Society's ChildS


Ambulance

Vancouver, Washington homeowner shoots and kills intruder

Evan Sernoffsky
KING5 News
Sat, 25 Aug 2012 13:12 UTC
Image
© Unknown
A homeowner shot and killed an intruder after the man apparently gained entry through an unsecured door and forced his way into a bedroom, deputies said.

Shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday, a Washington State Patrol Trooper was processing a suspected DUI driver half a block from the residence near the 3700 block of Northeast 54th Avenue.

The trooper saw a man stumbling down the sidewalk mumbling incoherently. While troopers were looking for the man, they got a 911 call from the homeowner about the intruder, said Sgt. Kevin Allais with the Clark County Sheriff's Office.

The mumbling man police were looking for matched the description of the 42-year-old intruder who was shot and killed.

Deputies did not release any names and were investigating.
Read More...
Stormtrooper

Best of the Web: Hysterical Police Wounded New York Shooting Victims

David Ariosto
koat.com
Sat, 25 Aug 2012 11:56 UTC
CNN Shooting
© RobFrehse /CNN
Gunman who fatally shot former co-worker killed in gun battle with police

All nine people injured in Friday's shooting in front of the Empire State Building were wounded by police gunfire, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters Saturday.

The officers unloaded a total of 16 rounds at a disgruntled former apparel designer, killing him after he shot and killed a co-worker and engaged in a gunbattle with police, authorities have said.

Authorities said an investigation is under way after one officer shot nine rounds and another shot seven. Three victims suffered gunshot wounds, while the remaining six were hit by fragments.

Police identified the gunman as Jeffrey Johnson, 58, who was apparently laid off from his job as a designer of women's accessories at Hazan Import Co. last year.
Read More...
Dollar

Greek island fire ravages unique export industry

Dalton Bennet
ajc.com
Fri, 24 Aug 2012 11:36 UTC
Chios fires
© Associated Press/Icon PressA man holding a makeshift fire broom helps to contain a major forest blaze on the Greek eastern Aegean Sea island of Chios on Sunday, Aug. 19, 2012. Hundreds of firefighters, soldiers and volunteers are struggling to tame a fire that has already burnt some 7,000 hectares of forest, cultivated land and groves of the island's famed mastic trees. Smoke from the blaze, which was swept on by gale-force winds, was carried as far as the southern island of Crete, more than 350 kilometers (230 miles) away
In response to Greece's financial crisis, villagers on the eastern island of Chios carried on with what their ancestors had been profitably doing for centuries: patiently carving lines on mastic trees.

But much of the island's trademark mastic gum industry went up in scented smoke over the past week when a wildfire ravaged the world's only mastic tree plantations during the heart of the harvest season.

As firefighters on Friday put out the last flare-ups from the six-day blaze, farmers said up to a quarter of the island's mastic groves have been wiped out.

In cash terms, producers stand to lose up to €3 million ($3.75 million) a year, because after replanting, it takes up to a decade before producers can start tapping the trees for their aromatic gum.

"Imagine that a farmer who produces mastic will now lose this economic benefit ... for the next 8 years," said Giannis Stoupakis, who recently opened a local factory to produce export-quality, mastic-flavored alcoholic drinks.

With its distinctive flavor, the gum-like resin - believed to have served in ancient times as an early form of chewing gum that was prized for its medicinal properties - is only produced by trees in certain parts of southern Chios that favor the trees' slow growth. More than half the crop is exported for use in confectionery, cooking and cosmetics.
Read More...
Cell Phone

Apple awarded over $1bn in Samsung patent infringement trial

Charles Arthur
The Guardian
Sat, 25 Aug 2012 05:20 UTC
Image
© Ahn Young-Joon/APSamsung have been ordered to pay Apple over $1bn in damages after a jury found it infringed patents on smartphones and tablets.
Apple has been awarded more than $1bn in damages after its rival smartphone and tablet manufacturer Samsung was found to have copied critical features of its iPhone and iPad.

The US jury stunned observers by returning a decision after just two and a half days' deliberation following four weeks of legal argument.

The jurors rejected every single one of the South Korean company's patent claims, and backed Apple's claim that Samsung had breached US antitrust laws by trying to keep its wireless patents as a monopoly.

The decision means that Apple has gained a major weapon in its fight against Samsung
, which is the biggest maker of smartphones and mobile phones in the world, and the biggest of the Android handset makers.
Read More...
Arrow Down

China train crash hurts 24; bridge failure kills 3


The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fri, 24 Aug 2012 11:51 UTC
Image
© The Associated PressDamaged vehicles lie upside-down near a collapsed section of the Yangmingtan Bridge in Harbin in northeast China's Heilongjiang province Friday, Aug. 24, 2012.
Beijing - Two transportation disasters struck a northeastern Chinese province, with a bridge collapse Friday upending four trucks and killing three people and a collision of passenger trains at a railway station injuring at least 24 people.

The trucks plunged 30 meters (100 feet) after the bridge collapsed early Friday in Heilongjiang province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Footage on state television showed the trucks crushed upside down, and officials reported three deaths.

Xinhua said it was at least the sixth major bridge collapse across the country since July last year.

The train collision occurred Thursday evening at the Jiamusi railway
Image
© The Associated PressOverturned trucks lie near a collapsed section of the Yangmingtan Bridge in Harbin in northeast China's Heilongjiang province Friday, Aug. 24, 2012.
station in Heilongjiang, Xinhua said. The news agency cited a railway spokesman in the provincial capital as saying most of the injured were preparing to get off a train when the other train collided with it, causing them to fall.

Most of the injuries were slight and five people were under medical observation, Xinhua said, adding that an investigation was under way.

Train and road accidents are relatively common in China due to lax safety and maintenance procedures.

Source: The Associated Press
Read More...
Mr. Potato

Ohio Doctor Helps Perpetuate Rape Pregnancy Ideas


Beatrice Daily Sun
Fri, 24 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press/Jay LaPreteDec. 7, 2011 file photo, Dr. Jack Willke, founder of National and Ohio Right to Life, testifies during a Health, Human Services & Aging Committee hearing in Columbus, Ohio. The discredited notion that a woman’s body can resist conception in a sexual assault has persisted in anti-abortion circles for decades, largely because of the efforts of Willke, a Cincinnati obstetrician who is considered a godfather of the movement.
The discredited notion that a woman's body can resist conception in a sexual assault has persisted in anti-abortion circles for decades, largely because of the efforts of a Cincinnati obstetrician who is considered a godfather of the movement.

Dr. John C. "Jack" Willke founded the National Right to Life Committee and wrote the influential 1971 Handbook on Abortion, which has shaped the thinking of generations of anti-abortion activists.

Rep. Todd Akin's comments this week on rape and pregnancy helped upend a Senate race and roiled the Republican Party in a tough election year. But they reflect ideas that the 87-year-old Willke began peddling years ago.

"There's no greater emotional trauma that can be experienced by a woman than an assault rape," Willke wrote in 1999 in the journal Christian Life Resources. "This can radically upset her possibility of ovulation, fertilization, implantation and even nurturing of a pregnancy."

To anti-abortion activists, Willke is a revered figure. To abortion-rights activists, the onetime sex education lecturer perpetuates myths, eschews facts and ignores science. And to fellow physicians, his ideas are pure fiction.

After Akin's remarks, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said a woman who is raped "has no control over ovulation, fertilization or implantation of a fertilized egg. ... To suggest otherwise contradicts basic biological truths."
Read More...
Pistol

Mexican gunmen, police fire on U.S. diplomatic car; 2 hurt

Michael Winter
USA Today
Fri, 24 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press/Alexandre MeneghiniSoldiers guard an armored U.S. Embassy SUV after it was fired on by gunmen and federal police on the highway leading to Cuernavaca, Mexico.
A U.S. Embassy vehicle was attacked today south of Mexico City, and Mexican Federal Police also shot at the SUV during a confusing gunbattle, the Mexican Navy reports.

Two U.S. government personnel were wounded.

Update at 5:21 p.m. ET: At least four vehicles opened fire, the Mexican Navy says, though it hasn't clarified how many were occupied by police.

Here's how AP is describing what happened, based on what's being shared at the moment:
The Navy said the embassy personnel were heading down a dirt road to a military installation when a carload of gunmen opened fire on them and chased them, along with a Navy officer accompanying them.

The Americans' vehicle tried to escape, but three other cars joined the original vehicle in pursuing them down the road. Occupants of all four vehicles opened fire, and the Navy captain called more help. Federal police officers and Mexican army troops then showed up on the road. The statement does not make clear whose bullets injured the U.S. workers
Read More...
Newspaper

Murdoch's Sun Publishes Naked Harry Photos, More Could Emerge


CTV News
Fri, 24 Aug 2012 05:15 UTC
Image
© Agence France-Presse/Getty Images/Daniel Sorabji/The Sun“Today The Sun is publishing the make Prince Harry party pictures our readers have been prevented from seeing in print," reads an explanation on Friday's cover. "We are doing so despite warnings from the Royal Family’s lawyers," it reads.
Photos of Prince Harry engaged in a naked romp with a number of other young people in a Las Vegas hotel suite have caused a stir after being published back home in the U.K.

The Sun - a Rupert Murdoch-owned paper - became the first publication in the prince's home country to publish the nude pictures Friday.

"Heir it is! Pics of Harry you've already seen on the Internet" reads the front page headline along with a photo of the naked prince grabbing his genitals and bear-hugging a woman from behind.

The pictures circulated widely on the Internet after gossip website TMZ posted them earlier this week. The site reported the photos depict a game of strip billiards that took place after Harry and his friends invited some young ladies up to their room in Las Vegas.

In the U.K., most newspapers declined to run the pictures after St. James Palace reportedly asked that the media respect the prince's privacy.

On Thursday, The Sun complied, but teased readers with a re-creation of the picture of the prince grabbing his privates. It featured a 31-year-old staffer standing in for the prince and a 21-year-old fashion intern standing in for the nude woman in the original photograph. The paper ran the recreation on the cover along with a headline "Harry grabs the crown jewels."
Read More...
Phoenix

Italian Dies after Setting Himself on Fire in Austerity Protest

Katerina Nikolas
Digital Journal
Mon, 20 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC
Rome
© DigitalJournal.comPiazza di Spagna, Rome
Rome - A 54-year-old unemployed man has become the latest victim of Italian austerity measures. He died on Sunday from burns incurred when he set himself on fire in front of the Italian parliament last week.

Angelo di Carlo set himself on fire in Rome in a protest against austerity measures on August 11. Police put out the flames with fire extinguishers but di Carlo succumbed to 85 percent burns, dying on August 19. According to the Independent di Carlo was a jobless widower, struggling with financial problems.

Di Carlo's death is the latest in a wave of high profile suicides to hit Italy, which is one of a number of southern European countries facing crippling austerity measures in the midst of recession.

On March 28 Giuseppe Campaniello set himself on fire in front of the tax office in Bologna, after receiving a fine he could not afford to pay. Campaniello also died of his burns. His death was one of 25 recorded in the first four months of the year, labelled as austerity suicides.

The suicides in Italy follow an increasing trend of economic suicides in Greece. According to the Daily Beast by mid June 1,727 suicides were attributed to harsh austerity measures. The trend is also on the rise in Spain.
Read More...
Pistol

Shooter, victim dead, 9 injured outside Empire State Building


thespec.com
Fri, 24 Aug 2012 15:57 UTC
NYC shooting
© Guillermo Ratzlaff / ReutersPolice look on as the alleged shooter, Jeff Johnson, lies dead on the sidewalk after a shooting incident near the Empire State Building in New York City, Aug. 24, 2012.
A recently laid-off store worker shot a former colleague to death Friday morning outside New York's iconic Empire State Building before being killed by police, police said. Nine others were hit by gunfire in the confrontation, but police said all were expected to survive.

The shooting set off chaos around one of the world's best-known landmarks at the height of the summer travel season and just after the morning rush hour. Police on their regular anti-terrorism duties in the highly touristed shopping area rushed to the scene.

"People were yelling 'Get down! Get down!'" said Marc Engel, who was on a bus in the area when he heard the shots. "It took about 15 seconds, a lot of 'pop, pop, pop, pop,' one shot after the other."

Engel saw the wounded scattered along the sidewalk, including one person "dripping enough blood to leave a stream."

Comment: CCTV footage of the incident has been published:



Read More...