Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

'Boys will be boys': The heartless explanation by lawyer when asked by mother of rape victim aged FIVE why it happened to her child

Leon Watson
DailyMail
Mon, 17 Feb 2014 04:14 UTC
Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg
© FOX/YoutubeMissoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg has angrily denied claims in a report that prosecutors routinely discriminated against sex attack victims

A federal investigation into a county courthouse has revealed a shocking catalogue of claims that sex assault victims were routinely discriminated against and ignored.

In one case, it is alleged a prosecutor in Montana left a five-year-old rape victim's mother horrified when he explained away the attack by saying 'boys will be boys'.

According to a report, the mother of the child said she wanted to know why the boy who raped her daughter was only getting a slap on the wrist.
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Health

Children denied life-saving cancer drugs - They might actually do better without them

Sarah Knapton
The Telegraph
Tue, 11 Feb 2014 12:01 UTC
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© Alamy
Hundreds of children are dying needlessly from cancer or being left with debilitating conditions because life-saving drugs are only tested on adults, health experts have warned.

Since 2007, of the 28 new cancer drugs which have been given European approval, half cannot be licensed for children because youngsters were not included in their trials.

Pharmaceutical companies argue that it is pointless testing drugs for adult cancers, such as lung cancer, on children because they do not develop them in childhood.

But oncologists say that the underlying genetic triggers are the same and so the new treatments would be beneficial.

The lung cancer drug Gefitinib, for example, which has been approved by Nice, targets mutations of the EGFR gene. The same mutations appear in the childhood cancer neuroblastoma, which affects around 100 children each year in Britain and the drug is likely to be effective, but cannot be prescribed.

The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London is urging the EU to change the law so that drug companies are forced to test all new medications on youngsters.

"Kids are dying," said Professor Alan Ashworth, Chief Executive of the ICR. "We are getting to a situation where there are effectively no new drugs for children, and we are no longer advancing in the treatment of childhood cancer.

Comment: The 'cure' is worse than the disease:

Study Reveals Huge Overdiagnosis of Cancer Causing Unnecessary Treatment and Suffering
Cancer drugs harmful to brain cells
Woops! Study Accidentally Finds Chemotherapy Makes Cancer Far Worse
Cancer Drugs Make Tumors Grow
'Profiteering' pharmaceutical giants killing cancer patients - report

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Play

Flashback It was the levees, not the hurricane, that flooded New Orleans


Brasscheck TV
Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:58 UTC
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This only happened AFTER the storm passed, during those 6 days when the Bush White House was twiddling its thumbs...
The century is still young and the Bush-Bama administration were such masters of lying its hard to pick one...Iraq...9/11...the "healthy: economy... swine flu

But one of the most amazing - and vicious - lies of all time has to be that Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city of New Orleans.

Amazing because it flies in the face of all evidence and eye witness accounts.

Vicious because it removes the liability (and thus the potential of compensation) from the guilty parties: the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Federal Government, and the Wall Street Corporate interests that own both.

Changing public opinion after a well-crafted and heavily promote lie has made its way around the world is one of the hardest things on earth to do, but if you stick with it long enough, you can do it.

Last week, as the result of a relentless, grass roots campaign, a judge finally agreed: It wasn't Katrina that devastated New Orleans, it was the systematic failure of the multi-billion dollar tax payer federal levee system.

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Red Flag

Bullied UK teenager jailed after stabbing a girl in the face and smashing another's head against a fence - because they called him Harry Potter

Lucy Crossley
The Daily Mail
Tue, 11 Feb 2014 17:17 UTC
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Victim: Walker pleaded guilty to wounding with intent, attempting wounding with intent and possessing a bladed article after the attack on Emma (pictured) and Leah.
A bullied teenager has been jailed after stabbing a girl in the face and smashing another's head against a fence - because they called him Harry Potter.

Ryan Walker, 19, wears glasses and has short dark hair, just like actor Daniel Radcliffe who plays the young wizard in the hit film series.

A court heard how after two girls called Walker Harry Potter, he snapped, stabbing one of them in the face so hard that the blade of his vegetable knife broke.

Walker then pushed the other girl's head into a nearby fence and shouted: 'Die, die'.

He claimed he launched the ferocious attacks in Southampton, Hampshire, after being goaded repeatedly by the girls who called him Potter.

Southampton Crown Court heard how Walker returned to his family flat after shopping for his mother and he had to pass 15-year-old Emma Keeble and 16-year-old Leah Pearce sitting on the stairs.

One of the girls touched his shopping bag before verbally abusing him and telling him he resembled Harry Potter.

Outraged Walker saw red, rushed to his flat before coming back downstairs with a milk bottle full of water and threw it over the girls.
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Heart - Black

UK child denied surgery due to NHS 'budget cuts'

Anna Hodgekiss
The Daily Mail
Mon, 17 Feb 2014 16:44 UTC
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Dashed hopes: Shannon's life-changing surgery has been cancelled with just days to go due to NHS 'budget cuts', her family have been told.
  • Shannon Bowley can only move around on her bottom or with a frame
  • Was due to have surgery this Friday to loosen her muscles to help her walk
  • But now NHS England says there is no funding for the operation
  • Family now fear they will have to raise £7,000 for treatment in America
The family of a six-year-old girl with cerebral palsy have condemned 'cruel' NHS bosses after an operation to help her walk was cancelled at the last moment - because of budget cuts.

Shannon Bowley can only shuffle around on her bottom or take a few slow steps with the aid of a walking frame.

She was due to have a life-changing operation this Friday which would have loosened her muscles to help her walk independently. But just six days before surgery, her family were dealt a devastating blow when they received a letter informing them that NHS England had cancelled funding for the operation.

Shannon's grandmother and full-time carer Samantha Jones, 42, said her grand-daughter had also been through a year of painful procedures in preparation for the surgery.
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Che Guevara

70 South African university students arrested for protesting funding allocation


SABC
Mon, 17 Feb 2014 15:42 UTC
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Seventy students have been arrested at the University of KwaZulu Natal's Edgewood Campus in Pinetown, west of Durban. This follows a students' protest which turned violent.

Students have been on strike since last week. They are protesting against the way the National Students' Financial Aid Scheme allocates funding.

Monday morning students went on the rampage, forcing other students from lecture rooms. Earlier police used rubber bullets and teargas to disperse protesting students.

Provincial police spokesperson Thulani Zwane explains, "Students were protesting and they were also damaging the classes at the campus. Seventy of them were then arrested and charged for public violence. Those who were arrested will appear tomorrow in the Pinetown Magistrate's Court facing charges of public violence. The police are still monitoring the situation in the area."
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Arrow Down

Mad world: Depressed factory worker offers himself as sacrifice to tigers

Ted Thornhill
Daily Mail
Mon, 17 Feb 2014 14:55 UTC
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© UnknownHorrified witnesses watch a man being dragged around by a Bengal tiger at Chengdu Zoo in China

Chinese zoo keepers managed to save the life of a mentally disturbed man after he announced he wanted to improve the lives of caged tigers at a local zoo by offering them his own body to eat.

Yang Jinhai, 27, had posted several online messages about how optimistic he was about starting a new life after getting a job as a security guard in Chengdu in southwest China's Sichuan province.

But he quickly found the job boring and monotonous and moved instead to a job in a printing factory where he also then resigned, saying that he felt there was more to life.

After going to the local zoo he wrote how depressing it was to see the 'noble and magnificent tigers' living in such humble surroundings, where they were caged and unable to follow their natural instincts to hunt and kill.

He then announced that he had decided to sacrifice himself in order to provide the Bengal tigers with support.
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Eye 2

Surveillance video shows alleged torture chamber where former cops plotted to mutilate, kill businessman

Kim Janssen
Chicago Sun-Times
Fri, 14 Feb 2014 09:11 UTC
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© CHICAGO SUN TIMESSteven Mandell built the torture chamber in order to abduct and kill a business man and a strip club owner.
"I'm the last person in the world that you want to lie to right now," former Willow Springs cop Gary Engel said.

"Your life is in my hands."

Engel, 61, was allegedly rehearsing. His accomplice, Steven Mandell, was sitting in the wheelchair that they both hoped a torture victim would be strapped into within the hour, the feds say.

"I know you are going to play with his f------ d---, right?" a smiling Mandell said, motioning to his genitals. "You going to put a little blade there?"

"You know what a banana split looks like?" Engel replied.

The shocking scene - recorded by a hidden FBI camera in a Northwest Side torture chamber former Chicago cop Mandell had built - was filmed on Oct. 25, 2012.
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Handcuffs

Connecticut teacher busted for allegedly having sex with male student

Irving DeJohn
NY Daily News
Mon, 17 Feb 2014 09:01 UTC
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© WATERBURY POLICE
It's a bird. It's a plane. It's super perv!

A Connecticut High School teacher was busted for allegedly bedding a male student, authorities said.

Meghan Eagan, 25, a teacher at Crosby High School in Waterbury, Conn., was arrested on four counts of sexual assault for carrying on trysts with a male student at her home, according to reports.

Eagan and the student allegedly engaged in the illicit activity from the end of December through January, CBS Connecticut reported.
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Health

Plane crashes into mountains in Nepal, killing all 18 passengers


Washington Post
Mon, 17 Feb 2014 08:56 UTC
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© NARENDRA SHRESTHA/EPANepalese policemen receive the dead bodies of the 18 plane crash victims in Kathmandu, Nepal
Rescuers on Monday found the wreckage of a plane that slammed into a snow-covered mountain in Nepal and burst into flames, killing 18 people, including a child, authorities said.

Moving slowly through thick snow, rescuers walked for 13 kilometers (8 miles) to the crash site. Air traffic control had lost contact with the plane on Sunday afternoon in poor visibility due to snow, rain and fog.

"Our plane was technically airworthy and we believe it was the weather that caused the crash," said Ram Hari Sharma of Nepal Airlines. He said there will be a full investigation.

The state-run airline is often criticized over allegations of corruption and flying old planes. Last year, the European Union banned all Nepalese airlines from flying to Europe because of poor safety records.

The plane had 15 passengers and three crew members. One passenger was Danish, according to the Danish Foreign Ministry, while the rest were Nepalese. The age of the passenger with the infant ticket was not given.
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