Society's ChildS


Arrow Up

US: Jailed Native American Activist Leonard Peltier Wins Rights Prize

Image
Leonard Peltier, Mario Benedetti
Leonard Peltier, an indigenous rights activist jailed in the United States for decades, has received the first Mario Benedetti Foundation international human rights prize, the group said Monday.

The group called Peltier, a Native American activist convicted in 1977 for the murder of two US FBI agents, the longest serving political prisoner in the Americas. The case stemmed from a shootout at a reservation in the US state of South Dakota.

"Leonard Peltier, who on September 12, 2011 will turn 67, has spent more than half his life in prison. He is a symbol of resistance to repressive state policies by the United States, where there are people in jail for ethnic, racial, ideological and religious reasons," a foundation statement said.

Dollar

Iceland Says It Was "Bullied" Over Bank Debt

Image
© Reuters/Ints KalninsIceland's President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson watches ''Song of Freedom'' concert in Tallinn August 20, 2011.
Iceland's president accused European countries on Sunday of having bullied it into agreeing to guarantee repayment of the debts of a failed bank, reviving a dispute with Britain and the Netherlands whose citizens are owed billions.

When Iceland's banking sector collapsed in the 2008 global financial crisis, accounts were frozen at the bank Landsbanki, which had accepted deposits from British and Dutch savers through online funds called Icesave.

Iceland says the estate of the failed bank will be enough to repay about $5 billion of debt to the British and the Dutch. The two countries had wanted the government in Reykjavik to give a state guarantee to the repayment.

In a referendum earlier this year, Icelanders rejected for a second time giving a guarantee.

"People (in the government) bowed to the bullying of the Europeans ...," President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson told RUV public radio. He said the British and Dutch demand that the government guarantee the debt had been "absurd."

Key

Austria: Free at last! Chimps caged for 30 years and injected with HIV in cruel experiments finally feel the sun on their faces again

Like prisoners emerging from a lifetime behind bars, a group of chimpanzees step blinking into the sunlight with what appears for all the world to be a wave and a smile.

And they have much to be joyful about. For this is the first time they have felt grass under their feet and breathed fresh air for 30 years.

Though a few of the chimps were born in captivity, most were kidnapped from African jungles as babies and flown to Europe, where they were locked in metal laboratory cages to be used in a long series of experiments.
Surreal: Three chimpanzees step out into the daylight for the first time in 30 years
Surreal: Three chimpanzees step out into the daylight for the first time in 30 years

Pistol

US New York: Man Opens Fire at Brooklyn Parade, Toll Rises to 46 Shot Since Saturday Morning

Image
© G.N. MIller/NY PostPolice have a man in custody after he allegedly fired shots into the air at the West Indian Day Parade before fleeing the scene in a cab.
Gunfire erupted today near the massive West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn -- not far from where Mayor Bloomberg was marching -- as the entire city reeled from a epidemic of shootings over the past two days.
By noon today, a total of 46 people had been shot in the city since Saturday morning, authorities said.

At just before noon, a gunman fired into the air several blocks away from the start of the West Indian Day Parade route in Crown Heights before hopping into a cab and fleeing.

COUNCILMAN, PUBLIC ADVOCATE STAFFER BUSTED AT PARADE

Bloomberg, who has decried the recent spate of gun violence, had just started marching.

Question

US: Arkansas weatherman Brett Cummins found in hot tub with naked dead man wearing 'dog collar'

Brett Cummins
© KARK 4 NewsBrett Cummins, 33, woke up Tuesday to discover that a man he'd been with the night before was dead beside him in a hot tub, naked and wearing a dog collar, police say.


Brett Cummins, 33, woke up Tuesday to discover that a man he'd been with the night before was dead beside him in a hot tub, naked and wearing a dog collar, police say.

An Arkansas weatherman didn't predict he would wake up in a hot tub with a naked dead man, but that's exactly what police say happened.

Now authorities are trying to determine what killed Dexter Williams, whose body was found with a "dog collar" around his neck, according to a police report.

The mystery began Monday night, when KARK 4 News meteorologist Brett Cummins arrived at the home of John Barbour around 11 p.m. in Maumelle, just north of Little Rock, the report stated. The 33-year-old weatherman brought Williams, 24, with him. Barbour said he did not know the doomed man.

Bomb

US, California: San Clemente High Evacuated After Bomb Threat

San Clemente High School was evacuated on the first day of school Wednesday after a bomb threat made in note was found at Camp Pendleton.

According to the Orange County Sheriff's Department, a naval officer from Camp Pendleton was reported missing, and when officials checked his barracks, they found a note indicating he had, or was going to, place explosives at the school.

Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino said the naval officer, identified as 22-year-old Daniel Morgan, has not been located yet. Morgan is white, wears glasses, and has short hair. He owns a white Jeep Wrangler with a black top and 35-inch tires, with license number 6NKZ930.

Heart - Black

France: Man Fined for Depriving Wife of Sex

A man has been ordered to pay his ex-wife thousands of pounds in damages for failing to have enough sex with her during their 21-years of marriage.

The 51-year-old has been fined 8,500 pounds under article 215 of France's civil code, which states married couples must agree to a 'shared communal life', Daily Express reported.

The judge ruled that this law implies 'sexual relations must form part of a marriage'.

The rare legal decision came after the wife filed for divorce two years ago, blaming the break-up on her ex's lack of activity in the bedroom.

House

Canada: Man raided fridge and poured himself a bath after break-in at Celine Dion's home

Image
© The Associated Press/Julie JacobsonCeline Dion answers questions during a press conference after her opening night performance at Caesar's Palace, Tuesday, March 15, 2011, in Las Vegas.
A 36-year-old man has been charged after he allegedly broke into Celine Dion's home near Montreal, raided the fridge and even took the time to pour himself a bath.

He was nabbed by Laval police on Monday afternoon after the alarm system went off.

The international superstar and her husband, Rene Angelil, were not at home at the time. Dion and Angelil usually live in Florida but use the Laval residence when they come home to Quebec.

Laval police spokesman Franco Di Genova says the suspect was getting ready to take a nice hot bath when police arrived with the K-9 unit.

"He opened the water faucets, was pouring a nice warmish bath (and) he even managed to eat some pastry that was in the fridge," Di Genova said.

It was first reported that the man helped himself to some cakes.

Bell

US: Washington - Crane collapses at National Cathedral

Vehicles, adjoining building damaged during earthquake cleanup

A 500-foot crane performing cleanup work at the National Cathedral fell over Wednesday, damaging at least one building and several vehicles near the Cathedral.

Image
© Shawn Thew / EPAA construction crane being used to make earthquake-damage repairs lies overturned Wednesday at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C.
Reports came in of the collapse around 11 a.m., WRC reported.

Richard Weinberg, a spokesperson for the Cathedral, told News4 the crane, positioned on the south side of the church, crashed into an adjoining building. The building, called the Herb House, had a portion of its roof ripped off.

Fire officials said the Cathedral's main structure was not damaged.

The operator of the crane was inside the cab at the base when the accident happened. Authorities said immediately before it flipped, the crane's arm, extended approximately 550 feet, had just deposited material on the Cathedral roof. While rotating, the equipment's balance upset, and the crane came crashing down into an area between the roadway and the church itself.

X

At least 45 dead as plane carrying Russian ice-hockey team crashes

Image
© www.avianews.comYak-42 plane. Archive
At least 45 people died on Wednesday afternoon when a plane carrying the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice-hockey team crashed during take-off near Yaroslavl, some 250 km from Moscow, emergencies officials said.

Two people survived the crash, investigators said.

Eight members of the crew were among the dead.

The Yak-42 plane was carrying the team to Minsk, the Belarusian capital, for the start of the new Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). The side is coached by Canadian Brad McCrimmon, a former Detroit Red Wings assistant.

The plane crashed at 4:00 p.m. Moscow time (noon GMT).

The plane fell to earth straight after take-off and burst into flames.

"Passenger body parts were found in the Volga River, where part of the fuselage fell," a police source said.