[Engadget] Documents unsealed today by the Justice Department (PDF) reveal Backpage.com CEO Carl Ferrer pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges in Arizona on April 5th, a day before the site was seized and shut down. Additionally, attorneys general in California and Texas announced today that the site itself has entered a guilty plea to charges of human trafficking in Texas, while Ferrer pleaded guilty to conspiracy and three counts of money laundering in California. Several corporate entities tied to the site, including Backpage.com LLC, also entered guilty pleas to charges of money laundering.
As a part of the deal that will see him serve a maximum of five years in prison, the prosecutors say Ferrer has surrendered the URLs of the site and its data to law enforcement, and that he will cooperate in the prosecution against others involved with the company -- namely co-founders and controlling shareholders Michael Lacey and James Larkin, who were indicted April 9th.
The plea deal includes Ferrer's admission that a majority of the site's ads were for sex services, and that he conspired with others to launder proceeds from the ads after credit card companies and banks wouldn't do business with the site.
LONDON (Reuters) - Russia’s intelligence agencies spied on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia for at least five years before they were attacked with a nerve agent in March, the national security adviser to Britain’s prime minister said.
Mark Sedwill said in a letter to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Friday that email accounts of Yulia had been targeted in 2013 by cyber specialists from Russia’s GRU military intelligence service.
Sedwill also said in the letter, which was published by the government, that it was "highly likely that the Russian intelligence services view at least some of its defectors as legitimate targets for assassination."
The Skripals were targeted by what London says was a nerve agent attack that left both of them critically ill for weeks. British Prime Minister Theresa May has said it is highly likely that Moscow was behind the attack.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted on Friday that a report this week by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) did not confirm the origin of the poison used against the Skripals.
Lavrov said the report only confirmed the composition of the substance and that Britain’s claim that it confirmed the UK position on the Skripal case was overstated.
Separately on Friday, Russia’s ambassador to Britain said he was concerned the British government was trying to get rid of evidence related to the case.
"We get the impression that the British government is deliberately pursuing the policy of destroying all possible evidence, classifying all remaining materials and making an independent and transparent investigation impossible," Alexander Yakovenko told reporters.
He also said Russia could not be sure about the authenticity of a statement issued by Yulia Skripal on Wednesday in which she declined the offer of help from the Russian embassy.
[DAWN] Eight men accused in the gang-rape and murder case of an eight-year-old Kashmiri girl who were protected by ministers and lawyers loyal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have seized the attention of millions as rage continued to course across India on Friday at the horror of what the little girl suffered.
Mr Modi, in a message, called it a shame for any civilised society after opposition groups, including a large candlelight vigil by Congress President Rahul, demanded a statement from him.
They asked Mr Modi to speak on the Kashmiri outrage and the alleged rape of another minor girl in Uttar Pradesh by a BJP MLA.
The victim’s father died in police custody after he was beaten and tortured by relatives of the MLA and police. The Supreme Court slammed the state administration for its apparent connivance in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh.
The Supreme Court also ordered Hindu nationalist lawyers in Kashmire not to block the legal process. The crime was planned by a former revenue officer who wanted to drive the girl’s nomadic Moslem community of Bakerwals out of the Rassana area of Kathua, according to an investigation by NDTV.
It said that on Jan 10, the little girl in a purple dress, was grazing her horses near her one-room home when one of the accused, a 19-year-old, called her into the forest pretending to help look for a missing horse. The horse returned without her.
The police say the man dragged her to a small village temple and drugged her. For three days, the man and two others gang-raped her, keeping her sedated and without food. Before she was strangled and hit twice with a heavy rock for good measure, one of the men stopped the killer to rape her one last time, NDTV said.
The girl’s body was found in the forests on January 17.
Investigations led the police to the 19-year-old school dropout who had often seen the girl grazing horses, and to his uncle Sanji Ram, who was in charge of the temple where police found forensic evidence.
Sanji Ram, one of the accused persons, was a former government official who allegedly planned the depraved crime and even kept a huge amount of money for bribes, NDTV said. He was incarcerated Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! after the teen’s confession, forensic tests and information based on the interrogation of various suspects.
The man who allegedly wanted to rape the girl one more time before her murder was Special Police Officer Deepak Khajuria, according to the police charge sheet.
He was named in the teen’s statement to the police. Call data records also established his presence at the place where she had been kept locked in for days.
Another accused person was the special police officer, Surinder Kumar. Witnesses saw him at the scene of the crime. Call data records also proved his presence.
The teen named his friend Parvesh Kumar as one of the men who repeatedly raped the child.
Sanji Ram’s son Vishal Jangotra was arrested on the basis of forensic tests. Vishal, studying in Meerut, travelled to Kathua after a phone-call from the teen who said he could "satisfy his lust", the police charge sheet says.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/15/2018 00:00 ||
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[WomenInTheWorld] Actor and former NFL player Terry Crews joined journalists Joanna Coles and Lauren Duca to discuss toxic masculinity, consent, and dating post-#MeToo.
...
‘People have to understand that masculinity can be a cult, and when I say cult, it’s not different from David Koresh, it’s not different from Jim Jones,' said activist, actor and former NFL player Terry Crews. He likened the detachment of men to slavery, when slave masters would observe slaves being beaten and feel nothing. 'There’s a lack of empathy from men who are in this cult," he said. 'A guy is looking at you that is not all the way human, and there is a humanity issue here. "masculinity," if my High School recollections are accurate, appears to be the new "jock."
#1
He likened the detachment of men to slavery, when slave masters would observe slaves being beaten and feel nothing
OK, I'll engage: "Shut the f*ck up, Terry. Attention wh0re"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/15/2018 9:59 Comments ||
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#2
Actor and former NFL player Terry Crews joined journalists Joanna Coles and Lauren Duca to discuss toxic masculinity, consent, and dating post-#MeToo.
And then he took Joanna and Lauren to his hotel room to continue the discussion?
#4
She was a bold-looking girl, of about twenty-seven, with thick hair, a freckled face, and swift, athletic movements. A narrow scarlet sash, emblem of the Junior Anti-Sex League, was wound several times round the waist of her overalls, just tightly enough to bring out the shapeliness of her hips. Winston had disliked her from the very first moment of seeing her. He knew the reason. It was because of the atmosphere of hockey-fields and cold baths and community hikes and general clean-mindedness which she managed to carry about with her. He disliked nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/15/2018 13:39 Comments ||
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#5
Why does this look like the Bar Dating Scene in the campy Sci-Fi movie Cherry 2000(1987)? You will need an attorney to fill out the the legal paperwork.
#6
I am so glad I've been with Mrs Rabbit these 40 years. I would not like the dating scene these days. You'led need a spreadsheet to keep track of th he requirements.
#8
I am so glad I've been with Mrs Rabbit these 40 years I would not like the dating scene these days. You'led need a spreadsheet to keep track of th he requirements..
Same here Rabbit. "Till death do us part." Unfortunately for her however, who could have known it would take this long ?
[DailyMail] He left a note in a bag for police which read: 'My name is David Buckel and I just killed myself by fire as a protest suicide.’ If this catches on, the world may become a quieter place.
#3
Mr. Buckel believes these are 'fossil fuels' - I think there may be some doubt as to how oil & gas develop & form. I don't think it's entirely attributable to dead dinosaurs & trees, but have at it.
Plus - there's more to this story; you don't just up and self righteously self-immolate for no reason - jilted lover / financial problems seem like more likely reasons.
#8
Another case of Spontaneous Dip$hit Combustion.
Just ask anyone who's ever worked around a manure pile, they catch fire easily.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/15/2018 10:40 Comments ||
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#9
He wants Western Civilization to cut its own throat by deindustrializing, which would result in Western Civilization being cut-down-to-size by its rivals like China.
#10
In the same way that Orwell said that pacifists were objectively pro-fascist, the deindustrialization fetishists are objectively pro-communist-party, wanting to transfer the country's sovereignity to the primary foreign ally and patron of the Khmer Rouge back in the day.
#4
Don't stick around on Facebook. You are a(n) (un)willing accomplice in a data mining and exploitation organization. Look at alternatives, not all of them social media or even electronic.
You do not have be beholden to sociopaths.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/15/2018 12:45 Comments ||
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#6
There are plenty of churches with all kinds of social activities. There are Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, soccer leagues, softball leagues, chess clubs, gun clubs, boating clubs, etc. And if all that is just a bit too healthy for you, try a bar. If you don't get along at the first bar you try then try another. You like liquor, don't you? The point is to get up off your butt, go out and meet real people, not on Facebook but actually face to face, not in a virtual world but in the real world. The stakes are higher and it's all so much more exciting when it's real.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/15/2018 13:52 Comments ||
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#7
I wonder if they can predict that you are about to pull the plug?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[DAWN] Eight men accused in the gang-rape and murder case of an eight-year-old Kashmiri girl who were protected by ministers and lawyers loyal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have seized the attention of millions as rage continued to course across India on Friday at the horror of what the little girl suffered.
Ref #4... 
