Indiana - Prosecutors on Wednesday charged two couples here with conspiring to sell a newborn baby for $300 in a deal that would have put the child in the care of a convicted child molester and convicted child abuser.
The three-count indictment includes felony child-selling charges against all four defendants, as well as felony forgery and conspiracy to commit forgery charges.
According to prosecutors, Michael Overby, a 57-year-old convicted child molester, arranged to buy the baby from Rose Faucett, the child's 36-year-old mother.
Society's Child
There is a reason why the wealthiest one percent of all Americans control 40 percent of all the wealth in the United States. The system is designed to funnel all of the wealth to them and to the government. Average Americans are experiencing a declining standard of living and it is not by accident.
Just check out some of the ways that our wealth is being taken from us....
A Durham man convicted of fraud for selling bread that was falsely labeled as gluten-free has been sentenced to at least 9 years in prison.
WRAL-TV reports that Paul Evan Seelig could serve up to 11 years in prison under the sentence handed down Tuesday. The owner of Great Specialty Bread Co. had been convicted of 23 counts of fraud.
WRAL-TV reports that Paul Evan Seelig could serve up to 11 years in prison under the sentence handed down Tuesday. The owner of Great Specialty Bread Co. had been convicted of 23 counts of fraud.
French police fined a woman for wearing a full-face Islamic veil, the first reported enforcement of a ban on the garment on the day it came into effect. 
The young woman, born in 1983, was fined 150 euros (£133) "without incident" in a shopping centre in Mureaux, northwest of Paris, early Monday evening, the source said, without elaborating on exactly what she was wearing.
France on Monday became the first country in Europe to apply a ban on the wearing of full-face coverings, including the Islamic niqab. At least two niqab-wearing women were arrested the same day for protesting the ban.
French police have voiced fears the law will be impossible to enforce, since they have not been empowered to use force to remove head coverings, and could face resistance in already tense immigrant districts.
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French officials estimate that only around 2,000 women, from a total Muslim population estimated at between four and six million, wear the full-face veil
French officials estimate that only around 2,000 women, from a total Muslim population estimated at between four and six million, wear the full-face veil
France on Monday became the first country in Europe to apply a ban on the wearing of full-face coverings, including the Islamic niqab. At least two niqab-wearing women were arrested the same day for protesting the ban.
French police have voiced fears the law will be impossible to enforce, since they have not been empowered to use force to remove head coverings, and could face resistance in already tense immigrant districts.
Two Muslim women wearing face veils were arrested on Monday as France because the first country to enforce a ban on full face coverings.
Kenza Drider, a 32-year-old, travelled to Paris from her home in Provence to force a confrontation with police, and was one of those arrested.
There were minor scuffles as officers apprehended her outside Notre Dame Cathedral together with another niqab-wearer staging an illegal demonstration against the new law.
Technically, the women could now face fines of 150 euros, or 132 pounds, as well as citizenship lessons.
But Alexis Marsan, a public order official, said they were solely given warnings for taking part in an illegal gathering.
Five men and another women were also held for taking part in the demonstration.
© AFP
Kenza Drider demonstrates against the ban of the Burka in front of the Notre Dame cathedral
Kenza Drider demonstrates against the ban of the Burka in front of the Notre Dame cathedral
There were minor scuffles as officers apprehended her outside Notre Dame Cathedral together with another niqab-wearer staging an illegal demonstration against the new law.
Technically, the women could now face fines of 150 euros, or 132 pounds, as well as citizenship lessons.
But Alexis Marsan, a public order official, said they were solely given warnings for taking part in an illegal gathering.
Five men and another women were also held for taking part in the demonstration.
Vienna - Over 800 cases of abuse in Catholic institutions in Austria have been reported so far, a commission tasked with investigating abuse cases announced on Wednesday.
A total 837 abuse victims approached the commission, which was set up by the Austrian Catholic Church last year after it was hit by a wave of abuse revelations, commission head Waltraud Klasnic told a press conference.
Three quarters of the victims were male, with the most cases -- about 20 percent -- reported in northern Upper Austria province, followed by Vienna and western Tyrol, according to a commission report summarising its first-year findings.
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Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights
Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights
The anti-gay Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights is going on the attack against "those who are distorting the truth about priestly sexual abuse."
The group bought an expensive full-page ad in The New York Times Monday that places the blames for the church's scandals on "homosexuality, not pedophilia."
And perhaps most shockingly, it also claimed that some children were active participants in the abuse.
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In case another volcano should blow its top or air-traffic controllers decide to stop work, you need to know your rights when flights go wrong. They are most easily summed up as: "All European airlines have an open-ended duty of care to passengers."
A year ago, an unhelpful Icelandic volcano named Eyjafjallajökull erupted. Computer modelling suggested ash from the volcano could spread across the British Isles and northern Europe. A progressive shutdown of airspace began on 14 April 2010. Almost a week later, under the clearest of skies - and under intense pressure from the airlines - the Civil Aviation Authority allowed flying to resume.
During the closure, tens of thousands of flights were cancelled; eight million individual journeys were disrupted and airlines collectively lost around half a billion pounds.
Law enforcement organizations are making tens of thousands of requests for private electronic information from companies such as Sprint, Facebook and AOL, but few detailed statistics are available, according to a privacy researcher.
Law enforcement organizations are making tens of thousands of requests for private electronic information from companies such as Sprint, Facebook and AOL, but few detailed statistics are available, according to a privacy researcher.
Police and other agencies have "enthusiastically embraced" asking for e-mail, instant messages and mobile-phone location data, but there's no U.S. federal law that requires the reporting of requests for stored communications data, wrote Christopher Soghoian, a doctoral candidate at the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University, in a newly published paper.
"Unfortunately, there are no reporting requirements for the modern surveillance methods that make up the majority of law enforcement requests to service providers and telephone companies," Soghoian wrote. "As such, this surveillance largely occurs off the books, with no way for Congress or the general public to know the true scale of such activities."
That's in contrast to traditional wiretaps and "pen registers," which record non-content data around a particular communication, such as the number dialed or e-mail address that a communication was sent to. The U.S. Congress mandates that it should receive reports on these requests, which are compiled by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Soghoian wrote.
Law enforcement organizations are making tens of thousands of requests for private electronic information from companies such as Sprint, Facebook and AOL, but few detailed statistics are available, according to a privacy researcher.
Police and other agencies have "enthusiastically embraced" asking for e-mail, instant messages and mobile-phone location data, but there's no U.S. federal law that requires the reporting of requests for stored communications data, wrote Christopher Soghoian, a doctoral candidate at the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University, in a newly published paper.
"Unfortunately, there are no reporting requirements for the modern surveillance methods that make up the majority of law enforcement requests to service providers and telephone companies," Soghoian wrote. "As such, this surveillance largely occurs off the books, with no way for Congress or the general public to know the true scale of such activities."
That's in contrast to traditional wiretaps and "pen registers," which record non-content data around a particular communication, such as the number dialed or e-mail address that a communication was sent to. The U.S. Congress mandates that it should receive reports on these requests, which are compiled by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Soghoian wrote.
A Maine judge handed down a 15-year prison sentence to a woman convicted of sexually abusing her 2-year-old daughter and streaming the acts over the Internet to a teenager in the United Kingdom.
Thirty-three year-old Julie Carr received a 20-year sentence last week after she was convicted on child pornography charges, according to court documents.
U.S. District Judge John Woodcock imposed the second sentence Tuesday, which will run concurrently with the first.
Carr was convicted of producing child pornography and gross sexual assault and exploitation of a minor.
"When I see child-pornography, I ask myself: Where are the parents? Where are the people who are supposed to be protecting the child?," Woodcock said, according to the court transcript. "Well, Ms. Carr, in your case, we know where the mother was."
The acts took place in June 2009 when Carr used a webcam to deliver four live videos of herself performing oral sex on her youngest daughter, according to the documents.
The videos were sent to Nicholas Wilde, then 19, in West Midlands, England, after meeting on an internet dating site.
They exchanged messages for approximately 10 hours over the month in which the crime occurred, accoridng to the documents.
Thirty-three year-old Julie Carr received a 20-year sentence last week after she was convicted on child pornography charges, according to court documents.
U.S. District Judge John Woodcock imposed the second sentence Tuesday, which will run concurrently with the first.
Carr was convicted of producing child pornography and gross sexual assault and exploitation of a minor.
"When I see child-pornography, I ask myself: Where are the parents? Where are the people who are supposed to be protecting the child?," Woodcock said, according to the court transcript. "Well, Ms. Carr, in your case, we know where the mother was."
The acts took place in June 2009 when Carr used a webcam to deliver four live videos of herself performing oral sex on her youngest daughter, according to the documents.
The videos were sent to Nicholas Wilde, then 19, in West Midlands, England, after meeting on an internet dating site.
They exchanged messages for approximately 10 hours over the month in which the crime occurred, accoridng to the documents.
Comment: Al-Qaeda seems to be in on the act too, coming to Sarkozy's aid as France invades two African countries and institutes immoral laws against a religious minority that would have made the Vichy government proud.