Police: Man offered free tattoo for sex with underage girl

A southeastern Pennsylvania man accused of trading a tattoo for sex with an underage girl now faces sex charges involving more than a dozen other children as young as 4 years old, most of them the children of friends and girlfriends. Walter Meyerle, 34, of Falls, faces nearly 200 sex crime counts on allegations that he sexually assaulted two adults and 14 children, according to Bucks County prosecutors. The assaults took place over the past 13 years and involved children ranging in age from 4 to 17 years old. Meyerle was arrested in March for allegedly giving a teen girl a tattoo in return for sexual favors. After that arrest, authorities said, additional victims began to come forward after seeing and hearing publicity about the case. That prompted police and prosecutors to undertake a massive investigation involving many interviews. Meyerle was arraigned Friday on charges including aggravated indecent assault, statutory sexual assault and corruption of minors and was being held on $5 million bail. Dressed in a yellow prison jumpsuit, he said little during the hearing. The judge told him not to contact any of the victims from jail and asked the same of Meyerle's wife, who authorities said is under investigation as well.

Bin Laden was logged off, but not al-Qaida

Osama bin Laden cut himself off from direct access to the Internet during his final years in Pakistan as he attempted to elude the CIA. But the terror group he founded has been able to seize the power of the Web to spawn an army of online followers who will prolong al-Qaida's war against the West long after his demise. Al-Qaida's technological evolution illustrates how much the group has changed since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and why it has flourished despite America's decade-long quest to crush it, using everything from drone strikes in Pakistan to secret prisons in Eastern Europe where bin Laden's lieutenants were interrogated. The U.S. scored its biggest victory in that war on May 2, when U.S. Navy SEALs shot and killed the 54-year-old terror leader during a daring late-night helicopter raid not far from Pakistan's capital.
His death was undoubtedly a blow to al-Qaida, but the group's diffuse, virtual network lives on in militant chatrooms and on social media sites like Facebook and YouTube, where supporters carry forward bin Laden's message and plan the kind of bloody attacks that were his hallmark."While bin Laden's death has certainly been lamented within the jihadist community, al-Qaida's copious media over the past 10 years have ensured that bin Laden's videos, speeches, and ideas will continue to incite jihadists all over the world," said Rita Katz, head of the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group that monitors Islamic militant messages online.
Unlike its Afghan Taliban allies, who banned television when they were in power, al-Qaida has never rejected modern technology and recognized the importance of an online presence before Sept. 11. But its early efforts were fairly rudimentary. Since then, the group and its affiliates have exploited the Internet to rally and connect supporters, and are very quick to adopt new technology.

Syrian Facebook users hit by online attacks

Facebook users in Syria are being targeted by online attacks, presumably launched by the Syrian government, aimed at monitoring and intercepting their social networking communications. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) warned Syrian Facebook users Thursday that the attacks are using forged, invalid security certificates and occurring on the secure, HTTPS-encrypted Facebook site. In these "man-in-the-middle" attacks, the perpetrators use a fake security certificate to trick users into logging on to what they believe to be a securely encrypted Facebook page. Once the users access the site, their communications can be monitored and censored. In these particular instances in Syria, the invalid security certificate used by the attackers causes a warning to pop up on users' Web browsers, but "because users see these warnings for many operational reasons that are not man-in-the-middle attacks, they have often learned to click through them reflexively." The EFF is urging Syrian Facebook users to use proxy connections to access Facebook, or to login via Tor, software that allows for anonymous Internet connections and freedom from surveillance. Unfortunately, this is by no means the first time an oppressive government — Egypt, Libya, Bahrain — has attempted to keep a citizen rebellion at bay by targeting the people's social networking freedoms.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42938069/ns/technology_and_science-security/

Teen fights mom over Starbucks coffee

Brandon Scott Quintana, 19, was taken to jail after he allegedly got physical with his mom because she drank his Starbucks iced coffee. The Port St. Lucie resident is charged with battery for the incident earlier in the week, just days before Mother's Day. Starbucks is delicious, but not "so good, it will make you wanna slap yo mama" delicious. That didn't stop Quintana from crying over spilled coffee. The spat started when Quintana's 43-year-old mom woke up from a nap with a parched throat. She saw her son's Starbucks in the refrigerator and probably thought it was safe to drink. When Quintana got home, he was looking for his chilled treat. When he couldn't find it, he threw a temper tantrum, police said. Quintana allegedly told police he was "pissed off because he spent every cent on that coffee" and that what his mom did amounted to stealing. Cops didn't quite see it that way. Quintana's mom said she tried to solve the problem with her son by offering a 2-liter soda as a replacement for the Starbucks, but he pushed her into a computer chair.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42935028/ns/us_news-weird_news/

What was in medicine chests at bin Laden compound?

Either Osama bin Laden or those who lived with him at the Pakistan compound where he was killed apparently suffered from stomach ulcers, high blood pressure and nerve pain — plus the normal ailments that affect a family with children, according to a pharmacist’s analysis of medications reportedly found at the site. A list obtained by NBC News from Pakistani sources of nearly a dozen drugs found in the aftermath of the U.S. killing of the 9/11 terror mastermind on Sunday in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The medications provide some insight into ailments of the people living at the compound, but show no evidence of serious health conditions, such as the kidney failure rumored to afflict bin Laden.  The listed medications included drugs to ease the symptoms of stomach problems, such as ulcers and gastric reflux. and scrapes. The discovery of Avena syrup raises questions about whether bin Laden or anyone at the compound was hoping to boost sexual desire and performance. Avena Sativa is an extract of wild oats, a dietary supplement marketed as an aphrodisiac known by the nicknames “natural Viagra” and “wild oats,”.  

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42934673/ns/world_news-death_of_bin_laden/

5 charged in Mass. bullying case strike deals

i picked this article because i think that bullying should be stopped. You can bully a person in so many ways but it should be stopped. Theres consquences to bullying, nobody should have to go through that. Its not only bad for the person but the for the persons parents or loved ones. Five teenagers have agreed to plead guilty to a minor charge in the bullying of a 15-year-old Massachusetts girl who later committed suicide.  The teens are charged in the bullying of Phoebe Prince, an Irish immigrant who hanged herself in her family's South Hadley apartment last year after what a prosecutor called a "relentless" campaign of bullying that included yelling "Irish whore" at her in the school library, posting demeaning comments about her on Facebook and threatening to beat her up. Prince's death drew international attention and was among several high-profile teen suicides that lead to new laws aimed at cracking down on bullying in schools. The five teens are expected to plead guilty to criminal harassment, a misdemeanor. In exchange, prosecutors will drop more serious charges, including civil rights violations. The harassment charge carries a maximum of 2½ years in a county jail, but the teens could receive probation
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42786085/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

Maine boy without hands honored for penmanship

A 10-year-old boy who earned a spot in a national penmanship contest despite being born without hands and lower arms is in a league of his own.

Nicholas Maxim, a fifth-grader at Readfield Elementary School who writes by holding a pencil between his arms, impressed judges at a national penmanship contest enough that they created a new category for students with disabilities. Maxim received the first Nicholas Maxim Special Award for Excellent Penmanship this week at a school assembly.

Judges who sifted through 200,000 handwriting entries in the annual contest run by Columbus, Ohio-based schoolbook publisher Zaner-Bloser said the new category would inspire others.

Maxim, who said he likes writing and illustrating comic strips, didn't know his paper had even been submitted to the contest, so Monday's school assembly in his honor came as a surprise.