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NEW YORK -- The historic cobblestone streets and 19th-century mercantile buildings near the water's edge in lower Manhattan are eerily deserted, a neighborhood silenced by Superstorm Sandy. Just blocks from the tall-masted ships that rise above South Street Seaport, the windows of narrow brick apartment buildings are still crisscrossed with masking tape left by their owners before the storm. Store interiors are stripped down to plywood and wiring. Restaurants are chained shut, frozen in time, saddled with electrical systems that were ruined by several feet of salt water that raced up from the East River and through their front doors....

LILLE, France (Reuters) - Police in France said on Friday they were trying to identify the skeleton of a man believed to have lain undiscovered in bed for more than 15 years. The body, found in an abandoned house in the northern city of Lille, is thought to be that of the elderly owner of the property, who lived alone and appeared to have no relatives. Police said they had found piles of unopened mail at the house dating back to 1996.

TAMPA -- A 28-year-old mother has been charged with leaving two children in a pickup while she visited the Mons Venus strip club.

A young patient who died of dehydration at a leading teaching hospital phoned police from his bed because he was so thirsty, an inquest heard yesterday. Officers arrived at Kane Gorny's bedside, but were told by nurses that he was in a confused state and were sent away. The keen footballer and runner, 22, died of dehydration a few hours later. A coroner had such grave concerns about the case that she referred it to police. Yesterday an inquest was told how Mr Gorny died after blunders and neglect by 'lazy and careless' medical staff at St George's Hospital in...

A Shasta County woman accused of neglecting her newborn daughter until she died is headed for a murder trial.

After a nearly three-year investigation, DCF officials release comprehensive review of Caylee's death. *snip* But all of the Anthonys, and her defense attorney Jose Baez, gave DCF the cold shoulder for nearly eight months when investigators wanted to question them after Caylee's remains were found in a swampy area near the child's eastOrange County home, the 12-page report shows. And while the report doesn't carry much — if any — legal weight, it is the first document that places responsibility for Caylee's death squarely on her mother, Casey Anthony. Report pdf"It is the conclusion of the Department of Children and...

FRANKFORT, Maine — The mother of a 7-month-old girl mauled to death by the family dog in April was arrested Wednesday night and charged in connection with the death. Maine State Police Detective Adam Kelley arrested 29-year-old Katrina Mitchell at her home on Town Hill Road and charged her with endangering the welfare of a child. Mitchell was taken to Waldo County Jail and was being held in lieu of $1,060 bail. The charge was filed after police consulted with the District Attorney’s Office. Annabelle Mitchell was mauled to death on April 12 in the living room of her house...

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. – A 10-year-old central Pennsylvania girl who allegedly caused a baby's death by violently shaking him and throwing him into a crib was charged with third-degree murder. The charges filed against the fifth-grader on Friday in Franklin County came after a coroner's inquest into the death of 11-month-old Heath Ryder. The girl was released into the custody of her parents and ordered not to have unsupervised contact with children under 5. "This is not a kid that has a mental health disorder. She does not have a personality disorder," the girl's attorney, Jason Kutulakis, told The Public Opinion...

-SNIP- Rahna Reiko Rizzuto says that she never wanted to be a mother. "I had this idea that motherhood was this really all-encompassing thing," -SNIP- ...when her children came to visit, she had an epiphany: She didn't want to be a full-time mother anymore. When she returned to New York, she ended her 20-year marriage and chose not to be her kids' custodial parent.

Warning: Graphic Content Len Crenshaw, the man accused of cruelty to a family pet, says he never intended to hurt the animal. CONWAY, SC (WMBF) - Len Crenshaw, the man accused of cruelty to a family pet, says he never intended to hurt the animal. Crenshaw was arrested this week and charged with general ill treatment of animals/torture. The Horry County Police Department says officers found Crenshaw's dog "Buddy" in the back yard with multiple collars that were too small and embedded in the skin around the dog's neck. Crenshaw said in an interview Friday he was upset about Buddy's...

Since 1881, the obelisk known as Cleopatra's Needle has stood in New York's Central Park, but a letter from the secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities indicates that this may change if the monument is not taken better care of. Recently, Zahi Hawass, the aforementioned secretary general and archaeologist, wrote to the Central Park Conservancy and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to inform them that if steps are not taken to protect the obelisk, it would be removed. "I am glad that this monument has become such an integral part of New York City, but I am...

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - An Indianapolis woman whose two children were found dead on Sunday is finally speaking out. Ebyan Farah, 28, spoke through her lawyers Wednesday night asking for privacy. “Ebyan Farah will have no public comment in this matter, except to say she is devastated by her children’s tragic deaths,” Farah’s attorneys said in a statement...

A Warner Robins couple faces murder and cruelty to children charges after medical crews found their 2-year-old son starved to death inside their home. 23-year-old Sade Shamon King and 25-year-old William Thomas Davis III are in the Houston County Jail without bond. Investigators and neighbors say there are many unanswered questions about why D'Shawn Davis was isolated and neglected for nearly a year inside his Tiffany Place home. JoAnn Smith, a neighbor, says she was shocked when the couple who lived next door were arrested Tuesday and accused of starving their son. "Believe it or not. There's food in the...

CHARLESTON — A Charleston man is charged with unlawful neglect after deputies say one of his twin daughters walked out of their home and fell into a pond while he slept. Authorities responded to 2903 Doncaster Drive at 6:13 p.m. Thursday and found one of the 1-year-old girls neck deep in a pond behind the house. A dog was in the water with her, preventing the girl from going under, a Charleston County Sheriff’s Office incident report said. Deputies charged Adam S. Gray, 33, with unlawful neglect by a custodian after firefighters pulled the girl from the pond and took...

An autopsy will be conducted Monday afternoon for a 3-year-old girl who was found dead in a minivan at a Canton church. The girl and her three older sisters were at Souls Harbor Word of Faith Church on Sunday while their father, Michael Ingram, rehearsed with the church band. At 5:20 p.m., when it was time to go, no one could find the 3-year-old. One of her sisters found her on the floor in the back of the family's Kia Sedona, not breathing. The 3-year-old's skin "was hot and wet," the sister told police. Three adults performed CPR, but the...

by Jennifer Thomas azfamily.com Posted on June 14, 2010 at 3:56 PM Updated today at 9:38 AM Related: * Police discuss Surprise mom who chose to leave kids to become stripper SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Police officers arrested a 29-year-old Surprise woman after she reportedly told police she didn't want her children any longer and punched her 11-year-old son in the stomach in front of officers. On Friday, police received a call from an 11-year-old boy who said his mother was packing and moving to California and wasn't taking him or his 6-year-old brother with her. When police officers arrived, they...

BARTOW, Florida — Authorities say a 55-year-old woman died alone in a bedroom of her central Florida home after locking herself in the room for several weeks for a lengthy religious fast. Evelyn Boyd told her husband, a preacher at a Pentecostal church in the city of Bartow, not to disturb her when she locked herself in the room Feb. 7 to fast and pray with only water to drink. Family members forced open the door March 5 and found her dead. [SNIP] The woman's husband, John Boyd, told the paper he didn't check on his wife because she felt...

Mary Parks was charged in the death of her son back in September of 2007. Parks' nearly two-year-old son died of heat stroke after being left in his mother's car. Authorities say Parks went to pick her child up from daycare, but its staff told her the child was not there. That's when she found the toddler unresponsive in the back seat of the car.

The parents of an 8-year-old boy who died from Hodgkin's lymphoma were indicted Wednesday on charges they denied him medical treatment. Willie Robinson, who collapsed at his home on March 22, 2008, had begged his parents to take him to see a doctor but was rejected, prosecutors said. While the boy suffered, his parents, who claimed they didn't have much money, paid $87 to have a pit bull treated for fleas, investigators said. "They never once took him to a doctor," said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason. "It just is not right. This kid should be alive today."

A 60-year-old man and a 12-year-old girl said to be his daughter were discovered early Tuesday living inside a van that contained rotten food, soiled underwear, a book of pornography, two small dogs, bugs and a potty-training toilet with urine in the bowl. A deputy on routine patrol at the St. Augustine Wal-Mart came upon the van about 12:30 a.m. A search revealed its owner, John M. Sesnick, was wanted on federal fraud charges. The officer woke the man in the driver's seat and asked his name. "John Sesnick," he replied, and the deputy, Samantha English, handcuffed him. Because of...

WICOMICO CHURCH, Va. – A 6-year-old Virginia boy who missed his bus tried to drive to school in his family's sedan — and crashed. His parents were charged with child endangerment. State police said the boy suffered only minor injuries and authorities drove him to school after he was evaluated at a local hospital for a bump on his head. He arrived shortly after lunch, Sgt. Tom Cunningham said.

LINCOLN, Neb. – The mother was running out of more than patience when she abandoned her 18-year-old daughter at a hospital over the weekend under Nebraska's safe-haven law. She was also running out of time: She knew that state lawmakers would soon meet in a special session to amend the ill-fated law so that it would apply to newborns only. "Where am I going to get help if they change the law?" said the mother... To the state's surprise and embarrassment, more than half of the 31 children legally abandoned under the safe-haven law since it took effect in mid-July...

ORLANDO, Fla. — A team of psychic detectives is assisting Orlando police in their search for missing three-year-old Florida girl Caylee Marie Anthony, according to local news reports. The group, known as "Body Hunters" and lead by psychic detective Gale St. John, is "blind driving" around Central Florida in search for the toddler who was last seen June 16, Local6.com reported. "We will not even look at street names," psychic detective Gale St. John told the TV station and its Web site on Monday. "We drive and go completely on feeling instinct, chasing down what we call a person signature."...

An 8-year-old boy reportedly stole an idling car Thursday night and crashed into another car on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Pontiac, police said. Pontiac police said due to protocol, they notified Child Protective Service, but it's unlikely they will face any charges.

OCALA, Fla. (AP) - Police say a mother of 4 teenage boys has been charged with neglect after saying she was going "on strike" because she was fed up with them. Ocala police say 43-year-old Melissa Dean told the Department of Children and Families that she went on strike because no one would help her with the boys ages 17, 16, 14 and 13. Police have gone to Dean's home 12 times since September 2007 due to the boys' misbehavior. Dean tells the DCF that she thought there would be peace if she gave up her bedroom to 1 of...

DELTONA, Fla. -- A Volusia County nursing home resident who was found with maggots in one of his eyes, an infected breathing tube, a partially inserted cathater and bed sores has died, according to his family. Anthony Digiannurio, of Deltona, was 82 years old when he was transported in November from the University Center West nursing home to Florida Hospital DeLand, where staff members discovered the ailments. It is not known if the cause of death was related to the aforementioned conditions. According to a DeLand police report released in November, a representative from University Center West said that the...

Angelina Jolie revealed that her blonde-haired blue-eyed natural child Shiloh, 20 months, is the 'outcast' in her ethnically diverse family. The actress - who has adopted three other children from around the world - said in a revealing interview, that her only biological child, fathered by actor Brad Pitt, is the odd one out because of her bright blonde hair.

No charges will be filed against a middle school administrator whose toddler daughter died last month when she was left in the back seat of her mother's SUV during a heat wave, a prosecutor said Tuesday. Leaving the child in the car for the work day was "a substantial lapse of due care" but did not meet the definition of reckless conduct necessary for prosecution, said Clermont County Prosecutor Don White. Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby, 40, is assistant principal at Glen Este Middle School, about 20 miles east of Cincinnati. Authorities said she left her 2-year-old daughter, Cecilia, strapped into a car...

Sgt. Tom Lovejoy, who heads the six-dog K-9 unit, found the 5-year-old Belgian Malinois when he walked out to the vehicle parked at his home, police spokesman Sgt. Rick Griner said.

RENO, Nev. - A couple authorities say were so obsessed with the Internet and video games that they left their babies starving and suffering other health problems have pleaded guilty to child neglect. The children of Michael and Iana Straw, a boy age 22 months and a girl age 11 months, were severely malnourished and near death last month when doctors saw them after social workers took them to a hospital, authorities said. Both children are doing well and gaining weight in foster care, prosecutor Kelli Ann Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal. Michael Straw, 25, and Iana Straw, 23, pleaded...

In the emergency room at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, Edith Isabel Rodriguez was seen as a complainer. "Thanks a lot, officers," an emergency room nurse told Los Angeles County police who brought in Rodriguez early May 9 after finding her in front of the Willowbrook hospital yelling for help. "This is her third time here." The 43-year-old mother of three had been released from the emergency room hours earlier, her third visit in three days for abdominal pain. She'd been given prescription medication and a doctor's appointment. Turning to Rodriguez, the nurse said, "You have already been seen, and...

Top aides to Gov. Janet Napolitano were aware of problems at the Arizona State Veteran Home six weeks before details of patient neglect were made public. Susan Gerard, the director for the Arizona Department of Health Services, said Friday she called the governor’s co-chief of staff Alan Stephens the evening of Feb. 9. Earlier that day, state health workers had completed a routine inspection of the home where they found patients were being ignored and in some cases forced to sit in soiled undergarments for hours. Those discoveries set off a series of e-mails in the following days among three...

The author of The Path to 9/11 is going to be LIVE, in-studio on The John Ziegler Show at 8pm Pacific. You can listen live ONLINE or if you're in Southern CA, tune in to KFI at 640AM. From John Ziegler.Com: If you want to tell ABC to not cave to Clinton's demands in the editing of "The Path to 9/11," call 818-460-7477. If you want to complain about the movies lessons plans being dropped by "Scholastic," go to this link for contact information. http://www.scholastic.com/aboutscholastic/offices/index.htm

ABC toned down a scene that involved Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel "Sandy" Berger, declining to give the order to kill bin Laden, according to a person involved with the film who declined to be identified. "That sequence has been the focus of attention," the source said. The network also decided that the credits would say the film is based "in part" on the 9/11 panel report, rather than "based on" the report, as the producers originally intended.

A six-month-old Medford baby was bitten by a rat up to 200 times after it escaped from its cage in the boy's room. Police say the parents, 21-year-old Robert Horsfall and 19-year-old Maegan McCleary, found the rodent near a creek. Police say they took the infant to the emergency room at Rogue Valley Medical Center in Medford. Detectives say the parents apparently believed the rat was a domestic breed. They brought it home and kept it in a cage in the room where they slept with the baby. The next morning they found that the rat had escaped and bitten...

Once on fast track to be captain, Kirk Lippold now works at a desk. Last in a two-part series. WASHINGTON -- For 5½ years, the Washington military and political establishment has not known quite what to do with Kirk Lippold. Cmdr. Lippold was the skipper of the USS Cole when al-Qaida terrorists committed a suicide bombing in the Yemen port of Aden on Oct. 12, 2000. The attack, from a small barge that pulled alongside the Cole, blew a 40-by-40-foot hole in the guided-missile destroyer. Seventeen sailors died and 42 were wounded. After he led an intense three-week effort to...

NORFOLK - Police officers questioning Angela Mingo about the death of her 2-month-old granddaughter seemed incredulous at her indifference. The girl, Syleena, died of meningitis brought on by brain injury. Her mother, Stepfanie Mingo, admitted to police that she kicked the girl, threw her on a concrete floor and punched her repeatedly in the face.

Reprinted from NewsMax.com Tuesday, April 18, 2006 12:09 p.m. EDTGen. Anthony Zinni: USS Cole Blunder Is My Fault Former CENTCOM Commander, Gen. Anthony Zinni - who has called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign because of Rumsfeld's alleged incompetence in running the Iraq war - admitted six years ago that he made the disastrous decision to have the USS Cole use the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling, where the ship was blown up by al-Qaida terrorists. Worse still, at least one report indicates that Gen. Zinni may have played a role in an August 1998 leak that tipped...

George Soros' Open Society Institute is preparing to dole out a goodly sum to ensure that all the positive, fawning coverage Hurricane Katrina's death and destruction has been receiving finally gets balanced out a bit with the hitherto unheard bad news: The Katrina Media Fellowships, sponsored by The Open Society Institute (OSI), will support media makers working in print and radio journalism, photography, and documentary film and video to generate and improve media coverage of critical issues of poverty, racism, and government neglect in the Gulf Region that were laid bare by Hurricane Katrina. This one-time fellowship will be awarded...

Corruption and neglect lead to township riots against ANC By David Blair in Khutsong (Filed: 02/03/2006) Riot police patrol the streets, mobs have burned down the homes of local councillors and government offices lie wrecked and abandoned. The streets of Khutsong township, strewn with broken glass and burnt tyres, bear vivid witness to the revolt against the African National Congress that is sweeping its former strongholds. Riot police were deployed in Knutsong township after a revolt against the African National Congress The movement that liberated South Africa from apartheid could once rely on the automatic support of places like Khutsong....

SYCUAN INDIAN RESERVATION – Sheriff's detectives are investigating after a child died yesterday, apparently while waiting in a car with his father outside Sycuan Casino while the mother was inside. The cause of death was unknown. The county Medical Examiner's Office identified the boy as Thomas Baca, 6 months old , of Spring Valley. His father was identified as Richard Baca. It wasn't clear last night whether the case involved a homicide or an accidental death, said sheriff's Lt. Dennis Brugos of the homicide unit. Brugos said he didn't know when the family arrived at the casino on Sycuan Road...

HAVANA — American activists camping out at a Cuban military checkpoint outside the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay started their first day of a water-only fast Monday to protest the treatment of suspected terrorists detained at the base. Members of the largely Christian group Witness Against Torture are demanding access to the prisoner camp to meet with inmates. The activists arrived late Sunday at the checkpoint, which is about five miles from the U.S. base, after a five-day march from the eastern Cuban city of Santiago. "We can see the windmills of the U.S. base, we can see some...

Police: Woman Left Infant Alone For Three Weeks Baby Is In Fair Condition UPDATED: 4:26 pm EDT October 22, 2005 COVINGTON, Ohio -- Authorities said that a mother left her 7-month-old baby alone in her apartment for three weeks while she stayed with a friend. Ashley Traylor, 20, was arrested Friday in Covington, about 30 miles north of Dayton. Her child is being treated for severe malnourishment and is in fair condition. Traylor is being charged with criminal abuse, NBC4 reported. Police said that the baby was nearly lifeless when he was found. They say he hadn't eaten or had...

Police in Tavares, Fla., arrested a 22-year-old woman Monday after two naked boys were found playing near a road, according to a police news release. Officers responded to a call of unattended young children Monday and spotted the boys dirty and naked near 1125 Duncan Drive in Tavares. Detectives said Rachel Lemley came outside after the kids were discovered and said the children must have left the house on their own while she was asleep. She said the doors to her mobile home were locked. When officers went into Lemley's mobile home, they found dirty diapers, dishes and garbage on...

TAMPA - A young Marine who died while being treated at Tampa's James A. Haley VA Medical Center did not receive adequate care from staff who failed to recognize the severity of his condition, the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department concluded in a report released Thursday. An investigation by VA's inspector general acknowledged that Lance Cpl. Jonathan Gadsden arrived at Haley ``highly compromised'' by blast injuries suffered in Iraq. (snip) Before Gadsden's admission at Haley in late September, ``there had been insufficient staff training to deal with the multifaceted issues'' exclusive to patients wounded by roadside bombs and other crude weapons,...

WAUSAU, WI (AP) - Two people found with 160 neglected dogs, cats and other animals in their Marathon County home were sentenced to three years probation during which they will not be allowed to own or come in contact with animals. Mary E. Morse, 42, and Clark W. Petitt, 58, were sentenced Thursday after authorities found rabbits, dogs, cats and goats living in unsanitary conditions in their Hamburg home in December. Several of the animals had to be euthanized and at least four puppies were found in a kennel with feces halfway up their legs. Many were not given enough...

Scientology, The Clearwater Bar Association, and Judge Greer Judge George W. Greer presides over Florida's Sixth Judicial Circuit Court. He is known internationally for the Terri Schindler Schiavo guardianship case. Pat Anderson, former attorney for the Schindlers, characterized Judge Greer's unprecedented rulings as "The Rule of Terri's Case." The Clearwater Bar Association is delighted with Judge Greer's performance in this particular case. They presented the John U. Bird award to the Pinellas-Pasco Circuit judge on May 15, 2004. This prestigious award, which is the Clearwater bar's highest honor for a judge, was granted to Judge Greer for the way he...

Introduction During the last week, the weather in Venezuela has been extremely atypical with rainfall establishing records and flash floods killing over one hundred people while thousands have lost their homes. This is obviously an abnormal natural phenomenon and nobody can be blamed for it. However, the case of Vargas state, a densely populated and small state north of Caracas, is very particular, because that state was the victim of an even larger tragedy in December 99, when tens of thousands were killed due to generalized mudslides. That tragedy was like nothing Venezuela had ever seen in its history, coinciding...

The parents of a 13-year-old foster child who made her bring food to a dead man who lay rotting in their Clark home pleaded guilty Tuesday to elderly neglect and child cruelty. Kenneth Keaveney and his wife, Donna, pleaded guilty in state Superior Court, admitting that Donna's father was left to rot upstairs for weeks before being found on the floor of a room littered with flies, maggots and dog feces. Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow said the plea ends any doubts as to what happened to Nicola Lombardi, whose decomposed corpse was discovered nearly mummified in the August...

Britain's cruellest parents Jailed ... mum Sarah Whittaker       By ALASTAIR TAYLOR  A CRUEL couple who lived it up while their children were slowly starving to death in “Third World” squalor were jailed for seven years yesterday.David Askew and Sarah Whittaker kept their own bedroom and lounge clean and had a big surround-sound TV connected to cable, two DVD players, a stereo and a PlayStation.But while they enjoyed their gadgets, ate well and sank wine and beer, their five skeletal children lay neglected and malnourished in bedrooms smeared with human and dog dirt.When they were finally found, one...