Society's ChildS


Bizarro Earth

Meth lab found in golf course portable toilet

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A small methamphetamine production laboratory was discovered inside a portable toilet at a Purcell, Okla., golf course, investigators said.

After staffers at the club noticed sports drink bottles containing chemicals inside the toilet and called police, it was determined the facility was being used to make meth by the "shake and bake" method of causing a chemical reaction in a single container, KFOR-TV, Oklahoma City, reported Wednesday.

Colosseum

Frenchman dies after being rejected for unemployment benefit and setting himself on fire in front of jobs agency

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A 43-year-old man has committed suicide by setting himself on fire in front of a French employment agency in the city of Nantes.

The man died from his wounds in front of the Pôle Emploi agency, Ouest France reported.

Earlier this week, the man sent two emails to local media, warning that he would set himself on fire after finding out that he was no longer eligible for unemployment benefits.

"Today is a big day for me because I am going to self-immolate in front of the employment agency," one of the letters read.

He also said he would use five liters of gasoline to burn himself, according to local daily Presse Ocean.

Local police attempted to contact the man earlier Wednesday morning, but said he did not answer.

Comment: A country that goes to war to sustain itself is a country that has only one place to go: down.


Heart - Black

UAE court sentences father to death who tortured two daughters

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© AFP Photo
A UAE court on Wednesday sentenced to death an Emirati father for torturing his two daughters, one of them to death, and jailed his mistress for life on the same charges, local media reported.

"An Emirati father who mercilessly tortured and killed his eight-year-old daughter Wadeema will be executed," reported local daily Gulf News on its website.

The Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced 29-year-old Hamad Saud Juma al-Shirawi, a security official, to death. His 27-year-old girlfriend Al-Anoud Mohammed al-Ameri, a housewife, was jailed for life, said the daily.

Handcuffs

Newark cops arrest 3 in connection with savage video showing thugs stripping, whipping teenage boy over $20

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© Shutterstock
Police in Newark, NJ arrested three people on Tuesday in connection with a video of a savage beating of a teenage boy. According to the New York Daily News, police acted after the video of the brutal attack went viral, racking up tens of thousands of views.

In the video, the victim can be seen being ordered to strip off his clothes before another man attacks him with a belt, beating him ruthlessly for more than two minutes as the victim cowers and cries out in pain.

Authorities say that they have arrested a 19-year-old man and charged him with robbery, conspiracy and aggravated assault. Two others were arrested, the cameraman who filmed the attack and one other person. No names were released.

Attention

Roof collapses at Chernobyl nuclear plant: Ukraine

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A section of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine has collapsed under the weight of snow but there were no injuries or any increase in radiation from the reactor that exploded in 1986, the country's emergency agency said Wednesday.

"The preliminary reason for the collapse was too much snow on the roof," the agency said, adding that the radiation situation is "within the norm" and nobody was harmed in Tuesday's incident.

The roof was constructed after the 1986 disaster but is not part of the sarcophagus structure covering the reactor, it said.

However the collapse underlines concerns about the condition of the now defunct nuclear plant over two-and-a-half-decades after the world's worst nuclear disaster.

Part of the roof and some of the walls at the plant's machine room, close to the sarcophagus that seals the reactor number four which melted down in the 1986 accident, fell under the weight of the snow.

Magnify

Six arrested in new 'News of the World' hacking probe

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© AFP Photo
Police arrested six current or former journalists on Wednesday in a new probe into alleged phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's now-closed News of the World tabloid, Scotland Yard said.

Investigators had identified a "further suspected conspiracy" by staff at the paper in 2005 and 2006 which was separate to the alleged hacking under which a number of people have been charged, it said in a statement.

The News of the World closed in disgrace in 2011 amid allegations that it had hacked the mobile phone voicemails of hundreds of celebrities, politicians and victims of crime and terrorism.

"Detectives on Operation Weeting have identified a further suspected conspiracy to intercept telephone voicemails by a number of employees who worked for the now defunct News of the World newspaper," the statement said.

Eye 1

Japanese tourists killed in Guam stabbing spree

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At least two Japanese tourists were killed and 11 wounded when a knife-wielding man went on a stabbing spree outside a resort in the Pacific island nation of Guam, officials said Wednesday.

The attack occurred late Tuesday when the man drove his car up a pavement near the Outrigger Guam Resort and rammed it into a convenience store, before jumping out and stabbing bystanders.

The Japanese foreign ministry said it had been informed of two fatalities and 11 injuries.

"At least 13 Japanese nationals were injured, of whom two people died," a ministry official said in Tokyo.

Guam police reported three deaths in total and said a 20-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was arrested. They said a motive for the attack had not yet been determined.

"He came out of the car and started attacking people. It was scary," witness Lendi Cruz told AFP.

Evil Rays

Third gay man strangled to death in New York City stokes fears in LGBT community

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© KEN MURRAY/NEW YORK DAILY NEWSJoseph Benzinger, 54, of Middle Village, was found strangled to death late Saturday night at the Crown Motor Inn in Elmhurst.
Three gay men, all middle aged, have been found strangled to death in New York City since Jan. 26, stoking fears in the LGBT community, reported the New York Daily News.

Authorities say the deaths do not seem to be connected but are instructing people to be careful when meeting others for the first time.

Arrow Up

Annual price inflation of vegetables in India hits 26 percent

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Rising for the fourth consecutive month, retail inflation remained in double digits at 10.79 per cent in January, driven by higher prices of vegetables, edible oil, cereals and protein-based items.

The country's retail inflation is the highest among the BRICS group of emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, China, and South Africa.

Analysts do not see prices of food items coming down anytime soon and have blamed supply side constraints for a consistently high number. Nitesh Ranjan, Economist, Union Bank of India expressed disappointment at the high CPI number.

"We have seen that food inflation has remained high even in the WPI. I do not expect pressures from the food side to ease anytime soon, so expect the CPI to remain high for some more time," Ranjan said.

Red Flag

French driver trapped for an hour in speeding 125mph car with no brakes

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© James Hardy/PhotoAltoFrank Lecerf managed to call emergency services while uncontrollably speeding through the fast lane on the motorway.
Frank Lecerf finally came to a stop in a ditch in Belgium when his Renault Laguna ran out of petrol after 200km trip

When Frank Lecerf drove off to do his weekly supermarket shop in northern France, he was not expecting to embark on a high-speed car chase that would force him over the Belgian border and on to the national news bulletins.

Lecerf has filed a legal complaint after his Renault Laguna, which is adapted for disabled drivers, jammed at 125mph (200km/h) and the brakes failed, forcing him to continue careering along a vast stretch of French motorway and into Belgium. Police gave chase until he ran out of petrol and crashed into a ditch.

The 36-year-old was on a dual carriageway on his way to a hypermarket when the car's speed dial first jammed at 60mph. Each time he tried to brake, the car accelerated, eventually reaching 125mph and sticking there. While uncontrollably speeding through the fast lane as other cars swerved out of his way, he managed to call emergency services who immediately dispatched a platoon of police cars. Realising Lecerf had no choice but to keep racing along until his petrol ran out, they escorted him at high speed across almost 125mph of French motorway, past Calais and Dunkirk, and over the Belgian border.