tagged w/ Kidnapping
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A Lebanese citizen being held in a detention center for bribery was hooded, stripped naked for photographs and bundled onto an executive jet by FBI agents in Afghanistan in April, making him the first known target of a rendition during the Obama administration.
Why not use the rack while you're at it?A Lebanese citizen being held in a detention center for bribery was hooded, stripped... more
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Home videos show 5-year-old Liam McCarty horsing around with his father, his blond curls bouncing around a cherubic face.
Michael McCarty is working to get his son back from an Italian orphanage.It's a face his father, Michael McCarty, hasn't seen in months.
Liam, an American citizen, was placed into the custody of an Italian orphanage this spring after his mother, Manuela McCarty, fled to her native Italy with the child in the middle of a custody dispute with Michael McCarty.
Yet shortly after arriving, a court reportedly ruled that she was an unfit parent and Liam was put into an orphanage instead of being returned to his father. Now father and son are stuck in a tangled legal battle that involves several courts in what Michael McCarty said is an "archaeic" system.
"The last time I saw him was a few months ago and he's not doing very well," McCarty told "Good Morning America's" Chris Cuomo today. "He has deteroiated."Home videos show 5-year-old Liam McCarty horsing around with his father, his blond... more
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A boy of ten whose father stopped his pocket money chose a rather extreme way to try to get some cash – kidnapping his teacher.
Ravi Subhas demanded a ransom of £1 after trapping his 19-year-old teacher in her home.
He was later arrested in New Delhi.
I'm guessing maths isn't his strong point... £1 ransom! should of made it a tenner at the leastA boy of ten whose father stopped his pocket money chose a rather extreme way to try... more
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Terrorism can take many forms, and few are more sinister than those that target children. This CNN video interview (above) tells the story of Khidir, son of an Iraqi police officer, who was kidnapped by al Qaeda in an attempt to coerce his father to releasing several violent prisoners. His father refused, and for two years Khidir was repeatedly tortured in their captivity, believed to be dead.
"'The kidnappers climbed the fence and kicked in the door,' [Khidir's grandmother] says.'They were screaming for Abdul Qader. I told them he's not here. They called me a liar and said we want his son. His son was hiding behind me, clutching my clothes. I said this is not his son. They hit me on the back with a rifle and ripped him out of my arms.'
"'They beat me with a shovel, they pulled my teeth out with pliers, they would go like this and pull it,' said Khidir, now 8, demonstrating with his hands."
For the full CNN written article: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/08/07/iraq.kidnapped.boy/index.html
If you were Khidir's father, what would you have done?Terrorism can take many forms, and few are more sinister than those that target... more
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Hmmm. Kind our sounds like the Muslim version of Patty Hearst and the SLA. Sad for the parents...
Just another example of extremist Muslim monkey business in Minnesota.
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MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) -- Abayte Ahmed and her husband learned of their son's death in the most heinous fashion. A family acquaintance called and told them to click on an Internet site. There on the screen were photographs of their 20-year-old son -- the boy with the movie-star looks -- shot through the head thousands of miles away in Somalia.
"He must have been somewhat disillusioned and indoctrinated, because he didn't have any clue about Somalia at all," his mother said, fighting back tears and barely able to speak about her eldest son.
Jamal Bana had been missing for months from his Minneapolis home. His family is still grappling with the circumstances surrounding his death in a land they had fled -- an African nation wracked by chaos and violence.
The FBI said Bana's death is part of a sweeping federal investigation into a recruiting effort in the United States by a Somali terrorist group called Al-Shabaab, which has ties to al Qaeda. More than a dozen young men of Somali descent have disappeared from the Minneapolis area in recent months. At least three, including Bana, have ended up dead in Somalia, community leaders say.
One of the missing youth, Shirwa Ahmed, 27, blew up himself and 29 others last fall in Somalia in what is believed to be the first suicide bombing carried out by a naturalized U.S. citizen. Ahmed had traveled from Minneapolis. The attack raised red flags throughout the U.S. intelligence community and sparked an investigation by the FBI.
Just weeks ago, community activist Abdirizak Bihi lost his 17-year-old nephew, Burhan Hassan, in Somalia. Asked if his nephew had been kidnapped from Minneapolis, Bihi said, "They kidnap them in the sense of mental kidnapping, not physically. But they play a male role of mentor."
Bihi and community leader Omar Jamal said they hold one place at least loosely responsible: the Abubakar as-Saddique Islamic Center, the largest mosque in Minneapolis.
"All these kids missing, they all have one thing in common: They all participated in youth programs in that mosque," said Jamal.Hmmm. Kind our sounds like the Muslim version of Patty Hearst and the SLA. Sad for... more
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Please, if you know of or hear anythign about this contact the authorities. Spread this far and wide.....Please, if you know of or hear anythign about this contact the authorities. Spread... more
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Following Radiohead's collaboration with MTV Exit ("End Exploitation and Trafficking") last year, the Killers have provided their song "Goodnight, Travel Well" as a soundtrack to a new human trafficking PSA.
The video is currently being broadcast on MTV networks around the world, with the potential to reach over 500 million people. It was created to raise awareness about and help prevent sex trafficking, which is a problem much more common than most people realize.
More than 1.2 million children are being trafficked each year and nearly 80 per cent of all trafficking is for sexual exploitation, and the most at risk are girls. There is almost no country in the world that isn't affected by sex trafficking in some way.
The powerful video was directed by David Slade ("Hard Candy") and provides insight into the realities of trafficking.
More information is available from UNICEF:
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/uk_50248.html
Last year's MTV EXIT video with Radiohead's "All I Need," which focused on child labor, can be seen here:
http://current.com/items/88926265_new-radiohead-video-against-human-trafficking.htmFollowing Radiohead's collaboration with MTV Exit ("End Exploitation and... more
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dani77
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added this
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2 years ago
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Current's Mariana van Zeller travels to one of the most unstable regions in the world - Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta. She investigates what's behind the growing number of kidnappings and attacks in Africa's largest oil producer and the US's fifth largest energy supplier.Current's Mariana van Zeller travels to one of the most unstable regions in the... more
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Jerusalem blasts Red Cross for report
This is a clip from an Israeli paper....they lie and lie and lie some more.
Israel rejected as "scandalous" a highly critical report released by the International Committee of the Red Cross on Monday marking six months since Operation Cast Lead, saying it was inconceivable that the document would chastise Israel for the situation in Gaza while ignoring the continued detention of IDF soldier Gilad Schalit or the "intransigent belligerence" of Hamas.
According to the report, residents of the Strip are "living in desperation" due to their "daily struggle for existence."
"Gazans still cannot rebuild their lives," the report reads. "Most people struggle to make ends meet. Seriously ill patients face great difficulty obtaining the treatment they need. Many children suffer from deep psychological problems. Civilians whose homes and belongings were destroyed during the conflict are unable to recover," the ICRC maintained.
"During the 22 days of the Israeli military operation, nowhere in Gaza was safe for civilians. Hospitals were overwhelmed with casualties, including small children, women and elderly people. Medical personnel showed incredible courage and determination, working around the clock to save lives in extremely difficult circumstancesJerusalem blasts Red Cross for report
This is a clip from an Israeli... more
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Israeli Occupation Forces have kidnapped 21 Human Rights workers aboard the Free Gaza boat, Spirit of Humanity, including Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire & former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.
ISRAEL ATTACKS JUSTICE BOAT; KIDNAPS HUMAN RIGHTS WORKERS; CONFISCATES MEDICINE, TOYS AND OLIVE TREES
“Israel’s deliberate and premeditated attack on our unarmed boat is a clear violation of international law and we demand our immediate and unconditional release.”Israeli Occupation Forces have kidnapped 21 Human Rights workers aboard the Free Gaza... more
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For seven months, The New York Times managed to keep out of the news the fact that one of its reporters, David Rohde, had been kidnapped by the Taliban. But that was pretty straightforward compared with keeping it off Wikipedia.
Times executives believed that publicity would raise Mr. Rohde’s value to his captors as a bargaining chip and reduce his chance of survival. Persuading another publication or a broadcaster not to report the kidnapping usually meant just a phone call from one editor to another, said Bill Keller, executive editor of The Times.
But Wikipedia, which operates under the philosophy that anyone can be an editor, and that all information should be public, is a vastly different world.
A dozen times, user-editors posted word of the kidnapping on Wikipedia’s page on Mr. Rohde, only to have it erased. Several times the page was frozen, preventing further editing — a convoluted game of cat-and-mouse that clearly angered the people who were trying to spread the information of the kidnapping.
Even so, details of his capture cropped up time and again, however briefly, showing how difficult it is to keep anything off the Internet — even a sentence or two about a person who is not especially famous.
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Click above to read the full story... very interesting...For seven months, The New York Times managed to keep out of the news the fact that one... more
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Last week, journalist David Rohde escaped after a seven-month kidnap by the Taliban. It's fabulous news, and it's been partly attributed to the fact that The New York Times suppressed it in the first place. But today we learn that Wikipedia did so too.
That raises a couple of very interesting questions. The New York Times worked very hard to keep facts about Rohde's kidnapping out of the media, with the intention of denying the Taliban the media coverage it desired and thus helping Rohde's chances of release or escape. The technique obviously paid off in this case, and it's certainly been done before.
But in a Times piece yesterday, the paper also made it clear that it had the help of Wikipedia staffers who suppressed the news popping up there too. Since Wikipedia is crowd-sourced and openly editable, the news did manage to arrive on the online encyclopedia several times, whereupon it was quickly erased and sometimes the offending page was frozen to prevent any further user-editing. Rohde's own Wikipedia entry was even edited by a colleague immediately after his kidnap to enhance the Islam-friendliness of Rohde's previous journalistic work.
This information dance on Wikipedia all happened with the specific help of the site's founder, Jimmy Wales. But while commenting on the moral angle of the Wikipedia tampering, Wales noted: "We were really helped by the fact that it hadn’t appeared in a place we would regard as a reliable source...I would have had a really hard time with it if it had." And that's where this story gets interesting to people who believe in freedom of information: In essence The New York Times suppressed the info themselves, and by influencing other old media outlets, which then enabled the new media outlet of Wikipedia to feel okay about continuing the propagandizing.
It's a journalistic moral ouroboros, for sure, and it raises a couple of questions. Did Wikipedia damage its reputation as a crowd-based and open-access information source? The answer is yes, a little (and it's not the first time Wikipedia's admins have been caught manipulating entries). Wikipedia isn't a traditional media outlet, and therefore has no hard or soft journalistic moral code to abide by, which means it can be more flexible in its actions--and the fact a life was at stake here is a mitigating fact. But Wales' excuse still sounds particularly weak. As a result, the next questions about Wikipedia are: What other news pieces is it hiding? And will users trust in the site as a news source take a hit?Last week, journalist David Rohde escaped after a seven-month kidnap by the Taliban.... more
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More than 50 years after a 2-year-old boy disappeared from outside a Long Island bakery, a Michigan man has come forward to claim that he was the missing boy, authorities said Tuesday.
The missing boy's father, Jerry Damman, said he was hopeful the man is his son.
"After all those years, you kind of lost all hope," he said Tuesday.
Authorities didn't release the Michigan man's identity. He approached Nassau County police and federal authorities over the past few months and said he believes he is Steven Damman, Nassau County Police Lt. Kevin Smith said.
Awaiting DNA results
The case was referred to the FBI and authorities are awaiting DNA results to determine if the man's claim is true, Smith said.
Sandra Berchtold, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Detroit, declined to comment on Damman's case Tuesday.
Jerry Damman said "it's very possible" that the man could be his son.
"To a certain extent this would probably close it," said Damman, who lives on a farm near Newton, Iowa, about 30 miles east of Des Moines.
The unidentified Michigan man believes he never fit in with the family he grew with up, an official familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the man's claim was still under investigation. The man believed he might be a missing person and learned of the Damman case by researching cases around the nation, the official said.
Jerry Damman and his wife, who is not Steven Damman's mother, said they believe the man might have stopped by their farm in the fall. His sister, Pamela, also got a visit from the same man, they said.
"She looked at this guy, and he looked like Jerry," said Charlotte Damman, who has been married to Jerry Damman for nearly 50 years.
'Naturally you're hopeful'
Damman said he tried to call the man twice Tuesday since a report of his claim was first published in the New York Daily News.
"Naturally you're hopeful. Just like a death gives you closure, you know sometimes, it will give you closure to know what happened," Jerry Damman said.
Jerry Damman worked at Mitchell Air Force Base on Long Island when his son disappeared. His then-wife, Marilyn, left her son and 7-month-old daughter, Pamela, waiting outside a bakery while she went inside to shop on Oct. 31, 1955, according to Smith and news accounts from 1955.
"Back in that time, it was probably not that uncommon to do something like that," Smith said.
After 10 minutes, Damman's mother, Marilyn, left the bakery but couldn't find the stroller or her children, authorities said. The stroller, with only her daughter inside, was found around the corner from the market a short time later, authorities said.More than 50 years after a 2-year-old boy disappeared from outside a Long Island... more
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What is it with Disney World at the moment? It seems Mickey & pals are proving so tempting that some people are selling their own nan (or at least dumping aunts at homeless shelters) for a day out at the park.
For more on *that* story click here: http://current.com/items/90106782_woman-dumps-96-year-old-aunt-at-homeless-shelter-to-go-to-disney-world.htm
But to today's story. According to prosecutors - a mum who called 911 to say her and her daughter had been abducted - and stuffed in the boot of car no less - have been found at Disney World in Florida!
The police say in the 911 calls 38 year old Bonnie Sweeten alleged she had been carjacked by two men who then dumped her along with her daughter into the boot of their Cadillac. When actually they were in the sunshine state deciding between Splash or Space Mountain.What is it with Disney World at the moment? It seems Mickey & pals are proving so... more
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Authorities say a 3-year-old boy abducted from his family home in San Bernardino nearly two weeks ago by two armed men has been reunited with his mother.
The San Bernardino County sheriff's department said the reunion took place Saturday afternoon, a day after detectives and FBI agents received a call from Mexican officials in the border town of Mexicali saying they found a boy that could be Briant Rodriguez.
Officials said the boy's mother, Maria Rosalina Millan, flew to the neighboring U.S. city of Calexico on Friday night to see the child, but that she was forced to wait as Mexican officials confirmed his identity and examined him.
The Baja California state prosecutor's office said police found the boy wandering alone Friday and turned him over to child protective custody.Authorities say a 3-year-old boy abducted from his family home in San Bernardino... more
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Police searched Sunday for a man suspected of kidnapping his wife and infant son after running down a neighbor he believed was having a relationship with his spouse, police said.
The woman and baby were later released and were safe, authorities said.
Francisco Rodriguez, 33, was suspected of running down Jose Chavez, 30, in a crosswalk at about 7:45 p.m. Saturday, police Sgt. Christian Hsu said.
Chavez was hospitalized in critical condition with head injuries.
Rodriguez later was thought to have kidnapped his wife, Consuelo, 30, and 18-month-old son, Alexis, Hsu said.
Rodriguez drove them to a relative's house in Fontana, about 20 miles east of Pomona, where they spent the night, Lt. Paul Hitt said.
The woman was watching television and learned that an Amber Alert had been issued over their disappearance. She contacted police and said she and the boy were unharmed, Hitt said.
Rodriguez' vehicle was found abandoned Sunday in Bloomington, also about 20 miles east of Pomona, police said.Police searched Sunday for a man suspected of kidnapping his wife and infant son after... more
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Kepano
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added this
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3 years ago
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Okay, no fooling, IL DIVO is a challenge. It boasts tons of characters who probably have some notoriety in Italy but are pretty obscure here, and on top of that, deals with the Italian political system, which appears to be just slightly less mind-boggling than the Klingon-language edition of Finnegan’s Wake.
So what’s to recommend the film? Well, since it deals with a tiny slice of the career of long-time politician (we’re talking some fifty years, here) Giulio Andreotti, and since that slice is focused on the early nineties — when the man was Prime Minister for the seventh time — you’re talking a scenario that includes rampant corruption, insidious double dealing, and a list of murders so long that Hannibal Lector might begin suspecting that things had gotten out of hand. How could a film boast all that stuff and not be entertaining?
It helps that director Paolo Sorrentino mounts the project as a sort of orgy of rampant excess, and then complements that fury by having it swirl around the impressive, disturbingly clenched performance of actor Toni Servillo as Andreotti. Watching the film, you may wish there was a MapQuest for Italian politics, but you won’t be bored.
Here’s my interview with Sorrentino.Okay, no fooling, IL DIVO is a challenge. It boasts tons of characters who probably... more
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A 2-year-old pit bull named Blitz is getting the hero treatment today after he frightened a man dragging his estranged wife across a street in a possible abduction attempt.
The 33-year-old suspect had broken into the Thomas Avenue home where his wife was staying, then began dragging her across nearby South Shore Drive when Blitz bolted into action.
"I didn't think he had it in him, but I guess he did," said the dog's proud owner, also credited for helping the victim escape her attacker.
The 32-year-old pet owner, who didn't want to be named, heard the woman screaming in the street about 11 p.m. Wednesday and came out of her South Shore Drive duplex apartment to help. At the same time, Blitz raced past her and out the door.
The gray pit bull made an aggressive beeline straight for the suspect. As Blitz came near, the man let loose of his wife, enabling her to break away and get inside the dog owner's apartment.
Blitz, described as a gentle dog who likes to lick faces, never attacked the suspect.
"I thought he was going to attack him, though," said Blitz's owner, who managed to drag her dog back inside her apartment.
The dog owner, who raised Blitz from a puppy, said she believed the attacker would have made it to his car without Blitz's imposing presence.
"The man was very determined," she said.
Holland police said the estranged husband, who at some point was armed with a kitchen knife, broke a rear glass door to get inside the victim's home. He then entered her bedroom and assaulted her. She managed to momentarily break free and flee the home, then started screaming in the street in her bathrobe before he chased her down.
"The dog created enough of a distraction where it created a window of opportunity for her to run," Holland police Capt. Rick Walters said.
Police arrived at the scene moments after the 32-year-old victim, Blitz and his owner got into the apartment. The man was pacing in the apartment's front yard for a minute or two before police arrived and arrested him.
Police recovered a knife at the scene.
"I think my dog kind of kept him away from coming closer to the apartment," Blitz's owner said.
The victim told the dog owner that her husband broke into the home using a hammer and had sent her suicidal text messages earlier in the day.
Holland District Court officials said they expected the suspect to be arraigned today on charges of first-degree home invasion and domestic violence.A 2-year-old pit bull named Blitz is getting the hero treatment today after he... more
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The standoff between a man who seized a Canadian charter flight in Jamaica and authorities ended Monday with the capture of the hijacker, police said.
The gunman, described by authorities as "mentally challenged," seized the Boeing 737 Sunday at Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, robbed passengers, held several crew members hostage and demanded he be taken to Cuba, CNN reported.
CanJet Airlines Flight 918 originated in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and was on a scheduled stop at Montego Bay when the incident began, officials said. It was scheduled to fly to Santa Clara, Cuba.
The gunman fired a shot in the boarding bridge to the plane then took a number of passengers and crew hostage, said Elizabeth Scotton, a spokeswoman for the company that runs the airport.
The aircraft was carrying 174 passengers and eight crew members, Kent Woodside, CanJet's vice president, said. The hijacker earlier released all of the passengers, all from Canada, along with two crew members.
Two of the remaining six crew members locked themselves in the cockpit, Jamaican Information Minister Daryl Vaz said.The standoff between a man who seized a Canadian charter flight in Jamaica and... more
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One of two aid workers still held by militants in the Philippines has been freed, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Saturday. ICRC officials spoke briefly by telephone to Andreas Notter and confirmed he is free, an ICRC spokeswoman in Geneva, Switzerland, said, but no other details were immediately available.
A doctor was with Notter as a precaution, Nelson said. He remained in the Philippines but his exact location was unclear, she said.
"Considering what he's been through over the past 93 days, he seems to be doing quite well but is obviously very concerned for (fellow hostage) Eugenio Vagni, whom he spent the past 93 days with," Nelson said. The Philippine News Agency said Notter's captors released him Saturday morning.
The agency cited a military spokesman, Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo, who himself cited "sketchy reports" that Notter was found by security forces cordoning off his kidnappers.
Notter was among three Red Cross workers kidnapped January 15 on the island of Sulu, in the far southwestern part of the Philippines, the ICRC has said.
The kidnappers released one of the hostages, Mary Jean Lacaba, earlier this month. The third staff member, Eugenio Vagni, remains in captivity.
The three had been in the region to inspect a provincial prison and were on their way to the airport when they were seized by armed men riding motorcycles, the ICRC has said.One of two aid workers still held by militants in the Philippines has been freed, the... more
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