Society's Child

Supply fears push cocoa to 10-month high

Emiko Terazono
Financial Times
Fri, 31 Aug 2012 02:26 UTC

Cocoa prices hit a 10-month high on Wednesday as uncertainty about supplies from Ivory Coast, the world's largest exporter of the commodity used to produce chocolate, triggered a rush to cover bearish positions among investors.

The benchmark cocoa price in London has jumped almost 8 per cent this week on worries that the west African country, which has overhauled the way it markets the beans, would not be able to meet its contracts, leaving trading firms without enough supplies.

NYSE Liffe December cocoa hit £1,715 a tonne on Wednesday, rising above the £1,700 level for the first time since November last year.

Cocoa traders noted the absence of natural sellers of the commodity after Ivory Coast and Ghana, which account for nearly 60 per cent of the world's production, already sold most of their crops for the 2012-13 season.

"There's not much left to stop the market going higher," said Eric Sivry, head of agricultural options at London-based brokers Marex Spectron.

Former boyfriend charged in Guang Hua Liu slaying

CBC News
Mon, 27 Aug 2012 09:05 UTC

A Toronto man has been charged in the death of his former girlfriend, just over two weeks after parts of her body were found in two separate Ontario cities.

Peel Regional Police announced Monday that Chun Qi Jiang, 40, has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Guang Hua Liu, 41.

Police said Jiang was arrested on Sunday, just over two weeks from the day that Liu was last seen alive.

"Mr. Jiang is a construction labourer and the recently estranged boyfriend of the victim," said Insp. George Koekkoek.

"This investigation is ongoing and is far from over," Koekkoek told a news conference at police headquarters in Mississauga.

Jiang lived in Scarborough near the townhome where Liu lived with her eldest son.

Neighbours told CBC News that police had recently been making inquiries about the garbage pickup routines in the area where Jiang lived.

Some of Liu's remains have yet to be found.

Woman's Torso Found in Niagara River Sparks Homicide Probe

CBC News
Thu, 30 Aug 2012 05:49 UTC

WARNING: This story contains details that some readers may find disturbing

© David Duprey/Associated Press
Niagara Police pulled a woman's torso from the Niagara River between the Maid of the Mist and the Rainbow Bridge on Thursday.

Canada - A woman's torso has been recovered from the lower Niagara River, and police say her death was a result of homicide.

Niagara Regional Police said the torso was spotted floating in the river on Wednesday afternoon.

Const. Derek Watson told CBC News in a telephone interview that "citizens saw what they believed to be a torso floating in the lower Niagara River between the Maid of the Mist and the Rainbow Bridge."

When pulled from the water, the torso was missing its arms, legs and head, Watson said.

Preliminary results from a post-mortem examination have determined that the victim is "a middle-aged Caucasian female," police reported in a news release on Thursday.

The news release said the victim had a pierced navel and "at least one caesarean section and a tubal ligation procedure."

Texas surgeon accused of hiring man to kill doctor dating his ex charged with capital murder

The Washington Post
Thu, 30 Aug 2012 04:59 UTC

Dr. Thomas Michael Dixon, David Neal Shepard

Lubbock, Texas - A plastic surgeon was charged with capital murder Thursday after prosecutors said he hired a man to kill another doctor who was dating his ex-girlfriend and paid for the murder using silver bars.

Dr. Thomas Michael Dixon of Amarillo, along with the accused gunman, David Neal Shepard, were each indicted on capital murder charges in the July death of Dr. Joseph Sonnier III, who was found fatally shot and stabbed in his home. Both men are each being held in lieu of a $10 million bond in the Lubbock County Jail.

An arrest warrant affidavit suggests a love triangle involving Dixon, Sonnier and Dixon's ex-girlfriend, who was dating Sonnier. Sonnier's family members have said he had told them that his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend had been causing problems. The woman's name isn't included in court documents.

District Attorney Matt Powell said prosecutors haven't decided whether to seek the death penalty.

Dixon's two attorneys and Shepard's public defender all declined comment Thursday. Court records describe Shepard as Dixon's business associate but don't provide details about how the men knew each other.

Police Brutality? Man Kicked by Cop Now Faces Own Charges for Stalking Roseville Girlfriend

Zac Farber and Chris Steller
Roseville Dispatch
Thu, 30 Aug 2012 20:18 UTC

But man's ex-girlfriend had little sympathy. "I'm a victim of his brutality every day," she maintained.

A YouTube video of a St. Paul police officer macing and kicking a man during an arrest for stalking a Roseville woman has gone viral.

The video is making news across the country, prompting St. Paul Police to launch a brutality investigation and suspend an officer, Jesse Zilge. (Note: Video contains obscenities and violence.)

At the same time, Eric Hightower, 30 was charged Thursday with aggravated stalking, terroristic threats and fourth-degree criminal damage to property, according to the Pioneer Press, for harassing his 20-year-old ex-girlfriend.

Hightower's girlfriend told a WCCO-AM reporter, in an interview conducted near her Roseville home, that Highwater had violated a protection order she had obtained against him.

Police Brutality! Woman Gets Body-Slammed To Pavement (TWICE) By Los Angeles Cops

Terrell Jermaine Starr
News One
Thu, 30 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC

A 34-year-old registered nurse and mother was brutally body-slammed to the pavement by two male Los Angeles Police Department officers after being pulled over for talking on her cellphone, ABC4 reports.

Michelle Jordan's (pictured) Aug. 21 takedown was caught on surveillance video from a Del Taco restaurant, not too far from a where she was stopped. The video shows her stepping out of her vehicle after she parks - a move that, traditionally, is not advised. It is commonly understood that a person who is pulled over should stay seated in their car with the ignition turned off and their hands placed firmly on the wheel to show they are not an immediate threat.

"She made some unwise moves," said her attorney Sy Nazif. "But certainly nothing that warranted a physical assault from the LAPD."

Colorado Shooting Suspect May Have Called University before Rampage

Keith Coffman
Reuters
Thu, 30 Aug 2012 07:20 UTC

James Holmes during his first court appearance on July 23. Was he 'greenbaumed'?

Accused Colorado gunman James Holmes may have phoned a University of Colorado operator just nine minutes before the shooting at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises that killed 12 people, a defense attorney said on Thursday.

Holmes' attorney, Tamara Brady, raised the possibility of such a call during a pretrial hearing in the case while questioning Dr. Lynne Fenton, a University of Colorado psychiatrist who had treated Holmes before the July movie house massacre.

"Did you know that James Holmes called that number nine minutes before the shooting started?" Brady asked Fenton, referring to a number for a campus operator.

Fenton responded that she did not know.

Holmes, a former neuroscience graduate student, is accused of opening fire on July 20 at a midnight screening of the recent Batman movie in Aurora, Colorado. In addition to those who died, 58 people were wounded in the attack.

Prosecutors have painted a picture of Holmes as a young man whose once promising academic career was in tatters as he failed graduate school oral board exams in June and one of his professors suggested he may not have been a good fit for his competitive PhD program.

"No snitching' Trend Ignored By Fed Up Residents

Alex Wigglesworth
Metro.us
Thu, 30 Aug 2012 18:30 UTC

Hunting Park resident Darnell Mann still remembers the day last summer when a shootout at the corner store at North 27th and West Sterner streets brought a bullet flying into the living room of his home.

"The store next door, the whole glass of the front door was shot out and the bullet went into the wall adjacent to my house," he said. Pockmarks in the aluminum siding and a hole ripped through the blinds are tangible scars that daily remind him of the violence. "I have security bars on my front window, so a bullet ricocheted off that and came into my living room, where my granddaughter plays at, and kind of fell on the floor." His daughter and granddaughter have since moved out of the neighborhood, fearing for the child's safety.

Corn Madness: A Russian Immigrant's View of Collapsing America

Yevgeny
ClubOrlov
Tue, 14 Aug 2012 16:05 UTC

Another guest post. Translated from the Russian by Your Humble Narrator. It's a letter sent in by one young, once optimistic Russian who finds himself marooned in some blighted Boston exurb in southern New Hampshire.

Dear Dmitry,

I hope you don't mind that this is in Russian. I think that this way I can be more completely honest. I am a relatively recent graduate of one of the many faceless post-Soviet institutions of higher learning, with a degree in philosophy. Last year I moved to the USA and married an American woman.

The question of when the modern capitalist system is going to collapse has interested me since my student years, and I have approached it from various directions: from the commonplace conspiracy theories to the serious works of Oswald Spengler and Noam Chomsky. Unfortunately, I still can't fathom what it is that is keeping this system going.

Padre Pio Shrine in South Jersey Gains Reputation for Miracles

David Simpson
Press of Atlantic City
Thu, 30 Aug 2012 06:35 UTC

© Dave Griffin
Bonnie McCann, from Galloway, tell a story of a 47 year old cancer patient that recovered from an infection after touching a Padre Pio Relic at the start of the Wednesday evening Rosary at the Padre Pio Shrine in Landisville.

Buena Borough - Hundreds gathered Wednesday night at the roadside shrine to St. Padre Pio, as they do every week.

A brother in a long beard and a brown robe spoke about faith over the roar of passing motorcycles. Attendees bowed their heads, some rubbing rosary beads. Others waited in line to touch the glove relic.

Marie D'Andrea, who founded the shrine, travels to local hospitals with the relic, which she claims brings miracles. She received the glove, which she said was worn by the Italian monk, from a priest during a trip to Italy.

"He said, 'This glove is worth more than your life. You need to really take care of it.' So I'm on top of it," she said. "I'm never going to get another one like it. And we've had so many healings from it."

She keeps a book filled with pictures and letters of claimed healings, which she calls the miracle book.

Bonnie McCann, of Galloway Township, spoke to the group about her most recent experience with the relic. Her friend, a 47-year-old man, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It was removed and he developed infections. McCann asked D'Andrea if they could bring the relic to the man.

"As true and loving as she is, Marie said, 'Where is he? Let's go right now,'" McCann told the group.

The man was in Philadelphia, so D'Andrea let McCann take the relic herself.

"I was so honored and I felt so blessed, because quite honestly Marie couldn't tell you my name, but she knew my face," McCann said.