Sex slaves

Five Albanian pimps have been convicted of sex trafficking offences after a trial at Southwark Crown Court. The inquiry was triggered by an investigation into the trade by the BBC's Six O'Clock News.

On 31 October 2004, a 16-year-old Lithuanian girl made what was probably the biggest mistake of her young life when she agreed to go on a trip to the UK with a group of new friends.

Instead of the few days of fun she had been promised, she ended up being sold into prostitution in an ordeal that was to last for months.

A missing persons hunt sparked by her disappearance eventually led police to a series of west London brothels and a gang of Albanian people traffickers.

Probably not the type of adventure she was looking for.

Caustic Drink - Toxic Man - Sick Woman

Meet Sean Kobin. The Wisconsin man, a freak if ever there was one, will be spending his Thanksgiving in a Milwaukee jail due to his toxic sexual compulsion.

Kobin, you see, gets off by watching women vomit, a process he helps along by feeding them caustic liquid substances. The 20-year-old was charged earlier this month with felony reckless injury when a woman suffered serious chemical burns after drinking a solution containing sodium hydroxide, a bleach-like substance that Kobin told cops he used at his job to strip aluminum from copper.

When Chrystal Kolinski fell to the ground and began vomiting blood, Kobin captured her agony with a camcorder, according to a Circuit Court criminal complaint.

Kolinski, 33, told investigators that Kobin had pestered her for days to drink an "unknown liquid" which, she thought, "just tasted gross and would not hurt her." Instead, Kobin's brew nearly killed her, causing severe burns to the single mother's esophagus and stomach.

Now if the guy had only waited, he could have headed to China with his dirty little camcorder ...

Chinese toxic leak was 100 tonnes

A blast at a Chinese plant 12 days ago sent the equivalent of 10 tanker-loads of toxic chemicals into the Songhua river, Chinese state media report.

About 100 tonnes of lethal substances entered the Songhua as a result of the blast in Jilin, and the leak is now passing through the city of Harbin.

All taps are off in Harbin but the water supply may be restored on Sunday after being shut down for three days.

The company behind the blast has apologised for the accident.

Harbin's 3.8m residents are undergoing their third day without water.

Timeline:
13 November Explosion at petrochemical plant, Jilin city
21 Nov Water to Harbin city cut off; local government cites mains maintenance
22 Nov State media say water could have been contaminated after the blast
23 Nov Authorities admit very high levels of benzene have been found in the water

Fake FBI virus catches net users

A Windows virus that warns users about illegal net use is spreading online.

The bug-bearing message claims to come from either the FBI, CIA or German BKA police agency. It warns users they have been detected visiting illegal sites.

Those opening a questionnaire attached to the message will be infected by a variant of the well-known Sober virus.

Anti-virus firms have caught millions of copies of the malicious program, suggesting a lot of people have fallen for the fake warning.

Links:
FBI
FBI Statement on the virus

Investigating the 'death metal' murders

One man's relentless search for his missing son led him to uncover one of the most shocking crimes in post-war Italy - a tale of satanism and violence that has gripped the country for more than a year.

Michele Tollis spent six years searching for his son Fabio

In January 1998 Fabio Tollis and Chiara Marino, both just 16, disappeared.

They had been drinking at a pub called the Midnight - the centre of the heavy metal scene in Milan - and they never came home.

The police and many of their friends just thought they had run off together. But their parents refused to accept this.

Michele Tollis, Fabio's father, began to attend metal concerts and festivals across Europe, handing out leaflets and quizzing Fabio's friends.

Fabio and his friends were into the most extreme forms of heavy metal music - death metal and black metal, music obsessed with images of murder and satanism - and the role of this music is central to the story.

The rest of the story ...

Women 'to blame for being raped'

A third of people believe a woman is partially or completely responsible for being raped if she has behaved flirtatiously, a survey suggests.

The Amnesty International poll of 1,000 people also found over 25% believe she is at least partly to blame if she has worn revealing clothing or been drunk.

... the Amnesty poll, carried out by ICM, found that most people in Britain had no idea how many women were raped every year in the UK or how few of the cases reported to police resulted in a conviction.

The number of recorded rapes of women in 2004/5 was 12,867 - up 4% on the year before - although police estimate that just 15% of rapes come to their attention. Only 6% of reported rapes result in a conviction.

Some number crunching:
estimated number of rapes = 85,780
Actual number of convictions: 772
% of convictions v's estimated number of rapes: 0.9%

Good odds ... if you are a rapist. A 99.1% chance of getting away with it.

.

What us girl want from you guys

An hilarious list from an idealist:

1. When you say your gonna call you better call
2. Never say something just to make a girl happy because you think that is what they want to here “like I love you”
3. Always tell the truth about everything
4. Always be there when they want to talk
5. When they need you the most make sure your there for her
6. Never let a girl walk home by herself(never know what other kind of guy she may find)
7. Never pressure things on her
8. If you have a problem with something make sure you talk to her about it
9. Don’t only call when you want to do something girls like it when you just call to talk
10. Don’t lie and say you have been with more girls then you really have been because it may be the wrong number to some girls
11. Don’t just let a girl beet you it may hurt her more thinking she has to be lied to to win
12. We love to play fight but not to rough
13. Girls like it when you not so shy and you can do any thing in front of her
14. Girls love it when you joke around with her but make sure your nice about it
15. Keep your personal hygiene good (no one likes to kiss someone who is dirty)
16. If you do drugs or smoke or something and we ask tell them (some girls just don’t care if you smoke) we like you for who you are
17. Don’t leave your girl friend alone for you friends for a long time
18. If you ask if we’re mad and we say no but we look like it just say we half to talk and then say tell me the truth what is wrong(don’t ask in front of your buddies and her friends because they just might not have the guts to tell you in front of everyone
19. If we look mad at you try and make things better if you actually care because it makes things worse when you don’t pay attention
20. If something happens during something make sure you let them know because they would like to know these things to see if they can fix it
21. Make sure the girls don’t change for you because we tend to do that sometime but its not on purpose we just want to make you happy
22. Look into her eyes when you say I love you but only if you mean it
23. Never lead a girl on and then break there hearts
24. Never cheat on a girl…you could be making the wrong choice because us girls aren’t dumb we know when things are going on we’re just to afraid to admit it

Nexopia is one of the fastest growing sites on the net. Check it out.

This is actually a repeat post from Oct. 2004. It still cracks me up!

Genes can be 'changed' by foods

What we eat may influence our health by changing specific genes, researchers believe.

Several studies in rodents have shown that nutrients and supplements can change the genetics of animals by switching on or off certain genes.

It is not clear whether foods do the same in humans, but an article in New Scientist says there is good reason to believe they do.

In the future, diseases might be reversed by diet in this way, it says.

In a recent animal experiment, adult rats were made to behave differently by injecting them with a specific amino acid called L-methionine.

After the injections, the animals were less confident when exploring new environments and produced higher levels of stress hormones.

The change to their behaviour occurred because the amino acid altered the way the rat's genes were expressed.

What I've been saying for years. Food can alter the human body at a genetic level

Woman to marry man who shot her

Tina Marie Stebbins revealed her intentions in a letter released Monday as her boyfriend, Christian Leroy Lindblad, 37, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for shooting her in June 2002.

'I love Christian today as deeply as I loved him before this awful thing happened to us,' Stebbins wrote in a victim impact statement. 'We are soul mates.'

She added: 'I want to tell you all that I have forgiven Christian. And I pray that Christian has forgiven me for failing him when he needed me most.'

Lindblad and his parents tried to cover up the shooting by treating Stebbins with home remedies, according to a San Bernardino County Sheriff's report. They also threatened her young sons and her family, the report said.

Critically wounded, Stebbins was airlifted to a hospital after Lindblad mentioned the incident to a family friend who was a firefighter.

Lindblad pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted murder as his trial was about to begin in early October. He has said the shooting was an accident.

Nice family.

China plans jails for HIV inmates

A Chinese province has announced plans to build special jails to hold inmates with HIV or Aids, in a bid to halt the spread of the virus.

The official China Daily newspaper says two separate prisons are to be built somewhere in Guangdong province.

China says it has almost a million people with the virus, but experts say the real figure is likely much higher.

The country has been criticised for its failure to tackle the spread of HIV and discrimination against carriers.

The United Nations' Aids agency says that up to 10 million Chinese people could be infected by 2010 without more aggressive prevention measures.

No doubt China will be criticised for such a move but this type of pragmatic approach is required. If people get sent to jail for 60 days for a minor offence, they should not be sentenced to die of AIDS.

Electric Shocks to the testicles act as temporary contraceptive

Men in Serbia are lining up to have electric shocks delivered to their testicles as part of a new contraceptive treatment.

Serbian fertility expert Dr Sava Bojovic, who runs one of the clinics offering the service, said the small electric shock makes men temporarily infertile by stunning their sperm into a state of immobility.

He said: "We attach electrodes to either side of the testicles and send low electricity currents flowing through them.

"This stuns the sperm, effectively putting them to sleep for up to 10 days, which means couples can have sex without fear of getting pregnant.

"The method does not kill the sperm permanently and it does not affect the patient's health."

Dr Bojovic added patients were now lining up at his fertility clinic in Novi Banovci for the shock treatment, as it had none of the problems attached to using condoms, the male pill or having a vasectomy.

He added: "We are hoping to have a small battery powered version on sale in the shops in time for Xmas.

oh yeah. Happy Christmas!
"What are you doing dearest?"
"Don't worry, I'm only checking the contraception is working"
"AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrggghhhhhhh! WTF!??!"

Film file-sharer sent to prison

A Hong Kong man has been jailed for three months for film piracy after he shared movie files over the internet.

The authorities say he is the first person in the world to be prosecuted for passing on files using a popular file-sharing program called BitTorrent.

It makes the sharing of material easy by breaking a file up into fragments and then distributing them.

The film industry says it hopes the sentence handed down to Chan Nai-ming will prove a deterrent to others.

The movies he got sent down for ...? Daredevil, Red Planet and Miss Congeniality. snigger.

Sony music CD's install Rootkits!

Sony's music arm has been accused of using the tactics of virus writers to stop its CDs being illegally copied.

One copy protection system analysed by coder Mark Russinovich uses cloaked files to hide deep inside Windows.

The difficult uninstallation process left Mr Russinovich saying that Sony's anti-piracy efforts had gone 'too far'.

In response to criticism, Sony BMG said it would provide tools to users and security firms that would reveal the hidden files

Mr Russinovich, a renowned Windows programming expert, came across the Sony BMG anti-piracy system when performing a scan of his computer with a utility he co-created that spots so-called rootkits.

Rootkits are starting to be used by a small number of computer virus writers because they allow malicious code to be inserted deep inside the Windows operating system, meaning that it will not be spotted by most anti-virus scanners.

Rootkits are used to hide malicious software once it is installed and ensure it is not found and removed by anti-virus programs

After extensive analysis Mr Russinovich realised that the "cloaked" software had been installed when he first listened to the CD album Get Right With the Man CD by country rockers Van Zant.

Links:
F-Secure - About Rootkits
SysInternals.com

Dad, you're a wanker! - Boy tracks his anon sperm donor father

A 15-year-old boy has tracked down his anonymous sperm donor father using a swab test and the internet.

He sent off his own cheek swab to an online genealogy DNA-testing service.

This case has serious implications for men who have donated sperm in the past with promises of anonymity, says New Scientist Magazine.

The boy in the New Scientist report tracked down his father from his Y chromosome, which is passed down from father to son.

His genetic father had never supplied his DNA to the website that they boy sent the swab to - FamilyTreeDNA.com - but two other men who were on the database had Y chromosomes that bore a close match to the boy's.

Both men had the same surname, although with different spellings.

The two did not know each other, but the similarity between their Y chromosomes suggested there was a 50% chance that all three had the same father, grandfather or great-grandfather.

Though the 15-year-old boy's donor had been anonymous, his mother had been told the man's date and place of birth and his college degree.

The boy fed this information into another online service, Omnitrace.com, to find out the names of everyone that had been born in the same place on the same day.

Only one man had the same name that he was looking for, and within 10 days he had made contact with this man.

Hello Dad, do you remember masturbating into a beaker ...?

Jail for eBay phishing fraudster

The leader of an identity fraud gang which stole almost £200,000 has been jailed for four years.

David Levi, 29, of Clifton Drive North in Lytham, Lancashire, tricked people using the internet auction site eBay into giving away their account details.

He admitted three counts of fraud and perverting the course of justice at Preston Crown Court on Tuesday.

It is thought to be the first UK conviction for the practice, which is known as phishing fraud.

More than 160 people were duped in the scam in 12 months between July 2003 and July 2004.

Good. Hard to believe however, that 160 people fell into the trap :o/