Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Children Build World's Tallest LEGO Tower In Brazil
Thousands of children in Brazil have built what organisers say is the world's tallest Lego tower - with a bit of help from parents and a crane.
Organisers say the tower, which was made with 500,000 pieces and measured over 102ft, beat a previous record held in Chile.
Teen Rape Victim Forced To Confess In Front Of Church
April 8, 2011
For years, her church was all she knew but today, Tina Anderson has left that church and says she's not going back.
"I still struggle, because I've been made to feel guilty for so long," she told "20/20."
Anderson was only 16 when she said she was forced to stand terrified before her entire church congregation to confess her "sin" -- she had become pregnant. She says she wasn't allowed to tell the group that the pregnancy was the result of being allegedly raped by a fellow congregant, a man twice her age.
She says her New Hampshire pastor, Chuck Phelps, told her she was lucky not to have been born during Old Testament times when she would have been stoned to death.
Phelps says that Anderson voluntarily stood in front of the church, but Tina says it was the first step of "church discipline" at her Independent Fundamental Baptist Church (IFB).
"I was completely in shock, but too scared to go and tell anyone because I thought I would get blamed for what happened," Anderson said.
"I truly believed that it was my fault," she said.
Her mother sought help from the pastor and they agreed to send her thousands of miles away to Colorado to live with another IFB family.
There, she said she was homeschooled and restricted from seeing others her age until she gave her child up for adoption.
In February 2010, after keeping her secret for 13 years, Anderson -- who now has three more children and lives with her husband in Arizona -- was contacted by police and agreed to press charges.
All the years that she lived with the memory of the alleged abuse, she says she held it tight. "You are told not to talk about it," according to Anderson.
Today, the man accused of raping Anderson is awaiting trial. Ernest Willis, a former church member who lives in Gilford, N.H., is accused of raping Anderson twice -- once in the backseat of a car during a driving lesson and a second time at Anderson's home where she says he showed up when her mother was away. Willis was arrested in May, 2010 on felony sexual assault charges and has since pleaded not guilty. He has declined to speak with "20/20."
Anderson told "20/20" that, as a pregnant teen, she confided her pregnancy to Willis. His reaction, she said, was to offer to pay for an abortion. When she rejected his offer, he presented another option, she said.
"He asked me if I wanted him to punch me in the stomach as hard as he could to try to cause a miscarriage," she said. "I told him, 'No, leave me alone.'"
Protests Arise After France Bans Islamic Face Veils
By CAMILLE RUSTICI Associated Press Apr 11, 2011 7:28AM
PARIS (AP) — France’s new ban on Islamic face veils was met with a burst of defiance Monday, as several women appeared veiled in front of Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral and two were detained for taking part in an unauthorized protest.
France on Monday became the world’s first country to ban the veils anywhere in public, from outdoor marketplaces to the sidewalks and boutiques of the Champs-Elysees.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy set the wheels in motion for the ban nearly two years ago, saying the veils imprison women and contradict this secular nation’s values of dignity and equality. The ban enjoyed wide public support when it was approved by parliament last year.
Though only a very small minority of France’s at least 5 million Muslims wear the veil, many Muslims see the ban as a stigma against the country’s No. 2 religion.
About a dozen people, including three women wearing niqab veils with just a slit for the eyes, staged a protest in front of Notre Dame on Monday, saying the ban is an affront to their freedom of expression and religion.
Much larger crowds of police, journalists and tourists filled the square.
One of the veiled women was seen taken away in a police van. A police officer on the site told The Associated Press that she was detained because the protest was not authorized and the woman refused to disperse when police asked her to. The officer was not authorized to be publicly named.
The Paris police administration said another woman was also detained for taking part in the unauthorized demonstration.
It was unclear whether the women were fined for wearing a veil. The law says veiled women risk a €150 ($215) fine or special citizenship classes, though not jail.
People who force women to don a veil are subject to up to a year in prison and a €30,000 fine ($43,000), and possibly twice that if the veiled person is a minor.
The law is worded to trip safely through legal minefields: The words “women,” “Muslim” and “veil” are not even mentioned. The law says it is illegal to hide the face in the public space.
Moderate Muslim leaders in France and elsewhere agree that Islam does not require women to cover their faces, but many are uncomfortable with banning the veil. Religious leaders have denounced the measure, and are struggling with what to advise the faithful.
The plans for a ban prompted protests in Pakistan last year and warnings from al-Qaida. It also has devout Muslim tourists skittish, since it applies to visitors as well as French citizens.
Authorities estimate at most 2,000 women in France wear the outlawed veils. France’s Muslims number at least 5 million, the largest such population in western Europe.
Read More from Chicago Sun TimesNew Mexico: Man Living In Car Because Apartment.Complex Is Infested With Bed Bugs
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- An Albuquerque man said he’s been living in his car because his apartment complex is infested with bedbugs.Bedbugs have been spotted in the Uptown Park Apartments near San Pedro and Indian School and the problem has been going on for weeks.Mike Hawes is keeping almost everything he owns inside his car in the complex’s parking lot.“I got to take my clothes up there, and take them back down. I just got a pillow and blanket there pretty much, Hawes said.Hawes moved his belongings out several weeks ago, after learning 18 units at the complex were infested with bedbugs.“I’m worried about the creepy little things munching on me when I’m sleeping. That’s disgusting, not to mention disease,” Hawes said.Even though his place isn’t affected, Hawes said he didn’t want to take any chances.“So I live out of my car; (it’s) pretty much all I can do,” Hawes said.The manager of the apartment complex said workers have been treating the rooms for bedbugs during the last few weeks and they’re doing whatever they can to fix the problem. However she told Action 7 News that residents might not be safe until the end of the month.
Read More From KDAT 7
Read More From KDAT 7
Citizens Protest Proposed New Walmart Store
April 11, 2011 10:27 PM
CHICAGO (CBS) – A proposed Wal-Mart in the East Lakeview neighborhood received a not-so-warm welcome Monday night, even though representatives of the mega-retailer characterized the project as a downsized store that would sell mostly groceries.
The big box chain tried to sell its plan for a “Neighborhood Market” store in the Broadway at Surf retail complex, located in the 2800 block of North Broadway. The possibility of a Wal-Mart has generated intense debate among local residents and merchants who are leery of the chain and its potential impact on local independent businesses.
Wal-Mart tried to allay fears by saying the area needs a grocery store. The store it would build would be one-fifth the size of a typical Wal-Mart and would be limited to food items, produce, beauty products and pharmacy items.
The store would also sell “limited” general merchandise, such as computer printer paper and other items as neighbors saw fit, but would not sell items such as electronics, apparel, home furnishings and hardware as would be seen in a larger Wal-Mart Supercenter, Wal-Mart spokesman John Bisio said.
“This is one Wal-Mart store certainly of a different size and scope,” Bisio told a large crowd at the Wellington Avenue Church, 615 W. Wellington Ave.
Bisio said the store would create 75 to 100 new jobs, and would engage the community to identify local organizations and causes to support, which he said would likely include jobs and skills training, environmental concerns, and sustainability.
On 150th Anniversary Of The Civil War Americans Are Still Divided
Washington (CNN) - It has been 150 years since the Civil War began with the first shots at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, and in some respects views of the Confederacy and the role that slavery played in the events of 1861 still divide the public, according to a new national poll.
In the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll released Tuesday, roughly one in four Americans said they sympathize more with the Confederacy than the Union, a figure that rises to nearly four in ten among white Southerners.
When asked the reason behind the Civil War, whether it was fought over slavery or states' rights, 52 percent of all Americas said the leaders of the Confederacy seceded to keep slavery legal in their state, but a sizeable 42 percent minority said slavery was not the main reason why those states seceded.
"The results of that question show that there are still racial, political and geographic divisions over the Civil War that still exists a century and a half later," CNN Polling Director Holland Keating said.
When broken down by political party, most Democrats said southern states seceded over slavery, independents were split and most Republicans said slavery was not the main reason that Confederate states left the Union.
Republicans were also most likely to say they admired the leaders of the southern states during the Civil War, with eight in 10 Republicans expressing admiration for the leaders in the South, virtually identical to the 79 percent of Republicans who admired the northern leaders during the Civil War.
New Film Claims The Discovery Of Nails From Jesus's Cross
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Could two of the nails used to crucify Jesus have been discovered in a 2,000-year-old tomb in Jerusalem?
And could they have mysteriously disappeared for 20 years, only to turn up by chance in a Tel Aviv laboratory?
That is the premise of the new documentary film "The Nails of the Cross" by veteran investigator Simcha Jacobovici, which even before its release has prompted debate in the Holy Land.
The film follows three years of research during which Jacobovici presents his assertions -- some based on empirical data, others requiring much imagination and a leap of faith.
He hails the find as historic, but most experts and scholars contacted by Reuters dismissed his case as far-fetched, some calling it a publicity stunt.
Many ancient relics, including other nails supposedly traced back to the crucifixion, have been presented over the centuries as having a connection to Jesus. Many were deemed phony, while others were embraced as holy.
Jacobovici, who sparked debate with a previous film that claimed to reveal the lost tomb of Jesus, says this find differs from others because of its historical and archaeological context.
"What we are bringing to the world is the best archaeological argument ever made that two of the nails from the crucifixion of Jesus have been found," he said in an interview, wearing his trademark traditional knitted cap.
"Do I know 100 percent yes, these are them? I don't."
Japan Raises Nucleur Crisis Level
By: My Way News
TOKYO (AP) - Japan raised the crisis level at its crippled nuclear plant Tuesday to a severity on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing high overall radiation leaks that have contaminated the air, tap water, vegetables and seawater.
Japanese nuclear regulators said they raised the rating from 5 to 7 - the highest level on an international scale of nuclear accidents overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency - after new assessments of radiation leaks from the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant since it was disabled by the March 11 tsunami.
The new ranking signifies a "major accident" that includes widespread effects on the environment and health, according to the Vienna-based IAEA. But Japanese officials played down any health effects and stressed that the harm caused by Chernobyl still far outweighs that caused by the Fukushima plant.
The revision came a day after the government added five communities to a list of places people should leave to avoid long-term radiation exposure. A 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius already had been cleared around the plant.
The news was received with chagrin by residents in Iitate, one of the five communities, where high levels of radiation have been detected in the soil. The village of 6,200 people is about 40 kilometers from the Fukushima plant.
"It's very shocking to me," said Miyuki Ichisawa, 52, who runs a coffee shop in Iitate. "Now the government is officially telling us this accident is at the same level of Chernobyl."
Japanese officials said the leaks from the Fukushima plant so far amount to a tenth of the radiation emitted in the Chernobyl disaster, but said they eventually could exceed Chernobyl's emissions if the crisis continues.
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