Society's ChildS


Bizarro Earth

Eleven people shot on D.C. street corner overnight

Image
The Metropolitan Police Department has released surveillance video capturing an early morning drive-by shooting in Northwest D.C. on camera. Eleven people were injured when gunmen opened fire in front of a crowd outside an apartment building.
A drive-by shooting early Monday on a D.C. street corner that has frequently been touched by violence left 11 people wounded, one of them seriously, police said.

Gunmen in two cars opened fire about 2:45 a.m. on a crowd of people outside Tyler House, an eight-story, subsidized residential building on the south side of New York Avenue at North Capitol Street.

The wounded - the youngest of whom was 17 - were struck mostly in the arms and legs, D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said. Assistant Police Chief Peter Newsham said the seriously injured victim was wounded in the back. None of the injuries are considered life-threatening.

Lanier said detectives believe that one of the vehicles involved in the shooting may have been a dark-colored BMW, and the other a may have been a light gray or silver sedan.

Eye 1

Manhunt on for Michael Boysen, Washington man, suspected in his grandparents' murder, police say

Image
© King County Sheriff's Office via KIRO-TVMichael Boysen
Police are searching for a Washington man suspected of double homicide after his elderly grandparents were found dead in their home, CBS affiliate KIRO-TV reports.

King County Sheriff's detectives said 26-year-old Michael Boysen is considered to be "an extreme danger to the public and police" after he allegedly killed his 82-year-old grandfather and 80-year-old grandmother in their Renton home late Friday or early Saturday.

Authorities said Boysen may be seeking to obtain firearms because he was searching for gun shows on the Internet.

Bizarro Earth

Child marriages: 39,000 every day

Image
© Stephanie Sinclair/VII/Tooyoungtowed.orgTahani, 8, is seen with her husband Majed, 27, and her former classmate Ghada, 8, and her husband, outside their home in Hajjah, Yemen, 26 July, 2010.
Between 2011 and 2020, more than 140 million girls will become child brides, according to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

If current levels of child marriages hold, 14.2 million girls annually or 39,000 daily will marry too young.

Furthermore, of the 140 million girls who will marry before the age of 18, 50 million will be under the age of 15.

Despite the physical damage and the persistent discrimination to young girls, little progress has been made toward ending the practice of child marriage. In fact, the problem threatens to increase with the expanding youth population in the developing world.

Child marriage is an appalling violation of human rights and robs girls of their education, health and long-term prospects," says Babatunde Osotimehin, M.D, Executive Director, UNFPA. "A girl who is married as a child is one whose potential will not be fulfilled. Since many parents and communities also want the very best for their daughters, we must work together and end child marriage."

Girls married young are more vulnerable to intimate partner violence and sexual abuse than those who marry later.

"Complications of pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death in young women aged 15-19. Young girls who marry later and delay pregnancy beyond their adolescence have more chances to stay healthier, to better their education and build a better life for themselves and their families," says Flavia Bustreo, M.D., Assistant Director-General for Family, Women's and Children's Health at the World Health Organization. "We have the means at our disposal to work together to stop child marriage."

Red Flag

Hysteria in schools: North Carolina teachers flock to free concealed carry class

Image
© Shutterstock
Educators in North Carolina gathered at a gun range on Saturday to attend a free concealed carry class.

So many teachers arrived for the class that the gun range was forced to turn many of them away, according to local news station WSOCTV. The Rowan County Wildlife Association hosted the event because of the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut last year. They said teachers should be armed to protect their students from mass shootings.

Ambulance

6 teens killed, 2 injured when SUV crashes into pond

Image
Six teenagers were killed and two other people were injured when the SUV they were in struck a guardrail, turned over, and crashed into a pond, officials say.

The single-vehicle accident took place near Warren, Ohio, on Sunday morning, Lt. Ann Ralston of the Ohio Department of Public Safety said.

The teens, ages 14 to 19, were traveling in a Honda Passport at about 7 a.m., Ralston said.

Attention

Over half of Austrians think the Nazis would be elected if the party was readmitted to politics

Nazi Party
© The Independent, UK75 years after Hitler annexed country, poll reveals worrying views about banned party.
As Austria prepares to mark the anniversary of its annexation by Nazi Germany, an opinion poll has shown that more than half of the population think it highly likely that the Nazis would be elected if they were readmitted as a party.

A further 42 per cent agreed with the view that life "wasn't all bad under the Nazis", and 39 per cent said they thought a recurrence of anti-Semitic persecution was likely in Austria.

The disturbing findings were contained in a poll conducted for the Vienna newspaper, Der Standard in advance of Tuesday's 75th anniversary of Austria's Nazi annexation - a date which still counts as one of the most shameful and controversial in the country's history.

Tens of thousands of Austrians gave Adolf Hitler and his troops a rapturous welcome when they invaded the country unopposed in March 1938. Austria fought World War II as part of Nazi Germany and many Austrians helped run Nazi death camps. Yet for decades, post-war Austria frequently perpetuated the myth that it was a victim of Nazi oppression. Der Standard said its poll was designed to show how today's Austrians judged Nazi rule.

Alarm Clock

Too much ado about daylight-saving time

Daylight Saving
© J. Kelly BeattyDaylight-saving time is an annoyance for backyard astronomers.
In the wee hours of March 10th, we in the U.S. dutifully reset our clocks forward by an hour, signaling the switch to daylight saving time. Oh, joy! Now I can look forward to having the midsummer Sun set after 8 p.m., and it won't get fully dark for at least another hour after that.

I don't know about you, but our annual switch to daylight time (called "summer time" most everywhere outside the U.S.) does amateur astronomy no favors. Most nights, by the time Sagittarius is up high enough to be seen well, I'm ready to put my head down for sleep.

Things were bad enough - "springing ahead" in April and "falling back" in October - but a few years ago Congress meddled further with Mother Nature when it passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and decreed that daylight-saving time would be extended, beginning in 2007.

Now we make the switch from the second Sunday of March until the first Sunday in November, which is about two-thirds of the year. Canada followed our lead, but European countries wait another three weeks to make the switch and Mexico another four.

In fact, although about 75 countries observe some form of summer time, it's mostly a high-latitude phenomenon. Most of the world's population (150+ countries) avoids it altogether, and of course when northern countries are using it, our friends Down Under are not.

So how did all this come about in the first place?

Arrow Down

Over 900 dead pigs found floating in Shanghai river

Dead Pigs
© BBC UKThe pigs have washed ashore along the river.
Shanghai - More than 900 dead pigs have been retrieved from Shanghai's Huangpu River as of Saturday afternoon after a large number of bodies were found floating in the water, local authorities said.

The dead pigs were spotted in the Songjiang section, the upstream of the Huangpu River and a drinking water source for Shanghai residents, according to the city's water supplies bureau.

The bureau said the water quality has not been affected. However, to ensure tap water safety, local environmental protection and water supplies authorities have beefed up quality examination at the water intakes as well as the whole water disinfection process.

The Shanghai Agriculture Committee have carried out bio-safety treatment on the retrieved dead pigs. It is investigating where the dead pigs may have come from.

The committee said so far it has not received reports of animal epidemic outbreaks in the city.

Local authorities are still retrieving dead pigs to avoid water contamination.

Ambulance

Coroner: 2 adults, 5 children killed in Kentucky fire

Image
© AP PHOTO/THE LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER, BILL ESTEPThis photo shows the charred remains of a home after a fire erupted, Saturday, March 9, 2013 in Gray, Ky. Fire erupted Saturday at a rural Kentucky home, killing two adults and five children inside, a coroner said.
Fire erupted Saturday at a rural Kentucky home, killing two adults and five children inside, a coroner said.

Knox County Coroner Mike Blevins said Saturday afternoon that the adult victims found inside the ranch-style home were a woman and her boyfriend. The woman was the mother of three of the children who died, while two other children were from another family, he said.

Further details about their identities were being withheld until relatives were notified.

The remains were sent to Frankfort for autopsies, which were likely to take place on Tuesday, Blevins said.

Health

Three suffocate spending night in snowed-in car in Siberia

Image
© RIA Novosti / Sergey KrasnouhovSakhalin on March 3, 2013
Three people have died in a snowed-in car in Siberia, suffocating with exhaust fumes. The tragedy happened after the car was stuck in the road near a small village amid a severe snowstorm.

Apparently, the passengers were trying to warm up in the vehicle by leaving the engine running and closing windows, which led to asphyxiation.

There were four people in the car on their way back from a fishing trip, RIA Novosti reports citing police.