Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

UK: Paedophile raped girl 400 times

Image
© UnknownBrown raped one girl in the town hall where he worked as a caretaker
A paedophile who was said to have raped one of his victims up to 400 times has been jailed.

Prosecutors told Exeter Crown Court David Brown treated the girl like "a sexual plaything".

The 62-year-old, of Highland Terrace, Uffculme, was convicted of 15 rapes and two indecent assaults on two young girls when they were as young as nine.

Former town hall caretaker Brown, who had denied all the charges, was sentenced to 22 years.

Wolf

US: San Diego sheriff says mansion death of pharmaceutical magnate's girlfriend was suicide

Image

San Diego-The San Diego County sheriff says the deaths of a 6-year-old boy and a 32-year-old woman at a historic Coronado mansion earlier this summer were not homicides.

Sheriff Bill Gore told a press conference Thursday that young Max Shacknai's death was an accident and the death of Rebecca Zahau was a suicide.

Max had suffered a fall down a staircase while under Zahau's care and died days later. Zahau subsequently was found hanging.

Light Saber

Turkey expels Israeli ambassador over flotilla raid

israel flag,flotilla
© AP/Ariel SchalitIn this May 31, 2010 file photo the Mavi Marmara ship, the lead boat of a flotilla headed to the Gaza Strip which was stormed by Israeli naval commandos in a predawn confrontation, sails into the port of Ashdod, Israel.

Turkey expelled Israel's ambassador and will cut military ties with the country over its refusal to apologize for last year's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, officials said Friday, further straining a relationship that had been a cornerstone of regional stability.

Turkey's move came before the anticipated publication Friday of a UN report about the Israeli raid, which killed nine activists. The breakdown in ties also raised concerns that other countries, including Egypt and Jordan, may follow suit by recalling ambassadors and increase Israel's alienation in the region.

"If this ends with Turkey, it will be a miracle," said Alon Liel, a former Israeli ambassador to Turkey. "There is a lot of internal pressure in Egypt, and Turkey could use its clout in the Arab and Muslim world to pressure other nations to follow suit."

Chess

Russia to protect economic interests in Libya

Image
© RIA NovostiRussia to protect economic interests in Libya
Russia will protect the interests of its national companies in Libya under the country's new leadership, a Kremlin source said on Friday.

"We are not just thinking about it, but take concrete measures. The government is working on it," the source said, adding the prospects for Russian companies to continue working in Libya "were not bad."

Moscow had billions of dollars worth of energy and infrastructure deals with Libya under its deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi, and Russian officials have expressed concern they could be lost in the transition of power.

Bizarro Earth

Bodies Found in Mexico Might be Kidnapped Marines

The Mexican navy said Thursday it found bodies in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz that could include those of three marines and a naval cadet kidnapped by suspected drug cartel gunmen earlier this month.

Mexican drug cartels have kidnapped and killed military personnel before, but it remains a relatively rare occurrence.

The navy said in a statement that objects belonging to the kidnapped servicemen were found in a raid on a warehouse Sunday and that investigators later found the four bodies in four pits on the outskirts of the state capital.

The raid also resulted in the capture of five people suspected of participating in the abductions, authorities said.

Neither the navy nor federal security spokesman would say which cartel the suspects allegedly worked for, but the Zetas gang is known to be active in the area.

Handcuffs

US: Ohio sells state prison to private contractor for $73 million

prision

Cleveland - Ohio said on Thursday it had gone through with a controversial plan to privatize a portion of the state's prison system, the latest step in Republican Governor John Kasich's campaign to shrink government and close the state's budget shortfall.

Officials said the state had sold the Lake Erie Correctional Institution, an 11-year-old prison housing about 1,500 nonviolent prisoners, to the Corrections Corporation of America for $72.7 million. The state will now pay the Nashville-based company to run the facility.

The privatization of parts of Ohio's prison system was one of the deficit-closing provisions contained in the budget Kasich signed into law earlier in June.

Che Guevara

Dozens Arrested in US as Pipeline Protest Kicks Off

Image
© Agence France-PressePipelines are seen in Canada 2007. Dozens were arrested at the White House Saturday as protesters began a two-week sit-in expected to draw over 2,000 opponents of a proposed pipeline from Canada to the US Gulf Coast.
Dozens were arrested at the White House Saturday as protesters began a two-week sit-in expected to draw over 2,000 opponents of a proposed pipeline from Canada to the US Gulf Coast.

"President (Barack) Obama can stop this climate-killing disaster with the stroke of a pen," said Bill McKibben, spokesman for Tar Sands Action, the environmental group that organized the protest. Tar Sands said on its website that more than 70 people were arrested Saturday.

"This is the most important environmental test that President Obama has faced. He has to decide whether or not to grant permission for this giant pipeline," said McKibben.

A total of 2,200 people from all 50 states are expected to take part in the event, which is designed to pressure Obama to deny a permit for the $13 billion Keystone XL pipeline project due to stretch across 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers).

X

North Carolina, US: Mother Accused of Hacking Daughters to Death Says Ghost Did It

Image
© WYFF
A 33-year-old mother accused of killing her two young daughters with a hatchet and then trying to kill herself told investigators that a ghost killed her children, according to a warrant.

The murder warrant against Naiyana Patel also said that she has said she does not want to live and she did not want surgery for her head injuries.

On Saturday, Patel's husband, Lalji Patel, returned home from work to find his daughters, 7-year-old Jiya and 4-year-old Piya, dead and their mother seriously injured.

Police said Naiyana Patel struck herself in the head repeatedly with the hatchet after she killed the girls.

Relatives said Naiyana was being treated for depression after a pregnancy she did not carry to full term, and, at some point she switched medication because the initial prescription did not seem to help.

Handcuffs

US: Daryl Hannah Arrested in White House Oil Protest

Image
© The Associated Press / Evan VucciActress Daryl Hannah is arrested by U.S. Park Police in front of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2011, during a protest against the Keystone oil pipeline.
Actress Daryl Hannah has been arrested in front of the White House along with other environmental protesters who oppose a planned oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The sit-in Tuesday involved dozens protesting the Keystone XL pipeline. It would go through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas to refineries in Houston and Port Arthur, Texas.

Before she was arrested, Hannah told The Associated Press the protesters want to be free from dependence on fossil fuels. The group calls for clean energy investments instead. Hannah says they hope President Barack Obama will not bow to oil lobbyists.

Hannah sat down on the sidewalk near the White House and refused orders from U.S. Park Police to move.

She has been arrested in the past for environmental causes.

Source: The Associated Press

Attention

U.S. Issues Worldwide 9/11 Travel Alert to Americans

Image
© Al Diaz, Miami Herald/MCTSanjay Roy of Miami checks the departure board as flights at Miami International Airport in a file picture.
The U.S. State Department on Friday issued a worldwide travel alert ahead of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, calling on Americans living and travelling abroad to remain vigilant.

The department said it had not identified any "specific threats" about possible attacks but that al-Qaida and its affiliates had "demonstrated the intent and capability to carry out attacks" against the U.S. and U.S. interests.

"In the past, terrorist organizations have on occasion planned their attacks to coincide with significant dates on the calendar," the State Department said.

The alert expires on January 2, 2012, it said.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said there was "no specific or credible intelligence that al-Qaida or its affiliates are plotting attacks" linked to the anniversary of the worst terror strikes on U.S. soil.

But she added: "We remain at a heightened state of vigilance, and security measures are in place to detect and prevent plots against the United States should they emerge."