Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

UK child denied surgery due to NHS 'budget cuts'

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Dashed hopes: Shannon's life-changing surgery has been cancelled with just days to go due to NHS 'budget cuts', her family have been told.
  • Shannon Bowley can only move around on her bottom or with a frame
  • Was due to have surgery this Friday to loosen her muscles to help her walk
  • But now NHS England says there is no funding for the operation
  • Family now fear they will have to raise £7,000 for treatment in America
The family of a six-year-old girl with cerebral palsy have condemned 'cruel' NHS bosses after an operation to help her walk was cancelled at the last moment - because of budget cuts.

Shannon Bowley can only shuffle around on her bottom or take a few slow steps with the aid of a walking frame.

She was due to have a life-changing operation this Friday which would have loosened her muscles to help her walk independently. But just six days before surgery, her family were dealt a devastating blow when they received a letter informing them that NHS England had cancelled funding for the operation.

Shannon's grandmother and full-time carer Samantha Jones, 42, said her grand-daughter had also been through a year of painful procedures in preparation for the surgery.

Che Guevara

70 South African university students arrested for protesting funding allocation

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Seventy students have been arrested at the University of KwaZulu Natal's Edgewood Campus in Pinetown, west of Durban. This follows a students' protest which turned violent.

Students have been on strike since last week. They are protesting against the way the National Students' Financial Aid Scheme allocates funding.

Monday morning students went on the rampage, forcing other students from lecture rooms. Earlier police used rubber bullets and teargas to disperse protesting students.

Provincial police spokesperson Thulani Zwane explains, "Students were protesting and they were also damaging the classes at the campus. Seventy of them were then arrested and charged for public violence. Those who were arrested will appear tomorrow in the Pinetown Magistrate's Court facing charges of public violence. The police are still monitoring the situation in the area."

Arrow Down

Mad world: Depressed factory worker offers himself as sacrifice to tigers

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© UnknownHorrified witnesses watch a man being dragged around by a Bengal tiger at Chengdu Zoo in China

Chinese zoo keepers managed to save the life of a mentally disturbed man after he announced he wanted to improve the lives of caged tigers at a local zoo by offering them his own body to eat.

Yang Jinhai, 27, had posted several online messages about how optimistic he was about starting a new life after getting a job as a security guard in Chengdu in southwest China's Sichuan province.

But he quickly found the job boring and monotonous and moved instead to a job in a printing factory where he also then resigned, saying that he felt there was more to life.

After going to the local zoo he wrote how depressing it was to see the 'noble and magnificent tigers' living in such humble surroundings, where they were caged and unable to follow their natural instincts to hunt and kill.

He then announced that he had decided to sacrifice himself in order to provide the Bengal tigers with support.

Eye 2

Surveillance video shows alleged torture chamber where former cops plotted to mutilate, kill businessman

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© CHICAGO SUN TIMESSteven Mandell built the torture chamber in order to abduct and kill a business man and a strip club owner.
"I'm the last person in the world that you want to lie to right now," former Willow Springs cop Gary Engel said.

"Your life is in my hands."

Engel, 61, was allegedly rehearsing. His accomplice, Steven Mandell, was sitting in the wheelchair that they both hoped a torture victim would be strapped into within the hour, the feds say.

"I know you are going to play with his f------ d---, right?" a smiling Mandell said, motioning to his genitals. "You going to put a little blade there?"

"You know what a banana split looks like?" Engel replied.

The shocking scene - recorded by a hidden FBI camera in a Northwest Side torture chamber former Chicago cop Mandell had built - was filmed on Oct. 25, 2012.

Handcuffs

Connecticut teacher busted for allegedly having sex with male student

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© WATERBURY POLICE
It's a bird. It's a plane. It's super perv!

A Connecticut High School teacher was busted for allegedly bedding a male student, authorities said.

Meghan Eagan, 25, a teacher at Crosby High School in Waterbury, Conn., was arrested on four counts of sexual assault for carrying on trysts with a male student at her home, according to reports.

Eagan and the student allegedly engaged in the illicit activity from the end of December through January, CBS Connecticut reported.

Health

Plane crashes into mountains in Nepal, killing all 18 passengers

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© NARENDRA SHRESTHA/EPANepalese policemen receive the dead bodies of the 18 plane crash victims in Kathmandu, Nepal
Rescuers on Monday found the wreckage of a plane that slammed into a snow-covered mountain in Nepal and burst into flames, killing 18 people, including a child, authorities said.

Moving slowly through thick snow, rescuers walked for 13 kilometers (8 miles) to the crash site. Air traffic control had lost contact with the plane on Sunday afternoon in poor visibility due to snow, rain and fog.

"Our plane was technically airworthy and we believe it was the weather that caused the crash," said Ram Hari Sharma of Nepal Airlines. He said there will be a full investigation.

The state-run airline is often criticized over allegations of corruption and flying old planes. Last year, the European Union banned all Nepalese airlines from flying to Europe because of poor safety records.

The plane had 15 passengers and three crew members. One passenger was Danish, according to the Danish Foreign Ministry, while the rest were Nepalese. The age of the passenger with the infant ticket was not given.

Pistol

Angry Arkansas homeowner fatally shoots girl, 15, after she eggs his car

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© FACEBOOKThe group of teens sped away from the home, but Adrian Broadway was hit with a bullet.
An angry Arkansas homeowner shot and killed a teen girl after she and her pals dumped leaves and smashed eggs on his car as a prank, police said.

Willie Noble allegedly gunned down Adrian Broadway, 15, outside his Little Rock home just before 1 a.m. Saturday.

The 48-year-old reportedly burst out of his home in a blind rage after seeing the girl and five of her friends targeting his vehicle, reports KATV. He then opened fire on the Hyundai Sonata they were driving, and Broadway suffered a gunshot wound.

The youngsters managed to speed away from the property, making it to the local Kum & Go gas station where they called for an ambulance.

Broadway was rushed to Arkansas Children's Hospital but later died.

Noble was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, committing a terroristic act and aggravated assault, reports KATV.

Heart - Black

Devout Christianity student allegedly kills fiancée, makes it look like suicide

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© CHARLES ANDRE PITTMAN/FACEBOOK
A devout Christianity student learning about moral decision-making shot his fiancée dead then tried to make it look like a suicide, police said.

Charles Pittman, 21, allegedly gunned down long-term lover Olivia Greenlee as they sat inside her Toyota Corolla in Union University, Jackson, Tenn., parking lot last Tuesday night.

He is then accused of staging the scene to make it look like the music education student had killed herself.

Greenlee, also 21, was found dead inside the vehicle the following morning.

Cops claim they found a gun, belonging to a pal of Pittman that was taken without his knowledge, inside the car.

Ambulance

New York fashion designer found dead in Hudson river

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The body of missing fashion designer Michele Savoia was found in the Hudson River not from the yacht where he lived, his friends told CBS 2′s Don Champion.

Police confirmed that a body had been recovered around 2 p.m. near Pier 57 in Chelsea and identified Savoia on Sunday night.

Savoia, of the House of Savoia, was last seen early Thursday morning inside Marquee, a nightclub on Tenth Avenue in Manhattan. He was attending a party thrown by Paris Hilton, police said.

Savoia, also known as "The Tailor," was seen on surveillance video leaving the club alone at around 4 a.m., Champion reported.

"If I had to describe Michele Savoia is a red corvette going 150 miles per hour down a highway without a driver," friend Felix Rodriguez said.

Health

Small plane crashes into Colorado cliff, killing 3

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Three people aboard a small private aircraft died Sunday after a crash into a cliff near the Telluride Regional Airport in Colorado, officials said.

The single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza left the Telluride airport at 11:20 a.m. Sunday en route to the southwestern city of Cortez, Colo., amid light snow with one-mile visibility and calm winds, according to a statement from San Miguel County Sheriff Bill Masters.

Air traffic control at both the Telluride and Denver airports lost contact with the aircraft, prompting a search coordinated by the sheriff's office at 12:40 p.m., the statement said.