When thugs...I mean, police officers...attempted to serve a warrant on a prostitute named Josie Bobbitt, Holly Hill, Florida, resident Richard Stohler refused to allow them entry, stating that the woman they were looking for didn't live there, and that he had no idea who she was.

The brave policemen, however, were determined to serve the warrant and went into Stohler's backyard, where his two dogs were responsibly fenced in. Like any self-respecting dog, they barked at the intruders. Being dogs, of course, they did not differentiate between intruders in a uniform and every day, garden variety intruders.

The father of Ibragim Todashev, former friend of alleged Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, has released an open letter to President Barack Obama calling for justice after his son's murder. Todashev was killed by FBI agents in May.

Abdulbaki Todashev's letter includes photos of his son's bullet-ridden body and his bloodstained Orlando, Florida apartment. Ibragim was shot to death by an FBI agent accompanied by two Massachusetts State Troopers, according to Boston magazine.

Also included is a photo of Ibragim's knee following a surgery he had in March, which the senior Todashev says is proof that his son posed no harm to the FBI agent who killed him.

In the letter, Abdulbaki Todashev says the FBI deliberately tortured and killed his son and proceeded to intimidate and deport his son's acquaintances in the ensuing months.

Todashev calls on Obama to keep the FBI from interfering with the current independent investigation into his son's death.

Todashev's letter states:

An Indian teenager was gang-raped in two separate attacks and then died after being set on fire, sparking protests in the eastern city of Kolkata, police said on Thursday.

The 16-year-old was assaulted first on October 26 and then again the day after by a group of more than six men near her family's home in Madhyagram town, about 25 kilometres (15 miles) north of Kolkata.

The second rape occurred as she was returning home after reporting the first attack at a police station.

She was then set on fire on December 23 and died in a state-run hospital late on New Year's Eve, police said.

"She gave us a dying declaration in front of the health officials that she was set on fire by two persons close to the accused when she was alone at home on December 23," local policeman Nimbala Santosh Uttamrao told AFP.

Police made their first arrests on Wednesday, two months after the initial crime, local police chief Rajiv Kumar told AFP.

"The accused tried to kill my daughter by setting her on fire to hush up their crimes," the victim's father, a migrant taxi driver from India's poorest state Bihar, told AFP.

Days may be dark right now - after all, as the memes proclaim, axial tilt is the reason for the season. But things are looking bright for those who would like to see humanity more grounded in science and reason. If you are a nonbeliever in the mood for a party, here are 10 reasons to celebrate.

1. Coming out atheist is up and coming.

In May 2013, after a deadly tornado destroyed her home, young mother Rebecca Vitsmun gave an unexpected answer when CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked whether she thanked the Lord for her decision to flee. Vitsmun tells the story in a sometimes-tearful interview with Seth Andrews, host of the Thinking Atheist. "I had this moment in which I realized you either lie or tell the truth, and I'm not a liar." In that moment, Vitsmun outed herself not only to a national media audience but also to her Christian parents and friends.

Vitsmun's situation was extraordinary, but candor about nonbelief is becoming more and more commonplace. From Hollywood celebs like Cameron Diaz and Angelina Jolie to high school students, skeptics are opening up about their beliefs and values - or simply declining to lie when asked. (A quick-read book, Mom, Dad, I'm an Atheist, offers tips for those who are contemplating when, where and how best to come out.)

2. The cutting edge of freethought is less cutting and edgy.

In generations past, coming out as an atheist required a devil-may-care attitude. The social and even financial costs were so high that most admitted atheists were also unflinching social activists, people who had a high degree of zeal and high tolerance for conflict. Most were also white males who were comparatively safe taking on the religious establishment. Until recently, then, atheism was virtually synonymous with anti-theism, and even today people complain that pioneers of the New Atheist movement like Dawkins, Harris, Dennett, and the late great Hitchens are unnecessarily antagonistic.

Consumers were hit with increased costs of living by as much as 11 percent in 2013 on the back of rising house rent, utility bills and prices of various essential food items.

"House rent is rising, keeping pace with the spiralling costs of fuel, electricity, water and commodities," the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) said in a statement yesterday.

The consumer rights campaigner prepared a report taking into account the costs of 114 food items, 26 essential commodities and 10 utility services, the findings of which was released yesterday.

It estimated the cost of living based on weights of commodities and services in the consumer basket and found that it soared 11 percent in 2013 from the previous year. The prices of food and services rose 12 percent and house rent 10.9 percent in the course of the year.

"Home owners disregard the existing rules for hiking house rents and do as they wish. As a result, many families were forced to shift to suburbs from the main town," CAB said, while urging the government to revise the house rent law of 1991 for public's best interests.

The cost of electricity and fuel also increased in 2013, by 7.3 and 5.65 percent respectively, and water also became dearer.

Consumers will have to dig deeper into their pockets from this month with electric bills up by 3.9 percent and with a professor forecasting soaring inflation.

Also digging deeper into their pockets are taxi drivers as the price of liquefied petroleum gas fuel keeps increasing.

Economists expect inflation to remain high this year with price rises on the way for food, daily necessities and public transport.

CLP Power raised charges by 3.9 percent from yesterday, although Hongkong Electric said it has no plans to raise tariffs for five years.

This means that 37 percent of those living in Kowloon and the New Territories will have to pay around HK$20 more each month if they use fewer than 834 units of electricity every two months.

The price of LPG for vehicles has meanwhile increased by about HK$1.20 to HK$5.90-HK$6.40 per liter.

Sacramento Police are trying to track down a group of women who they say are targeting shoppers and robbing them with stun guns.

Three unsuspecting women were attacked in two days - one in the Walmart parking lot on Truxel Road in Natomas, and two others at shopping centers on Florin Road.

Investigators say the attacks happen in shopping center parking lots as women walk to their cars.

In the first incident, police say a woman used a stun gun to knock an elderly woman to the ground and take her purse.

Not even an hour later, a female suspect assaulted a victim with a stun gun multiple times at a shopping center off of Florin Road.

Just two percent of Britons feel that the country is experiencing economic recovery and many believe that the living standards crisis will continue in 2014, a study shows.

According to a poll by Britain's Trades Union Congress (TUC) published on Tuesday, nearly half of the 1,600 respondents wanted services that had been cut to be restored, and 20 percent of the voters said they expected the benefits of an economic recovery to be fairly shared across society.

Our new poll is bad news for the government. Voters do not expect to benefit from the recovery next year, do not expect their wages to keep up with living costs, and do not trust the government to spread the benefits of recovery fairly," TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady said.

Moreover, "by more than two to one, they want to see services restored when the economy grows, not permanently cut," she added.

A man was treated at a Seattle hospital for stab wounds the day after he reportedly gave his girlfriend a fillet knife for Christmas. Detectives with the Everett Police Department's Major Crimes unit believe the 18-year-old woman stabbed the man and slit his throat on the evening of December 26.

According to court papers, the man had an 11-inch gash across his throat that included a cut to his trachea. He was also reportedly stabbed in the chest as well as the hands.

According to Everett police, the 25-year-old victim walked into a grocery around 7:45 p.m., bleeding from his neck. He then collapsed onto the floor. Employees called 911 and when police arrived, they found a customer applying a piece of cloth to his neck.

Court papers stated that police found the suspect on scene as well, lying on the floor at the victim's feet. She was covered in blood. She told police that the victim was her boyfriend and that they live together. According to the papers, the woman alleged that the man had repeatedly threatened her with violence, including one episode that occurred that night on the way home from a fishing trip. She reportedly told police that her boyfriend said he would "cut her up and throw her in the river." According to the suspect, she acted out of fear when she unsheathed the knife and stabbed him.

For a non-EU citizen with dreams of the good life and a few million in the bank, 2014 could be a good year.

First, snap up Maltese citizenship, and thus a European Union passport, for €1.15m (£960,000). Then splurge on a former cardinal's villa in Italy as the principle residence. For a fairytale winter getaway, Polish castles are going for a song. And what could be better for a summer bolt-hole than a Greek archipelago, a snip at €8.5m?

Europe's fire sale, which began as the economic crisis forced governments to find innovative ways to plug holes in their dwindling budgets, has reached new heights as ever-more intriguing state assets are touted for sale.

But a backlash is brewing, with governments and enraged citizens clashing over exactly who has the right to flog a nation's history and culture.

The Maltese passport bonanza has provoked public outcry and forced the government to rethink its plans. Outraged locals have scuppered the sale of an Italian island to a businessman from New Zealand. Even if governments can overcome political opposition to "selling the family silver", the privatisation expert Professor William Megginson says they face an array of hurdles ranging from a simple lack of interest in unattractive state assets to hazy ownership rights.