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Daily Articles

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by Anonymous, Jan 8, 2013.

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  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    This thread is just news articles that are interesting or have something to do with a current event/topic/tragedy
     
  2. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1]Hackers Deface Steubenville High School Football Team Site in Support for Abused Girl:[/h]A group of Anonymous-affiliated hacktivists, KnightSec, have defaced RollRedRoll.com – the Steubenville High School website dedicated to the school’s football, basketball and baseball programs.
    The hack is a form of protest against the fact that authorities and parents are said to be protecting a group of boys from the school’s football team accused of abusing a 15-year-old girl from Ohio. On the defaced website, the hacktivists published a video statement claiming to possess the names, social security numbers, addresses and other personal details of all those involved in the incident.

    They already leaked some details, but they claim to poses much more information.
    “This is a warning shot to the school faculty, the parents of those involved, and those involved especially,” the hackers said.
    “A preliminary dox is being released on some of those involved, while a full size dox of everyone involved including names, social security numbers, addresses, relatives, and phone numbers is being compiled as you watch this video on every single member of the football team, those involved, the coaches, the principle, and more,” they added.

    They claim that they’ll publish all the information they have if the “accused parties” don’t apologize to the victim and her family by January 1, 2013.
    “Make no mistake, all you need is a Google search engine to realize we are serious in what we do. You can hide no longer, you have attracted the attention of the hive,” they threatened.

    The New York Times published a detailed article on the incident on December 16. Shortly after the hack, Steubenville High School representatives told the publication that the institution did not control the rollredroll.com website, highlighting the fact that it did not have any connection with it.
     
  3. Cunner

    Cunner MG Donor

  4. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1]Justin Bieber “Fans” Start “Cut For Bieber” Hoax to Protest Singer’s Alleged Drug Use[/h]
    On Monday, pranksters posing as Justin Bieber fans originated a sick online campaign that led #CutForBieber and #CuttingForBieber to trend on Twitter, circulating shocking images purporting to show fans with slashed wrists, blades and blood.

    The supposed “fans” posted the upsetting images along with messages pleading with Bieber to stop smoking marijuana, as he appeared to be doing in Photos released this past weekend.

    The barrage of gruesome (real and fabricated) pictures and tweets referencing self-harm as a method of “protesting” Bieber’s alleged drug use sparked sympathy, outrage and disgust.
    Observers rightly pointed out that fake photos diminish the real mental health and self-esteem issues related to cutting.
    Many Twitter users responded by posting “cutting for Bieber” pictures of themselves using scissors to cut paper.
    While the original #CutForBieber images seem to have been done as a sick joke by a prankster group, the “campaign” quickly took on a life of its own.
    Considering how serious the issue of self-harm is for millions of young people, this hoax is particularly disgusting.
    It’s just plain wrong to joke about wrist-cutting and self-abuse.
    Gossip Cop hopes Monday’s “cutting” trends don’t inspire any actual self-harm among young social media users increasingly comfortable in a digital culture that glorifies dark, disturbing voyeurism.
     
  5. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=5]Kayla Bourque VampireFreaks.com profile please check out...[/h]So if you don't know who this girl is by all means google her name and there will be no shortage of new's stories...she is a animal killer and someone who is extremely HIGH risk to hurt children and others more unlikely to be able to protect themselves. She was released from jail yesterday as she was deemed not right mentally but able to be held accountable for her actions. Basically she likes gore and death and fantanizes about killing people even had what police have called a "kill kit" when she was picked up, as well as she liked to document her killings, a video of her killing her family dog was found. At any rate the legal system is failing again, she is released into the care of a patrol officer. She is a result of a faulty goverment, and able to be released under faulty laws, that serve to protect the criminals and endanger the public. Not sure what kind of monitoring Anonymous can do, or even what kind of disecting of her profile at vampire freaks can hold but here is the info, its a very disturbing thing going on and well just read her first journal entry and ask if we have a recipe for disaster? http://vampirefreaks.com/Murderotica given the events of last month...do we really have any leeway to sit back when people that are capable of actually gutting animals start putting thoughts to spraying a park filled with kids with bullets?
     
  6. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1]Richard Wayne Landers Jr., Indiana Boy Abducted In 1994, Found In Minnesota[/h]
    INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana woman whose young son was abducted 19 years ago was screaming and "jumping up and down" after learning he was living in Minnesota under a different name, her husband said Thursday shortly after police announced they had found him.
    Richard Wayne Landers Jr. was just 5 years old when he and his paternal grandparents, who were upset over custody arrangements, disappeared from Wolcottville, a town about 30 miles north of Fort Wayne.
    Indiana State Police said the now 24-year-old Landers was found in Long Prairie, Minn., thanks in part to his Social Security number. His grandparents were living under aliases in a nearby town and confirmed his identity, investigators said.
    Police declined to say whether the grandparents would face charges, citing the ongoing investigation.
    Landers' mother, Lisa Harter, was "jumping up and down for joy" when investigators told her a few days ago that her son had been found, her husband Richard Harter told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
    He said his wife is "the happiest woman on earth."
    Harter said he and his wife were working with an attorney and hoped to reunite with his stepson soon. Police said Landers is married and expecting his first child.
    Harter declined further comment and referred questions about the case to his attorney, who didn't immediately return phone messages Thursday. Investigators declined to release the names under which Landers and his grandparents had been living.
    Police said the boy's paternal grandparents, Richard E. and Ruth A. Landers, abducted him in July 1994 because they were "upset over pending court proceedings" regarding his placement.
    Police spokesman Sgt. Ron Galaviz said it appears the boy's father was never in the picture. Lisa and Richard Harter had married a year earlier.
    Authorities believe the grandparents took the boy from their home in Wolcottville and fled. They were charged at the time with misdemeanor interference with custody, which was bumped up to a felony in 1999. But the charge was dismissed in 2008 after the case went cold.
    Investigators reopened the case in September when Richard Harter turned over the boy's Social Security card to an Indiana State Police detective.
    That turned up a man with the same Social Security number and date of birth living in Long Prairie, Minn., about 100 miles northwest of Minneapolis. A driver's license photo for the man appeared to resemble Landers, police said.
    Indiana State Police then contacted Minnesota law enforcement agencies, which began investigating along with the FBI and the Social Security Administration.
    The grandparents were found living in nearby Browerville, Minn.
    "By all accounts, it didn't appear he suffered from any abuse, either physical or mental," Galaviz said.
     
  7. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1]Riley Choate Sentenced: Indiana Father Gets 80 Years In Death Of Son He Kept In Cage[/h]
    A Hammond, Ind. man was sentenced Friday to 80 years in prison in the 2009 neglect and death of his 13-year-old son Christian Choate.
    Riley Choate, 40, previously pleaded guilty to felony charges of neglect of a dependent causing death, moving a body after death and depriving Christian's sister Christina of an education, according to the Northwest Indiana Times.

    Young Christian Choate's body was found buried under a thin layer of concrete in May 2011 near Riley Choate's home in a mobile home park in Gary, Ind. The boy is believed to have died in April of 2009, after being kept locked in a three-foot-high dog cage for most of at least the last year of his life. He was reportedly only let out of the cage to eat and use the bathroom and was often starved and beaten, according to the Associated Press.

    Choate and his former wife Kimberly Kubina originally pleaded not guilty to all charges associated with Christian's death, but Riley Choate made a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to some of the charges in exchange for a shorter sentence. According to the Chicago Tribune, he was otherwise headed for a 120-year sentence.

    "I can’t conceive of any set of facts charging neglect that could be any worse," prosecutor Michael Woods said of the case in court Friday morning, according to the Tribune.
    Last May, Kubina accepted a similar plea deal that reduced her sentence to 25-35 years in exchange for her cooperation in the trial against Riley Choate.
     
  8. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1]Largest Structure In Universe, Large Quasar Group, Challenges Cosmological Principle
    [/h]
    Astronomers have discovered the largest known structure in the universe, a clump of active galactic cores that stretches 4 billion light-years from end to end.
    The structure is a large quasar group (LQG), a collection of extremely luminous galactic nuclei powered by supermassive central black holes. This particular group is so large that it challenges modern cosmological theory, researchers said.

    "While it is difficult to fathom the scale of this LQG, we can say quite definitely it is the largest structure ever seen in the entire universe," lead author Roger Clowes, of the University of Central Lancashire in England, said in a statement. "This is hugely exciting, not least because it runs counter to our current understanding of the scale of the universe."


    Quasars are the brightest objects in the universe. For decades, astronomers have known that they tend to assemble in huge groups, some of which are more than 600 million light-years wide.

    But the record-breaking quasar group, which Clowes and his team spotted in data gathered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, is on another scale altogether. The newfound LQC is composed of 73 quasars and spans about 1.6 billion light-years in most directions, though it is 4 billion light-years across at its widest point.
    To put that mind-boggling size into perspective, the disk of the Milky Way galaxy — home of Earth's solar system — is about 100,000 light-years wide. And the Milky Way is separated from its nearest galactic neighbor, Andromeda, by about 2.5 million light-years.
    The newly discovered LQC is so enormous, in fact, that theory predicts it shouldn't exist, researchers said. The quasar group appears to violate a widely accepted assumption known as the cosmological principle, which holds that the universe is essentially homogeneous when viewed at a sufficiently large scale.
    Calculations suggest that structures larger than about 1.2 billion light-years should not exist, researchers said.
    "Our team has been looking at similar cases which add further weight to this challenge, and we will be continuing to investigate these fascinating phenomena," Clowes said.
    The new study was published today (Jan. 11) in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
     
  9. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1]Richard Wayne Landers, Missing Boy Found As Adult, Says Grandparents 'Were In The Right'
    [/h]
    BROWERVILLE, Minn. -- An Indiana mother whose former in-laws allegedly abducted her son nearly 20 years ago was not homeless at the time, the woman's lawyer said, refuting claims that the grandparents needed to step in because she was unable to care for the boy.
    Authorities searched for the then-5-year-old Richard Wayne Landers Jr. for years, but the case went cold. They eventually found him living with his paternal grandparents in the small central Minnesota town of Browerville. He had changed his name in 2006 to Michael Jeff Landers.
    Lisa Harter and the boy's father, Richard Wayne Landers Sr., did live in a car for three days at one point, but at the time of the boy's disappearance in 1994, Harter had moved into an apartment, attorney Richard Muntz told The Associated Press late Friday.
    Muntz said that when Harter and Landers Sr. divorced, Harter – who has mild developmental disabilities_ temporarily moved into a group home that wasn't equipped for children. The grandparents obtained custody and filed for guardianship, he said. After Harter moved into an apartment and gained custody of her son on weekends, she filed a petition to expand her custody rights when she remarried.
    "The judge gave her custody on a trial basis, and before she could get him, that's when they left," Muntz told the AP.
    Todd County Sheriff Peter Mikkelson has said the investigation was ongoing and the case will be forwarded to federal authorities for possible charges, perhaps related to non-custodial kidnapping.
    Michael Landers seems to have understood his circumstances and lived willingly with his grandparents.
    Neither he nor his wife immediately responded to telephone or Facebook messages. But postings from each of their Facebook accounts appeared Friday night and Saturday on the Facebook page of KARE-TV in Minneapolis, suggesting that the grandparents did what was necessary.
    A posting from Michael Landers said: "For you people who jump to conclusions you should find out the whole story I was where I needed to be. My `grandparents' were in the the right I dont care what anyone else thinks."
    One of several posts from his wife, Bobbie Landers, said, "His `grandparents' didn't follow the law, but they did what was right. .... He was 5. He remembers his birth parents and what they were like. ... He was where he WANTED and NEEDED to be to be safe and become the man he is today. My husband & my best friend."
    Neither person immediately responded to follow-up messages from AP seeking confirmation it was their statement. AP believes the Facebook accounts to be theirs based on multiple links between theirs and those of confirmed friends and relatives.
    Both of Landers' parents have said they're eager to see him again. Bobbie Landers wrote on Facebook that it wasn't clear what the next steps were.
    "Mike does understand that it must have been hard for his mom. He doesn't discount that at all. He doesn't know how he feels about her and his parents (grandparents) have never said or told him anything negative about her," she wrote. " ... We're trying to keep our privacy and figure things out on our own."
    Landers' grandparents took him during a custody dispute with Landers' mother in July 1994 from Wolcottville, Ind., about 50 miles southeast of South Bend. They withdrew $5,000 out of a home equity line, went out for breakfast and left town.
    Investigators searched in vain for Landers, but declared the case cold. It was reopened in September after a conversation between Richard W. Landers Sr. and an Indiana State Police detective prompted another search of the Social Security number for Richard W. Landers Jr.
    That turned up a Minnesota man with the same number and birthday as Landers.
    Minnesota officials say the grandparents – now living in Browerville under the assumed names Raymond Michael Iddings and Susan Kay Iddings – verified Landers' identity. They were known as Richard E. and Ruth A. Landers at the time of the abduction.
    A telephone message left for the Iddingses on Saturday was not immediately returned. A couple who answered the door at their home Friday declined to identify themselves and also refused an interview.
    Muntz said he's trying to establish a way for Harter and her son to get reacquainted.
    Richard W. Landers Sr. told the News-Sun in Kendalville, Ind., that he has forgiven his parents.
    "I'm just thankful my boy is still alive, and I'll still get a chance to see him," he said.
     
  10. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1] Gene Rosen, Sandy Hook Hero, Harassed By Conspiracy Theorists Who Claim He's An Actor
    [/h]
    A good Samaritan who harbored six terrified survivors of the Sandy Hook massacre has been singled out by conspiracy theorists accusing him of being a liar and an actor.
    On the morning of the shooting, Gene Rosen of Newtown, Conn., was feeding his cats when he discovered four terrified children hiding out in his driveway. They told him their teacher was dead, and he listened to their chilling account of the tragedy still going on at the nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School.
    In the aftermath, Rosen, 69, was interviewed by many of the media outlets that descended on the small community, and his anguished face flashed across television screens around the world.
    The sincerity of that anguish was questioned by a group of conspiracy theorists who call themselves "truthers," Salon reported earlier this month. These truthers have so far posted Rosen's personal information online, created fake social media accounts using his name and harassed him via email and phone.
    “I don’t know what to do,” Rosen, a retired psychologist, told Salon in a follow-up interview on Tuesday. “There must be some way to morally shame these people, because there were 20 dead children lying an eighth of a mile from my window all night long. And I sat there with my wife, because they couldn’t take the bodies out that night so the medical examiner could come. And I thought of an expression, that this ‘adds insult to injury,’ but that’s a stupid expression, because this is not an injury, this is an abomination.”
    Unfortunately for Rosen, it is an abomination that has gained ground in the weeks since the deadly school shooting. Websites, like SandyHookHoax.com, have sprung up questioning Rosen's motives for sharing his story.
    A YouTube video linked to on SandyHookHoax.com shows Rosen speaking into a camera about his ordeal. The video's title alleges that the crudely edited clips are an "audition" tape, and the description accuses Rosen's recollections of having "pedo under-tones." The video has been viewed more than 27,000 times.
    A similar clip, which reposts an official interview Rosen gave on CNN, claims that Rosen is a Screen Actors Guild thespian. "The only thing consistent about this clown's act, is all the fake crying," the video's About section reads. "The man has never shed an actual tear in a dozen interviews over the last several days."

    Yahoo News points to a forum post on a conspiracy theory blog calling Rosen a "bad crisis actor," claiming he changed his story during his various interviews and saying that his testimonies focus on the sound of gunshots for political effect:

    Gene's oft repeated, and changing, story about that day, focuses totally on the kids and the sound of gunshots. Even though his eyes and ears should've taken in the whole scene, his story focuses completely on the kids and the guns. Why? Well, if this was a false flag event designed to move political opinion on gun control, here in America, then you would get a lot more bang for your buck by talking about the innocent little children. That's what tugs on America's heart strings the most ... especially around Christmas time.
    “I wanted to speak about the bravery of the children, and it kind of helped me work through this,” Rosen told Salon of his decision to give interviews to the media. “I guess I kind of opened myself up to this.”
     
  11. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1] Heather Jensen Arrested In Florida For 2 Sons' Deaths In SUV
    [/h]
    A mother whose two young sons died in Colorado after she allegedly left them in her SUV with the engine running for 90 minutes has been arrested.
    Heather Jensen called 911 on Nov. 27 when she discovered that her sons Tyler, 4, and William, 2, were unconscious in the overheated Toyota 4Runner that idled near Powderhorn Mountain Resort.
    William was dead on the scene. His brother was airlifted to a children's hospital, succumbing a week later, CBS Denver reported.
    A Mesa County coroner ruled that the boys died accidentally from hyperthermia, station KJCT reported. But their 24-year-old mother was charged with two counts of child abuse resulting in death, two counts of criminally negligent homicide, and one count of false reporting to authorities, according to the sheriff's office.
    Jensen initially told deputies that she left her sons in the car for 10 minutes when a friend who drove by stopped to talk, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported. She later allegedly admitted that her children were unattended for 90 minutes after she climbed into the truck of a male friend.
    The arrest Wednesday happened in North Fort Myers, Fla., where Jensen was staying with family members.
    Her bond is set at $150,000.
    CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the cause of death. The boys died from hyperthermia.
     
  12. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1]Making Meaning: the Aftermath of the Costa Concordia Shipwreck
    [/h]
    One year ago last weekend, I was on my honeymoon, walking the streets of Rome arm-in-arm with my new bride. At the end of the afternoon, as the sun was setting behind the Colosseum, we walked back up the gangplank of our cruise ship -- the Costa Concordia -- and headed back out to sea.
    This was our fourth night aboard the gigantic oceanliner, and we had been expecting another night like the ones that had come before: after dinner, maybe we'd go dancing in the ballroom or see the magic show. Or maybe we'd just spend the evening relaxing with a book and listening to chamber music with a bottle of champagne.
    But, as I recount in my new memoir Abandoned Ship: An Intimate Account of the Costa Concordia Shipwreck ($14.99, self published), this night would change our lives forever.
    At about 9:45 that night, as we relaxed in our cabin, we heard a noise. A slow soft scratching sound came from somewhere behind us, like a pencil tip drifting across a page. We didn't know it at the time, but this was the sound of a giant rock tearing through the steel skin of the ship and leaving a hundred-foot-long gash in the hull.
    On a table in our cabin, an empty wine bottle started to move, creeping inch by inch toward the edge as though possessed by a tiny, timid ghost. When it reached the precipice, it hesitated for a moment of contemplation and then tipped over the edge, thumping down on the carpet and rolling under the bed. And then, as though electrified, the whole room came to life. Books and papers slid off the desk. A paper-mache marionette I had bought in Sicily as a gift for my kids jumped from its shelf with wild eyes and flailing arms.
    Something terrifying had begun. We didn't understand yet what was happening, but without a second thought, we grabbed a pair of life jackets from the closet and scrambled to the fourth deck to board the lifeboats.
    But we didn't escape on the lifeboats.
    After our lifeboat malfunctioned, and all the other lifeboats left us behind, we would spend the next five hours on a desperate odyssey searching for safety. We found ourselves in a nightmare labyrinth of overturned furniture, broken glass, crooked staircases, jammed doors, and inaccessible passageways. With water rushing in and time running out, we could feel the ship moving beneath us, being sucked into the sea at an accelerating pace, as though pulled toward its doom by some enormous undersea monster with ten thousand tentacles and a voracious appetite.
    We had been abandoned. Left behind to die.
    As the ship collapsed onto its side, the floors became walls and the walls became floors. In this surreal landscape -- under the cloak of night, with no idea how close we might be to land or whether anyone would come back to rescue us -- we struggled to survive. Amid the chaos and the screams, we scavenged a rope and rappelled down the outer hull of the ship toward the water-line. We would stay there for the next three hours, clinging to the rope and waving at passing helicopters until a lifeboat finally returned for us.
    But our harrowing experience didn't end there.
    When we finally reached dry land, with nothing but the clothes on our backs, we reached out to the American Embassy for help. More than 100 American citizens were on that boat, and none of us had eaten a meal for at least 16 hours. None of us had changed clothes since the evacuation, and a few people still had wet clothing and shoes from swimming to the shore. No one had undergone a physical or psychological exam. With no passports, no phones, no money, no local friends, no Italian language skills, and no idea how we'd get home, we asked for help from our country.
    Ultimately, that help never materialized.
    Not from the embassy anyhow.
    We relied on the kindness of strangers: an innkeeper in Giglio who gave away all his rooms and all his beds, and emptied his cabinets to care for us on the night of the shipwreck. A hotel manager in Rome who took us in and gave us free room and board for the next three days. Friends of friends who hugged us and comforted us, and then took us to a doctor and helped us file a police report.
    When we finally got home, we were already suffering from the first stages of post-traumatic stress disorder. We had nightmares every night, and we found it impossible to focus on our work during the day. Sometimes we cried for no reason, and sometimes we forgot to eat or sleep. But we found an excellent trauma therapist who helped guide us through the healing process and helped us make meaning from this tragedy.
    And that's really what I want to talk about today.
    A few months after the shipwreck, after we had been through six weeks of therapy, the psychologist asked us to consider the question: what does this tragedy mean to you?
    At first, we had no answer to this question.
    The shipwreck was an accident. It didn't mean anything.
    But then I started writing a book about our escape from the Costa Concordia, and my wife -- classical singer and composer Emily Lau -- started working on an album of new compositions inspired by the shipwreck events.
    And by engaging in that creative process, we embarked on a whole new journey.
    As I began putting words down on a page, I started to find patterns and themes and symbols all around us. As I began writing our story, I found a whole universe of latent meaning hidden in the events of this catastrophe. The process of storytelling had opened up a world of significance for me.
    Likewise, as Emily composed and recorded the music for her new album Isle of Lucidity, she finally faced her fears and found the stregth to forgive. The act of creative expression had given voice to the maelstrom of emotions we had experienced during the initial trauma, and by expressing those emotions in song, she could finally overcome them in her everyday life.
    We were shocked to discover that our physical journey had become a spiritual journey, and we eventually came to view the shipwreck as an opportunity to create something beautiful from the ashes of disaster.
    Through stories and songs, we hope to share our experiences with the world, and we believe this unique story can provide inspiration to people all over the world who suffer their own disasters and labor to regain a sense of purpose and hope.
    That's what the shipwreck means to us now.
     
  13. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1]'Manatee Nebula,' Officially Known As W50, Will Be Renamed After Endangered Sea Mammal
    [/h][​IMG]
    A watery-looking nebula in deep space is being renamed after the sea creature it strongly resembles: a manatee.
    The nebula is the leftovers from a star that died in a supernova explosion about 20,000 years ago. Before it died, the giant star puffed out its outer gaseous layers, which now swirl in green-and-blue clouds around the dead hulk of the star, which has collapsed into a black hole.
    Known officially as W50, the celestial object is being dubbed the Manatee Nebula by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), during a ceremony today (Jan. 19) at the Florida Manatee Festival in Crystal River, Fla. The NRAO will also unveil a new photo of the nebula taken by the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope network in New Mexico.
    "When the VLA's giant W50 image reached the NRAO director's office, Heidi Winter, the director's executive assistant, saw the likeness to a manatee, the endangered marine mammals known as 'sea cows' that congregate in warm waters in the southeastern United States," NRAO officials wrote in a statement."
    At Winter's suggestion, NRAO decided to collaborate with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to confer the new nickname on the nebula. [Gallery: Strange Nebula Shapes, What Do You See?]
    Manatees are huge mammals that average about 10 feet (3 meters) long and tend to weigh over 1,000 pounds (450 kilograms). These gentle giants propel themselves with flippers, and spend up to eight hours a day munching on sea plants.
    The new photo shows the manatee nebula seemingly mimicking a trademark pose of the animal, which is often seen floating on its back, with flippers crossed over belly.
    [​IMG]
     
  14. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1] Ahmed Dogan Assassination Attempt: Gunman Aims Gun At Bulgarian Politician's Head
    [/h][​IMG]

    A gunman reportedly attempted to assassinate the leader of Bulgaria's Turkish ethnic party during a televised conference on Saturday.
    The leader of Bulgaria’s Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) party, Ahmed Dogan, was assaulted by a gunman while on stage at the National Palace of Culture (NDK) in Sofia, according to the Sofia Globe. The assailant, 25-year-old Oktai Enimehmedov, climbed onstage and held a gun to Dogan's head, but the gun reportedly got stuck and was unable to shoot.

    The Times also reports that the gun appeared to misfire, giving Dogan enough time to bat away the gunman's arm before he was assisted by security guards.
    Dogan and the gunman wrestled on stage before security raced to apprehend the assailant, amid loud boos from the crowd, according to The Sun.
    Enimehmedov was also reportedly beaten by delegates and other officials in the crowd, according to Noinite, a Sofia news agency. "He was not in a good shape, there was blood on his face," said Prosecutor Nikolay Kokinov. "He told us his version about what motivated him, but I will not discuss it at this point."
    Along with the gas pistol, Enimehmedov was also armed with two knives. The Bourgas native has two prior convictions, including causing bodily harm in 2006 and drug possession in 2010, the Sofia Globe reports.
    As for the 58-year-old Turkish official, he is doing fine. "Ahmed Dogan is in good health. Everything is under control," MRF official Ceyhan Ibryamov told Reuters on Saturday.
    The liberal MRF party represents ethnic Turks and Muslims, who make up roughly 12 percent of Bulgaria's population, according to Reuters. Dogan is seen as one of the most influential political figures. The conference was scheduled to elect a new leader to succeed Dogan, according to the Associated Press, who is stepped down after nearly 25 years.
    Lyutvi Mestan, the man expected to replace Dogan, told the AP "the true reason for the assault was the language of hatred and confrontation."
     
  15. lukemurawski

    lukemurawski Senior Member

    Keep em coming! :D
     
  16. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1] Chad Moretz Standoff With Georgia SWAT Team Leads To Discovery Of Charlie Ray Murder
    [/h][​IMG]

    SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Police went to Chad Moretz's home to ask him about a friend who had gone missing and quickly found themselves in a tense standoff when a relative answered the door and whispered: "He's got a rifle. He's going to kill y'all."
    It was at least the fourth time in 18 months deputies had gone to see Moretz. Neighbors and relatives had accused him of chasing his wife with a machete, threatening to kill a man with a handgun and stabbing a dog with a pocket knife. But none of that prepared investigators for what they found Jan. 11 after Moretz walked onto his front porch with an assault rifle and was killed by a SWAT team sniper.
    Inside the home, amid filth and roaches and foul odors, police found the missing man's severed head and two hands hidden behind a kitchen cabinet inside a hole in the wall. The rest of the body, dismembered by a power saw and wrapped in bags, was discovered in a storage locker a half-hour away in neighboring South Carolina.
    "I don't believe there was a motive," said David Ehsanipoor, an investigator for the Effingham County Sheriff's Office. "It wasn't a drug deal gone bad or a love triangle. Chad was just crazy."
    Medical examiners confirmed the body belonged to Charlie Ray, 35. Ray had been a friend of Moretz, and his family had been searching for him since New Year's Eve.
    An autopsy showed Ray was stabbed more than 40 times and had been dead more than a week before his remains were found. Moretz's wife told investigators her husband and Ray had been drinking and talking, then started arguing. She said Moretz grabbed a knife and started repeatedly stabbing Ray in their kitchen, Ehsanipoor said. Investigators suspect Ray's body was dismembered to make it easier to hide.
    Ray's mother, Sandi Ray, said in a brief phone interview her son struggled with Tourette's syndrome.
    Megan Edgerly, a friend of Ray's since childhood, said the debilitating brain disorder left him unable to drive or to hold down a job. She said he handled his tics – flailing arms and vocal outbursts – with grace and humor and treasured friends who accepted him in spite of it.
    "Charlie never had a frown on his face," Edgerly said. "He was dealt a bad hand, but he always maintained a real positive attitude throughout all of it."
    Moretz lived about 20 miles from where Ray lived with his parents. Moretz had moved there from southwest Florida, where violence devastated his own family a year and a half ago.
    His father is scheduled to stand trial in April for the slaying of Moretz's mother in Naples, Fla. Police said Jeffrey Moretz, 55, followed his estranged wife, Christine Moretz, to a hospital and fatally shot her while she was visiting a friend on July 5, 2011. He then shot himself, but survived. Court records show Jeffrey Moretz filed for divorce in Collier County, Fla., two weeks before his wife's slaying.
    One of Chad Moretz's neighbors, Ross Maruca, said Moretz didn't work and let his grass grow knee-high before Maruca decided to cut it himself. He said Moretz once showed up at his door and asked his wife for food and money. She gave him $20, he said, and Moretz later paid it back.
    "You could look at him and tell something was wrong, just the look he had," Maruca said. "He looked like he was dazed all the time."
    Deputies jailed Moretz on July 23, 2011 – not quite three weeks after his mother was killed – when his brother-in-law told police he'd received a frantic phone call from his sister saying Moretz was chasing her with a machete. Moretz's wife denied the story. Deputies charged Chad Moretz with trespassing when they found him hiding by a shed in a neighbor's yard.
    Last May, neighbors called the sheriff's office when they said Moretz stabbed a dog that had gotten loose after he was bitten several times. In November, a friend told police Moretz asked for a ride, and when he refused, he pointed the gun at him and threatened to kill him and his family.
    Deputies arrested Moretz on charges of making terroristic threats on Dec. 22. Jail records show he was released on $3,500 bond the same day.
    Almost two weeks later, Maruca called police after seeing a TV news report that Charlie Ray was missing. Maruca knew Ray because he had lived at Moretz's house for two or three months the previous summer. The neighbor said he saw Ray at the house Jan. 2.
    Police initially talked to Moretz's wife, who said Ray wasn't there. Days later, they decided to return to the suburban neighborhood of modest brick homes talk to Moretz himself. His brother-in-law, Kevin Lambert, met detectives at the door and whispered a warning.
    "He said, `Chad's in here, he's got a rifle, he's going to kill y'all,'" Ehsanipoor said.
    Detectives dragged Lambert out of the house and retreated. Moretz, armed with an assault rifle, refused to come out or to let his wife leave. A hostage negotiator and a SWAT team were brought in.
    After more than four hours, Moretz's wife ran outside through the front door and collapsed in the yard. Then Moretz emerged with an AR-15 rifle. Ehsanipoor said he was raising the gun when a sniper shot him.
    Though investigators say they believe Moretz alone killed Ray, his wife and brother-in-law have been charged with helping conceal the death. Kimberly Moretz did not immediately return a message left at a phone number listed for her on a police report. Lambert did not have a listed phone number.
    Investigators said it was one of the siblings who told authorities during the standoff that Ray's remains were hidden in a storage locker in nearby Jasper, S.C.
    "Everybody's still in a state of shock," said Edgerly, Ray's longtime friend. "This isn't supposed to happen."
     
  17. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1]Gas plant worker and 2 Canadians helped terrorists in siege, Algerian PM says
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    An Al Qaeda-linked militant group who took control of a Algerian gas plant during a four-day-long siege that left 38 hostages dead, including three Americans, did it with help from the inside, Algeria's prime minister said Monday.
    Abdelmalek Sellal, speaking to reporters at a news conference in Algiers, said the kidnappers came from Egypt, Canada, Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Tunisia. He said the group, wearing Algerian army uniforms, included a former driver from Niger who worked at the facility and a team of explosives experts who had memorized the layout of the sprawling complex and were ready to blow the place sky-high. He added that two Canadians were among them.
    Algeria detailed a grim toll from the attack, saying that 38 hostages and 29 militants died. Three of the attackers were captured and five foreign workers remained unaccounted for, Sellal told reporters at a news conference in Algiers, the capital.
    He did not specify the nationalities of the captured militants, report their medical conditions or say where they were being held.
    There has been no mention whether Mokhtar Belmoktar, the leader of the Al Qaeda-linked group behind the attack -- the Masked Brigade -- was among the captured or killed.
    In a statement, the Masked Brigade warned of more such attacks against any country backing France's military intervention in neighboring Mali, where the French are trying to stop an advance by Islamic extremists.
    "We stress to our Muslim brothers the necessity to stay away from all the Western companies and complexes for their own safety, and especially the French ones," the statement said.
    Belmoktar, a one-eyed Algerian in his 40s known in Pentagon circles as "MBM," just split off from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, to start the Masked Brigade.
    Over the past decade, AQIM has kidnapped dozens of foreigners, including diplomats, aid workers, field doctors and tourists.
    Belmoktar prefers to trade his hostages for money, experts have said, and global intelligence unit Stratfor says he can get an estimated $3 million per European captive.
    Seven Americans made it out of the gas plant safely during the siege, but the State Department on Monday confirmed three deaths: Victor Lynn Lovelady, Gordon Lee Rowan, and Frederick Buttaccio.
    "As [President Obama] said, the blame for this tragedy rests with the terrorists who carried it out, and the United States condemns their actions in the strongest possible term," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.
    Monday's account from Sellal offered the first Algerian government narrative of the standoff, from the attempted bus hijacking early Wednesday to the moment when the attackers prepared to explode bombs across the gas plant, which spreads out over 2 square miles deep in the desert, 800 miles south of Algiers.
    All but one of the dead hostages -- an Algerian driver -- were foreigners. The dead hostages included seven Japanese workers, six Filipinos, three energy workers each from Britain, two from Romania and one worker from France.
    The final death toll was still unclear, since accounts from other governments appeared to indicate that more than five workers were still missing. It was also lower than the 81 estimated Sunday from Algerian reports of dead and missing.
    The militants had said during the standoff that their group included Canadians, and hostages who had escaped recalled hearing at least one of the militants speaking English with a North American accent.
    Officials in Canada could not immediately confirm whether two of the attackers were citizens.
    "Canada condemns in the strongest possible terms this deplorable and cowardly act and all terrorist groups which seek to create and perpetuate insecurity," said Chrystiane Roy, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs.
    "We are pursuing all appropriate channels to seek further information and are in close contact with Algerian authorities," she said in a statement.
    The Algerian prime minister indicated that this operation was not -- as the Islamists had claimed -- an immediate reaction to France's recent military intervention against Islamists in neighboring Mali, since the captured militants said it took two months of planning. But he said the group did come from northern Mali, hundreds of miles away from the gas plant.
    Hostages who escaped said the militants didn't just shoot their way into the facility.
    "Four attackers stepped out of a car that had flashing lights on top of it," one of the former hostages, Liviu Floria, a 45-year-old mechanic from Romania, told The Associated Press.
    The prime minister said "the last words of the terrorist chief" was to slaughter the hostages.
    "He gave the order for all the foreigners to be killed, so there was a mass execution, many hostages were killed by a bullet to the head," he said.
    Algeria has not reported any military deaths from four days of confronting the fighters.
    The attack began early Wednesday with the attempted hijacking of two buses filled with workers outside the complex. Under assault from Algerian forces, the militants moved on the main complex, armed with missiles, mortars and bombs for their three explosives experts, Sellal said.
    He praised the quick wits of a guard who set of an alarm that stopped the flow of gas and warned workers of an imminent attack.
    "It was thanks to him that the factory was protected," he said.
    Floria, a former hostage, remembered the moment when the power was cut.
    "I ran together with other expats and hid under the desks in my office, locking the door. Attackers went scanning the office facility, kicking the doors in. Luckily our door did not break and they went on to other offices," he said. "Locals were freed, the attackers made clear from the beginning that only foreigners were a target."
    Floria ultimately escaped, but not before he heard the two gunshots that killed two wounded foreign hostages that he said he had tried to save.
    Sellal said the facility had 790 Algerian workers and 134 foreigners from 26 countries. The Algerians were freed early in the standoff -- former hostages said the attackers immediately separated out the foreigners, forcing some to wear explosive belts.
    Sellal justified the Algerian military helicopter attack Thursday on vehicles filled with hostages and Islamists out of the fear that the kidnappers were attempting to escape.
    The Algerian special forces assault on the refinery on Saturday that killed the last group of militants and hostages came after the kidnappers attempted to destroy the complex.
    Sellal said the militants had expected to return to Mali with the foreign hostages. Seven French citizens taken hostage in recent years are thought to be held by Al Qaeda linked groups in northern Mali.
    The operation was led by an Algerian, Amine Benchenab, who was known to security services and was killed during the assault, he added. Sellal said negotiating was not impossible.
    "They led us into a real labyrinth, in negotiations that became unreasonable," he said.
    Norway said five of its citizens from the plant were still unaccounted for, while Japan said three Japanese were still missing. Britain said three citizens and one resident were feared dead but not accounted for. Four Filipinos and two Malaysian plant workers were also missing, according to their governments.

     
  18. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1] Google Earth Is Key To Revealing North Korea's Prison Camp System, Activists Say
    [/h]
    Earlier this month Google executive Eric Schmidt embarked on a journey to North Korea, one of the world's most secretive and Internet-restrictive countries.
    While the U.S. State Department publicly criticized Schmidt's timing and intentions, human rights activists have seen the visit as a reminder of something significant. As Irish outlet RTE News reports, many believe that Google Earth is invaluable in revealing evidence of North Korea's system of prison and labor camps, which are said to number in the dozens.
    Human rights groups estimate that upwards of 250,000 political prisoners suffer through starvation and intense manual labor in these camps, with blogs like One Free Korea compiling everything we know about these locations. Managed by Washington lawyer and North Korea activist Joshua Stanton, the blog details six prison camps -- three of which Stanton uncovered. One of these camps is Camp 22, which can be seen on Google Maps below.
    [​IMG]
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    Bird's eye Google Earth view of Camp 22 The satellite images provide an idea of what the camps look like from above, though the atrocities allegedly committed there are hard for the imagination to comprehend. The blog notes that upwards of 50,000 men, women and children are housed in Camp 22, a place where prisoners are forced to stone each other to death, women are frequently raped by prison guards and between 1,500 and 2,000 people -- many of them children -- die from malnutrition or starvation every year.
    Many families are forced into these camps because they are "guilty by association", with some seeing three generations of their lineage live and die within the walls, most of them punished for a crime committed long ago.
    Stanton has even found camps by accident, as he did in 2007 when he discovered Camp 16 while using Google Earth to snoop around North Korea. Stanton says that upwards of 10,000 men, women and children are imprisoned in Camp 16, which is a massive complex that measures 18 miles by 16 miles.
    [​IMG]

    An image of Camp 16 from above A U.S. non-governmental organization named the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea unveiled some of these camps in a 2003 book titled "The Hidden Gulag." An updated version of "The Hidden Gulag" was released in 2012, with one section acknowledging the importance of Google Earth in bringing more of the network of North Korean labor camps to light. "The dramatically improved, higher resolution satellite imagery now available through Google Earth allows the former prisoners to identify their former barracks and houses, their former execution grounds, and other landmarks in the camps," the study notes.
    Google Earth has also allowed activists and users to see the more "ordinary" side of life in the country. At the blog NK Econ Watch, economist Curtis Melvin details not only the prison camps in North Korea, but facilities of every day life such as schools, factories or train stations as seen on Google Earth. On Sunday, Melvin wrote about a mosque within the countries capital city of Pyongyang.
    [​IMG]

    A mosque in the North Korean capital Writing about Google Earth after Schmidt's trip, Timothy Stanley, a U.S. historian and blogger at Telegraph, argues that "the project demonstrates how hard it’s becoming for governments to keep secrets from the rest of the world ... the more that North Korea accepts the need to open up then the more the light shines on this abominable regime."
     
  19. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1] Russell Matthews, Missing Hawaii Coast Guardsman, Reappears 3 Months After Vanishing
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    HONOLULU — A Coast Guardsman has reappeared after vanishing and being declared a missing person more than three months ago, Honolulu police and the Coast Guard said Tuesday.
    Petty Officer First Class Russell Matthews returned home Sunday night, police said. Police say he was incoherent and taken to a hospital for observation.
    Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Gene Maestas said the service doesn't know where Matthews, a Hawaii-based rescue swimmer, has been and what he's been doing since his wife reported him missing on Oct. 9.
    Coast Guard investigators dispatched to see him confirmed his identity after he called his command from Castle Medical Center in the Honolulu suburb of Kailua, Maestas said. He's now being evaluated at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu.
    Coast Guard investigators looking into his disappearance won't question him until he's released by doctors, Maestas said. But the service will probe the incident.
    "We'll try to find out why he disappeared and all the details surrounding his case," he said.
    Police found the 36-year-old guardsman's car abandoned at Kaena Point, a remote area of Oahu, when Matthews was reported missing in October.
    Crews from the Coast Guard, Navy, state, county lifeguards and Honolulu fire and police departments together searched more than 10,000 nautical square miles – on land and at sea – for Matthews. The search was called off on Dec. 13.
    Honolulu Police Sgt. Kim Buffett of Crimestoppers said Matthews isn't giving the police a statement because he's in the hospital. Detectives have no reason to pursue the case as it's not against the law to be missing, she said.
    The police case is closed now that Matthews has been found, she said.
    It's unusual for a Guardsman to go missing for months and then reappear, Maestas said.
    "This is not the norm for the Coast Guard. In my 28 year career in the Coast Guard, I have never come across a case like this," he said.
    Matthews, an aviation survival technician, has been in the Coast Guard for 15 years. He's been assigned to Hawaii since 2007.
     
  20. Anonymous

    Anonymous Senior Member

    [h=1]Beyonce Lip Sync Confirmed, Inaugural Official: 'She Did Not Sing Live'
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    John Moore, Getty Images Beyonce did lip sync the National Anthem, according to an Inauguration official who spoke to CNN.

    "She did not sing live," said the official, who refused to reveal their identity. A prerecorded version of the "Star Spangled Banner" was played instead, and that's what people heard.

    According to the official, the decision was made by Beyonce herself, and might have been informed by her late arrival on Sunday, which didn't allot her enough time to rehearse with the U.S. Marine Band.

    "Because she didn't have time to rehearse with the Marine Band, she decided to use her recording with the Marine Band," said the official. "It was all Beyonce."

    As for the rendition that people did hear, it was a combination of her prerecorded vocals with the U.S. Marine Band filling in live.

    "She's actually a very good live singer," the official added, and said they were "puzzled" as to why she decided to lip sync when it was clear from the prerecorded version that she could effortlessly nail the performance.

    Bey's been mum on the subject thus far and despite the public outcry has refused to release a statement. That may come any minute now, though. Stay tuned.
    [video=youtube;Z-DSFrGnQrk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Z-DSFrGnQrk[/video]