Disgusting: 14 Boys Accused of Sex Crimes at California High School [+video]

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Los Angeles police descended on Venice High School on Friday, arresting nine students in connection with a series of sex crimes that began more than a year ago and involved at least two female classmates.

All but one of the arrests were on campus; authorities were attempting to locate five other students. The investigation began after a parent reported the allegations on Tuesday.

As detectives investigated, they discovered at least one photographs showing sex acts, according to law enforcement sources. A photo that appears to show two teenagers engaged in a sex act has been circulated on social media. Allegations involved both consensual sexual acts between minors and coerced acts, which complicates the case, police said.

Twelfth grader Gabriel Siria said he was on his way to his second-period history class Friday morning when he walked past two school administrators with police officers. He watched as three students were handcuffed in the hallway outside of class.

Law enforcement officials stressed the investigation is still in its early stages and that police made the arrests quickly in an effort to prevent any more incidents. (Read more from “Disgusting: 14 Boys Accused of Sex Crimes at California High School” HERE)

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Jeb Bush Says His Amnesty Plan Is ‘the Grown-up Plan’ [+video]

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By Jon Ward. Jeb Bush said on Friday that his plan for reforming the nation’s immigration system is “the grown-up plan.”

Bush kicked off his first pre-2016 trip to New Hampshire with a visit to the Integra Biosciences manufacturing plant in Hudson, where he took questions from local business leaders. The former Florida governor, whose position on immigration reform has come under criticism from members of his party, once again endorsed “earned legal status” for immigrants who entered the country illegally.

“It’s easy to say, ‘Well, anything you can propose is amnesty.’ But that’s not a plan,” Bush said. “That’s a sentiment perhaps.”

Bush also faced questions about Common Core, the national educational standards that he’s supported despite widespread opposition from conservative politicians. (Read more from “Jeb Bush Says His Amnesty Plan Is ‘the Grown-up Plan'” HERE)


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Obama’s Clash with Venezuelan Leader Backfires; Latin Americans Unite against U.S.

By Andre F. Radzischewski. President Obama largely shrugged off the provocations of Hugo Chavez, but a clash with the late Venezuelan leader’s hand-picked successor may be backfiring.

Latin American leaders have rallied around embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as relations between Washington and Caracas have plunged to a new low.

Governments from Havana to Buenos Aires have denounced Mr. Obama’s executive order labeling Venezuela as a national security threat as unwelcome U.S. meddling in regional affairs. Analysts say the move may do little to improve the volatile situation in Venezuela and could well worsen it. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Photos Show the inside of Usama Bin Laden’s Pre-9/11 Tora Bora Hideout [+video]

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Newly surfaced photos of Usama bin Laden, taken in his Tora Bora hideout in the years before he launched the deadliest terror attack in U.S. history, and more than a decade before Navy SEALs killed him in his squalid Pakistan compound, show the Al Qaeda mastermind surrounded by guns, books and terrorist toadies.

The pictures were taken in 1996 by Palestinian journalist Abdel Barri Atwan, and introduced at a trial in Manhattan federal court of former Bin Laden deputy Khaled al-Fawwaz. Al-Fawwaz was convicted of conspiracy in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Africa and sentenced to life in prison.

The Saudi-born Bin Laden, who went to Afghanistan in the 1980s to fight the Russians, and hid there before and after the 9/11 attacks, lived in a primitive mountain home made of mud and stone. Photos show him smiling with fresh-faced cronies, seated amid massive shelves of books and grinning with an AK-47 slung over his shoulder.

Bin Laden had declared war on the United States and summoned Atwan, who was then-editor-in-chief of Al-Quds Al-Arabi, an independent Arabic weekly published in London, to his hideout in an effort to get his jihadist message out to the world.

The photographs were found by Scotland Yard detectives in a search years later of al-Fawwaz’s London home. (Read more from “Photos from inside Usama’s Pre-9/11 Tora Bora Hideout” HERE)

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American Scientists Are Trying to Genetically Modify Human Eggs

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Several teams of researchers around the world are believed to be working on ways of modifying the chromosomes of human egg cells with a view to moving towards “germ-line” gene therapy, as the process is called. Germ-line refers to the “germ” cells – sperm and eggs – that pass on genes to future generations.

However, other scientists have called for a moratorium on editing the human germ-line, arguing that it is ethically unacceptable because it is too unpredictable and too risky.

Nevertheless, researchers at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have attempted to use the Crispr (pronounced “Crisper”) gene-editing technique on human ovarian tissue cultured in the lab to see if it might be possible to correct the defective BRAC1 gene involved in inherited breast and ovarian cancer. As ovarian cells develop into egg cells, the research is likely to have involved the altering of some immature egg cells, known as oocytes.

The work was carried out last year by Luhan Yang, a researcher working in the lab of the veteran Harvard geneticist George Church. But the study has not been published in a scientific journal and Dr Yang was unavailable for comment.

Professor Church emphasised that the work was purely experimental. He said that it was carried out on human ovarian cells cultured in a laboratory dish and there was no intention of fertilising any eggs or transplanting them into a woman. (Read more from “American Scientists Are Trying to Genetically Modify Human Eggs” HERE)

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Man Tricked Ex With Abortion Pill Smoothie

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A man in Norway has admitted to tricking his pregnant ex-girlfriend into terminating her pregnancy by making her a smoothie laced with abortion pills, claiming he felt it was “the only way out”.

The 26-year-old man on Monday pleaded guilty both to inflicting serious bodily harm and also to terminating a pregnancy without the mother’s consent, in a case the prosecutor claimed was almost unique in Norwegian legal history.

“I had a bad conscience and felt remorse, but thought that it was the only way out,” the man told the court, according to Norway’s state broadcaster NRK.

The man already had a child with the woman from a short previous relationship, and had been unhappy when she became pregnant again after they had casual sex after meeting at a party.

“He tried several times to convince me to have an abortion but it was not an option for me,” the woman (20) told the court in Trondheim. (Read more from “Man Tricked Ex With Abortion Pill Smoothie” HERE)

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Veteran Alaska Musher First to Reach Iditarod Halfway Point

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A veteran Alaskan musher looking for his first Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race victory became the first to reach the official halfway point late on Thursday, pulling into the trail’s northern most community.

Aaron Burmeister, 39, arrived in Huslia on the fourth night of this nearly 1,000-mile race, which commemorates a 1925 rescue mission that carried diphtheria serum by sled-dog relay to the coastal community of Nome.

Welcome signs and cheers greeted Burmeister in this largely native Alaskan village of fewer than 300 people that serves as a checkpoint in the famed race, now in its 43rd year.

Huslia became part of the trail when race officials designed an alternative route after deeming sections of the traditional trail unsafe for competition.

Iditarod blogger and former competitor Sebastian Schnuelle wrote on the Iditarod website that “the whole town seemed out and about” awaiting Burmeister. (Read more from “Veteran Alaska Musher First to Reach Iditarod Halfway Point” HERE)

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Woman Gets Terrifying Surprise When She Notices Something Odd about Her Banana

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Maria Layton, 43, mum of Siri, aged six and Phoebe aged three, made the frightening discovery after opening the bag of bananas bought from Tesco.

The Tesco bananas were exported from Costa Rica – home of the world’s most dangerous spider – the Brazilian Wandering Spider aka Banana Spiders whose Greek name means “murderess” . . .

Maria, of Westbury-on-Trym, said:” My husband bought the bananas from Tesco. They had been in the house a whole day before I ripped the bag open.

“Siri asked for a banana. The first banana had a funny bit on it, so I got another one for her and that was when I found the massive spider cocoon.”

“There was spider web on the other bananas too. I was so scared – I don’t like spiders at the best of times, but have read about Brazilan Wandering Spiders – and was very frightened about the potential threat to my family.” (Read more from “Woman Gets Terrifying Surprise When She Notices Something Odd about Her Banana” HERE)

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Carly Fiorina Shapes Herself as the Republican Foil to Hillary Clinton

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By Amy Chozick. She has been the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, a senior adviser to a Republican presidential nominee and a candidate for the United States Senate. But Carly Fiorina recently took on her boldest role yet: Hillary Rodham Clinton’s loudest critic.

Over the past few weeks, Ms. Fiorina has mocked Mrs. Clinton’s globe-trotting as secretary of state, assailed Mrs. Clinton’s use of only a private email account to do official business, and even accused Mrs. Clinton of stealing intellectual property. From her. Twice.

Ms. Fiorina insists she has no problem with Mrs. Clinton personally — only with her liberal philosophy and policies, and what she dismisses as an unimpressive record on getting things done.

“Like Hillary Clinton, I too, have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles around the globe, but unlike her, I have actually accomplished something,” she told conservatives in Iowa in January. “Mrs. Clinton: Flying is an activity, not an accomplishment.” (Read more from “Carly Fiorina Shapes Herself as the Republican Foil to Hillary Clinton” HERE)


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State Department Challenges Clinton Claim That Emails to Officials ‘Immediately’ Saved

By Fox News. A State Department spokeswoman said Friday that the department did not start automatically archiving emails from senior officials until February of this year — raising questions about Hillary Clinton’s claim that her emails were “immediately” saved whenever she corresponded with colleagues.


The former secretary of state made that assertion during her press conference earlier this week — and in a lengthy statement put out by her office — as she defended her exclusive use of personal email. Clinton downplayed concerns that official emails could have been lost by suggesting anytime she emailed anyone with a “.gov” address, that email would be stored for posterity.

“The vast majority of my work emails went to government employees at their government addresses, which meant they were captured and preserved immediately on the system at the State Department,” she said Tuesday.

But department spokeswoman Jen Psaki made clear on Friday that this was not the way the system worked.

She said the department only started automatically archiving emails for other senior officials in February. (Read more from this story HERE)

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U.S. Public University Passes Sharia Resolution, Bans Criticism of Islam

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In the wake of recent attacks targeting Muslims on American college campuses and around the world, ASUNM unanimously passed a cautionary resolution at Wednesday’s meeting urging UNM administration to state their opposition to Islamophobia.

Sen. Udell Calzadillas Chavez, who introduced Resolution 6S, said there is a widespread culture of fear and ignorance that perpetuates violence against Muslims. The purpose of the resolution is to provoke better understanding of Islam in the UNM community.

“This is a proactive approach to events in the United States and around the world,” he said.

Citing domestic attacks against Islam such as the February killing of three Muslim students at the University of North Carolina and a Molotov cocktail being thrown at the Albuquerque Islamic Center last year, as well as the continuing fight against ISIS in the Middle East, the legislation states that UNM “should stand strong in opposition of Islamophobia and related hate crimes.”

The document defined Islamophobia as “dislike or prejudice against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force.” (Read more from “University Passes Sharia Resolution, Bans Criticism of Islam” HERE)

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Desperate for Ratings, CNN Hires Anti-Christian Muslim TV Host [+video]

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In an effort to bring CNN back from the brink of failing ratings, the cable network has announced the debut of several new shows, including one hosted by religious writer Reza Aslan and another by comedian W. Kamau Bell.

Reza Aslan is to host a show with the working title “Believer.” In a press release, CNN states that “Aslan will immerse himself into one of the world’s most fascinating faith-based groups to experience life as a true believer.”

Aslan will explore worship, rituals, and “unusual rites of passage” of various religions . . .

Aslan, for one, has a long history of attacking Christians and Christianity. Late last year, for instance, he claimed that the Bible was full of “historical errors,” despite that he is not a historian or a biblical scholar.

But even as he has made a career of attacking Christians, Aslan does have support for one religion. As comedian Bill Maher has increased his verbal assault on radical Islam, Aslan has come to Islam’s support and said that Maher is engaging in “frank bigotry.” (Read more from “CNN Adds Anti-Christian Muslim TV Host to Cable Line Up” HERE)

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[Editor’s note: Wikipedia states that Reza Aslan was born into a Muslim family. It also contends that Aslan converted to evangelical Christianity for a couple of years at the age of 15, but then converted back to Islam the summer before attending Harvard.]

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