Society's ChildS


Pistol

Smith & Wesson gun sales hit an all-time high in year after mass shootings

At six-month anniversary of Newtown shooting, guns manufacturer reports its sales are up 43% over last year
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© Shawn Thew/EPANancy Pelosi meets with family members of Newtown victims as they visit Capitol Hill on Friday, the six-month anniversary of the shooting.

Gun sales at Smith & Wesson have hit an all-time high during a year marked by some of the most horrific acts of gun violence in US history.

The arms manufacturer reported this week that sales for the year ending 30 April had hit a record $588m, a 43% year-on-year rise.

Smith & Wesson said fourth-quarter sales were up 38% year-on-year to $179m. It told investors it expects its first-quarter financial results to top market expectations and is planning to buy back $100m of its shares.

US gun sales are hard to track, but one of the most reliable figures comes from the number of requests for background checks, an FBI-required precursor to obtaining a gun licence.

Nine of the 10 days with the most daily requests for background checks ever recorded occurred after December's massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school. The week after set a new record for background checks. CBS Connecticut reported that permit applications in Newtown itself more than doubled in the three months following the killings.

Retailers also reported a spike in gun sales after James Holmes shot dead 12 people and injured 58 at a screening of the Dark Knight Rises in a Colorado cinema in July. Sales soared again after Barack Obama's re-election in November as buyers feared a clampdown on sales, especially on assault weapons.

Eye 1

Barbaric parents who water-boarded their four children and tortured them with whips and iron bars are jailed for ten years in Belgium

Sebastien Hardenne and Isabelle Simon kept their children in a locked room

Three girls and a boy were 'fed' excrement-smeared food through a hole

Father urinated in the children's mouths and beat them with an iron bar

Two girls locked in suitcase smeared with dog excrement and swung around

Hardenne and Simon jailed for ten years for 'inflicting inhuman treatment'


A barbaric couple who 'water-boarded' their four children during a decade of captivity and extreme abuse have been jailed for ten years in Belgium.

Parents Sebastien Hardenne and Isabelle Simon kept their three girls and a boy in a locked room at night and 'fed' them excrement-smeared food through a hole in the wall.

The father urinated in the children's mouths, beat them with an iron bar and whips and tortured them with an electric fly swatter.

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Barbaric: A couple who 'water-boarded' their four children during ten years of captivity and extreme abuse have been jailed for ten years in Belgium. The children are now being looked after in Namur, pictured
Two girls were also locked in a suitcase smeared with dog excrement and swung around a room.

Sadistic Hardenne also performed 'water-boarding' torture similar to that allegedly used at America's Guantanamo Bay prison, the court in Marche-en-Famenne was told.

Social services in the town of Biron were alerted by the children's school in 2003 that they were dirty and undernourished, but they were only taken into care once in a decade for two months before being returned to their parents.

The parents were finally arrested earlier this year after an anonymous tip-off to the authorities.

Blackbox

More exploding houses? Westminster, Colorado house explosion linked to natural gas

Monique Gallegos was inside her Westminster home Thursday when a nearby explosion staggered her. Windows blew out, a ceiling fan was dislodged, crashing into the dining room, and a framed photo or art piece flew off the wall and smashed Gallegos in the back.

"I thought a plane had crashed, or it was a bomb, a terrorist," Gallegos recalled as she waited Thursday afternoon to get the OK to return to her home in the 9200 block of Ingalls Street.
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© Andy Cross, The Denver PostA natural gas explosion in Westminster destroyed four houses June 13, 2013.
Gallegos quickly got her mother, Arleen Gallegos, 70, out of the house, and along with other neighbors, they watched, stunned, as debris, materials from homes - pieces of rooftop shingles, splintered siding, insulation - continued to land in the street.11:35 a.m. a home on the 9300 block of Ingalls Street exploded, reduced to a pile of rubble and making the cul-de-sac it occupied look like part of a war zone. A second home also sustained heavy damage and several surrounding homes, like Gallegos', were damaged, as well.

Westminster firefighter Courtney VanMarter was among the first on the scene. She encountered a house that had been leveled, with lots of debris and blown out windows. She described the scene as reminiscent of a tornado.

"Truly there is not a whole let left in this house," VanMarter said. "It's quite shocking."

Additional Images

Piggy Bank

Wage cuts for UK workers leading to destitution, hardship and hunger on a large scale

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© AFP Striking public sector workers march in protest through central London
The UK has been going through its deepest recession since World War II, a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies claims. Workers experienced unprecedented pay cuts of 6 per cent over the last five years since the Global Financial Crisis began in 2008.

Between 2010 and 2011, 70 per cent of employees who stayed in the same job fronted real wage cuts, while a third of those workers faced nominal wage freezes or cuts (12 per cent experienced freezes and 21 per cent experienced cuts).

The last time that such a high proportion of workers faced real wage cuts was between 1976 and 1977, when inflation exceeded 15 per cent. The proportions of nominal wage freezes and cuts are said to be the highest since the series of wage cuts began in the mid-1970s, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies latest report.

The period since the recession began in 2008 has seen the longest and deepest loss of output in a century. Real wages have fallen by more than in any comparable five-year period; productivity levels have dropped to an unprecedented degree, the British think tank revealed.

Attention

Another passenger train collision in Buenos Aires on same line that experienced one of the worst rail accidents last February

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© Photo: @infos140
The crash happened near the Castelar stop when a passenger train rammed another train
Reports suggested at least three people were killed and more than 70 were wounded in the crash.

Lucas Ghi, mayor of the nearby town of Moron, said he was still awaiting details on the number of fatalities and that between 50 and 60 people were hurt in the accident about 19 miles west of the Argentina capital.

The crash happened near the Castelar stop when a passenger train rammed another train that was empty and stationary, according to the reports.

Rescue workers and volunteers were at the scene to help the wounded trapped by the collision, which television reports said happened at around 7.30am local time. Dozens of ambulances were also at the crash site.

Hospitals in the area were on alert to deal with casualties.

Comment: 49 Killed, Hundreds Hurt as Argentine Train Crashes into Station


Sheriff

How to get arrested in Arizona for 'Driving Under Influence' with a breath alcohol content of ZERO: Be Black

Jessie Thornton was driving in Surprise, Arizona, minding his own business as a law-abiding citizen. His lawyer says Jessie made one mistake - the color of his skin.
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© Screengrab ABC 15Since moving to Surprise, Arizona, retired Ohio firefighter Jessie Thornton claims police have stopped him while driving at least 10 times.
Drunk driving is a serious problem in the United States, impacting many thousands of Americans every year, and so is racism. The two issues converged recently during a routine traffic stop of 64-year-old retired firefighter Jessie Thornton by police officers in Surprise, Arizona.

The motorist was handcuffed and taken into custody. Thornton submitted to a Breathalyzer sobriety test and blew a 0.000 blood alcohol content (BAC).

Despite the seeming exoneration of the test, the suspect was charged with a DUI, an assessment that led Thornton's attorney to quip that the real crime was, "D-W-B. Driving While Black."

Thornton told the local ABC News affiliate that he has been pulled over 10 times and issued four tickets since moving from Ohio to retire in the community of Surprise. This latest stop was the first time he'd been taken to the Surprise lockup.

The arresting officer cited the retiree's red eyes as grounds for the arrest. Thornton credits chemicals in the neighborhood L.A. Fitness's lap pool for the redness, a theory in line with Surprise law enforcement's resident DRE - drug recognition expert.

Sheriff

Off-duty Alabama cops collect DNA samples at sobriety checkpoint roadblocks

sobriety checkpoint
© Unknown
Off-duty cops in two counties in Alabama spent the weekend collecting saliva and blood samples from drivers at roadblocks.

According to Lt. Freddie Turrentine with the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department, drivers were asked to voluntarily offer samples of their saliva and blood for a study being conducted by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation.

The drivers were compensated for their samples.

"They've got big signs up that says 'paid volunteer survey' and if they want to participate they pull over there and they ask them questions and if they are willing to give them a mouth swab they give them $10 and if they are willing to give them a blood sample they give them $50. And if they don't do anything they drive off," Turrentine explained to The Daily Caller.


Comment: And if they don't do anything and drive off you can bet their license number is duly noted. Failure to submit to authority is highly suspicious behavior after all.


Eye 2

Brazil to use drones above stadiums at Confederations Cup, paving the way for their use at the 2014 World Cup

Unmanned aircraft are among a raft of new security measures being brought in

These include stadium fly-overs by Air Force jets and helicopters kitted out with surveillance equipment

Confederations Cup is being seen as a 'dry run' for next year's World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympics


Brazilian police are to use surveillance drones to monitor crowds at the Confederations Cup football tournament, paving the way for their use at next year's World Cup.

The unmanned aircraft are among a raft of security measures being brought in including thermal cameras, stadium fly-overs by Air Force fighter jets and helicopters kitted out with surveillance equipment including high-resolution, night-vision and thermal cameras.

The Confederations Cup football tournament gets underway this weekend, with thousands of fans from across the world expected to attend.

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Eye in the sky: Brazilian police are to use surveillance drones at the Confederation Cup football tournament ahead of next year's World Cup

Hardhat

Inspector who surveyed Philly building before collapse commits suicide


An inspector who surveyed a Philadelphia building before it collapsed last week, killing six people, has committed suicide, a city official confirmed.

Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison said 52-year-old inspector Ronald Wagenhoffer was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a pickup truck Wednesday night. Wagenhoffer as a 16-year veteran of the Department of Licenses and Inspections and had inspected the building May 14. CBS station KYW reports that was the last inspection before the fatal accident.

Blackbox

Fire started by an explosion causes multiple injuries at Louisiana chemical plant

Multiple injuries have been reported after an explosion at a Louisiana chemical plant. Louisiana State Police say there was an explosion at a plant in the town of Geismar and footage showed thick, black smoke pouring from a huge fire at the facility. The fire broke out Thursday morning around 8:30am at The Williams Companies Inc. plant about 20 miles from Louisiana capital Baton Rouge.
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Explosion: A fire started by an explosion broke out at a Louisiana chemical plant Thursday. The plant's website says it produces 1.3 billion pounds of ethylene and 90 million pounds of propylene a year
A neighboring plant told WAFB that Williams Olefin has a hydrocarbon fire that continues to rage uncontrolled. One area hospital, Our Lady of the Lake, reportedly took on five victims of the explosion. Other hospitals took on the injured, but have not reported any numbers. No deaths have been reported.

The Williams Company announced around 11:30am that emergency shutdown valves have been closed and the fire has been 'greatly diminished.'

They said the safety of their employees and that of the rescue workers was their greatest concern. The company's website says the plant puts out about 1.3 billion pounds of ethylene and 90 million pounds of polymer grade propylene a year. The plant makes highly flammable gases that are basic building blocks in the petrochemical industry.