Media watchdog: 110 journalists killed in 2009 including 55 in Asia
VIENNA (AP) — A total of 110 journalists lost their lives in 2009, the deadliest year in a decade for the profession, a media watchdog said Thursday.
Asia, where 55 journalists died, was the most lethal region the International Press Institute said in its annual World Press Freedom Review.
Cult-like Israeli busted over harem says he’s innocent of charges
JERUSALEM (AP) — A cult-like Israeli figure who kept a harem of women and fathered their children says allegations he enslaved and raped some of them are false.
Goel Ratzon spoke for the first time since his arrest last month at a court hearing Wednesday. “It’s not true, they can say whatever they want,” he told reporters when asked about the allegations.
Police accuse Ratzon, 60, of keeping at least 17 women.
Calif. man allegedly tried to buy boys’ urine at elementary school
MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Manhattan Beach police have arrested a man they claim tried to buy urine from boys at an elementary school. Sgt. Brian Brown said an 18-year-old man was arrested on Monday for investigation of annoying children. He remained jailed Wednesday on $150,000 bail. Authorities believe the man walked into a restroom at Pacific Elementary School last week and offered two boys several dollars to urinate in a cup. School officials said they refused.
Man walks into Wal Mart, smashes 29 TVs with baseball bat
LILBURN, Ga. (AP) — Police in Georgia say a 23-year-old man grabbed a baseball bat inside of a Walmart and smashed 29 flat-screen televisions. Police in Lilburn near Atlanta have charged Westley Strellis with 29 counts of criminal damage to property in the second degree. Witnesses tell police he grabbed a metal baseball bat from the sporting goods section Wednesday, walked to the electronics department and destroyed the TVs on display.
He was arrested not long after that. Police say the televisions are valued at over $22,000. Police do not know if he has an attorney.
Ohio man accused of tattooing toddler’s rear end with the letter ‘A’
LOUISVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Police say an Ohio man tattooed the letter “A” on the rear end of a 1-year-old girl visiting his home.
Twenty-year-old Lee Deitrick of Louisville was arraigned Wednesday on a felony child endangering charge in Canton Municipal Court.
Authorities say there’s no evidence the toddler’s mother permitted the November tattooing. It’s not clear what the letter “A” signifies.
Deitrick’s grandmother calls the tattoo “a wee-little hairline” and says there’s hardly anything left of it.
New Orleans trash man’s ‘Trashmen’ show debuts on TLC
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans trash mogul Sidney Torres is hoping his multimillion-dollar garbage business will make for good TV.
Torres, 34, and his company, SDT Waste and Debris Services — launched in response to the need for trash and debris removal after Hurricane Katrina — star in a pilot called “Trashmen,” premiering Thursday on the TLC Network.
The show will focus on Torres, a real estate developer who was set to start construction on a 70-unit condominium in New Orleans when Katrina struck in August 2005 and flooded 80 percent of the city. The storm prompted Torres to switch gears from construction to cleanup.
“I saw a need and an opportunity,” he said.
Torres said he didn’t just want to clean up the city, he wanted to clean it up in style.
Big rig knocks over gas and diesel pump, kills many small fish
HAUGHTON (AP) — Bossier Parish Sheriff Larry Deen says a hit-and-run trucker knocked over a gasoline pump north of Haughton, spilling 150 gallons of the rig’s diesel fuel and 30 gallons of gasoline from the pump.
A news release says nobody was hurt Wednesday, but the gasoline broke down asphalt on a nearby road.
Mayoral election shows turnout may be better than it looks in Orleans
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Voter turnout figures for last Saturday’s New Orleans mayor’s race look low — but they were likely better than they look, given that the city’s population remains down since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.
State figures show more than 273,000 people registered to vote in New Orleans. There were 88,938 votes cast for mayor, for a turnout of 33 percent.
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