Annual report from Coalition for the Homeless paints bleak picture but expresses hope for new De Blasio administration
The number of homeless people staying overnight in New York City shelters has eclipsed the record-high population reported last year, reaching an average of more than 50,000 people per night, according to a new study.

The annual report released Wednesday by the Coalition for the Homeless paints a bleak picture of the current state of homeless in New York City and offers a series of specific policy recommendations for new mayor Bill de Blasio.

In the past year, more men, women and children than ever before sought shelter, up 7% from 50,135 people in January 2013 to 53,615 people in January 2014. Another staggering figure: the number of homeless children sleeping in shelters has climbed 8% in the past year, with 22,712 children sleeping in homeless shelters in January 2014. And the average stay for homeless families with children stretched by two months to 14.5 months, another record high.

A rampaging elephant smashed a house to bits in an Indian village, but turned back and rescued a baby trapped in the rubble, a couple have claimed. Dipak Mahato and his wife Lalita say a male elephant attacked their house in a village in West Bengal's Purulia district, but saved their ten-month-old daughter from beneath the debris.

Mr Mahato told The Times of India (ToI) his family were eating at about 8pm when they suddenly heard a "cracking sound" and crashing noises coming from the bedroom.

"We ran over and were shocked to see the wall in pieces and a tusker standing over our baby," he said. "She was crying and there were huge chunks of the wall lying all around and on the cot.

"The tusker started moving away but when our child started crying again, it returned and used its trunk to remove the debris."

Ms Mahato said they watched in amazement as the animal gently removed pieces of brick and stone that had fallen on her daughter.

"I can't believe that the tusker saved my daughter after breaking down the door and smashing a wall."

The child was taken to Deben Mahato Sadar Hospital and treated for external injuries, according to the newspaper. She is expected to make a full recovery.

Jhalda ranger Samir Bose told ToI the animal has damaged at least 17 houses in Mathadi, Kasidih and Ghoshra village areas.

"Our people have public health guaranteed free of charge. Did you have that in the US?"

"I thought I had freedom of speech here," the man said to the police officer.
"You don't. You just lost it," the officer replied.

Once again, the U.S. government is attempting to police the world when it should be policing its own law enforcement agencies. We've got a warship cruising the Black Sea, fighter jets patrolling the Baltic skies, and a guided-missile destroyer searching the South China Sea for the downed Malaysia Airlines flight. All the while, back home in the U.S., our constitutional rights are going to hell in a hand basket, with homeowners being threatened with eviction for attempting to live off the grid, old women jailed for feeding crows, and citizens armed with little more than a cell phone arrested for daring to record police activities.

Robin Speronis now finds herself threatened with eviction from her own Florida home for daring to live off the grid, independent of city utilities such as water and electricity. City officials insist the Cape Coral resident's chosen way of life violates international property maintenance code and city ordinances. Mary Musselman, also a Florida resident, is being held in jail without bond for "feeding wild animals." The 81-year-old Musselman, on probation after being charged with feeding bears near her home, was arrested after officers discovered her leaving bread out for crows. Meanwhile, Brandy Berning of Florida was forced to spend a night in jail after recording her conversation with an officer who pulled her over for a routine traffic stop.

Welcome to the farce that passes for law and order in America today, where, as I point out in my book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, crime is low, militarized police activity is on the rise, and Americans are being penalized for living off the grid, feeding wild animals, holding Bible studies in their back yard, growing vegetables in their front yard, collecting rainwater, and filming the police.

Man found guilty of murder by all-white jury in deeply flawed trial had one of America's longest-ever waits for exoneration

Glenn Ford has been freed from the notorious Angola prison in Louisiana having lived under the shadow of the death sentence for 30 years. He becomes one of the longest-serving death row inmates in US history to be exonerated.

Ford was released on the order of a judge in Shreveport after Louisiana state prosecutors indicated they could no longer stand by his conviction. In late 2013 the state notified Ford's lawyers that a confidential informant had come forward with new information implicating another man who had been among four co-defendants originally charged in the case.

He was sentenced to death in 1984 for the murder the previous November of Isadore Rozeman, an older white man who ran a Shreveport jewellery and watch repair shop. The defendant had worked as an odd jobs man for Rozeman. In interviews with police Ford said that he had been asked to pawn a .38 revolver and some jewellery similar to that taken from Rozeman's shop at the time of the murder by another man who was among the initial suspects.

Asked as he walked away from the prison gates about his release, Ford told WAFB-TV, "It feels good; my mind is going in all kind of directions. It feels good."

Authorities are investigating the possibility that the pilot of the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370 committed suicide, the director of the CIA has revealed.

John Brennan, head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), said: 'I think you cannot discount any theory', when asked if it was possible the pilot deliberately crashed the Boeing 777.

His intervention came as Malaysian police say they are carrying out psychological profiles of everyone on board the plane, which vanished on Saturday carrying 239 people after taking off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing.

The theory could offer an explanation as to how the plane 'disappeared' from civilian radar tracking its movements, as the pilot could simply have switched off the transponder shortly before it vanished.

Gas Leak Reported Just Before Blast That Also Left 22 Injured

Two people are dead and more than a dozen people are missing after a massive explosion rocked East Harlem, leveling two buildings and sending smoke and flames billowing into the air. At least 22 others were also injured in the blast, which happened around 9:15 a.m. Wednesday on Park Avenue at 116th Street.

The explosion reduced two, five-story buildings to rubble, shattered store windows for blocks and hurled glass, bricks and other debris throughout the neighborhood. Witnesses said the explosion could be heard 40 blocks away.

"I came out, looked up and a building was just gone," witness Mack Mayor said. "It's just like a war zone out here." "The smoke started to rise. It looked like something fell because it wasn't like a fire. It just looked like debris smoke, similar to 9/11," said witness Samuel Paul, who was on the 15th floor of a building on 125th Street.

Hours later, firefighters were still battling the flames as crews began sifting through the debris.

An off-duty Philadelphia police officer reports that late Saturday morning, the victim was walking his dog when it stopped to defecate on the off-duty officer's yard. Allegedly, the officer began yelling at the victim, demanding he remove the feces from the yard immediately.

The conversation escalated into an argument, and eventually the victim left. He returned, however, a short time later without his dog, and began arguing with the off-duty officer again.

A fight ensued, during which the officer pulled out his weapon and fired backwards at the victim, who was behind the officer at the time and was struck in the leg.

The victim was carted off to a nearby hospital, where he was treated for his injuries and released. The off-duty officer was also treated for facial cuts and bruises.

Israel expressed "regret" Tuesday over the shooting of a Jordanian judge at a border crossing, but its army insisted he had attacked soldiers and tried to grab a gun.

The shooting on Monday set off a diplomatic row between Israel and Amman - which signed a peace treaty 20 years ago - with Jordan's prime minister saying Israel is "completely responsible" and demanding an apology for the "hideous" shooting.

The Israeli army said 38-year-old Raed Zeiter, a Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship who worked as a judge in Amman, had charged at the soldiers with a metal pole while shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest), prompting them to fire at his legs.

"The suspect then began to strangle a soldier and the force resorted to using live fire once again," killing the man, the army said.

It said its preliminary findings were based on extensive questioning of witnesses to the event - which took place at the Allenby Bridge crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan - and that a military police investigation was ongoing.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights disputed the army's account, saying one of the soldiers pushed Zeiter after he had disembarked from a bus with other passengers so that Israeli soldiers could search it.

Zeiter responded in kind and other soldiers joined the scuffle, with one of them firing three rounds at his chest, the PCHR said, citing "a witness."

He was left bleeding for 30 minutes without any medical help before an Israeli ambulance came to retrieve the body, the group said.

"PCHR condemns the killing of Zeiter in cold blood... and urges the international community to act immediately to stop the crimes of the (Israeli) occupation forces," it said.

Hundreds of Palestinians turned out Tuesday for the funeral of Zeiter, accompanying the body - which was wrapped in a Palestinian flag - to its burial place in his family's northern West Bank hometown of Nablus.

"They killed my only son in cold blood," said Zeiter's father Alaa, who had travelled from Amman.

"My son was unarmed; he wouldn't even know how to use a weapon."

At least one building collapsed and several more were thought to be on fire following a massive explosive in Harlem that left nearly a dozen people injured, early reports suggest.

As emergency crews and firemen from across New York City rushed to 116th Street and Park Avenue on the Upper East Side, a large plume of dark smoke fanned across the city just as the morning rush hour was coming to an end.

It was visible within minutes from the bustling heart of commercial Midtown.

Witnesses, many on their way to work and some still in their apartments, said they had heard a very loud blast from where the apartment building once stood at East 115th St and Park Avenue in Harlem.

First reports said the building, which is thought to have been about five storeys, had been devastated by the blast.