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Post by artemis on Jan 14, 2011 5:08:21 GMT -5
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Post by artemis on Jan 21, 2011 5:55:36 GMT -5
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Post by sabrina on Feb 3, 2011 22:36:11 GMT -5
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Post by artemis on Feb 7, 2011 16:13:44 GMT -5
KATY PERRY...   Dont u get a JON BENET RAMSEY vibe especially from the last pic? |
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Post by artemis on Feb 15, 2011 5:50:18 GMT -5
jezebel.com/#!5760149/natural-food-ceo-arrested-for-child-prostitution
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Post by artemis on Feb 17, 2011 5:39:48 GMT -5
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Post by artemis on Feb 26, 2011 8:18:40 GMT -5
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Post by artemis on Feb 27, 2011 12:22:58 GMT -5
"Future uncertain for children in Thai baby scam
BANGKOK (AFP) – The fate of around nine unborn children hangs in the balance as Thai authorities weigh what to do with the offspring of Vietnamese women freed from an illegal baby breeding ring in Bangkok.
A total of 14 women, half of them pregnant, were freed on Wednesday from an operation using them as surrogates for wealthy childless couples overseas who placed orders for newborns online.
Campaigners fear for the future of the infants who are born to desperate women -- perhaps not their biological mothers -- and into a legal grey area, with Thailand still mulling the ramifications of the case.
"There is a risk that those children might end up as stateless, that they won't get citizenship anywhere," said Benedict Phillips, Asia strategy director at Save The Children.
Public Health Minister Jurin Laksanawisit has described the gang, which operated under the name Baby 101, as "illegal and inhuman" and suggested some of the women had been raped.
A few were offered up to $5,000 per baby, but others said they had been tricked into the scam, said police, who have arrested four Taiwanese, one Chinese and three Myanmar nationals in connection with the operation.
One 35-year-old Taiwanese woman was arrested on suspicion of human trafficking.
In Thailand couples can only use a surrogate if she is a blood relation and is not paid.
The seven pregnant women are currently staying at a shelter north of Bangkok.
"They are between 12 weeks and eight months pregnant and we found two of the women were carrying twins -- 20 weeks and eight months old," said Paskorn Chaivanichsiri, director of a state-run hospital where they have been treated.
Two have requested abortions, although the procedure is only legal under Thai law in cases of rape or where the mother's health is at risk.
Phil Robertson of New York-based Human Rights Watch said Thailand had "excellent" social care, but stressed victims should be able to decide their own future.
"The women should be allowed the time to get over the shock and get their heads straight about what they want to do. They might not want to go back with another mouth to feed," he said.
Authorities want to send the women to Vietnam along with the babies, said police Colonel Chalermpol Jintarat of the immigration department, after a top level meeting with health officials on Friday.
Negotiations with Vietnamese officials are due to be held on Monday.
"To ascertain that the baby is not related to the mother, we have to have a DNA test, which we need to discuss with the Vietnamese embassy first," he said.
Phillips said Thailand has taken steps to protect the offspring of its many illegal migrants, but these children are not given Thai nationality and are largely excluded from the country's health care system.
"It is an extreme example of a much more common phenomenon of undocumented migrants who flee to escape poverty and find themselves without the protection of the law," he said.
Nearly 40 women, who are identified only by a numbered code, are pictured on a website, www.baby-1001.com, believed to be run by the gang.
The "eugenics" surrogacy service, from egg and sperm donation to the delivery of a baby, is advertised for $32,000 and appears to be aimed at Taiwanese customers.
Offices were listed in Bangkok, Phnom Penh in Cambodia and Vietnam.
"These four governments should be cooperating to smash this ring," Robertson said.
Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau had not been contacted by Thailand over the case when reached by AFP. Surrogacy is banned in the country but there have been reports of men paying foreign women to have their children.
Last May, police said three Taiwanese men had been arrested for illegally hiring Uzbek women as mothers for four babies because they thought mixed blood children were "cute".
In the upmarket Bangkok suburban housing estate, with manicured lawns and 24 hour security, there were a few people still working in an office at the modest house where police found nine of the Baby 101 women.
On the walls, among posters of Caucasian babies, hung lists of Vietnamese names, more than 20 in total. A whiteboard, written mainly in Mandarin, carried the English words "Ken's friend come" and what appeared to be a date in March.
"There were eight or nine Vietnamese women here. They came to Thailand because the medical service is better than their country," said a man, who did not give his name and claimed to be a translator. But he admitted none of them was pregnant when they arrived.
Down the street a second property, where another four women were found, was closed and quiet.
Two doors away, a house name plate suggested they may have been living within shouting distance of a policeman."
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Post by artemis on Mar 3, 2011 15:42:22 GMT -5
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Post by goro on Mar 29, 2011 15:17:46 GMT -5
KATY PERRY... Dont u get a JON BENET RAMSEY vibe especially from the last pic? Wow, definitely! Weird. I only just really found this section - sorry it's been lonely here, Artemis! |
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Post by goro on Mar 29, 2011 15:24:53 GMT -5
"Future uncertain for children in Thai baby scam
BANGKOK (AFP) – The fate of around nine unborn children hangs in the balance as Thai authorities weigh what to do with the offspring of Vietnamese women freed from an illegal baby breeding ring in Bangkok.
A total of 14 women, half of them pregnant, were freed on Wednesday from an operation using them as surrogates for wealthy childless couples overseas who placed orders for newborns online.
Campaigners fear for the future of the infants who are born to desperate women -- perhaps not their biological mothers -- and into a legal grey area, with Thailand still mulling the ramifications of the case.
"There is a risk that those children might end up as stateless, that they won't get citizenship anywhere," said Benedict Phillips, Asia strategy director at Save The Children.
Public Health Minister Jurin Laksanawisit has described the gang, which operated under the name Baby 101, as "illegal and inhuman" and suggested some of the women had been raped.
A few were offered up to $5,000 per baby, but others said they had been tricked into the scam, said police, who have arrested four Taiwanese, one Chinese and three Myanmar nationals in connection with the operation.
One 35-year-old Taiwanese woman was arrested on suspicion of human trafficking.
In Thailand couples can only use a surrogate if she is a blood relation and is not paid.
The seven pregnant women are currently staying at a shelter north of Bangkok.
"They are between 12 weeks and eight months pregnant and we found two of the women were carrying twins -- 20 weeks and eight months old," said Paskorn Chaivanichsiri, director of a state-run hospital where they have been treated.
Two have requested abortions, although the procedure is only legal under Thai law in cases of rape or where the mother's health is at risk.
Phil Robertson of New York-based Human Rights Watch said Thailand had "excellent" social care, but stressed victims should be able to decide their own future.
"The women should be allowed the time to get over the shock and get their heads straight about what they want to do. They might not want to go back with another mouth to feed," he said.
Authorities want to send the women to Vietnam along with the babies, said police Colonel Chalermpol Jintarat of the immigration department, after a top level meeting with health officials on Friday.
Negotiations with Vietnamese officials are due to be held on Monday.
"To ascertain that the baby is not related to the mother, we have to have a DNA test, which we need to discuss with the Vietnamese embassy first," he said.
Phillips said Thailand has taken steps to protect the offspring of its many illegal migrants, but these children are not given Thai nationality and are largely excluded from the country's health care system.
"It is an extreme example of a much more common phenomenon of undocumented migrants who flee to escape poverty and find themselves without the protection of the law," he said.
Nearly 40 women, who are identified only by a numbered code, are pictured on a website, www.baby-1001.com, believed to be run by the gang.
The "eugenics" surrogacy service, from egg and sperm donation to the delivery of a baby, is advertised for $32,000 and appears to be aimed at Taiwanese customers.
Offices were listed in Bangkok, Phnom Penh in Cambodia and Vietnam.
"These four governments should be cooperating to smash this ring," Robertson said.
Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau had not been contacted by Thailand over the case when reached by AFP. Surrogacy is banned in the country but there have been reports of men paying foreign women to have their children.
Last May, police said three Taiwanese men had been arrested for illegally hiring Uzbek women as mothers for four babies because they thought mixed blood children were "cute".
In the upmarket Bangkok suburban housing estate, with manicured lawns and 24 hour security, there were a few people still working in an office at the modest house where police found nine of the Baby 101 women.
On the walls, among posters of Caucasian babies, hung lists of Vietnamese names, more than 20 in total. A whiteboard, written mainly in Mandarin, carried the English words "Ken's friend come" and what appeared to be a date in March.
"There were eight or nine Vietnamese women here. They came to Thailand because the medical service is better than their country," said a man, who did not give his name and claimed to be a translator. But he admitted none of them was pregnant when they arrived.
Down the street a second property, where another four women were found, was closed and quiet.
Two doors away, a house name plate suggested they may have been living within shouting distance of a policeman." Thanks for posting this. I remember reading about it briefly in the news but then it was buried almost immediately - like I saw the headline in the morning, had to leave to do work, then tried to find it again later in the day and it had been buried. Whenever stories like these where slaves/breeders are proven to be REAL I think it makes certain folks NERVOUS because we can't talk about this stuff and upset the apple cart! Just like how even though the Caribbean is notorious for sex trafficking, when a pretty American girl like Natalee Holloway is never seen again, not a single paper can or will mention the idea of sex trafficking. Not once. Makes no sense not to at least talk about it as a possibility - especially given the INSANE amount of coverage the Holloway case has had in the news. PS - I was just looking at articles about Joran Van Der Sloot, the guy implicated in Natalee's disappearance who was later arrested for murduring a Peruvian student, and he looks oddly like Bristol Palin's ex Levi Johnston. I swear, the gene pool for weirdos is pretty small sometimes! |
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Post by artemis on Mar 31, 2011 4:38:40 GMT -5
"Dutch girl, 12, gives birth on school trip
A 12-YEAR-OLD Dutch girl gave birth while on a school trip, sparking a police search yesterday for the father of the child.
The girl, from Groningen, 183km north-east of Amsterdam, complained of stomach pains on March 22, during a day out with classmates.
Teachers realised the girl was in labour and called an ambulance.
Ambulance officers rushed to the scene, and the 12-year-old delivered a healthy baby girl in a nearby building.
The young mother was then taken to the hospital but has refused to name the father.
Family members said that the schoolgirl's father previously sexually abused another older daughter and served two years in jail for the sex crime, according to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.
The girl was living with her father and brother after he won custody following a divorce from their mother, who was originally from Suriname, a former Dutch colony in South America.
The girl's stepsister, 30, told the newspaper, "I warned him. I am shocked about what happened."
Dutch police said in a statement yesterday: "The girl got pregnant when she was 11, which in itself means there has been a criminal offence. Article 244 of the Penal Code, sex with a minor under 12, is punishable. In addition, there are now [circumstances] reported by the Child Protection Board. Taking these two circumstances, the police is now investigating who the father [of this baby] is."
The girl was due to go into foster care once she was released from the hospital."
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Post by artemis on Apr 2, 2011 8:26:57 GMT -5
"British accountant 'on the run' after being charged with kidnap and murder of girl, 6, he 'snatched to make porn videos'
A British accountant and his Filipina girlfriend have been charged with the kidnap and murder of a six year old girl snatched from outside a school for their 'cyber-sex' business.
Ian Charles Griffiths, 48, from south west London and his 35-year-old girlfriend Bella Santos are alleged to have taken the child on the Phillipines island of Cebu to make porn videos.
Police in Cebu City say the couple kidnapped six-year-old Ellah Joy Pique so they could exploit her as part of their online sex operation.
The girl's body was found at the foot of a cliff on February 8 the same day the couple left Cebu on a flight bound for Hong Kong.
Both are reported to have since returned to Cebu but Griffiths again left the country after police closed their investigation into another couple suspected of the kidnap and killing.
Investigators had been concentrating their attention on a Norwegian man and his partner for the same offence. They have ruled them out.
Warrants were today issued for both Griffiths, who is believed to be in Hong Kong, and Santos, currently in Makati, a district of Manila.
Police said they have witnesses who allege that they saw Griffiths in his car at the cliffside.
They say he was seen getting out of the vehicle, opening the back door before removing something wrapped in a white fabric that he then dropped off a nearby cliff.
They also allege that a woman was with Griffiths but they couldn't make out who she was because she slid down inside the car.
Fermin Ar-mendarez III, head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection team, said: 'It appears that Pique was abducted by Santos and Griffiths for the purpose of exploiting the victim for the suspects' cybersex business.'
Police believe that their plan went wrong, leading them to kill her and dump her lifeless body over the cliff.
Santos, a former bar girl on the Philippines island of Palawan has denied all charges.
She told the Cebu Daily News: 'I have been tossing and turning and have not been able to sleep or eat. I do not know why I have been accused of this crime.'
She added that she was not ashamed of her work because it enabled her to eat fast food, but hoped her past under the name Chloe was not brought up against her.
Immigration officer Casimiro Madarang said that even though a case had been filed against Griffiths, there is nothing stopping him from leaving the country.
He said: 'At present, Griffiths and Santos can still travel freely because there is no basis to hold them at the airport. We can only prevent them from departing if there is a court order.'
Ellah Joy's father, Renante Pique, said he hoped the case against the pair would be successful and urged other parents to come forward to end human trafficking and child abuse.
Among the witnesses are two children, aged nine and 12, who were walking with the little girl on her way home from school when a dark car stopped to talk to them.
Inside, it is alleged, was a 'big male foreigner' and a woman who offered Ellah Joy a ride.
According to officials Griffiths had visited Cebu frequently since 2006 and over the last year he had checked in and out 17 times - each time accompanied by Santos."
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Post by artemis on Apr 10, 2011 5:03:49 GMT -5
"The scandal of orphanages in tourist resorts and disaster zones that rent children to fleece gullible Westerners
As a child welfare expert who has worked amid bullets and bombs in some of the world’s toughest war zones, Jennifer Morgan is not someone easily shaken. But even she admits she was shocked by some of the orphanages she visited recently in Haiti.
‘Outside it is a sunny day. Then you step inside the walls of an orphanage and realise that the children there have been exposed to rapes, severe beatings, emotional and mental trauma,’ she said. It was even more disturbing, she added, than the damaged children she came across amid the deadly mayhem of Darfur.
But perhaps the most troubling thing is that these tragic scenes in Haiti are not unusual. In dozens of places around the world, unregulated orphanages have become a boom business trading off Western guilt. Our desire to help is backfiring in the most dreadful fashion.
Morgan, whose job is to reunite children with their families, was even screamed at one day by the director of an orphanage in Port-au-Prince. ‘Stop reuniting children with their families,’ he shouted. ‘You’re destroying my business.’
We need to wake up to the emergence of this vile industry. In tourist hotspots and disaster zones from Asia to Latin America, children are being abused and exploited to raise money from well-meaning aid groups, volunteers and holidaymakers.
Westerners seek to help abandoned children but have ended up creating a grotesque market that capitalises on their concerns. Misguided pity is piling on misery, creating and fuelling an industry that separates children from families and drives many into slave labour, sexual abuse and terrible trauma.
Now the Cambodian government has announced an inquiry into the country’s orphanages after the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) voiced concerns. The number of orphanages has nearly doubled in five years, as has the number of children in care – yet almost three-quarters of them have at least one living parent.
I first became aware of the issue travelling around Africa and Asia. Going into schools and orphanages made me wonder about unchecked visitors encouraged to mingle with young children.
My concerns crystallised during investigations into ‘voluntourism’, the fastest-growing sector of one of the fastest-growing industries on the planet. Insiders admitted that packages including voluntary work in orphanages sold the best, whether to gap-year teenagers or middle-aged professionals with a romantic desire to do good during their holidays.
The increasing number of orphanages matches rising levels of tourism. Many are clustered in the most popular destinations, with holidaymakers bombarded by offers to visit privately-run centres and donate time or money.
With a population of less than 100,000, the town of Siem Reap, gateway to the famous ruins of Angkor Wat, has 35 orphanages. One even parades children late at night behind placards reading ‘Support Our Orphans’ as visitors drink and dine. Typically, the websites show pictures of happy children. Once inside, visitors are greeted with wide smiles and tales of abandonment. But the children may have been stolen, rented from their parents or tricked from impoverished rural villagers with false promises of wealth, education and healthcare.
Some orphanages are fronts for child labour and sexual abuse – the British owner of one orphanage in Siem Reap was jailed earlier this year for assaulting several children in his care. Others are kept deliberately squalid, the children starved to look more needy. Little wonder Unicef says it wants to see most shut down.
The same trade that turns children into commodities has sprung up elsewhere.
In Bali, the number of orphanages has doubled in less than a decade, despite two-thirds of the children having parents. Scouts lure cute children from poor families with promises of food and schooling. Some are then forced to work from dawn to dusk on building sites, making jewellery or selling street food. Malnutrition is common.
Brenton Whittaker, founder of local charity Bali Kids, says the worst directors – who live in large houses and educate their own children abroad – sell on all donated goods, even medicines. ‘The conditions are shocking,’ he said. ‘They run these orphanages as a business, spending as little as possible on food, health and education for the kids in order to make the most profits.’
In Sri Lanka, another popular tourist destination, a study found that 92 per cent of children in orphanages had one or both parents living. In Ghana, a government investigation after the rape of an eight-month-old boy in an orphanage found that up to 90 per cent of the 4,500 children in orphanages had at least one parent. Unicef officials said children’s welfare was secondary to profit – and it is estimated that less than a third of income goes on child care.
Not all orphanages in the developing world are bad. There are many excellent centres with dedicated staff. But researchers found that even at the better ones, children are left traumatised by short-term volunteer projects, forming emotional bonds with visitors who then disappear suddenly.
Just as in the West, experts say there should be thorough checks on all visitors and stress that children are nearly always better off with their families. The number of orphanages also soars after disasters. As aid money flows in, images of lost children can be profitable.
There have been big rises after several recent major emergencies, although Save The Children found the number of abandoned children is far lower than imagined. Some ‘orphans’ are even traded for adoption, despite having families.
In Haiti, there were already 600 orphanages before last year’s earthquake, with scores more springing up. The country’s police chief said many are fronts for criminal organisations taking advantage of people left homeless and hungry.
One aid worker saw babies left unsupervised on chairs, in danger of rolling on to the floor. Another official found all the children were painfully thin, so asked the director if they were short of money. The reply was chilling: ‘We have lots of money. But if we keep the children thin, when we send pictures to church groups, they send more money.’
The desire to help needy children is laudable. But good intentions can lead to bad outcomes – as we have seen with foreign aid, so corrosive in so many countries, and the dumping of free goods, which devastates local industries and leads to a dependency culture.
There are times, sadly, when you must be cruel to be kind."
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Post by artemis on Apr 10, 2011 5:05:10 GMT -5
'Drunk judge acquits a paedophile'
A British Crown court judge, Douglas Field, has been accused of clearing a paedophile suspect of his charges while being “influenced by alcohol”.
The mother of the alleged rape victim has lodged a complaint with the judicial watchdog complaining that Field only examined one of the charges the defendant faced and did not allow the jury announce their verdict on the two other charges.
Field reportedly got drunk at a leaving party in an extended lunch break during the trial and returned to the court room ordering the jury to acquit the 55-year old man accused of raping an 8-year-old as they could not reach consensus over the verdict after five days of hearing.
Based on the case lodged with the Office for Judicial Complaints (OJC), Field then forgot that the man also faced two other charges and did not allow the jury to give their verdict.
The victim's mother said in her complaint that Field acted like “a person influenced by alcohol” upon his return to the court, The Sun reported.
The complaint also said the judge had his “head in hands resting his elbows on the table” when the hearing resumed after lunch break.
The defendant faced charges of raping a girl aged under 13 along with provoking a child into engaging in sexual activity in the case heard at Swindon crown court in June 2010.
The defendant was formally acquitted of the remaining charges last November after the Crown Prosecution Service ordered a retrial.
The Office for Judicial Complaints said the complaint is under investigation.
"A complaint has been received about His Honour Judge Field in relation to a trial at Swindon crown court in June 2010. This is being investigated. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage," An OJC spokesman said. "
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