Society's ChildS


Info

Sweden drops rape case against Julian Assange, revokes arrest warrant


RT
Fri, 19 May 2017 18:00 UTC
assange
© Global Look PressWikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange
WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange says he will not "forgive or forget," despite a Swedish prosecutor dropping the case into rape accusations against him. His attorney hailed the move as a "victory," but said there is still a threat the US will apply to extradite him from the UK.

The decision was made by Sweden's director of public prosecution, who confirmed that she decided to discontinue the investigation against the WikiLeaks co-founder.

"Director of Public Prosecution, Ms Marianne Ny, has today decided to discontinue the investigation regarding suspected rape (lesser degree) by Julian Assange," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Ny said the prosecution is not making "any statement of guilty or not" in regards to Assange.

Assange's defense lawyer, Per Samuelson, told AP that the fact that the prosecution won't admit Assange is innocent is simply a matter of them "trying to save their faces."

Comment: The government of Ecuador will ask British PM May to allow Assange safe travel to Ecuador.
A source close to the case at the Ecuadorian foreign ministry told the Press Association: "Given that the European arrest warrant no longer holds, Ecuador will now be intensifying its diplomatic efforts with the UK so that Julian Assange can gain safe passage in order to enjoy his asylum in Ecuador."

The source added Ecuador "welcomes the decision" to drop the charges against Assange.

"This decision follows the interview of Julian Assange in Ecuador's embassy in London in November 2016. Ecuador regrets that the Swedish prosecutor delayed more than four years in carrying out this interview."

It comes after prime minister Theresa May said any decision about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's arrest or otherwise is an "operational matter" for police.

Asked if she would support the UK extraditing Assange to the US, May said: "We look at extradition requests when we receive them on a case-by-case basis.

"And in relation to Julian Assange, any decision that is taken about UK action in relation to him were he to leave the Ecuadorian embassy would be an operational matter for police."

Her comments come as WikiLeaks called on the British government to "confirm or deny" whether Assange would be extradited after a rape investigation against him in Sweden was dropped on Friday.

"The UK has refused to confirm or deny whether it has already received a US extradition warrant for Julian Assange. Focus now moves to the UK," WikiLeaks tweeted.


Read More...
Arrow Down

Child predator, Rolf Harris, released from prison after 3 years to face sex abuse charges


RT
Fri, 19 May 2017 17:37 UTC
Rolf Harris
© Toby Melville / Reuters
Disgraced former TV entertainer Rolf Harris has been released from prison while facing charges of child sex abuse.

The 87-year-old was driven out of Stafford Prison in a blue Ford Focus in the early hours of Friday, before being spotted again at his home near Maidenhead in Berkshire just after 9am.

Harris, who has been behind bars for three years, is standing trial at Southwark Crown Court, where he has been appearing via videolink.

Judge Deborah Taylor told the jury that the former Animal Hospital host will now appear in court in person for the remainder of the trial, which opened on May 15.

Comment:

Read More...
Newspaper

Med student who stabbed her boyfriend with a bread knife avoids jail as it would 'damage' her career prospects

Caroline Davies
The Guardian
Fri, 19 May 2017 17:24 UTC
Lavinia Woodward
Lavinia Woodward
An Oxford University student who stabbed her boyfriend with a bread knife may not go to jail because it could damage her prospects of a medical career, a court has heard.

Aspiring heart surgeon Lavinia Woodward, 24, punched and stabbed her boyfriend during an alcohol-and-drug-fuelled row at Christ Church College. She admitted unlawfully wounding the Cambridge University student, who she met on the dating app Tinder.

Judge Ian Pringle QC, sitting at Oxford crown court, said he would take an "exceptional" course and defer sentence for four months, hinting that Woodward will not be jailed because of her talent. "It seems to me that if this was a one-off, a complete one-off, to prevent this extraordinary able young lady from not following her long-held desire to enter the profession she wishes to would be a sentence which would be too severe," he said.

"What you did will never, I know, leave you, but it was pretty awful, and normally it would attract a custodial sentence, whether it is immediate or suspended," he said.
Read More...
Heart - Black

Father arrested after police find toddler locked in a cage and babies home alone


CBS Philly
Fri, 19 May 2017 17:13 UTC
Cecil Kutz
A Pennsylvania man locked his 22-month-old son in a makeshift wooden cage and left the boy alone in a hot house with his two younger siblings, including a sister born hours earlier, police said Thursday.

Troopers acting on a tip arrived Wednesday afternoon at the North Manheim Township home, knocked on the door and, when no one answered, forced their way in.

Just inside the front door they found a 1-year-old boy in a playpen, a newborn girl in a baby seat and the toddler inside a cage made of plywood and wooden lattice, locked from the outside with a barrel bolt. The cage wasn't tall enough for the boy to stand.

Police arrested their father, Cecil Kutz, 38, on child endangerment charges when he returned home. He remained jailed Thursday and didn't yet have an attorney.
Read More...
Handcuffs

Australian farmer sentenced to 7 years for rape and slitting the throat of his coworker


7 News
Wed, 17 May 2017 17:09 UTC
police scene
A jealous farmer has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years, for tying up a worker and raping her, before driving his victim to a remote location and slitting her throat.

The woman asked for his phone to listen to music as she died, then called triple zero.

The incident occurred on a remote farm, where a woman's workplace almost became her grave.

The woman was packing for a flight to see a former boyfriend when it began.

Cairns Supreme Court heard John McDonald "couldn't handle that she was leaving."
Read More...
Eye 1

Neo-Nazi back home from Azov Battalion: 'I can kill a person without any remorse'

Vz.ru, translated by Tom Winter
Fort Russ News
Fri, 19 May 2017 16:19 UTC
Mikael Skillt in Donetsk
Mikael Skillt in Donetsk.
The Swedish neo-Nazi, former member of the Ku Klux Klan and sniper Mikael Skillt, spoke about the fighting in the South-East of Ukraine, in which he took part until August 2015.

The Norwegian edition of Det hvite raseriet, the text of which is quoted by InoSMI, notes that Skillt became a famous person in Kiev: thousands of people monitored his publications in social networks, he was interviewed by Newsweek and the BBC.

[We found the BBC interview, and insert this passage from it:
In a telephone conversation from an undisclosed location, Mr Skillt told me more about his duties: "I have at least three purposes in the Azov Battalion: I am a commander of a small reconnaissance unit, I am also a sniper, and sometimes I work as a special coordinator for clearing houses and going into civilian areas." [our emphasis]
Read More...
Biohazard

Over 23,000 people now infected with Cholera in Yemen


Sputnik
Fri, 19 May 2017 14:00 UTC
Cholera Yemen
© Reuters/ Khaled Abdullah
Over 23,400 suspected cholera cases and 242 deaths have been reported in 18 governorates of Yemen, according to the World Health Organization branch in Yemen.

An unprecedented surge in the number of cholera cases has been registered in Yemen, which disease outbreak occurring in 18 out of 21 governorates of the country, the World Health Organization branch in Yemen said Friday.

"Unprecedented surge in #cholera cases in #Yemen. Over 23,400 suspected cholera cases and 242 deaths have been reported in 18 governorates," the organization wrote on Twitter.
Read More...
Snow Globe

Latest 'revenge porn' weapon? 3D sex avatars


RT
Fri, 19 May 2017 10:38 UTC
revenge porn
© Fabian Bimmer / Reuters
The growth of virtual reality pornography could see vindictive exes creating sex avatars of former lovers to carry out perverse and violent acts on them, experts have warned.

Newcastle University researchers have been studying the rise of virtual reality porn, which allows users to step into the heart of the action using headsets such as the Facebook-owned Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR.

They have warned that the headsets allow people to experience extreme, degrading or even abusive imagery in an alarmingly 'real' way, and could challenge the laws of consent. Researchers say with the availability of 3D imaging tools and the rise in DIY porn, models based on real people could soon become the future of revenge porn.

Comment: Wonderful. A new technological means for people to exercise their pathological tendencies.

Read More...
People

Clashes in Brazil as hundreds descend on President Temer's HQ demanding impeachment


RT
Fri, 19 May 2017 15:15 UTC
protest against Brazil's President Michel Temer
© Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters
Protests have erupted in Brazil's major cities over President Michel Temer's decision not to step down, despite allegations of direct involvement in the unfolding bribery scandal.

Around 5,000 people marched in Rio de Janeiro, chanting "direct elections, now" and carrying banners reading "out with Temer."

Anti-Temer demonstrations have also been held in San Paolo and the country's capital, Brasília, where demonstrators gathered in front of the parliament building. Hundreds flocked to the presidential headquarters in the country's capital shouting "Temer out."

Comment: And from just a few ago: Brazil protesters and police clash in first general strike in decades

Read More...
Cult

Another suit alleges Baylor football players gang-raped female student, called it 'bonding ritual'

Alex Johnson
NBC News
Fri, 19 May 2017 01:51 UTC
baylor_gang rape
© NBC News
New, eye-popping accusations were added to the sexual abuse scandal at Baylor University in a lawsuit made public Wednesday, alleging that football players recorded the gang-rape of a female volleyball player — and referred to it as a "bonding ritual."

The scandal at Baylor, involving multiple lawsuits alleging unchecked criminal behavior in the football program, has already led to the firing of President Kenneth Starr and football coach Art Briles.

The new lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Waco, Texas, where Baylor is based, alleges that the volleyball player was raped by as many as eight football players on Feb. 11, 2012, about a month before two other female Baylor students were allegedly gang-raped by football players.

It's at least the seventh suit brought against Baylor — the nation's largest Baptist university — under Title IX, a federal law that bars discrimination based on sex at educational institutions. At least five other lawsuits have been filed under different provisions of federal law.
Read More...