Society's ChildS

Handcuffs

US: Bank Robber Caught Sipping a Latte at Starbucks

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© Getty ImagesIf you rob a bank, you may want to go somewhere other than the neighboring Starbucks to celebrate.
Heading to Starbucks 25 minutes after robbing a bank to sip a latte and act like nothing happened is probably not the most brilliant of ideas.

But to go to a Starbucks just around the corner from the bank in question and sit there reading a newspaper might be an even worse decision.

A 52-year-old transient from Southern California is expected of doing exactly that when he allegedly walked into a California Bank and Trust, located at 700 E. El Camino Real in Mountain View, at 9:09 a.m. on Friday and walked away with $1,100 in cash, after threatening a teller with a gun.

A little after 9:30, an officer found a man who matched the description of the robber sitting at a Starbucks around the corner, reading a newspaper.

Heart - Black

US: Aurora Mom Was Allegedly Using Facebook When Child Died

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© Aurora PoliceKaren Pena
The mother of a 22-month-old girl hit and killed by a van last month was allegedly using Facebook when the accident happened.

Police in Aurora arrested Karen Pena on Thursday. She now faces a charge of child abuse resulting in death.

Laneice Fletcher was killed in the parking lot of her apartment complex when she was hit by a commercial van. That driver has not been charged.

Police documents state Pena was using Facebook at the time instead of watching her toddler.

Neighbors also reportedly told police that before the accident Pena generally didn't do a good job of watching over Fletcher and her other children.

Attention

Canada Post Lockout Puts Bee Colonies at Risk

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© lesmielsraphael.comRaphael Vacher's bees are trapped in a Canada Post sorting warehouse.
The lives of thousands of bees are in jeopardy because the lockout at Canada Post has them trapped in warehouses.

Twenty-thousand queen bees are shipped every year in Canada, with June being the busiest month.

The bees are used to populate honey-producing colonies. But since the lockout began Tuesday, thousands of queen bees have been stranded.

Honey producer Raphael Vacher of Alma, Que. ordered 100 queen bees from a breeder in the Eastern Townships before the lockout began.

Now his bees are stuck in a Canada Post sorting warehouse near Montreal.

Handcuffs

Canada: Alleged Vancouver Looter Turned in by Parents

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© Getty ImagesRiot police stand in front of two burning police cars as three Canucks fans look on in downtown Vancouver.
Police say 6 people have turned themselves in

The parents of a 17-year-old boy turned him in to Burnaby RCMP alleging he was involved in looting during the Vancouver riot.

The couple decided to contact police about their son after seeing photos of the looting at the Louis Vuitton store on the corner of Howe Street and West Georgia Street that were posted on the internet, RCMP said.

Police allege the teen was also linked to the destruction of a Vancouver police vehicle, which was flipped upside down during the rioting.

The youth, who cannot be named because of his age, is set to appear in court in August to answer to charges of break enter and theft, and mischief to property over $5,000.

Blackbox

Jewish court sentences dog to death by stoning

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© AFP/File, Menahem Kahana
A Jerusalem rabbinical court condemned to death by stoning a dog it suspects is the reincarnation of a secular lawyer who insulted the court's judges 20 years ago, Ynet website reported Friday.

According to Ynet, the large dog made its way into the Monetary Affairs Court in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, frightening judges and plaintiffs.

Despite attempts to drive the dog out of the court, the hound refused to leave the premises.

One of the sitting judges then recalled a curse the court had passed down upon a secular lawyer who had insulted the judges two decades previously.

Nuke

Fukushima: It's much worse than you think

Scientific experts believe Japan's nuclear disaster to be far worse than governments are revealing to the public.
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© Gallo/GettyMany Japanese citizens are now permanently displaced from their homes due to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind," Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera.

Japan's 9.0 earthquake on March 11 caused a massive tsunami that crippled the cooling systems at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. It also led to hydrogen explosions and reactor meltdowns that forced evacuations of those living within a 20km radius of the plant.

Gundersen, a licensed reactor operator with 39 years of nuclear power engineering experience, managing and coordinating projects at 70 nuclear power plants around the US, says the Fukushima nuclear plant likely has more exposed reactor cores than commonly believed.

"Fukushima has three nuclear reactors exposed and four fuel cores exposed," he said, "You probably have the equivalent of 20 nuclear reactor cores because of the fuel cores, and they are all in desperate need of being cooled, and there is no means to cool them effectively."

TEPCO has been spraying water on several of the reactors and fuel cores, but this has led to even greater problems, such as radiation being emitted into the air in steam and evaporated sea water - as well as generating hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive sea water that has to be disposed of.

"The problem is how to keep it cool," says Gundersen. "They are pouring in water and the question is what are they going to do with the waste that comes out of that system, because it is going to contain plutonium and uranium. Where do you put the water?"

Heart

Canada: For All The Right Reasons

06/15/2011 - A day that will go down in history for all the wrong reasons

I cried twice today.

I'm an eternal optimist, always have been, always will be, and never once did the thought of the Vancouver Canucks losing in the Stanley Cup Final cross my mind. Not once.

That made dealing with the inevitable hardship worlds more difficult; Thursday was truly a day of grieving and it got the best of me when I took a seat in Rogers Arena for an all-staff meeting just before lunch. They were tears of disappointment and exhaustion.

I wanted to be so hungover Thursday that my headache had a migraine, instead I spent the bulk of the day sitting in my office playing out different what-if scenarios in my head. Then I was asked to head downtown to the scene of the unthinkable riots to talk to some people who were apparently spearheading a cleanup effort.

Great, I thought, a few people will be picking up trash, it'll be the equivalent of fighting a rhinoceros with a cocktail sword.

Then I got to the heart of the city.

And I cried again. They were tears of pride.

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Stormtrooper

Warmonger Prince Harry could return to frontline in Afghanistan

Prince Harry
© GETTYPrince Harry salutes at the opening of The Royal British Legion Wootton Bassett Field of Remembrance in Lydiard Park on Nov. 9, 2010, in Wootton Bassett, England.


British newspaper The Guardian states Harry has reportedly been cleared for a return (the Ministry of Defense will not comment officially). Prince Harry recently qualified to pilot Apache helicopters.

The Guardian quotes Clarence House: "Harry is an army pilot and will deploy wherever the army chooses to send him. His course finishes in 2012 and after that his deployment will be a matter for the army chain of command."

Attention

Canada: Crowd Attacks Man During Vancouver Riot

A man attempting to halt the looting and destruction of a storefront is attacked and severely beaten by the riotous crowd (relevant portion of video begins at 3:15 - Warning: Graphic Video)

Nuke

Fukushima's Apocalyptic Threat

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© Shiho Fukada/IHTA Japanese child evacuee rests at a temporary shelter in Kesennuma, 03/17/11.
Fukushima may be in an apocalyptic downward spiral.

Forget the corporate-induced media coma that says otherwise ... or nothing at all.

Lethal radiation is spewing unabated. Emission levels could seriously escalate. There is no end in sight. The potential is many times worse than Chernobyl.

Containing this disaster may be beyond the abilities of Tokyo Electric or the Japanese government.

There is no reason to incur further unnecessary risk. With all needed resources, it's time for the world's best scientists and engineers to take charge.

Even then the outcome is unclear.

For a brief but terrifying overview, consult Dr. Chris Busby as interviewed by RT/TV.

Fukushima Units One, Two and Three are all in various stages of melting down.