Society's ChildS


Phoenix

Los Angeles, US: Ex-Marine held in North Hollywood arson fires

Andrew Blankstein
Los Angeles Times
Wed, 03 Aug 2011 03:05 UTC
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© Irfan KhanLos Angeles Times Vincent Bruno, 71, and his 96-year-old mother, Berndetta, walk by their blackened motor home in Sun Valley. Kurt K. Billie has been arrested on charges of setting a series of fires that caused at least $1 million in damage
Kurt K. Billie was convicted in 2001 of setting a series of fires outside a U.S. base in Okinawa, Japan.

An ex-Marine arrested Tuesday on charges of setting nearly two dozen fires in North Hollywood served time for several highly publicized arson fires at several restaurants and bars just outside the U.S. military base in Okinawa, Japan.

Kurt K. Billie, 34, was booked on suspicion of arson early Tuesday after he was seen setting fire to a small motor home about 4 a.m. in the 7500 block of Troost Avenue, authorities say. He was arrested by Los Angeles police a short distance away.

According to law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation, Billie is suspected of setting at least 19 fires in that area since mid-July, including a dozen fires over one three-day period. Most of the fires were ignited in vehicles parked in carports. But in some cases, the flames spread to nearby structures.
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Heart - Black

US, Connecticut: Cops: Rape Suspect Forced Teen Victim to Call Him 'Master'

Daniel Tepfer
CT Post
Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00 UTC
A Bristol man forced a 14-year-old Stratford girl to call him master and be his slave as he raped her in the backyard of her home last month, police said.

David Feeney, 45, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Superior Court here to one count each of first-degree sexual assault, second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a child. He elected a jury trial.

The case was continued to Sept. 6.

In the arrest affidavit unsealed Tuesday, police state that Feeney initially contacted the girl through an Internet site. The contacts increased to several a day through text messaging and then on the telephone.

Police said in messages and phone calls Feeney ordered the girl to address him as her master and she, who is black, as his slave.
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Stop

13 killed in Nigeria as bus runs over robbery victims


Agence France-Presse
Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:07 UTC
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© AFP/GraphicThe incident happened on Tuesday on the Lokoja-Okene road south of the capital Abuja
Thirteen people were killed when a speeding bus ran over robbery victims forced to lie face down on a main road south of Nigeria's capital, police said Wednesday.

"I can confirm 13 dead. The incident happened on Tuesday on the Lokoja-Okene road. The bus was heading to Abuja when robbers stopped it and ordered the passengers to disembark," police spokesman Yemi Ajayi told AFP.

"As the passengers were ordered to lie face down, (another) bus ran over them at top speed, killing 13 and injuring many others, " he said.
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X

Israel Police busts ultra-Orthodox cult suspected of abusing women and children


Haaretz
Tue, 02 Aug 2011 14:51 UTC
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© Olivier FitoussiThe main suspect in the cult abuse case at court, August 1, 2011.
Nine cult members arrested in undercover investigation responding to complaint submitted by young woman; cult allegedly carried out abuse, including rape, over a two-year period.

Israel Police, in cooperation with Jerusalem district officers and social services, arrested nine members of a cult living in Jerusalem and in the Tiberias area over the past few weeks, on suspicion of carrying out emotional and physical abuse of women and children over a two year period,

An undercover investigation into the cult was initiated following a complaint submitted by a young women to Jerusalem Police two and half months ago. The details of the arrests were revealed on Tuesday.
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Bomb

New South Wales, Australia: Teenage girl at centre of bomb emergency in Mosman

Georgina Robinson and Saffron Howden
Brisbane Times
Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:50 UTC
An 18-year-old Sydney schoolgirl is caught in a horrifying bomb scare tonight after a balaclava-clad man entered a Mosman house and reportedly attached a device to her this afternoon.

Police said they were treating the device as live until they knew otherwise.


"It's a very serious incident where the life of a young lady is potentially at risk and we're dealing with it in that light," assistant commisioner Mark Murdoch told media at the scene.
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Bad Guys

Guest Authorship On Medical Papers Should Be Deemed As Fraud


redOrbit
Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:45 UTC
Authorship
© redOrbit
According to legal experts, doctors and scientists who put their names on medical articles in which they have not written should be charged with fraud.

The experts want to stop the shady business of "guest authorship," which is when a research paper is written by pharmaceutical companies or industry-sponsored medical writers and are passed off as the work of influential, independent academics.

Doctors received payments or other incentives to endorse articles in some cases, which often were even done without being familiar with the studies or data of the reports.

Legal experts want to draw more light on the darkened subject as the issue becomes increasingly harder to ignore. In recent years, drug companies have used the tactic as a marketing tool.

Simon Stern and Trudo Lemmens, who are law professors at the University of Toronto, warn that measures brought in by publishers and professional bodies to stop guest authorship have failed to tackle the problem so far.
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Beaker

Scientists Invent Date-Rape Drug Detector


redOrbit
Wed, 03 Aug 2011 10:50 UTC
Party
© redOrbit
You have always been told to never leave your drink unattended at a bar, no matter what, in case you come back to it only to find that it was spiked with drugs. Soon, however, it may be unnecessary as an effective date-rape drug detector has been invented, reports the AFP news agency.

Professor Fernando Patolsky and Doctor Michael Ioffe of Tel Aviv University's School of Chemistry say they've created a sensor that detects the two most common date-rape drugs, GHB (gamma-hydrobuxybutyric acid) and ketamine.

Just dip the device, which might actually look like a stirrer in the final production into your drink to quickly tell if it has been tampered with. "It's tiny, very tiny," Ioffe told the French news agency. "And you don't even have to hold it up to the light and the system will let you know whether there are drugs dissolved in your drink."

The device sucks up a tiny drop of the suspect beverage and puts it in contact with the patented chemical formula devised by the researchers. The sensor has been tested on a range of popular cocktails as well as soft drinks and other beverages and found it was able to correctly tell which had been spiked 100 percent of the time.

"What's amazing is that there is no false positives until now," Ioffe said.
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Bomb

India: Five killed, 20 injured in Manipur blast

Sobhapati Samom
Hindustan Times
Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:00 UTC
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© unknownSecurity personnel and forensic experts inspect the site after a bomb exploded at a busy market in Imphal on Monday.

At least five persons including two girls were killed and 10 injured in a bomb explosion in Imphal East district of Manipur on Monday. The bomb, suspected to have been fitted to a two-wheeler parked at the busy Sangakpham Bazar under Heingang police station, exploded around 1.50pm. Police suspect militants' involvement in the blast.

State director general of police Y Joykumar Singh said, "We are trying to find out the details. Let the proper examination be conducted first"

The state police chief, however, hinted that it was an IED (improvised explosive device) blast.

No militant group had claimed responsibility for the blast, which occurred around 3 km north of the state police headquarters, at the time of going to press.

A barber and his son and one unidentified person were among those dead.

"There was a very loud blast. We rushed out and saw mutilated bodies scattered around," said Y Ibomcha, a goldsmith in a nearby jewellery shop.
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Camcorder

US, Tennessee: Mother Arrested for Arguing with TSA Agent


CBS 6 WTVF
Mon, 01 Aug 2011 05:43 UTC

During a security pat-down of her 14-year-old daughter, Andrea Abbott was arrested at the Nashville International Airport.

Airport police say she became belligerent.

Abbott's attorney, Brent Horst, says the only thing his client was doing was protecting her daughter, saying, "What it comes down to is this woman objected to what was going on. Basically made her displeasure known. She told TSA and police officers she thought it was ridiculous of what they were doing. And then in the end she was basically arrested for giving her opinion."
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Stormtrooper

US: TSA Has a Question for You

Katie Johnston
Boston Globe
Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00 UTC
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© Aram Boghosian / The Boston GlobeAndrew Timko of Andover was questioned by a TSA officer yesterday. “It’s going to get old if I have to answer the same questions every week,’’ he said.
How did Logan travelers handle the new TSA queries? Plenty welcomed the safety measure; others were nervous, self-conscious

Andrew Timko doesn't have anything to hide.

But the 29-year-old Northwestern University graduate student isn't thrilled about the enhanced-behavior detection trial program that began yesterday at Boston's Logan International Airport.

In an effort to identify potential terrorists, Transportation Security Administration officers being trained in Terminal A, home to Delta Air Lines, are now asking every passenger several questions about their travels, such as "How long have you been here?'' If the reaction - for example, profuse sweating or lack of eye contact - is deemed suspicious, the person will be tapped to undergo additional screening, such as a pat-down or bag search, after going through a metal detector or full-body scanner.

Timko, who flies from Boston to Newark every week as part of his internship at the management consulting firm Bain & Co., said he didn't mind the TSA officer's questions about his job and his Illinois driver's license. But he said his tolerance may wear thin if he has to undergo a brief interrogation every time he goes through security.
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