Society's ChildS


Handcuffs

Group arrested for posing as TV news crew, tasering unsuspecting interviewees

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© Cleveland Police photosHerbert Solomon and Derek Rowell
Cleveland police arrested two men, 19 and 25, for felonious assault, accused of posing as a local TV news crew and tasering people with a stun gun.

They also took a third person, a juvenile, into custody and driven to Jane Edna Recreation Center. Officers took the camera and stun gun as evidence.

While in police custody, Solomon Herbert, 19, stated that he was video recording as Derek Rowell, 25, shocked people with the stun gun, according to police records.

When asked who shocked the victim, Herbert stated that Rowell shocked the victim as he recorded it, and that they were doing it just for fun.

Then Rowell told police he was shocking people because he was being told to do so.

Arrow Up

Hundreds rally against spread of Neo-Nazi influence in Greece

Greece Protesters
© AFPA youth carries an anti-Nazi placard on Jan. 19, 2013 in Athens, Greece.
Hundreds of people held a rally against racism and fascism in central Athens on Saturday as mourners gathered to pray over the body of a man killed in a suspected racist attack.

Nearly 3,000 people, according to state broadcaster NET, joined the peaceful protest that ended with a concert and was organised amid a nationwide surge in xenophobic sentiment.

"I have been the victim of a racist attack and when I tried to complain about it I was arrested. Police are the same as Nazis," 35-year-old Gildas Batola from Congo told AFP at the rally organised by groups including municipalities, migrant communities and the radical left main opposition party Syriza.

"I have been spat on, I've been told to go home because my boyfriend is from Tanzania," said 38-year-old Tracy Roberts from the UK.

"Sometimes they (police) stop my boyfriend, lock him up for several hours for no reason," she added.

Protesters carried banners reading: "Fascism never again", "End to racist attacks", "Out with neo-Nazis" - also a gay flag was thrown into the mix.

Stormtrooper

Iowa REAL ID drivers licenses now available courtesy of the Department of Homeland Security

Beginning this week, the Washington County Treasurer's Office will issue REAL ID drivers licenses. The move is part of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) effort to unify state-issued identification documents to combat terrorism. The 9/11 Commission noted, "For terrorists, travel documents are as important as weapons."
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"Secure driver's licenses and identification documents are a vital component of a holistic national security strategy," states the DHS website. "Law enforcement must be able to rely on government-issued identification documents and know that the bearer of such a document is who he or she claims to be. Obtaining fraudulent identification documents presents an opportunity for terrorists to board airplanes, rent cars, open bank accounts, or conduct other activities without being detected."

Washington County residents will have the option of getting REAL IDS, though anyone getting a driver's license or identification card for the first time will be issued the Real I.D. Within two years REAL IDs will be required to fly on commercial airlines or enter certain federal buildings for anyone under 50. By Dec. 1, 2017, those older than 50 will need a REAL ID document to board a commercial aircraft or enter certain federal government buildings and nuclear power plants.

Stop

Air cadets rewrite their oath to remove God from pledge

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© Photograph: Steve Parsons/PAAir Training Cadets salute the Lancaster bomber as it flies past at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire.
One of the UK's largest and most respected youth organisations will no longer compel its new members to take a religious oath.

In a move that delighted the British Humanist Association (BHA), the Air Cadet Organisation, which was formed in 1938 and played a key role in the second world war, is to offer future cadets the option of a non-religious oath. The decision follows a campaign by the BHA and the United Kingdom Armed Forces Humanist Association (UKAFHA), after they had argued that the organisation needed to recognise that many of its recruits were non-believers.

The development is likely to be studied closely by other youth organisations. Both the Scout Association and Girlguiding UK are consulting on changing their pledges so that they are inclusive of young people without a specific faith.

Camera

Italy's top paparazzo goes missing after being given jail sentence for blackmail

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© Photograph: Damien Meyer/AFP/Getty ImagesItalian paparazzi agency owner Fabrizio Corona at a previous trial in Milan.
Fabrizio Corona, the "king" of Italy's paparazzi, was being hunted yesterday after a court ordered him jailed for five years for blackmailing a footballer with compromising photographs.

Corona, who is missing from his Milan apartment, was found guilty by Italy's top appeal court of demanding €25,000 (£20,000) in 2009 from David Trézéguet, the married French footballer then playing for Juventus, in return for not publishing photos of him leaving a nightclub with a woman.

The sentence tops a rash of other convictions for blackmail, fraudulent bankruptcy and even passing forged currency handed out to the photographer who is more famous than many of his subjects and who has dated Italy's top showgirl Belén Rodríguez.

Arrow Down

Cuts to abattoir meat checks 'will be the next food scandal'

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© Photograph: Niall Carson/PAExperts have warned against cuts which would reduce the checks and inspections of meat used in food sold in supermarkets.
The scandal of horsemeat in supermarket burgers should be seen as a warning of things to come, say experts alarmed that meat producers are to be given more powers to police themselves.

Internal documents from the Food Standards Agency reveal that the UK is to move away from regular inspections of abattoirs to a "risk-based" system that unions representing meat-processing workers say will lead to a drop in standards. As a result, unions warn that abattoirs are the next food scandal waiting to happen. Major food producers have been pushing for slaughterhouses to be subjected to lighter regulation for many years, complaining that the number of inspections is stifling their business.

Unions said public revulsion over the burger scandal illustrated the need to do more to avoid contamination at all levels of the food chain, including where the animals were slaughtered. "The fact that horsemeat has unexpectedly turned up in burgers is not surprising; large parts of the industry will do what they think they can get away with," said Unison national officer Ian Adderley. "Currently things far worse than horsemeat are prevented from going into burgers because of the work of meat inspectors and vets in abattoirs. EU legislation ensures meat is physically inspected by people independent of the industry."

Ambulance

Four climbers killed in avalanche in Scottish Highlands

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© Photograph: Stewart Smith/AlamyThe view from Stob Beinn a' Chrulaiste towards Stob nan Cabar and the Three Sisters in Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands.
Four people have been killed and a woman seriously hurt after a group of six climbers were caught up in an avalanche in the Scottish Highlands.

Emergency services were alerted to the accident on Bidean Nam Bian, in Glencoe, at about 2pm on Saturday and a major search operation involving two mountain rescue teams and police dogs was launched.

Police said four people, two men and two women, were found and have since been pronounced dead.

One male climber, who stayed with the teams to help with the search, is safe and well while a woman is in a serious condition in Belford hospital in Fort William.

Red Flag

Rape cases in New Delhi jump 23 percent in 2012

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Rape cases in New Delhi jumped 23 per cent in 2012 from a year earlier, according to official figures, highlighting rising crime against women in the sprawling metropolis.

The numbers were released as the trial of five men was set to begin on Monday on accusations of murder, rape and kidnapping over the death last month of a 23-year-old gang-rape victim, whose assault sparked nationwide protests,

The case against a sixth defendant, who says he is 17, is being heard separately by a juvenile court.

"The rate of conviction in rapes in Delhi is much higher than the national rate," Delhi police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar told reporters on Friday.

Eye 1

Captivated by 'fake girlfriend' hoax, Americans learn about 'catfishing'

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A spectacular hoax involving a popular US sportsman's fake dead girlfriend has put a spotlight on a practice known as "catfishing" and raised fresh concerns about news media fact-checking.

Sports fans learned this week that Manti Te'o, a star linebacker at Notre Dame University and a top prospect in this year's NFL draft, supposedly fell for a fabricated girlfriend he "met" online.

This would have been embarrassing enough, had he not also spoken movingly of the imaginary young woman's sad, but fictional, death - a story many news outlets have repeated and embellished in recent months.

The news drew new attention to the practice of creating a fake persona for an online relationship, a practice described in the 2010 documentary Catfish which inspired an MTV reality show of the same name.

"It's not new that people represent themselves differently in dating situations, but social media makes it easier because you're not physically with the person," said Karen North, head of the Annenberg Program on Online Communities at the University of Southern California.

Vader

Corruption evil as drugs and prostitution: Interpol

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Global football corruption helps drive the criminal underworld's domination of prostitution, drug-trafficking and gun-running, an international symposium into match-fixing heard on Friday.

Around 200 delegates attending the FIFA, UEFA and Interpol meeting into corruption in the sport, were told that it was crucial the match-fixers felt the full force of the law when cases are prosecuted.

However, it was acknowledged that football needs to convince hard-pushed judicial bodies that illegal betting and results-rigging should be pursued with the same vigour reserved for other high-profile crimes.

"We must convince the authorities," said Interpol secretary-general, Ronald Noble.