Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Mid Day International News

Mid Day International News

Woman jailed for 10 years for having sex with daughter's pals

Posted:

A woman has been sentenced to 10 years in jail after admitting having sex with teenage boys who were friends of her daughter.

Forty-year-old Cathleen Miller plied her victims -- all aged between 14 and 15 -- with alcohol and marijuana and then seduced them at her home in Chicago Ridge, reports the Daily Mail.

The mother-of-three was arrested last July after her daughter walked in on her mother having sex with one of her friends from high school.

He later posted an apology on the daughter's Facebook wall, which his parents then saw and alerted police, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Miller originally denied any wrongdoing and said the boys brought the alcohol and drugs into her home.

However, as police investigations continued she eventually confessed after contemplating suicide.

On Friday Miller pleaded guilty to aggravated criminal sexual abuse and criminal sexual assault at Cook County Court.

She was sentenced to three years each for three of the victims and one year for a fourth.

29-year-old to become Britain's youngest grandfather?

Posted:

A 29-year-old man, who became a father at the age of 14, is set to create a record by becoming Britain's youngest grandfather, after his 14-year-old daughter has become pregnant, a media report said.

"It's like history repeating itself. I quite like the idea of being the youngest grandad in Britain, but at the same time I'm fuming that she (daughter) is pregnant. I know myself how tough it is being a teenage parent and now she has to go through the same thing.

"However, we're all going to stand by her and we will welcome the little one into the family. She is very young, but she was determined to keep the child. "We're not going to force her into doing anything else. We don't want her to hate us," the 'Daily Mail' quoted as saying the man without revealing his identity to protect his young daughter.

The man's daughter became pregnant by her 15-year-old boyfriend and is expected to give birth in August. The couple are both pupils at the same comprehensive school and have been seeing each other for several months, the report said. She announced her pregnancy to friends on 'Facebook', by updating her status to "looking for a pram with the mr".

The girl says she wants to remain at school until the child is born and then hopes to return to her studies. Her father claims that he is younger than the current record holder for youngest grandfather, Dale Wright, who was also 29 when his child became a parent.

Afghan mums feed infants opium

Posted:

In a far-flung part of northern Afghanistan, there's a town where kids are fed pure opium.

Aziza feeds her four-year-old son, Omaidullah, a lump of pure opium as his 'breakfast'.

"If I don't give him opium he doesn't sleep. And he doesn't let me work," CNN quoted Aziza as saying.

The mother comes from a poor family of carpet weavers in Balkh province. She has no education; no idea of the health risks involved or that opium is addictive.

"We give the children opium whenever they get sick as well," she said.

With no real medical care in these parts and the high cost of medicine, all the families out here know is opium.

Aziza's elderly mother-in-law, Rozigul, rolls a small ball in her fingers and pops it into her mouth with a small smile before passing a piece over to her sister.

"I had to work and raise the children, so I started using drugs. We are very poor people, so I used opium. We don't have anything to eat. That is why we have to work and use drugs to keep our kids quiet," she said.

The closest government-run drug rehabilitation center is a four-hour drive away and has only 20 beds and a handful of staff to deal with the epidemic.

"Opium is nothing new to our villages or districts. It's an old tradition, something of a religion in some areas," said Mohamed Daoud Rated, coordinator of the center.

"People use opium as drugs or medicine. If a child cries, they give him opium, if they can't sleep, they use opium, if an infant coughs, they give them opium," he said.

The center is running an outreach program to the areas that are most afflicted.

Woman survives 23rd storey hotel jump

Posted:

A woman, who jumped from the 23rd storey of a Buenos Aires hotel, has managed to survive after a waiting taxi broke her fall.

The 30-year-old woman, who suffered multiple injuries and is being treated in hospital, landed in a sitting position on the driver's side of the car, just moments after he got out of his vehicle, the Daily Mail reported.

Pictures taken showed the impact deeply dented the roof of the vehicle and shattered the windscreen.

The taxi driver, who gave his name as Miguel, said he saw a policeman looking up and that prompted him to get out just before the driver's side of the car was smashed by the woman's body.

Another taxi driver, Juan Carlos Candame said that he saw the woman climb over a barrier and jump.

The woman jumped from the top of the Hotel Crown Plaza Panamericano, where a restaurant overlooks the landmark Obelisk in central Buenos Aires.

Suicide bombers kill 35 in Moscow airport

Posted:

A suicide bombing attack Monday at Moscow's Domodedovo International Airport killed at least 35 people. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered an increase of security at all of the country's airports and transportation hubs.

Yelena Galanova, the airport's press secretary, confirmed that the toll from the deadly blast has risen to 35, RIA Novosti reported.

At least 130 other people were injured in the blast that took place at the airport's international arrivals hall at 4.32 p.m. (1332 GMT).

While one report said the suicide bomber was present among the crowd at the international arrivals gate, eyewitnesses said there were two terrorists who blew themselves up as passengers emerged from the international arrivals zone around 4.40 p.m. (1340 GMT).

Tatyana Morozova, spokeswoman for the investigation committee, said the explosion occurred in the arrivals area around 4.22 p.m. (1322 GMT), Xinhua reported.

But a spokesperson for the Federal Customs Services (FTS) told Interfax news agency that the blast happened in the lounge area near the Asia Cafe next to an international departure area.

Interfax also quoted security sources as saying the suicide bomber was probably from the northern Caucasus region.

A criminal case has been opened over the suicide attack, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor's Office said.

RIA Novosti quoted Medvedev as saying at an emergency meeting: "It is necessary to step up security at all airports, railway stations and transportations hubs. I order you, Transport Minister Igor Levitin, together with Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev, to employ the relevant procedures in cooperation with the Federal Security Service."

Medvedev has pledged assistance to the families of the victims, and also announced he would postpone his visit to the Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland.

Law enforcement officials said the power of one of the blasts was equal to 5 kg of TNT and that the bomb was packed with metal objects to cause maximum damage.

Airport employees broke down the wall between the main airport and the arrivals zone to allow passengers to escape the scene of destruction.

Russia's Rosbalt news agency reported that the Federal Security Services (FSB) was aware that terrorists were planning an impending attack, but were searching for the criminals in Zelenograd town near Moscow.

Security has been tightened at other airports in the capital and the city's metro system, which was hit by deadly terrorist attacks in March 2010.

A law enforcement source said three men are wanted in connection with the bombing.

"According to intelligence, three men may have been involved in organising the explosion. They have been living in the region of the Russian capital for some time," the source was quoted by Interfax as saying.

Xinhua reported that Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport was accepting planes that were bound for Domodedovo.

All international flights to Domodedovo have been stopped. Security was tightened at other Moscow airports and on the capital's underground rail system.

DPA reported that Russian shares fell more than two percent in the wake of the bomb blast. Leading the fall in the Moscow Stock Market's Micex index was a more than five percent drop in shares in the Russian flag carrier Aeroflot.

Domodedovo is an international airport located in Domodedovsky district, 42 km southeast of central Moscow. It is the largest airport in Russia in terms of passenger and cargo traffic. Around 22.25 million passengers used the airport in 2010. It is one of the three major Moscow airports along with Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo.

In August 2004, two planes that took off from Domodedovo were blown up by female Chechen suicide bombers, killing a total of 90 people.

Oprah Winfrey's secret: A surprise half-sister

Posted:

Oprah Winfrey has a half-sister named Patricia who was given up for adoption by Winfrey's mother, Vernita Lee, shortly after her birth in 1963.

That's the big secret.

Thanksgiving present: Oprah met her half-sister after several years last November. pic/Getty images

"Patricia is my half-sister who I never knew existed," Oprah said on yesterday's show. Patricia " whose last name was not revealed " was given up by Oprah's mom because she wanted to get off welfare and knew that if she had another child, that might be impossible. Reports say Winfrey's mother wasn't able to take care of her new daughter.

Patricia lived in foster homes until she was seven-years-old, including some that were "not so good," she said. Patricia said she always hoped her birth mother would return for her.

By 17, Patricia was a single mother. She has two grown children, a daughter and son. "Oh my God, I have a family" was her reaction when she found out she had three siblings, Patricia said. One of those siblings, the only one still alive, is Winfrey.

Just before Thanksgiving, Winfrey said, she was told "a bombshell family secret." The story would have become public and been "exploited" eventually, Winfrey said, "So I wanted you to hear it from me first."

Patricia is several inches shorter than Winfrey, but the half-sisters are similar in appearance, with round faces and the same smile.

Winfrey said she had no idea her mother had given up a baby when she was nine and living with her father Vernon Winfrey in Nashville.

Winfrey said in previews for the show that the news "literally shook me to my core" and called the reunion "a miracle."

Winfrey called their first encounter "a beloved moment."


Cat hit by 21 gun pellets... and lives

Posted:

Marley the cat has made a miraculous recovery from a shotgun blast that pumped 21 pellets into his body.
The year-old feline still has 15 slugs inside him " including three in his lung " because it is too dangerous to remove them.

Marley " who nearly lost an eye in the sickening attack " is one of 205 shot cats reported to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) last year.

Now the animal charity is calling people to help snare the thug who blasted him and catch some of the other callous cat shooters.

Marley's angry owner Kathy Thomson said, "It is utterly despicable to shoot a defenceless cat with a shotgun."
She added that the number of cats injured was much higher than what the figures of RSPCA.

She added, "When I picked him up he yelled dreadfully and I realised then something terrible had happened to him."

She rushed him to the vet where his life was in the balance for three days.

RSPCA chief vet Alastair Macmillan said, "Air weapons cause horrific injuries to animals."

He added that Cats were an easy target for malicious people because they normally are out on their own."


French President to quit politics?

Posted:

Hackers managed to break into the Facebook page of Nicolas Sarkozy to announce he was abandoning plans to run for re-election and would be retiring next year

Hackers have managed to break into the Facebook page of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and posted that he would be quitting next year.

Pranked: Nicolas Sarkozy's Facebook account was broken into and a message with several spelling errors was posted. File pic

It meant that more than 3,50,000 'friends' of the head of the state would have read about his resignation on what is meant to be a secure site.

Many passed the message on to thousands of others when it appeared on Sunday night, meaning a buzz had soon been created on the World Wide Web.

In a misspelled and ungrammatical post illustrating the havoc that hackers can cause, Sarkozy is meant to have written, "Dear compatriots, given the exceptional circumstances our country is experiencing, I have decided in my spirit and conscience not to run for office again at the end of my mandate in 2012."

There was a reference to another Facebook page called Farewell to Nicolas Sarkozy, suggesting that people meet outside Le Fouquet's restaurant in Paris on May 6 to celebrate his resignation. Yesterday, Sarkozy had replaced the false message with a real one apologising for the security lapse and thanking friends and supporters for their loyalty.

"My Facebook account was hacked into this evening, perhaps to remind me that no system is infallible," said a message on the page after it was reclaimed by the legitimate account holder.

He acknowledged that social network sites were insecure and said that people should always be wary.

Sarkozy is one of the most unpopular presidents in French history, with an approval rating which has dropped below 30 per cent at times.


Facebook hacker takes over Sarkozy's account

Posted:

A Facebook hacker took over French president Nicolas Sarkozy's account and posted a false message that he was abandoning plans to run for re-election.

"Dear compatriots, given the exceptional circumstances our country is experiencing, I have decided in my spirit and conscience not to run for office again at the end of my mandate in 2012," News.com.au quoted the message posted by the hacker.

It added a link to a separate page with an invitation to 'leaving drinks' for Sarkozy - set for election day, May 6 next year, at Le Fouquet's cafe on the Champs Elysees, where he celebrated winning the presidency in 2007.

However, the fake announcement on the president's official page on the social networking site had various spelling mistakes and was quickly taken down.

"My Facebook account was hacked into this [Sunday] evening, perhaps to remind me that no system is infallible," said a message on the page after the legitimate account holder reclaimed it.
Posted by Harshad at 7:17 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)