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China Forced Abortion Family Agree to Settlement


The Telegraph, UK
Wed, 11 Jul 2012 03:04 UTC
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© Rex FeaturesReports said Ms Feng had been forced into the abortion after not paying a 40,000 yuan “fine” which would have allowed her to have the second child
The family of a woman forced to undergo an abortion because she ran afoul of China's one-child policy has accepted a cash settlement of £7,100 from the government.

Feng Jianmei's husband, Deng Jiyuan, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the family accepted the settlement of 70,600 yuan (£7,100) because they wanted to return to a normal life.

Feng was forced to abort her baby seven months into her pregnancy because she did not have 40,000 yuan to pay the fine for having a second child. The June incident caused a public uproar and renewed criticism against China's tough family planning rules.
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Stormtrooper

Police Brutality: Rhode Island Cop Still Employed Despite Conviction of Kicking Woman to Head

Carlos Miller
Pix IQ
Sun, 08 Jul 2012 10:40 UTC

A Rhode Island cop who was convicted of a felony after he was caught on video kicking a handcuffed woman to the head is still employed as a police officer.

Lincoln police officer Edward Krawetz kicked the woman in the head in 2009 claiming self-defense because apparently he was in fear for his life. He didn't go to trial until March of this year.

He was convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison but because he is a cop, the judge suspended the sentence, meaning he didn't serve a day in jail, even though he already had a prior conviction for assaulting a jogger.

He will also collect his pension once he reaches retirement age.

And now a panel consisting of three cops will determine if he gets to keep his job. And it will take them at least two months to come to that decision in which Krawetz will continue receiving cop benefits, even though he is not getting paid at the moment.

And to think that if it wasn't for that surveillance camera, he would still be on the streets, unleashing his fury on more citizens.
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Attention

Florida Just Says No To GM Mosquitoes

Brett Smith
RedOrbit
Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:49 UTC
GM Mosquito
© Henrik Larsson / Shutterstock
Florida residents are voicing their opposition to the release of genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes by a British pest control company; despite the fact that the pesky critters were engineered to impede the spread of dengue fever.

Dengue Fever, which comes from a virus spread by the bite of an infected mosquito, was first recognized in the 1950s, yet has become a leading cause of hospitalization and death among children in tropical Asian and Latin American countries. The incidence of dengue has increased by 30 times in the last 50 years and, according to the World Health Organization, 2.5 billion people are now at risk.

Mila de Mier, the author of a 96,000-signature online Florida petition, said she began her campaign because she was worried about the lack of scientific understanding surrounding the full impact of the mosquitoes on the Florida ecosystem.

"We need more data. If something goes wrong the consequences could be catastrophic not only for humans but also the whole ecosystem, and I don't want my family being used as laboratory rats for this," de Mier told the Guardian.

Oxitec, the U.K. company responsible for the mosquitoes, has developed the insects in laboratories over the past 10 years and released them into the open for the first time in 2009 on the Cayman Islands. Oxitec's GM mosquitoes have also been released on a trial basis in Brazil.
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Stormtrooper

Hawaii Airport Security Guard Assaults, Threatens to Kill Videographer

Carlos Miller
Pix IQ
Fri, 06 Jul 2012 03:15 UTC

A longstanding conflict between G4S security guards and employees of a Hawaiian commuter airline came to a physical clash that was caught on video.

The video shows a security guard named "Erik" trying to pull the camera out of the hands of an airline employee while repeating, "you don't take picture of me."

The guard pushes him, shoves him, spits on him and ultimately threatens to kill him.

"I'm going to kill this fucker. I don't care. You don't take picture of me, brah."

The owner of the commuter airline sent the video to Los Angeles photo activist Shawn Nee, who forwarded it to me.

I've reached out to the owner for further comment and will update accordingly.
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Attention

California Crumbles: San Bernardino Bankrupt. Up Next: Scranton?

Alan Farnham
ABC News
Wed, 11 Jul 2012 00:00 UTC

The drumbeat of cities filing bankruptcy grows louder: San Bernardino has become the third California city in two weeks to go bust, after Stockton (the biggest U.S. city so far to file) and the small Sierra hamlet of Mammoth Lakes.

The L.A. Times reports that San Bernardino's filing is certain to heighten worries about the fiscal solvency of other California towns. But the next bankruptcy might not come from California: Scranton, Pa., is so cash-strapped that on Friday it made an unprecedented move and cut the pay of its municipal workers to $7.25 an hour--minimum wage.

While Scranton's crisis has been sudden, San Bernadino's has been years in the making: An analysis prepared by the city's finance department blames "accounting errors, deficit spending, lack of revenue growth and increases in pension and debt costs." The recession hit the city hard. San Diego County has the third-highest rate of foreclosures in the nation.

The "accounting errors" may not have been innocent.

According to San Bernardino's city attorney and as reported in the L.A. Times, budget officials for over a decade falsified financial reports, in an attempt to mask the city's problems. "The mayor and the council were not given accurate documents," the Times quotes the attorney as saying.

The city's deficit stands at $46 million, despite the fact that San Bernardino has cut its workforce 20 percent in the past four years.
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X

Judge Blocks Law (Again) That Would Close Mississippi's Last Abortion Clinic

Emily Wagster Pettus
The Christian Science Monitor
Wed, 11 Jul 2012 00:00 UTC
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© The Associated Press/Rogelio V. Solis, FileAbortion opponents Ron Nederhoed, center, and Ashley Sigrest, left, argue with Jackson Women's Health Organization's administrator Shannon Brewer, right, outside Mississippi's only abortion clinic in Jackson, Miss.
District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III extended his order blocking a Mississippi state law that would shut down Mississippi's only abortion clinic. No word yet on when a final ruling from the judge will come.

Jackson, Mississippi - A federal judge on Wednesday continued to block a law that threatened to shut down Mississippi's only abortion clinic and make it nearly impossible for a woman in one of the poorest states in the U.S. to get the procedure.

U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III temporarily blocked the state law July 1 and extended that order Wednesday. He did not say how long it would last.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states can't place undue burdens or substantial obstacles for women seeking abortion. The law would require anyone performing clinic abortions to be an OB-GYN with privileges to admit patients to a local hospital. The doctors at the clinic do not have those privileges, and the clinic says the privileges aren't medically necessary.
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Heart - Black

Father Arrested after Daughters Found Dead in Wisconsin

Amy Forliti
Boston.com
Wed, 11 Jul 2012 00:00 UTC
Aaron Schaffhausen
© The Associated Press/St. Croix County Sheriff's OfficeAaron Schaffhausen
River Falls, Wisconsin - A man suspected of killing his three young daughters contacted their mother out of the blue, asked to see them and later called her back to say he had hurt them, police said Wednesday.

Aaron Schaffhausen, 34, turned himself in to River Falls police late Tuesday afternoon. He was being held on suspicion of first-degree intentional homicide, city administrator Scot Simpson said Wednesday. Formal charges are pending and it was unclear whether Schaffhausen had an attorney.

Officers discovered the bodies of 11-year-old Amara Schaffhausen, 8-year-old Sophie Schaffhausen and 5-year-old Cecilia Schaffhausen on Tuesday after their mother called the city police, Simpson said. Jessica Schaffhausen said she had received a phone call from her ex-husband that made her concerned for the safety of their children, he said.

A marriage announcement in The (Springfield, Ill.) State Journal-Register shows Aaron Schaffhausen and Jessica Schaffhausen married in 2000. Court records indicate they divorced in Wisconsin this past January.

Police Chief Roger Leque said during a news conference Wednesday that Aaron Schaffhausen lived in Minot, North Dakota. He contacted his ex-wife on Tuesday and asked for an unplanned visit with the girls.

Jessica Schaffhausen, who wasn't home, agreed. Her ex-husband arrived at the River Falls home the girls shared with their mother and the children's baby sitter left, Leque said.
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Question

Tetra Pak heir Hans Kristian Rausing treated in hospital after police discover body of his wife in their London home

Esther Addley and Sandra Laville
The Guardian
Wed, 11 Jul 2012 15:57 UTC
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© Alan Davidson/WireImageThe Tetra Pak heir Hans Kristian Rausing and his wife, Eva, who was found dead in Belgravia, west London.
One of the heirs to the multibillion-pound Tetra Pak empire is being treated at a hospital as police wait to interview him in connection with the death of his wife.

Hans Kristian Rausing was arrested on Monday after officers discovered the body of his 48-year-old wife, Eva, at their home in Belgravia, west London.

Rausing - who was initially arrested in south London on suspicion of possession of drugs - was transferred to a hospital from police custody on Tuesday.

Scotland Yard said there was a police presence at the hospital, but it is understood that Rausing has yet to be interviewed over the death of his wife.

Her death is being treated as "unexplained" and is being investigated by the homicide and serious crime command of the Metropolitan police.
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Ambulance

86 Year Old Woman Brutally Beaten at Home

Alex Wigglesworth
Metro.us
Wed, 11 Jul 2012 15:17 UTC
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© Rikard Larma/MetroCity crime scene.
An elderly bedridden woman, 86, was viciously assaulted during a home invasion robbery in the Rhawnhurst section of Northeast Philadelphia early this morning, police said.

The victim told investigators that she was sleeping in her residence at the Meadowview Apartments on the 8100 block of Algon Avenue when, shortly before 1:30 a.m., she was awakened by an unknown man

While the woman was unable to describe her attacker, she told police she heard him say "money." When she began to scream, he beat her.
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Bizarro Earth

Road Rage: Philadelphia Man Threatened Driver with Crossbow

Alex Wigglesworth
Metro Philadelphia
Wed, 11 Jul 2012 15:02 UTC
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© Wikipedia/Wilfried Wittkowsky
Police arrested a man yesterday evening for allegedly driving erratically, then threatening another motorist with a crossbow during a road rage outburst.

According to investigators, officers responded to a Shoprite parking lot at Frankford Avenue and Knorr Street in Mayfair for a report of a person with a weapon around 6:30 p.m. They arrested Kenneth Butterworth, 44, of the 3400 block of Friendship Street a short time later.

A man told them that while he was driving west on Harbison Avenue, he saw a man, later identified as Butterworth, at the wheel of a Dodge Stratus that was weaving in and out of traffic. The man said he changed lanes to the left of the Dodge, passed it and changed back to the right lane in front of the car.
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