Centre at Lakehead University. Perrier told the audience of 40 or so people that she entered the sex trade as a child and exited as woman.
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Bizarro Earth

A tweet about a 'dongle' leads to two firings, death threats

Joanna Stern
ABC News
Sat, 23 Mar 2013 13:19 UTC
Image
© @adriarichards/TwitterA software developer was fired after tweeting a photo of a man she said was using sexual innuendo during a conference.
Offensive jokes whispered at a tech conference last Sunday night have now spread much further than anyone would have ever thought.

While at the PyCon technology conference last weekend, Adria Richards, a software developer and self-described technology evangelist, overheard two men behind her making a series of offensive and sexual jokes about "dongles" and "forks."

"They started talking about 'big' ad dongles. I could feel my face getting flustered," Richards wrote on her blog titled "But You're a Girl." "I was telling myself if they made one more sexual joke, I'd say something. Then it happened ... the trigger."

Richards didn't turn around in her seat and talk to the two men. But she did speak up on the Internet. She snapped a photo of the two men and tweeted it: "Not cool. Jokes about 'forking' repo's in a sexual way and 'big' dongles. Right behind me #pycon pic.twitter.com/Hv1bkeOsYP."

Richards then tweeted at the PyCon account, and as a result, the two men were removed from the conference.

That was just the start of the impact of those tweets. Later in the week, one of the men, whose name has not been revealed, was fired from his job at Playhaven, a mobile gaming company.
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