Society's ChildS


Arrow Down

'The Beast' cargo train derails in Mexico; 5 stowaways killed

La Bestia
© AP Photo/Eduardo VerdugoMigrants ride on top of a northbound train toward the U.S.-Mexico border in Juchitan in southern Mexico on Monday, April 29, 2013. Migrants crossing Mexico to get to the U.S. have increasingly become targets of criminal gangs who kidnap them to obtain ransom money.
A cargo train nicknamed La Bestia, or "The Beast," carrying at least 250 stowaway Honduran migrants, derailed in southern Mexico on Sunday morning, killing five people, officials said.

Luis Felipe Puente, national emergency service coordinator, said on Twitter that 35 people were injured, 16 seriously, Reuters reported.

Authorities have not released details about what caused the crash, which occurred around 3 a.m. local time (4 a.m. EDT) in the municipality of Huimanguillo, CNN reported.

Thousands of migrants hitch rides on freight trains heading north toward the United States. On La Bestia, they often huddle on rooftops and cram between cars, CNN said.

A photograph from the scene showed freight cars on their sides next to the tracks, Reuters reported. Officials said eight of the 12 cars overturned.

Question

4,432,880 people globally went missing, never to return, in past 20 years

Missing Persons
© Historiann.com
In the summer of 2005, an elderly woman with dementia left her residence in Medicine Hat, Alberta. No one knows why she left, or where she thought she was going. Exhaustive attempts to locate her were fruitless. She was declared dead, three years later. Her body was never recovered.

"Enid" was a missing person. She is said to have had an active social life. Numerous friends lived near her, visited her reasonably often, and a stepdaughter was in touch fortnightly. Yet somehow, she managed to disappear without anyone noticing an elderly woman walking alone through a relatively small city, surrounded by open plain and smaller towns, to a destination unknown.

She left family behind; some 25 people were directly affected by this one woman's disappearance.

"Samson's" family gave up looking for him after five years. He went out one night and never came back. His last known whereabouts was an ATM from which he withdrew a few hundred dollars. His banking and credit cards have not been used since. His whereabouts has never been discovered. No one knows if he is dead or alive. He and his wife were still raising their three children at the time of his disappearance.

Among law enforcement officials, the common wisdom is that 95%-98% of those who go missing reappear within 48 hours. While these statistics may provide some temporary comfort to those whose loved one has gone missing, it diminishes both the real numbers of those who go missing, and the emotional havoc such a disappearance wreaks upon family, friends and associates of the missing person. These statistics also conceal another: globally, 607 people go missing every single day, without a trace. Over a year, this totals 221,644 missing individuals; over twenty years, this totals 4,432,880 - more than the population of New Zealand, or almost the entire population of Ireland (2011 statistics).

Arrow Down

Zurich opens first-ever drive-in 'sex boxes' to reduce open street prostitution in Switzerland

Sex Boxes
© The Independent, UK
The city of Zurich will open Switzerland's first-ever drive in "sex boxes" tomorrow as part of a controversial attempt to reduce open street prostitution, protect sex workers and prevent organised crime.

Nine of the so-called "sex boxes", each equipped with alarm buttons, a security guard presence, and able to accommodate only one car at time, are to open in the city's Sihlqai district where residents have long complained about on-street prostitution.

Michael Herzig, a Zurich social services director who supervises the city's sex workers, defended the move: "Prostitution is a business. We cannot prohibit it, so we want to control it in favour of the sex workers and the population," he said

"If we do not control it, organised crime and the pimps will take over," he added. Just over 52 per cent of Zurich's voters approved of plans to introduce sex-boxes in a referendum held in March last year. The boxes cost the equivalent of €1.7m (£1.4m) to install and €560,000 a year to run.

Handcuffs

Volunteers threatened with arrest for feeding homeless in Raleigh, North Carolina

Image
© WRAL
A spokesman for the Raleigh Police Department says a police officer was enforcing a city ordinance when he reportedly told, without explanation, a group of volunteers Saturday that they could be arrested for serving breakfast to the homeless.

Love Wins Ministries posted on its website Saturday that the officer approached them as they were preparing to pass out free coffee and sausage biscuits to more than 70 homeless people in downtown Raleigh.

"This morning we showed up at Moore Square at 9:00 a.m., just like we have done virtually every Saturday and Sunday for the last six years," the ministry's pastor and director, Rev. Hugh Hollowell, wrote in a blog post. "Today, officers from Raleigh Police Department prevented us from doing our work, for the first time ever. An officer said, quite bluntly, that if we attempted to distribute food, we would be arrested."

Hollowell said the officers wouldn't tell the group which ordinance they were violating, but simply told them they had to leave.

Police spokesman Jim Sughrue said in an email Sunday that no one was arrested and that the group was "simply informed of a city ordinance that prohibits the kinds of actions some groups have been engaged in at the park."

"Work is ongoing with those involved, some of whom are developing alternative sites," Sughrue said. "Ultimately, the ordinance is a city issue, of course, and when final determinations are made, the police department works with everyone to handle things in the smoothest way possible."

Love Wins is one of a number of nonprofits who help feed the homeless near Moore Square on weekends.

Todd Pratt, a volunteer with Human Beans Together, said his group was also notified recently that it could no longer serve the homeless on public property. On Sunday, the group moved to a private parking lot across the street from Moore Square, but police also asked them to leave that area.

"We had lots of volunteers and lots of hungry people and nowhere to go," Pratt said.

William McLaurin, who owns the private lot, allowed the volunteers to stay, but said he was worried about liability issues in the future.

Berrie Alston and Raheen Andrews say they are grateful for meals from volunteers.

"This is the only place that some people can go for a meal," Alston said. "They are trying to push us out of the park."

Comment: The Banksters, Politicians and wealthy Elite have a simple solution to the "Homeless problem" ...starve them to death.


Yoda

S. Africa says Mandela showing "great resilience", still critical

mandela
© Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko A well-wisher takes a picture using a cell phone of a banner with the image of former South African President Nelson Mandela, outside the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital where he is being treated, in Pretoria
Former South African President Nelson Mandela, who has been in hospital since early June with a lung infection, is showing "great resilience" although he remains in a critical but stable condition, the presidency said on Saturday.

"While at times, his condition becomes unstable, the doctors indicate that the former president has demonstrated great resilience and his condition tends to stabilise as a result of medical interventions," it said in its latest update on the condition of the 95-year-old anti-apartheid hero.

"Doctors are still working hard to effect a turnaround and a further improvement in his health and to keep the former president comfortable," the presidency added in the statement.

Handcuffs

Couple charged after 40 pythons found in Brantford, Ontario, motel

ontario pythons
© Cory Ruf/CBCBrandon James, an inspector with the Brant County SPCA, holds one of the 40 pythons that were seized at a Brantford, Ont., motel on Aug 15
Snakes found in 5 cramped bins, left without water

A Brantford, Ont., couple were charged with three counts of animal cruelty after 40 ball pythons and five eggs were found unattended and dehydrated in plastic containers earlier this month.

Police found the snakes in five plastic storage bins at the Bell City Motel on Colborne Street in Brantford, west of Hamilton.

The pair both face one count of causing distress to an animal, failing to provide care necessary for an animal's general welfare and failing to provide enough water.

The snakes ranged from 30 centimetres to 1.3 metres in length.

Pistol

Man kills boss and co-worker before killing himself in Florida 'complete shooting rampage'

A gunman went on a shooting spree across Union County, Fla., Saturday, killing three people, including himself, police said.

Hubert Allen, Jr., 72, a longtime employee of Pritchett Trucking, Inc., shot four former co-workers, according to a statement from the Union County Sheriff's Office.

Allen allegedly shot and killed a former co-worker, Rolando Gonzalez-Delgado, 28, at an unspecified location around 9:20 a.m., police said.

He then traveled just a short distance away and allegedly gunned down Marvin Pritchett, 80, the owner of the trucking company, according to the statement.

Allen then allegedly confronted another former co-worker, Lewis Mabrey, Jr., 66, driving a farm tractor. Allen allegedly fired one shot from a small bore shotgun, which struck Mabrey in the left arm and his side.

Mabrey was rushed by emergency responders to University of Florida Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Fla., where he is slated to undergo surgery late Saturday for a broken arm and other injuries. He is listed in fair condition, according to hospital spokeswoman Michelle Perkins.

Allen then went to the Pritchett Trucking Company premises and shot a third co-worker, David Griffis, 44. Griffis was stuck in the stomach and rushed to the UF hospital for immediate surgery, according to police. He is listed in critical condition, Perkins said.

Authorities are investigating a motive and circumstances for the shooting, the release said. Investigators believe Allen acted alone.

X

Eight-year-old boy kills grandmother after 'playing violent video game Grand Theft Auto IV'

An eight-year-old boy who had reportedly just finished playing computer game Grand Theft Auto IV shot and killed his grandmother as she sat watching television.
Image
© IMOS/FILEAn eight-year-old boy reportedly killed his grandmother after playing Grand Theft Auto IV
The child, from Slaughter, Louisiana, retrieved the family gun after finishing a session on the violent simulation and then shot the 90-year-old woman in the back of the head, US police said.

The pensioner was confirmed dead at the mobile home, with detectives revealing the boy had told them he shot his grandmother by accident.

Pistol

Russian kills official, says aimed at bird - Investigators

Image
© RIA Novosti. Vladimir PesnyaRussian Kills Official, Says Aimed At Bird – Investigators
A Russian man who has been detained on suspicion of having killed an official in central Russia says he had aimed at a crow, Russia's investigative committee said Sunday.

The head of a village administration in the Kaluga Region was fatally shot on Tuesday morning while on the way to her office on a scooter. "A clap sounded, and after that the scooter fell together with the woman," the statement said.

Stop

Plane overshoots runway in Moscow, no injuries

Image
RIA Novosti. Alexey Kudenko
A passenger plane overshot the runaway at Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Sunday, but no one was hurt in the incident, a police spokesman said.

The Boeing-737 landed at about 12.35 p.m. local time on a flight from Rhodes, Greece. No injuries were reported among 170 passengers and seven crew members.

A police spokesman said the aircraft has landed "in the grass." The passengers are being evacuated.