Marissa Alexander, whose case brought allegations that Florida's Stand Your Ground law is being unfairly applied, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday after being convicted of three counts of aggravated assault after firing a warning shot during a dispute with her husband.
The case sparked a confrontation between a congresswoman and the prosecutor after the sentencing in Jacksonville, Fla., WJXT-TV reported.
Alexander, 31, claimed she fired a shot from a handgun into the wall to protect herself during a confrontation with her husband, who she said had abused her, WJXT reported. Two children were with him when she fired a shot in his direction, and she was charged with three counts of aggravated assault.
Society's Child
Linda Clappison, of Keyingham Marsh, East Yorkshire, was convicted of two counts of child cruelty. She was sentenced to three years in prison, according to the Telegraph. Before a fortune teller told her to submit her children to this abuse, Clappison was a fine mother, her children testified.
But after the meeting, her son Andrew Clappison, now 18, told the court, "We were treated like dogs."
Spanish students protesting in Valencia on February 29 against education cuts
University students, high school pupils and teachers joined the protests organized by the national Student's Union in more than 50 towns across the country on Thursday, AFP reported.
"We have called this demonstration as an initial response to this attack on public education, which is without precedent in the past 35 years," said the union leader, Tohil Delgado.
Several hundred university students took to the central streets of the capital, Madrid, marching behind a banner that read, "Everyone together against the cutbacks".
Picture shows the aftermath of the blasts that rocked the Syrian capital Damascus on May 10, 2012.
The Syrian Ambassador to the UN, Bashar al-Jafari told the Security Council on Thursday that the 26, some of whom were affiliated to al-Qaeda, had admitted that they were terrorists and had entered Syria to carry out terrorist attacks, AFP reported.
"The terrorist operations committed in Syria bear the fingerprints of al-Qaeda," he said.
Al-Jafari noted that the terrorists were in the Syrian government's detention and that they had made confessions shown on Syrian television.
He added that 12 foreign terrorists had also been killed in recent clashes with Syrian security forces.
"We have a list that contains 12 names of foreign terrorists killed in Syria, including one French citizen, one British citizen, one Belgian citizen," he told the council.
Police officers march in London, joining the UK-wide public sector strike on 10 May
Trade unions in Britain have said over 400,000 people took part in the 24-hour UK-wide strike on Thursday 10 May. Furthermore, London's Metropolitan Police said around 32,000 off-duty police officers joined the striking public servants marching through London.
Unions are angry with the government's pension changes saying that public sector workers are being "robbed" as they will have to pay more and work longer for lower pensions.
"We care very deeply about the communities that we serve. We have seen what happens when we have a government that has given policing a very low priority. If you are cutting our jobs, then you are cutting the service we can deliver and the public's safety is at risk", said Paul McKeever, chairperson of the Police Federation, the union which represents officers.
However, the British government tried to downgrade the nationwide strike as Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude described it as "futile". Maude also said the figure released by unions was "widely inaccurate" and only 150,000 public servants took part in the strike.
"It is now time that union leaders put the best interests of their members first by asking them to accept our generous offer", said Maude.
© PA/SWNS
Shane Jenkin has been detained in a psychiatric hospital after his attack on girlfriend Tina Nash.
Shane Jenkin has been detained in a psychiatric hospital after his attack on girlfriend Tina Nash.
Tina Nash spoke out as former partner Shane Jenkin began a life sentence for the barbaric, unprovoked assault on her at her home in Cornwall.
Nash said: "I urge anyone out there suffering domestic abuse to contact the police before it is too late. Don't be frightened or embarrassed - there are specially trained officers who can and will help you.
"If you really feel unable to contact the police, there are charities and support groups such as Women's Aid who will help, advise and support you in doing so."
He has spent 30 bruising years in politics, often saying it would have been more pleasant to earn big money in private business, and now plans to return to work as a lawyer while his millionaire pop star wife takes to her tourbus with a new album. But after he hands power to the Socialist François Hollande next week, Nicolas Sarkozy's biggest post-presidential headache is likely to come from the justice system.
Comment: It should be clarified that "30 bruising years" really means 30 years of bruising (and murdering) others.
In a ceremony at the Élysée palace on Tuesday, Sarkozy will pass the presidency to France's first leftwing leader since François Mitterrand. He will then walk the final metres of red carpet to his grace-and-favour chauffeur-driven car and return home to Carla Bruni's west Paris mansion. He has said he wants to quit politics, although few believe him, and he has warned journalists: "You won't hear from me again."
But when Sarkozy's presidential judicial immunity officially ends on 16 June, he risks dominating the headlines once more, as he could be forced to explain himself to magistrates over a series of party funding scandals that have dogged his time in power.
Study: Japanese could become theoretically extinct
© Reuters/Tennesse Bureau of Investigation/Handout
Adam Mayes (L) is shown with Adrienne and Alexandria Bain (R)
Adam Mayes (L) is shown with Adrienne and Alexandria Bain (R)
Adam Mayes, briefly the most-wanted fugitive in America, shot himself in the head on Thursday as police approached a spot in thick Mississippi woods where he was hiding with the remaining two daughters from the abducted Bain family of Tennessee.
Police found 12-year-old Alexandria Bain and 8-year-old Kyliyah Bain alive and unharmed on the ground nearby.
The girls were "hungry, thirsty and dehydrated" and suffering from exposure and poison ivy, said Aaron T. Ford, special agent in charge of the FBI's Memphis division.
"They look like they've been in the woods for three days," Ford said.
The girls were released to unidentified family members early on Friday after spending the night at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, hospital spokeswoman Anne Glankler said.
The discovery of the girls unharmed ended a week-long, multi-agency manhunt across two states that thrust the rural border area into the national spotlight.
The saga began in the rural western Tennessee town of Whiteville on April 27 when the husband of Jo Ann Bain, 31, reported his wife and three girls missing.
© Reuters/Geoff Robins
Tara McDonald (2nd L), mother of slain eight-year-old Woodstock, Ontario girl Victoria Stafford, receives a hug from family outside the courthouse in London, Ontario, May 11, 2012, following a guilty verdict in the trial of Michael Rafferty, the accused in Victoria's murder.
Tara McDonald (2nd L), mother of slain eight-year-old Woodstock, Ontario girl Victoria Stafford, receives a hug from family outside the courthouse in London, Ontario, May 11, 2012, following a guilty verdict in the trial of Michael Rafferty, the accused in Victoria's murder.
A jury in London, Ontario, found Michael Rafferty, 31, guilty of first degree murder, kidnapping and sexual assault, dismissing his girlfriend's testimony that she alone was responsible for killing Tori Stafford.
"We got him. We got justice," Tori's father Rodney Stafford told reporters outside the courtroom, showing the waiting TV cameras a picture of Tori. "It was for every little girl in Canada. Nobody deserves what happened to her."
In graphic testimony during the trial, Terri-Lynne McClintic admitted she had kidnapped Tori from outside her school in April, 2009 and delivered her to Rafferty, who raped the child.
