Society's ChildS


Life Preserver

Libyan migrant boat arrives in Italy with 25 dead


Reuters
Mon, 01 Aug 2011 08:18 UTC
Lampedusa island
© STR, AFP/Getty ImagesPicture taken 10 March 2004 shows an aerial view of Italy's Lampedusa island. Italian coast guards found 25 dead bodies in the hold of a refugee boat with 271 people crammed on board that arrived on the southern island of Lampedusa on Monday, local port authorities said. Thousands of migrants try to enter Italy and other EU nations each year via the Italian island.

Twenty-five men were apparently asphyxiated by motor fumes and died in a small boat crammed full of African migrants which arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa on Monday, port authorities said.

The boat arrived after a three-day voyage from Libya carrying 296 people from sub-Saharan Africa, including 36 women and 21 children, the latest in a wave of arrivals since a western alliance began a military campaign to oust Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi earlier this year.

"Twenty-five bodies were found on board a boat from Libya; the others appear to be fine, they are now undergoing checks," said Antonio Morana, the commanding officer at Lampedusa port.
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X

Mexico drug boss admits ordering 1,500 murders


RIA Novosti
Mon, 01 Aug 2011 04:21 UTC
Image
© RIA NovostiMexico
A key drug cartel figure arrested last week in Mexico acknowledged ordering about 1,500 killings, U.S. media reported on Monday.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon said in his Twitter microblog the detention of 33-year-old former police Jose Antonio Acosta Hernandez was "the biggest blow" to organized crime in Ciudad Juarez, one of the world's most dangerous cities. The city, on the border with the U.S, has witnessed more than 3,000 murders last year, most of them linked to drug cartels.

The Mexican government, which declared fighting drug crimes in the country its top priority, placed a bounty of some $1.2 million on Hernandez's head.
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Stormtrooper

US, New York: New TSA 'Theft' Leaves Teen's Bag $100 Lighter

Philip Messing
New York Post
Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:19 UTC
TSA
© unknown
An allegedly sticky-fingered screener for the Transportation Security Administration is being investigated after $100 went missing from a 16-year-old honor student's gym bag before he boarded a July 21 flight at JFK Airport, The Post has learned.

Rodeen Dunn, the mother of the Brooklyn student, Chris Dunn, called the alleged theft of his cash -- a gift from his grandma -- "disgusting and a violation of my son's trust."

The incident occurred shortly after 5:15 a.m., after Chris went through screening to board a JetBlue flight to Los Angeles.

A Port Authority police source said surveillance video shows a female TSA screener spending six minutes with Chris' bag. At one point, the worker can be seen tossing away a piece of paper, the source said.
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Crusader

'Christian Terrorist'? Norway Case Strikes Debate

Jesse Washington
The Associated Press
Sun, 31 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
Anders Behring Brevik
© unknownAnders Behring Brevik
When the "enemy" is different, an outsider, it's easier to draw quick conclusions, to develop stereotypes. It's simply human nature: There is "us," and there is "them." But what happens when the enemy looks like us - from the same tradition and belief system?

That is the conundrum in the case of Norway and Anders Behring Brevik, who is being called a "Christian extremist" or "Christian terrorist."

As westerners wrestle with such characterizations of the Oslo mass murder suspect, the question arises: Nearly a decade after 9/11 created a widespread suspicion of Muslims based on the actions of a fanatical few, is this what it's like to walk a mile in the shoes of stereotype?

"Absolutely," said Mark Kelly Tyler, pastor of Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. "It clearly puts us in a position where we can't simply say that extreme and violent behavior associated with a religious belief is somehow restricted to Muslim extremists."

"It speaks to cultural assumptions, how we are able to understand something when it (comes from) us," Tyler said. "When one of us does something terrible, we know that's not how we all think, yet we can't see that with other people."
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Sherlock

The 40-year mystery of America's greatest skyjacking: America's most elusive fugitive finally in sight?

Alex Hannaford
The Telegraph
Sat, 30 Jul 2011 03:18 UTC
Image
© Seattle FBIArtists sketch of D. B. Cooper
After hijacking an aeroplane and extorting $200,000 from the FBI, DB Cooper coolly made his escape via parachute. Forty years on, is America's most elusive fugitive finally in sight?

The night before Thanksgiving, 1971, a man calling himself Dan Cooper, wearing a suit and raincoat, walked up to the Northwest Orient desk at Portland airport in the United State's Pacific Northwest and spent $20 on a one-way ticket to Seattle.

On the plane, he donned a pair of dark sunglasses, ordered a whiskey, lit up a cigarette and coolly handed the stewardess a note. In capital letters, it read: I HAVE A BOMB IN MY BRIEFCASE. I WILL USE IT IF NECESSARY. I WANT YOU TO SIT NEXT TO ME. YOU ARE BEING HIJACKED.

What happened next would ensure Cooper a place in the pantheon of American folk heroes. He asked the stewardess to relay the following request to the captain: he wanted $200,000 and four parachutes, and in return, he'd allow 36 people to leave the aircraft when the plane landed in Seattle. The FBI organised the swap, and when the plane was sky-bound again, with just the pilot, co-pilot, one stewardess and Cooper on board, his instructions were to head for Mexico, maintaining an altitude under 10,000 feet. Then, somewhere over the lower Cascade mountains, 25 miles north west of Portland, Cooper released the plane's aft stairs, stepped out, and, with one of the parachutes strapped to his back, jumped into the stormy night and was never seen or heard from again.
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Pistol

Two Frenchwomen Murdered in Argentina


Agence France-Presse
Sat, 30 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Agence France-PresseThis file photo shows a cable car high above the city of Salta, at the foothills of the Andes mountain range, in northern Argentina. Two French female tourists have been shot to death outside Salta, where they were found by local hikers, according to authorities
Two French female tourists were shot to death in northern Argentina, where they were found by local hikers, according to authorities.

"They are two Frenchwomen, found shot to death in a touristy area of Salta province," Judge Martin Perez told TN television on Saturday.

The bodies of the women, both 30, were spotted Friday by hikers near San Lorenzo hill, west of the provincial capital, the judge said. The hiking area popular with tourists leads to an observation point offering a panoramic view of the city and surrounding area.

"Salta needs to clear up this appalling crime immediately," Governor Juan Manuel Uturbey said at a press conference at his office.

Uturbey said the victims' identities were known but he did not immediately announce them, though police sources told El Tribuno de Salta newspaper the women were Houria Moumni and Cassandre Bouvier.
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Heart - Black

UK: Xbox Addict 'Dies from Blood Clot'


Agence France-Presse
Sat, 30 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Agence France-PresseIndonesian children play online games at a cybercafe in Jakarta. The family of a budding computer programmer have launched a campaign to raise awareness about the health risks of playing online computer games after their son died following a marathon session on his Xbox
The family of a budding computer programmer have on Saturday launched a campaign to raise awareness about the health risks of playing online computer games after their son died following a marathon session on his Xbox.

A post-mortem revealed that 20-year-old Chris Staniforth -- who was offered a place to study Game Design at Leicester University -- was killed by a pulmonary embolism, which can occur if someone sits in the same position for several hours.

Deep vein thrombosis normally affects passengers on long-haul flights, but medical experts fear youngsters who spend hours glued to their consoles might also be at risk and have urged them to take regular breaks.

Professor Brian Colvin -- an expert on blood-related conditions -- said it was "unhealthy" for youngsters to spend long periods in front of their consoles.
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Cell Phone

US, Texas: Disagreement Over Texting at Movie Theater Leads to Assault Charge

Dave Lieber
Star-Telegram
Sun, 31 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
texting
© deposit photos
Meet Dale Fout and Brenda Godwin. One weekday in April, they both went to a movie theater in Grapevine. Sat a row apart. Didn't know each other.

By coincidence, they were born in the same year, two days apart. Both are 54. Fout, a marketing consultant, describes himself as a 220-pound "pretty big guy. I'm broad. I'm not fat. Used to play football." Godwin says she is a 136-pound skin care specialist. Here's how they met in the theater.

Her side

"He had his phone out. The light was shining at me. I'm thinking, 'He's going to turn it off.'" But he didn't. 'OK, this is ridiculous.' So I reached over and tapped him on the shoulder. It was very bright. I was only trying to get his attention. He whipped around and said, 'Don't ever touch me.' I was a little taken aback. 'I wouldn't have touched you if you didn't have your phone out.'

"He jumps up and whirls around towards me and says, 'I am charging you with assault,' and he flew out of the theater."

His side

"I got a text, and I responded to it because it was something important. It was something that was on a deadline situation, OK. I held it against my chest purposely where I could barely see it. ... I could text but hide the majority of the light coming from the phone.

"She said something. I couldn't make it out. That's why I turned. She was probably saying something like, 'Get off your phone.' I turned, and she pushed. She just happened to push my neck at the time my neck was in an awkward position. Kinda like having a little fender bender, and you get a little whiplash in your neck, you know."
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Stormtrooper

US: Cop Under Fire for Beating, Arresting Man - for Videotaping Police!

Mike Blasky
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Fri, 29 Jul 2011 07:08 UTC

Image
© unknownMitchell Crooks
Photo shows injuries after beating by Officer Derek Colling
A Las Vegas police officer under investigation for the videotaped beating of a man in March violated several Metropolitan Police Department policies, an internal investigation found.

Mitchell Crooks' complaint about officer Derek Colling's excessive force was sustained, Deputy Chief Gary Schofield said Friday.

The specific policy violations will not be released until the case is finalized.

Crooks, 36, received a letter from the Internal Affairs Bureau notifying him of the findings earlier this week.

He said he was pleasantly surprised.

"It seems like they're saying he was guilty, which is what I've been saying," Crooks said. "I really hope he gets fired."

Colling has been on paid suspension since April 1.
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Info

US, Michigan: Truck Driver Stunned in Bizarre Incident


Fox 11 WLUK-TV
Fri, 29 Jul 2011 02:43 UTC
police car, cop car, sirens
Sheriff: Driver held people at bay with chain saw

A logging truck driver was shot with a stun gun after authorties said he threatened people with a running chain saw.

Iron County, Mich., sheriff's officials were called to a logging truck crash on Highway 2 near Pentoga Trail in Crystal Falls Township around 10 a.m. Thursday. Callers to 911 said the driver was holding people at bay with the chain saw.

When officers arrived, they found the driver in a ditch with the chain saw running, yelling for people to stay back and leave him alone. The truck, which belonged to Shamco Trucking of Iron River, Mich., had hit a large tree and was totaled. Deputies as well as the driver's employer tried to get him to put the saw down.

When the driver refused to put the saw down, two deputies shot him from behind with a Taser. The driver, identified as Shawn Tranti, 40, of Iron River was arrested and taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation. He was not hurt in the arrest.
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