2 girls arrested in Florida bullying case

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (AP) — Two Florida girls who were primarily responsible for bullying a 12-year-old girl who killed herself were arrested after one of them acknowledged the harassment online, a sheriff said Tuesday.

Police in central Florida have been investigating the death of 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick, who climbed a tower at an abandoned concrete plant Sept. 9 and hurled herself to her death. Authorities said as many as 15 girls may have bullied Rebecca and the investigation was continuing.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the arrests of the girls, ages 14 and 12, were hastened when the older girl posted Saturday on Facebook, saying she bullied Rebecca but she didn't care.

"We decided that we can't leave her out there. Who else is she going to torment, who else is she going to harass?" Judd said.

The 14-year-old girl was accused of threatening to beat up Rebecca while they were sixth-graders at Crystal Lake Middle School, telling her "to drink bleach and die" and saying she should kill herself, the sheriff said. The older girl convinced the younger girl to bully Rebecca, and they both repeatedly intimidated her, called her names and once the younger girl even beat Rebecca up, police said.

Both girls were charged as juveniles with third-degree felony aggravated stalking. If convicted, it's not clear how much time, if any at all, the girls would spend in juvenile detention because they did not have any previous criminal history, the sheriff said.

"Time may not be the best trainer here. We've got the change this behavior of these children," Judd said.

The sheriff's office identified the two girls, but The Associated Press generally does not name juveniles charged with crimes.

Judd said the bullying began after the 14-year-old girl started dating a boy Rebecca had been seeing. The older girl didn't like that and "began to harass and ultimately torment Rebecca," Judd said.

A man who answered the phone at the 14-year-old's Lakeland home said he was her father and told The Associated Press "none of it's true."

"My daughter's a good girl and I'm 100 percent sure that whatever they're saying about my daughter is not true," he said.

At the mobile home, a barking pit bull stood guard and no one came outside despite shouts from reporters for an interview.

Neighbor George Colom said he had never interacted personally with girl but noticed her playing roughly with other children on the street.

"Kids getting beat up, kids crying," Colom said. "The kids hang loose unsupervised all the time."

A telephone message left at the 12-year-old girl's home was not immediately returned and no one answered the door to her home.

The girls were arrested Monday night and released to their parents' custody. Judd said the 14-year-old was "very cold, had no emotion at all upon her arrest."

The girls remain on home detention.

The younger girl was Rebecca's former best friend, but the sheriff said the older girl turned her and others against Rebecca, out of fear they would be bullied, too.

Before her death, Rebecca changed one of her online screen names to "That Dead Girl" and she messaged a boy in North Carolina: "I'm jumping." Detectives found some of her diaries at her home, and she talked of how depressed she was about the situation.

Last December, Rebecca was hospitalized for three days after cutting her wrists because of what she said was bullying, according to the sheriff. Later, after Rebecca complained that she had been pushed in the hallway and that another girl wanted to fight her, Rebecca's mother began home-schooling her in Lakeland, a city of about 100,000 midway between Tampa and Orlando, Judd said.

This fall, Rebecca started at a new school, Lawton Chiles Middle Academy, but the bullying continued online, authorities said.

Judd said he was upset the girls who were arrested still had access to social networks, even after Rebecca's suicide.

"If we can find any charges we can bring against their parents, we will," Judd said.

___

Kay reported from Miami.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-girls-arrested-florida-bullying-case-164108414.html
Tags: Blacklist   iPhone 5S   Ariel Castro   khan academy   Clint Dempsey  

Dutch police arrest 'cocaine smuggling' Schiphol workers

The Hague (AFP) - Dutch police have arrested several airport workers at Amsterdam's Schiphol who allegedly picked up cocaine packages stashed aboard planes arriving from Latin America, a gendarme spokesman said on Tuesday.

A total of 15 people have been arrested since July, seven of them employed by the same company at Schiphol, spokesman Robert van Kapel told AFP, declining to name the company.

"Further arrests are not excluded," he added.

The men, aged 23 to 65, are Dutch, Turkish and Colombian citizens, he said.

They were arrested in raids on homes in and around Amsterdam.

Van Kapel said "tens-of-kilos" of cocaine had been hidden on flights from Central and South America, but he declined to say where on the planes the drugs were stashed.

"The flights were never put in danger as a result," he added, saying the investigation was ongoing.

The 15 men are to face charges of drug smuggling and some also face illegal weapons charges, Van Kapel said.

Last year Dutch authorities arrested 12 airport workers suspected of helping to smuggle cocaine from the Caribbean.

In March last year, gendarmes at Schiphol confiscated 300 kilos of cocaine from South and Central America with an estimated street value of 12 million euros ($16 million).

The haul was one of the largest in recent years at the airport.

Schiphol is Europe's fourth-busiest airport with between 120,000 to 140,000 passengers passing through daily.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dutch-police-arrest-cocaine-smuggling-schiphol-workers-130444276.html
Similar Articles: calvin johnson   eagles   philadelphia eagles   khan academy   Nick Jonas  

Migrants say they were fired upon leaving Libya

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Migrants who were rescued after their smugglers' boat capsized in the Mediterranean say they were shot at as they left a Libyan port, making plain that perilous seas are not the only dangers refugees face when they flee their homes for Europe.

A Syrian man who would not give his name told a small group of reporters that the boat they were on was chased by another as soon as it left Libya and that "shots were fired" toward them. He did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals against family members still in Syria.

The U.N. Refugee Agency says three were injured in the shooting, citing migrant accounts.

The rickety boat packed with as many as 400 migrants by some survivor accounts —mostly people fleeing civil war in Syria — capsized 65 miles south of the Italian island of Lampedusa on Friday. At least 34 died, while 202 survivors were taken to Malta and Sicily. Search operations continued Sunday.

It was not clear who was behind the shooting. But the account highlights that refugees fleeing war and repression in Africa and the Middle East face many dangers even before they hit the open waters of the Mediterranean, where hundreds have died in a string of shipwrecks over the last 10 days.

Many make their way by land to Libya where they pay smugglers to ferry them to Europe's nearest shores — Lampedusa or the island nation of Malta. Libya has been riven by turmoil and has been struggling with militias since the ouster of dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Another survivor, Emd Hassan, told The Sunday Times of Malta that he paid $1,000 for the boat trip from Zwara, Libya, but said refugees who left from Egypt paid as much as $3,000 to $4,000.

The 38-year-old Damascus University graduate said he could not travel via normal routes because he has no travel documents and could not get any due to the conflict in Syria. "I had no alternative," the paper quoted him as saying.

The boat left Zwara at midnight and, apart from the early shooting incident, experienced smooth sailing until the weather conditions changed and the vessel started taking on water, capsizing at 4 p.m. Friday, according to Hassan.

"It was horrible. I had three children with me and I could not see them, even though they were right beside me," he said.

On Sunday, Malta's prime minister, Joseph Muscat, made an unannounced visit in Tripoli to discuss the refugee flow with Libya's prime minister, Ali Zidan.

The prime minister's office said the leaders stressed the importance of better cooperation between Europe and Libya, but the statement did not identify any concrete proposals.

"Smugglers have gained long experience," Zidan told reporters in the capital Tripoli, but "we are determined to solve illegal immigration and we have asked the European Union to train and help supply us with equipment."

Muscat said there were conflicting reports about the shooting, but he pledged an investigation. "Some people say the naval forces and others say militias," he said.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres called for an investigation into the shooting incident to bring the perpetrators to justice. He also expressed concern that Syrians fleeing conflict have sought to reach Europe by such a perilous route, calling it "inhumane."

"They escaped bullets and bombs only to perish before they could ever claim asylum," he said.

The tragedy came just eight days after at least 365 people, mostly Eritreans, died when their boat sank within sight of Lampedusa, in one of the worst verified migrant sea tragedies in the Mediterranean. A ferry with 150 caskets of the victims arrived in Sicily on Sunday.

Despite the dangers, the boats keep coming. Authorities have rescued hundreds more at sea this weekend.

Italian Prime Minister Letta has announced that Italy will reinforce its naval and aircraft presence along the most-traveled corridors this week.

"The operation is needed in order to guarantee that the Mediterranean Sea could became a safer sea, especially where the Mediterranean Sea has become a graveyard these days," Letta said this weekend.

____

Colleen Barry in Milan, Maggie Michael in Tripoli, Libya, and Andrea Rosa in Agrigento, Sicily, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/migrants-were-fired-upon-leaving-libya-154927094.html
Related Topics: michigan football   What Time Does Ios 7 Come Out   apple   catherine zeta jones   tesla model s  

'Gravity' keeps spinning with $43.2M at box office

"Gravity" isn't leaving orbit.

The Warner Bros. astronaut adventure starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney landed in the top spot at the box office for the second weekend in a row, earning $43.2 million and raising its domestic total to $122.3 million.

Sony's pirate drama "Captain Phillips" starring Tom Hanks launched in second place with a $25.7 million.

The animated Sony movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" rolled into third place in its third weekend with $13.7 million, bringing its domestic haul to $77.6 million.

The weekend's only other new wide release, the gun-filled sequel "Machete Kills," opened in fourth place with $3.8 million.

___

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Monday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Rentrak, are:

1. "Gravity," Warner Bros., $43,188,256, 3,660 locations, $11,800 average, $122,323,175, 2 weeks.

2. "Captain Phillips," Sony, $25,718,314, 3,020 locations, $8,516 average, $25,718,314, 1 week.

3. "Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2," Sony, $13,774,742, 3,874 locations, $3,556 average, $77,611,419, 3 weeks.

4. "Machete Kills," Open Road, $3,837,183, 2,538 locations, $1,512 average, $3,837,183, 1 week.

5. "Runner Runner," Fox, $3,770,288, 3,026 locations, $1,246 average, $14,159,246, 2 weeks.

6. "Prisoners," Warner Bros., $3,635,392, 2,855 locations, $1,273 average, $53,590,271, 4 weeks.

7. "Insidious: Chapter 2," FilmDistrict, $2,720,492, 2,156 locations, $1,262 average, $78,517,509, 5 weeks.

8. "Rush," Universal, $2,385,655, 2,130 locations, $1,120 average, $22,222,924, 4 weeks.

9. "Don Jon," Relativity, $2,369,453, 1,996 locations, $1,187 average, $20,170,603, 3 weeks.

10. "Baggage Claim," Fox, $2,033,062, 1,320 locations, $1,540 average, $18,230,540, 3 weeks.

11. "Enough Said," Fox, $1,911,256, 606 locations, $3,154 average, $8,162,855, 4 weeks.

12. "Pulling Strings," Lionsgate, $1,270,218, 428 locations, $2,968 average, $4,244,686, 2 weeks.

13. "We're the Millers", Warner Bros., $1,101,318, 1,150 locations, $958 average, $146,525,205, 10 weeks.

14. "Instructions Not Included," Lionsgate, $1,041,966, 711 locations, $1,465 average, $42,716,454, 7 weeks.

15. "Lee Daniels' The Butler," Weinstein Co., $623,672, 980 locations, $636 average, $113,544,443, 9 weeks.

16. "The Family," Relativity, $583,845, 1,050 locations, $556 average, $35,808,194, 5 weeks.

17. "Grace Unplugged," Roadside Attractions, $524,412, 502 locations, $1,045 average, $1,748,324, 2 weeks.

18. "Romeo and Juliet," Relativity, $520,116, 461 locations, $1,128 average, $520,116, 1 week.

19. "Despicable Me 2," Universal, $505,615, 434 locations, $1,165 average, $363,060,130, 15 weeks.

20. "Monsters University," Disney, $356,823, 235 locations, $1,518 average, $267,047,978, 17 weeks.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gravity-keeps-spinning-43-2m-box-office-211950264--finance.html
Similar Articles: redskins   Lane Kiffin   kansas city chiefs   world war z   Seaside Heights  

Majandra Delfino: Why I Pierced My Daughter’s Ears

"Her name is Cecilia Walton and she's totally my coloring so she looks totally like a white girl, and it's kind of a bummer," Delfino admits.Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/Gvrgl8lrhHM/
Similar Articles: Prisoners   Jason Heyward   Betty Pino   Sean Sasser   emmy nominations  

Alan Rickman On 'CBGB' And The Importance Of Listening

Alan Rickman tells NPR's Arun Rath he wasn't familiar with CBGB or the punk scene until he began working on the film.

Beau Giann/XLrator Media

Alan Rickman tells NPR's Arun Rath he wasn't familiar with CBGB or the punk scene until he began working on the film.

Beau Giann/XLrator Media

After several failed musical ventures and two bankruptcies, New Yorker Hilly Kristal decided to try something new. In 1973, he opened a bar in Lower Manhattan intended to showcase sounds not so indigenous to the urban landscape: country, bluegrass and blues. And so came the name for the dive bar CBGB.

Eventually bands flocked to the venue, but with a sound far from what Kristal had intended. The bar became a hub for the emerging punk rock scene. Bands from the Ramones to Blondie and the Talking Heads performed on its stage. For more than 30 years, Kristal gave unrehearsed, outlandish bands a space to grow and be discovered.

"[Kristal was] rigorous about saying to the groups that he never expected to be supporting, 'OK, you can come and play here, but only original music, no covers,' " actor Alan Rickman tells Arun Rath. Rickman plays Kristal in the new film CBGB. "That's a brave thing to say at that time. And that puts him in the forefront of being a kind of revolutionary.

"Music moved on because of him, because he allowed a marketplace to happen."

CBGB closed in 2006 and Kristal died almost a year later.

The London-born actor, perhaps best known for his role as Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies, says he didn't know about CBGB before the film.

"When the club started in the '70s, of course, I was back in England, very much an art student or a drama student," Rickman says. "I didn't really come to New York for any length of time until the mid-80s."

Rupert Grint — who starred with Rickman in the Harry Potter films — plays Cheetah Chrome, guitarist for the real-life punk band The Dead Boys.

Beau Giann/XLrator Media

Rupert Grint — who starred with Rickman in the Harry Potter films — plays Cheetah Chrome, guitarist for the real-life punk band The Dead Boys.

Beau Giann/XLrator Media

To prepare for the role, Rickman immersed himself in watching Kristal on tapes and DVDs.

"It's an incredible luxury now to be able to, if you're playing somebody that recent in time, to have hours of him walk and talk," he says.

Rickman talks about the challenges of playing historical characters and how directing and acting in different platforms has shaped his career.

Interview Highlights

On playing historical characters

If you're playing somebody who has lived, the difference is that you become ultimately very protective of them ... because the most important thing that you should never do with someone you're playing is to judge them. And, obviously with someone like Reagan or Louis XIV — people have a lot of opinions and lots of books have been written. You have to have both feet firmly in both camps, if you see what I mean so that you don't judge the character.

On acting in film, television and on stage

I think that being lucky enough to have worked in film, with hindsight, actually helps you in the theater because it encourages you to know that to watch somebody thinking is interesting and also to watch somebody listening is interesting. So I think that's been quite a profound influence to me on stage as an actor and as a director.

And, I would say that if I have learned anything that boils down to one phrase it would be that acting is about accurate listening.

On editing films as an actor

It's thrilling and painful. I think it's certainly true that a film tells you what it wants to be at some point. You have a script, and then you shoot it, and some of it's planned and some of it's improvised. You have to kind of work around the weather and the budget and time and how long you're at a location or not. And then, a mysterious force called film tells you what to cut and what to keep.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/13/229872362/alan-rickman-on-cbgb-and-the-importance-of-listening?ft=1&f=1045
Category: Jeff Daniels   kenya   constitution day   Jason Heyward   Karen Black  

India Post inks deal with UAE firm for instant money transfer

New Delhi, Oct 11 (IANS) India's Department of Posts Friday said it has signed an agreement with Wall Street Exchange, a unit of UAE based Emirates Post Group, to facilitate instant transfer of money, especially by the Indian diaspora in the Gulf.

The first transfer of money under the "instant cash" facility was done from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to India Post or department of posts, here this week.

"The service will be rolled out nationally in a phased manner and will be made available at approximately 17,500 post offices across India by next month," the communications ministry said in a statement here.

The service will be provided through the International Financial System (IFS) of Universal Postal Union.

"This tie-up offers the Indian diaspora worldwide - especially in the Gulf region - a safe, secure and reliable money transfer service for their families back home," it said.

India is the world's largest recipient of remittances with over $70 billion annually, half of which come from the Gulf countries.

Under the new facility money will be made available to the customers within minutes of completing the transaction.

"Recipients will be able to receive their payment at any of the identified 17,500 post offices by producing the unique transaction number along with their identity and know your customer (KYC) documents," the statement said.

India Post is the largest postal network in the world with 1.55 lakh Post Offices in the country, of which more than 1.39 lakh are in the rural area.

Besides mail, India Post also provides various financial services like small savings instruments under Post Office Savings Bank and money remittance, both domestic and international.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/india-post-inks-deal-uae-firm-instant-money-102403279--finance.html
Tags: Miss World 2013   9news   nasdaq   new iphone   Karen Black