Society's ChildS


Handcuffs

Berlusconi found guilty of paying for sex with underage prostitute, sentenced to THIRD prison term so far this year

Lizzy Davies
The Guardian
Tue, 25 Jun 2013 08:08 UTC
Image
© AFP/Getty ImagesSilvio Berlusconi, left, and Karima el-Mahroug, known as Ruby Rubacuori, who both deny having 'intimate relations'.
Former Italian prime minister given seven-year jail term and banned from public office for life at Milan court.

After more than 26 months, 50 court hearings and countless breathless column inches from journalists worldwide, it took just four minutes for the sentence that Silvio Berlusconi had feared to be delivered. At 5.19pm, before a fascist-era sculpture showing two men struck down by a towering figure, the judges swept into the courtroom and pronounced their damning verdict for Italy's longest-serving postwar prime minister. By 5.23pm, it was all over.

At the culmination of a trial that helped strike the final nail in the coffin of the playboy politician's international reputation, the judges found Berlusconi guilty both of paying for sex with the underage prostitute nicknamed Ruby Heartstealer and abusing his office to cover it up. They even went beyond the prosecutors' sentencing requests, ordering him to serve seven - rather than six - years in prison and face a lifetime ban on holding public office.

Perhaps fittingly for a case that cast a spotlight on the murky nexus of sex and power that prosecutors argued was at the heart of his premiership - in which young women were procured, they said, "for the personal sexual satisfaction" of the billionaire septuagenarian - all three judges were female.

Comment: Berlusconi sentenced to 1 year behind bars in wiretap trial
Don't hold your breath: Ex Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi sentenced to 4 years in jail for tax fraud after losing appeal - Will appeal again to higher court

Read More...
Stock Up

Czech food prices grew nearly 7 percent in 2012, fastest rate in EU


Global Times
Sat, 20 Jul 2013 06:28 UTC
Image
The consumer prices of food and non-alcoholic drinks in the Czech Republic grew by 6.9 percent in 2012, which was the fastest growth among all European Union (EU) members, a report said on Friday.

According to the report compiled by the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Information (UZEI), the growth was driven mainly by a growth of value added tax (VAT) rate on food from 10 to 14 percent, a 7 percent rise in prices of imported food, and a growth in commodity and energy prices.

Prices of food and non-alcoholic drinks in the Czech increased more than 2.5 times compared with the average growth in the entire EU.

"Beside a higher VAT and higher prices of agricultural commodities, food prices were also affected by a growth in imports of food from abroad, a growth in energy prices, inflation and then by retailers' higher margins above all on higher-quality food," said Food Chamber spokeswoman Jarmila Stolcova.
Read More...
Cards

One way to deal with a gambling addiction? Axe-wielding man smashes slot machines in northern Italy


YouTube
Sat, 20 Jul 2013 00:31 UTC
Nure Bregu smashed up the machines at a bar near Padua in northern Italy. He walked into the bar and smashed up the machines in a 30 second rage. When he had finished, the father-of-two calmly walked back outside. He was arrested and sentenced to six months in jail in an immediate trial. Bregu, a labourer, will not serve the sentence due to prison overcrowding. This is the dramatic moment a frustrated gambler returned to an Italian bar and smashed up seven fruit machines with an axe after losing more than £4,000.

Read More...
Handcuffs

Questions haunt family of man with Down syndrome who died in police custody

Theresa Vargas
The Washington Post
Thu, 18 Jul 2013 22:21 UTC
ethan saylor
© Katherine Frey / The Washington PostPhotographs of Ethan Saylor as he was growing up adorn a side table in the dining room of Patti Saylor’s home in Mount Airy. With an IQ of 40, he still believed in Santa and would reach out to hold someone’s hand whenever he walked in the rain or on ice, said his mother, a 55-year-old nurse with a special education degree.
He was crying out for her.

"Mommy!" someone heard Ethan Saylor scream as three off-duty Frederick County deputies yanked the 26-year-old with Down syndrome from a movie theater seat and dragged him, struggling, toward the door.

Patti Saylor was already in the car on her way to the Regal Westview cinema after getting a call from her son's 18-year-old aide, saying she was unsure what to do. They had just finished watching Zero Dark Thirty, and now Ethan didn't want to go home. He had hit a Lenscrafter store's window in protest.

Patti was maybe five minutes away when she called the aide, expecting to hear that Ethan had already calmed down, that the two were fine and eating at McDonald's. Instead, she was told that Ethan was unconscious, not breathing and on his way to the hospital.

Only this week - after the Frederick County Sheriff's Office released long-awaited documents detailing its investigation into Robert Ethan Saylor's death Jan. 12 at the hands of its deputies - would his mother read the witness statements describing how her son had called out for her in his last moments.

"I have to stop myself and think he's not experiencing that fear at this moment," Patti said, crying in her New Market living room, where the Saylor family had gathered for their first sit-down interview since Ethan's death. "That's over. That's done. He's not feeling that now."

For six months, the Saylor family has remained quiet, patiently waiting to learn how a young man fascinated with law enforcement died with handcuff marks on his wrists.
Read More...
Camera

'Face of terror': Boston sgt suspended over leak of Tsarnaev's arrest photos


RT
Fri, 19 Jul 2013 21:18 UTC
Image
After Boston Magazine published previously unseen photographs of the night of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev's capture, in response to a now controversial Rolling Stone cover, the man who released the pictures has had his badge revoked.

The new images, which were provided by Sgt. Sean Murphy, a tactical photographer with the Massachusetts State Police, were accompanied by a statement written by Murphy, who was angered by the magazine cover of Tsarnaev, arguing that it promoted an unfair image of the suspected terrorist.

"The truth is that glamorizing the face of terror is not just insulting to the family members of those killed in the line of duty, it also could be an incentive to those who may be unstable to do something to get their face on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine," wrote Murphy.

Comment: What ever happened to innocent till proven guilty, Dzhokar Tsarnaev has already been convicted by the MSM with garbage like this from Rolling Stone, they just parrot the "official" narrative which has so many holes in it that you could call it Swiss cheese!

For a more objective analysis read:

The True Face of Boston Terrorism

Strategy of Tension - Boston Marathon bombing

Ink Blot Tests and 'actors' at the Boston bombings

Why there were no 'actors' at the Boston Marathon bombing

'It's all a hoax!' Boston Bombings and "Crazy Conspiracy Theories"

Lambs to the Slaughter: Boston lockdown for manhunt of bombings 'suspect'

Listen:

SOTT Talk Radio: Baghdad to Boston - Terrorism Strikes the American Homeland

Read More...
USA

The experience of being brown in America

Badtux
Badtux the Snarky Penguin
Wed, 17 Jul 2013 21:44 UTC
Another blogger asked the question, "why is it always about race when a white person kills a black person? Why is it never about race when a black person kills a white person?"

For real? I really need to explain this to people? Here, watch a video:


Okay, you're back? Good. Here's why it's about race: It's about race because it's about race.
Read More...
X

11-month-old Gabriella Luong dies in hot car in Alabama, mother 'had too many things on her mind'

Sarah Rae Fruchtnicht
Opposing Views
Fri, 19 Jul 2013 20:34 UTC
11 month old dies in car
© MYFOXAL.COMJuly 17, 2013: This image shows flowers and notes left near the site where an 11-month-old girl died after being locked inside an SUV
An 11-month-old girl died Thursday after she was left inside a hot car in Homewood, Ala., for hours because her mother "had too many things on her mind."

Gabriella Gi-Ny Luong's mother, Katie Luong, was thinking about other things as she drove to work Wednesday morning. The baby was asleep in her car seat, presumably in the backseat. Luong forgot to drop her off at the babysitter's. She proceeded to work and left the baby in her SUV, completely forgetting that the infant was even there. She didn't realize the baby was in the car the baby-sitter called her Wednesday afternoon.

Gabriella was found unconscious in her car seat. It was 91 degrees outside.

Police said they received a call at 1:30 p.m. about a baby locked in a vehicle. Gabriella was pronounced dead at the hospital. She had been in the car for roughly three and a half hours.
Read More...
Stock Down

Detroit: largest US city to file for bankruptcy (for now...)


BBC News
Fri, 19 Jul 2013 20:13 UTC
detroit bankrupt
Detroit may be gearing up for a battle with creditors the day after it became the largest US city ever to file for bankruptcy, with $18bn (£12bn) of debt.

Creditors fear they will not be paid, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said, adding the city is "basically broke".

Court papers filed on Thursday night listed 100,000 entities as creditors to the city. But unions have described the bankruptcy filing as a power grab.

Detroit, once a symbol of US industrial power, has faced decades of decline.

It is seeking protection from creditors who include public-sector workers and their pension funds.

Detroit's problems stem from declining industry. Public services are nearing collapse and about 70,000 properties lie abandoned.

Mayor Dave Bing has vowed that public services will keep running and wages for public workers will be paid.
Read More...
Pistol

Repugnicans reject proposal to ban gun sales to suspected terrorists

Eric W. Dolan
The Raw Story
Thu, 18 Jul 2013 18:22 UTC
Image
A proposal to ban the sale of firearms to individuals on the FBI's terrorist watch list was defeated by House Republicans on Wednesday.

Reps. Nita Lowey (D-NY) and David Price (D-NC) offered an amendment to the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations bill that would have given the U.S. Department of Justice authority to block suspected terrorists from purchasing firearms and explosives.

"Terrorists are knowingly exploiting our laws," Lowey said, citing American-born al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn.

The amendment was defeated in the House Appropriations Committee by a 19-29 vote.

"Americans expect our government to keep guns out of the hands of felons, domestic abusers, the mentally ill, and terrorists," Lowey said in a statement. "A suspected terrorist cannot board a plane but can pass a background check to buy a gun. It is absurd that my Republican colleagues opposed our amendment to close this dangerous gap in our gun safety laws."

Comment: No doubt the NRA has been busy greasing the palms of congress. It is equally obvious the PTB need to keep the gun violence and chaos at high pitch, so they can continue to spy on us and "protect us" from the evil terrorist threat - a "threat" which is a complete fantasy.
Jack Abramoff: How to Prey, Bribe and Own a US Congressmen?

For an interesting discussion on the gun control debate listen to this SOTT Talk Radio Broadcast:
Gun Control USA: Do Guns Protect Civil Liberties?

Read More...
X

Double Standards: Iowa law enforcement agent fired after reporting republican governor's car for speeding

David Ferguson
The Raw Story
Thu, 18 Jul 2013 18:59 UTC
larry hedlund
Larry Hedlund was fired for doing his job, and now intents to sue the state of Iowa
An agent of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) claims he was fired from his job after reporting Gov. Terry Branstad (R)'s vehicle for speeding. According to the Des Moines Register, Larry Hedlund, 55, intends to sue the state after being fired at the end of a 2 and a half month investigation that could leave him unemployable in law enforcement.

"I've been treated like a criminal," Hedlund, who has a 25-year record with the Division with no previous discipline issues, said to the Register Wednesday. "The best analogy I can give you is that they investigated me like I was a murderer, and in the process they murdered my career."

DCI officials would not comment on personnel matters to the Register, but paperwork Hedlund provided to the paper said that he was being dismissed from the division due to "negative and disrespectful messages" he emailed to subordinates about DCI leadership, for misusing a state vehicle and for being "deceptive" with supervisors.
Read More...