Society's ChildS


Airplane

United Airlines plane makes emergency landing in Idaho after engine shuts down


The Washington Post
Wed, 28 Aug 2013 08:23 UTC
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A United Airlines 737 flying from Seattle to Houston made an emergency landing in Idaho after one of its two engines apparently shut down.

Police say the airplane landed safely at the Pocatello Regional Airport just after 2:50 a.m. Tuesday.

The airline said the plane's 116 passengers were waiting at the terminal for a replacement airplane to arrive, which was expected to happen Tuesday morning. The plane also had six crew members.

Pocatello airport manager David Allen tells KPVI-TV that an engine on the airplane shut down and Pocatello was the closest suitable airport to make an emergency landing.

United Airlines spokeswoman Jennifer Dohm sent an email to The Associated Press saying the plane was diverted to Pocatello due to "an issue with an engine" that maintenance workers were reviewing.

Source: Associated Press
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Arrow Down

7 dead after two buildings collapse in India


Times of India
Wed, 28 Aug 2013 01:13 UTC

Vadodara: At least seven persons were killed and 40 feared to be trapped under the debris as two multi-storey buildings collapsed in Madhavnagar locality here in the early hours on Wednesday.

The twin multi-storey buildings collapsed behind Atladara area around 4:30am, catching the sleeping occupants unaware, H J Tapariya, chief fire brigade officer of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation said.

According to Tapariya, about 13 to 14 families were staying in the building constructed by the Vadodara Urban Development Authority (VUDA)
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Eye 1

Chinese boy, 6, has his eyes GOUGED OUT after being kidnapped by organ trafficker

Hou Liqiang and Sun Ruisheng
China Daily
Tue, 27 Aug 2013 09:29 UTC
Boy with No Eyes
© AFP/Getty ImagesHorrific: A Chinese boy lies in hospital after he had his eyes gouged out reportedly by an organ trafficker.
A 6-year-old boy's eyes were removed in Shanxi province, and local police have offered a reward of 100,000 yuan ($16,340) for information in the case.

The incident happened in Fenxi county on Saturday evening. Guo Bin, whose parents are farmers, was discovered missing at 6 pm, when he usually returns from playing outside to eat dinner.

Five hours later, a man who had returned from catching scorpions in the local mountains said he had seen what was possibly a boy twitching in the valley.

Guo's parents then found their son lying in the place, the man described.
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People

Facebook to compensate users for sharing details on advertisements


BBC
Tue, 27 Aug 2013 00:00 UTC
Approximately 614,000 Facebook users whose personal details appeared in ads on the site without their permission will each receive a $15 (£9.65) payout.

The names and pictures of an estimated 150 million Facebook members were used in Sponsored Stories, but only those who responded to an email from the site earlier this year will be compensated.

Privacy organisations will also receive some of the $20m (£12.9m) settlement.

Facebook said it was "pleased" the settlement had been approved.

The payout was approved by a US court on Monday following a class action filed against Facebook in 2011 by five of its users.

The group said their details had been used to promote products and services through the site's Sponsored Stories programme, without paying them or giving them the choice to opt-out.

A Sponsored Story is a tailored advertisement that appears on members' Facebook pages, highlighting products a user's friends have endorsed or "liked" on the site.
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Pistol

Trayvon Martin's killer George Zimmerman will ask state to cover $200K-$300K of his legal bills

Rene Stutzman
Orlando Sentinel
Mon, 26 Aug 2013 16:54 UTC
George Zimmerman
© AFP Photo / Joe Burbank-Pool
Because he was acquitted, state law allows him to recoup thousands

George Zimmerman, the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who killed Trayvon Martin, plans to ask the state of Florida to cover $200,000 to $300,000 of his legal expenses, his attorney told the Orlando Sentinel Monday evening.

Because Zimmerman was acquitted, state law requires Florida to pay all his legal costs, minus the biggest one: the fee that goes to his lawyers.

That includes the cost of expert witnesses, travel, depositions, photocopies, even that animated 3-D video that defense attorneys showed jurors during closing argument that depicts Trayvon punching Zimmerman.

Defense attorney Mark O'Mara said Monday that he would soon prepare a motion, asking Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson to authorize the payments.

That motion, he said, "is in the works."
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Dollar

Smoke and mirrors mask corruption at Pennsylvania's largest cyber-charter school as founder charged with funneling $8 million into private account

Carmel DeAmicis
The Raw Story
Tue, 27 Aug 2013 16:49 UTC
computer education
© Unknown
For the last decade, cyber charter schools have been springing up all over the country. Cyber schools give classes over the Internet to students in grades K-12, who get their education entirely online instead of in a brick-and-mortar location. Despite the lack of research into these schools' educational quality, in recent years some states have removed limitations to their growth.

Pennsylvania is one such state pioneering cyber charter schools. As of the 2012-2013 school year, 16 of its public schools were cyber. Students could attend those programs free, subsidized by federal, state, and local tax revenue.

On Friday, the founder of Pennsylvania's bigger charter school - PA Cyber - was charged with fraud, for funneling $8 million of the school's funds into his personal companies and holdings. Nicholas Trombetta allegedly used the tax payer money to purchase a plane, houses for his mother and girlfriend, and a million dollar Florida condo.
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Blue Planet

Bear stalks 2 women in 3-hour ordeal


CBC News
Fri, 23 Aug 2013 16:16 UTC
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© Unknown
Annapolis Valley pair flee to hunter's shack.

Two Nova Scotia women say they had a close escape from a black bear while travelling in the Annapolis Valley.

The three-hour ordeal ended with the pair cowering in an old hunter's shack while the bear pawed the walls of the building outside.

Nikki Latta, 23, and Lindsay Jones, 25, headed into the woods near Port George on the Bay of Fundy shore Monday evening. Latta was familiar with the area, but Jones wasn't. The two joked about a bear attack - Jones is terrified of them.

Then a passing dog got spooked and ran away.
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Eye 2

UK Mother catches 'feisty' albino king snake in her garden

Helen Collis
The Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 27 Aug 2013 12:32 UTC
  • Mother and daughter Ann and Bridie Denniss, spotted the 3ft long snake in the garden
  • They decided to catch it and grabbed some tongs, gloves and a bag
  • The albino king snake tried to bite them but they eventually captured it
  • King snakes are commonly kept as pets but no one has yet claimed it
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Feisty: A fearless mother and daughter, from Weymouth, Dorset, captured an angry Californian King snake with a pair of salad tongs after finding it on the loose in their garden
A fearless mother and daughter used a pair of salad tongs to capture an escaped red-eyed snake they spotted slithering along their garden wall.

Bridie Denniss, 24, was enjoying a cup of tea in her kitchen with her mum Ann when she looked out of the window and saw the 3ft long snake.

Brave Ann, 54, grabbed a pair of tongs from the kitchen draw along with a garden sack and went after it.
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Pistol

South African girl of seven 'shoots friend dead'


BBC News
Mon, 26 Aug 2013 17:08 UTC
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© UnknownGun ownership is an emotive issue in South Africa
A seven-year-old South African girl has shot dead her friend, aged six, with her grandfather's revolver while playing at a farm, police say.

A murder case has been opened after the dead girl, a daughter of a farm worker, was shot in the face, reports say.

The alleged killer's grandfather has been charged with failure to safeguard a firearm, police added.

South Africa has tight gun ownership regulations but many people still possess firearms.

'Great shock'

The debate over gun ownership in South Africa is highly emotive, and sometimes takes racial overtones in a country where divisions between black and white people still run deep, says BBC South Africa analyst Farouk Chothia.
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Books

Liberia students all fail university admission exam


Source
Mon, 26 Aug 2013 17:00 UTC
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© Unknown
Liberia's education minister says she finds it hard to believe that not a single candidate passed this year's university admission exam.

Nearly 25,000 school-leavers failed the test for admission to the University of Liberia, one of two state-run universities.

The students lacked enthusiasm and did not have a basic grasp of English, a university official told the BBC.

Liberia is recovering from a brutal civil war that ended a decade ago.

'Dreams shattered'

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel peace laureate, recently acknowledged that the education system was still in a "in a mess", and much needed to be done improve it.
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