Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

US: Court upholds murder conviction for Iowa mom who slit her kids' throats, killed her son


The Washington Post
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the murder conviction of a woman who drove her two young sons to a pond and cut their throats, killing one of them.

Michelle Kehoe of Coralville is serving a life sentence for the Oct. 26, 2008 death of her 2-year-old son, Seth. She also is serving a 25 year sentence for the attack on her son Sean, who was 7 years old at the time. Kehoe initially told investigators she and her children were attacked by someone else.

Kehoe appealed her conviction, claiming her lawyer was ineffective and failed to object to jury instructions and to challenge constitutional issues related to her case.

The appeals court rejected Kehoe's arguments Wednesday.

Telephone messages left for attorneys in the case were not immediately returned.

Source: The Associated Press
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Info

UK: 'I want to make you pregnant... I prefer virgins': What Wikileaks boss Julian Assange told victim, rape extradition court hears

Rebecca Camber
The Daily Mail, UK
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 06:35 UTC
Image
© Getty ImagesWikileaks founder Julian Assange is said to have told his alleged victim in Stockholm: 'Sweden is a good country to have kids in'
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told a woman he stands accused of raping that he wanted to impregnate her and other 'virgins', a court heard yesterday.

The 40-year-old is said to have told his alleged victim in Stockholm: 'Sweden is a good country to have kids in.'

The High Court in London heard yesterday that Assange had a 'strange' discussion with the museum worker and she later awoke to find him having unprotected sex with her.

The Australian is accused of saying he 'wanted to impregnate women' and that he 'preferred virgins because he would be the first to impregnate them'.

The former computer hacker is also accused of 'violently' forcing himself on another woman in Stockholm.

He is now appealing against a district judge's decision to extradite him to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning over allegations of rape and sexual molestation relating to two women.

Yesterday the Court of Appeal heard that the women did not consent to sex with Assange, which happened in August 2010 after he visited Sweden to give a lecture.

Clare Montgomery QC, prosecuting, acting for the Swedish authorities, said of the women: 'They describe circumstances in which they do not freely consent without coercion... either by physical force or by a sense of having already been in a position whereby they felt they had no choice.'
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Arrow Down

US: Cardiologist's License Revoked Over Accusations of Placing Unneeded Stents

Tricia Bishop
The Baltimore Sun
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 23:17 UTC
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Dr. Mark G. Midei can no longer practice in Maryland

The Maryland Board of Physicians revoked the medical license of Dr. Mark G. Midei on Wednesday, finding that the Towson cardiologist falsified patient records in order to justify unnecessary and expensive cardiac stent procedures.

"Dr. Midei's violations were repeated and serious," board members wrote in an 11-page order. "They unnecessarily exposed his patients to the risk of harm. They increased the cost of the patients' medical care."
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Evil Rays

Lawmakers Blast TSA for Airport Security Measures

Patrick Tricker
CBS News
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 02:56 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press
Lawmakers blasted the Transportation Security Administration on Wednesday for ineffective security at the expense of taxpayer dollars, after the Department of Homeland Security released documents showing there have been 25,000 security breaches since 2001.

Although the breaches represent a tiny fraction of the 5.5 billion passengers since 2001, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, reminded the committee that terrorists only need to slip through security once to cause serious damage, while reprimanding the TSA for doing more to appear secure than actually be secure.

"A lot of what we have been participating in here, in my opinion, has been security theater," Chaffetz said, "and has not truly done the job to secure the airports to the degree we need to."

Another report from the Government Accountability Office said that only 17 percent of the nation's airports have received joint vulnerability assessments, which Chaffetz said was "not acceptable."

The TSA has come under heavy criticism in recent months for using pat downs and body scanning machines which some passengers say makes them feel uncomfortable and violates their privacy.
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Briefcase

Cyprus leader vows 'thorough' probe of deadly explosion


ahramonline
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 21:57 UTC
cyprus protest
© Associated PressProtesters shouts slogans as they run from tear gas during a protest over a fatal blast at a naval base that killed 12, outside of Presidential palace in Nicosia, Cyprus
The Cypriot president promised on Thursday a thorough investigation into the explosion of munitions at a naval base that killed 12 people and knocked out the country's major power plant

In his first public address since the Monday morning blast, which also injured 62 people and damaged hundreds of homes, The Cypriot president, Demetris Christofias said "the demand of everyone is to find those responsible and apportion responsibility, even if this is from the lowest to the highest level."

"I assure you responsibility will be apportioned and taken," he said in a televised speech, announcing that he had appointed lawyer Polis Polyviou to head the investigation.

Polyviou's remit will be to expedite the police investigation into "every aspect and all the circumstances of this tragedy." Only a "thorough investigation," in which people are made accountable, will suffice "to restore the public's trust in the state and its institutions," he said.
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Binoculars

Hawaii: Tourists Saw California Man Fall Into Maui Blow Hole

Jennifer Sinco Kelleher
Associated Press
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:00 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Rocco PiganelliIn this Saturday, July 9, 2011 photo provided and shot by Rocco Piganelli, Piper Piganelli, Marley Meyer, and Maddie Meyer, lower left, pose for a photo Piganelli says was taken moments before a man, in the spray at right, fell to his apparent death in a blow hole at Nakalele Point in Maui, Hawaii. Piganelli, of La Jolla, Calif., told The Associated Press that he watched the man spiral down the blowhole, pop up briefly before disappearing when the next wave hit. The 44-year-old man, identified as David Potts of San Anselmo, Calif., has not been found since Saturday afternoon.
Witnesses who watched a Northern California man get sucked into a Maui blow hole to his apparent death say that the tourist was dancing around and frolicking in the sprays of water moments before a wave knocked him down.

Rocco Piganelli, of La Jolla, Calif., said he stared in horror as he watched a large wave push the tourist into the hole off Nakalele Point on Saturday afternoon. The man popped up briefly with the next wave, then disappeared.
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Life Preserver

Russian boat disaster death toll rises


ABC News
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:46 UTC
Russian boat accident
© Reuters/Roman KruchininExpanding search: 29 people are still unaccounted for.
Divers widened their search for 29 remaining missing boat passengers after the death toll in Russia's worst river disaster in three decades reached 100, the country's Emergencies Ministry said overnight.

Officials say 79 of 208 passengers survived the sinking of an ageing, overcrowded tourist boat in the Volga River on Sunday.

The 29 people still unaccounted for are feared dead.

The Bulgaria, a 79-metre river cruiser built in 1955, listed onto its right side during a thunderstorm and sank in minutes in a broad stretch of the Volga in the Tatarstan region, trapping many passengers inside as the vessel sank to the riverbed.

"The bodies of 100 people killed have been extracted," said regional Emergency Situations Ministry official Igor Panshin.
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Heart - Black

US: New York man accused of killing, dismembering boy is "hearing voices"

Aman Ali
Reuters
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:23 UTC
Murder suspect Levi Aron
© Reuters/Brendan McDermidMurder suspect Levi Aron is escorted out of a New York Police Department precinct in Brooklyn, New York, July 14, 2011.

A Brooklyn man who confessed to smothering and dismembering an 8-year-old boy lost on his first walk home alone was ordered on Thursday to undergo a psychiatric evaluation after complaining of "hearing voices."

Levi Aron, 35, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and kidnapping in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn.

At the request of defense lawyer Pierre Bazile, Judge William Miller place Aron on a suicide watch and ordered him to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
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Bell

World's Greatest Ongoing Humanitarian Disaster Reaches a Crisis Point

Everett Rosenfeld
TIME
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:34 UTC
Somali refugees
© Associated Press/Rebecca BlackwellSomali refugees lead their herds of goats home for the night, inside Dagahaley Camp, outside Dadaab, Kenya, Sunday, July 10, 2011
With more than 60,000 starving and thirsty Somalis camped outside of the world's largest refugee camp, what some aid agencies deem the world's worst humanitarian crisis is facing its "critical days," according to a UNICEF spokesperson.

Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp, originally constructed to hold 90,000 people - making it the biggest camp in the world - is now home to approximately 400,000 people according to Bettina Schulte, Dadaab spokeswoman of the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR. Well beyond capacity, the camp is drawing thousands upon thousands of drought-fleeing Somalis, many of whom have no choice but to live in even more tenuous circumstances in the environs around the camp. Yearly dry seasons often send inhabitants of the warn-torn country fleeing into neighboring Kenya, but the Horn of Africa's worst drought in 60 years will provoke an even more desperate crisis should the current refugees in eastern Kenya and the 1,400 new ones arriving each day not receive sufficient aid.
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Card - VISA

US: Personal Banking Info Stolen from Phoenix TSA Employees


My Fox 10
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 03:09 UTC


Police are looking into the theft of personal financial information at Sky Harbor, and all it took for the information to be stolen was a swipe of their credit or debit cards.

So far FOX 10 has confirmed TSA security screeners have been the targets. Their bank accounts were broken into and drained.

Police say the culprits or culprits may have used a skimmer to take information directly off a credit or debit card. A few dozen employees have already come forward to report problems with their bank accounts.

Flight attendant Tina Coffee is on her way to Tampa. As an airline employee, she spends three to four days in the air and knows all too well the dangers of working at airports.

"We travel all the time so they know that we are the ones to target," she acknowledges.
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