Society's ChildS


Smoking

Hysteria: Family of smokers on airplane forces costly diversion


CBC News
Sun, 03 Feb 2013 05:36 UTC
Sunwing Halifax-to-Dominican flight diverted to Bermuda; passengers spent night in hotel.


The airline that was carrying a family of smokers who caused a Halifax flight to be diverted to Bermuda this weekend says it was a costly incident for everyone involved.

A Sunwing flight travelling from Halifax to the Dominican Republic on Friday night had to make an emergency landing after passengers were found smoking in the plane's bathroom.

According to the Bermuda Police Service another passenger alerted the crew and the smokers became verbally abusive.

Police removed a mother, father and two sons, aged 16 and 22, from the flight.

"I cannot believe that passengers did this. I'll bet you it's been 20 years since smoking was allowed on an aircraft," said Daryl McWilliams, the vice-president of media relations with the airline.

"I couldn't believe it when I heard it. I said, 'No, no, what did you say?"

McWilliams said under Canadian transport regulations the plane needed to land at the nearest available airport, which happened to be Bermuda
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Laptop

Online search ads expose racial bias: study


Raw Story
Mon, 04 Feb 2013 18:10 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo
Ads pegged to Google search results can be racially biased because of how certain names are associated with blacks or whites, according to a new study.

Harvard University professor Latanya Sweeney found "statistically significant discrimination" when comparing ads served with results from online searches made using names associated with blacks and those with whites.

The study contrasted online searches using names such as "Ebony" and "DeShawn," with those such as "Jill" and "Geoffrey."
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Pistol

Oklahoma school says 'zero tolerance' for bullying after teen shoots self in bathroom

David Edwards
Raw Story
Mon, 04 Feb 2013 18:02 UTC
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Cowetta School Superintendant Jeff Holmes
Authorities in Oklahoma on Monday were unable to confirm if bullying was involved after a 15-year-old male killed himself with a gun in a Cowetta school bathroom.

Speaking to reporters at press conference, Superintendent Jeff Holmes explained that a "ninth grade student at Cowetta Intermediate High School died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound" soon after school began on Monday morning.

Coweta Police Lieutenant Donnie Krumsiek praised the school faculty for their response, saying that "unfortunately a life was lost but it could have been a lot worse."
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Health

Alabama hostage standoff ends with boy safe and murder suspect dead


Guardian
Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:50 UTC
Image
© Photograph: Landov/AL.COMAgents stormed the bunker after hostage talks with Jimmy Lee Dykes broke down, police said
After a weeklong standoff, police raid Jimmy Lee Dykes' bunker fearing five-year-old hostage was in 'imminent danger'

FBI agents raided the backyard bunker of a murder suspect holding a five-year-old boy on Monday, freeing the child whom they believed was in "imminent danger".

By the time the raid was over, the suspect, Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, was dead, FBI spokesman Steve Richardson said. The boy was unharmed and was receiving treatment at a local hospital.
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Bad Guys

Alabama hostage crisis enters second week of standstill


RT.com
Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:03 UTC
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© ReutersJimmy Lee Dykes is shown in this undated handout photo. The man is suspected of shooting a school bus driver to death and taking a five-year-old boy hostage in an underground bunker as the standoff with police continues in Midland City, Alabama.
As the Alabama hostage crisis continues into its seventh day, police say they have discovered more details about the captor holding a 5-year-old boy in an underground bunker after taking him off a school bus.

Jimmy Lee Dykes, a 65-year-old Vietnam veteran, fatally shot an Alabama school bus driver and took the 5-year-old boy from the bus, taking him to the bunker underneath his home. Holding the boy hostage, Dykes promised not to hurt him and kept an open line of communication with authorities.

Authorities delivered items including medicine, a Hot Wheels toy car, and food, including Cheez-Its, to the 5-year-old using a ventilation pipe. The boy suffers from a mild form of autism, but the captor has done his best "to make the environment as comfortable as possible for the child," the FBI said.

The FBI has not discussed a motive for the kidnapping, but neighbors described the assailant as a loner with no children of his own. Dykes lives along a dirt road outside of Dothan, a small town in southeast Alabama. The 65-year-old is estranged from his family and told some of his family member "to go to hell", said Mel Adams, a Midland City Council member who has known Dykes since they were ages 3 and 4, in an AP interview. The man has an adult daughter, but lost touch with her two years ago. He also has a brother and a sister that he has lost contact with.

The kidnapper's neighbors told AP that Dykes once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe, threatened to shoot children for stepping onto his property, and guarded his property at night with a gun and a flashlight.
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Birthday Cake

Oregon baker denies lesbian couple a wedding cake

Katie McDonough
Salon
Mon, 04 Feb 2013 14:44 UTC
Image
© Credit: YouTube
He isn't the first, either. How bakeries are becoming an unlikely battleground in the struggle for gay rights

Oregon baker Aaron Klein could face legal action after refusing to do business with a lesbian couple who sought a cake for their upcoming wedding.

As reported by KATU, the woman who filed the complaint says she had previously purchased a wedding cake from Sweet Cakes Bakery for her mother without incident, but was denied service after she told Klein the cake she wanted to buy was for her same-sex wedding.

Cue inevitable pun about this guy being anything but sweet.

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Pistol

Gun Control USA: Sandy Hook father owns Congress

ThinkOutsideTheTV
YouTube
Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:49 UTC
A father of a student at the Sandy Hook elementary school sets the record straight for politicians regarding the right to bear arms in the US.


Comment: See also: SOTT Talk Radio: Gun Control USA: Do Guns Protect Freedoms?

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Eye 2

Florida father with assault weapon forces wife to watch as he kills two sons

David Edwards
Raw Story
Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:13 UTC
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Isidro Zavala
A Florida man armed with an weapon that had once been banned under federal law forced his wife to watch as he strangled one of his sons and then shot a second before turning a gun on himself.

Victoria Flores Zavala told Boynton Beach police that 45-year-old Isidro Zavala went to her home on Saturday with a plan to kill her and their two boys because she had filed for divorce last year, according to WTVJ. But Isidro Zavala decide to spare his wife at the last minute so she could suffer while watching him murder 12-year-old Eduardo Zavala and 11-year-old Mario Zavala.

"What Mrs. Zavala had to go through - watch her children killed before her - is probably the most horrific thing you could ever imagine, at least for me," Boynton Beach Police Chief G. Matthew Immler explained at a press conference.
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Bizarro Earth

New Jersey school asks girls - not boys - to take no-cursing pledge

Samantha Kimmey
Raw Story
Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:10 UTC
Image
© Shutterstock
A New Jersey high school asked girls - but not boys - to take a pledge to refrain from cursing, reported northjersey.com.

Lori Flynn, the teacher who launched the pledge at Queen of Peace High School, said, "We want ladies to act like ladies."
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Boat

French tanker likely hijacked off Ivory Coast

Jon Gambrell
Associated Press
Mon, 04 Feb 2013 08:34 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Sea Tanker Shipping
A French-owned oil tanker missing off Ivory Coast with 17 sailors on board likely has been hijacked, an official with an international piracy watchdog said Monday, in what may be the latest attack by criminal gangs targeting the ships to steal their valuable cargo.

Details remained scarce Monday about the fate of the ship, flagged in Luxembourg. The ship had been reported missing Sunday and officials believe it fell victim to the same pirates operating throughout the Gulf of Guinea, said Noel Choong, a spokesman for the International Maritime Bureau in Malaysia.

SEA Tankers, a shipping firm based in Merignac, France, issued a statement Monday afternoon identify the missing ship as the M/T Gascogne.

"The company (is) in contact with the relevant authorities in the region with the objective of re-establishing communication with the vessel's crew," the company said. "The safety of the crew and vessel remain the overriding priority."
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