Society's ChildS


Blackbox

Horror at 7-Eleven as woman becomes human fireball after being doused in gasoline and IGNITED by her ex-boyfriend


DailyMail.co.uk
Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:17 UTC
A woman was severely burned after being covered in gasoline and set on fire by her knife-wielding ex-boyfriend and father of her child, police said.

The 34-year-old, who has not been named, suffered the horrific attack outside a 7-Eleven store in South Florida following a row with Roosevely Mondesir, when they met so that she could pick up her son.


She was waiting outside the store in her silver Mercedes at around 3am on Monday when Mondesir showed up in his white Jaguar without the boy and began hurling the fuel over her, Boynton Beach Police spokeswoman Stephanie Slater said.

She tried to run away, but the 52-year-old man chased her with a knife and then ignited her.

In graphic surveillance video, a man can be seen threatening a woman with a large knife, struggling in the doorway of the store.

'Get away from me!' she can be heard shouting.
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Mr. Potato

People Power! Greece's growing 'potato movement'

John Psaropoulos
Al Jaxeera
Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:02 UTC
Recession-hit Greeks
© Anna Psaroudaki/Al Jazeera can now buy rice for a euro per kilo directly from producers
A growing group of grassroots activists are cutting out agricultural middlemen and connecting farmers and shoppers.

Athens, Greece - When an economy shrinks, prices are meant to go down in response to falling demand. This has not happened in Greece - at least not yet. While the Greek economy shrank by an average of five per cent a year between 2009 and 2011, consumer prices rose by an average 3.7 per cent a year. The combination of falling revenues and rising prices has led to an explosive political mix.

It is not politicians but grassroots activism that has come to address this issue. In April, the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) reported a 24.6 per cent drop in potato prices from March 2011 - the largest ever one-year drop in any commodity. The reason for this historic deflation was what has come to be known as the potato movement - and it is having an empowering effect on Greeks, not only as consumers, but also as citizens and voters.
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Handcuffs

Amir Khadir's Daughter, Yalda Machouf-Khadir, Faces 11 Charges Related To Protests, No Bail For Now

Sidhartha Banerjee
Huffington Post
Fri, 08 Jun 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Patrick SanfaconAmir Khadir's daughter Yalda Machouf-Khadir faces 11 charges in connection with different events.
The activist daughter of a Quebec politician, facing charges following disruptive protests and vandalism, will spend the weekend behind bars.

Yalda Machouf-Khadir faces 11 charges in connection with different events - including break and enter, conspiracy, mischief, assaulting a police officer and assaulting a news photographer.

The 19-year-old daughter of Amir Khadir, the sole elected member of the left-wing party Quebec solidaire, looked bored as she leaned against the prisoners' dock, resting her head in her hands.

The Crown objected to her release and to the release of all but one of the people arrested this week for similar activities, so they will spend the weekend in jail until bail hearings Monday.

The charges against Machouf-Khadir stem mainly from vandalism at the offices of former education minister Line Beauchamp, and from a separate case at Universite de Montreal.
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Attention

Self-Injury Shockingly Found In Younger Children: Study


RedOrbit
Mon, 11 Jun 2012 13:19 UTC
Self Injury
© Olga Sapegina / Shutterstock
It is a well-known fact that some school-aged children have self-injured themselves in the past as a way to cope with emotional stress, but a new study has found shocking evidence that it exists even in children as young as 7 years old.

Previous studies have suggested that 1 in 5 teens and young adults engage in self-injury at some point in their life, but this is the first to find such a result in kids so young, raising awareness about a disturbing problem.

The study, based on 665 interviews with school children in Denver and central New Jersey, found that one in 12 third-, sixth- and ninth-graders in the interview had self-injured at least once without the intention of killing themselves. For third-graders alone, close to 7 percent of girls and 8 percent of boys said they had self-injured themselves. About two-thirds of those polled, said they had also done it more than once.

The study defines self-injury as cutting, carving, burning, piercing, or picking at the skin, or hitting oneself to cause pain, but not death.

"A lot of people tend to think that school-aged children, they're happy, they don't have a lot to worry about," study coauthor Benjamin Hankin, a psychologist from the University of Denver, told Reuters. "Clearly a lot more kids are doing this than people have known."

The report, published in the journal Pediatrics, found that many of the children feel that causing themselves physical pain helps them cope with emotional stress. Some researchers believe that physical pain releases feel-good hormones called endorphins that can be calming.
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Bizarro Earth

Fact or Fear?: Earth's Collapse is Imminent, Researchers Say

Douglas Perry
TomsGuide.com
Mon, 11 Jun 2012 11:21 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Scientists at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada, say that we have taken our planet on the track of "irreversible collapse". The point of no return may be reached this century, they say. The measures of preventing a scenario they compare to the event of the extinction of the dinosaurs, are about as likely to be implemented as oil drilling to stop tomorrow.

If your life revolves around sustainability, this research will definitely ruin your day. If you enjoy debating the existence and effects of global warning, this study will become part of your next discussion to argue the value of panic creation. According to the authors of a new paper that "used scientific theories, toy ecosystem modeling and paleontological evidence as a crystal ball", there is not much left to do to save our planet from a state-shift in Earth's biosphere. And even if we can, the proposed measures, which include an immediate "reduction" of the number of humans inhabiting Earth, may not be popular enough to be considered.

The scientists believe that a state at which a shift will occur is almost reached. "The last tipping point in Earth's history occurred about 12,000 years ago when the planet went from being in the age of glaciers, which previously lasted 100,000 years, to being in its current interglacial state," said Arne Mooers, a researcher participating in the project. "Once that tipping point was reached, the most extreme biological changes leading to our current state occurred within only 1,000 years. That's like going from a baby to an adult state in less than a year. ... Importantly, the planet is changing even faster now."

Comment: Are we - On The Eve Of Destruction? Is - 2012 The End of the World As We Know It
Prophecy, Prediction, and Portents of Things to Come

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No Entry

Stop, Frisk in Spotlight

Pervaiz Shallwani
The Wall Street Journal
Sun, 10 Jun 2012 08:38 UTC
Image
© Debbie Egan-Chin/New York Daily NewsMayor Bloomberg, who spoke at First Baptist Church in Brownsville, Brooklyn, on Sunday, says the city's incarceration and crime rate have plummeted over the past decade.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg took to the church pulpit on Sunday to deliver a message to police critics in a Brooklyn neighborhood where the drama over street tactics plays out every day: The policy should be "mended, not ended."

Speaking at the First Baptist Church of Brownsville, the mayor said ministers have complained to him about city police officers using "disrespectful language or unnecessary force" when they stop people on the street. He said he understood why some have called for the tactic known as stop-and-frisk to be eliminated entirely.

"I would be angry, too," Mr. Bloomberg said in his clearest public acknowledgment of stop-and-frisk's shortcomings.

But the mayor repeated a forceful defense of the policy, which allows officers to stop, question and sometimes frisk people on the street when there is reasonable suspicion of a crime. A record 685,000 stops were made in 2011, the majority of them involving black and Latino men in low-income neighborhoods.

Addressing a largely African-American audience, Mr. Bloomberg said stop-and-frisk was a significant force behind a steep drop in crime that has also resulted in fewer people being incarcerated. He said thousands of illegal weapons were seized during the stops, making the streets safer for the very people often targeted by stops.
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Heart - Black

Orthodox Jewish Woman in Rape-Pimping Case Hopes to See Trial, but is Firing Uzis in Israel as Case Crumbles

Oren Yaniv
New York Daily News
Mon, 11 Jun 2012 02:00 UTC
Image
© unknownOrthodox Jewish woman who accuses four men of rape and pimping her out from age 13 is in Israel taking a martial arts and weapons course as her case crumbles in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn rape and sex trafficking weakened by revelations she recanted accusations

The young Jewish woman at the center of the crumbling Crown Heights rape case is in Israel, training in martial arts, shooting firearms - and still hoping the men she accused stand trial, the Daily News has learned.

While the case against the four men charged with raping and pimping her out unraveled this spring amid revelations she recanted, the accuser was at a self-defense program learning how to shoot an Uzi.

In one of a series of photos posted online, the flaming redhead strikes a femme fatale pose, clutching an oversized pistol. She also appears atop a tank, practicing the Israeli martial art krav maga on a beach, and shooting a submachine gun.

"She's doing very good," said the co-director of the intensive fitness course, where the 22-year-old has been enrolled for the past months.

But the attorney for one of the four black men she accused was up in arms over the weapons training, noting that she had been diagnosed with mental issues in the past.
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Arrow Up

Los Angeles Co. Fatal Police Shootings Rise by 70 Percent


The Associated Press
Sun, 10 Jun 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© unknown
The number of suspects killed by police in Los Angeles County has risen nearly 70 percent in 2011 over the previous year.

The Los Angeles Times reports Sunday that 54 people were killed by law enforcement in 2011 countywide. In about two-thirds of the cases, the person was armed with a gun, knife or other weapon. In 12 cases, the person was unarmed.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck says the majority of shootings are legitimate responses to serious threats. He says police have become more adept at responding quickly to violent situations.

Fatal police shootings this year, however, have fallen back to 2010 levels.

The increase in police killings come at a time when murder rates have fallen to historic lows - 612 homicides were recorded countywide last year.
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Pistol

Update: Auburn Football Players Among Six Shot, Three Killed at Party

Matt Pearce
Los Angeles Times
Sun, 10 Jun 2012 03:23 UTC
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© The Associated Press/Vasha Hunt/Opelika-Auburn NewsAuburn Police Chief Tommy Dawson holds photos of DesMonte Leonard, 22, of Montgomery, Ala., who is wanted in connection with the shootings of six people, three fatally, at a party Saturday night.
A manhunt is underway for the suspect police say shot and killed three young men and injured three more at a Saturday night party near Auburn University in Auburn, Ala.

Former Auburn football players and current students Edward Christian and Ladarious Phillips were pronounced dead along with Auburn resident Damario Pitts. All were 20.

Current player Eric Mack, 20, was still being treated at an area hospital, and John Robertson, 20, was "fighting for his life" and undergoing critical surgery at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Auburn Police Chief Tommy Dawson said at a Sunday news conference. A 19-year-old man was treated and released.

"I don't believe they were targeted; I believe there was a fight and someone got carried away and things went too far," Dawson said.

Police are hunting for Montgomery, Ala., resident DesMonte Leonard, 22, who has been charged with three counts of capital murder.
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Heart - Black

Man jailed for nine years after killing baby while playing video game

Marty Sharpe
The Timaru Herald
Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:51 UTC
Trent Hapuku
Trent Hapuku: Caused fatal injury to five-month-old Mikara Reti.
A man who killed a toddler after it disturbed him while he was playing a computer game has been sentenced to nine years in prison.

Trent Hapuku, 23, was sentenced for the manslaughter by Justice Forrest Miller in the High Court in Napier.

Hapuku killed the five-month-old Mikara Reti on January 11 last year.

Hapuku and Mikara were alone in a sleepout when Hapuku lashed out because the infant was distracting him from playing the PlayStation game Scarface. Mikara was struck so hard his liver nearly split in two against his spine.

Crown lawyer Steve Manning said it was an intentional and violent assault on one of society's most vulnerable members and said a non-parole period was required in order to send a message of denunciation and deterrence.

Mikara's grandmother Selena Reti read a victim impact statement in court describing the effect the death had on the family and told Hapuku "I hope wherever you look you see Mikara staring back at you".
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