A French journalist has accused President Nicolas Sarkozy of inciting hatred against the media after she was allegedly assaulted at a political rally organised by the ruling UMP party.
A French journalist has made an official police complaint after allegedly being assaulted on Tuesday by Sarkozy's UMP party supporters.

Marine Turchi, a 29-year-old political reporter for the online news site Mediapart, told Turchi that she had been cornered and surrounded by a "baying mob" chanting "dirty leftist" during a Sarkozy campaign rally in Paris.

"A man grabbed the press badge that was around my neck and held it up shouting that I was a Mediapart journalist," Turchi said on Wednesday. "People all around started chanting 'here they are' and 'dirty leftist'".

"No one came to help, I was genuinely afraid of being violently attacked."

Turchi told FRANCE24 that it was the "umpteenth time" she had been insulted by UMP activists, often older activists in their 50s and 60s.

A dad who shot dead a judge and a senior politician because they molested his three-year old daughter has become a national hero after going on the run in Lithuania.

Horrified Drasius Keyds, 37, gunned down the perverted pair on Monday after police turned a deaf ear to his pleas for justice for his tortured tot.

Now in hiding, Keyds has become a hero on YouTube and Facebook with hundreds of thousands of fans from all over the world pledging support.

"You are a hero to all of us," reads one Facebook message. "What you did is nothing but justice."

Yesterday British courts ruled that five ISPs must block their subscribers from accessing popular file-sharing website The Pirate Bay. A sixth, British Telecom, asked for more time to review the situation before proceeding with the block. Today, The Pirate Bay responded to the news via a blog post published on thepiratebay.se. The Pirate Bay team said that the Western countries of the world are 'the worst culprits' when it comes to censorship, adding that no one from the Pirate Bay team was invited to the court case or asked to speak.

Yesterday's case saw ISPs across the United Kingdom ordered to block access to The Pirate Bay. The ruling followed a request from the British Phonographic Industry sent late last year that asked ISPs to voluntarily block customers from using the file-sharing service. ISPs said they would only block access if there was a court order. Soon after, record companies filed a lawsuit to have them do just that.

The Pirate Bay points out that there are always ways to circumvent the block, such as using a VPN or changing your DNS settings with OpenDNS, but says that's besides the point and people shouldn't have to resort to these measures.

"But don't forget that we can't allow this shit to happen," TPB writes. "Next time they're coming for something else. And yes, there will be a next time if we don't stop them. Write to your ISP and tell them to appeal the case. Write to your local MPs and tell them that this is not allowed. Make sure your voice is heard. Remember, we're all the pirate bay, and we must stand united against the censorship from our opponents!"

US - Occupy protesters must ask serious questions about their open-arms policy in light of charges brought against five members accused of trying to blow up an Ohio bridge, a top Cleveland official said Wednesday.

The city declined to renew the group's downtown encampment permit on Wednesday, a denial planned before the bridge plot arrests were announced Monday, said Ken Silliman, chief of staff to Mayor Frank Jackson. The group, which remained by its encampment tent Wednesday night despite a 5 p.m. deadline to leave, can still gather at a spot across the street day or night. Police are monitoring, but no arrests have been made.

The decision was made with the allegations as a backdrop, Silliman added.

"I think a fair question to ask of Occupy Cleveland, is, if you have portrayed your organization up till now as welcome to all-comers - the tent will accommodate anyone and everyone - how does that change when something like the events of yesterday happen?" Silliman said.

"How does that change when some of the people you've welcomed into your decision-making are now accused of such serious felonies?"

That question must be asked even if the city accepts the organization's statements that it is nonviolent and was distancing itself from those charged in the plot, Silliman said.

US - In the politically-charged and likely protest-filled streets of Tampa, Fla., during the Republican National Convention in August, water guns will be strictly prohibited. Concealed handguns, on the other hand, will be perfectly legal.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott said this week that banning handguns from downtown Tampa during the convention, as the city's Mayor Bob Buckhorn requested, "would surely violate the Second Amendment."

"It is unclear how disarming law-abiding citizens would better protect them from the dangers and threats posed by those who would flout the law," Scott said in a letter to Buckhorn Tuesday, emphasizing the words "law-abiding." "It is at just such times that the constitutional right of self defense is most precious and must be protected from government overreach."

Buckhorn said today that he was "disappointed" by Scott's decision, but that the city will "plan and train accordingly."

Tampa officials are expecting thousands of protesters to descend on the Florida metropolis for the GOP convention. While no handguns will be allowed inside the convention, which is being protected by the Secret Service, concealed carry license-holders will be able to carry their weapons in the streets surrounding the convention.

They will not, however, be able to have "super soaker" water guns, sticks, poles, portable shields or glass bottles.

US: Orlando, Florida - Thirteen people were charged Wednesday in one of the biggest college hazing cases ever prosecuted in the U.S., accused in the death of a Florida A&M University drum major who authorities say was mercilessly pummeled by fellow members of the marching band.

The charges came more than five months after Robert Champion, 26, died aboard a chartered bus parked outside an Orlando hotel following a performance against a rival school.

While the most sensational hazing cases have typically involved fraternities, sororities or athletic teams, the FAMU tragedy in November exposed a brutal tradition among marching bands at some colleges around the U.S.

"The death ... is nothing short of an American tragedy," said State Attorney Lawson Lamar. "No one should have expected that his college experience would include being pummeled to death."

Eleven defendants were charged with hazing resulting in death, a felony, and misdemeanor offenses that all together could bring nearly six years in prison. Two others face misdemeanor charges.

The Vatican is facing a deepening controversy over the burial 22 years ago of a notorious crime boss, with reports emerging that the church accepted a one billion lire (£407,000) payment from the mobster's widow to allow his interment in a basilica.

A source at the Holy See told the Ansa news agency that "despite initial reluctance" the then vicar-general of Rome, Cardinal Ugo Poletti, "in the face of such a conspicuous sum, gave his blessing" to the controversial interment of Enrico De Pedis, the former boss of Rome's notorious Magliana gang. The money was reportedly used on missions and to restore the Basilica of St Apollinare, where the mobster was laid to rest next to popes and cardinals after his death in 1990.

The claims, which the Vatican has not commented on, may explain how such a reviled criminal was buried in such a hallowed site. Last week, to deflect growing criticism and to help resolve a 30-year-old murder mystery, it emerged that Vatican officials had decided to move the remains of De Pedis from his special crypt.

Pressure mounted earlier this month when a prosecuting magistrate, Giancarlo Capaldo, claimed senior officials at the Vatican knew much more than they were letting on about the Magliana gang's links to the Holy See, and the gang's suspected kidnap and murder of Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican official, in 1983. "There are people still alive, and still inside the Vatican, who know the truth," he said. Some believe Emanuela's father had evidence linking the Vatican Bank, Istituto per le Opere di Religione, to organised crime, and that she was snatched to keep him silent. The theory is that De Pedis, who was shot dead in 1990, organised the kidnapping.

George Zimmerman's 2005 Myspace page, unearthed by the Miami Herald on Wednesday, suggests Trayvon Martin's shooter had a history of racial profiling.

On Wednesday, Zimmerman's lawyer, Mark O'Mara, confirmed that the page - registered under the username "onlytobekingagain" - was real.

In the "About me" section, Zimmerman - identified as "Joe G." - expressed resentment toward Mexicans living in his former Manassas, Va., community:

I dont miss driving around scared to hit mexicans walkin on the side of the street, soft ass wanna be thugs messin with peoples cars when they aint around (what are you provin, that you can dent a car when no ones watchin) dont make you a man in my book. Workin 96 hours to get a decent pay check, gettin knifes pulled on you by every mexican you run into!

Zimmerman lists his ethnicity on MySpace as "Latino / Hispanic," religion as "Catholic," his height as 5'10" and sexual orientation as "straight." According to his 2005 profile, he's a non-smoker, a drinker, a Libra and would like children "someday." He graduated from Osbourn High School in Manassas in 2001, and had 39 friends on MySpace.

© Reuters/Argely SalazarA woman raises her arms to receive energy from the sun at the Mayan pyramid El Castillo (The Castle), in Chichen Itza, in the southern state of Yucatan, Mexico March 21, 2009.

Nearly 15 percent of people worldwide believe the world will end during their lifetime and 10 percent think the Mayan calendar could signify it will happen in 2012, according to a new poll.

The end of the Mayan calendar, which spans about 5,125 years, on December 21, 2012 has sparked interpretations and suggestions that it marks the end of the world.

"Whether they think it will come to an end through the hands of God, or a natural disaster or a political event, whatever the reason, one in seven thinks the end of the world is coming," said Keren Gottfried, research manager at Ipsos Global Public Affairs which conducted the poll for Reuters.

"Perhaps it is because of the media attention coming from one interpretation of the Mayan prophecy that states the world 'ends' in our calendar year 2012," Gottfried said, adding that some Mayan scholars have disputed the interpretation.

Gilbert, Arizona - A gunman shot and killed four people including a toddler girl in a Phoenix suburb on Wednesday afternoon before apparently committing suicide, police said.

Gilbert Police Sergeant Bill Balafas said the gunman opened fire at or near a house in a neighborhood of single-family homes in the town of Gilbert. Police recovered two handguns and a shotgun from the scene.

The youngest victim, a girl of between one and two years old, was still alive at the scene, but later died in a hospital, Balafas said. The other dead were two men and two women. Police believe the shooter was among the dead.

Local resident Scott Kirkwood, 43, said neighbors were shocked by the shooting at the home, which he believed was occupied by a family.