A family have claimed they were stopped from boarding a flight because their son has Down's Syndrome and was not wanted in the first class section.

Joan and Robert Vanderhorst are threatening to sue American Airlines after they say they were victims of discrimination over their 16 year old son Bede.

The couple claim as they waited to board their flight back to their home near Los Angeles they were told by airline staff they were not allowed to take their seats.

Airline staff allegedly told them their son was disruptive and a danger to the flight crew.

But Mrs Vanderhorst told KLTA TV that she began filming her son as he waited in the departure lounge showing him sitting silently waiting to board the flight at Newark, New Jersey.

In the video, she can be heard sobbing and her husband expressing disbelief.

'He's behaving,' Mr Vanderhorst says. 'He's demonstrating he's not a problem.'

'Of course he's behaving. He's never not behaved,' his wife added.

Mrs Vanderhorst told KLTA: 'I kept saying, "Is this only because he has Down's Syndrome?"'

Sri Lankan police arrested a Chinese tourist suspected of swallowing a diamond worth $13,600 on Wednesday at the island nation's biggest international gem and jewelry exhibition.

Chow Cheng, 32, is believed to have swallowed the diamond as he inspected it at the exhibition, attended by buyers from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, India and Europe, police said.

"His intention was to steal it," police spokesman Ajith Rohana told Reuters. "The x-ray shows the diamond is in his throat."

The Associated Press reported that the diamond was 1.5 carats.

Suresh Christopher Wijekoon, owner of the exhibition stall, said Chow had tried to switch the original diamond with a synthetic one.

Canada - Quebec's newly-elected Premier Pauline Marois has been rushed off stage during her acceptance speech, after shots were heard inside Montreal's Metropolis concert hall. One man is reported dead.

Another person is in a critical condition and one more witness is being treated for shock, Montreal police have informed Canadian media.

Ian Lafrenière stated that the dead man was in his 40s and that two guns were recovered at the scene, but there was no reason to believe there was more than one shooter.

After firing shots the gunman started a fire behind the downtown Montreal venue where Marois' supporters had gathered, Reuters reports.

Video has emerged, reportedly showing a man in a blue bathrobe and black balaclava with a gun on the ground surrounded by police. Video footage showed a high-powered rifle, which Twitter users identified as an AK-47 or Valmont Hunter weapon.

The gunman is said to be 50 years old and was apparently shouting "the English are waking up" in French with a Canadian-English accent as he was subdued.

Marois heads the separatist Parti Quebecois, which seeks independence for the French-speaking province of Quebec.

The premier-elect returned to the stage a few minutes after she left it, urging her supporters who packed the hall to leave calmly, stating that "there was a little unfortunate incident," so as not to create panic. Everyone was evacuated and police are investigating.

"We don't know what was [behind] that event," police spokesperson Dany Richer told CBC. "Our investigators are going to meet with [the detained] overnight."

Broomfield, Colorado - Police in Broomfield have identified the man they say set a fire inside a Walmart and threatened customers inside with a knife.

Samuel Maldonado-Tapia, 28, is in custody after he allegedly caused so much panic on Monday in the store that it was evacuated and then closed for several hours.

The crime happened in the early afternoon at the retailer, located near 120th and Sheridan.

Police so far aren't saying much about why the man was so upset, but several shoppers talked with CBS4 about what happened.

"We look over and there's flames going on over by the Kitchen Aid and everybody's like, 'Oh man, what's going on?' " witness Dominique Le'Nior said. "Some people were running, some were freaking out, some were like, 'Can I get my groceries?' "

Witnesses said a child may have been one of the two people the man threatened. The man also allegedly set some clothes on fire.

Volusia County, California -- Perhaps it was the synthetic marijuana Mark Welch said he was smoking on Sunday.

But when Welch awoke from a strange dream, convinced that everything he dreamed was actually happening for real, he told his parents about it.

When the 18-year-old's parents said they didn't believe him, he decided to call 911 to report the incident.

The call-taker, from the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, briefly tried to make sense of the story before dispatching a deputy to the scene, but was unsuccessful:

911 Call-Taker: "What's happening?"

Mark Welch: "Everything that happened today is actually in my dream, and I want to prove it to everybody."

911 Call-Taker: "What did you dream about that's happening?"

Welch: "It's all on paper. I wrote it down."

A deputy was dispatched to Welch's home, near Orange City, and determined the teen was a little confused -- apparently from the K2 deputies said he had been smoking -- but was not in need of medical attention.

The deputy told Welch not to call 911 again unless he had a genuine emergency, and the Sheriff's Office said the teen's parents even hid his phone to prevent him from calling again.

Lynnwood, Washington - Lynnwood police say a mother used her 10-year-old boy to rob a home.

Police tell KOMO-TV that Marie Shafique, 33, made her son climb through an open window, but didn't know that she was being watched by neighbors and the house's security camera.

Michelle Geronimo was inside of her home when the child tried to break in. She told the station that the boy was "peering inside" her open window.

"I was just shocked that it was a little boy, and when you figure out what's going on, it's sad," Geronimo told KOMO.

Shafique and her son ran away but Lynnwood police arrested her. They found a stolen laptop and crack cocaine.

Shafique is being held and her bail is $25,000 the boy and his three siblings are currently under their father's custody.

It is, Julio Vildosola concedes, a very big bet.

After working six years as a senior executive for a multinational payroll-processing company in Barcelona, Spain, Mr. Vildosola is cutting his professional and financial ties with his troubled homeland. He has moved his family to a village near Cambridge, England, where he will take the reins at a small software company, and he has transferred his savings from Spanish banks to British banks.

"The macro situation in Spain is getting worse and worse," Mr. Vildosola, 38, said last week just hours before boarding a plane to London with his wife and two small children. "There is just too much risk. Spain is going to be next after Greece, and I just don't want to end up holding devalued pesetas."

Mr. Vildosola is among many who worry that Spain's economic tailspin could eventually force the country's withdrawal from the euro and a return to its former currency, the peseta. That dire outcome is still considered a long shot, even if Spain might eventually require a Greek-style bailout. But there is no doubt that many of those in a position to do so are taking their money - and in some cases themselves - out of Spain.

In July, Spaniards withdrew a record 75 billion euros, or $94 billion, from their banks - an amount equal to 7 percent of the country's overall economic output - as doubts grew about the durability of Spain's financial system.

Europe is approaching a crisis as the region's debt crisis and austerity measures increase the rates of depression, suicide and psychological problems - just as governments cut healthcare spending by up to 50 percent, according to campaigners, policy makers and health organizations.

A growing number of global and European health bodies are warning that the introduction and intensification of austerity measures has led to a sharp rise in mental health problems with suicide rates, alcohol abuse and requests for anti-depressants increasing as people struggle with the psychological cost of living through a European-wide recession.

"No one should be surprised that factors such as unemployment, debt and relationship breakdowns can cause bouts of mental illness and may push people who are already vulnerable to take their own lives," Richard Colwill, of the British mental health charity Sane, told CNBC.

"There does appear to be a connection between unemployment rates and suicide for example," he said, referring to a recent study in the British Medical Journal that stated that more than 1,000 people in the U.K. may have killed themselves because of the impacts of the recession. "This research reflects other work showing similar rises in suicides across Europe."

According to Josée Van Remoortel, advisor to the European organization Mental Health Europe (MHE), the financial crisis is affecting "all areas of life," not just economies, and its impact on mental health is creating a "deep chasm in our society."

"The credit crunch [has] had one unexpected consequence and one that reflects a deep chasm in our society - a sharp rise in mental health problems, largely caused by uncertainty and fear for the future," he writes in a paper entitled "The Sane Approach."

A recent survey of general practitioners (family doctors) in Britain by the Insight Research Group seems to support Van Remoortel's view.

The data showed that out of 300 family doctors surveyed, the majority reported that austerity was damaging their patients' health. Seventy six percent said their patients were unhealthier due to the economic climate and 77 percent said more patients were seeking treatment for anxiety.

Federal agency tests drinks purchased inside airport


A video clip shot yesterday at Columbus Ohio Airport illustrates how the Transportation Security Administration has dreamed up a bizarre new way to waste time and taxpayer dollars - by testing drinks purchased by travelers for explosives inside the airport long after they have already passed security.

The footage shows TSA agents walking around a departure lounge asking to test passengers' drinks for explosive residue with a swab they hold over the liquid.

"Now remember that this is inside the terminal, well beyond the security check and purchased inside the terminal...just people waiting to get on the plane," writes the You Tube user who uploaded the video.

"My wife and son came back from a coffee shop just around the corner, then we were approached. I asked them what they were doing. One of the TSA ladies said that they were checking for explosive chemicals (as we are drinking them). I said "really - inside the terminal? You have got to be kidding me." I asked them if they wanted to swab us all. She responded with something like, 'yes sometimes we need to do that'. I then asked if she wanted a urine sample...nonetheless, the TSA is way out of control," he adds, joking that the TSA's next move could be to visit people's homes before they even leave for the airport (they're already in the parking lot demanding to search people who a...)

As we have previously highlighted, the drinks policy was recently introduced with virtually no explanation from the TSA whatsoever. The much vaunted 2006 liquid bomb plot on which this nonsense is all based completely collapsed in court and was revealed to be farcical at best.

They're treating it like a national playground.

At the National September 11th Memorial, tourists balance coffee cups and soda bottles on the parapets bearing the names of the dead.

Parents hoist their children to sit on the bronze plaques, while other visitors splash water from the two waterfalls onto their faces to cool themselves on a hot summer day.

On the plaza, tourists break out lunch foods and lie on their backs.

A year after the memorial's opening, the almost-cheerful atmosphere at what was supposed to be a solemn site has appalled first responders and victims' families.