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Outrage Over Madeleine McCann Photo Used in Holiday Advert


The Telegraph, UK
Tue, 08 May 2012 09:09 UTC
Kate and Gerry McCann were "horrified" to discover that the last photograph taken of their missing daughter Madeleine had been used to promote holidays in Portugal.
Image
© PA
Madeleine at the time of her disappearance and as she might look now
The familiar image of the three-year-old was used to illustrate deals offered by lowcostholidays.com on the website VoucherDigg.

But the travel company said it had no advertising contract with the voucher website and admitted that the use of the little girl's picture was "vile".

Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns' spokesman, branded it "appallingly insensitive" and said law firm Carter-Ruck had been called in to demand removal of the picture with "immediate effect".

The VoucherDigg site sells breaks in a self-catering family apartment in Albufeira, Algarve, just 25 miles from Praia da Luz, the resort from which Madeleine disappeared five years ago.

The photograph of her dangling her legs in a swimming pool dressed in a pink dress and white sunhat, was taken just hours before she vanished from the family's holiday apartment.
      Read More...
Info

IAEA Inspector Killed in Iran Car Crash

Nasser Karimi
The Associated Press
Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00 UTC
Iran
© unknown
Tehran - A U.N. nuclear inspector from South Korea was killed and a colleague was injured in a car crash Tuesday near a reactor site in central Iran, state media and the nuclear watchdog agency said.

Iran's state TV said the South Korean inspector was thrown from of the car. He was not wearing a seat belt, the report said, quoting police. The two inspectors were riding in the backseat of the car.

The TV showed video of the other inspector in a hospital bed, not seriously injured. It said the driver, who lost control of the car, was also slightly injured.

State TV showed video of the heavily damaged vehicle.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement it was in touch with the inspectors' families and Iranian authorities.

The IAEA did not name the inspector killed in the crash, but Iran's official IRNA news agency identified as Seo Ok-Seok from South Korea.

IRNA said the inspectors' car overturned near a heavy water reactor being built in Khondab, about 250 kilometers (150 miles) southwest of Tehran.
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Phoenix

Philippines Department Store Fire Kills 17 Sleeping Shop Staff


The Telegraph, UK
Wed, 09 May 2012 03:25 UTC
Shop staff sleeping in a Philippines department store were killed when a fire swept through the building before dawn on Wednesday.

Image
© The Associated Press/Erwin Mascarinas
Volunteers carry a bag containing the body of a victim of the fire that broke out in a clothing store in Butuan City, killing 17 employees
Out of 21 female employees trapped in the fire, 17 were killed, with one still missing and three surviving by jumping from a second-storey window, the provincial fire department said.

"Twenty-one people were asleep on the second floor when the fire struck the ground floor. They could not find the emergency exit because of the huge volume of black smoke," Chief Inspector Mario Palarca said by telephone.
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Handcuffs

Police Arrest 23 Union Protesters at Florida Casino


The Miami Herald
Wed, 09 May 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Kristofer Rios / Miami Herald
Pro-union protesters demonstrate in front of Mardi Gras casino in Hallandale Beach Tuesday, May 8, 2012.
Police arrested 23 protesters for trespassing when they blocked the entrance to Mardi Gras Casino in Hallandale Beach.

The Miami Herald reports the arrests came around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday as the protesters gathered to complain about what they consider union-busting tactics by the casino. They were also demanding that the casino reinstate workers who were fired after trying to unionize.

Hallandale Beach Police say about 100 protesters blocked the west entrance to keep patrons from entering the casino. Police and casino officials warned them they were trespassing. The protesters who refused to leave were arrested.
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Eye 1

'Remorseful Robber' Stabs Girlfriend 34 Times While Daughter's Friend Watched Through Video Chat

Jason Schreiber
Union Leader
Mon, 07 May 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Julia Malakie/Lowell Sun
Christopher Piantedosi at his arraignment Monday in Woburn District Court in the murder of his girlfriend.
US - New Hampshire's so-called "Remorseful Robber" is accused of stabbing his girlfriend 34 times in a brutal murder that was witnessed by his daughter's friend who was in the middle of a video chat on an iPad at the time of the killing, a prosecutor said.

Details of the gruesome murder were revealed Monday morning when Christopher Piantedosi, 39, of Methuen, Mass., was ordered held without bail at his arraignment on a murder charge in Woburn District Court.

Piantedosi, who last year admitted to stealing a New Hampshire woman's wallet and other items and later returning them with a note of apology, said nothing and stared at the floor as Middlesex County Assistant District Attorney Nicole Allain described how he repeatedly stabbed his longtime girlfriend, Kristen Pulisciano, 38, in front of their 15-year-old daughter last Thursday night at her Burlington, Mass., home.

The murder followed his arrest by Plaistow, N.H., police last summer after he stole from a woman's purse at a Plaistow Market Basket on July 18.

Piantedosi later mailed the wallet back to her and then showed up at her house to return her $90, plus an extra $10, wrapped up in an apology letter along with her stolen GPS and a new charger. Piantedosi signed the letter "Stupid" and was later dubbed the "remorseful robber" by police.
      Read More...
Toys

Gun Parts Found in Stuffed Animals at Rhode Island Airport


The Associated Press
Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press/Transportation Security Administration
Pistol parts hidden in a stuffed animal found by TSA officials at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, R.I., Monday May 7, 2012.
US - Police at Rhode Island's T.F. Green Airport said Tuesday that a domestic dispute was behind an incident in which gun components and ammunition were found hidden inside a child's stuffed animals, including a Mickey Mouse.

Authorities later allowed the 4-year-old boy and his father to continue their travel to Detroit after concluding the man didn't pose a risk, authorities said. He told police that he didn't know the parts were inside the stuffed toys.

"It appears to be the result of a domestic dispute," Rhode Island Airport Police Chief Leo Messier said in a statement. "It was jointly investigated by the RI Airport Police, FBI and the RI State Police and it was determined that there was no threat at any time to air safety."

Officials with airport police and the Transportation Security Administration declined to comment further, saying the incident remained under investigation.
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Bizarro Earth

Politician's disappearance fuels Bangladesh crisis


Seattle Pi
Wed, 09 May 2012 04:49 UTC
Bangladesh crisis
© Pavel Rahman / AP
In this April 29, 2012 file photo, Bangladeshi opposition activists throw stones at vehicles during a nationwide general strike against the abduction of opposition politician Elias Ali in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The abduction of Ali and his driver as they returned home from meeting supporters at a hotel on April 17, 2012, has sparked one of Bangladesh's biggest crisis in years. The clashes have reignited hostilities between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her archrival Khaleda Zia, who have alternated in power since a pro-democracy movement ousted the last military regime in 1990.

President of the Left group in the European Parliament

Dhaka, Bangladesh - The night watchman was dozing in a wooden chair just after midnight on a deserted Bangladeshi street when he was startled by a scream. A group of men were pulling two people from a car and forcing them into a black microbus; "The two guys were shouting, 'Save us,'" before the car pulled away, Lutfar Rahman said.

The abductions of an opposition politician and his driver last month have sparked Bangladesh's biggest crisis in years, raised hostilities between the most prominent leaders of its fragile democracy and highlighted a series of seemingly political disappearances.
      Read More...
Stop

North Carolina Voters Ban Gay Marriage, Civil Unions

Liz Goodwin
The Ticket
Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press
Lynda Miller casts her vote Tuesday, May 8, 2012, at Belville Elementary School in Brunswick County, N.C.
North Carolinians voted to change the state constitution Tuesday to say that the only valid "domestic legal partnership" in the state is marriage between a man and a woman, according to the AP's projection. The amendment passed 61 to 39 percent with most counties reporting, making North Carolina the 29th state with a gay marriage ban in its constitution.

The state already outlawed gay marriage, but the constitutional amendment makes it more difficult for politicians to ever change the law. The amendment also means that a handful of North Carolina municipalities that extended benefits to the domestic partners of their employees will no longer be able to do so, since marriage is now the only valid legal partnership in the state. Former President Bill Clinton urged the state's voters not to support the amendment in robocalls, while President Barack Obama's office said he was also against the change.
      Read More...
Eye 2

Florida Nabs White Supremacists Planning "Race War"

Barbara Liston
Reuters
Wed, 09 May 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Osceola County Corrections Department
Accused members of American Front white supremacist group, arrested in Osceola County, Florida. From top left, clockwise: Dustin Perry, Diane Stevens, Christopher Brooks, Richard Stockdale, Jennifer McGowan, Paul Jackson, Mark McGowan, Kent McLellan, Marcus Faella, Patricia Faella.
US, Florida - Ten alleged members of a white supremacist group training near Orlando and Disney World for a "race war" have been rounded up in a series of arrests in central Florida, authorities said on Tuesday.

The arrests were based on evidence from a confidential informant who infiltrated the neo-Nazi organization known as the American Front 17 months ago, according to an arrest affidavit.

"The American Front (AF) is a military-styled, anti-Semitic, white supremacist, skinhead organization and is known as a domestic terrorist organization," the affidavit said.

It said the group's alleged local ringleader, Marcus Faella, 39, had been "planning and preparing the AF for what he believes to be an inevitable race war" and had stated "his intent ... to kill Jews, immigrants and other minorities."

Faella operated a heavily fortified paramilitary training center for the AF on his isolated property in St. Cloud, Florida, 11 miles from the Walt Disney World theme parks, according to the affidavit.

It said he recently had been plotting a disturbance at Orlando City Hall and a confrontation against a rival skinhead group in coastal Melbourne in a bid to garner media attention, but had also been experimenting with the potential manufacture of the biological toxin ricin.
      Read More...
Airplane

Bomb Threat Halts 2 Southwest Airlines Flights


ABC News
Wed, 09 May 2012 00:00 UTC
Southwest Airlines
US - Two Southwest Airlines flights with ties to Phoenix and Orange County's John Wayne Airport were grounded Tuesday night following a threatening phone call, authorities said.

Both planes were cleared later in the evening.

The threat was made while Flight 1184 was en route to Phoenix from Orange County, Southwest spokeswoman Ashley Dillon said. The plane was taken to an isolation pad after it landed in Phoenix.

The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task force worked with the Phoenix Police Department to screen the plane at Sky Harbor, FBI spokesman Manuel Johnson said.
      Read More...
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