Mind-controlled gaming becoming a reality

Man goes undercover to combat child sex slavery By Leif Coorlim, CNN Producer STORY HIGHLIGHTS NGO: As many as 30 percent of sex workers in Cambodia are children U.S. official: Cambodia not making enough progress to combat trafficking Aaron Cohen helps free trafficking victims around the world One girl he rescued dies; family says death due to impact of sex work Phnom Penh, Cambodia (CNN) -- Aaron Cohen first met Jonty Thern and her older sister, Channy, in 2005 while singing in a karaoke bar in Battambang, Cambodia. He has come back to see them every year since. The California native often schedules his trips for November, the month when Cambodians celebrate the Bonn Om Teuk water festival, marking the end of the rainy season. "The whole country comes together for boat races. Hundreds of thousands of people descend on the waterfront and it's filled with colors and flags," said Cohen. "You know my thoughts about the water festival always include Jonty, because she and her sister would get a day pass during the festival." There was a smile on his face when he started the sentence, but by the time he had finished, it was gone. Abolishing slavery Cohen is a human rights advocate. He founded a charity called AbolishSlavery.org last year, but his work freeing victims of human trafficking began more than a decade ago. At 6'5" (195 cm) with long, black hair, he stands out in almost every crowd. But Cohen often goes undercover to obtain the information needed for law enforcement officials to conduct raids and make arrests. His trips have taken him around the world, from Sudan to Nicaragua to Israel. But, he says, in Southeast Asia the problem is especially bad. "I would rank Cambodia right up there with India as one of the worst places in the world for sex-trafficking." A bad problem getting worse According to the NGO, End Child Prostitution, Abuse and Trafficking (ECPAT), as many as one-third of all sex workers in Cambodia are children. Government entities, including the U.S. State Department, are pressuring countries like Cambodia to do more to stop the modern-day slavery epidemic. "We are making major strides in the fight against human trafficking. But it is a major problem, we know that," said Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca, who leads the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. "You have estimates as to the number of people in servitude worldwide and it's anywhere from 12.3 million on the low end as cited by UN's International Labour Organization -- to as many as 27 million people on the high end. That's a number coming from the research done by (the aid organization) Free the Slaves. But 12.3 million is a baseline number that everybody agrees that there are at least that many people in forced labor, and that's far too many." In its comprehensive 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report, the State Department put Cambodia on its Tier 2 Watch List. The ranking means the Cambodian government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, but is making an effort to do so. "[In Cambodia] the number of victims is increasing and the number of prosecutions has gone down from the previous year," says CdeBaca. "The report shows that despite the overall effort, the government has not shown enough progress in convicting and punishing human trafficking offenders or protecting trafficking victims." Cambodia is categorized as a destination country for foreign child sex tourists, with increasing reports of Asian men traveling to Cambodia in order to have sex with underage virgin girls. The State Department report states a significant proportion of trafficking victims in Cambodia are ethnic Vietnamese women and girls who are forced into prostitution in brothels and karaoke bars. A chance encounter Jonty Thern's short life could be a case study for that assessment. Jonty's family immigrated to Cambodia from Vietnam shortly after the Vietnam War. Faced with gripping poverty and a debt, Jonty's mother sold her daughter, who was 10-years-old at the time, to a person on Cambodia's border with Thailand. There, the mother was told, Jonty would sell flowers and candy to customers in bars and nightclubs. It was only later the mother says, she would learn that while there, Jonty would be repeatedly raped and beaten. After three years of physical and sexual abuse, Jonty was released by her captors and allowed to return home to Battambang. Soon after, she and her sister willingly went to work at a karaoke bar to help the family pay off their debt, according to her parents. The scenario in which Cohen describes meeting Jonty Thern, then 13-years-old, is as appalling as it is prevalent. "I was working as an undercover sex vice," Cohen said. "I was posing as a sex tourist, going from karaoke bar to karaoke bar, massage parlor to massage parlor, looking for underage workers, to see if I could get them on camera soliciting me for sex." As evidenced in the State Department report, it is a poorly-kept secret in Cambodia that many of these establishments are also operating brothels. "I went to a number of karaokes and about my second or third karaoke of the night and I immediately notice this one really young looking girl. I requested Jonty and her sister and a group of other girls," Cohen said. "In these bars, the girls are told to drink as much as they can, because they'll charge you for the beers. So this girl comes in and I noticed, man, she downed that beer in like 2 seconds. She seemed to be having a good time, she didn't seem unhappy or anything. But here she is nonetheless, a 13-year-old girl in a brothel drinking 10 beers in the time that I drank two," he added. He said he invited several friends who work at a nearby victims' shelter to come join him. They posed as partiers as well, until Cohen felt comfortable to ask the manager an important question. "After the girls began to dance and sing, I asked the mamasan what more can I get besides karaoke and so then she says 'well, for sex it's $50.'" Cohen used the solicitation video from that night, recorded on a cell phone camera, to provide police with the information they needed to raid the karaoke brothel. More than a dozen girls, including Jonty and her sister, Channy, were freed that night and sent to live in a victim's shelter, where they received counseling, care and an education. Final Respects Cohen's most recent trip to see Jonty and Channy in Cambodia was not a happy reunion. It was a trip planned so that he could say goodbye to one of them. Three days before arriving in Phnom Penh for the water festival, Cohen and Channy, along with Channy's mother, spent the morning in an 8th century pagoda in Siem Reap, watching as monks conducted an ancient funeral ceremony. They were transferring Jonty Thern's ashes into a marble urn. Jonty died of liver failure at age 17. Her family claims it was the result of years of alcohol and drug abuse she was subjected to while working first in the nightclubs as a 10-year-old, and then later in the karaoke bars. "The ashes of my goddaughter are the symbol of why we have to do this. This doesn't have to happen. These girls do not have to be enslaved," Cohen said. "We tried our best with Jonty and we failed because we lost her. But if there's meaning in her death, the meaning is that there is more work to be done. When I'm in that karaoke now, or when I'm in that massage parlor, she's my little angel. She's watching over me and she's protecting me," he added. That evening, after watching the festival's fireworks display and saying goodnight to Channy, Cohen strapped an undercover watch camera to his wrist, and went to a karaoke bar.

Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/09/cambodia.wus.child.sex.trafficking/index.html?hpt=C2

Rape, brutality ignored to aid Congo peace

By Jeff Koinange
CNN

BUKAVU, Democratic Republic of Congo (CNN) -- At a makeshift recreation center at a hospital here in eastern Congo, about 500 women surround one of their own, who's lying on the floor.

She clutches a cane as she struggles to get up. The women begin singing, slowly at first and then the song picks up momentum. Before long the young woman lifts herself, drops the cane and begins to walk around the room as if in a trance, singing and clapping. The other women clap along with her as the singing gets louder and louder.

The young woman's name is Tintsi and she's barely 20 years old. She arrived at the hospital three weeks ago on a stretcher carried by relatives who walked 100 miles to get here. Doctors weren't sure Tintsi would ever walk again.

Tintsi, like everyone else in this room, is a victim of the worst kind of sexual violation imaginable. (Watch rape victims try to rebuild their lives -- 5:38)

"Some of them have knives and other sharp objects inserted in them after they've been raped, while others have pistols shoved into their vaginas and the triggers pulled back," said Dr. Denis Mukwege Mukengere, the lone physician at the hospital. "It's a kind of barbarity that only savages are capable of."

He added that "these perpetrators cannot be human beings."

The alleged perpetrators are men in uniform, part of the Congolese army. These troops are a compilation of various militia groups that had been fighting each other for years until a truce was reached two years ago.

A recent report by the United Nations found that Congo's own soldiers were responsible for the nearly seven dozen complaints of crimes and human rights violations over the past two months. Among the crimes committed were extrajudicial executions, disappearances, rapes and brutal beatings, according to the U.N. report.
'I wish they'd killed me'

Tintsi turns to the other victims standing near her and says in a soft, but defiant voice, "They can take away my womanhood, but they'll never be able to break my spirit."

Some women nod, others shake their heads. Some weep openly.

Also in the room is 28-year-old Henriette Nyota. Her spirit is all but broken. Three years ago, she said, she was gang raped as her husband and four children were forced to watch. The men in uniform then disemboweled her husband and continued raping her and her two oldest daughters, 10 and 8. The assault went on for three days.

"I wish they'd killed me right there with my husband," she said, "What use am I now? Why did those animals leave me to suffer like this?"

Nineteen-year-old Nzigire bears the result of repeated sexual violations -- her year-old daughter, Ester. The teenager acknowledges she often contemplates putting an end to what she calls a death sentence.

"I sometimes feel like killing myself and my daughter," she said. "I look at her and all I see is them. I look at myself and all I see is misery."
'Only revenge can make me forget'

Misery permeates this tiny hospital in this huge country the size of Western Europe. Last year there were more than 4,000 reported rape cases in this province alone, or about 12 a day, officials say.

And it's not just women who are being raped; so are some men with equally devastating consequences.

Fifteen-year-old Olivier was sitting down to dinner with his family when the front door of their house was smashed in. Olivier's father was the first to be killed followed by his mother, right in front of the children.

They then raped Olivier's three sisters, and when he tried to fight them they turned on him. One at a time, more than a dozen in all, he said.

"I will never forget what happened to me," he said. "How does one forget something like this? Only revenge can make me forget what happened to me."

Mukengere takes us from ward to ward, where the beds are filled with sexual abuse patients in various stages of recovery. Colostomy bags hang off their cots and bed pans are everywhere. Once in a while, you hear a woman scream in pain as she's raised by the team of tireless nurses to have something to eat or drink.

Mukengere, who attends to an average of 10 new cases a day, explains bed-by-bed the cruelty that has become the Congo.

"Helene, over there, is 19 years old. She first came here five years ago after having been raped," he said. "We treated her and discharged her, and off she went back to her home village. Five years later, she's back after being attacked and sexually violated over and over again. This is pure madness."

Equally troubling is that aid money designated for victims of sexual abuse here may run out at the end of June despite the relative success of this program, the only one of its kind in the region.

"It's so tragic that the world can afford to sit back and let these atrocities continue like this," said aid worker Marie Walterzon of the Swedish Pentecostal Mission. "Possibly because it involves poor, voiceless Africans," she said.

Sadly though, many of the people responsible for these rapes -- what is being described as the new weapon of war in a time of peace -- have yet to be arrested, tried or convicted. The peace process is too delicate at this stage, officials say.

The peace process is too delicate. And at this hospital in the eastern Congo, the rooms are too full.

science
What's Really Behind the Plunge in Teen Pregnancy?
It's time to look at boys' contributions.
By Liza Mundy
Posted Wednesday, May 3, 2006, at 10:20 AM ET

May 3—in case you didn't know it—is "National Day To Prevent Teen Pregnancy." In the past decade, possibly no social program has been as dramatically effective as the effort to reduce teen pregnancy, and no results so uniformly celebrated. Between 1990 and 2000 the U.S. teen pregnancy rate plummeted by 28 percent, dropping from 117 to 84 pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15-19. Births to teenagers are also down, as are teen abortion rates. It's an achievement so profound and so heartening that left and right are eager to take credit for it, and both can probably do so. Child-health advocates generally acknowledge that liberal sex education and conservative abstinence initiatives are both to thank for the fact that fewer teenagers are ending up in school bathroom stalls sobbing over the results of a home pregnancy test.

What, though, if the drop in teen pregnancy isn't a good thing, or not entirely? What if there's a third explanation, one that has nothing to do with just-say-no campaigns or safe-sex educational posters? What if teenagers are less fertile than they used to be?

Not the girls—the boys?

It's a conversation that's taking place among a different and somewhat less vocal interest group: scientists who study human and animal reproduction. Like many scientific inquiries, this one is hotly contested and not likely to be resolved anytime soon. Still, the fact that it's going on provides a useful reminder that not every social trend is the sole result of partisan policy initiatives and think-tank-generated outreach efforts. It reminds us that a drop in something as profound as fertility, in human creatures of any age, might also have something to do with health, perhaps even the future of the species.

The great sperm-count debate began in 1992, when a group of Danish scientist published a study suggesting that sperm counts declined globally by about 1 percent a year between 1938 and 1990. This study postulated that "environmental influences," particularly widely used chemical compounds with an impact like that of the female hormone estrogen, might be contributing to a drop in fertility among males. If true, this was obviously an alarming development, particularly given that human sperm counts are already strikingly low compared to almost any other species. "Humans have the worst sperm except for gorillas and ganders of any animal on the planet," points out Sherman Silber, a high-profile urologist who attributes this in part to short-term female monogamy. Since one man's sperm rarely has to race that of another man to the finish, things like speed and volume are less important in human sperm than in other animals, permitting a certain amount of atrophy among humans.

The Danish study set an argument in motion. Other studies were published showing that sperm counts were staying the same; still others showed them going up. In the late 1990s, however, an American reproductive epidemiologist named Shanna Swan published work confirming the Danish findings. In a well-respected study published in Environmental Health Perspectives, Swan, now at the University of Rochester Medical Center, found that sperm counts are dropping by about 1.5 percent a year in the United States and 3 percent in Europe and Australia, though they do not appear to be falling in the less-developed world. This may not sound like a lot, but cumulatively—like compound interest—a drop of 1 percent has a big effect. Swan showed, further, that in the United States there appears to be a regional variation in sperm counts: They tend to be lower in rural sectors and higher in cities, suggesting the possible impact of chemicals (such as pesticides) particular to one locality.

Swan is part of a group of scientists whose work suggests that environmental changes are indeed having a reproductive impact. Under the auspices of a women's health group at Stanford University and an alliance called the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, some of these scientists met in February 2005 at a retreat in Menlo Park, Calif., to discuss their findings. Among the evidence presented are several trends that seem to point to a subtle feminization of male babies: a worldwide rise in hypospadias, a birth defect in which the urethral opening is located on the shaft of the penis rather than at the tip; a rise in cryptorchidism, or undescended testicles; and experiments Swan has done showing that in male babies with high exposure to compounds called phthalates, something called the anogenital distance is decreasing. If you measure the distance from a baby's anus to the genitals, the distance in these males is shorter, more like that of … girls.

Wildlife biologists also talked about the fact that alligators living in one contaminated Florida lake were found to have small phalli and low testosterone levels, while females in the same lake had problems associated with abnormally high levels of estrogen. In 1980 the alligators' mothers had been exposed to a major pesticide dump, which, some believe, was working like an estrogen on their young, disrupting their natural hormones. A report later published by this group pointed out that similar disruptions have been found in a "wide range of species from seagulls to polar bears, seals to salmon, mollusks to frogs." As evidence that a parent's exposure to toxicants can powerfully affect the development of offspring, the example of DES, or diethylstilbestrol, was also, of course, offered. Widely given to pregnant women beginning in the late 1930s under the mistaken assumption that it would prevent miscarriage, DES left the women unaffected but profoundly affected their female fetuses, some of whom would die of cancer, others of whom would find their reproductive capacity compromised. The consensus was that the so-called chemical revolution may well be disrupting the development of reproductive organs in young males, among others. This research is controversial, certainly, but accepted enough, as a hypothesis, that it appears in developmental-biology textbooks.

Tellingly, the U.S. government is also taking this conversation seriously. Together, the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control are sponsoring a longitudinal effort to study the effect of environment on fertility. This study will track couples living in Texas and Michigan, following their efforts to become pregnant. The aim is to determine whether toxicants are affecting the reproductive potential of female and male alike.

It will be welcome information. In the United States, good statistics about infertility are strikingly hard to come by. There is no government-sponsored effort to track male fertility rates, even though male-factor problems account for half of all infertility. Even among women, who are regularly interrogated about reproductive details, it's difficult to get a good handle on developments. For years, government researchers included only married women in the category of "infertility," creating a real problem for demographers and epidemiologists looking for trends. The National Center for Health Statistics created a second category called "impaired fecundity," which includes any woman, of any marital category, who is trying to get pregnant and not having luck.

And the "impaired fecundity" category contains findings that may have a bearing on the are-young-men-more-infertile-than-their-fathers question. In the United States, "impaired fecundity" among women has seen, over several decades, a steady rise. And while much attention has focused on older women, the most striking rise between 1982 and 1995 took place among women under 25. In that period, impaired fecundity in women under 25 rose by 42 percent, from 4.3 percent of women to 6.1 percent. Recently published data from 2002 show a continued rise in impaired fecundity among the youngest age cohort.

In a 1999 letter to Family Planning Perspectives, Swan sensibly proposed "that the role of the male be considered in this equation." If sperm counts drop each year, then the youngest men will be most acutely affected, and these will be the men who are having trouble impregnating their partners. In 2002, Danish researchers published an opinion piece in Human Reproduction noting that teen pregnancy rates (already much lower than in the United States) fell steadily in Denmark between 1985 and 1999. Unlike in the United States, in Denmark there have been no changes in outreach efforts to encourage responsible behavior in teens: no abstinence campaigns, no big new push for condom distribution. Wider social trends notwithstanding, they note that "it seems reasonable also to consider widespread poor semen quality among men as a potential contributing factor to low fertility rates among teenagers."

Among other things, the sperm-count debate reminds us that we should not be smug about the success of teen-pregnancy prevention efforts. We may not want today's teenagers to become pregnant now, but we certainly want them to become pregnant in the future, providing they want to be. If nothing else, the sperm-count hypothesis shows that when it comes to teenagers and sexual behavior, there's always something new to worry about.
Liza Mundy, a staff writer for the Washington Post, is writing a book about reproductive technology and its impact that will be published next year.

Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2140985/

Angelina Jolie: My life is very full



In an exclusive interview with NBC's Ann Curry, the actress talks about her work in Africa, her relationship with Brad Pitt, and motherhood

Today show

Updated: 10:58 a.m. ET April 26, 2006





Marking Global Education Week, NBC News' Ann Curry travels to Namibia, Africa, for an exclusive interview with Angelina Jolie, who has taken on a new cause, calling for all the world's children to be given the opportunity to get an education. In the interview, Jolie talks about her new life and motherhood. In addition, Jolie reveals to Curry that she is not yet eight months pregnant and knows the sex of her baby. The exclusive interview will be broadcast on Today, Thursday, April 27, and on Dateline, Sunday, April 30.



Here are some excerpts from the interview:



Why global education has seemingly become a global mission for Jolie



Curry: It seems also, for you, kind of a personal thing. You have two children you've adopted, both of whom might have been in this same circumstance of not being able to get educated.



Jolie: I look at them and I just think ... especially my daughter ... there's no possible way she would have gone to school ... she is so smart and so strong. And her potential as a woman one day is great ... hopefully ... she will be active in her country and in her continent when she's older. And because she'll have a good education, she'll be able to do that much more.



How she feels about the new direction her life has taken over the last few years



Jolie: I'm just very glad that I got on it ... my life is very full ... I'm very proud when I see my children, Mad who's four, just how he adjusts to different places in the world and different people and his views and the kind of man he's gonna be. I'm very lucky. But I do feel some people just don't have the chance to discover certain things. And so again ... if anybody was watching, I would say ... we're all exactly the same.



Her relationship with Brad Pitt



Jolie: ... I don't talk about our my relationship in public. But we also don't talk about it at home. You know, it's one of those funny things that like just happens, and you live your life and you're a family. But you never actually discuss



Curry: It's uncomfortable.



Jolie: It's just kind of funny, you know, when you're naturally just together and living your life, and you never have sat down and kind of... so that's why I giggle about it. Because, you know, if he saw this and somebody asked, you know, about like relationship questions, he would probably understand why I was laughing. 'Cause I just don't know how to address that kind of thing.

© 2006 MSNBC Interactive



© 2006 MSNBC.com



URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12495616/

I saw this on cnn.com today and it made me smile. I'd hate to be the parent in this situation but as an observer its pretty darn funny.

Third-grader takes teacher's van for joyride

MODESTO, California (AP) -- An 8-year-old boy swiped his teacher's car keys and took her minivan for a joyride, cruising safely home and into the record books as the city's youngest auto thief, police said.

The third-grader told officers he "just wanted to drive around for a while" when he left the James Marshall School on Monday, officer Michael Amarillas told The Modesto Bee newspaper.

The diminutive driver snatched the keys from teacher Caren Brady's purse when she turned her back to the class.

In order to operate the Dodge Caravan, he raised the driver's seat, lowered the steering wheel, adjusted the rearview mirror and turned off the radio.

"This is the smallest child you can ever imagine," said Brady, who noticed her vehicle missing a couple hours after school, according to the paper.

"I don't think this kid is 4 feet (1.22 meters) tall. He's tiny; he's the tiniest kid in the class."

The boy, whose identity was not released, was suspended from school, Brady said. Nothing was damaged and no one was hurt. Police said they would not charge him with a crime.

A neighbor saw the boy driving and called police. Officers found the van parked in front of the house, which is less than a mile from the school. They lectured the boy after interviewing him.

"You can't do anything but laugh," said Brady, who spent 90 minutes Tuesday teaching other pupils about the consequences of choices they make. She said she would not let the boy return to her class, according to the Bee.

Take the video games away from your kids and send them outside to play!


Fight childhood obesity, diabetes, poor social skills, and depression

Teens Partying To Raise Bail Money Charged With Drinking
76 Minors Taken Into Protective Custody

POSTED: 10:50 am EST March 20, 2006

PELHAM, N.H. -- Teenagers holding a party to raise bail money for a friend ended up having to be bailed out themselves after several were arrested, charged with underage drinking.

Police called it the biggest underage drinking party they had ever seen. Dozens of minors rented out an American Legion hall to host the party. Legion officials said that they were stunned to learn that alcohol was smuggled in.

More than 80 people attended a battle of the bands at the hall on Saturday night. Detective Anne Perriello, who works undercover, said she was at the scene, talking to teenagers in the parking lot, when a boy approached her.

"And he said, 'What's going on?' and I walked around and he had a beer in his hand," Perriello said. "And I said, 'How old are you?' and he said, 'Eighteen.'"

Police arrested the teenager, Kevin Turcotte, of Lancaster, Mass.

Police said that the hall was packed with minors drinking smuggled booze. They were also passing a can asking people to "Free Lee."

"There is a male subject in Dracut, Mass., in his 20s who is well known to the Pelham Police Department who is incarcerated at this time for a burglary that occurred," Pelham Sgt. Mike Pickles said. "They were trying to raise money for his bail money."

Police said that when they started making arrests, teenagers began to scatter, with one jumping out a window. Of the 76 minors detained and questioned, several faced charged.

Anthony Todisco, of Lowell, Mass., is facing alcohol charges. Police also charged Alexander Blow, of Nashua, N.H., with drug possession and indecent exposure.

Police said Brian Smith, of Dracut, ran from the scene, but was arrested when he returned to get his car.

The Legion said it didn't serve any of the minors and were told the money raised was going to a college fund. Officials said they were hoodwinked by the teens.

"We thought we had a tight ship here, but evidently -- these kids are just unbelievable," post Commander Dominick Buonarosa said.

Police said the hall was rented by an 18-year-old and a 19-year-old. They are hoping to charge them with the state's party host law for facilitating the party.


Unexpected Guest Roams Into Fire Station
Longhorn Bull Escapes Nearby Stable

POSTED: 7:53 am CST March 21, 2006
UPDATED: 8:09 am CST March 21, 2006

HOUSTON -- Firefighters are used to receiving calls about rescuing animals from trees, but they could have never imagined having seen what walked through their doors Tuesday morning, KPRC Local 2 reported.


A longhorn bull that escaped from a stable located behind Fire Station No. 23, located on Lawndale Street and Broadway Street, walked into the station at about 2 a.m.

Firefighters said the bull walked in through the station's open garage doors and took a tour.

Houston Police Officer Frank Coronado said the bull was not cooperative at first.

"He didn't want to stay put," Coronado said as he laughed. "He kept wanting to run and we were trying to block him in without hitting him. We didn't want to hurt the cow."

The bull was transported to the Harris County Livestock Office in Humble.

No injuries were reported.



Review: Officer Within Policy To Use Taser For Salad Theft
Incident Occurred At Chuck E. Cheese Restaurant

POSTED: 7:24 am MST March 21, 2006
UPDATED: 10:17 am MST March 21, 2006
Aurora Police Department's review board has ruled on an incident involving a police officer using his Taser gun at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in February of last year.

The Incident Review Board said Monday that the officer acted within police policy when he used a stun gun to subdue a suspect who was allegedly stealing a salad.

The officer said Danon Gale became violent when confronted at the restaurant.

Police were called to the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant on Feb. 27, 2005 when the manager reported a larceny in progress. The manager told officers that a customer had refused to show proof that he had paid for food and that he was seen "loading" his plate at the salad bar.

The officers confronted Gale, who was at the restaurant with his children, ages 3 and 7. Patrons said the popular kids pizza parlor was packed with children and families at the time.

According to police, Gale was asked to step outside to discuss the accusations but he refused to cooperate and a struggle ensued, in which he shoved one of the officers.

The argument escalated until Gale was shoved into the lap of a woman, who was sitting two booths away, holding a 10-month-old baby. That's when police pulled out a Taser stun gun to subdue him, a witness said.

The board of eight people -- including four civilians and four officers -- took three hours looking into the officer's use of force, interviewing 12 witnesses.

Gale reached a plea deal with the city last summer, pleading no contest disturbing the peace in exchange for his promise not to sue the city for $500,000 if five other counts were dismissed against him.

As part of the settlement, the city of Aurora agreed to pay Gale's attorney's fees and medical costs associated with his arrest and also pledged to send the case to the use-of-force board, which was created to review situations in which a police officer's force led to injury or death.

Viagra for stallion who wouldn't horse around...
Tue Mar 21, 8:02 AM ET
A German court ordered viagra to be given to a stallion after his new owner claimed he was impotent and refused to pay the full asking price.
The buyer of the horse called Vedor paid just a tenth of the price of over 4,000 euros ($4,900), claiming it had only one testicle and failed to get frisky with a female pony.
A vet found the testicle after an examination, said Egbert Simons, a spokesman for the court in the eastern town of Neuruppin.
And when the stallion was given the potency drug, it emerged he was fully functional, he added.
The court ordered the buyer to pay the full price.


Mexican soldiers shot dead for not cleaning up
Tue Mar 21, 8:04 AM ET
A Mexican soldier shot dead two subordinates for refusing an order to clean up their base on the country's Caribbean coast, a police spokesman said on Monday.
Alonso German was taken into military custody after shooting the two on Friday night at the army base near the resort of Cancun, said local police spokesman Angel Lopez.
He said he did not know what ranks the soldiers held. Officers at the base referred inquiries to Mexico's Defense Ministry, where no one was immediately available for comment.


Bloody ad police relent
Mon Mar 20, 10:35 AM ET
Australia said "bloody well done" Saturday after Britain's television advertising regulator lifted a ban on an Australian tourism campaign centered on the slightly risque phrase "bloody hell."
The Broadcasting Advertising Clearance Center had banned the ads from British television because of concerns over the campaign's use of the word "bloody" and ordered censored ads run in their place.
However Australian Tourism Minister Fran Bailey, who flew to London to save the campaign, said Saturday the regulators had agreed the ads could go ahead in their original form.
"I am pleased that common sense prevailed and the regulators realized the campaign was intended to be cheeky, friendly and very Australian," Bailey told reporters.
The ads begin with characters saying: "We've poured you a beer and we've had the camels shampooed, we've saved you a spot on the beach ... and we've got the sharks out of the pool."
They end with a bikini-clad woman on a beach asking "so where the bloody hell are you?"
The furor over the British TV ban provided an unexpected windfall of free publicity for Tourism Australia, which said it had created "an on-line traffic jam" around the A$180 million ($133 million) campaign.
"That's bloody good news," Victoria state premier Steve Bracks, whose state is currently hosting the Commonwealth Games, said when told the ban had been lifted.
The campaign is already running in the United States and New Zealand as well as Britain and will also target China, Japan, India and Germany.
The full advertisement can be seen at www.wherethebloodyhellareyou.com.


Hotel charges guests by the pound
Mon Mar 20, 10:39 AM ET
A hotel in northern Germany has started charging its guests by the kilo for an overnight stay.
In the town of Norden, close to the Dutch border, guests now have to step onto the scales before moving into their rooms and fork out half a euro ($0.61) per kilogram (2.2 lbs).
"I had many guests who were really huge and I told them to slim down," said Juergen Heckrodt, owner of the three-star establishment. "When they came back the year after and had lost a lot of weight they asked me what are you gonna do for me now?"
Heckrodt said he hoped his initiative would inspire Germans to become leaner and healthier.
"Healthy guests live longer and can come back more often."
Larger customers may be reassured that the hotel turns no one away who refuses to step on the scales and charges no guest more than 39 euros, the normal single room price.