The Jimmy Savile scandal caused public revulsion, but experts disagree about what causes paedophilia - and even how much harm it causes

A 1976 the National Council for Civil Liberties, the respectable (and responsible) pressure group now known as Liberty, made a submission to parliament's criminal law revision committee. It caused barely a ripple. "Childhood sexual experiences, willingly engaged in with an adult," it read, "result in no identifiable damage ... The real need is a change in the attitude which assumes that all cases of paedophilia result in lasting damage."

It is difficult today, after the public firestorm unleashed by revelations about Jimmy Savile and the host of child abuse allegations they have triggered, to imagine any mainstream group making anything like such a claim. But if it is shocking to realise how dramatically attitudes to paedophilia have changed in just three decades, it is even more surprising to discover how little agreement there is even now among those who are considered experts on the subject.

A liberal professor of psychology who studied in the late 1970s will see things very differently from someone working in child protection, or with convicted sex offenders. There is, astonishingly, not even a full academic consensus on whether consensual paedophilic relations necessarily cause harm.

Centennnial, Colorado - The suspect in the Colorado movie theater killings returns to court this week for a hearing that might be the closest thing to a trial the victims and their families will get to see.

James Holmes, a former neuroscience graduate student, is charged with killing 12 people and injuring 70 by opening fire in a darkened theater in the Denver suburb of Aurora last July.

At a weeklong preliminary hearing starting Monday, prosecutors will outline their case against Holmes, the first official public disclosure of their evidence. The judge will then determine whether to send the case to trial.

Legal analysts say that evidence appears to be so strong that Holmes may well accept a plea agreement before trial. In such cases, the preliminary hearing can set the stage for a deal by letting each side assess the other's strengths and weaknesses, said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and now a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Preliminary hearings "are often the first step to resolving the case, a mini-trial so both sides can see the writing on the wall," Levenson said.

Judges rarely throw out a case at this stage because prosecutors must only meet a "probable cause" standard - much lower than the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard for a guilty verdict at trial, said Mimi Wesson, a professor of law at the University of Colorado Law School.

Holmes, who faces more than 160 counts including first-degree murder and attempted murder, could have waived his right to a preliminary hearing, allowing lawyers on both sides to prepare for trial. But defense lawyers sometimes go through with the hearing because it gives them a clearer picture of prosecution evidence.

"In this case, I think it likely that the genuine purpose of the hearing would be information-gathering by the defense," Wesson said.

On August 27, 2012 two members of the Big Red High School football team in Steubenville, Ohio - USA were arrested and charged with the rape and kidnapping of an out of town 16 year old girl that took place on August 11th. At the time of this gang rape, the girl was intoxicated and unconscious. The victim had been intentionally drugged with a "date rape" intoxicant. She was photographed and video was taken of her in this condition, and there is evidence that she was hauled in a comatose state to multiple parties - and almost certainly raped by more members of the local high school football team than just the two players who currently stand charged. There is even evidence that she was urinated upon during this hideous assault.

Despite all this, it looked as though a town rife with corruption, cronyism, illegal gambling and fixated upon their star high school football team (a major economic revenue engine) were prepared to orchestrate a major cover-up in order to sweep the entire affair under the rug. As this disclosure will document, this cover-up was perpetrated by people in the high school administration, local government and law enforcement.

- Enter Anonymous -

On December 23, 2012 a cell within Anonymous called "Knight Sec" took up the cause of giving a voice to the victim of this horrible crime, and began unraveling this conspiracy of silence designed to protect a group of these high school football players who had become well known to their fellow students as "The Rape Crew". Fueled by intelligence they had received from many students at Big Red High School, they launched Operation RollRedRoll by releasing this video. Take careful note of the various screen capture images of pictures taken by these monsters of this poor defenseless girl, and note their many comments made in tweets and Facebook posts regarding their crime (now since deleted).

Annual FBI crime statistics show that more people are killed with clubs and hammers each year than by rifles or shotguns.

In 2011, there were 323 murders committed with a rifle but 496 murders committed with hammers and clubs. There were 356 murders in which a shotgun was the deadly weapon of choice.

The national debate on guns has grown more intense since Dec. 14, when Adam Lanza forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and killed 20 children and six adults before committing suicide in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

Gun vendors told news outlets that the hottest items were such weapons as the AR-15, a semiautomatic rifle that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has proposed banning as part of a package of gun regulations. The AR-15 rifle is the same weapon used by Lanza during the elementary school shooting.

Aurora, Colorado - SWAT officers who stormed a Colorado home where a gunman had holed up found a horrific scene - four dead bodies including that of the gunman.

Police said the armed man fired shots at officers Saturday from a second-story window before officers killed him. Once inside, they found the bodies of three other adults.

The suspect, whose name was withheld by police, held officers at bay for nearly six hours after neighbors reported gunfire at 3 a.m. inside the modest townhome in the Denver suburb of Aurora, said police Sgt. Cassidee Carlson.

It wasn't known if officers shot the suspect or if he shot himself.

Greensburg - Two Greensburg Salem Middle School students are among the first to be charged under a new state law that regulates sexting among teens.

"A 13-year-old girl took a photo; she was naked from the waist up, took a picture of herself and sent it to a 14-year-old boy at his request," said Detective Sgt. Henry Fontana, of Greensburg Police.

The boy deleted the photo and did not forward it to friends. It was the girl's mother who later found the photo on her phone and called police.

"Under the new law that just went into effect on Christmas Eve, that is a summary offense," said Detective Sgt. Fontana.

The new law creates a tiered system for adjudicating sexting cases that differentiates between those who make bad decisions and those who have bad intentions.

Under the new law, minors over the age of 12 charged for the first time will get a summary citation. A second offense will result in a misdemeanor charge.

During fiscal year 2012, the U.S. government spent a record $80.4 billion on food stamps, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a $2.7 billion increase from FY 2011. (Fiscal year 2012 ran from Oct. 1, 2011 through Sept. 30, 2012.)

According to the Monthly Treasury Statement that summarizes the receipts and outlays of the federal government, $80,401,000,000 went towards SNAP during FY 2012, which was a $2.7 billion increase from $77,637,000,000 in FY 2011.

The SNAP program is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which also runs other food assistance programs under the auspices of the Food and Nutrition Service Agency.

In total, nearly $106 billion was spent on food assistance in 2012, with $18.3 billion that went to "Child Nutrition Programs."

Following a wild Christmas orgy with prostitutes, the Honduran ambassador to Colombia has lost his job. Sensitive documents are believed to have been compromised after the women and other guests looted the embassy in Bogota.

­The embassy was robbed while party-goers were entertained by prostitutes. The incident was so extreme that excrement was found in the ambassador's office.

Ambassador Carlos Humberto Rodriguez was allegedly not present at the celebration held on 20 December.

Local media reports that the ambassador's personal aid organized the party which resulted in computers and telephones being stolen. Evidence of an orgy was found in the building.

© Despoina Vafeidou /AFP/Getty ImagesStall-holders at a bartering market in the central Greek city of Volos, where shoppers use Tem coupons to exchange services or products.

Communities set up local currencies and exchange networks in attempt to beat the economic crisis

It's been a busy day at the market in downtown Volos. Angeliki Ioanitou has sold a decent quantity of olive oil and soap, while her friend Maria has done good business with her fresh pies.

But not a single euro has changed hands - none of the customers on this drizzly Saturday morning has bothered carrying money at all. For many, browsing through the racks of second-hand clothes, electrical appliances and homemade jams, the need to survive means money has been usurped.

"It's all about exchange and solidarity, helping one another out in these very hard times," enthused Ioanitou, her hair tucked under a floppy felt cap. "You could say a lot of us have dreams of a utopia without the euro."

Police probing rape accusations against two teenage American football players have launched a website aimed at gaining information about an unverified video that purports to show the rape of an adolescent girl.

The site, sponsored by city officials in Steubenville, Ohio, was unveiled Saturday, just days after an online video surfaced that purportedly shows a third young male joking about the crime and the victim.

The video, which has inflamed the community and drawn national attention, appears to have been released by hackers who allege more suspects were involved in the crime who should face prosecution.

Two members of the local high school football team face trial as juveniles in the case, which is set to open February 13. It is not yet clear whether others will also face charges.