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Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya - an Indian couple from Kolkata are living a nightmare in Norway. Their children - a three-year-old son and one-year-old daughter - were taken away from them by Norway's child protective services and placed in foster care eight months ago.
The drastic measure was taken because, according to the child protective services, the couple were not bringing the children up properly. What did they do wrong? They fed the children with their hands and the infants slept in the same bed as the parents.
"My son was sleeping with my husband. They said he should sleep separately from your son," said Mrs Bhattacharya.
"Feeding a child with the hand is normal in Indian tradition and when the mother is feeding with a spoon there could be phases when she was overfeeding the child. They said it was force feeding. These are basically cultural differences," said Mr Bhattacharya.
© unknownRyan Carter, 12, was stabbed to death at his friend's home on Royal Road in El Cajon. The 10-year-old friend is accused in the killing.
A hearing is scheduled in juvenile court on Thursday at 8 a.m.
Candles, flowers and a teddy bear sat outside the home of the 12-year-old Lakeside victim who was fatally stabbed Monday while visiting a friend.
While family and friends grapple with the loss of Ryan Carter, prosecutors moved ahead with their case.
"The district attorney's office has charged a juvenile with murder and felony assault in connection with the crime," prosecutors announced Wednesday afternoon.
© Spencer A. BurnettMaksim Gelman
Maksim Gelman, 24, flipped out at his sentencing hearing in Brooklyn Supreme Court while Gerard Honig delivered a victim impact statement for his girlfriend Yelena Bulchenko who was killed during the rampage.
"You fell in love with a heroin addict you f--king faggot," Gelman yelled.
"You'll burn in hell for what you did," Gerard Honig replied.
Gelman was briefly ejected from the courtroom, but brought back when he promised he would behave.
© TD BankA March 2009 handout photo of a TD Bank store in Lauderhilll, Florida.
The verdict came in a lawsuit filed by Coquina Investments, based in Corpus Christi, Texas. It was the first to go to trial of several pending lawsuits filed by wronged investors against the bank and others. Coquina attorney David S. Mandel said the jury "sent exactly the right message to TD Bank."
A spokeswoman for TD said late Wednesday that the bank will continue to defend itself against claims of wrongdoing.
"We are disappointed with the jury's decision and are considering all of our options. We still maintain that we were Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler's bank, and that it was Scott Rothstein who defrauded investors," the bank said in an emailed statement.
Once a prominent South Florida lawyer, Rothstein is serving a 50-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to running a massive scam involving investments in phoney legal settlements that imploded in 2009.
© unknownOne of the clay tablets sold to an unwitting customer as an iPad 2
The tablet computers, like most Apple products, are known for their sleek and simple designs. But there's no mistaking the iPad for one of the world's oldest "tablet devices." Still, most electronic products cannot be returned to stores. For the the stores and customers to be fooled by the clay replacements, the thieves must have successfully weighed out the clay portions and resealed the original Apple packaging.
Future Shop spokesman Elliott Chun told CTV that individuals bought the iPads with cash, replaced them with the model clay, then returned the packages to the stores. The returned fakes were restocked on the shelve and sold to new, unwitting customers.
© CBC NewsResidents of a Calgary apartment, evacuated because of a carbon monoxide leak, are taking shelter in Calgary buses sent to the scene to keep them out of the cold.
More than 300 residents from forced to evacuate Wednesday morning in - 30 C weather.
The Calgary Fire Department received a call around 4:30 a.m. MT Wednesday and dozens of fire crews responded, along with emergency service crews and police.
Fire department duty battalion chief Don Huska said there are two issues in the building - the level of carbon monoxide and water in the basement.
It's suspected that motorized pumps being used in the basement to remove water that seeped into the parkade from the Bow River is the source of the carbon monoxide.
Residents were told Wednesday night that they could be escorted into the building to grab some belongings, but they would not be allowed to stay.
© Mark Kolbe/AFP/Getty ImagesA young child and her mother pictured on October 31, 2010 in Sydney, Australia.
A mother of four who raped her 11-year-old daughter and filmed it as a form of "sex education" has been jailed for four years in Australia.
The 37-year-old woman from Queensland's Sunshine Coast made three films using her mobile phone showing her raping her youngest child and exposed her to other sexual activity "in response to repeated questions," The Sunshine Daily reported.
Judge John Robertson said sexual offenses against children by their own mothers were "rare," describing the relationship between mother and child as "seminal in our society."
He told the woman she had "no psychological or intellectual reason to explain this shocking behavior," as she had "a normal loving upbringing with parents and family who still support you."
© Nadia Shira Cohen/The New York TimesThe cruise ship Costa Concordia, which struck a rock and capsized Friday, lays in shallow water in Giglio, Italy, on Jan. 15, 2012.
The Costa Concordia's owners accused their captain of causing Friday's disaster by veering the ship too close to shore, where it hit a rock, in a bravura "salute" to residents of a Tuscan island off Italy's Mediterranean coast.
Rescue workers carried out a series of controlled explosions on Tuesday to open up new entry points into the stricken liner Costa Concordia. The Italian mega-ship ran aground just off Giglio Island in Italy late on Friday.
Captain Francesco Schettino was arrested on Saturday accused of manslaughter and abandoning the ship before all people were evacuated, and he was due to appear before magistrates for questioning on Tuesday morning.
Prosecutors say Mr. Schettino also refused to go back on board when requested by the coastguard.
After the Penn State scandal broke, I was asked if this was finally the tipping point. Would colleges now take sexual assault seriously? Specifically, those by athletes who, as campus and sometimes, national celebrities, seem to operate with relative impunity.
Doubtful. And a new case of a university run amok has emerged to serve as evidence.
This past December, a report that alleged that multiple football players at the University of Montana drugged and sexually assaulted two female students, rumored to be female athletes on campus. On January 7, running back Beau Donaldson was arrested for felony sexual intercourse without consent. He admitted it. The female allegedly blacked out and woke up to him raping her. Most recently, a female student came forward with her story of a Rohypnol rape on February 16 of last year. Her last recollection was a man mouthing "roofie" to her before she blacked out. A friend found her with her pants pulled down to her ankles, lying motionless on the cold, snowy ground outside the University of Montana's Jesse Hall. She reported her assault to the University Health Services and Rape Crisis Center. Nothing happened.
Doubtful. And a new case of a university run amok has emerged to serve as evidence.
This past December, a report that alleged that multiple football players at the University of Montana drugged and sexually assaulted two female students, rumored to be female athletes on campus. On January 7, running back Beau Donaldson was arrested for felony sexual intercourse without consent. He admitted it. The female allegedly blacked out and woke up to him raping her. Most recently, a female student came forward with her story of a Rohypnol rape on February 16 of last year. Her last recollection was a man mouthing "roofie" to her before she blacked out. A friend found her with her pants pulled down to her ankles, lying motionless on the cold, snowy ground outside the University of Montana's Jesse Hall. She reported her assault to the University Health Services and Rape Crisis Center. Nothing happened.
© Minyanville
As the economy continues its downward plunge, here's an unsettling piece of information: More Americans are buying guns. Either that, or gun owners are making more purchases.
Do these people know something I don't? Like, can we shoot our way out of a recession?
Kidding aside, there appears to be a measurable correlation between economic doom and gloom and gun ownership. A bad economy begets, not only fears about our own financial stability but also, threats to our personal safety.
And this isn't a recent trend. According to Ed Tarpy, owner of the Philadelphia area Ed's Gun Shop, it's an enduring phenomenon.
"We've been in business here since 1965," said Tarpy, "and when the economy drops, the sales of firearms go up."
Last year must have been one of the worst on financial record because, throughout the country, gun purchases reached an all-time high. In 2011, 16.4 million background checks were performed on prospective gun owners by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) with 1.5 million requests in December alone -- making it the largest per month total in history. The 2011 figures are an increase of two million over the previous year.
