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Hundreds of people working in the military, government and education are on a list of almost 10,000 people who spent $7.3 million buying phony and counterfeit high school and college degrees from a Spokane diploma mill.

BANNING, Calif. Banning police say three women attacked a former beauty queen over a flirtatious remark made to one of their boyfriends and with a razor blade facially scarred her for life. Labrea Clayonda Steward, 27, Erica Michelle Bastidas, 21, and Azia Jene Aldred, 24, are accused of attacking a 20-year-old former varsity cheerleader and beauty queen, slashing her in the face and back with a razor blade. The brawl apparently erupted in front of Banning 2005 "Peach Queen" Shanice Wilson's home in the 400 block of East Hoffer Street on July 11. Wilson told police she made a comment...

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A Pennsylvania woman has been charged in the slaying of an 18-year-old woman who was found with her uterus cut open and her fetus removed, authorities said Sunday. Andrea Curry-Demus, 38, of Wilkinsburg was charged Sunday with criminal homicide kidnapping and unlawful restraint in connection with last week's death of Kia Johnson, Allegheny County police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said. Police found Johnson's body in Curry-Demus' apartment Friday, two days after Curry-Demus arrived at a hospital with a newborn and falsely claimed that the baby was hers, authorities said. Police have not confirmed whether the infant belonged...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told a German magazine he supported prospective U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's proposal that U.S. troops should leave Iraq within 16 months. In an interview with Der Spiegel released on Saturday, Maliki said he wanted U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible. "U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes."

Seventh-grade boys at Sunnyvale Middle School feared going to first-period PE class. They knew what might await them: Vicious sexual attacks by older eighth-grade students. Throughout much of last school year, a pack of eighth-graders repeatedly threatened to sexually attack the younger students before and after class...

A 23-year-old Kennewick woman is accused of stabbing to death a pregnant Pasco woman and then cutting her unborn child out of her womb and trying to pass the baby off as her own. Blue mechanic's gloves soaked in blood, a box cutter, bloody paper towels, a baby bottle and mucus bulb are among items suspected of being used to kill Araceli Camacho Gomez and steal her nearly full-term baby. Details of the gruesome slaying were revealed Monday afternoon when Phiengchai Sisouvanh Synhavong made a preliminary appearance in Benton County Superior Court. She was ordered held without bail in the...

A British IT expert Neil Entwistle was today convicted of murdering his American wife and baby daughter at their home in Massachusetts. Rachel Entwistle was killed instantly from a gunshot wound to the head. Nine-month-old Lillian Rose died soon after the bullet from the .21 Colt revolver pierced her abdomen.

A MOTHER is accused of partially skinning her caged son and feeding it to relatives. Kalra Mauerova, 31, of Brno in the Czech Republic, wept in court as she admitted torturing her son Ondrej, and his ten-year-old brother, Jakub, The Sun reported. Ms Mauerova, a member of the Grail Movement cult, caged Ondrej for months while relatives, also members of the cult, ate his raw flesh, a judge heard yesterday. The court in Brno heard the family sexually abused the boys and made them cut themselves with knives.....

cientists are conducting experiments on bioterror bacteria in a room with a containment door sealed with duct tape. The tape was applied around the edges of the door a year ago after the building's ventilation system malfunctioned and pulled potentially contaminated air out of the lab and into a "clean" hallway. Nine CDC workers were tested in May 2007 for potential exposure to the Q fever bacteria being studied in the lab, CDC officials said this week in response to questions from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The air-flow incident occurred very early in the morning, before the workday began. The blood...

A woman was shot 13 times by the father of her two young boys today, and the man then took the children and fled, authorities said. The shooting occurred about 10:40 a.m. at a home in the 10000 block of McBroom Street, near the 210 Freeway just west of Sunland. The woman, who was not identified, is in serious condition at a local hospital, police said. The father, Jose Luis Ortega, 27, and the woman got into an argument after she dropped the boys off at the house, said Los Angeles police Officer Julianne Sohn. Ortega then pulled out a...

A young Turlock man parked a pickup truck on a dark country road outside his Central Valley city Saturday night, removed a baby boy from a car seat and then viciously beat the child in the street, fighting off passersby who tried to stop him until he was fatally shot by a police officer whose helicopter landed in a nearby pasture, police said today. The 27-year-old suspect died immediately where he fell. The child, who according to police appeared to be 12 to 24 months old, was rushed to a hospital but was soon pronounced dead as well. Police officials...

He maintains he is following the Holy Spirit in calling for this radical revision of Christian orthodoxy. Yet, he argues against the clear teaching of the Scriptures and unbroken teaching of the Christian tradition that reserve sexual activity to the loving, lifelong marriage bond between a married man and woman. Clearly, Bishop Gene Robinson views himself as a liberator, and he is doing more to foster the splintering of the Anglican Communion worldwide singlehandedly than anyone else. He seems to take delight in both his celebrity and his self appointed task. Now, the controversialist crusader for homosexual equivalency with marriage...

A girl with learning difficulties was locked up inside a wooden cage by her school teachers because they could not cope with her behaviour. The 14-year-old was penned into the tiny make-shift jail at the request of the head teacher at the Austrian school. Karl Schmidhuber, defended the schools decision to keep the girl in the four metre square wooden box. He claimed the girl, known only as Sandra, was violent and disruptive during lessons and that locking her up was the only solution. Mr Schmidhuber runs a school for mentally and physically disabled children. The school's caretaker made the...

Honeymoon ends in attempted murder charge BY CHAS REILLY creilly@nwitimes.com 219.662.5324 | Wednesday, May 28, 2008 MERRILLVILLE | A 37-year-old Chicago man is accused of attempting to kill his wife after holding her head underwater and biting flesh off her arm Friday while they were on their honeymoon at a Merrillville Days Inn. Jose Cuevas Jr. was charged Tuesday with attempted murder, aggravated battery, criminal deviate conduct and battery in Lake County Criminal Court. Merrillville police Sgt. Jeff Rice said Cuevas and his wife, also of Chicago, were staying at the hotel, 1350 E. 83rd Ave., when Cuevas made unwanted...

"I can't believe it. It is just frantic the way they are trying to push and pressure and bully all these superdelegates to come out," Clinton said at a South Dakota campaign stop Sunday, in remarks first reported by ABC News. Clinton also suggested some were trying to "cover up" Sen. Clinton's chances of winning in key states that Democrats will have to win in the general election. " 'Oh, this is so terrible: The people they want her. Oh, this is so terrible: She is winning the general election, and he is not. Oh my goodness, we have to...

Hundreds of gallons of water which rose from the cellar of a Cambridgeshire church are believed to have come from an old drain. Water was coming up from underneath the Trinity Church in March at a rate of about 10 gallons (45 litres) an hour. Reg Kemp, property steward of Trinity Church, had drunk the "holy" water and said he hoped it could be bottled and become an attraction. But Anglian Water said tests proved it was "environmentally contaminated". The spokesman said: "It could cause an upset stomach, whatever the source. Even if it's a natural spring or rainwater it...

"ORLANDO, Fla. -- A central Florida man has been sentenced to death for murdering his ex-girlfriend by setting her on fire. Orange County Circuit Judge Lisa Munyon followed a jury's recommendation when she sentenced 21-year-old Dane Abdool on Monday. The jury convicted Abdool of first-degree murder in December for the 2006 death of 17-year-old Amelia Sookdeo of Winter Garden."

PROSPECT, Conn. -- A man is being called a hero in his hometown of Prospect after he died trying to help a pregnant woman. Michael Rutkowski's family said they are not surprised that he died trying to help someone else and that they are very proud of his actions. Rutkowski, 44, was killed Friday in New Mexico by a man who is accused of running over his pregnant girlfriend. Police said Michael Branch struck and killed Rutkowski, who stopped to help the woman. Rutkowski and his wife, both engineers at National Security Technologies in Los Alamos, were on their way...

Associated Press Article Launched: 05/09/2008 03:45:37 PM PDT SANTA ANA, Calif. - A man who cut out his girlfriend's tongue and let her bleed to death has been given a life sentence without chance of parole. The Orange County judge who sentenced Frank Mallory on Friday called it an unjustified and extraordinarily brutal murder.

Two men and a juvenile are accused of digging up a corpse, decapitating the body and using the head to smoke marijuana, according to court documents. Matthew Gonzalez and Kevin Jones have been charged with the misdemeanor offense of abuse of a corpse, said Scott Durfee, a spokesman for the Harris County District Attorneys Office. According to documents filed in the case, Gonzalez, Jones and an unnamed juvenile on March 15 went to an Humble cemetery, dug up a man's grave, left with the head and turned it into a "bong." Gonzalez told authorities about the incident Wednesday, and showed...

An Alaska woman, accused of killing her newborn baby boy at her parents’ Grand Junction home, gave birth at a neighbor’s home, wrapped him in a plastic garbage bag and left him in a tote bag in a closet that her parents found more than two months later, according to her arrest affidavit. Morgan Hite, 22, of Wasilla, Alaska, is in custody on a no-bond warrant, but she refused extradition to Grand Junction during a court hearing Wednesday in Palmer, Alaska. Hite has retained an attorney, and her next court appearance is June 6.

For school officials in Haverford Township, the challenge was daunting: What do you do when a 9-year-old student, with the full support of his parents, decides that he is no longer a boy and instead is a girl? Parents of a third-grade student at Chatham Park Elementary School approached the administration on April 16 to ask for help in making a "social transition" for their child. (Excerpt) Full story: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/chester/20080503_School_challenge__Transgender_student_is_age_9.html The Haverford School District consulted experts on transgender children, then sent letters to parents advising them that the guidance counselor would meet with the school's 100 third-grade students to explain...

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. -- A Sheboygan woman is accused of shooting her 8-year-old daughter in the leg with a BB gun last week to win a bet and is now behind bars. According to the criminal complaint, Angelique Vandeberg’s boyfriend bet her $1 that she wouldn’t shoot her daughter. -snip-

INDIANAPOLIS -- A woman was arrested Wednesday night in a road rage beating of an elderly driver earlier in the day, police said. Jessica Vasquez (pictured), 19, was taken into custody after she assaulted Evelyn Page, 81, who she thought was driving slowly in the 6200 block of South Meridian Street, on Indianapolis' south side, according to Indianapolis Metro police. Police said Vasquez sped around Page and then slammed on her brakes, forcing the elderly woman to stop. Then, according to police, Vasquez jumped out of her car, opened the driver's-side door of Page's car and began beating her. Police...

AMSTETTEN, Austria - A man has confessed to imprisoning his daughter for 24 years in a windowless cell with a soundproofed door and fathering seven children with her including three who "never saw sunlight," police said Monday. Josef Fritzl, now 73, also told investigators that he tossed the body of one of the children in an incinerator when the infant died shortly after birth, said Franz Polzer, head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs. "We are being confronted with an unfathomable crime," Interior Minister Guenther Platter said. The daughter, who is now 42, had been missing since 1984...

There appeared to be two Patrice Smiths in the courtroom Friday afternoon for sentencing on a homicide charge. There was the good Patrice Smith portrayed by friends and relatives as a kind and gentle woman who disintegrated under the stress of a new baby and a bad relationship. And there was the Patrice Smith who was said to have not really wanted a baby and didn't care that the child died after she stuffed a sock into her daughter's mouth to get her to stop crying. "Perhaps the truth is somewhere in the middle," said Dane County Circuit Judge Daniel...

Beginning next Tuesday, Yale senior Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself ?as often as possible? while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages

Art major Aliza Shvarts '08 wants to make a statement. Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself "as often as possible" while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process. The goal in creating the art exhibition, Shvarts said, was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body. But her project has already provoked more than just debate,...

A 41-year-old homeless amputee was beaten to death with his own crutch on a San Diego street, and police are on the lookout for the attacker, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. The beating reportedly occurred Monday night when the victim got into a fight with another man. Police told the newspaper they don't yet have a motive for the attack. Despite having an amputated leg and using a wheelchair, the victim was able to stand and was standing at the time of the incident, the Union-Tribune reported. Police described the attacker as a Latino in his 30s, about 170 pounds,...

The choice was clear: Either she comply or he would shoot her baby girl. Her attacker already had pulled a gun and forced her back into her car in the ...Wal-Mart parking lot. He reclined the front passenger seat and ordered her to lie facedown. He then raped her while she looked at her child in the car seat behind her. All the while, the victim said, he pressed a .25-caliber pistol against the 15-month-old toddler. ...he told her to sit in the driver's seat and dump the contents of her purse. He robbed her and ordered her to get...

SAN ANGELO, Tex. - Adult FLDS men were having sex with underage brides inside the massive limestone temple at the polygamous sect's Texas ranch, a confidential informant told authorities. According to a request for a search warrant unsealed today by a Texas judge, Schliecher County Sheriff David Doran has been working with a confidential informant who has shared information about the ranch over several years. On Saturday, as a sweeping raid was underway at the YFZ Ranch, the informant spoke to Doran and made the allegation about the temple, the court filing said. The affidavit was from Texas Ranger Leslie...

Banished to the basement, the 29-year-old mother with a childlike mind and another baby on the way had little more than a thin rug and a mattress to call her own on the chilly concrete floor. Dorothy Dixon ate what she could forage from the refrigerator upstairs, where housemates used her for target practice with BBs, burned her with a glue gun and doused her with scalding liquid that peeled away her skin. They torched what few clothes she had, so she walked around naked. They often pummeled her with an aluminum bat or metal handle. Dixon -- six months...

ALTON, Ill. - Banished to the basement, the 29-year-old mother with a childlike mind and another baby on the way had little more than a thin rug and a mattress to call her own on the chilly concrete floor, police say. Dixon ate what she could forage from the refrigerator upstairs, where housemates used her for target practice with BBs, burned her with a glue gun, and doused her with scalding liquid that peeled away her skin. They torched what few clothes she had, so she walked around naked. They often pummeled her with an aluminum bat or metal handle....

Greensburg Man Charged With Raping 5-Month-Old POSTED: 4:01 pm EST March 7, 2008 UPDATED: 5:49 pm EDT March 10, 2008 GREENSBURG, Pa. -- An 18-year-old Greensburg man has been charged with raping a baby who police said was left in his care.Police said Scott Wade Smith raped his girlfriend's 5-month-old girl Friday morning at a home in the 500 block of Highland Avenue, where several people, including the infant's mother, were living.Authorities said the infant suffered severe injuries and was flown to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, where surgery was performed. Police said the girl was crying so hard she nearly...

Sick, scary story of late night. The sick pervert that violated this child tried to call this in as the baby choking on a crayon. Of course much more sickening details are involved after we get into the “bloodly details.” Absolutely unforgivinging news. See video...

MUNCIE, Indiana (AP) -- A man was jailed Thursday on charges that he forced his 7-year-old daughter to kill the family cat by holding a knife in her hand and making her stab the pet. Danield J. Collins, 39, told his children during a visit to his home Sunday that he wanted them to "learn how to kill" and gave his 11-year-old son a knife to do it, according to an affidavit filed in the case. The boy tried to save the cat by hiding it under a sofa bed and putting ketchup on a knife when Collins went to...

A Williamson District Judge has sentenced a former officer with a Mexican police force for two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child. Thirty-five-year-old Salvador Hernandez pled guilty to the charges. Today, Judge Ken Anderson, 26th District Court, imposed the two sentences of 75 years in prison and life in prison and ordered that they run consecutively. Hernandez will not be eligible for parole for at least 60 years. District Attorney John Bradley says a 12-year old Georgetown girl came forward in February 2007 to say that Hernandez, a family friend, had raped her and that she might be...

WICHITA, Kan. -- Deputies say a woman in western Kansas became stuck on her boyfriend’s toilet after sitting on it for two years.

NESS CITY, Kan. | Law officers in western Kansas are investigating the bizarre case of a woman they say sat on her boyfriend’s toilet for two years. Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said the boyfriend called his office late last month to report that something was wrong with his girlfriend. The sheriff said the woman’s muscles had atrophied and that medical personnel had to remove her from the toilet because she was bound to it by “natural means.”

Dallas police were investigating Wednesday morning why a mother threw her two children off an overpass and then jumped into oncoming traffic on Interstate 30 near Jim Miller Road. Khandi Busby, 28, and her two children survived the 22-foot fall from the overpass railing into westbound traffic, Dallas police said. The three were taken to local hospitals where the mom was listed in critical condition after being struck by a vehicle. The two boys were in good condition. "We don't know the reason at this point why she did this," said Dallas police Sgt. Gil Cerda. The woman had been...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US dropped China from its list of the world's worst human rights violaters, but added Syria, Uzbekistan and Sudan to the alleged offenders in an annual report released Tuesday. The State Department's 2007 Human Rights Report showed China, which has raised hopes it will improve human rights by hosting the 2008 Olympics, had parted company with countries like North Korea, Myanmar and Iran.

Gaza's streets filled with joyous crowds of thousands on Thursday evening following the terror attack at a Jerusalem rabbinical seminary in which eight people were killed. In mosques in Gaza City and northern Gaza, many residents went to perform the prayers of thanksgiving. Armed men fired in the air in celebration and others passed out sweets to passersby. Hamas stopped just short of claiming responsibility but issued a statement saying the group "blesses the (Jerusalem) operation. It will not be the last,'' Hamas said in a statement. An Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Ahmed told Ynet the blame for the attack...

Aromatherapy May Make You Feel Good, But It Won't Make You Well, Study ShowsOne of the most comprehensive investigations done to date on aromatherapy failed to show any improvement in either immune status, wound healing or pain control among people exposed to two often-touted scents. (Credit: iStockphoto/Liv Friis-Larsen) ScienceDaily (Mar. 4, 2008) — One of the most comprehensive investigations done to date on aromatherapy failed to show any improvement in either immune status, wound healing or pain control among people exposed to two often-touted scents. While one of two popular aromas touted by alternative medicine practitioners – lemon – did...

Associated Press BRIGHTON, Tenn. - Police say a man attempting to rape a girl and a woman was shot and killed after one escaped and alerted her nearby cousin. Investigators say 44-year-old David Fleming forcibly entered the home of two sisters, ages 22 and 12, in an apparent rape attempt in Tipton County. After being tied up, one of the girls escaped and ran to the home of her next-door neighbor and cousin, Keith Ingram. Police say Ingram shot and killed Fleming after he attempted to attack him. Fleming had a prior conviction for attempted rape and was a registered...

The M.O. is distinctly Saudi but every society has its lunatics and there’s no evidence suggesting it was motivated by anything more than a family spat, so no grand cultural comment here. Even so, we’re getting lots of tips about it. Just because. Early morning shoppers at a supermarket in Jeddah were left reeling yesterday, with some falling unconscious, after a well-built Syrian man clinched a knife and decapitated his 15-month-old nephew in front of his mother in the store’s fruit and vegetable section.In a brutal murder that has shocked the city, the 25-year-old man beheaded the boy, who was...

OCALA, Fla. -- A 77-year-old man told a deputy he roughed up his 74-year-old wife because he was upset about the high cost of gas for driving her to and from dialysis treatments, according to police. Authorities say 77-year-old Richard Close has been charged with aggravated battery and battery on a person over 65. Authorities said Richard Close was charged with aggravated battery and battery on a person over 65. Close said that his life turned upside down when doctors in Illinois placed his wife on kidney dialysis. Over the Christmas holidays, the retired mechanic said his wife of 26...

Police suspected Darak Antonio Williams and Kashema Reddish knew more about the death of 3-year-old Kavannah Salvador than they were saying, but lacked sufficient evidence to detain the couple, authorities said Thursday. The slain child’s mother and live-in boyfriend walked out of Scranton police headquarters a week ago. Kavannah’s death has since been ruled a homicide, but police have been unable to locate the couple. “You can’t just hold people,” said Deputy District Attorney Michelle Olshefski. “At that point, it was a potential homicide. You’ve got to do an investigation. It’s not like TV, like ‘Law and Order,’ when you...

(IsraelNN.com) Although the committee which expanded the health basket to cover 90 more medications in 2008 noted that at least 160,000 Israelis will be able to obtain medicine free of charge, it also noted that some 300,000 others will not be allowed the benefit. Committee head Professor Mordechai Fineru said that only one out of every three sick citizens will be able to take advantage of the expanded assistance, noting that the limited budget could not cover all the needs. The total cost of this year's basket is approximately NIS 450 million. "Some of the pubic will be happy with...

Parents of 5-month-old appear in court to face first-degree murder charges, may be facing death penaltyPEORIA - Benjamin Sargent died with his eyes open, fists clenched and strapped into a car seat after eight days without food or water, the county's top prosecutor said Wednesday. The 5-month-old was dropped off at his parents' house on Feb. 4, wearing a bright-blue snow suit and strapped into his car seat. Eight days later, he was found in the same position, said Peoria County State's Attorney Kevin Lyons during a bond hearing for the parents, who are charged with capital murder for...

Scripps Howard Editor: Conservatives Should Be Like JFKIt is getting tiresome already, but we are starting to see a new kind of story on this issue of McCain and his tiff with the conservative wing of the GOP and that is the shut-up-and-take-it style of commentary, the style were conservatives are told to throw away their principles and just vote McCain anyway. I am sure that you all have noticed that John McCain is not the conservative's hero? There has been story after story expounding on how McCain has a lot of cajoling to do before principled conservatives will...