Indian teen tossed from train loses leg

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Doctors had to amputate the leg of a 13-year-old snack vendor who was thrown off a moving train after he reportedly did not have money to bribe a guard, authorities said Sunday.

Part of Mohammed Salahuddin's leg was removed below the knee after it was badly damaged after the fall, said Amit Lodha, a railway police superintendent.

According to published reports, the suspect allegedly hurled Salahuddin off the train on Thursday in anger because he did not have Rs 10 (20 cents) to pay in bribes for selling snacks on board.

"The (arrested) constable has denied these allegations. But he indeed has been found to have thrown the boy out of the train," Lodha told CNN.

The guard was sent to jail Sunday for the incident, which took place in India's Bihar state, officials said. He faces attempted murder among other charges.

In August, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh admitted his country was faced with "pervasive corruption".

"The malaise of corruption, so sapping of our efforts to march ahead as a nation, should be treated immediately and effectively," Singh warned

Police found body of missing girl in wall

Police in Conn. say a body has been found in a building where a Yale University graduate student Annie Le, vanished.

The human remains were found inside a wall in a Yale laboratory by Connecticut State Police just after 5 p.m., reports CBS affiliate WFSB - Hartford. It was in an area holding utility cables that run between floors. More than




100 police officials have been searching for Le since Tuesday, when she was last seen.

New Haven's assistant police chief says officials presume the body is that of the missing doctoral student. He says Le's family has been told. Police also say the missing persons investigation is now being treated as a homicide.

New Haven Assistant Police Chief Peter Reichard says the body has not been identified as doctoral student Annie Le, who has been the focus of a massive police search since she vanished in the building on Tuesday.

Le swiped her identification card to enter the building that morning, but there was no record of her leaving, despite some 75 surveillance cameras that cover the complex. Investigators pored over blueprints and surveillance video footage while searching for her.

Le was from Placerville, California. She was set to get married Sunday in Syosset, N.Y., on Long Island's north shore.

Caster Semenya is a woman right? Or really a Man?

The South African government has said it is considering legal action against the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) over its handling of a gender verification test on South African runner Caster Semenya.

Speaking at a news conference in Pretoria on Friday, Sport and Recreation Minister Makhenkesi Stofile said he was "shocked and disgusted" at the treatment that Semenya has received from both the international media and the IAAF. He said lawyers were being consulted over possible human rights violations amid concerns that Semenya was tested without her consent. (See pictures of Caster Semenya's triumph and trials.)

The press conference came after an Australian newspaper reported that a gender test revealed that Semenya has an intersex condition. In a story published on Friday, the Daily Telegraph said that the test shows the 18-year-old has no ovaries, but rather internal male testes. Semenya came to the world's attention after winning the African Junior Championships in Mauritius in August and then the 800 meters at last month's World Championships in Berlin by an amazing 2 seconds. Her extraordinary times and masculine appearance led the IAAF to request gender verification tests. (Read: "Is a Female Track Star a Man? No Simple Answer.")

South African athletic officials say they have not received results from the tests — and the IAAF has refused to confirm the Telegraph's story. But Stofile said the results are irrelevant: "She may be a hermaphrodite, but so what? She is still a girl ... a young girl enjoying growing up." Stofile added that if Semenya is ruled ineligible for further competition by the IAAF, "it will be a third world war."

On Friday, the IAAF issued a statement confirming that it had results from the tests in hand but urging caution over the Australian reports. "We would like to emphasize that these [reports] should not be considered as official statements by the IAAF," the federation said. "We can officially confirm that gender verification test results will be examined by a group of medical experts. We do not expect to make a final decision on this case before the next meeting of the IAAF Council which takes place in Monaco on November 20-21." (See pictures of the Beijing Olympics.)

Concerns over Semenya's understanding of the gender verification process first surfaced earlier this week, when Wilfred Daniels, her coach at the time of her World Championships victory, told a British paper that Semenya had undergone gender testing before leaving for Berlin with the mistaken belief that they were anti-doping investigations. But that assertion contradicts claims by Athletics South Africa president Leonard Chuene, who has insisted that no gender tests were carried out on Semenya prior to her departure for Berlin. (IAAF spokesman Nick Davies could not be reached for comment on the South African government's possible lawsuit against the federation over human rights abuses.)

In its story, The Daily Telegraph did not say which intersex condition the test has revealed Semenya has. But if the paper's report is accurate, it is possible that she has partial androgen-insensitivity syndrome (AIS), a condition in which a genetic male is partially resistant to androgens, the male sex hormones that include testosterone. In many cases of partial AIS, the testes never descend from the abdomen, the genitalia may resemble female genitalia, and the individual will display both female and male characteristics. People with AIS often have high levels of testosterone as the body produces more to try to exert its actions. Last month, a British paper reported that Semenya's testosterone levels were three times as high as normally expected in a female, which could be in keeping with an AIS diagnosis. (Read a TIME postcard from the home of South Africa's gender bending runner.)

Athletes with AIS and similar intersex conditions are often allowed to compete in international athletics. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, seven genetically male athletes with AIS were allowed to compete as women. On Friday, the IAAF emphasized that Semenya's gender verification tests were a medical issue, not a doping one, and there were no insinuations that the athlete — whose family in South Africa insist she is female — cheated.

IAAF spokesman Davies told the Associated Press on Friday that, whatever the test reveals, Semenya would probably keep her world championship medal. "Our legal advice is that if she proves to have an advantage because of the male hormones, then it will be extremely difficult to strip the medal off her, since she has not cheated," he said. "She was naturally made that way, and she was entered in Berlin by her team and accepted by the IAAF." (See pictures of South Africa.)

The report in the Daily Telegraph and South Africa's response only serve to keep in the public sphere that which is a very private matter. Semenya, at least, seems to be displaying the same gritty fortitude that propelled her to victory in Berlin. When asked by South African magazine You about the gender issue, she reportedly said: "I see it all as a joke, it doesn't upset me. God made me the way I am and I accept myself. I am who I am and I'm proud of myself. I don't want to talk about the tests — I'm not even thinking about them."

Okay when you look at the pictures she realyy does not look much like a woman and to make matters worse when she talks, she sounds like a man...So if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, its a duck right? You tell me, although I am sure that their is some man out their claiming this young lady.

18-foot-long Burmese python was removed from the owners home.

APOPKA - Delilah, an 18-foot-long, 400-plus-pound Burmese python who had enjoyed a swell existence in an Apopka-area backyard feeding on rabbits, has a new home -- for now.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials removed the Burmese python from a home on Section Drive on Friday due to concerns about Delilah's size and whether the chain-link cage she was in was secure enough to contain her.

A complaint prompted wildlife officials to visit the home and check out the snake, which some officials called the largest python they had ever seen.

The snake was removed from her enclosure and brought to a caregiver with a permit for reptiles of concern. Officials were trying to determine if the Burmese python's owner had the proper permit for Delilah.

"To me it's a Goliath. It's a monster of a snake," Lt. Rick Brown with Fish and Wildlife's Investigations section said, adding it is the "largest I've ever seen."

Recently, the snake was being cared for by Melvin Cheever of Apopka, the brother of her owner.

Cheever said his brother was moving to West Virginia and left the snake behind to prepare her new accommodations. Cheever said his brother has owned the snake for 16 years.

"I fed her this morning, gave her seven rabbits," Cheever said soon after the snake was placed in a container and prepared to move Friday from the small community alongside Lake Apopka. "She is as docile as can be. She's as happy as can be."

Cheever acknowledged the snake, which measures 30 inches around, had escaped its enclosure in the past.

The snake's discovery comes at a time when Burmese pythons are being hunted in South Florida and state lawmakers are looking at legislation to make laws governing python owners tougher.

Fears about the snakes escalated following the early July death of a 2-year-old girl in Sumter County killed by her family's pet python.

Cheever said that snake was maltreated and blamed its owners. Delilah, meanwhile, was well fed and not aggressive, he said.

But her history of wandering out of her cage and her immense size caused wildlife officials to investigate Friday in the small community alongside Lake Apopka. The snake was kept in a chain-link cage behind a duplex-style home.

Charlene Boush, 39, who lives in the home where the snake was living, said she had reservations about letting her two dogs near Delilah.

"She got out just last week. They had to put her back in," she said.

"I don't let them go back there at all."

Don't fall for the scam.

I generally get 3 to 4 emails like this one below a week. What makes this so odd is I hear about people falling for these scams and loosing their life savings. I am sure that everyone that I am in contact are aware of scams but, if you are not this is the general layout. It sad but true many millions of American dollars go over seas each year for suckers who don't get it... Lets stop the madness, and shut these con artist down.

THIS IS THE LAYOUT OF THE EMAIL!

Dearest Friend, How are you today together with your family I hope all is well?.This is to inform you that your ATM MASTER CARD which you will be withdrawing $5,000.00USD per day till your overdue payment of 2.5millionUSD is completed has been credited, and it is ready for use.You are required to provide the ATM department with your information such as, Your full Name:-------- Address:---------- Age:-------------- Country:---------- City:----------- Phone number:----------- Contact the ATM department with this information below, name of the director DR wilson Eze email (atmmaster_cardcenter@yahoo.fr) phone nmber+229 985 065 71 for the release of your ATM CARD. Congratulations onces again. Regards, Mr.James Emma

Ellen DeGeneres is the fourth American Idol Judge

Extra: No joke! Ellen DeGeneres will tickle the funny bone of millions of "American Idol" viewers -- she's replacing Paula Abdul! The funny gal made the announcement while taping an episode of her show, which airs Sept. 10.

We've been dealing with this for the last couple of weeks and I've been dying to tell everyone," she told the audience. "It's just been so hard to keep it a secret and we just finally got the okay and I'm so excited. It is going to be so much fun."

As to what "Idol" fans can expect, she said, "Hopefully I'm the people's point of view because I'm just like you. I sit at home and I watch it and I don't have that technical... So I'm hopefully going to be that voice of what we're all doing at home."

"I could not be more excited to have Ellen join the 'American Idol' family," said creator and executive producer Simon Fuller. "Ellen has been a fan of the show for many years, and her love of music and understanding of the American public will bring a unique human touch to our judging panel. I can't wait for this next season to begin."

In May, Ellen chatted with Simon Cowell about the addition of Kara DioGuardi to the judging table, and even called Simon "mean"!

The ninth season of "American Idol" premieres January 2010. Meet the "Idol" guest judges.

As for Paula, she has other plans. Still, Simon says he "misses" Paula -- and says the chemistry of the show is different without her.

Read what a white professor wrote in a Georgia Newspaper...

Andrew M. Manis is associate professor of history at Macon State College in Georgia and wrote this for an editorial in the Macon Telegraph.


Andrew M. Manis: When Are WE Going to Get Over It?

For much of the last forty years, ever since America "fixed" its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African Americans finally going to get over it?

Now I want to ask:

"When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?
Recent reports that "Election Spurs Hundreds' of Race Threats, Crimes" should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in "Bombingham," Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than "talk the talk."


Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.


We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent.

Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes.

Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster.


But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we're back in the sixties again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we've proven what conservatives are always saying -- that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president.

But instead we now hear that school children from Maine to California are talking about wanting to "assassinate Obama."

Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, "How long?"

How long before we white people realize we can't make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us?

How long until we white people can - once and for all - get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color?

How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior?

How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites?


How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin?

How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations?


I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners?

How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do?


How long before we starting "living out the true meaning" of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that "red and yellow, black and white" all are precious in God's sight?

Until this past November 4, I didn't believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don't believe I'll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem.

But here's my three-point plan:

First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I'm going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people.


Second, I'm going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama.

Third, I'm going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can "in spirit and in truth" sing of our damnable color prejudice,

"We HAVE overcome."
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It takes a Village to protect our President!!!

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