Onsgard's Blog

A West African court convicted the state of Niger on Monday on counts of failing to protect a 12-year-old girl from being sold into slavery, reported The Washington Post. Hadijatou Mani, now 24, was sold into slavery in 1996 for around $500. For over a decade she was forced to do unpaid housework and labor and was repeatedly raped by her owner.

Slavery is outlawed in Africa, but it still exists in pockets of the country including parts of Niger, Mali, Mauritania in areas of conflict such as northern Uganda, reported The New York Times.

The ruling ordered the government to pay Mani about $19,000 in damages, which she says she will use to buy a home and fund an education for her three children.

Mani was freed by her owner, Souleymane Narouna, in 2005, but had trouble when she tried to get married because Narouna claimed she was married to him. When Mani married anyway, she was charged for bigamy and sentenced to six months in jail. She was released after serving two months.

Activists hope that this ruling will help call attention to the hidden slavery issue in Africa and help free the suspected 43,000 still enslaved today in Niger alone.

Posted by onsga001 at 3:05 PM | Permalink

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman planned a special legislative session Wednesday to fix the loosely-worded safe-haven law that has left 23 children abandoned at hospitals, reported The Star Tribune.

The safe-haven law, which took effect in July, lets caregivers drop off children as old as 18 at Nebraska hospitals without prosecution, reported The Washington Post. This differs from laws in other states, which limit the age of children eligible for drop=off to between one day and three months old.

Since the law went into effect, 23 children have been abandoned at hopitals, the youngest being one year old. 12 of the 23 children were teenagers.

Parents from other states have taken advantage of Nebraska's lax law and children from Iowa and Georgia have been dropped off at Nebraska hospitals. These children have been returned to their home states.

Heineman will call a special session beginning Nov. 14, two months before the regular session, to try and amend the problem.

Until then, officials are urging parents to find alternative methods of dealing with their children, such as talking to friends or family or contacting social service instead of dropping them off at hospitals.

Posted by onsga001 at 2:18 PM | Permalink

Zachery Matthews was sentence to life in prison without parole on Wednesday for the Dec. 19 murder of his ex-girlfriend, reported The Pioneer Press.

Hennepin County District Judge Lloyd Zimmerman sentenced Matthews in the murder of Kristine Larson, 19, of St. Paul Park, by stating "you will never see the light of day," reported The Star Tribune.

Matthews hung a noose and strangled Larson in his apartment in front of their almost 2-year-old son because she was 30 minutes late to pick him up for a Christmas charity event. Larson had also recently broken up with Matthews and began seeing another man.

Matthews then took the body, put it in a car in an alleyway and lit fire to the interior to try and destroy evidence of the murder.

Larson's mother, Deb Tilson, said that the murder was the culmination of three years of abuse and is glad that her grandson will never know his father.

Matthews was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of second-degree murder, and one count of interference with a dead body.

Posted by onsga001 at 1:45 PM | Permalink

A woman is in severe condition and a man is dead after a domestic dispute in Brooklyn Park on Saturday, reported The Pioneer Press. Police responded to a 911 call from a woman at 2:30 am reporting a man in her home with a gun, and shots were heard.

Officers found the woman in the basement, the man upstairs, and five children between the ages of infant and 15 also in the home, reported The Star Tribune. The children were taken to a safe location, police said.

A neighbor said that the couple was not married but had lived together for many years.

Posted by onsga001 at 2:43 PM | Permalink

A security guard opened fire at the offices of international shipping company DHL in Afghanistan on Saturday, killing two, reported The Washington Post. The gunman killed the company's country director and his deputy and then turned the gun on himself.

The DHL security guard opened fire on the car carrying the two officials as it pulled into the company's headquarters.

Police arrested 13 people following the incident, and Zabiullah Mujahed, spokesman for the Taliban deny any involvement.

The Taliban have, however, accepted responsibility for one of the many other shootings and kidnappings that took place recently in Afghanistan, reported The New York Times. Taliban claimed responsibility for the shooting of the aid worker Gayle Williams, 34, on Monday.

Posted by onsga001 at 1:01 PM | Permalink

The bodies of actress Jennifer Hudson's mother and brother were found in their home in Chicago on Friday afternoon, reported The Washington Post.Hudson's 7-year-old nephew Julian King was also reported missing.

Police confirmed that Darnell Donerson, 57 and Jason Hudson, 29 were found slain with gunshot wounds in their home.

Police arrested William Balfour as a suspect in the case, but he has not yet been charged. Balfour was previously married to Hudson's sister, Julia Hudson, for several years, but they are now divorced. Balfour was also traced to the home of Hudson and Donerson through records of his previous addresses.

The Cook County medical examiner's office ruled the gunshot deaths homicides.

According to The New York Times,there was no sign of forced entry at the house and the deaths were a result of a domestic dispute.

Posted by onsga001 at 12:21 PM | Permalink

As many as 50 teenagers at a suburban St. Louis high school are being tested for HIV after an infected source released information that the students may also be infected, reported The New York Times.

"The St. Louis County Health Department said last week that a positive HIV test raised concern that students at Normandy might have been exposed," reported The Washington Post. The department has not released whether the infected patient is a student or connected with the high school, only that they warned that 50 high school students may be connected to the HIV outbreak.

Students at Normandy High School have the option of free, confidential HIV testing during school hours through a mouth swab. No information on whether or not students are infected will be released to the Normandy High School district officials.

Students began feeling repercussions of the accusations before testing took place. Sophomore Jasmine Lane, 16, said her boyfriend from another school broke up with her upon hearing the news. Also, surrounding school's football teams refused to play against Normandy High School.

Posted by onsga001 at 12:19 PM | Permalink

A 6-year-old Nevada boy abducted from his home was found on Sunday, walking along the street a few miles away, reported The New York Times.

The boy, Cole Puffinburger, was kidnapped Wednesday night after three men claiming to be police officers ransacked the home of Cole's mother and her fiance. The men demanded money and when the couple said they did not have it, the men fled and took the boy.

The abduction is said to be linked with 51-year-old Clemens Tinnemeyer, Cole's maternal grandfather. Tinnemeyer is suspected to have stolen millions of dollars from drug dealers trafficking methamphetamine, reported The Star Tribune.

Cole was found when police got a call that a boy matching his description was walking down the street. He was found in "excellent condition."

Police are looking for Jesus Gatelum, a Mexican national in his mid 30s, who is thought of as a "person of interest," said officials in Riverside, Calif., who arrested Tinnemeyer.

Posted by onsga001 at 7:31 PM | Permalink

A Vietnamese journalist was arrested on Wednesday on counts of writing inaccurate stories about the country's high-profile corruption case, reported The Star Tribune.

Nguyen Viet Chien, 56, was convicted of "abusing freedom and democracy while writing a story about Vietnamese Transportation Officials gambling with embezzled money in 2005.

Fellow reporter Nguyen Van Hai, 33, was sentenced on the charges to two years of "re-education without detention," which requires his employer to supervise education intended to make him a better citizen.

Chien told the court that he had assumed the information he received while researching the scandal was accurate, reported The Washington Post. "I received the information from police officials investigating the case," he said. "I therefore assumed that it was real."

Newspapers initially condemned the reporters' arrest, but government quickly quieted the state-controlled media and little information has been publicized.

Posted by onsga001 at 7:24 PM | Permalink

Four men beat a mentally disabled Lakeville man on two consecutive nights, reported The PIoneer Press.

The victim, Justin Hamilton, was taken to a remote location in Dakota County on Friday night by four men and a 16-year-old girl who he had recently befriended. The men repeatedly kicked and beat him and the 16-year-old girl allegedly kicked Hamilton as well.

On Saturday night Hamilton was again seen walking around downtown Northfield with the 16-year-old girl and was again picked up by the four men. Hamilton was taken back to the remote area, tied to a tree with a belt, burned with a lighter and beaten to unconsciousness

The four men, Jonathon Diepold, John Maniglia, and Glen Ries, all of Northfield, and Timothy Ketterling, of Prior Lake, were arrested by the Dakota County sherrifs office on Sunday after a Hamilton informed the police of the attack, reported The Star Tribune.

Posted by onsga001 at 2:31 PM | Permalink

The United States removed North Korea from the terrorist list on Saturday, reported The Washington Post.The move was made to salvage a nuclear disarmament deal. President Bush decided North Korea had earned the right to be taken off the list through thier cooperation in verifying nuclear claims.

The United States said it would not remove North Korea from the list of terror-sponsoring countries until it accepted an inspection of its nuclear program, reported The Pioneer Press.

The move to take North Korea off the list came with some opposition, particularly from Republicans and Japan.

Posted by onsga001 at 2:20 PM | Permalink

A 45-year-old man was found near the Rum River in St. Francis, reported The Pioneer Press.

Police responded to a call reporting a man beneath a bridge at 2:30 pm. The man's body was found near a bicycle. The Pioneer Press reported that it is unclear whether or not the bike belonged to the man.

The man has not yet been identified and the cause of death is still unclear. The St. Francis Police Department and Anoka County Sheriff's Office are investigating the incident.

Posted by onsga001 at 1:24 PM | Permalink

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled gay marriage legal on Friday, overturning a state ban on same-sex marriage, reported The Washington Post. The ruling made Connecticut the third state to legalize gay marriage through the courts, joining California and Massachusetts.

The case began in 2004 after eight same-sex couples were denied marriage licenses, reported The New York Times. "The plaintiffs contended that the denial of marriage licenses deprived them of due process and equal protection under the law."

While the case was pending, the Connecticut legislature adopted a law establishing the rights of same sex-partners to enter into civil unions. About 1,800 couples have obtained civil unions in Connecticut since the law was passed in 2005.

Now, with the ban overturned, same-sex couples will be able to obtain marriage licenses within the coming month.

Posted by onsga001 at 6:37 PM | Permalink

Sarah Palin stressed the tie between Barack Obama and 1960s radical Bill Ayers on Saturday, reported The New York Times.

Obama, who lived near Ayers in Chicago and has known him since Obama kicked off his political career in the mid-1990s, reported The Washington Post.

Ayers is a founder of the Weather Underground, a violent group that formed during the Vietnam era. This connection is what prompted Palin's comment that Obama "pals around with terrorists."

Accusations of Obama being tied to terrorists are diluted by the fact that Obama was 8 years old when Ayers was active in the Weather Underground. Harry Sevugan, an Obama spokesman, had a different idea as to why Palin was attacking Obama. "What’s clear is that John McCain and Sarah Palin would rather spend their time tearing down Barack Obama than laying out a plan to build up our economy,� Sevugan said.

Posted by onsga001 at 6:14 PM | Permalink

Former Vice President Al Gore urged Minnesotans to vote for Al Franken at a DFL fundraiser at Northrop Auditorium on Saturday, reported The Pioneer Press.

"It is time to bring about a change in the course that our nation is following, it's time to elect Al Franken to the United States Senate," Gore said to a crowd of 1500 people.

Gore also made reference to the presidential election, saying "It's time to kick them out of there. It's not that complicated," reported The Star Tribune.

Franken returned Gore's praise, calling him "the best president we never had."

Posted by onsga001 at 3:49 PM | Permalink

Two United States helicopters crashed in Baghdad Saturday night while trying to land, reported The Washington Post.

An Iraqi soldier was killed when a UH-60 Black Hawk crashed in the northern neighborhood of Adhamiyah. Two U.S. soldiers were injured.

"Local Iraqi police officers said the tail of one of the helicopters caught fire before it crashed and that there was shooting from the surrounding area when it went down," reported The New York Times.

In September seven U.S. soldiers were killed when a CH-47 Chinook crashed in southern Iraq due to a mechanical failure.

Posted by onsga001 at 12:33 PM | Permalink