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Heart - Black

US: Child Porn Link Sought in Teen Phylicia Barnes' Murder

Dean Schabner and Arlette Saenz
ABC News
Sun, 10 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC

The FBI is investigating whether Phylicia Barnes, the star student from North Carolina whose nude body was found in April, nearly four months after she went missing in Maryland, was a victim of sexual exploitation or child pornographers before her murder.

Federal investigators are seeking warrants to gain access to Facebook and email accounts belonging to Barnes, 16, and to four men from Baltimore, according to a report from ABC News affiliate WSOC-TV in Charlotte, N.C.

According to the Charlotte Observer, FBI Special Agent Jacqueline Dougher wrote in the request for the warrants that investigators have "reason to believe" the search will uncover evidence of child sex crimes or child pornography.

An autopsy conducted by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Maryland determined her death to be a homicide, the state police said in May.
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Video

The Chimp Who Became Human

Marlow Stern
Sexy Beast
Sat, 09 Jul 2011 10:35 UTC
Image
© Harry Benson
Nim Chimpsky, as seen in Project Nim.
Project Nim, in theaters Friday, chronicles a bizarre 1970s project that sought to teach chimpanzees language. Marlow Stern spoke with the Oscar-winning filmmaker James Marsh about the ape

It's been almost 80 years since King Kong dangled Fay Wray from the Empire State Building, but once again, simian cinema is all the rage in Hollywood. There's the Kevin James comedy The Zookeeper, featuring a gorilla voiced by Nick Nolte, and later this summer the ubiquitous James Franco, not to be outdone, will square off against a legion of apes imbued with human-like intelligence in the blockbuster Planet of the Apes prequel, Rise of the Apes. And, outside of the "high concept" Hollywood kingdom, there's Project Nim, the latest documentary from James Marsh, who won an Oscar in 2008 for his awe-inspiring film about Philippe Petit's high-wire balancing act between the Twin Towers, Man on Wire.

"It's one of those things that you don't know when you set out on a film two years ago where it will end up in the culture and the zeitgeist," said Marsh. "I heard the same thing about The Dark Knight and Man on Wire. Take your pick, in a way. Ours is true, ours happened, and you see real human emotions in that, and real animal emotions in that."
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Magnet

Meet 'Magnet Boy' the 11-year-old Brazilian Who is Attracting Attention - and the Odd Saucepan - With a Bizarre Ability


The Daily Mail, UK
Sun, 10 Jul 2011 10:44 UTC
An 11-year-old boy has been attracting worldwide attention... and a load of metal implements.

Knives, forks, spoons, scissors and even large saucepans all seem to stick to Paulo David Amorim, a Brazilian boy who claims to have magnet-type qualities.

His friends have nicknamed him 'Magnet Boy,' while his astonished doctor says he has never seen anything like it in 30 years as a physician.
Image
© The Associated Press
There's something about Paulo: The 11-year-old Brazilian seems to attract metal objects on his front and back

Comment: H/t to SOTT reader bngenoh for pointing out this video:


Paulo is not alone it seems.

      Read More...
Star of David

US Collusion In the Gaza Blockade is an Affront to Human Rights

Cindy Corrie
Gardian UK
Sun, 10 Jul 2011 22:56 UTC
Image
© Getty
Peace activist Rachel Corrie being interviewed by a TV crew in the Rafah refugee camp in 2003, two days before being killed by an Israeli bulldozer.
My daughter's death shows the cruelty of an America that won't protect its own and is complicit in harming Palestinian civilians.

When Greek authorities prevented the US ship the Audacity of Hope leaving its port in Athens this week, they dealt a blow to a group of brave and principled Americans who were trying to carry thousands of letters from US citizens to those who wait on Gaza's shores.

I know many of the people who were on this boat, and my family's letter was part of their cargo. In 2003 my daughter Rachel Corrie made her journey to Gaza and was run down and killed by a US-made Israeli military Caterpillar D-9 bulldozer. She was trying to protect a Gazan family and their home, one of thousands illegally destroyed in Israeli military clearing operations.
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Eye 1

US, Florida: Hypnotist Principal Faces Questions After Suicides

Mitch Stacy
The Associated Press
Sun, 10 Jul 2011 04:08 UTC
Image
© unknown
High school principal George Kenney acknowledged using hypnosis to help people: students who needed to relax before tests, a basketball player having trouble making free throws and even school secretaries who wanted to quit smoking.

But now the popular 51-year-old principal's future at North Port High School is in question since it came to light that he had hypnotized two students before their separate suicides this spring. There is no indication their deaths were any more than a tragic coincidence. However, Kenney acknowledged conducting the sessions after being warned by his boss to stop such one-on-one hypnosis with students at school.

Most students, teachers and fellow administrators at the southwest Florida school were aware that Kenney was a trained hypnotist who would eagerly help those who sought him out for sessions, according to a school district report. Students looked forward to his demonstrations in a psychology class and at other school events.

In April, according to the Sarasota County School District report, he hypnotized a 16-year-old student to help him better focus on a test. The next day, the boy committed suicide. Kenney was put on leave in May when the boy's parents, who had given their permission for the sessions, raised concerns after his death.
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Stormtrooper

US, Washington: Kirkland 6-year-Old Patted Down by TSA Agents Twice

Tonya Mosley
King 5 News
Sat, 09 Jul 2011 07:42 UTC
A Kirkland family has filed a complaint claiming their 6-year-old son was singled out by TSA for a hand-search. KING 5's Tonya Mosley has the story.


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Heart - Black

100 Feared Dead as Russia Plays Down Chances of Finding Boat Survivors

Andrew Osborn
The Telegraph, UK
Sun, 10 Jul 2011 06:04 UTC
Image
© Reuters
A survivor from the tourist boat Bulgaria that sank
The chances of finding more survivors after a tourist boat sank in Russia's Volga river were "very small", according to the government, raising fears that more than 100 people have died.

The double decker boat carrying more than 180 people sunk "within minutes" during a heavy storm on Russia's Volga River on Sunday killing at least two people and leaving more than a hundred other passengers missing.

In an accident that will raise fresh questions about the safety of Russia's ageing Soviet-era trains, planes and boats, eyewitnesses said the tour boat sank about two miles from the nearest river bank in bad weather.

"It was not that choppy but it was raining hard and there was a storm," Yelena Kaleyeva, a resident of a nearby village, told local media.

Other witnesses said the vessel, called Bulgaria, sank within about two minutes, that visibility in the area was low, and that passengers dashed to grab hold of anything that floated to stay alive.

Not all of them managed to get a life jacket or to make it to one of the few emergency boats however.
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Bad Guys

New Australian Law to Make Muslims Lift Veils

Rod McGurik
The Associated Press
Sun, 10 Jul 2011 18:09 UTC
Image
© unknown
Muslim women would have to remove veils and show their faces to police on request or risk a prison sentence under proposed new laws in Australia's most populous state that have drawn criticism as culturally insensitive.

A vigorous debate that the proposal has triggered reflects the cultural clashes being ignited by the growing influx of Muslim immigrants and the unease that visible symbols of Islam are causing in predominantly white Christian Australia since 1973 when the government relaxed its immigration policy.

Under the law proposed by the government of New South Wales, which includes Sydney, a woman who defies police by refusing to remove her face veil could be sentenced to a year in prison and fined 5,500 Australian dollars ($5,900).

The bill - to be voted on by the state parliament in August - has been condemned by civil libertarians and many Muslims as an overreaction to a traffic offense case involving a Muslim woman driver in a "niqab," or a veil that reveals only the eyes.

The government says the law would require motorists and criminal suspects to remove any head coverings so that police can identify them.

Critics say the bill smacks of anti-Muslim bias given how few women in Australia wear burqas. In a population of 23 million, only about 400,000 Australians are Muslim. Community advocates estimate that fewer than 2,000 women wear face veils, and it is likely that even a smaller percentage drives.
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Bizarro Earth

Ten Decapitated Bodies Found in Torreon, Mexico


BBC News
Sat, 09 Jul 2011 14:41 UTC
Image
© Reuters
The bodies were found after a night of killings across the region which left at least 40 people dead
The decapitated bodies of three women and seven men have been found in an abandoned lorry in the northern Mexican city of Torreon, police say.

One head was found on the windscreen. The others were dumped by the roadside, along with threatening messages.

They were found after a night of violence across northern Mexico.

National Security Spokesman Alejandro Poire attributed the beheadings to a battle between two drugs gangs, the Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel.

Police said the 10 had probably been killed a few days back, as the bodies were showing signs of decomposition.
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Pistol

Gunmen Kill at Least 20 in Mexican Bar

Jason Lange
Reuters
Sat, 09 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Reuters
Member of a forensic team and a police detective cordon off a crime scene in downtown Monterrey
Gunmen burst into a bar in the Mexican city of Monterrey and shot dead at least 20 people Friday, the latest massacre in the city battered by drug-gang violence, El Universal newspaper reported.

At least five people were injured, the paper reported, citing local police.

The gunmen fired AK-47 assault rifles throughout the bar in downtown Monterrey, Milenio newspaper reported.

Several other Mexican media outlets, including Reforma newspaper, reported the same tally of dead and injured.

Over the last four years, industrial and relatively prosperous Monterrey has gone from being a model for developing economies to a symbol of Mexico's drug war chaos as rival gangs fight one another in the city's streets.
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