Just when you start to think that "at least the trains run on time" in Turkey, they seem to derail one after another. Just like a piece of news that may please you - but only for an instant. Just like the feeling of sad humor that comes a second after the feeling of silent approval while and after reading the story of a heavy fine that hit a private television channel for "pairing a 15-year-old girl with a 45 year-old man in a matchmaking show."

Citing a pretext for the fine, the presumably independent but practically Justice and Development Party-controlled radio and television watchdog said that the show had broadcast an example of child abuse by fixing a marriage between an underage girl and an adult. The watchdog also noted that the show had violated the regulation that states "broadcasts must not be against society's national and spiritual values and the Turkish family structure."

After the show, we learned from the news, the watchdog was bombarded with a flurry of complaints from viewers while the girl's father issued a complaint to the prosecutor's office.

So far, so good.

But when you superimpose this nice little episode - which could have happened in any "sane" country - onto another Turkish "background," a fresh "those crazy Turks" picture will emerge: Do the heavy fine and its legal justification mean that our president had once violated society's national and spiritual values and the Turkish family structure when he married our first lady at the age of 15 (now, beat that if you can, Harry!)? Do they mean that our president once committed child abuse? I guess not - just to be on the safer side of a potential future prosecution. But questions inevitably linger in the air.

A woman whose brother drowned in January's southeast Queensland's floods has told an inquiry her family is tormented by the circumstances of his death.

Colleen Engel's brother Robert Bromage, 50, died at Karrabin, near Ipswich, on January 11, after his car was washed from a flooded road.

Ms Engel has told the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry that she looks forward to a police investigation into his death providing some answers.

In a victim impact statement read to the inquiry in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, on Friday, Ms Engel said she couldn't imagine her brother driving in floodwaters.

Last week, ThinkProgress reported on high school sophomore Amy Myers, who challenged history-challenged Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) to a public debate on the basic facts of the U.S. Constitution. "Rep. Bachmann, the frequent inability you have shown to accurately and factually present even the most basic information about the United States led me" to the challenge, she wrote in an open letter to the tea party doyenne. Unfortunately, it seems some Bachmann fans haven't taken Myers' challenge kindly and are now threatening the teenage girl with violence:

After it started getting media attention last weekend, commenters on tea party websites have threatened to publish her home address and some have threatened violence.

The 16-year-old from Cherry Hill says several commenters have called her a "whore."

Her father, Wayne, says he's concerned for his daughter's safety.

The revelation that Arnold Schwarzenegger has an out-of-wedlock child with a former employee turned into a tabloid frenzy yesterday, as scores of reporters and photographers swarmed a quiet suburban cul-de-sac in the middle of California farm country amid unconfirmed reports it was the home of the child's mother.

The woman, identified by The New York Times as Mildred Patricia Baena, was not at the Bakersfield house when the mob arrived. News trucks idled outside the home of Baena, who the world now knows to be the mother of the boy Schwarzenegger has admitted to fathering while she was his family's housekeeper.

The harsh scrutiny of Baena started as soon as her MySpace photos flooded the Internet.

Jackie Rozo, who identified herself as an adult daughter of Baena, said her mother had worked for Schwarzenegger until recently. She would not elaborate.

Schwarzenegger's office declined to discuss whether Baena is the mother of the former governor's child.

A photo of the boy posted on Baena's MySpace page shows a fairly strong resemblance to Schwarzenegger, particularly when the actor-bodybuilder-politician was younger.

Authorities in Altoona are investigating the discovery of a hidden camera in the women's bathroom at a western Pennsylvania arts theater.

State police said Thursday that the camera was found April 9 at the Mishler Theatre, attached to a sprinkler head in the basement women's restroom. The Altoona Mirror reports that the camera was removed after a dancer saw it.

The Mishler Theater is owned by the Blair County Arts Foundation.

Joseph Stevens III, who is president of the foundation's board, says he can't comment on the surrounding the discovery of the camera.

Source: The Associated Press

A 13-year-old central Florida middle school student has been charged after allegedly sneaking a sleeping pill into his teacher's drink.

Osceola County Sheriff's deputies said the Discovery Intermediate School student confessed to putting Clonidine, a prescription blood pressure medication, into his teacher's drink because she yelled at him in class.

The Associated Press is not naming the student because he is a minor.

Authorities said the teacher told other teachers she felt nauseous, dizzy and drowsy and went home sick on May 16.

The student was charged with poison of food with the intent to injure. He was booked into Osceola County Juvenile Detention Center without bond.

Source: The Associated Press

1 Michael Hogan (in 1920, at Croke Park in Dublin, aged 24)

The most politically influential death in sport. The Gaelic footballer was murdered on Bloody Sunday when British forces and police stormed Croke Park in Dublin. Shots were fired into the crowd of 5000 killing 14 people including Hogan, the one player to die.

The ground, now an impressive 80,000-seat stadium, became a shrine for Irish nationalists. The Hogan Stand, first built in 1924, is named for the fallen Tipperary footballer who had been in the Irish Volunteers, a forerunner to the IRA.

2 Andres Escobar (in 1994, outside a Medillin nightclub, aged 27)

The defender was probably murdered as an underworld reprisal for conceding the own goal against hosts America which eliminated the powerful Colombian team from soccer's 1994 World Cup. The killer, who fired 12 shots, was linked to Colombian crooks and gamblers. Escobar's funeral was attended by 120,000 people, a grief-stricken response to one of sports' saddest and sickest moments.

A stunning explosion that blew the facade off a Staten Island house Tuesday was caused by two homeless people breaking a gas line while scrounging for pipe, authorities said Thursday.

Michael Reyes, 24, told cops he'd been ripping metal pipes out of the walls of a vacant apartment in Mariners Harbor early Tuesday when he accidentally removed a gas line connecting the building's furnace and hot water heater.

As the apartment filled with gas, Reyes left, but returned 40 minutes later with 28-year-old Dominique Robinson, Staten Island prosecutors said.

When she lit a cigarette, the gas ignited, causing an explosion that tore off an entire side of the three-story building.

"Me and this girl went into this building to take some pipe," Reyes admitted, according to a criminal complaint. "Once I hit the pipe, the boiler exploded."

Both suffered minor injuries - Reyes to his face and Robinson to her hands - and fled, authorities said.

Police: 5-Year-Old Died Of Malnourishment, Salt Poisoning

Muncie, Ind. - A 25-year-old Muncie woman has been found guilty of neglect of a dependent causing death after her 5-year-old stepdaughter died of malnourishment and salt poisoning.

Brittany McConniel and her husband, Ryan McConniel, were charged last year, months after their stepdaughter, Lauren McConniel, died [at] Riley Hospital for Children on March 9.

Police said the couple lied to investigators about seeking timely medical treatment for Lauren, who they contended displayed psychotic behavior.

The girl had been taken to a mental health facility for evaluation. She wasn't speaking much and had been put back in a diaper at age 5, police said.

A small commercial aircraft crashed in an isolated part of Patagonia, southern Argentina, killing all 22 people on board.

"We did not find anyone alive," said hospital director Ismael Ali, who took part in the rescue mission. "The plane is in charred fragments. Everything is burned and smashed to pieces."

Ali said a witness reported seeing a fireball crash into a field near his home in the foothills of the Andes, indicating a possible midair explosion.

The plane had earlier been reported missing on a flight between the southern cities of Neuquen and Comodoro Rivadavia, in Rio Negro province.

Horacio Farre, a spokesman for the private company Sol, which owned the plane, confirmed there were no survivors. He said the aircraft crashed around 45 minutes after takeoff. It issued a distress signal just before it went down.

The passengers on the Saab 340 twin-engine aircraft included 18 adults, one minor and three crew members, the company said, adding that an investigation is under way.