BEIJING - An attacker with a cleaver hacked to death seven children and two adults at a kindergarten in northwest China on Wednesday, the latest in a string of savage assaults on the country’s schools. Eleven other children were wounded.

The killer, 48-year-old Wu Huanming, returned home after the attack on the outskirts of the city of Hanzhong and committed suicide, the local government reported.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Wu owned the property used by the school and had argued with the school’s manager, who was among the victims.

It was the fifth major assault on young students in China since late March and occurred despite increased security at schools countrywide, with gates and security cameras installed at some schools and additional police and guards posted at entrances. It was not clear if security had been beefed up at the school attacked Wednesday.

The latest deaths were sure to fuel speculation about why assailants — usually lone males — are targeting schools.

Sociologists say the recent attacks that have killed 17 and wounded more than five dozen reflect the tragic consequences of ignoring mental illness and rising stress resulting from huge social inequalities in China’s fast-changing society.

“The perpetrators have contracted a ’social psychological infectious disease’ that shows itself in a desire to take revenge on society,” said Zhou Xiaozheng of Beijing’s Renmin University.

“They pick children as targets because they are the weakest and most vulnerable,” Zhou said.

The recent attacks are classic “copycat crimes,” the effects of which may be amplified by media coverage, Zhou said.

Limited media coverage
After past attacks, authorities have banned or limited media coverage, and early reports on Wednesday’s attack were removed from Chinese websites or moved to less prominent pages. There was no mention of it on state television’s national evening news report.

The apparent attempts to play down the assault may indicate fears that coverage inspires other assailants, but authorities may also have wanted to avoid the embarrassing news, especially during the World Expo in Shanghai, a pet government project.

The attack began at about 8:20 a.m., as children were arriving at the private Shengshui Temple Kindergarten in Hanzhong’s Nanzheng county, a Hanzhong government statement said. The area is on the city’s rural outskirts in a relatively poor part of the country, and images posted on the Internet showed the school, which had only about 20 students, housed in a tumbledown two-story farmhouse.

Wu killed the school’s manager, 50-year-old Wu Hongying, and a student on the spot, then hacked at 18 others, the statement and Xinhua said. Six students and Wu Hongying’s 80-year-old mother later died in the hospital, the reports said. None of the 11 others hospitalized was in immediate danger, it said.

Wu is a common Chinese surname and it wasn’t clear if the assailant and administrator were related.

Citing the police, Xinhua said Wu had rented his house to Wu Hongying for the kindergarten without government approval. He then demanded the property back, but Wu Hongying had asked to hold onto it until the children went on summer vacation.

The ages of the seven children killed were not disclosed, but kindergarten students would typically be 5 years old or younger. Xinhua said they were five boys and two girls.

Problem under control?
State media have steered clear of examining what might be motivating school attackers, preferring to focus on increases in security.

The government has sought to show it has the problem under control, mindful especially of worries among middle-class families who, limited in most cases to one child due to population control policies, invest huge amounts of money and effort to raise their offspring.

Recent scandals in which children have been the main victims have sparked public anger and occasional protests, such as when at least 3,000 children around the country were found to have lead poisoning from polluting factories built too close to villages, and when more than 300,000 infants were sickened by tainted baby milk powder.

The statement from the Hanzhong city government after Wednesday’s attack vowed to “leave no stone unturned, learn from the mistakes, and strictly ensure nothing happens like this again.”

The city government earlier reported that about 2,000 police officers and security guards had been detailed to patrol public schools, kindergartens and surrounding areas beginning last week. The city in Shaanxi province has a population of nearly 4 million.

Parents and grandparents waiting to pick up children at schools in Beijing and Shanghai said they were reassured by the increased security.

“When we hear about those attacks on children, all parents worry. We don’t let the child walk home alone,” said Guo Xiumei, 52, waiting to pick up her 7-year-old grandson at Beijing’s Yonganli Elementary School. Two police officers and a pair of security guards flanked the downtown school’s tall metal gate.

In Shanghai, a father waiting in his car outside the Aiguo Elementary School, where a single uniformed policeman stood watch at the gate, said he would adjust his work schedule to drop off and pick up his daughter.

“Who knows how those people think? They shouldn’t take out their dissatisfaction with society on innocent children. It’s not fair,” said the man, who gave only his surname, Su.

The string of school assaults began with an attack on a primary school in March in the city of Nanping in Fujian province where eight children were slashed to death by a former community clinic doctor with a history of mental health problems. Since then, dozens have been wounded in similar attacks.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): CHINADIGITALTIMES, THEEPOCHTIMES

On any other day at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Daniel Galli and his four friends would not even be noticed for wearing T-shirts with the American flag. But Cinco de Mayo is not any typical day especially on a campus with a large Mexican American student population.

Galli says he and his friends were sitting at a table during brunch break when the vice principal asked two of the boys to remove American flag bandannas that they wearing on their heads and for the others to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out. When they refused, the boys were ordered to go to the principal’s office.

“They said we could wear it on any other day,” Daniel Galli said, “but today is sensitive to Mexican-Americans because it’s supposed to be their holiday so we were not allowed to wear it today.”

The boys said the administrators called their T-shirts “incendiary” that would lead to fights on campus.

“They said if we tried to go back to class with our shirts not taken off, they said it was defiance and we would get suspended,” Dominic Maciel, Galli’s friend, said.

The boys really had no choice, and went home to avoid suspension. They say they’re angry they were not allowed to express their American pride. Their parents are just as upset, calling what happened to their children, “total nonsense.”

“I think it’s absolutely ridiculous,” Julie Fagerstrom, Maciel’s mom, said. “All they were doing was displaying their patriotic nature. They’re expressing their individuality.”

But to many Mexican-American students at Live Oak, this was a big deal. They say they were offended by the five boys and others for wearing American colors on a Mexican holiday.

“I think they should apologize cause it is a Mexican Heritage Day,” Annicia Nunez, a Live Oak High student, said. “We don’t deserve to be get disrespected like that. We wouldn’t do that on Fourth of July.”

As for an apology, the boys and their families say, “fat chance.”

“I’m not going to apologize. I did nothing wrong,” Galli said. “I went along with my normal day. I might have worn an American flag, but I’m an American and I’m proud to be an American.”

The five boys and their families met with a Morgan Hill Unified School District official Wednesday night. The district released a statement saying it does not agree with how Live Oak High School administrators handled this incident.

The boys will not be suspended and they were told they can go back to school Thursday. They may even wear their red, white, and blue colors again, but this time, the day after Cinco de Mayo, there will be no controversy.

Source (article): MSN

Source (picture): CAFEPRESS

KIEV - Opposition lawmakers hurled eggs and smoke bombs inside Ukraine’s parliament Tuesday as the chamber approved an agreement allowing the Russian Navy to extend its stay in a Ukrainian port until 2042.

Thousands of opposition demonstrators rallied outside the parliament building as deputies from newly elected President Viktor Yanukovich’s coalition approved a 25-year extension to the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s base in Crimea.

The chamber of the parliament filled with smoke as smoke bombs were released and Speaker Volodymyr Litvyn took shelter under his umbrella as eggs rained down on him.

Russia’s lower house of parliament also approved the deal to extend the lease on the naval base at Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Sevastopol Tuesday.

Ukrainian nationalists, led by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former President Yushchenko, regard the base as a betrayal of Ukraine’s national interests. They wanted to remove it when the existing lease runs out in 2017.

But parliament ratified the lease extension by 236 votes — 10 more than the minimum required for it to pass.

Yanukovich agreed to the navy base deal with Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev on April 21 in exchange for a 30 percent cut in the price of Russian gas to Ukraine — a boon to Kiev’s struggling economy.

The Russian fleet has been based in Sevastopol since the reign of Catherine the Great in the 18th century. But, under an accord after Ukraine gained independence following the break-up of the Soviet Union, the fleet would have had to leave in 2017.

A blind eye’
Yushchenko, Yanukovich’s pro-Western predecessor who favored Ukrainian membership of NATO, pushed hard when he was in office for the fleet to be withdrawn on time in 2017.

But the newly elected Yanukovich says he wants to significantly improve ties with Ukraine’s former Soviet master. He says the Black Sea fleet in Crimea does not endanger Ukraine’s national interests and enhances European security.

Yanukovich’s opponents say he is acting against the constitution. But the constitution is ambiguous, containing two contradictory articles on the stationing of foreign military bases in the country.

“If society today turns a blind eye to the Kharkiv agreement, it is possible that it will be the biggest loss to our sovereignty and independence,” Yushchenko said at the weekend, referring to the meeting in the city of Kharkiv where Yanukovich and Medvedev agreed the deal.

The Russian fleet in Sevastopol comprises about 16,200 servicemen, a rocket cruiser, a large destroyer and about 40 other vessels including submarines, landing craft, small destroyers and support ships.

To the embarrassment of Yushchenko, the fleet sent warships to support Russian military action against Ukraine’s then-ally, the former Soviet republic of Georgia during Russia’s brief war there in August 2008.

Opponents of the Black Sea deal say that, by hosting the Black Sea fleet, Ukraine could be dragged into future Moscow conflicts with other powers.

Proponents point out that the Crimea was part of Russia until then-Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gave it to Ukraine in the 1950s. The region retains a strongly Russian-leaning population.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): MSNBC

Deputies said Jose Maisonet-Maldonado stabbed his girlfriend Saturday night and then ran over her. He then led deputies on a chase before he crashed into two cars on Colonial Drive.

Maisonet-Maldonado is in serious condition at Orlando Regional Medical Center where he is being treated for his injuries. He faces charges for murder, vehicular homicide and running from deputies.

On Sunday, there was a memorial at Jay Blanchard Park for 35-year-old Berlitz Alvelo. Orange County sheriff’s investigators said the day before her boyfriend, 25-year-old Jose Maisonet-Maldonado stabbed her in the park, and ran over her body with his car.

Alvelo called 911 before she died.

“He called my grandmother and he told her what he did,” said Ariannette Alvelo, victim’s niece.

When deputies caught up with Maisonet-Maldonado, he led them on a chase that ended on Colonial Drive near Interstate-4.

The suspect crashed his white BMW into a red, two-door and another car that was damaged beyond recognition.

Amanda Taylor and Franschesca Jeffrey were each inside one of the vehicles and were killed.

“My heart also goes out to others who lost their loves one. They also lost their loved ones too,” said Alvelo.

Family members said the couple had a violent, five-year-long relationship. Those who live near the couple’s Curry Ford home told Eyewitness News they heard the couple fight all the time and the police were called to their home several times.

“I’m not angry with him because the law will deal with him properly,” said Alvelo, victim’s niece.

The family of the woman killed in the crash, Amanda Taylor, released a statement about her death.

Her brother said she was, “a loving woman, who adored her family and friends. She worked at Florida Hospital, and cared about others, and she will be deeply missed.”

Taylor just celebrated her 28th birthday last Tuesday.

Maisonet-Maldonado has been arrested for battery and domestic violence in the past. In 2005, he was accused of beating his girlfriend with a hammer outside a convenience store off Dean Road in East Orange County. It is not known if the alleged victim in that case was Berlitz Alvelo.

Now, he faces first-degree murder charges and two count of vehicular homicide.

Source (article): WFTV

Source (picture): KATU

BELFAST, Maine - A Maine man has been sentenced to two years in prison for forcing his 4-year-old son and 6-year-old son to fight each other while he watched.

Twenty-six-year-old Pedro Delgado-Bristol pleaded guilty Tuesday in Waldo County Superior Court to assault and other charges.

The Bangor Daily News says the boys told detectives they were forced to punch, kick and knee each other on Jan. 9 at Delgado-Bristol’s Rockport home. The boys also told investigators Delgado-Bristol hit the younger boy with a sandal when the boy refused to fight any more.

The boys’ mother saw the injuries and reported the father to authorities.

A judge called Delgado-Bristol’s actions “depraved” and barred him from having unsupervised contact with either boy.

Source (article): MSNBC

Source (picture): 360pi.WORDPRESS