Society's ChildS


Radar

Drunk woman says she fired gun because anti-gun control sheriff said it was OK

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© Photo: Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office
An intoxicated woman in Milwaukee says that she fired a weapon during an argument with her niece because she had heard Wisconsin Sheriff David A. Clarke's radio ad saying that citizens should get "in the game" and arm themselves instead of calling 911.

A criminal complaint obtained by the Journal Sentinel indicated that 36-year-old Makisha Cooper had told police that she was following Clarke's advice that "simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option."

Cooper said "that she knows her rights regarding having a firearm because she heard Sheriff Clarke on the radio stating that she could own a gun to protect herself," according to the complaint.

Arrow Down

13 pygmy elephants found dead in Malaysia

Pygmy Elephants
© Marci Paravia | ShutterstockAsian Pygmy Elephant swinging trunk in rain at Lok Kawi Preserve in Malaysian Borneo.
Malaysian authorities have a possible elephant murder mystery on their hands after three more pygmy elephants reportedly were found dead on the island of Borneo Wednesday (Jan. 30).

The grim discovery brings the death toll to 13 this month, and according to the AP, authorities are investigating suspicions that the diminutive elephants were poisoned.

Also called Bornean elephants, these creatures are the most endangered subspecies of Asian elephant. While other male Asian elephants can grow up to 9.8 feet (3 meters tall), male Bornean elephants grow to less than 8.2 feet (2.5 meters) and they have bigger ears and rounder bellies, according to the conservation organization World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Heart - Black

Gang-raped and drowned at the age of FOUR: Latest horrific attack on girl shocks India a month after notorious bus assault

Two men face charges of raping and murdering a four-year-old girl in the town of Mandi Dabwali in Sirsa, India, while under the influence of drugs. The alleged crime is the latest in a series of rape cases that has seen the nation undergo debate, self-scrutiny and mass protests calling for greater punishments for rapists and more measures to increase the safety of women.
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© AFP
Officers say the two men, identified by the aliases 'Chhiller' and 'Vikki', were on intoxicant capsules bought from a chemist at the time of the crime. Dabwali city Station House Officer Ravi Kumar said: 'The statement they (the accused) gave us is very disturbing. 'Pawan, alias Chhiller, and Vikas, alias Vikki, are friends and were the victim's neighbours.

'They consumed some intoxicant capsules from a medical shop on January 26. They watched two minor girls play outside their house on their way back.

Pistol

Breaking: 3 shot, 2 injured at Phoenix office complex

Authorities say three people were shot and two others were injured in a shooting Wednesday morning at a Phoenix office building. ABC15 heard reports of a shooting around 10:45 a.m. at the complex off 16th Street north of Glendale Avenue.Phoenix police Sgt. Tommy Thompson said a suspect went into the office building and shot several people. Thompson said police believe the suspect left the building. Phoenix police spokesman James Holmes told The Associated Press that police believe only one shooter is involved.

ABC15's Christopher Sign talked to a woman at the scene who said she saw two bodies at the mezzanine level of the complex. ABC15 has not yet independently confirmed this information. Multiple police vehicles and fire trucks are parked in front of the office complex.


Chalkboard

Missouri mother forced to sit in class with 4th grade son

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A mother in the Normandy School District says she's being forced to sit in class every day with her 4th grader. And if she doesn't, he will not be allowed to go to school.

Veronica Williams says she went to school with her son for awhile, but can't afford to do so anymore for fear of losing her job.

She says when she stopped going to class her son was kicked out of school and he hasn't been back in over a week.

Veronica Williams says she can't believe an administrator at Barack Obama Elementary said her 10-year-old son cannot return to school unless she or another adult sits in class with him every day.

It's frustrating. It's stressful. It's ridiculous. I done it for two weeks", said Williams.

Health

Bullying drives gay teen to hang himself in schoolyard

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After KATU's coverage of a cluster of seven teen suicides in the town of Battle Ground, the discussion about suicide has branched out to deal with the issue in communities across the area.

In the town of La Grande, Ore. two children in the last three months were intent on ending their own lives. A 16-year-old girl killed herself in October and now there's a 15-year-old boy who is not expected to live after hanging himself.

His family said he was the target of bullying.

Bizarro Earth

U.S. high school allows Muslims time for prayer if they earn good grades

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© AFP Photo / Stan Honda
A high school near Washington DC has taken a rare step of accommodating Muslim prayer during class hours. Parkdale High School now allows a handful of its students to be excused to pray. The decision has made some Christian staffers "unhappy".

Prince George County High School Principal Cheryl J. Logan said the initiative is in response to the "needs of the growing Muslim community," the Washington Post reported. To be able to leave class each day all you need is a parental permission and high grades, Logan said.

Currently, about 10 Muslim students have earned the right to pray, and are reportedly allowed eight minutes each day for a joint prayer on campus. Another high school student is working hard to raise his grades to join the group, all of whom belong to Muslim Students' Association, Logan said.

It is hoped that allowing prayer will motivate Muslim students to improve their overall school performance.

Black Cat

Mexican officials break up alleged U.S.-Mexico border sex-slavery cult

Mexican officials broke up a bizarre cult that allegedly ran a sex-slavery ring among its followers on the U.S. border, Mexican immigration authorities said Tuesday.

The "Defensores de Cristo" or "Defenders of Christ" allegedly recruited women to have sex with a Spanish man who claimed he was the reincarnation of Christ, according to an official of a victims' advocacy group, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

Followers were subjected to forced labor or sexual services, including prostitution, according to the National Immigration Institute that said it filed a complaint more than a year ago about the cult.

Federal police, agents of Mexico's National Immigration Institute and prosecutors raided a house earlier this week near Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas, and found cult members, including children, living in filthy conditions, according to the institute official.

The institute in a statement said 14 foreigners were detained in the raid and have been turned over to prosecutors, pending possible charges.

Display

Little-known database sells millions of Americans' salary information to debt collectors

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© Shutterstock
The credit reporting agency Equifax has created a little-known database that uses employment records, often given freely by human resources departments around the country, to track detailed information on millions of Americans' pay history, in effect leading employers to help debt collectors extract money from their workforce.

An Equifax subsidiary called The Work Number, according to an investigative report at MSNBC, is often used by larger companies to automate employee work information calls, giving the firm access to human resources data.

Eye 2

Man in 'sextortion' case might have coerced 350 women

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© Shutterstock
Federal agents on Tuesday took aim at a new type of scam called "sextortion," arresting a Glendale, Calif., man on charges that he hacked into e-mail and Facebook accounts of young women and then posed as a woman to convince others to send him nude photos of themselves.

Karen "Gary" Kazaryan was named in a 30-count indictment charging him with gaining unauthorized access to e-mail, Facebook, and Skype accounts belonging to more than 100 women from 2009 to 2011.

Once he'd hacked into an account, Mr. Kazaryan would change the password and then pose as the female owner of the account, according to the indictment.

He would contact the account holder's female friends and attempt to persuade or extort them into removing their clothing so he could photograph them via their webcams.

The "sextortion" scam is a variation of the practice of "sexting," sending nude images of one's self over the Internet to others.