Society's ChildS


Star of David

Israel: Huge economic protest rocks Tel Aviv

israel protests
© SkyNewsMore than 400,000 people have taken to the streets of Israel's biggest cities to show their anger about rising house prices and other economic issues.
The demonstration on Saturday 3, 2011, was the largest of months of action.

The wind of the "Arab spring" revolution is being felt in the state of Israel.

A "one-million person march" took place Saturday in Tel Aviv with a call for "tzedek hevrati" - meaning social reform.

Like in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, youngsters are spearheading this demand for reform.

Handcuffs

US: 6-Year-Old Kids Handcuffed in Class

Handcuffs
A lawsuit out of Chicago, Illinois alleges that several 6 and 7-year-old students at a city public school were handcuffed and threatened for hours all for talking during their first grade class.

LaShanda Smith, one of the student's mothers, is seeking $100,000 from the city for damages both "permanent" and "personal" that she says her son suffered as a result of the incident, which allegedly occurred in 2010 at a school in the south side of the city. Smith's attorney Michael Carin tells the Chicago Tribune that he has attempted to resolve the issue without bringing the battle into the courtroom, but the school Board officials have ignored his attempts at reaching a settlement.

Gear

Bank of America 'Called Grieving Widow 48 Times a Day to Remind Her of Husband's Debt'

Bank of America
© AFP/Getty ImagesLawsuit: Bank of America is being sued by a widow who said she was harrassed by constant phone calls after the death of her husband
Bank of America bombarded a grieving widow with calls up to 48 times a day to remind her that her recently deceased husband had missed a mortgage payment, it is claimed.

Deborah Crabtree, from Honolulu, Hawaii, is suing the bank after she said she was called by debt collectors as often as every 15 minutes including during the wake for her husband.

According to papers filed in Hawaii, Mrs Crabtree told the bank that she would pay the debt as soon as she received her husband's life insurance pay out, but the bank continued to threaten to foreclose on her home.

The bank told the widow that it was unable to stop the calls until the debt was paid as they were computer generated.

Pistol

Jordan Woman Killed in Hospital Over Pregnancy

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© Agence France-PresseA Jordanian has been charged with killing his 24-year-old widowed daughter in hospital after she gave birth to twins, a judicial official told AFP
A Jordanian man was charged on Sunday with killing his 24-year-old widowed daughter in hospital after she gave birth to twins, a judicial official said.

"Amman's criminal court prosecutor charged the man with premeditated murder after he confessed to shooting dead his daughter on Saturday," in Deir Alla in the Jordan Valley, the official told AFP.

The official quoted the suspect as saying "I was shocked that she was pregnant. I was enraged and shot her dead because she did something shameful."

The woman has been a widow for four years.

"The man claimed he wanted to check on the condition of his daughter ... then he shot her in the head," said Ahmad Hwarat, head of the hospital where the killing took place.

People

US: 90-Year Old Woman In Serious Condition After Gator Attack

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© Associated Press
Copeland, Florida: A 90-year old southwest Florida woman remains hospitalized after she lost her leg in an alligator attack.

Florida wildlife officials said Margaret Webb was walking near her home in Copeland, a small community east of Ft. Myers, on Wednesday when an 8-foot alligator lunged out of a canal. The gator clamped onto Webb's leg and tried to drag her into the water.

Webb, however, was able to hang on long enough for a man driving by to stop and help her. That good Samaritan tried to shoot the alligator but it got away.

Wildlife officials at the time said the leg was "barely attached" after the attack and had to amputated.

Officials at Lee Memorial Hospital said her condition has been upgraded from critical to serious.

People

Foreigners complain of harassment by Libya rebels

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© Associated Press
Tripoli, Libya: A Ghanaian teacher cowers in his house, certain he will be grabbed at a checkpoint because of his dark skin. Armed rebels detain 19 Ukrainian cooks and oil workers for several days on unsupported claims that they are really snipers for Moammar Gadhafi.

They're among thousands of foreigners caught in a web of suspicion as rebel fighters pursue the remnants of Gadhafi's forces. Gadhafi hired some foreigners as mercenaries, but many others held ordinary jobs in Libya, and the rebels who ousted the Gadhafi regime from most of Tripoli last month often seem to make little effort to tell them apart.

"How can we be snipers?" cook Maksim Shadrov asked angrily at a training center for oil workers in Tripoli where he, his wife and 17 other Ukrainians were being held.

Family

US: Newborn Fatally Mauled by Family Dog Near Houston, Texas

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© Unknown
A two-week-old Houston-area boy has died after being mauled by the family dog.

The incident happened Saturday night as the baby sat in an infant carrier on the floor of a room in the family house. Harris County sheriff's spokesman Thomas Gilliland says the dog, a Labrador mix, began sniffing the child and attacked him before the parents could pull it away.

The child was airlifted to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where he died early Sunday. Animal control officers have taken custody of the dog for quarantine.

Question

What could Obama have done differently to create jobs and improve the economy?

obama
© Unknown
When President Obama stands before Congress on Thursday to lay out his new ideas for the improving the economy, he will face a daunting task. Job growth ground to a halt in August, unemployment remains above 9 percent, and the president's approval ratings have fallen to around 40 percent. How much blame does Obama deserve for the bleak position the country is in?

For the last year or so, a debate has unfolded about where--and whether--the president's policies went wrong in trying to revive the economy. The implications are anything but academic.

The latest volley took place over the past couple of weeks, when Bloomberg View's Jonathan Alter and the Washington Post's Ezra Klein each called on Obama's critics, on the left and the right, to get specific about what they would have done differently if they were the president. In response, David Frum, who served as a speechwriter for President Bush but lately has been sharply critical of the Republican Party, and Mickey Kaus, a self-described contrarian liberal who blogs for the conservative Daily Caller website, took up the challenge. And in response to that, Jared Bernstein, a former top economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, pushed back against Frum's criticisms.

What are Obama's critics suggesting he should have done to improve the economy? And what's the evidence that their favored approaches would have been more effective?

People

Libyan rebels round up black Africans

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© Associated Press/Francois Mori
Tripoli, Libya: Rebel forces and armed civilians are rounding up thousands of black Libyans and migrants from sub-Sahara Africa, accusing them of fighting for ousted strongman Moammar Gadhafi and holding them in makeshift jails across the capital.

Virtually all of the detainees say they are innocent migrant workers, and in most cases there is no evidence that they are lying. But that is not stopping the rebels from placing the men in facilities like the Gate of the Sea sports club, where about 200 detainees - all black - clustered on a soccer field this week, bunching against a high wall to avoid the scorching sun.

Handling the prisoners is one of the first major tests for the rebel leaders, who are scrambling to set up a government that they promise will respect human rights and international norms, unlike the dictatorship they overthrew.

Mail

US: Postal Service Is Nearing Default as Losses Mount

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© Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesLabor represents 80 percent of the agency's expenses.
The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances.

"Our situation is extremely serious," the postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, said in an interview. "If Congress doesn't act, we will default."

In recent weeks, Mr. Donahoe has been pushing a series of painful cost-cutting measures to erase the agency's deficit, which will reach $9.2 billion this fiscal year. They include eliminating Saturday mail delivery, closing up to 3,700 postal locations and laying off 120,000 workers - nearly one-fifth of the agency's work force - despite a no-layoffs clause in the unions' contracts.

The post office's problems stem from one hard reality: it is being squeezed on both revenue and costs.

As any computer user knows, the Internet revolution has led to people and businesses sending far less conventional mail.

At the same time, decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office's costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency's expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees.