Society's ChildS


Stormtrooper

Autopsy finds that Maryland man with Down syndrome died of asphyxia while in police custody

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© Unknown
Frederick - The Frederick County Sheriff's Office says the death of a mentally disabled man in police custody has been ruled a homicide.

Cpl. Jennifer Bailey said Friday that the state medical examiner determined that 26-year-old Robert Saylor of New Market died of asphyxia Jan. 12.

Saylor had Down syndrome.

Bailey says he died after resisting arrest by three deputies at a Frederick movie theater. An employee had called police because Saylor wouldn't leave his seat after a movie.

Bailey says Saylor cursed at the deputies. She says he became medically distressed while they were escorting him in handcuffs from the theater.

Handcuffs

Profiting from human misery

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© AP/Mel Evans

A row of beds inside the Elizabeth Detention Center.
Marela, an undocumented immigrant in her 40s, stood outside the Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, N.J., on a chilly afternoon last week. She was there with a group of protesters who appear at the facility's gates every year on Ash Wednesday to decry the nation's immigration policy and conditions inside the center. She was there, she said, because of her friend Evelyn Obey.

Obey, 40, a Guatemalan and the single mother of a 12-year-old and a 6-year-old, was picked up in an immigration raid as she and nine other undocumented workers walked out of an office building they cleaned in Newark, N.J. Her two children instantly lost their only parent. She languished in detention. Another family took in the children, who never saw their mother again. Obey died in jail in 2010 from, according to the sign Villar had hung on her neck, "pulmonary thromboembolism, chronic bronchiolitis and emphysema and remote cardiac Ischemic Damage.' "

Airplane

Yemeni warplane crashes in residential district of capital, killing 11

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© Khaled Abdullah / ReutersMilitary personnel and firefighters try to extinguish a fire at the site of an aircraft crash in Sanaa, Yemen on Feb. 19, 2013.
A Yemeni air force plane crashed in the centre of the capital Sanaa on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 15, security sources said.

The Ministry of Defense said in a text message that the plane had been on a training flight when it came down in a western residential district.

Pictures of the crash on social media sites showed one body near burning wreckage of the aircraft. Several cars were on fire and debris littered the street. A security official said without elaborating that the pilot had ejected from the plane.

Heart - Black

ChristianMingle date rape victims sought by California cops


A suspected rapist accused of sexually assaulting a woman he met on ChristianMingle.com may have used the dating site to prey on women while he traveled across the country, California police said today.

Sean Patrick Banks, 37, a former Navy sailor, used a fake name to contact a woman who he allegedly raped in November, cops in La Mesa, Calif., said. Investigators believe that he used additional aliases to contact other women on the popular website and police hope that if there are additional victims they will recognize Banks.

Banks lives in Del Mar, Calif., and is currently unemployed but previously "travelled frequently around various spots in the U.S." for work, widening the search for potential victims from Southern California to across the country, said La Mesa Police spokesman Lt. Matt Nicholass.

Horse

Nestle finds horsemeat in beef pasta meals

Nestle
© Reuters/Joao VieriaA Nestle logo is pictured on a factory in Orbe April 20, 2012.
London - Nestle (NESN.VX), the world's biggest food company, has removed beef pasta meals from sale in Italy and Spain after finding traces of horse DNA.

The discovery of horsemeat in products labeled as beef has spread across Europe since last month, prompting product withdrawals, consumer anger and government investigations into the continent's complex food-processing chains.

Swiss-based Nestle, which just last week said its products had not been affected by the scandal, said its tests had found more than 1 percent horse DNA in two products.

"We have informed the authorities accordingly," Nestle said in a statement on Monday. "There is no food safety issue."

Nestle withdrew two chilled pasta products, Buitoni Beef Ravioli and Beef Tortellini, in Italy and Spain,

Pistol

Men accused of robbing friend at gunpoint for $1

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© HPDLeonardo Taveras, 24 (L) and Randy Dike, 25,(R) are accused of aggravated robbery for a Feb. 10 incident.
Texas - Two men are accused of beating up a friend, robbing him at gunpoint and walking away with only a dollar found in the man's pocket.

Randy Chinonso Dike, 25, and Leonardo Taveras, 24, were arrested last Thursday for aggravated robbery after the incident on Feb. 10 at the 12700 block of Bryant Rock, court records show.

A Houston man told investigators he received a call from Taveras, whom he knew by name, sight and voice, asking him to meet with him to help with his vehicle.

When he arrived, Taveras and Dike accused the man of burglarizing an apartment several months before, he told police. The man denied to investigators that he stole from Taveras' home.

Dike charged at the man and punched the man in the torso several times, court records show. Taveras then opened the trunk and took a shotgun out of his car parked at the scene and pointed it at the man, records show.

With a shotgun pointed at him, the man told investigators Dike went through his pockets and took a one-dollar bill.

Both are in custody with $50,000 bond.

Stormtrooper

Israeli sniper posts pic of child in crosshairs

Sniper Posts Pic of Child in Crosshairs
© ABC NewsSniper Posts Pic of Child in Crosshairs
Jerusalem - A photo posted online by an Israeli soldier showing a child in the crosshairs of a rifle scope has created a firestorm on the internet, drawing widespread criticism.

The photo was reportedly posted on Jan. 25 by Mor Ostrovski, 20, a member of an Israeli sniper unit. It shows crosshairs zeroed in on the back of the head of what appears to be a Palestinian boy in a village. The photo has since been taken down and Ostrovski's account has been deactivated.

"There are no other images to suggest that the photographer actually fired at the person in the image in this case," wrote Palestinian activist Ali Abuminah who runs the site Electronic Intifada and drew much of the attention to the photo. "The image is simply tasteless and dehumanizing. It embodies the idea that Palestinian children are targets."

Before the account was taken down, Abuminah posted other photos from Ostrovski's account that showed him in his olive green uniform holding a variety of weapons, including a sniper rifle.

Black Cat 2

Drunk executive who slapped toddler on plane gets slapped with pink slip

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© ABC NewsJoe Rickey Hundley from Idaho, shown in a photo from a previous arrest, has been charged with assaulting a minor.
An Idaho executive charged with slapping a toddler on a Delta Airlines flight has been slapped with a pink slip, his former employer says.

Joe Rickey Hundley, 60, is no longer employed by AGC Aerospace and Defense, Composites Group.

AGC's President and CEO Al Hasse said Sunday that reports of recent behavior by one of his unit executives is "offensive and disturbing."

"We have taken this matter very seriously and worked diligently to examine it since learning of the matter on Friday afternoon. As of Sunday, the executive is no longer employed with the company," Hasse said.

Hasse went on to say that such behavior is contradictory to the company's values. He said it was "embarrassing and does not in any way reflect the patriotic character of the men and women of diverse backgrounds who work tirelessly in our business."

AGC spokesman Daniel Keeney of DPK Public Relations told ABC News, "Since this is a personnel matter, we can't describe further the specifics of Mr. Hundley's departure from the company."

Black Cat

Woman awakens from meditation to find gym employee masturbating next to her

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A New York woman is suing her gym after she reportedly awoke from meditating to find a maintenance worker masturbating next to her, according to court documents.

Keiko Herskovitz, 55, of New York City, was lying down with her eyes closed in a studio room at Equinox's Pure Yoga West following her yoga class when an employee came in to clean the room. But when she opened her eyes, she allegedly saw "a maintenance associate, about two feet away, masturbating," court documents said.

After Herskovitz realized what he was doing, the employee "quickly covered himself with a yoga blanket and ran out of the room," according to court documents.

The suit alleges that Herskovitz, who takes classes at the studio about four times a week, alerted the studio's manager on duty. But the manager reportedly did not believe her.

Dollars

Wealthy widow who adopted and rejected Chinese child owes her part of $250M estate

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© Getty Images
A New York appeals court has found in favor of a Chinese teen who was adopted by a wealthy couple and then given up for adoption again, ruling that she is entitled to a portion of her first family's $250 million estate.

In 1996, John and Christine Svenningsen of Westchester, N.Y, adopted a baby girl from China, whom they named Emily Fuqui Svenningsen. Before finalizing the adoption, the couple, who already had four biological children, had one more biological child. Around that same time, John Svenningsen, a party goods magnate, was diagnosed with cancer, according to court documents.

On May 6, 1996, the Svenningsens signed an adoption agreement stating that they would not abandon Emily or "transfer or have [her] re-adopted," and that she would be deemed "a biological child," according to court papers in the case. The agreement also stated that Emily had the right to inherit the estate of her adopted parents, who had established a pair of trusts for their children, as well as one meant solely for Emily.

John Svenningsen died in May, 1997.

In December 2003, Christine brought Emily to The Devereux Glenholme School in Washington, Conn., a boarding school for children with special-needs. According to court papers, her lawyers talked to school administrators about putting Emily up for adoption; the school's assistant executive director, Maryann Campbell, and her husband, Fred Cass, expressed interest in adopting Emily.

On December 16, 2004, Christine voluntarily surrendered custody of Emily to Spence-Chapin Services to Families and Children, an adoption agency in New York. On May 18, 2006, Campbell and Cass formally adopted Emily.