Society's ChildS


Bell

US: Corzine's MF feels heat as feds eye missing $$

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Just a few months ago, former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine was rumored to be off to the White House. Now, after the sudden collapse of his MF Global, the outhouse seems more likely.
Jon Corzine, the CEO of bankrupt broker-dealer MF Global, saw his reputation tossed from the frying pan right into the regulatory fire yesterday when investigators discovered as much as $700 million in customer funds missing from the firm.

Officials from two US regulators, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, were looking into whether the loot was diverted to support some of the firm's own trades.

As if the allegedly missing funds, which happened on Corzine's watch, are not bad enough, it was learned late yesterday that the $700 million was responsible for capsizing a potential deal between MF Global and rival Interactive Brokers Group that could have saved the firm and the jobs of the company's 2,870 employees worldwide.

Stormtrooper

US, New York: Lawyer Wants 'Psycho' NYPD Cop Charged for Punching Protester

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© TS
The attorney for an Occupy Wall Street protester who was allegedly punched by New York City Police Department Deputy Inspector Johnny Cardona last month is calling on the district attorney to charge the officer like any other civilian suspect.

Civil rights attorney Ron Kuby and his client, Felix Rivera-Pitre, met with the Manhattan District Attorney's office Monday to discuss video tape that appears to show Cardona's violent actions.

"It was a careful questioning," Kuby told Raw Story Tuesday. "The sort of very meticulous kind of questioning that you would expect from somebody doing an investigation. ... I've seen this act before. I've been doing this for 30 years and, historically, they have always acted like they are taking it seriously, but they seldom do."

"The usual process that I've seen over and over and over again is that they conduct a very long, very thorough investigation. They present it to a grand jury. It's a secret proceeding. It's a black box of law. And then the district attorney announces that the grand jury has failed to indict. ... It provides the perfect political cover for timorous prosecutors."

Pharoah

Flashback Gaddafi crowned Africa's 'king of kings' by over 200 kings and tribal elders

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A meeting of more than 200 African kings and traditional rulers has bestowed the title "king of kings" on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
A meeting of more than 200 African kings and traditional rulers has bestowed the title "king of kings" on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The rulers, wearing gold crowns, sequined capes and colourful robes met in the Libyan town of Benghazi in what was billed as a first of its kind.

Col Gaddafi urged the royals to join his campaign for African unity.

Africa's political leaders are lukewarm about his vision of merging their powers to create a single government.

"We want an African military to defend Africa, we want a single African currency, we want one African passport to travel within Africa," Col Gaddafi told the assembled dignitaries, who come from countries such as Mozambique, South Africa, Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Info

Women Still Prefer Taking Husband's Last Name

Just Married
© Olga Vladimirova, ShutterstockWill she be Mrs. HisLastName?


As a girl, Andrea Grimes assumed that she would take her husband's last name when she grew up and got married. But at 27 and newly engaged, the Dallas journalist and feminist blogger now has no interest in switching her surname.

But not everyone has caught up: Both Grimes' mother and her fiancé's stepmother have already referred to her with her fiancé's last name. Those assumptions aren't surprising, given that decades after the feminist revolution, most women still take their husband's last name upon marriage. While no national statistics exist, some recent studies suggest that women keeping their own name is actually becoming less popular. And a recent nationally representative survey found that half of Americans support women being legally required to take their husband's name upon marriage. These traditional attitudes persist even as divorce, remarriage, gay marriage and blended families make naming more complex.

"It's not unlike other sorts of signals of traditionalism," said study researcher Brian Powell, who along with his colleagues reported the results of that survey in the journal Gender and Society in April 2011.

"Wedding services today still have so many markings of the traditional gender divide," Powell, a sociologist at Indiana University, Bloomington, told LiveScience. "The symbolic aspects of gender are still very powerful."

Radar

Poland: Plane Crash-Lands at Warsaw's International Airport, No One Injured

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© Peter Andrews/ReutersEmergency evacuation slides are deployed after the Boeing 767 crash-landed in Warsaw on Tuesday.
230 passengers on board aircraft which flew from Newark airport

A Boeing 767 from Newark carrying 230 passengers made an emergency landing in Warsaw after its landing gear failed to open.

Leszek Chorzewski, the spokesman for LOT, the Polish airline that operated the flight, said none of the passengers was injured.

"All safety procedures worked perfectly fine and, thanks to this, nobody was injured," Chorzewski said.

Live television footage showed the plane landing on its belly, with a few sparks flying as the craft hit the runway which had been covered with flame retardant foam.

There was no blaze but firefighters hosed the plane with water and foam as a precautionary measure.

Passengers could be seen fleeing the plane. The airport has been closed until 8 a.m. on Wednesday.

Light Sabers

US, UK and France's 'Libyan rebels' turn on each other as 'Free Libya' prepares for descent into Hell

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© AFPA file photo of 'Libyan National Transitional Council fighters' also known as TERRORISTS in action
Hundreds of revolutionaries fought each other at a hospital in Tripoli early on Monday, in the biggest armed clash between allies since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

The fighting fuelled growing fears that nobody is in control of thousands of swaggering armed men who are still based in Tripoli and that the country's interim government will struggle to impose law and order.

Two people died from bullet wounds and at least seven fighters were injured during a battle that started when militia from the town of Zintan were stopped by guards from the Tripoli Brigade from entering the city's Central Hospital to kill a patient.

The hospital front door and entrance hall were afterwards left pocked with bullets, doctors and patients had to flee the building and two elderly patients died of heart attacks during the shooting, which lasted from about 1am until dawn. Heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft guns were used by both factions, supposed allies who in reality nurse a dangerous rivalry.

The shoot-out started when a group of gunmen arrived at the hospital in search of a man they had shot earlier in the night. Witnesses said the gunmen were drunk, and had come to finish the man off after learning that he had survived and been taken for medical treatment.

Doctors asked them to leave, at which point one of them pulled out a pistol and began shooting.

Handcuffs

US, New York: 2 Boys Arrested After Falling Shopping Cart Critically Injures Harlem Woman


A bizarre incident that left a woman in critical condition in Harlem has resulted in the arrest of two 12-year-old boys.

Marion Salmon Hedges, 47, was walking with her 14-year-old son outside the Target store on East 116th Street in East Harlem Sunday night when the boys allegedly pushed the cart off a 4th floor walkway that connects the store to a parking garage.

Hedges was struck on the head by the falling cart.

"She carries a lot of responsibility with her - not only for her family and her professional life - but also for the number of not-for profits that she's involved with," a family friend told CBS 2′s Pablo Guzman, adding the woman's son filed a criminal complaint with police Monday morning.

Mr. Potato

US, Florida: Burglar pleads with victim not to call 911 because it is his birthday

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© Broward Sheriff's OfficeGregory Dobbs
Gregory Dobbs was taken into custody as he went to his birthday dinner, authorities said

A burglar caught rummaging through a car pleaded with the victim not tell to authorities because it was his birthday and his mother was going to be in town, the Broward Sheriff's Office said Monday.

Gregory Dobbs, 38, of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, was arrested and remains in jail on a charge of burglary of conveyance.

On Oct. 28, Dobbs' birthday, Morris Schwarz saw Dobbs going through an open window into his truck and looking through his belongings, authorities said. Schwarz went to the car, but the suspect fled. He ran after the man, caught him and that's when Dobbs pleaded with him, authorities said.

Pumpkin

US: Halloween horror parties gone wrong see 50 arrests and reveller left critical after 100-man brawl

  • About 20,000 people at Ohio University Halloween party
  • 45 ambulances called and 50 arrests on Saturday night
  • California 100-man brawl sends one man to hospital
The annual Halloween block party of 20,000 people that helped earn a university the title of best party school ended this weekend with 50 arrests.

The party near Ohio University in Athens on Saturday night saw around 45 ambulances called, with most treating revellers with alcohol-related issues.

Elsewhere, in Hollywood around 100 Halloween revellers were in a heated brawl early on Sunday morning that left one man in a critical condition.
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© KTLAHalloween brawl: A fight broke out between several costumed men in California which saw a 27-year-old man taken to hospital in a critical condition

Pistol

US: South Carolina Sheriff Says it's Time For Citizens To Arm Themselves

Sheriff Chuck Wright Doesn't Hold Back

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The Spartanburg County Sheriff is known for speaking his mind, and at a news conference on Monday, he didn't hold back his anger and frustration after a woman was attacked in a park over the weekend.

Investigators said 46-year-old Walter Lance grabbed a woman who was walking her dog in Milliken Park on Sunday afternoon. They said Lance choked the woman, made her take off her clothing and tried to rape her. (Full Story)

Lance is in custody and was denied bond on Monday.

Sheriff Chuck Wright opened his news conference by saying, "Our form of justice is not making it."

He said, "Carry a concealed weapon. That'll fix it."