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BEIJING: A farmer allegedly killed a family planning official in China's Jilin province and injured her two minor children, after she forced his wife to undergo an abortion, reports said on Tuesday. The farmer, identified as Zhang Xuezhong, killed Jiang Xiaoling on May 1 because he was angry she forced his wife to abort their baby, China officials said. Jiang's husband, Zhao Guogui, also a farmer in Xinhua village, said on Monday the alleged killer rushed to his home with a stick and beat his wife to death. He also beat his son, 15, and daughter, 11, both of whom...

A teenager charged with crashing a van into a house, killing a woman gardening, told police she didn't feel so bad after learning the victim's age. According to court documents obtained by CBS Radio's 1010WINS, Kayla Gerdes was quoted in a written statement to police saying: "The thing that made me not feel so bad was she was old," she said. "I mean, 70 years is a long time to live." Then, on a completely separate note, she told police: "I want to see a newspaper or the news to see what I look like." Gerdes is facing vehicular manslaughter...

Ambulances race to Byrd's home By: Manu Raju September 22, 2009 10:16 AM EST Ambulances and fire trucks were dispatched to the Northern Virginia home of Sen. Robert Byrd Tuesday morning. A neighbor of the 91-year-old West Virginia Democrat said several ambulances were outside his residence in McLean, Va., and a Byrd spokesman said the senator suffered a fall in his home. An officer at the McLean Fire Department said that a unit was dispatched at 9:10 to the address where Byrd lives, but he declined to comment on the substance of the response. Byrd – the longest-serving senator in...

ISLAMABAD (AFP) – Pakistan on Tuesday condemned the Taliban's killing of a Polish engineer as "absolutely barbaric", after Warsaw blamed his death on Islamabad's "apathy" towards tackling extremism. Piotr Stanczak, who was abducted in late September in volatile northwest Pakistan, was beheaded at the weekend by his Taliban captors, who then released a graphic video of the execution to several media outlets. Warsaw has confirmed the authenticity of the video and vowed to find Stanczak's killers, who are believed to come from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Pakistan's umbrella Taliban organisation which has links to Al-Qaeda. "Officially the ministry of interior has...

At least 300 girls in south-western Kenya have fled from home and sought refuge in churches in a bid to escape forced female genital mutilation (FGM). The girls, some as young as nine, are at two rescue centres in rural Nyanza province, police told the BBC. Female circumcision is banned in Kenya, but remains common in some areas where it is considered to be part of a girl's initiation into womanhood. The traditional ceremonies take place between November and December. Security The girls in Kuria District are now in the care of the two churches and Maendeleo Ya Wanawake, a...

"Paulo Melo, 29, has been in a coma at the Royal Darwin Hospital for two weeks, after severing his spinal cord in a car crash." - read more below: doctor requested, family objected, court granted

Jurors unanimously agreed today that Lisa Montgomery be put to death for killing Bobbie Jo Stinnett and stealing her unborn daughter nearly three years ago. The federal jury deliberated about five hours. If jurors had not reached a unanimous decision in favor of the death penalty, Montgomery would have received life in prison without the possibility of parole. Before the decision was announced, the judge ordered spectators to control their emotions or leave the courtroom.

By Nick Britten Last Updated: 3:54am BST 21/09/2007 Seven men are facing jail after being convicted of one of the bloodiest and most barbaric dog fights ever discovered. Police raided a kitchen showroom to find two pit bull terriers on the verge of death after spending around two hours relentlessly ripping into each other. The RSPCA said there was a worrying increase in dog fighting amongst gangs of young men. Twenty six men were convicted over the fight in Alum Rock, Birmingham, last February, which pitted the dogs, Elvis and Bullet, against each other. Birmingham Magistrates' Court was told the...

Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia isn’t known for mincing words on the Senate floor. Still, even by his standards, his recent comments about a crime in the news were especially impassioned. He repeatedly called the alleged crime “barbaric” and even volunteered to attend the execution of the accused. He told his colleagues that he is “confident that the hottest places in hell are reserved for the souls of sick and brutal people who hold God’s creatures in such brutal and cruel contempt . . .” What prompted the senator’s ire? Genocide? Ethnic cleansing? No, cruelty to animals, specifically the...

New Arrest in Death of Pregnant Woman Published: 6/24/07, 7:25 PM EDT By JOE MILICIA CANTON, Ohio (AP) - A former classmate of the man suspected of murdering a pregnant woman was arrested Sunday on an obstruction of justice charge, the FBI said. Myisha Ferrell was arrested in the death of 26-year-old Jessie Davis after sheriff's deputies and FBI agents broke down the door of her apartment Saturday night, agent Scott Wilson said. The Stark County Sheriff's Department refused to discuss the arrest, saying any information made public would hurt their case. Ferrell was to be arraigned Monday, Wilson said....

PHOENIX -- Four people have been arrested in connection with kidnapping, assaulting and using a branding iron to burn the word "snitch" on a Mesa woman's face, police said. Investigators said they believe the crime was done in retaliation for reporting one of the men and woman to Child Protective Services in February 2006, which ultimately led to CPS taking away their children. "If CPS removes a child from the house, there must be some very serious allegations," said Sgt. Chuck Trapani of the Mesa Police Department. "So the children removed, they're in CPS custody, and now they're blaming this...

<p>NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas — An 8-year-old boy dropped or threw his infant twin sisters down the stairs, killing one and injuring the other, authorities said. He is too young to be detained or charged, they said.</p> <p>The boy has a "diminished mental capacity," police said. A child must be at least 10 to be in the juvenile court system, Larry Irving, an investigator with the North Richland Hills Police Department, said Wednesday.</p>

WASHINGTON, March 8, 2007 – Sensational attacks like the March 6 suicide bombing that killed more than 100 religious pilgrims in Karbala, Iraq, illustrate insurgents’ lack of respect for human life, the top U.S. military officer in Iraq told reporters today. Those “Shiite pilgrims were killed in a barbaric manner by thugs with no soul,” Army Gen. David H. Petraeus said today in Baghdad during his first news conference as the chief of Multinational Force Iraq. Petraeus took command of MNFI on Feb. 10. However, new security initiatives instituted as part of Operation Law and Order should assist in...

Mutilating for God -- Some children are forced into bloody rite NABATIYEH, Lebanon The 6-year-old boy screamed and shook his head to avoid the razor blade. But his father held him firmly as Hajj Khodor parted the boy's black hair and sliced his forehead three times with the blade. Ali Madani's cries became more violent as blood gushed from the wound, covering his small, terrified face. His father and a few other men, waving daggers, broke into a religious chant, recalling how the 7th-century Shiite Muslim saint, Imam Hussein, was decapitated, his head placed on a lance. In marking the...

Guatemala City, Aug 22 (EFE).- Fourteen Guatemalan Indians were publicly flogged, forced to kneel on bottle caps and shorn of their hair after being convicted by a traditional assembly of various offenses, local media reported Tuesday. The so-called "Maya punishment," provided for in traditional codes acknowledged by the modern nation-state, was applied Monday in the northwestern town of Nahuala, community leader Pascual Ixmata told the press. The 14 accused - four of them women - were whipped and forced to kneel on bottle caps, and their hair was cut off. The male miscreants, who were charged with sniffing glue, also...

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas -- Grand Prairie police are on the hunt for a restaurant robber with a brutal punch. The attack happened Monday night at the McDonald's in the 800 block of E. Main Street. Wayne Moore, 66, stopped at McDonalds on his way home from a ball game. Surveillance video shows another man at the register knocking Moore out cold. The robber then rifles through Moore's pockets and runs out with his wallet. Moore said the incident took him by complete surprise. "The next thing I know, it's paramedics and police. I never saw him coming. Cheap shot all...

She sneaked into Manhattan for a night of partying with her girlfriend. But it ended in tragedy when Jennifer Moore was snatched from the street, driven to a cheap New Jersey hotel, beaten, strangled and then dumped in a trash bin. The 18-year-old's body was discovered about 4:30 a.m. yesterday, two days after she got lost walking along 12th Ave. on the West Side, wearing a black halter top and white miniskirt. Chunks of her long, brown hair had been ripped out of her head and her body horribly bruised. As ex-con Draymond Coleman, 34, and his prostitute girlfriend were...

The head of Canada's Ontario province has rejected attempts to allow Muslims to use Sharia law in family disputes. A report by Ontario's former attorney general Marion Boyd had recommended the use of Islamic law to settle issues such as divorce and child custody. But Premier Dalton McGuinty ruled against the move, saying there should be "one law for all Ontarians". Protests were held against the Sharia law proposal in major Canadian cities, as well as in Paris, London and Vienna. Critics said allowing Islamic tribunals could lead to discrimination against women. 'Common ground' If the recommendation had been accepted,...

August 6th marked the 60th anniversary of America’s use of an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. While some still argue that President Truman’s decision to use the A-bomb was “controversial,” they are afflicted with the scourge of our time, the loss of a sense of moral proportion and certainty. Unfortunately, those with relativistic morals will lead us to see the day when nuclear weapons are used again – this time to end once and for all the barbaric savagery of Islamism. Green Left Weekly (GLW) calls the U.S. putting a swift end to WWII – using atomic...

I never believed that I would live in a country that would, in effect, execute a brain-damaged woman who never hurt anyone in her life. The story of Terri Schiavo should outrage every decent American. While our soldiers valiantly fight and die across the sea so complete strangers can enjoy human rights, here at home an American woman who suffered severe brain damage 15 years ago is being subjected to death by dehydration and starvation by order of a judge. Today, her feeding tube was removed. The humanity of every society is determined first and foremost by how it treats...