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We don’t just report off-beat news, breaking news and digest the best and worst of the news media analysis and commentary. We give an original take on what happened and why. We add lols, satire, news photos and original content.

Doctors find 50-year-old foetus inside 92-year-old woman

fetus woman 50 years old

 

It was news to the 92-year-old Chilean woman that a 50-year-old foetus was inside her abdomen. The BBC says that after a fall, doctors x-rayed the woman. They found no broken bones – but they did discover a calcified fetus weighing 4.4 lb.

Inquisitr explains:

Known as a lithopedion, sometimes called a “stomach rock” or a “stone child,” this is a rare occurrence affecting just a few women. “Litho” comes from the Greek word that means “stone,” and the suffix “pedion” (also Greek) means “child.” This happens when the fertilized egg is implanted outside of the uterus (known as an ectopic pregnancy).

The medics did not remove the foetus.

Well, she’d not be the first woman to have a middle-aged man invading her personal space.

 

 

Posted: 24th, June 2015 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment


Lord Janner: sex attacks in Parliament and ‘unpaid social worker’ Cyril Smith

janner danczuk

 

Lord Greville Janner of Braunstone: a round-up of media reporting on the Labour peer mired in the story of Westminster peados. It’s been 67 days since the Crown Prosecution Sevice decided not to prosecute Lord Janner on gounds of his failing health.

The Sun: “Peer ‘raped kids in Parliament’ MP accuses Lord Janner”

That is some accusation. And it’s been made by Labour MP Simon Danczuk.

The campaigning MP’s comments came in a Westminster Hall debate – giving him protection from being sued for libel.

Any evidence to support the claims?

He blasted: “The shocking thing is that the CPS admits that the witnesses are not unreliable, it admits that Janner should face prosecution but refuses to bring a case. I know the police are furious about this and rightly so. Anyone who has heard the accusations will be similarly outraged.”

They are not unreliable but the DPP says the defendant is.

 

He went on: “I have met with Leicestershire police and discussed the allegations in detail. Children being violated, raped and tortured – some in the very building in which we now sit.”

Those are allegations.

He added: “Personally I fail to see how the knowledge that a peer of the realm is a serial child abuser is not in the public interest.”

Hold on. The knowledge that he is has not been established. That’s the problem. All we have are allegations. If Danczuk is certain of Lord Janner’s giuilt then why not slap the proof in the public domain?

The BBC:

Lord Janner has been accused in Parliament of being a serial abuser who attacked children inside the Palace of Westminster. Labour MP Simon Danczuk said police had told him they wanted to bring 22 historical charges against Lord Janner, dating between 1969 and 1988.

Today’s police do. But yesterday’s police did not.

Lord Janner’s family has said that the peer “is entirely innocent of any wrongdoing”.

His innocence must be presumed, right?

The Rochdale MP continued: “If Lord Janner really is too ill to face prosecution, then why can’t the courts establish this with a fitness to plead process? This would clear up doubts that still linger, for example why he was still visiting parliament on official visits after he was declared unfit to face justice.”

 

Social Work Today, 10th May 1977

Social Work Today, 10th May 1977

 

Yes, indeed. The MP for Rochdale, Cyril Smith’s old haunt and the palce where paedo gangs operated for years. The culture of denial has led to how many people in authority being arrrested and jailed? None.

Mr Danczuk was repeatedly warned by the chair of the debate, Conservative MP Anne Main, against criticising Lord Janner. A former DPP-turned-Labour MP, Sir Keir Starmer, said: “The decision before the DPP was not an easy decision. It was a stark and difficult choice between two unattractive approaches. We should respect the independence she brought to the decision making, and the fact she’s had that decision out for a review. To that extent I think we should inhibit our comments on the case.”

The Telegraph has more from the MPs address:

“The official charges are 14 indecent assaults of a male under 16 between 1969 and 1988; two indecent assaults between 1984 and 1988; four counts of buggery of a male under 16 between 72 and 87, two counts of buggery between 1977 and 1988. My office has spoken to a number of the alleged victims and heard their stories. I cannot overstate the effect that this abuse has had on their lives…

“The Director of Public Prosecutions has said that Lord Janner will not offend again. But the failure to prosecute Lord Janner offends every principle of justice – he may not abuse again but the legacy of the abuse continues. His victims needs the truth [sic] and they need to be heard.”

Lord Janner says he’s not absued at all.

Daily Mirror:

Labour’s John Mann said “hundreds of thousands” were “just starting to come forward” with allegations – but added they were just “the tip of the iceberg”.

Well, if the abuse went on for decades, then you can imagine many more victims were ignored.

He claimed the Establishment was still preventing damaging revelations about the “systemic” abuse being made public.

The Establishment? What is an MP and the police if not parts of the Establishment?

He said: “It gives a strong message that there are different layers in society and some people can get away with things. Why was Cyril Smith, when repeatedly apprehended, not prosecuted?”

Mr Mann believes this question is key to the truth behind the alleged cover-up

Smith is dead.

 

Posted: 24th, June 2015 | In: Politicians, Reviews | Comment


Transfer Balls: The Metro says Paul Pogba has a twin who plays for Inter Milan

Transfer Balls loves The Metro, the free newspaper full of sensation. Take this news story on Paul Pogba, the France player wanted by every top European club with £70 million to spend.

The Metro says that Paris Saint-Germain “look set to land France Paul Pogba [sic] after making Inter Milan a £70m offer”.

 

metro pogba inter milan

 

Would that be the Paul Pogba who plays for Juventus or a Mr France Paul Pogba who doesn’t?

Spotter: Pies

Posted: 23rd, June 2015 | In: Reviews, Sports | Comment


Pink Flamingos: creator of world’s greatest lawn ornament dies

featherstone pink flamingo

 

 

RIP Donald Featherstone. You were 79. And you were the artist who gave the world the pink flamingo lawn ornament, having created the wonder in 1957 for the Union Products plastic factory.

Mr Featherstone died in a care home in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

Improbable Research:

Don created the flamingo when he was freshly graduated from art school, and newly employed at a plastics factory. One of his first assignments was to create three-dimensional plastic lawn ornaments (up to that time, most plastic lawn ornaments were more or less flat). The flamingo was one of his earliest efforts for the factory.

Eventually he became president of the company.

He is survived by this wife, who used to dress like him.

 

 

Posted: 23rd, June 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Nicholas Salvador and media bias: insane killer not driven to it by Islam and marijuana

nicholas salvador 1

 

Nicholas Salvador has been found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity. He’s been sentenced to remain in Broadmore psychiatric hospital for the indefinite future.

Salvador, 25, stabbed and decapitated Palmira Silva, 82, in her back garden in Edmonton, North London. Salvador had an interest in shapeshifters. He believed Mrs Silva was a Adolf Hitler or a demon. Before that horrofic crime, Salvador killed two cats he thought were demons. He liked watching YouTube videos about the Illuminati, a group of people who ‘control the world’.

When the story broke, the Sun took a position. It placed Salvador’s religion at the heart of the crime. Indeed, it was the key fact in the paper’s front-page headline:

 

muslim-silva-edmonton

 

In his summing up, the judge made no reference to Islam. But what does the Sun say?

The killer called upon “Allah” and claimed “I am king” then held up the head of Mrs Silva to a police helicopter in triumph as armed officers desperately scrambled to the scene in Edmonton, north London.

He also bit a chunk out of a police officer’s leg and had to be Tasered six times, hit with truncheons, punched and sprayed with CS spray before he was subdued.

The Sun than talks about drugs:

Mr Rees said Salvador, who smoked skunk – a potent form of cannabis blamed for hallucinations, anxiety and paranoia – had lost his job in billboard advertising three days earlier and was staying with a “host family” three doors away from Mrs Silva.

Did the drugs pay any part in his insanity? We are not told. Did Islam play any part in the insanity? Well, he said “allah” instead of God or Jesus. But, then, he also said he was a king.

 

nicholas salvador 2

 

The Times’ report has more news:

Nicholas Salvador, 25, believed he was killing “demons” when he ran amok, tearing down fences and kicking down neighbours’ doors in Edmonton, north London, on the afternoon of September 4 last year, the Old Bailey heard.

The final moments of Mrs Silva’s life and the immediate aftermath were edited out of a harrowing 14-minute clip shown to the jury in front of members of the victim’s family.

What did he say?

Afterwards, he showed signs of mental illness, repeating phrases like “red is the colour” and “I am the king” over and over again.

Nothing about “allah” in the Times.

The Guardian also has nothing about “allah”. And of the drugs, it says:

 

Salvador had held various jobs after completing a media studies course at college, including as a fitness instructor, but lost his work pasting advertisements on billboards three days before the attack.

Salvador’s friends told police he regularly smoked skunk cannabis, took cocaine and had been known to drink whole bottles of spirits each day.

The Mail does mention Islam, but gives it no weight:

In 2012 he claimed he had converted to Islam and began preaching and attending mosques but later spoke about becoming a Buddhist.

By 2014 Salvador was living alone in Enfield and working as a fitness instructor and billboard advert installer. His father was in Nigeria and his mother was in Nottingham.

A few weeks before Mrs Silva was killed, he moved in with his schoolfriend Dominic Thorne in Nightingale Road, Edmonton. The Thorne family described Salvador as ‘a real nice guy’ and ‘a happy, bubbly gentle giant type person’ before his behaviour deteriorated.

He started becoming obsessed with witchcraft, demons and the Illuminati and asked his friend Dominic, 25, ‘When am I going to get my powers?’ and ‘Am I going to turn into a girl?’

Vivian Thorne, his friend’s mother, suggested he see a doctor but he refused.

Salvador began drinking a bottle of brandy or whisky a day and the garage was littered with empty bottles of Corona lager. He also regularly smoked skunk cannabis and had taken cocaine, the court heard. Then, three days before the killing, he lost his advertising job after failing to turn up for work.

The Sun made no mention of Salvador’s heavy drinking. Why not? It mentioned his skunk intake so why not his full diet of narcotics?

To be clear: Salvador’s heinous crimes had nothing to do with Islam or marijuana- whatever the biased media says.

 

 

Posted: 23rd, June 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Passenger ‘forced emergency landing’ over demand for crackers and nuts

Nuts or crcakers? It is alleged that Jeremiah Mathis Thede, 42, requested “nuts or crackers” 15 minutes after taking off on a transatlantic flight from Rome.

United Airlines staff asked him to wait. It’s alleged he replied:

“I can have as much nuts and crackers as I f****** want.”

So upset was Thede – and so worried the staff – that the plane made an unscheduled landing in Belfast, where nuts and crackers are plentiful.

Coleraine magistrates’ court in Belfast heard that the Chicago-bound plane had to dump 50,000 litres of fuel to safely land on Saturday evening. The 282 passengers were forced to wait almost 24 hours before the plane could take off again with 269 having to sleep on the terminal floors, police said.

Judge Christopher Holmes suspended the decision while he waits for background reports and a psychiatric examination.

And drinks.

 

Posted: 23rd, June 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Lord Janner: Simon Danczuk’s justice to order and Frank Beck returns

janner lord 1991

 

Lord Janner: a round-up of media reporting on the Labour peer mired in the story of Westminster peados. It’s been 66 days since the Crown Prosecution Sevice decided not to prosecute Lord Janner on gounds of his failing health.

The Indy: “Ed Miliband was urged to throw out Lord Janner over ‘stomach-churning’ child abuse allegations five months before Labour suspended him”

Who did the urging? And whay does the Express ssays Miliband ws urged “six months” before Janner was suspended?

The warning came from one of his own MPs – Simon Danczuk – who sent a letter to the former leader in October last year to urge him to quickly suspend Lord Janner after three senior officers from Leicestershire police had disclosed serious alleged abuse to him.

Danczuk loves to blow his own horn.

“You couldn’t describe the action that has been taken by the party as swift and decisive,” he told Channel 4 News. “The nature of the allegation is so serious that really decisive action was required. I think they should expel him from the party. I think the allegations are that serious that they should carry out a short, sharp investigation which I am sure would conclude that he should be expelled from the party.”

We’d like to know more about this ‘sharp investigation’. Who would investigate? What facts would they have? How far back would the investigation reach – Lord Janner has been accused of offences during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s? Danczuk’s idea of an investigation to reach the “sure” conclusion of guilt is an affront to justice. It’s self-serving, PR-driven balls.

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Posted: 23rd, June 2015 | In: Politicians, Reviews | Comment


Fun with child death and lice with these 10 Plagues Seder Night masks

It’s Seder Night, when Jews recall Passover and the plagues sent down on the house of Egypt to help along their emancipation from slavery. As dad reads out the story, the cool kids can play along by wearing one of 10 masks, each one representing a plague. “Bagsy, Death to the ‘First Born’,” says Junior, the rascal. Others can enjoy ‘Blood’, ‘Boils’, ‘Lice’ and ‘Darkness’.

The whole set is yours for a mere $14.99 at Bed Bath and Beyond.

But be warned: these mask are only suitable for over 3s lest there be a new plague of ‘Choking’.

 

seder night masks

 

 

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Posted: 23rd, June 2015 | In: Key Posts, Reviews, The Consumer | Comment


Other parents: watch 3 dads fight at six-year-old’s birthday party

party fight

 

To Australia, where fathers are fighting at a six-year-old’s birthday party.  We join the action at the Lollipops Playland indoor play centre in Wetherill Park, Sydney. Two children have bumped into each other. One dad pulls a six-year-old girl’s hair. She tells her dad. He approaches the hair puller. The hair puller does not say sorry.

FIGHT!

 

Ding-ding. Jelly.

 

Posted: 22nd, June 2015 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment


One in 35 living British men is a paedophile say scaremongers

The Daily Mail reports that “750,000 UK men want child sex”. That sounds terrible.

One in 35 men pose a risk of being a child abuser

On the plus side that could mean that the majority of paedos can control their urges.

A shocking analysis by the National Crime Agency reveals that about one in 35 adult males poses a potential risk of being a child abuser or of seeking out child sex images online.

That headline figure is looking a little blurred. We’re now told that one in 35 adult men in the UK could seek out images of under-12s being abused. The NCA had made a direct link between looking at a horrible image to carrying out an act of child abuse and being a peadophile.

Horrifically, as many as 250,000 men may be sexually attracted to pre-pubescent children – defined as those under 12 – according to the findings disclosed exclusively to The Mail on Sunday.

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Posted: 21st, June 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Drugs bust: woman smuggled 1.5kg of cocaine in her breasts

Cop a load of Honduran Paola Deyanira Sabillon, 22. She’s been attracted at Bogota airport, Colombia, for having 1.5kg of cocaine inside her breast implants. Sabillon says her breasts were destined to be cut open in Barcelona, Spain.

It was in every sense of the words, a drugs bust.

 

 

Posted: 20th, June 2015 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment


Transfer Balls: Spurs find £20m for PSG’s Adrien Rabiot, who already signed for Roma and Arsenal

Transfer Balls: Are Tottenham readying a bid for PSG’s Adrien Rabiot? The Times says they are:

Tottenham Hotspur have expressed further interest in signing Adrien Rabiot, who has played in midfield for France at all youth levels but has asked to leave Paris Saint-Germain.

Rabiot is represented by his mother, Veronique Rabiot, who says her lad fancies a return to the Premier League (he was on Manchester City’s book for a short time):

“Adrien loves PSG and would love to make a career for himself there, but it’s not possible. He needs 35 games per season to continue his progression, and this won’t happen at PSG next season. I’ve asked for a transfer and it is better that he leaves. Adrien is happy when he wears the colours of PSG. If he cannot play for PSG, then his choice is the Premier League.”

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Posted: 20th, June 2015 | In: Reviews, Sports, Spurs | Comment


Heinz ketchup offers free porn with every EZ SQUIRT bottle

ketchup porn heinz

 

When Daniel Korell scanned the QR code on the side of his bottle of Heinz ketchup he was transported not a site allowing him to design his own bottle (as promised) but to a world for German sex. Mr Korell writes:

Your Ketchup is probably nothing for minors ;). Perhaps you should give time the IT department decision – the posted happened anyway if you scan the QR code on the Heinz bottle. Tested with various mobile phones and QR code readers. Oh, and for direct input of the URL you get the same result.

Heinz explained that its ownership of website “Fundorado.de” had expired. The porn industry had snapped it up. The company replied:

Hi Daniel, when your bottle is a residual item. The campaign Spread the word with HEINZ” no longer exists. For this reason, no leads and the printed QR code to our site. Unfortunately we can not control which side will be visible therefore. Your Heinz Team

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Posted: 20th, June 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Wanted man captured wearing ‘You Can Run, But You Can’t Hide’ T-shirt

T-shirt funny

 

When police captured shooting suspect Tieren Watson in Benton, Arkansas, he was wearing a T-shirt that read:

“You can run, but you can’t hide.”

Indeed you cannot.

mug-shot-t-shirt-11

Image 1 of 41

Posted: 20th, June 2015 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment


Transfer Balls: Arsenal bid £28.5m for William Carvalho but Manchester United got him for £37m

Transfer Balls: In an ‘exclusive” The Sun says Arsenal are bidding £28.5m William Carvalho, an Arsenal fan currently playing for Portugal Under-21s

ARSENAL have tabled a fresh £28.5million bid for Sporting Lisbon’s William Carvalho. And the Gunners could get their man if they stump up a further £8.5m in add-ons to trigger the Portugal midfielder’s £37m release clause.

But this is Transfer Balls, a look at rubbish football reporting.

In March 2014, Steve Bates told Sunday People readers that Manchester United had got their man:

 

Screen shot 2015-06-20 at 09.04.28

 

TalkSport agreeed. But now the fee was £35m:

The signing of Carvalho, who is set to feature for Portugal in this summer’s World Cup, will be seen as a major coup for under-pressure Red Devils boss Moyes.

 

Screen shot 2015-06-20 at 09.07.25

 

 

That deal never happened.

In April 2015, Jamie Sanderson said Carvalho to Arsenal was a done deal:

 

carvalho arsenal

 

Sanderson cited a source:

And amid claims that Sporting have dropped their asking price to £21.5million, the Daily Express says a fee has now been agreed.

In the Express, Anthony Chapman had news:

Screen shot 2015-06-20 at 09.02.23

 

He writes:

Carvalho was targeted by the Gunners as well as Manchester United and Chelsea in the January transfer window, but the Telegraph claims that Sporting have finally agreed a fee with Arsene Wenger. It is believed that the Primeira Liga outfit were demanding £30m for the 23-year-old, but the two parties have now apparently settled on a more modest £21.5m.

No link. But we found it.

 

Screen shot 2015-06-20 at 09.09.42

 

The Telegraph has its own source:

Portugese newspaper O Jogo says negotiations have been continuing, and an agreement is now on the cards, with Sporting ready to sell for £21.5 million.

So there was no agreement at all.

Such are the facts.

 

Posted: 20th, June 2015 | In: Arsenal, manchester united, Reviews, Sports | Comment


Stephen Fry is away: naked man barks like a dog in the Grantchester tea garden

Grantchester tea garden

 

There was a naked man at the Grantchester tea garden near Cambridge. He was barking like a dog and moving about on all fours. At around 1:30pm he left.

Christian Turvill, 20, of Cambridge, and some pals were nearby. He tells the Cambridge News:

“We were at Grantchester having a barbecue when we saw a naked man barking at a dog on his hands and feet. One of the women with us asked my friend to go and save the dog. The man started running around naked and went into the bushes and grabbed some stinging nettles and rubbed them on my friend.

The man asked my friend where the tea rooms were and then got angry and said my friend was lying about the directions, which he wasn’t. He then extended his foot and got angry. He must have been on drugs. He was acting like an animal and I am sure he sensed my fear. It was bizarre.

“It was funny but if you laughed he’d get more angry. Then he ran up the hill.”

“A few moments later we heard screaming and went up to see him surrounded by five policemen. There was a dog unit and a policeman with an Alsatian which was hanging off the naked man’s arm by its teeth. The man didn’t seem bothered at all. They took him away.”

The News then adds:

The incident happened near the home of best-selling author Lord Jeffrey Archer and Lady Mary Archer.

Yeah, that’s what we thought. Has Jeffrey been researching a new book? No. He says:

“I wasn’t in Cambridge on Wednesday…”

And umndaunted by that, the News names a cople more names:

Beth Beeton, assistant manager at the tea garden, which has boasted famous customers including John Cleese and Stephen Fry, described the incident.

Words from Cleese and Fry there are none.

 

Posted: 19th, June 2015 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment


Pray for Mo Farah: the doorbell tolls for thee

mo farah dope

 

The Times says Mo Farah, the London 2012 Olympic 5,000 and 10,000 metres gold medal-winner, has hired Freud’s, “one of the world’s biggest PR companies”. It won’t make him run any faster, but it could keep him in delicious, performance enhancing (it says here) Quorn.

Farah’s named is being sullied because Alberto Salazar, his American coach, has been accused of breaking anti-doping rules. Farah and Salazar deny any wrongdoing.

Mo’s innocent. But the story of his innocence is a messy one.

Farah could have faced a ban for avoiding drug testers had UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) not believed his claim that he did not hear the doorbell when they called at his home in Teddington, southwest London, in 2011. The test was the second that Farah had missed in the run-up to the London Olympics, having missed another in 2010. Three missed tests within an 18-month period, at the time, would have resulted in a ban. Farah had claimed that he was in his bedroom and could not hear the doorbell, but had the testers believed that he was deliberately not answering the door, UKAD could have charged him with evading a test, the penalty for which would have been an immediate suspension

But they could not. Is Mo hard of hearing? Was the radio on? The Mail says the testers rang Farah’s door “for an hour”. Did they also call his phone? Poke him on Facebook?

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: 19th, June 2015 | In: Reviews, Sports | Comment


Madeleine McCann paedophile mania grips Cyrpus

Another summer brings with it another Madeleine McCann front-page news story. The innocent child who became the media’s benchmark for all missing children is evoked on the Daily Star and Daily Mirror’s front pages. There is talk of child kidnappers in Protaras, Cyprus.

The Star announces:

NEW MADDIE SNATCH HORROR AT BRIT HOLS RESORT

 

Screen shot 2015-06-19 at 15.03.06

 

The Mirror goes with:

MY GIRL WAS SNATCHED ON HOLS LIKE MADDIE

 

madeleine mccann copycat

 

 

Only, she wasn’t snatched. No, not Madeleine. This other child. In fact, no other child has been kidnapped.

The Star’s Jerry Lawton says “hero dad” James Down performed a “citizen’s arrest” on “one of the suspects who had been videoing children on his mobile phone”. Holidaymakers say are “up to 10 child traffickers posing as hotel waiters”.

 

Screen shot 2015-06-19 at 14.56.54

 

The Leicester Mercury sees an exodus:

A British father on holiday in Cyprus has spoken about fearing a Madeleine McCann style snatch after his two-year-old daughter was taken by a gang of would-be kidnappers. The incident happened at the Anastasia Beach Complex in Protaras on Tuesday, resulting in tour operator Thomas Cook moving more than one hundred holidaymakers.

The Times has more from the aforesaid heroic Mr Down:

James Down, 30, said that he apprehended the man and claimed that he had found footage of children on his phone. “He’d been on the beach talking to some children and then he was by the pool. I then saw him kneeling behind a wall talking to some little kids,” Mr Down, a wind turbine engineer, said. “I got him by the scruff of the neck and took him to the hotel reception.”

Mr Down, a former soldier from Newcastle, said he took the man’s phone and found images and videos of children taken in the area. He said that he and his friends had later seen a woman who they thought was linked to the man, chased her and grabbed her. “I saw a pick-up truck which had its engine running and a saloon car. Some of our group tried to run after the vehicles, but they drove off. I think they were traffickers,” he said.

Think they were traffickers? Can anyone ask the man Mr Down’s arrested and frog-marched into the hotel if he is interested in selling children?

 

Screen shot 2015-06-19 at 15.38.38

 

The Daily Record’s James Moncur writes:

THREE youngsters were being lured into cars at the Anastasia Beach Complex, near Protaras, when the child-snatcher were caught [sic].

Got him! Brilliant. No make him talk.

A holidaymaker at the Cyprus resort with a wedding party from Dundee said: “We had seen these people around the hotel all week. They’d been in the pool and interacting with some of the children. Some of them were wearing staff outfits so they could blend in more easily. It was really scary.”

Scots dad Greg Letford, 28, told how the gang – who staff claimed were Romanians – targeted kids on Tuesday night.

He said: “This Romanian couple were leading the two young children towards a waiting car, another person had a third child up against a wall ready to go, too. Someone spotted what they were up to and stopped them. If he hadn’t been there those kids would have gone. One of the men got away and we heard the getaway car crashed a short distance away too. When the police turned up, they took the man and woman into an office in the hotel and a crowd built up in the foyer – there must have been about 60 or 70 really angry people. It was chaos. The police got them into a van through a window for their protection. One of the hotel staff later told us they were Romanian and that one of them used to work at the hotel.”

And the arrested man and the Romanian “holiday hell gang”? Well, the ‘arrested’ man is from Bulgaria. As the Times notes:

Police said they had arres­ted the Bulgarian man, 19, accused of filming children, but there had been no reports of an abduction and searches of his mobile phone, home and person led nowhere. Other reports suggested the man had been assaulted by a group at the hotel. Nikoletta Tyrimou, a police spokeswoman, said that police made one, not two, arrests and that there was no get-away car or people in disguise stalking children. She said: “Upon arriving at the scene, police officers arrested a 19-year-old man from Bulgaria whom holidaymakers said had been filming their children and was trying to abduct them.

“We questioned the suspect, went through his phone and also searched his home. Nothing we found suggests that he is part of a child-abducting gang or that he was stalking children. The man has since been released.”

 

Screen shot 2015-06-19 at 15.37.51

 

It did? They did? Mr Daniel Mann tells the Mirror that kidnappers tried to steal his daughter Lillie last year.

It also emerged that a two-year-old girl from Durham had disappeared for 40 minutes at the same resort last year. She was finally spotted being carried away from the hotel by a woman who claimed to have found the toddler wandering alone.

Says Mr Mann:

“It was awful. My daughter was about 10 yards from me at the pool and in the time it took me to turn around and say, ‘It is time to go I will go and get the bairn,’ she had gone.We were frantically searching for about 40 minutes. I could feel my stomach churning the longer it went on. There were people joining to help all the time. One or two mentioned Madeleine McCann, you can imagine how that made me feel. We found her in the arms of an Eastern European woman who was walking towards a car park. My partner saw her, she thought she was carrying a bag of potatoes, then she realised it was our child. She ran after her, screaming.”

Thomas Cook have made this statement:

The safety and welfare of our customers is always our first priority and upon hearing about the alleged incident, we immediately deployed our experienced resort team to the property to provide those customers in residence with individual support. On request, we assisted 16 customer bookings who wished to move to an alternative hotel and two families who travelled back to the UK early. Although there are conflicting reports as to what exactly occurred at the property, we would like to reassure all customers that we take all allegations incredibly seriously and we are continuing to work closely with our customers in resort and the local authorities.

So. Not 100 holidaymakers, then. And Mr Mann’s partner, Lillie’s mother Kay Baldasara, adds that the woman ‘abducting’ her daughter is on the loose:

 “By the time I checked over Lillie, she had gone.”

The pair reported the kidnap attempt to Durham Police when they returned home after the holiday last August. The case was referred to Operation Grange, the unit leading the search for Madeleine. It was also shared with detectives in Cyprus. There have been no arrests.

Daniel told how the latest kidnap bids at the hotel brought their own horror flooding back.

We’ll end this round-up with the Cyprus Mail’s take on events. Constantinos Psillides writes:

The British media reporting on the alleged attempted kidnapping of three youngsters at a Protaras hotel, “has been completely blown out of proportion and it’s all wrong,” an eyewitness has said.

The tourist, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the Cyprus Mail that while he wasn’t part of the wedding party that was taking place at the Anastasia hotel at the time, he witnessed what happened firsthand.

Go on:

“At some point we heard a large commotion and screams. Somebody attacked a young man yelling “paedophile, paedophile” and then suddenly a group of around 50 people were chasing him.

The 19-year-old Bulgarian was attacked?

We joined them and chased two people to the front desk, a man and a woman.

Police came and took the young man in custody – a 19-year-old Bulgarian — but let the woman go because it turned out that she had nothing to do with the incident and that she just happened to be there. That’s what really happened, nothing more,” said the holidaymaker, adding that he was appalled after reading news reports on the story.

“They said that child snatchers were posing as hotel staff. That’s completely ridiculous, I have no idea where they got that from,” the holidaymaker said.

“I also noticed that some have been connecting this incident to the Madeleine case. That is both wrong and disrespectful,” stressed the holidaymaker, referring to the famous case of then three-year old Madeleine McCann who disappeared from her room while holidaying with her family in a holiday resort in Portugal in 2007.

Meanwhile, a source close to the investigation told the Cyprus Mail that the parents of the 19-year old Bulgarian that was arrested are employed by the company that owns Anastasia Beach hotel, Tsokkos Hotels.

He was with his mum and dad. Their son has been abused?

The 19-year old apparently spent a lot of time in the hotel, frequenting the pool area. The source said that on the 19-year-old’s phone, police found four pictures, none of which depicted children.

“They were pictures of a hotel show. We went through the suspect’s phone, we searched his house thoroughly and found absolutely nothing to suggest that he was a paedophile, a kidnapper or that he was part of a gang.”

But he might have been, right?

Posted: 19th, June 2015 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann, Reviews | Comment


Joey Essex’s new love Charlotte Stuchfield ‘flashes’ the Daily Mail pap pervs

Professional to-deadline dimwit Joey Essex is dating Charlotte Stuchfield. He had been romancing air hostesses Bethany Hitch but, as the Sun reports, tired of her “always being in the sky”. A source is quoted: “It was tough maintaining a relationship with an air stewardess. At least Charlotte only lives up the road.”

But where the Sun does it with humour – Joey, mate, Hitch doesn’t live in the sky, footballers don’t live on the pitch and waiters don’t live in McDonald’s – the Mail goes on the attack. In place of actual knowledge about Miss Stuchfield (the Mirror calls her a “mystery brunette”), the Mail produces three photos of the couple leaving an London eatery and news that the Essex’s latest flame “flashed her sideboob in a knitted top which gaped at the sides”.

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Posted: 19th, June 2015 | In: Celebrities, Reviews | Comment


Charleston daily paper sticks gun advert over story of church massacre

Charleston newspaper the day after the church massacre:

Charleston newspaper guns sticker

Posted: 18th, June 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Dylann Storm Roof Photos

Dylann Storm Roof has been arrested and charged with the murders of nine people at the Emanuel AME Church. A witness claims Roof told his victims: “I have to do it…You rape our women and you’re taking over the country.” He spared one woman‘s life “so she could tell the world what happened.” The 21-year-old had a previous arrest for possessing drugs.

 

roof

Image 1 of 5

Posted: 18th, June 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Over-dressed Hooters staff would have added to the ‘character of Newcastle’

hooters

 

There will be no branch of the Hooters boobs ‘n’ vests eatery in Newcastle. Hooters was not granted a licence. The Chronicle notes:

 

Mark James is the general manager of Hooters in the UK and thought the chain would’ve added to Newcastle’s character.

Indeed, it would have radically altered the city’s reputation for year-round topless entertainment.

 

Posted: 18th, June 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Mo Farah: end the assumed guilt and legalise all drugs in sport

Mo Farah, hero of the London 2012 Olympics, has expressed shock at allegations his coach Alberto Salazar violated anti-doping regulations. “I haven’t done anything, but my name is getting dragged through the mud,” says Farah.

There is no suggestion Farah has done anything outside the rules. And Salazar maintains his innocence. But, hey, who expects a cheat to confess – they only do that in the face of proven guilt and when trying to get back in the game?

Against this backdrop of popular suspicion that ‘they’ are all on something – and if they are, then so what if the winner cheats? – the Daily Mail drops a shoe:

Mo Farah missed two drug tests before London Olympics, putting 2012 double gold at risk  Farah’s first missed test appears to have occurred in early 2010, six months before he broke David Moorcroft’s British 5,000m record. The second test seems to have occurred once Farah had started working with Salazar, taking place at Farah’s home in Teddington. Farah contested it by appealing to the UK Anti-Doping Agency on the basis that he claimed he did not hear his doorbell

The Mail says that an athlete who misses three tests in any 12-month period (down from 18 months since 2013) can face up to a four-year ban. But Farah did not miss three tests. He missed two.

Farah has not cheated. But he is trapped in the prevailing culture where everyone is guilty til proven innocent:

Kjetil Haugen7 investigated the suggestion that athletes face a kind of prisoner’s dilemma regarding drugs. His game theoretic model shows that, unless the likelihood of athletes being caught doping was raised to unrealistically high levels, or the payoffs for winning were reduced to unrealistically low levels, athletes could all be predicted to cheat. The current situation for athletes ensures that this is likely, even though they are worse off as a whole if everyone takes drugs, than if nobody takes drugs.

And, in any case, who says what is and what is not cheating?

Professor Julian Savulescu points to the use of caffeine and other substances that are shown to improve cycling performance yet are still allowed and even welcomed in competition.

“Today athletes take caffeine, which is unnatural to enhance performance — nobody thinks that’s somehow corrupting of the spirit of sport. Yet it was banned [ed. up until 2004] and it enhances performance — it increases the time to exhaustion by about 10%. Beetroot extract can also increase the time to exhaustion by up to 20% in some trials. These examples show that it’s not performance enhancement per se that’s the problem.”

“By allowing some physiological performance enhancement you enable honest athletes who don’t want to harm themselves, to increase their performance to some degree. So the people that are cheating are going to be getting less of an advantage than they are now.

“So you’re reducing the unfairness of the situation by creating what you might call a ‘white market’ for physiological enhancement which competes with a ‘black market’ for non-physiological enhancement.”

I’d allow athletes take anything so long as it doesn’t cause them to fall down dead. Carefully managed science should be permitted. The case of Mo Farah highlights the system’s failings. It’s time to change the system.

Posted: 18th, June 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling is my hippy crack role model

sterling hippy crack

 

Is that Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling inhaling nitrous oxide – always billed in the newspapers as ‘hippy crack’  – on a boat in Ibiza? The Sun’s Chris Pollard says it is:

FOOTBALL star Raheem Sterling has been caught sucking from a balloon — just weeks after The Sun exposed him inhaling laughing gas… on Tuesday he was videoed with the stem of an inflated pink balloon between his lips.

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Posted: 18th, June 2015 | In: Liverpool, Reviews, Sports | Comment