Two Indian states are suffering the first major pest infestation since the country adopted genetically modified cotton in 2002, raising concerns over the vulnerability of the lab-grown seeds that yield nearly all of the cotton in the world's top producer.

Damage from the whitefly attack on the Bt cotton variety in the states of Punjab and Haryana is likely to be extensive and has even been blamed for farmer suicides, according to local officials and experts.

India's overall crop losses are expected to be light, because the states are not major producing centers, but the pest attack is inflaming debate over the usage of GM crops.

Bt cotton was tweaked by scientists at Monsanto to produce its own insecticide to kill pests like bollworms. But two years of drought have encouraged the spread of whitefly against which the strain has no resistance. The winged pest damages the leaves of the cotton plant by sucking out fluid.

"Bt technology is effective only against specific types of bollworms that are known to cause maximum yield loss and economic damage to the cotton crop," said a spokesman for Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) Pvt. Ltd.

On Oct. 5 the King County Prosecutor's Office formally filed a charge of second degree murder against West Seattle resident Alicia J. Goemaat following the Sept. 27 death of her boyfriend's son, Drue. Goemaat was arrested Oct. 1 and subsequently confessed to detectives that she was responsible for the injuries that ultimately resulted in the young child's death.

According to the charging documents Goemaat, 20, has been living on the 6500 block of California Ave. S., in the Morgan Junction, with her boyfriend Derek Lehto. The two each have young sons of their own, Lehto's child Drue and Goemaat's son K.G. (as identified in the charging docs), and were caring for the boys together. According to statements from witnesses and both Goemaat and Lehto the two boys (Drue being 17-months-old and K.G. being 2-years-old) would often fight with each other.

On Sept. 27 Goemaat and Lehto were in bed together when they heard a disturbance in the living room from the two children. Goemaat's son had chased Drue behind and a couch and the child was crying hysterically. Lehto separated the boys and an argument broke out between the two parents on how best to discipline their sons. Lehto eventually left to do some shopping at the grocery store.

While he was gone Drue again began crying as he and K.G. fought over a toy. Goemaat kicked Drue in the stomach, knocking him to ground. She then walked over to him and kicked him a second time before picking him and putting him in his playpen. A few minutes later when she went to check on him she found that Drue had stopped breathing and appeared to be dead. When she called for Lehto to come and help he attempted to give the child CPR while she called 911.

Police and medics arrived at the couple's residence five minutes after receiving the 911 dispatch and found the child was long past being resuscitated. When police asked Goemaat and Lehto about the circumstances leading up to the child's death both denied having any information that could help.

Detectives took possession of Goemaat's phone and reviewed records of an incident that was reported to Child Protective Services on Sept. 20th from the Seattle Children's Hospital. At that time Lehto had taken his son to the hospital to be treated for scratches and bruises. The attending physicians informed Lehto that the injuries were not consistent with rough housing by children and reported the incident to CPS.

Sanmay Ved thought his real reward was just being the guy who bought Google.com for a minute. When Google first told him he wouldn't get any money as a result of the accidental transaction, he said it was fine — he'd rather it be donated to charity anyway.

"I don't care about the money, " Ved told Business Insider. "It was never about the money. I also want to set an example that it's people who want to find bugs that it's not always about the money."

Google changed its mind after acknowledging that he had managed to buy the domain name and decided to actually double Ved's reward since he was giving it to charity.

In a stroke of luck, Ved had been searching Google Domains, Google's website-buying service, when he noticed that Google.com was available for purchase on September 29.

Ved bought the domain for $12 and, he says, momentarily gained access to its webmaster tools before Google canceled the sale. An ex-Googler himself (Ved loves Google so much that he has set it as his Facebook profile photo), Ved said it was never about the money. Google does routinely reward people who discover hiccups in Google's system as part of it security-vulnerabilities program.

Ved chose to donate his reward to an Indian foundation that focuses on bringing education to the slums. He won't disclose the amount Google awarded him, only hinting that it was at least "more than 10,000."

Because Ved was donating the money to charity, Google offered to double the amount that would go to The Art of Living India.

It's a cause close to the heart of the MBA student at Babson College, who said, "I'm kind of a proponent for education."

How's that recovery going for you? That's what I thought.

Here's the latest data point from the ongoing oligarch crime spree shamelessly marketed to the masses as an "economic recovery."

From Five-Thirty-Eight:

The number of homeless students in the country's classrooms has more than doubled since before the recession, according to recently released federal data. That's an alarming trend, but a new report offers some hope: At least part of the increase, the authors say, is not because more students have become homeless, but because states have gotten better at identifying homeless students.

"We're trying to be optimistic that the child is still alive," Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight said.

Officials say Chance Walsh has been missing since Sept. 9. Authorities say they became involved when Chance's grandmother called them Oct. 4, concerned about the baby's well-being.

A multistate investigation followed. According to the arrest documents, the parents gave conflicting accounts of what happened to Chance, telling one person he was killed in a car accident and another that they gave him to a stranger they met in a Georgia motel. "We're looking for the baby everywhere," he said Thursday. "There are two people who know where the baby is."

The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office charged 36-year-old Joseph Walsh and 32-year-old Kristen Bury with child neglect. They were booked into jail in South Carolina on Tuesday. It was unclear whether they had retained an attorney who could be contacted for comment on the case.

Officials say that investigators found blood spatter inside their Florida home and that cadaver dogs keyed in on a scent near the front door. Officials also say Knight said Walsh and Bury are known drug users who left Florida sometime in September. They traveled north through Georgia, attempting to sell baby items at a Red Carpet Inn in Georgia on Sept. 28 and 30, officials said. And authorities report that someone at the hotel told them Bury said her baby had died three weeks earlier.

An Ohio woman has been awarded $1.6 million after a jury ruled that a chemical from a DuPont Co. plant contaminated drinking water and contributed to her development of kidney cancer. The verdict could influence thousands of similar lawsuits.

Carla Bartlett of Guysville, Ohio, sought damages after a DuPont chemical plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia, discharged perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8, which was once used to make Teflon. That chemical then made it into water drunk by Bartlett, who later developed kidney cancer.

After less than two days of deliberation, the jury found DuPont responsible for negligence and infliction of emotional distress.

Bartlett's attorneys, Mike Papantonio and Gary Douglas, also argued that DuPont knew the risks of C8 but showed "conscious disregard" for residents by downplaying or hiding the chemical's effects.

A British nurse who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone, but was treated and discharged earlier in the year, has been readmitted to hospital after suffering an "unusual late complication" linked to the infection.

Pauline Cafferkey was transported from Glasgow to the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London, in a military plane under strict supervision. She will be kept in isolation and closely monitored, but Public Health England say there is very little risk to the general public.

People who have been in close proximity with the nurse are also being monitored by Scottish health authorities.

"We can confirm that Pauline Cafferkey was transferred from the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow to the Royal Free London hospital in the early hours of this morning due to an unusual late complication of her previous infection by the Ebola virus," the Royal Free Hospital said in a statement.

"She will now be treated in isolation in the hospital's high-level isolation unit under nationally agreed guidelines.

"The Ebola virus can only be transmitted by direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person while they are symptomatic, so the risk to the general public remains low and the NHS has well-established and practiced infection control procedures in place."

An Indian maid is in serious condition as a result of her Saudi employer allegedly chopping off her hand after she reportedly told officials about physical and mental harassment and torture she was subjected to at work.

Kasthury (Kasturi) Munirathnam, (aged 50-58) from Tamil Nadu state, southeastern India, left for Saudi Arabia in July this year to work as a housemaid. According to her sister Vijayakumari, Kasthury, who has four children, "was forced to take up the job abroad as the family was facing financial problems after the marriage of her three daughters."

However, during her work as a maid she was allegedly subjected to mental and physical torture. Her employers even didn't give her food and didn't pay her, her sister, Vijayakumari, told PTI news agency.

Kasthury then decided to tell local officials about the harassment she was facing there, but her employer "got angry," Vijayakumari said.

Members of the Somali Human Rights Commission met with police in Richfield, Minnesota on Tuesday after a local officer was caught on video pushing and hitting a 19-year-old man following a traffic stop, KARE-TV reported.

"He said, 'Leave my city, and don't come back for the rest of tonight or I'm going to tow your car,'" Kamal Gelle said of his encounter with the officer last Saturday, which was posted on Twitter.

Gelle told the Minnesota Star-Tribune that when he was initially pulled over near a park, he did not have his license with him and that he was not immediately able to give the officer his insurance information.

A judge in Seminole County, Florida will not discuss her harsh tone toward a sobbing domestic violence victim whom she sentenced to three days in jail, WFTV-TV reported.

WFTV published footage of the July hearing on Tuesday. Collins has refused to comment on her decision because the woman could still file an appeal.

Collins, who was re-elected last year, sent the woman to jail for refusing a court order to appear during the trial of her abuser. According to WFTV, she also had the option of fining the woman or ordering her to perform community service for failing to respond to the subpoena.

The unidentified man, who is the father of the victim's 1-year-old son, was accused of choking her and grabbing a kitchen knife. The woman says in courtroom footage that she refused to attend the trial because she was dealing with depression.