Police deny reports woman beaten, repeatedly raped, robbed


A Canadian woman alleges that Mexican police gang-raped her in jail after she and her fiancé were arrested while on vacation in Mexico for New Year's Eve, CBC News has learned.

Rebecca Rutland, 41, says police in the Mexican resort town of Playa del Carmen took the Ontario couple into custody in the late hours of Dec. 31 following a confrontation between officers and her fiancé.

Once in jail, Rutland, a social worker doing her thesis in Thunder Bay, Ont., says two police officers took turns raping her. Rutland and her fiancé, Richard Coleman, 51, of Toronto, also allege officers robbed them of hundreds of dollars and other valuables.

Mexican authorities deny that Rutland was sexually assaulted and dispute the couple's version of events, saying the two were very intoxicated and quarrelled with police in an exchange witnessed by several people.

After several rum-and-cola drinks, Rutland and Coleman say they stopped at a restaurant to use the washroom on their way back to their nearby resort when a man tried to pick up Rutland. Coleman and the man began to argue on the street packed with partygoers and four police officers intervened, the couple says.

Coleman says he had a heated exchange with the officers when the police wanted to search him for drugs. Coleman, a six-foot-tall man with long hair tied in a ponytail and gold hoop earrings, says he believes police targeted him due to his looks.

"I don't think anything I could've said or not said in that moment in time would have really changed it," said Coleman. "But I believe when dealing with a police officer that is overstepping his authority. I believe it is incumbent on me to point it out to them, even if it means I am going to have to deal with some charges afterwards."

Police threw Coleman to the ground, allegedly causing a gash on his forehead, and handcuffed him. They also arrested Rutland.

On the way to the police station, Rutland said a female officer stole one of her rings. Coleman claims an officer also stole more than $700 cash, his BlackBerry and jewelry. He says he later discovered the word "deceased" posted as his BlackBerry Messenger status, as well as Facebook updates via BlackBerry stating he beat his wife.

Overheating emerging markets, in China in particular, pose the biggest threat to the market and political situation in 2011 according to Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis Global Markets.

"These economies are clearly overheating and governments are putting measures in place to slow them down to fight inflationary pressure. More than anything else, food inflation is a problem," Gijsels told CNBC.com.

"In countries were 70 percent to 80 percent and sometimes more of a family's budget goes to food, explosive price rises risk to destabilize these societies. Remember the old saying: 'hunger starves civilizations,'" he added.

"We believe that some of these governments will be quite aggressive in their inflation fight. And we do not even want to think about the consequences if this year were to have a disappointing monsoon," Gijsels said.

He is worried that everyone is so bullish on China's ability to engineer a soft landing.

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
~ Herbert Spencer

My academic life in college was largely spent studying what were then referred to as the "liberal arts." History, geography, economics, philosophy, art, literature, music, psychology, and the genuine sciences, were among the various subject areas we considered essential to becoming mature, self-directed, learned individuals. We also studied one or more foreign languages, not simply to help us navigate our trips to other lands, but to provide us with the perspective that there are other people on the planet who think, live, and speak differently from us.

This approach to learning helped to provide us with the means of thinking clearly, rationally, and logically; to help us understand causal relationships in analyzing the interconnected and unpredictable complexities of our world; to distinguish fact from fantasy, and transcendent truths from fashionable opinion; all for the purpose of living as responsible individuals pursuing our respective self-interests with others.

Their mouths were muzzled and wrapped in so much tape they couldn't breathe, bark or eat. Their fur was matted with filth and the house was crammed with so much trash, it hid the floor.

A Long Island mother and daughter were arrested yesterday after more than a dozen tortured dogs and cats were rescued from a filth-riddled Rockville Centre home that included more than two dozen decomposing animal remains, cops said.

Judge Anna Anzalone teared up as prosecutors showed pictures of a dog skull with tape still visible on it, as well as the squalor in the small house.

One of the Arizona shooting victims was arrested Saturday and then taken for a psychiatric evaluation after authorities said he took a picture of a tea party leader at televised town hall meeting and yelled "you're dead."

A new campaign to prevent teen pregnancies has been launched in Memphis in response to a huge spike in expectant mothers at one area high school.

According to recent statistics, 86 students at Frayser High School are pregnant or have given birth in the last year, myfoxmemphis.com reported.

The new campaign - called "No Baby!" - is designed to educate both teenage girls and boys about how to prevent and deal with unplanned pregnancies. The program is also tailored to give girls the confidence to "just say no" to sex.

"Right now, these girls don't know how to say 'no,' they're having sex when they don't want to, they just don't know how to say 'no,'" Deborah Hester Harrison with Girls Inc., which is a nonprofit group, told the news station.

Another concern for these young mothers is the lack of prenatal care.

"A lot of these girls aren't developmentally ready to be really effective parents, and that affects the child's development," Marc Goodman-Bryan with the Urban Child Institute said.

An 82-year-old woman says she was humiliated by airport security who forced her to reveal her gel prosthesis during a recent public pat-down at Calgary's airport.

Elizabeth Strecker, who was flying to British Columbia after visiting her children last week, says that she will never fly again following the incident.

"It was terribly humiliating and embarrassing for me," she told CTV British Columbia in an interview.

Her ordeal began as Strecker was going through security checks at Calgary's airport.

But when a pin in her leg set off a metal detector, she was directed to a body scanner.

Next, she was asked if she was carrying any liquids or gels, which are barred from flights unless they are in small amounts.


When asked, Strecker demurred: "I didn't think I had to tell the whole world I had a mastectomy."

At least nine people have been killed in clashes between Somali government troops and al-Shabab fighters in Mogadishu.

Three people lost their lives after a fierce gun battle broke out between al-Shabab fighters and transitional government troops in Mogadishu's northern district of Hodan late on Friday.

The skirmishes continued till the crack of dawn, a Press TV correspondent reported on Saturday.

In addition, six civilians were killed and ten others were wounded when mortar shells landed in and around Bakara Market -- the biggest and busiest market in southern Mogadishu.

"I saw the dead bodies of three civilians including a young child in Bakara Market," said an eyewitness, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Imed Trabelsi, nephew of the powerful Tunisia's former first lady Leila Ben Ali, died on Sunday night in a military hospital in the capital city of Tunis, AFP reported.

In May, former Tunisian president appointed Trabelsi as mayor of the commune of La Goulette north of Tunis.

His appointment was criticized by the opposition since he had gained a bad reputation for corrupt practices.

Trabelsi is the first confirmed victim in the former president's family, known for their corruption.

In 2007, France ordered his arrest after the theft of a swish yacht belonging to Lazard Bank executive Bruno Roger, who is close to President Nicolas Sarkozy and former President Jacques Chirac. His country refused to extradite him.

In the past weeks, there have been massive street protests across Tunisia against what has been described as the theft of Tunisian wealth and lack of opportunities for the average citizen.

Tunisian demonstrators have called on Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi to step down and leave the country, shortly after he announced that he had taken over as interim president.

Ghannouchi announced that he was assuming power on Friday, promising to enact social and political reforms. But tensions remain high and protesters in the capital are now reportedly demanding that Ghannouchi resign and leave the country.

The Tunisian army took control of the North African nation when President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali left the country due to a groundswell of public discontent shortly after sacking his cabinet members, AFP reported.

Tunisian military units have surrounded the international airport on the outskirts of Tunis after another day of unrest on the streets of the capital.

There are reports that Ghannouchi plans to hand over power to the leader of the Tunisian parliament, Fouad Mbazaa.

Meanwhile, there are conflicting reports about where Ben Ali is headed. Some reports say the president is heading for Qatar but Maltese air traffic controllers said that he is on his way to Paris via Malta.