Society's ChildS

Newspaper

Saudi royal faces death penalty for murder

Sultan
© ReutersSaudi Arabia Deputy Minister of Defense Prince Salman bin Sultan (front L), arrives for a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel at the Radisson Hotel in Manama December 6, 2013
A Saudi prince who murdered a fellow Saudi may be executed, a newspaper reported on Sunday, in a rare example of a member of the kingdom's ruling family facing the death penalty.

The English-language Arab News did not name the prince or his victim, but said a senior member of the family and government, Crown Prince Salman, had "cleared the way for the possible execution of a prince convicted of murdering a Saudi citizen".

In a message about the case to Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, Prince Salman said: "Sharia (Islamic law) shall be applied to all without exception", the daily reported.

Arrow Down

Milwaukee officer who forced dozens of anal cavity searches for fun gets only 2 years in prison

Vagnini
© Police State USAMilwaukee Officer Michael Vagnini.
A disgusting scandal involving police officers performing illegal anal cavity searches with the intent to "degrade and humiliate" dozens and dozens of victims has come to an apparent conclusion, which some feel amounts to little more than a slap on the wrists for those involved.

Between February 2010 and February 2012, a small group of Milwaukee officers took part in a string of serial assaults on subjects pulled off the streets. In many cases, the officers demanded the subjects produce the drugs they assumed were being hidden somewhere on their person.

When they were not satisfied with the cooperation from the subjects, an officer would jam his hand into the subject's underpants, touch his genitals, and insert a finger into his anus on the side of the road. Some of the complaints stated that drugs were planted during these searches. At least one complainant was a juvenile, and one stated that he was fingered so hard that his anus bled afterwards.

The group's ringleader was Milwaukee Officer Michael Vagnini, assisted primarily by three other officers; Jeffrey Dollhopf, Brian Kozelek and Jacob Knight. Although 7 officers and one supervisor were originally suspended, the four officers mentioned above were the men the district attorney felt had enough involvement to pursue legal actions against.

Officer Vagnini was the the one who directly performed the searches with his hand; the others were present and assisted with detaining the victims, holding them down, provided Vagnini cover while molested them, and then failed to report the crimes to superiors in the department.

Padlock

Brooklyn's Kings Plaza Mall: Anyone under 18 banned, unless accompanied by an adult

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© CBS NewsKings Plaza Shopping Center
A melee at Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Brooklyn the day after Christmas was captured on cellphone video.

According to police, the flash mob involving as many as 300 teenagers, mostly 15 and 16 years old, began a short time before the Mill Basin mall closed at 9 p.m. on Thursday.

Social media quickly erupted with all kinds of rumors, prompting an email from the 63rd Precinct Community Affairs office, denying there was a riot, any injuries, or significant damage, CBS 2โ€ฒs Tony Aiello reported Friday.

"Take the jar and broke the one jar, like $50 damage candy and the jar. It's like almost $100 damage for me," one candy kiosk owner said.

Police responded to the mall and escorted the teens out. No arrests were made. It was unclear how the mob of teenagers came together or planned the disturbance.

Mall employees like Greg Casiano told CBS 2โ€ฒs Tracee Carrasco they had to close up shop early as police and mall security got the melee under control.

"When I saw outside, downstairs I was looking and I saw a mob, several kids fighting yesterday and its too much," Casiano said. "A lot of kids running, and I'm hearing screaming so the security guard said there's a little security issue, you have to bring down the gates to keep the consumers, our customers safe."

Penis Pump

Meth crazed masturbating man finally subdued in bar after taser's fail

Loco
© Marion County Sheriff's officeAndrew Frey
A Beaverton man was arrested following a string of erratic outbursts that culminated in the suspect allegedly masturbating in a Salem roadhouse, officials said.

It took a Taser and more than a dozen officers on Sunday to finally subdue Andrew Frey inside Iggy's Bar & Grill on Portland Road Northeast, the Marion County Sheriff's office said.

The 37-year-old man later told authorities he had used methamphetamine the day before and had no recollection of the alleged wild behavior, according to officials.

The brouhaha began around 1 p.m. when sheriff's deputies started receiving reports of man acting bizarrely in the 9000 block of Brooklake Road Northeast, officials said.

The man, identified as Frey, had allegedly called a locksmith and later refused to pay the worker for his services, Marion County officials said.

After allegedly stiffing the locksmith, Frey wandered over to Brook's Market and refused to leave, officials said. An employee at the market had to eventually escort the alleged suspect off of the property, who then made his way to Iggy's Bar & Grill.

Newspaper

Five headless bodies found in western Mexico


Authorities found five decapitated bodies in western Mexico, with letters left with the corpses purportedly signed by a drug cartel, officials said.

The bodies, with their heads laying nearby, were found shortly before dawn on Saturday, in two different locations in Michoacan state, a region struggling with gang turf wars.

Three headless corpses were found on a bridge's traffic circle in Tarimbaro, a suburb of Morelia, the state's capital, said Michoacan chief prosecutor Marco Vinicio Aguilera.

"A knife that may have been used to cut the heads was found in the area," he told AFP.

Around an hour later, two more were found in a Morelia public square, with the heads on a sidewalk a little further away, Aguilera said.

Ambulance

Rescue squad volunteer suspended for breaking rules to help sick child

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Stephen Sawyer
Ellenville First Aid and Rescue Squad volunteer Stephen Sawyer admits he broke the rules when he transported a 4-year-old who was having seizures to the hospital. That's not the problem. The rules are the problem.

When EMT and squad leader, Sawyer, received a call on December 11 around 11 a.m. at the Webster Street headquarters about a 4-year-old having seizures, a paramedic was dispatched and a call for an ambulance placed, reports Times Herald-Record. Finding an available ambulance proved difficult and after 15 minutes, Sawyer decided he could not wait any longer.

Squad rules state an ambulance driver must be over the age of 21. Sawyer is 20, with experience driving ambulances for Mobile Life. He ignored the squad rule and drove nearly 5 miles, picked up the child, his mother, and the paramedic and got them to Ellenville Regional Hospital without any problems occurring.

That is, until he was awakened later that night by his squad captain asking about the incident.

"I wouldn't have been able to sleep at night or go to school knowing there's a 4-year-old suffering," Sawyer said to Times Herald-Record.

Dollar

Legal pot sales begin in Colorado

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© Walter Hickey/Business Insider
A gleaming white Apple store of weed is how Andy Williams sees his new Denver marijuana dispensary.

Two floors of pot-growing rooms will have windows showing the shopping public how the mind-altering plant is grown. Shoppers will be able to peruse drying marijuana buds and see pot trimmers at work separating the valuable flowers from the less-prized stems and leaves.

"It's going to be all white and beautiful," the 45-year-old ex-industrial engineer explains, excitedly gesturing around what just a few weeks ago was an empty warehouse space that will eventually house 40,000 square feet of cannabis strains.

As Colorado prepares to be the first in the nation to allow recreational pot sales, opening Jan. 1, hopeful retailers like Williams are investing their fortunes into the legal recreational pot world - all for a chance to build even bigger ones in a fledgling industry that faces an uncertain future.

Officials in Colorado and Washington, the other state where recreational pot goes on sale in mid-2014, as well as activists, policymakers and governments from around the U.S. and across the world will not be the only ones watching the experiment unfold.

So too will the U.S. Department of Justice, which for now is not fighting to shut down the industries.

Ice Cube

Icebound Antarctic passengers face air rescue if ship cannot reach them soon

Antarctica rescue
© Laurence Topham for the Observer
Passengers aboard the Akademik Shokalskiy, the ship stuck in ice off the coast of Antarctica since Christmas Day, were told on Sunday morning they would have to be evacuated by air if icebreaker ships could not get to them within 48 hours.

The Russian-operated ship has about 50 passengers - including scientists and paying members of the public - and 20 crew on board. It became stuck in the ice near Cape de la Motte in east Antarctica, abouit 1,500 nautical miles from Hobart in Tasmania, after strong blizzards hit the vessel on Christmas Eve. Surrounding pack ice was pushed by strong winds against the Antarctic landmass, pinning the Shokalskiy in place.

On Friday, the Chinese icebreaker Xue Long tried to battle through the thick ice towards the Shokalskiy but had to turn back after 12 hours and within 8.5 nautical miles of the Russian vessel, because the going was too difficult. The Aurora Australis will arrive at the edge of the sea ice, which is about 20 nautical miles from the Russian ship, in the early hours of Monday local time (about 1pm Sunday GMT).

"What we're depending on is the extra grunt of the Aurora Australis," said Greg Mortimer, co-leader of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE), which has chartered the ship. "It's a more traditional icebreaker hull, which is like a bathtub with a big engine inside it - it can push over the ice and lay down on top and work its way like that."

Arrow Down

Texas judge claims he strangled girlfriend to 'save her life'

Cortez
© WFAA
A Texas county judge was arrested last week after he was accused of dragging his girlfriend by her hair and strangling her - but he claims he did it to save her life.

KHOU reported that police responded to a disturbance at about 2 a.m. on Saturday morning and a woman who said that she was Dallas County State District Judge Carlos Raul Cortez's girlfriend said that the two had been in a fight over a child's medication.

According to a police report, the responding officer observed red marks on the woman's neck. "[The woman] ... pulled down the portion of her blouse which covered her neck and showed several red marks," the police report noted. "The red marks were clearly visible and appeared to encompass the majority of her neck."

The 26-year-old woman said that she and 44-year-old Cortez had been drinking for several hours before the altercation occurred.

Sherlock

Three theories for crash of Antonov An-12 cargo plane, killing all nine on board

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© Rossiya 1 TV, Vesti programThe plane was 1 km from the runway when it disappeared from radars.
Pilot error, technical malfunction and bad weather are all possible causes checked by investigators.

The Soviet-built turboprop plane was close to the limit of its 20,000 hour design airframe life, according to the Moscow-based Interstate Aviation Committee.

It was 130 hours short of this maximum, it was reported. The aircraft fell on warehouses at a military unit outside Irkutsk, causing a fire but no casualties on the ground, said officials.

The An-12 plane, owned by the Irkut Research and Production Corporation, was carrying aircraft components from Novosibirsk to Irkutsk. It crashed at about 21:45, local time, (16:45 Moscow) on Thursday near Batareinaya station of the East Siberian railway during its landing approach.

The plane was 1 km from the runway when it disappeared from radars. On board were six crew and three others, described in some reports as aircraft technicians.