Substantially higher figure of accidental gun deaths recorded in gun control groups' research than suggested by federal statistics

The tragedy of children killed accidentally by guns in the US is laid bare in new research that shows that as many as 100 boys and girls aged 14 and under are dying each year, substantially more than federal statistics have previously suggested.

Everytown and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America - affiliated groups that campaign for stronger gun laws - have studied the incidents of publicly reported unintentional gun deaths involving children in the period of a year from 15 December 2012 to 14 December 2013. The report exposes a long list of lives cut short as a result of largely preventable calamities.

Like the one that befell two-year-old Sincere Smith in Conway, South Carolina, who was relaxing after a heavy meal of chicken and mac and cheese on Christmas day when he spotted an object on the living room table. It was a .38-caliber handgun that his father had bought two weeks before and had left on the table while he went to make a phone call. Sincere picked it up and fired a single shot through his own chest; he died en route to hospital.

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims has asked prosecutors in Tennessee to investigate whether a Baptist minister altered his account of sex abuse by a church volunteer to protect himself from civil liability.

The family of a girl who was molested by a member of First Baptist Church of Bemis sued the church last month for negligence after the church allowed Chad Lutrell to volunteer at Vacation Bible School five years ago, when the abuse took place.

The suit, which seeks $2 million in damages, claimed then-pastor Mark McSwain allowed Lutrell to work with children even though he knew of previous allegations of sexual misconduct.

According to the suit, Lutrell had been seen at church kissing girls between the ages of 6 and 10 on the mouth, and three adult women said he had stalked, threatened, and harassed them.

Sixty-six percent of Russian citizens want Vladimir Putin to continue at his presidential post for the next term, the latest opinion poll shows. The respondents especially praised his efforts in foreign policy and in strengthening Russian military.

According to the Public Opinion foundation, two thirds of Russians also claimed that Putin's policies were fully in line with their own interests. The number rose from 36 percent in September 2012 to 66 percent in June this year.

Even more Russians agreed that Putin's work as a president matched the expectations they experienced during the elections two years ago. In addition, 55 percent of those polled hold that during the current term Putin was fulfilling his duties better than during his first and second terms in office.

When asked which of Putin's steps they approved of most, 29 percent of Russian public nominated the accession of Crimea and Sevastopol into the Russian Federation, 7 percent mentioned the efforts for political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis, 5 percent said it was the successful hosting of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and four percent answered that it was Russian foreign policy in general.

A Minnesota man has become people's exhibit No. 1 for why a life of crime and a social media habit don't mix.

Nick Wig was arrested Thursday after allegedly breaking into a home in Dakota County, south of Minneapolis, authorities said. His undoing, they said, was that he logged into his Facebook account on homeowner James Wood's computer and forgot to log out.

"This is a first case in Dakota County in which a suspected burglar left his Facebook profile on the computer screen of the victim's computer," Monica Jensen, spokesperson for the Dakota County Attorney's Office told ABC News today.

Wood got home Thursday morning and found his front door had been unlocked and an outer screen had been removed from a window of his house, according to the criminal complaint. Wood told authorities that missing items included cash, a checkbook, credit cards, keys and a watch.

He also told police that someone had used his computer to log onto the Facebook page of "Nick Dub," later identified as Nick Wig. On the floor near the computer lay a pile of soaking wet shoes and jeans that did not belong to Wood or his son, Wood told police.

Later that morning, as Wood was driving in the neighborhood, Wood spotted a man on the street that looked like the man in the Facebook page photos and contacted authorities. When officers apprehended Wig, he was wearing a watch that matched the description of the one taken in the burglary, police said. Wig told officers that he was going to give everything back, according to the criminal complaint. As Wig emptied his pockets of car keys and an iPod shuffle, Wood identified both items as belonging to him, authorities said.

Wig later admitted to entering Wood's home and taking the property reported stolen, authorities said. He also admitted logging into his Facebook page using Wood's computer.

Wig has been charged with burglary in the second degree, a felony, authorities said. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in jail and up to $20,000 in fines.

A week-long operation across the US against child sex trafficking has resulted in the rescue of almost 170 children and the arrest of 281 pimps, according to the FBI.

The law enforcement operation represents the latest effort on behalf of the FBI's Innocence Lost program, which since its 2003 creation has resulted in the recovery of some 3,600 children who faced sexual exploitation. In addition to arrests and child recoveries operations have resulted in 1,450 criminal convictions, 14 life in prison terms and the seizure of over $3.1 million.

"These are not children living in some faraway place, far from everyday life," FBI Director James Comey said in announcing the law enforcement sting, which is known as Operation Cross Country.

"These are our children. On our streets. Our truck stops. Our motels. These are America's children."

The massive anti sex-trafficking push was executed via partnerships between the Bureau and other law enforcement, including local and state police. The FBI currently operates 70 Child Exploitation Task Forces throughout the country.

According to Comey, one of the most disturbing dimensions to child sex trafficking is the increasing prevalence of online prostitution. Moreover, many of the children who were rescued during the latest sting were never reported missing.

Students getting drunk and passing out is part of the university experience. But this weekend, something strange and quite possibly sinister happened in Tokyo.

On Twitter and Instagram (via 2ch), photos of a group of young women passed out in the middle of the street circulated online. It's believed that the women are college students at Meiji University and members of the school's tennis club. The university is currently investigating the issue, states website Buzzap.

According to television reports, such as on morning show Tokudane!, over ten students fainted in Shinjuku after a drinking party. The incident was also covered on Excite News. Tokudane! is one of Japan's largest morning shows, and Excite News is a large website. Combined with reporting on the national news tonight, this story is getting mainstream coverage in Japan.

Police arrived on the scene, and online, some thought that the students were passed out drunk. However, as one eye witness told Tokudane!, it was largely females who had passed out on the street. Many of the women were completely incapacitated, leading many online in Japan to wonder if they allegedly had their drinks spiked by the male members attending the drinking party. This is currently internet conjecture.

Eighty-five Ukrainian border guards who had been hiding on Russian territory for almost three days because of fighting at Ukraine's Izvarino border crossing point were turned over to the Kiev authorities at Russia's Chertakov-Melovoye border crossing, the Rostov region branch of the Russian Federal Security Service's (FSB) Border Guard Directorate said in a press release.

"The information available to the FSB branch for the Rostov region indicates that 100 Ukrainian border guards, among them 20 officers, arrived from the Izvarino crossing point at Russia's Donetsk border crossing from 10:30 pm Moscow time on June 20 to 10:00 am on June 21. Of them, 15 border guards who crossed into Russia have refused to return, and the other 85 have been turned over to the Ukrainian side," according to the press release.

Weapons and ammunition apparently abandoned by Ukrainian border guards - 53 AK-74 assault rifles, three pistols, one grenade launcher, 116 grenades, and 7,812 cartridges - have been found in the area surrounding Russia's Donetsk border crossing point, it said.

More than 80 Ukrainian border guards crossed to Russia after the attack on Ukraine's Izvarino checkpoint overnight. Two people were wounded, the head of the Rostov regional border guard department, Vasily Malayev, told Itar-Tass.

"Unidentified armed people on Friday attacked the Ukrainian checkpoint of Izvarino (named Donetsk on the Russian side). More than 80 Ukrainian border guards came from Izvarino to (the Russian station of) Donetsk at about 22:30 Moscow time and asked for shelter from pursuing armed persons. Two among the Ukrainian border guards were wounded. First aid was rendered to them," the Russian official said.

None among Russian border guards and civilians was hurt. The Russian side took additional border guard strengthening measures.

Earlier on Friday, another incident occurred on the Ukrainian-Russian border. Malayev said fighting started near the Ukrainian point of Dolzhansky (Novoshakhtinsk on the Russian side) at 18:40 Moscow time between militiamen who controlled the border and soldiers of Ukrainian armed forces or the National Guards.

The Russian station was also under fire, and a Russian customs officer was wounded at the site. He has undergone an operation, and there is no threat to his life. The border checkpoint stopped working.

Buildings, communication systems and other installations of Novoshakhtinsk were seriously damaged by mortar fire from the Ukrainian side.

Marks were seen on buildings from ammunition of various calibers and systems, Malayev said, TASS reports.

As violence in Iraq escalates and hawks beat the drums of war, people on the ground in Iraq and across the U.S. are urging the Obama administration: don't go down the same path of military intervention that created the current crisis.

Public Opinion vs. War Hawks

According to a poll released Tuesday, 74 percent of people in the U.S. are against sending combat troops into Iraq. Rather than allowing that overwhelming opinion to shape the narrative, corporate media has given platform to the same hawkish voices who called for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Among the vocal proponents of using U.S. military might are Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham. The two issued a statement last week calling for "U.S. air strikes, among other military and intelligence actions and additional support for our Iraqi partners."

In an op-ed published Tuesday, The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuval asked, "Can someone explain to me why the media still solicit advice about the crisis in Iraq from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)? Or Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)? How many times does the Beltway hawk caucus get to be wrong before we recognize that maybe, just maybe, its members don't know what they're talking about?"

The Ukrainian Health Ministry told Interfax it has information that four children have been killed in a military operation in the Donetsk region. It has no information about children killed in the Lugansk region. The press service did not specify the causes of death. At the same time, Tatiana Bakhteyeva, head of the parliamentary committee on healthcare, said on Monday over forty children have died of shrapnel and bullet wounds in Donbass.

"According to official reports filed by forensic experts, four people have been killed. Those children were killed in the Donetsk region. There is currently no information on the children killed in the Lugansk region," the Ukrainian Health Ministry press service reported on Monday.

The press service for Tatiana Bakhteyeva said she has received information on over forty children killed in Donbass form her own sources. "She received this information from her own sources, primarily form morgues and doctors."

"Unfortunately, information on the number of killed is not being collected in a centralized way," Bakhteyeva was quoted by her press service as saying.

Seattle Police are investigating a report of a drone peeping into a woman's apartment window.

Police were called to the downtown Seattle apartment complex on Sunday morning after she spied an unmanned aerial vehicle hovering outside the building. The woman said she was concerned the drone was looking into her apartment.

After calling police, an employee of her apartment building says he went outside and saw two men piloting the drone. They packed up their gear, which included a video camera, and drove off before police arrived. Authorities say they are checking for surveillance video that may help identify the men.

Drones and what role they should play in society have been a hot item in Seattle for quite some time. Last year, former Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn ordered the Seattle Police Department to abandon its plan to use drones after an uproar from citizens and privacy advocates.

Source: AP