Ex army major, wife bags 10yrs in prison for battering son

Balhara & wife

A former Army major and his second wife were sentenced to 10 years in jail by a Delhi court today for torturing and trying to kill their minor son from the officer's first wife. The court also imposed a fine of Rs. 60,000 each on Major (Retd) Lalit Balhara and his second wife Preeti Balhara after holding them guilty of battering the minor boy and trying to kill him after the victim's mother, herself an Army captain, had died in 2000. The victim's counsel Ravinder S Garia had demanded the harshest possible punishment for the convicts saying the minor has suffered permanent injury and has been left with 'battered baby syndrome' for life. The boy, now 13, was first brought to the hospital on April 23, 2002 - at the age of three - for treatment of alleged consumption of insecticide by him. In weeks and months ahead, the hospital virtually became his second home where he was admitted repeatedly for treatment of various injuries ranging from fractured ribs to bleeding skull and smashed teeth and all the time with a starved look. The Delhi police had filed a charge sheet in the matter against the couple for attempt to murder in 2009, four years after the Delhi High Court ordered a probe into the case. The case came to light in 2005, when the minor's maternal grandparents had moved the high court seeking his custody, accusing his father Lalit Balhara and the officer's second wife Preeti of torturing him after his mother's death. The child was then produced before the court on February 20, 2005. Taken aback by his physical and mental condition, the court had sought a medical report on his condition. The major and his wife were also sent for psychiatric consultation at the Base Hospital, Delhi Cantonment. The medical report stated that "parents were unable to explain as to why the child sustained injuries and concluded that the minor boy was suffering from a 'battered baby syndrome'- a combination of physical injuries such as broken bones, bruises, burns and malnutrition as a result of gross abuse by a parent or caregiver. After going through the reports, a division bench of the high court on February 28, 2005 had handed over the child's custody to his maternal grandfather, saying "investigation is needed to ascertain the manner in which injuries have been caused." During the trial, the boy had deposed against his parents and said he was repeatedly tortured and was locked up in a room without food. He had also said he was often beaten with stick when he would cry. They would also insert the stick in his mouth due to which some of his teeth were broken, he had said. The couple had denied the allegations saying the child was special by birth and suffered injuries after falling off chairs and tables. The child's medical report and his statement, however, had proved the case against them. Culled from NEWS BULLETIN

Pakistani couple bags 25yrs in jail for mudering their daughter

Shafilea

A Pakistani court has sentenced a husband and his wife to life in prison for killing their daughter. Iftikhar, 52, and Farzana Ahmed, 49, suffocated their 17-year-old daughter, Shafilea, in 2003 with a plastic bag. The couple - first cousins from the Pakistani village of Uttam - were ordered to serve a minimum of 25 years in prison. "Shafilea was only 10 when she began to rebel against her parents' strict rules, according to prosecutor Andrew Edis. The young girl would hide make-up, false nails and western clothes at school, changing into conservative clothes before her parents picked her up. But it was the last year of her life that proved to be the most traumatic. During the trial that began in May, jurors heard from Shafilea's younger sister, Alesha, who said she witnessed the murder when she was 12. After an argument about Shafilea's dress, her parents pushed her down on a couch, stuffed a thin white plastic bag into her mouth and held their hands over her mouth and nose until she died, Alesha testified. As she was struggling, her mother said, "just finish it here," according to Alesha's testimony. Although Shafilea's other siblings contradicted the testimony, the last-minute emergence of a diary convinced jurors. The diary belonged to a friend of one of Shafilea's other sisters, Mev. In it, the friend relays conversations she had with the sister about the night Shafilea died - details that supported Alesha's testimony. When Shafilea became a teenager, she became interested in boys - something that spurred punishment from her parents. School officials alerted social services in October 2002 after Shafilea came to school with injuries to her face. That same month, Shafilea told a social worker that she was to be married in Pakistan in February 2003. In January 2003, she ran away, telling friends her parents would not leave her alone. She eventually returned. In February 2003, she ran away again and pleaded with British authorities to allow her to move out of her parents' house because, she said, they were abusive and trying to force her into an arranged marriage. Some of Shafilea's own words also proved compelling to jurors. In the application form to move out, she said she had suffered from regular domestic violence from the age of 15. One parent would hold me whilst the other hit me," she said.Her father snatched her off the streets, however, in the same month as the application. He bundled her into a car and took her to Pakistan against her will, Alesha said. In protest, Shafilea drank bleach and was brought back to Britain in May 2003. She spent eight weeks in the hospital trying to recover from damage done to her throat. Even in her weakened and desperate state, Shafilea's parents were relentless. Alesha described that after the attack, her siblings ran upstairs and she watched as her father carried Shafilea's body to the car wrapped in a blanket. She was reported missing shortly after, with her parents making a teary-eyed media appeal for information leading to their daughter. But police were suspicious - so much so that they bugged the house. Shafilea's decomposed remains were eventually discovered in the River Kent in Cumbria in February 2004, but it wasn't until 2010 that Alesha provided the key testimony. Culled from NDTV

Ex-President of Mongolia bags 4yrs in prison for corruption.

Enkhbayar

Former Mongolian President Nambar Enkhbayar has been jailed for four years after being convicted of corruption. Mr Enkhbayar was arrested in April and charged with misusing property and government power. The 54-year-old, who served as prime minister and then president until he lost office in a 2009 poll, denied the charges and called them politically motivated. He says he will appeal. The court in Ulan Batur found him guilty of taking television equipment intended as a donation to a monastery and charges relating to the illegal privatisation of a hotel and publishing house, Xinhua news agency said. It handed him a seven-year term but three years were commuted. The former leader was also ordered to compensate the monastery and had assets seized. Speaking to the BBC before parliamentary elections in June, Mr Enkhbayar said the charges were a pretext to stop him running for political office. He served as prime minister from 2000-2004 and as president from 2005-2009, before narrowly losing an election to Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj of the Democratic Party. Culled from BBC

Catholic priest pleads guilty to child pornography

Ratigan

A Roman Catholic priest in Kansas City pleaded guilty Thursday to producing child pornography in a federal case that also led to charges against the diocese bishop for failing to report suspected child abuse. The Rev. Shawn Ratigan, 46, had been scheduled for trial later this month. He was charged with child pornography in May 2011 in Clay County after police received a flash drive from the priest's computer that contained hundreds of images of children, most of them clothed, with the focus on their crotch areas. Prosecutors alleged he photographed girls, sometimes under their skirts, in and around churches where he had worked in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. Under terms of the plea deal, Ratigan pleaded guilty to four counts of producing child pornography and one count of attempting to produce child porn. Eight other counts against Ratigan were dismissed, but sentencing guidelines suggest he'll serve a minimum of 15 years in prison. The case opened old wounds for the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, which in 2008 agreed to pay 47 clergy abuse victims a total of $10 million and promised to train its priests about sexual abuse awareness and to report any suspicions that children were being placed in danger. The case also led to misdemeanor criminal charges against the diocese and Bishop Robert Finn -- the highest-ranking Catholic official in the U.S. to be charged with shielding an abusive priest -- for failing to report suspected child abuse to the state. Both have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to go to trial in September. Ratigan was an acting priest whose behavior was reported to diocese officials in May 2010, seven months before hundreds of disturbing images were found on his laptop and a full year before church officials reported him to police. Instead of reporting Ratigan to the state Division of Family Services, as required under Missouri law, Finn sent the priest out of state for a psychological examination then ordered him to stay at the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Eucharist, a facility in Independence, where he wouldn't be around children and could say Mass for the sisters. Finn also ordered Ratigan to avoid contact with children. Later, after the diocese received reports Ratigan had attended a St. Patrick's Day parade and a child's birthday party at the invitation of the child's parents, Finn ordered that police be given copies of the photos recovered from Ratigan's laptop. After Ratigan was charged with child pornography, Finn apologized for how he had handled the situation. Culled from FOXNEWS

Islamists stone couple to death for committing adultery

Islamists in control of northern Mali said they forced a man and a woman into two holes and stoned them to death for committing adultery in the lawless region. Witnesses watched quietly as Islamists executed the two by pelting them with rocks in the remote Aguelhok town, according to a local resident. “I don’t know how many rocks they threw or for how long it went on before they were both dead,” said Haman Maiga, a resident of Aguelhok who witnessed the stoning. “No one dared to try and stop the Islamists.” The woman had two small children, a boy and a girl, according to Maiga. A leader of a radical Islamic group in the region said Sharia law condemns relationships outside marriage. “The man and the woman, who were both married (to other people), were having an affair,” said Aliou Toure, the Islamist commissioner in Gao. “They were stoned to death, the punishment for infidelity, according to Sharia, Islamic law.” The stoning Sunday is the first reported Sharia killing since al Qaeda-linked Islamists took control of the north. Mali has been in a state of Chaos since a military ruler overthrew the democratically-elected president in March, shaking one of West Africa’s most stable democracies. The coup leader stepped down in May and transferred power to a civilian transitional government, but uncertainty looms. Ethnic Tuareg rebels and Islamist militants have taken advantage of the chaos to seize control of the northern portion of the country. Aguelhok was among the first to fall when Tuareg rebels aided by Islamist groups occupied the region this year. Months later, two groups with ties to al Qaeda hijacked the separatist uprising by the local Tuareg movement. The two groups now control two-thirds of northern Mali, an area the size of Texas that includes the towns of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu. Islamists have since imposed a harsh form of Sharia law that bans drinking, music and sports on television. Most residents in the area are Muslims, but have protested against the strict form of Sharia as Islamists remain determined to apply it. “We don’t have to answer to anyone over the application of Sharia. This is the form of Islam practiced for thousands of years,” Toure said. “The fact that we are building a new country on the base of Sharia is just something the people living here will have to accept.” In addition to the killing, Islamist militants have gone on a rampage for months, destroying sacred tombs in the region and vowing to target more. In July, they ordered residents to leave the area and razed two tombs in Timbuktu. Two months prior, elderly men kept watch over the main library after Islamists burned a different tomb in another attack in the same town. Islamist militants regard such shrines as idolatrous and thus prohibited in their religion. They especially target Sufi shrines, which they believe are sacrilegious. Sufism is a mystical dimension of Islam considered offbeat and frowned upon by Islamic hardliners. Culled from CNN

Syria conflicts: UN-Arab League envoy, Kofi Annan quits from duty

Annan

The UN's special envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, is leaving the post, the UN has announced. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Mr Annan had decided not to renew his mandate when it expires at the end of August. Mr Annan authored a six-point peace plan for Syria which was intended to bring an end to the fighting. But the plan was never fully adhered to by either side and the violence has continued. Meanwhile as the civil war in Syria continue without an end in sight,, rebel fighters near Syria's city of Aleppo have attacked a key army base, using a tank seized from the military. The rebels say they bombarded the base to the north of Aleppo, which had been used to launch artillery and air strikes on rebel positions in the city. In Damascus, government forces launched two operations to root out rebel activists on Wednesday, killing at least 70, the opposition has said. Troops reportedly went from house to house demanding to see people's papers. Activists say the soldiers summarily executed many of their victims. Syrian state TV said "dozens of terrorists" surrendered or were killed in the operation. Opposition commanders in Aleppo said they used a tank captured from the army to bombard the Menagh air base, which lies between Aleppo and the rebel-held town of Azaz near the Turkish border. Their claim was backed up by the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and an AFP news agency reporter. The commanders said government forces had been using the air base as a staging post for attacks on nearby areas. It is one of the first uses of heavy weaponry by the rebels in the city, who are heavily outgunned by the military. Bloody footage Culled from BBC

33 venomous vipers captured alive in Puducherry

At least 33 hatchlings of the highly venomous Indian Russell's viper, along with the mother snake, were captured alive on Wednesday by forest department staff from the residential premises of the Finance Secretary to Puducherry government and Chief Judge in Puducherry. A Forest Department official, Kannan, said they received a call from the house of the Finance Secretary Raajiv Yadhuvanshi seeking help when the small snakes were spotted. Personnel from the forest department caught as many as 33 hatchlings from the residential premises of the Finance Secretary and Chief Judge CS Murugan. The mother snake was found in a hole close to a pile of bricks, he said. The hatchlings would be released into their natural habitat a week later while the forest department would retain the mother snake, he said. This is the second time that forest staff are capturing hatchlings of the Russell's viper. Early last month, 25 such hatchlings and the mother snake were captured alive close to a house at Lawspet near here. With the hot spell continuing unabated, such movement of the Russell's vipers would be common, Kannan said. Culled from NDTV

Madonna at war with Catholic church of Poland over concert

Madonna

Catholic and veterans' groups in Poland have accused Madonna of offending their faith through her use of burning cross and crown of thorns imagery adding that she promotes pornography and sexual deviation. This outburst by the Religious group came on the eve of a proposed concert by Madonna probably because it falls on the anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. One Catholic group called Krucjata Mlodych, or Youth Crusade, has started an online campaign urging people not to attend the concert. They say more than 50,000 people have signed up to their Don't Go To See Madonna campaign. The group also says anti-Madonna Mass services and street prayer sessions have been held. Billboards around the capital promoting the concert have been defaced with the sign of the Polish Home Army, the largest underground army in Nazi-occupied Europe, reports the BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw. Every year, at 1700 on 1 August, sirens wail across Warsaw and people stand still to pay their respects to the victims of the 63-day uprising, our correspondent says. Conservative opposition MP Stanislaw Pieta has appealed to the government not to allow the concert to go ahead in Warsaw's National Stadium, Polish Radio reports. Concert organisers have agreed to a proposal by city officials to show a short film about the uprising in the stadium before the show, in an attempt to appease the protesters. Ania Pietrzak, a spokeswoman for concert organiser Live Nation, told the Press Association: "It is an important moment in Polish history, so we have decided to remind people of that moment." It is the latest controversy to hit the 53-year-old singer's MDNA tour. Recently in Paris, some fans booed her when she ended the show after only 45 minutes. She also angered supporters of France's right-wing National Front party, by showing a swastika imposed on the face of the party's leader, Marine Le Pen. Culled from BBC

Google hires Mark Zuckerberg's sister to work against Facebook

Arielle Zuckerberg

Google said Tuesday it was buying Wildfire, a startup specialising in advertising on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Miss Arielle, the younger sister of Mark Zuckerberg (the Facebook co-founder and CEO) works for Wildfire as a junior product manager. After the acquisition, Arielle would become a Google employee and will be expected to work towards undermining her brother's domination in the social networking arena. “Wildfire is a platform for brands to manage their pages, apps, tweets, videos, sponsorships, ads, promotions and more, all in one place”, Google's product management chief Jason Miller said on Wildfire via a blog post. Google's happiness, no doubt, would extend to the fact they've stolen one of Facebook's biggest marketing partners from under the rival's nose. Commenting on the acquisition, older sis Randi Zuckerberg said via Twitter, "Congrats Wildfire! There are officially now more Zuckerberg family members working for Google than Facebook!". That'll be one awkward family reunion alright! Culled from NDTV

Woman allegedly muders son & daughter before committing suicide

Mitch Murch, his late wife & kids

48 hours after a Massachusetts man, Daryl Benway, 41, shot his 7-year-old daughter to death and critically injured his 9-year-old son before killing himself, a nurse, Catherine Murch has reportedly mudered her son, Mitchel and her daughter, Mary in their two-story home in an affluent St. Louis suburb in the US. Catherine’s death and that of her two children, all shot as her husband allegedly sat reading in their two-story home are being treated as a murder-suicide though a probe continues.

site of the tragedy

Mitch Murch, of Glendale, Mo., called police Monday morning after gunshots rang out in his family's red-brick home shortly before 11 a.m. Monday, Fox affiliate KTVI-TV reported. When police arrived, they found Catherine Murch, 42, dead and the couple's son and daughter, ages 11 and nine, also shot. Murch was performing CPR on the boy, police said. He told police he "thought it was coming from outside, so he ran to his front door and saw his wife lying in the kitchen, his son was lying in a side room and his daughter was in the second story of the home," Glendale Police Sgt. Bob Catlett told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Police recovered a weapon from the home but did not find a suicide note, according to the station. Catlett said investigators believe the woman killed the children before turning the gun on herself, although Murch was taken into custody and questioned before being released. In a statement released later, Catlett said: "There is a current active investigation of the incident to try to determine what exactly happened and the sequence of events." Catherine Murch was pronounced dead at the scene. Her son, Mitchell Murch III, was pronounced dead at St. Louis Children's Hospital, and her daughter, Mary Claire, was pronounced dead at Mercy Hospital St. Louis in Creve Coeur. The Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis was activated, and the St. Louis County Police Department's crime scene investigators assisted at the scene. Catlett said he was unaware of any previous calls to police at the home, according to the paper. Catherine Murch was a registered nurse, according to the newspaper. The children attended Mary Queen of Peace School in Webster Groves, and the family was active in the parish, according to the Rev. Bob Reiker. Hours after the shootings, on Monday night, mourners filled Mary Queen of Peace Catholic Church in a service for the three. Bob Goessling, who attends Mary Queen of Peace, told the Post-Dispatch he attended several retreats with Mitch Murch, and his fifth-grade daughter was in the same class as Murch's son. "This is going to devastate this community," Goessling said. "The wife and husband were extremely outgoing and well-liked. They were very spiritual and into their church community." The shooting came two days after a Massachusetts man shot his 7-year-old daughter to death and critically injured his 9-year-old son before killing himself. That man, Daryl Benway, 41, of Oxford, had recently separated with his wife, lost his job and indanger of being foreclosed on, according to reports. The boy, Owen Benway, was still clinging to life in UMass Memorial Children's Medical Center. Culled from FOXNEWS

Couple to remarry almost 50 years after divorce

A couple, Lena Henderson and Roland Davis of West Seneca, New York, who divorced in 1964, are remarrying almost 50 years later. According to a story in the Buffalo News, the two married as teenagers in Chattanooga, Tenn., and had four children. But even after the pair divorced 20 years later, they stayed friendly and kept in touch. Davis remarried and moved to Colorado. Their youngest daughter, Renita Chadwick, noted to the Buffalo News, "The way they would act to each other never indicated there was anything but a friendship between them. My mother never had a harsh or contrary word to say about my dad, and my dad never had anything but loving remarks to make about my mother." When Davis' second wife died, Henderson and their oldest daughter worried about him being alone, and urged him to move back to New York. Davis decided he wanted to do more than move. He popped the question to his ex-wife over the phone. "'Will you marry me again?" He asked. She answered, "Well, well, yes." The 85-year-olds will tie the knot for a second time on August 4. Davis told the newspaper, "I always thought it might happen. It was always in the back of my mind. We're just thankful that we could get back together." Their second chance at romance is capturing the hearts of people around them. When the two showed up at City Hall to get their marriage license, they were met by cheering office workers. The wedding will be filled with four generations of their family. The bride will wear blue. The groom will wear a tuxedo. Davis told UPI, "You don't think people are going to get married at this age. We're just thankful we've lived this long and that we're still here. We have a lot to be thankful for." Called from YAHOO NEWS

Woman bags 23yrs in prison for using sex to lure men into killing her husband

From left to right, Mrs Charlotte Collinge,Steven Shreeves and Kelvin Dale ..........A 45 year old woman, Mrs Charlotte Collinge, who lured two men back to her house with promises of sex and convinced them to murder her husband has been jailed for life. Her husband, Clifford Collinge, 61, of Market Warsop, Nottinghamshire, died in October 2011 after suffering 46 injuries in a savage attack. . Mrs Collinge was jailed for 23 years at Nottingham Crown Court while her accomplices, Steven Shreeves, 40, and Kelvin Dale, 27, both of Market Warsop, were each jailed for 18 years. Sentencing the trio, Mr Justice Colman Treacy said: "The killing of Clifford Collinge in his own home was a truly shocking offence. The jury heard Charlotte Collinge had met Shreeves and Dale at a local bar and taken them back to her home on the promise of sex to kill her husband. A clamp was used to attack Mr Collinge, a former newsagent, who was found lying in a pool of blood at his home. Ahead of the killing, Shreeves and Dale snorted cocaine in the toilets of the bar and drank a number of pints of beer, the court was told. Giving evidence, Shreeves said he had never met Collinge before the night of the murder and she had started flirting with him as soon as he arrived at the pub. Among his many injuries, Mr Collinge suffered a head injury, fractured ribs and a collapsed lung. The court heard the couple, who had been together for 17 years, had had a rocky relationship peppered with break-ups and reconciliations. Culled from BBC

Facebook post leads to fresh trial for 1987 murder of marijuana dealer

Highers brothers

Two Detroit brothers, convicted of murder 25 years ago, have now been granted a new trial, but a judge declined today to release them from prison. In 1987, Robert Karey, an elderly marijuana dealer, was murdered at the back door of his Detroit home. Two brothers, Raymond and Thomas Highers, both now 46, were convicted of the killing in a three-week trial the following year. But last Thursday, Circuit Judge Lawrence Talon threw out the convictions and ordered a new trial after a 2009 Facebook post prompted new witnesses to come forward. Two of those witnesses said they saw Karey being shot by two black men at the back door of his house. The Highers brothers are white. At a hearing today packed with friends and relatives, Talon was expected to release the brothers on bond as they await their new trial. But he delayed a ruling on their release for two weeks while he seeks a recommendation from pretrial services based on their behavior while in prison. Meanwhile, prosecutors are appealing his decision to overturn the original conviction. "It's been terrible, absolutely horrible," Scott Highers, Raymond and Thomas's little brother told ABC's Detroit affiliate WXYZ. "We've lost both of our parents. They're deceased. Growing up without your older brothers -- you know, I'm the baby, they're someone to look up to -- I never had the chance to do that." During their 25 years in prison, the Highers brothers committed several offenses, including drug possession and starting fights. The key witness in their 1987 trial was Thomas Culberson, a security guard who went to Karey's home to buy marijuana on the night of the murder. Culberson said he saw two white men fleeing the scene in a car, and later identified Raymond Highers as the driver and Thomas Highers as a passenger. After a former Detroit resident, Kevin Zieleniewski, came across a Facebook post by Mary Evans about the men's life sentences in 2009, he reconnected with a former law school friend, John Hielscher, who told him decades ago that he had been at Karey's that night, and that Karey had been killed by black men, the Detroit Free Press reported. Hielscher agreed to testify at an evidentiary hearing in March along with his friend James Gianunzio, who was also at Karey's when the shooting happened. Hielscher and Gianunzio testified that they were at Karey's back door when they saw armed black men approach them and heard a gunshot before they fled, according to the Free Press. Their testimony raised doubts over whether the Highers brothers were the white men Culberson saw fleeing. On Thursday, Assistant Prosecutor Ana Quiroz argued in court that there was a conspiracy to free the Highers brothers, and that the new witnesses were not credible, according to the Free Press. Prosecutors argued in the original trial that the Highers brothers, who had bought marijuana from Karey before his murder, killed him in a dispute over money. Judge Talon set a new hearing date of Aug. 13, when he said he would issue his decision on the brothers' release, WXYZ reported. Culled from HUFF POSTS

Patience Jonathan elected First Lady of Africa

Jonathan

The wife of Nigeria's President, Dame Patience Jonathan was on Thursday in Abuja re-elected unopposed as president of the Africa First Ladies Peace Mission for another two years. The four regional vice-presidents were also elected. They are Cameroun, Libya, Sudan and South Africa. Nigeria’s first lady, Patience Jonathan, took over the leadership of the mission from Turai Yar’Adua following the death of her husband, President Umar Yar’Adua, in 2010. The Africa First Ladies Peace Summit, which started on Tuesday, ended on Friday. Among other things, the Mission is aimed at strengthening the roles of African first ladies in fostering peace on the continent. Culled from DAILY TIMES

72yr old teacher pleads guilty to sexual assault of under-aged students

Haunch

A jury has retired for a fourth day to consider its verdicts in the trial of a former school teacher who denies a string of sex attacks against school children dating back more than 30 years. Bernard Haunch, 72, is accused of sexually attacking a girl and a boy in the 1970s and 1980s while he was a teacher at a rural West Sussex school. Lewes Crown Court was told that although Haunch had always been sexually attracted to pre-pubescent boys he found the female body of any age repellent. Haunch, of Marlins Close, Sutton, south London, denies 16 offences, including rape and indecent assault, between June 1975 and September 1983. But he has pleaded guilty to indecent assault against a nine-year-old boy between July 1981 and July 1982, and indecency with a child between July 2 1981 and September 1 1983. Judge Michael Lawson QC told the jury he would accept majority verdicts on which at least 10 of them are agreed. Culled from HUFF POST

Colorado mass shooting suspect claims to have amnesia

Holmes

The suspect in the Colorado movie theater massacre is reportedly claiming to have amnesia. James Holmes, who is accused of killing 12 people and injuring 58 when he allegedly opened fire on a crowded Aurora movie theater at the midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises," is reportedly telling jail staff he doesn't know why he’s in prison. "He claims he doesn't know why he's in jail," an unnamed jailhouse worker told The New York Daily News. "He asked 'Why am I here?'" Holmes, 24, also reportedly was complaining about the food and of a stomachache, the worker told the newspaper. "The guy killed 12 people, and he's upset that he' not getting a four-star meal?" the unidentified Arapahoe County Detention Center worker told The Daily News, suggesting Holmes is "faking it." Holmes remains under 23-hour lockdown, leaving his cell only once a day. Neighbors and friends in San Diego, where Holmes grew up, have described him as brilliant and sometimes awkward but never displaying signs of violence. On Thursday a judge barred the University of Colorado Denver from releasing any records about the former graduate student’s time there. What happened to Holmes during his time in the school’s neuroscience program is one of the many mysteries lingering after last Friday’s mass shooting. Court papers say the former graduate student accused in the Colorado movie theater shooting was being treated by a psychiatrist at the university where he studied. The revelation was disclosed Friday in a defense motion. The motion sought to discover the source of leaks to some media outlets that a package that James Holmes sent the psychiatrist contained a notebook with descriptions of an attack. The motion says the package contained communications between Holmes and his psychiatrist that should be shielded from public view. Culled from FOXNEWS

Nevada 'Beauty queen’ Sues L A police for breaking into her room while she was naked

Manos

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies kicked in the wrong apartment door, pointed guns at a former Miss Nevada and her fiance, and watched as the beauty queen got out of bed naked, she claims. The allegations are spelled out in Caleche Ranae Manos' lawsuit against Los Angeles County and its sheriff's office, obtained today by Courthouse News Service. Manos charges that she was forced to get out of her bed while nude on the night of Nov. 15, 2011. One of the officers allegedly joked that she would, "have a story to tell others at Thanksgiving." But the officers had the wrong apartment. Manos -- Miss Nevada 2007 and a woman of many talents -- and her fiance, Eric Otto Ryder said that deputies had a search warrant for apartment "C" but entered their clearly marked apartment "A." "At that time Ms. Manos was still in bed and was naked," the complaint stated, according to Business Insider. "The sheriff deputies, all of which were male and armed with guns, ordered Ms. Manos to get out of bed and then watched as she attempted to do so." The officers reportedly spent a "significant amount of time" in the apartment before realizing their error. Manos seeks damages for negligence, false imprisonment, civil rights and Constitution violations, and she's accusing the deputies of sexual harassment. Her lawyer, Matthew Geragos, didn't immediately return calls to The Huffington Post. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misspelled Manos' name as Ramos a couple times throughout the story. Culled from HUFF POST

Thousands of fans boo Madonna at Paris concert

Madonna

Madonna fans vented their anger after the star ended a special intimate show in Paris after just 45 minutes. The singer said she had "a special affinity with France" as she opened the last minute concert, but drew boos from many disappointed fans. Some had camped outside the Olympia club since Wednesday in anticipation of the show. The 2,000 tickets sold out in minutes, with fans paying between £80-£200 and some changing hands for up to £1,000. Madonna was also criticised for talking about politics instead of singing, after revealing she had a message for France's extreme right-wing leader Marine Le Pen. France's National Front is threatening to sue the star for using an image of Ms Le Pen with a Swastika superimposed on her forehead at a concert earlier this month. "I know that I have made a certain Marine Le Pen very angry with me," Madonna told fans. "It's not my intention to make enemies. It's my intention to promote tolerance," she continued. Afterwards 33-year-old Guillaume Delaval complained: "She spoke for 15 minutes about tolerance, it's not the UN here." Some fans had camped outside the venue since Wednesday Speaking to the BBC's John Hand at the show, Paris resident Allain Zambrana, 26, from Nicaragua, said he wanted to ask for his money back. "I felt very frustrated because I camped out on the streets and then the show just ends like that." Several fans cried "refund!" as they realised Madonna had left the stage for good, with some audience members taking to Twitter to complain. "We are singing 'shame on you'," explained Pierre from Belgium. "Because she says she loves her fans but then she does this." Dutch fan Ellis Van Zoen, 22, agreed the show was "very short", but added: "I'm torn - I thought it was a fantastic show and it was special. I don't want to see fans yelling at her but I can understand why." Madonna also offered veiled criticism of the party's anti-immigrant stance, as she paid homage to a France which she said had once "opened its arms to minorities". "We are entering some very scary times in the world," she told the crowd. "People are afraid, and what happens when people are afraid? They say 'get out! You're the reason. You're the problem. You're to blame.'" The 53-year-old, who performed in an array of outfits including a black leather pencil skirt and French beret, also paid tribute to several French artists. The event was also streamed live on YouTube, where separate footage showed fans chanting and booing while throwing throwing empty bottles and cups onto the stage after the singer had left. Madonna is due to perform in France again on 21 August, in Nice. Culled From BBC

Google renders apology for 'breaching' UK data privacy agreement

Google has admitted that it had not deleted users' personal data gathered during surveys for its Street View service. The data should have been wiped almost 18 months ago as part of a deal signed by the firm in November 2010. Google has been told to give the data to the UK's Information Commissioner (ICO) for forensic analysis. The ICO said it was co-ordinating its response with other European privacy bodies. In May 2010 it was revealed that Google had scooped up about 600 gigabytes of personal data from unsecured wireless networks while gathering images and location data for Street View. The data was collected for years in 30 countries while Google compiled information for the mapping service. Google apologised for gathering the data and said it was a "mistake". The blunder led to legal action, fines and investigations around the world. In the UK, Google gave an undertaking to destroy the data it was holding and issued a statement saying it had done so in December 2010. However, said the ICO, Google had recently contacted it to report that some of the data it had gathered had not been deleted. The company approached the ICO with the revelation to find out how it should act. In response, the ICO told Google to hand over the data immediately "so that we can subject it to forensic analysis before deciding on the necessary course of action". Possessing data that should have been deleted "appears to breach" the undertaking Google signed in November 2010, said the ICO in a statement. "The ICO is clear that this information should never have been collected in the first place and the company's failure to secure its deletion as promised is cause for concern," it added. Ireland's data protection watchdog also expressed displeasure. Deputy information commissioner Gary Davis said the search giant's action was "clearly unacceptable" and demanded answers by Wednesday. Peter Fleischer, Global privacy counsel, said in a statement: "Google has recently confirmed that it still has in its possession a small portion of payload data collected by our Street View vehicles in the UK. Google apologises for this error." "The fact that this latest one is the result of incompetence rather than deliberate misconduct will be of little comfort to Google users. "The US Federal Trade Commission is going to come down hard on Google, and very few of their executives will deny that they deserve it." The ICO's probe into the collection of wi-fi data was re-opened earlier in July when the privacy watchdog became aware of reports that a Google engineer had deliberately written software to obtain a wide range of material. Culled from BBC

2 more patients 'cured of HIV' after bone marrow transplants

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The HIV virus of two more patients has been cured, thanks to a bone marrow transplant, the Boston Globe reported. Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the ‘Berlin patient,’ underwent a bone marrow transplant in 2007 to treat leukemia, using a donor with a rare gene mutation that provides natural resistance to HIV. Doctors declared him "cured" soon after. These two new patients were also seeking treatment for cancer, according to the newspaper. And although researchers in California recently found traces of HIV in his tissues. Brown said any remnants of the virus still in his body are dead and can't replicate. Scientists from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard were careful not to use the word ‘cured’ while presenting at the 2012 International AIDS Conference; but experts are hopeful this provides insight that will lead to a possible cure one day. “These researchers have done some elegant work, and found results that I think are going to be very provocative,” said Dr. Steven Deeks, an HIV researcher at the University of California, San Francisco. Approximately eight months after the transplants, doctors said the patients’ blood did not show any trace of HIV infection. “They went from this easily measured amount in their blood to no measurable amount in their cells,” said Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “We frankly didn’t expect that.” However, Dr. Jay Levy, an HIV researcher at UC San Francisco, said that for some other patients, there are antiretroviral therapies that work so well, the virus virtually disappears. Other experts wondered if the virus could be living in the patients’ lymph nodes or bowels, which is harder to detect. Also, these new patients do not have the protective gene mutation in their donor cells that Brown had received, so the transplants were given with antiretroviral therapy. Culled from FOXNEWS