Society's ChildS


Laptop

Cyber-gang extorted millions by posing as cops, copyright holders

Image
© Reutrers / Thomas Peter
European police have busted a cybercriminal ring that extorted millions of euros with a computer virus that locked machines up and demanded a ransom. They also posed as police, accusing victims of viewing child pornography and infringing copyrights.

Eleven suspects were detained in an operation by Europol and Spanish police, police reported on Wednesday. A 27-year-old Russian who allegedly created and distributed the virus was detained in the United Arab Emirates in December, while on vacation. Ten others were detained in Spain last week, including Russians, Ukrainians and Georgians, Spanish police said.

"This is the first major success of its kind against a very new phenomenon that we have only identified in the last two years," Europol Director Rob Wainwright said at a news conference at the Spanish Interior Ministry in Madrid.

The cyber-gang used so-called 'ransomware,' a type of malware that locks down an infected computer until a ransom is paid. This particular operation targeted users with false accusations from national and international police forces, and occasionally organizations defending copyright holders. A message would demand payment of a fine of 100 euro ($134) over alleged wrongdoings, including searching for child pornography, visiting terrorist websites and illegal file-sharing.

Health

Dagestan suicide bombing kills 4 road police, injures 5

Image
© RIA Novosti/NewsTeam/Abdula Magomedov
Four police officers have been killed and five others were injured when a vehicle exploded at a road police post in Russia's Republic of Dagestan. The explosion happened during a routine road inspection.

The initial blast killed three policemen, while the fourth died from his injuries in a hospital hours later. One person remains unaccounted for. The body of the suicide bomber was so badly damaged by the explosion that "nothing's left of him," a source told Interfax news agency.

Police estimated the yield of the explosive device to be about 100 kilograms of TNT. The blast left a crater 1.5 meters deep and 4 meters in diameter, and badly damaged a checkpoint building.

Hours after the explosion, local security forces spotted a gang of militants that may have been connected to the suicide bombing. The gang was cornered near a local village.

Six militants were eliminated following the attack, RIA Novosti reported.

Heart - Black

19-year-old pregnant woman gunned down with 'semi-automatic weapon' in Tennessee

Image
© J. MILES CARYShell casings are marked in front of 3941 Porter Ave. after a shooting Wednesday in East Knoxville.
A 19-year-old pregnant woman shot Wednesday during a domestic argument in East Knoxville has died.

Marcia Crider of Washington Avenue in Knoxville died Wednesday at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, according to Knoxville Police Department spokesman Darrell DeBusk.

Crider was 13 weeks pregnant, DeBusk said.

"The District Attorney's office said 13 weeks would not represent a viable fetus and would not support a second murder charge," DeBusk said this morning.

Crider's mother drove her to a nearby pay phone to call E-911 immediately after the attack, which was reported shortly before 11 a.m.

Boat

Disabled cruise ship previously had electrical problems, Carnival admits

Image
© AFP Photo
A cruise ship that lost power in the Gulf of Mexico, trapping more than 4,000 people aboard, had already suffered electrical problems as recently as a few weeks ago, its operator Carnival said Wednesday.

With the ship and its passengers still at sea being towed to safety, news of the Carnival Triumph's previous woes will increase pressure on the company, but a spokesman insisted the two sets of problems were unrelated.

"Carnival Triumph previously experienced an electrical issue with one of the ship's alternators," spokesman Vance Gulliksen told AFP.

"Repairs were conducted by the alternator supplier and were fully completed on February 2. There is no evidence at this time of any relationship between this previous issue and the fire that occurred on February 10."

Carnival said it has canceled several upcoming sailings of the stricken Triumph, which is being towed to a US port three days after finding itself adrift following Sunday's mishap.

Handcuffs

Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius charged with murder

Image
© Photo: Johannes Eisele, AFP/Getty ImagesOscar Pistorius competes in the London 2012 Olympic Games. He was charged with murder on Tursday for allegedly shooting his girlfriend at his home.
Britain's Sky News first named the woman as Reeva Steenkamp, a model and recent contestant on Tropika Island of Treasure 5, a South African reality TV show. Sarit Tomlinson, described by AP as Steenkamp's publicist, was quoted as saying, "We can confirm that Reeva Steenkamp has passed away." Police, however, have yet to confirm the woman's relationship with the Olympic and Paralympic athlete.

Representatives for Pistorius in South Africa and the United Kingdom could not immediately be reached for comment by USA TODAY Sports.

Earlier, multiple media outlets in the country, including the Mail & Guardian and the South African Press Agency, citing local police, said the woman, 30, died at the scene at the athlete's house in Pretoria. The original source of the report appears to be Beeld, an Afrikaans-language daily newspaper. Local radio also reported on the fatal shooting.

Sheriff

Man shot, killed by police suffered 14 gunshot wounds

Image
A coroner's report shows that a Colorado Springs man who was shot and killed by police during a chase suffered 14 gunshot wounds, 7 of them in his back.

23-year-old Robert Kresky was killed on December 4th. Police said they saw Kresky driving a stolen vehicle near Powers Boulevard and Astrozon Drive and he refused to pull over. Officers chased him for about five miles, and the pursuit ended when Kresky crashed with a police car. Police said Kresky was shot during a foot chase after he got out of the car and started running.

Kresky's family told KRDO NewsChannel 13 on Wednesday that they still have many unanswered questions. The family said they've been told police thought Kresky was armed, but no weapon was found.

Mr. Potato

Pat Robertson: Islam not religion but 'demonic political system'


Controversial conservative Christian leader Pat Robertson told viewers on Tuesday that Islam is not a religion but a demonic political and economic system with only a religious veneer.

Right Wing Watch reports that Pat Robertson, an influential leader in the US right-wing evangelical movement, passed judgement on Islam during an episode of his TV program "The 700 Club," in which he was responding to a news story about the war in Mali.

According to Right Wing Watch, Robertson, referring to Islam as religion of chaos, said:
"Every time you look up - these are angry people, it's almost like it's demonic that is driving them to kill and to maim and to destroy and to blow themselves up," Robertson said of Islam. "It's a religion of chaos... I hardly think to call it a religion, it's more of - well, it's an economic and political system with a religious veneer."

Stormtrooper

Police brutality: Queens teen claims NYPD brutality during January arrest - vicious beating caught on tape

Robert Jackson's attorney said he will ask the Queens DA to drop resisting arrest charges. The case against cops has been referred to Civilian Complaint Review Board.
Image
Robert Jackson, 19, said he suffered serious facial injuries during an arrest in Flushing on Jan. 8 when cops pushed his face to the pavement. This photo was taken days after the incident, his lawyer said.
A Queens teen with a checkered past said Tuesday he was unnecessarily roughed up by cops during an arrest last month.

Robert Jackson, 19, was collared on Jan. 8 outside of the Flushing YMCA for spewing profanities at an officer and ignoring requests to show his hands, according to court documents.

But during the arrest, police punched and mashed his face on the sidewalk, Jackson said, causing a sizeable C-shaped wound to his left cheek.

A small Ziploc bag of marijuana was found on Jackson, according to the criminal complaint.

"When I first saw my face, I was shocked," Jackson said Tuesday at a news conference in Flushing, still sporting facial abrasions.

Jacques Leandre, Jackson's defense attorney, said he plans to meet with Queens District Attorney Richard Brown this week and ask him to drop the charges.

Leandre, a Rosedale-based lawyer, is a candidate in next week's special election in the crowded race to fill the vacant City Council District 31 seat in southern Queens.

Map

Struggling Caribbean islands selling citizenship

Dominica
© The Associated PressMap locates St. Kitts and Nevis and Dominica
Kingston, Jamaica - Hadi Mezawi has never set foot on the Caribbean island of Dominica, has never seen its rainforests or black-sand beaches. But he's one of its newest citizens.

Without leaving his home in the United Arab Emirates, the Palestinian man recently received a brand new Dominican passport after sending a roughly $100,000 contribution to the tropical nation half a world away.

"At the start I was a little worried that it might be a fraud, but the process turned out to be quite smooth and simple. Now, I am a Dominican," said Mezawi, who like many Palestinians had not been recognized as a citizen of any country. That passport will help with travel for his job with a Brazilian food processing company, he said by telephone from Dubai.

Turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa has led to a surge of interest in programs that let investors buy citizenship or residence in countries around the world in return for a healthy contribution or investment. Most are seeking a second passport for hassle-free travel or a ready escape hatch in case things get worse at home.

Nowhere is it easier or faster than in the minuscule Eastern Caribbean nations of Dominica and St. Kitts & Nevis.

Horse

MPs say horsemeat discoveries "tip of the iceberg"

horseburger
© Tescos/sott.netSupermarkets such as Tesco's may have been selling horse burgers for years
London - Discoveries so far of horsemeat in products sold as beef are likely to be the "tip of the iceberg", a parliamentary report into the scandal said on Thursday.

"The scale of contamination emerging in the meat supply chain is breathtaking," said Anne McIntosh, a legislator who chairs the cross-party Food and Rural Affairs Committee, which published the report. "More revelations will doubtless come to light in the UK and across the European Union."

Growing revelations about the use of horsemeat in products labelled beef have raised questions about the safety of the European food supply chain and prompted governments to send out a European Union (EU)-wide alert.

The EU's health chief said on Wednesday all companies that have handled falsely-labelled horsemeat were under suspicion, adding that the European Commission was considering strengthening EU rules on product labelling.

The British parliamentary report concluded there were strong signs horsemeat had been intentionally substituted for beef.

"British consumers have been cynically and systematically duped in pursuit of profit by elements within the food industry," it said.

The issue first came to light on January 15 when routine tests by Irish authorities discovered horsemeat in beef burgers made by firms in Ireland and Britain and sold in supermarket chains including Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer.

Concern grew last week when the British unit of frozen foods group Findus began recalling its beef lasagne on advice from its French supplier, Comigel, after tests showed concentrations of horsemeat ranging from 60 to 100 percent.