Weird news - Egyptian military did virginity tests on arrested female protesters

This is really weird. After the deposition of President Hosni Mubarak, the military took power with a promise to better things; but the military in the past has also been associated with the rule of Mubarak, and it did not make conditions any better after it took over and had been ruling for some time. This in turn brought protesters onto the street, something that was not liked by the ruling military and it decided to turn tough on the protesters and arrested and jailed some of them.
However, soon after the arrest, one of the arrested made an accusation that was horrific, claiming that they were administered a virginity test by the authorities, and that too without any female doctor or personnel being present. At that time, the military forcefully denied that any such thing was done, but now a senior office has claimed that the denied tests were done, but stated that it was fine to do such tests. In further comments, the general claimed that these were 'loose' girls, and were done to protect the forces from future claims by the protesters that the girls were not virgins.
This is horrific behavior, to first state that the morals of a girl were loose if she was a virgin, to actually conduct such tests as if this was a crime, and then to justify such tests. No wonder the military regime is facing more pressure (link to article):

A senior Egyptian general admits that "virginity checks" were performed on women arrested at a demonstration this spring, the first such admission after previous denials by military authorities. The allegations arose in an Amnesty International report, published weeks after the March 9 protest. It claimed female demonstrators were beaten, given electric shocks, strip-searched, threatened with prostitution charges and forced to submit to virginity checks.
The general said the virginity checks were done so that the women wouldn't later claim they had been raped by Egyptian authorities. "We didn't want them to say we had sexually assaulted or raped them, so we wanted to prove that they weren't virgins in the first place," the general said. "None of them were (virgins)."

Weird news - Mom tries to sell off her daughter's virginity, daughter is only 13 years old

Some time back, there were a couple of stories about how teenagers (college students) were offering their virginity in an online auction so that they could generate enough money to pay for their studies (or atleast that is what they claimed). There was a lot of controversy about those attempts, with most people accusing them of being immoral, but the law could not really do much about those cases.
Seems like those cases inspired this lady to act in this manner, and in this case, the law would get totally involved, and there would not be any moral or ethical doubt. Parents have the reputation of being able to do anything to help their children, to protect them; protecting them from sexual predators brings out one of the strongest protective instincts in parents. So what do you say when you see a mother trying to sell the virginity of her own daughter, that too somebody who is only 13 years old and is mentally unable to make these decisions by herself (link to article):

A Salt Lake City woman has been charged with offering her 13-year-old daughter's virginity to a man in exchange for $10,000.
The woman was charged Monday in Utah's 3rd District Court with two counts of aggravated sex abuse and two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. KTVX Channel 4 reports that court documents claim she made the offer after the man asked about oral sex with the girl.

Weird news: Lady in Great Britain cannot stand being near electric devices

People are allergic to a number of things in their life, and many of these can be quite rare. However, what do you do when you witness a person being struck by a reaction when left exposed to electric devices, or even electricity. In our modern lives, the amount of electricity we are exposed to is incredible, so it can be very troublesome if some reaction like this is witnessed. The lady has to make sure that she remains away from all devices, which also means that she cannot go outside, and even in her own home, she has to remain away from such devices; if exposed, she will run into a number of problems (link to article):

A 55-year-old British woman is so sensitive to electricity that she cannot watch television, listen to the radio or talk on a mobile phone. Janice Tunnicliffe, a resident of Nottinghamshire, claims to suffer from an extremely rare condition called "electro sensitivity".
She was struck with the illness after she received chemotherapy for bowel cancer three years ago. Tunnicliffe cannot use an electric kettle, and keeps her washing machine in a concrete outhouse.
She cannot bear to be anywhere near an electromagnetic field, and hence has been left "completely isolated" from the modern world due to her medical condition.

Weird news - Person suspected of being a cannibal caught in Moscow

In human history, there have been many instances where the word of cannibalism has come up. There were ancient rituals where the eating of body parts such as the hearts of enemies was supposed to give strength (in fact would transfer the strength and valor of the enemy to the person who was eating the heart), there would be human sacrifices to the gods where after the sacrifice, the body parts would be cooked. In more modern times, there were tribes on isolated islands that would indulge in cannibalism, and would catch and eat people who wandered onto the island.
However, the thought of cannibalism, especially when it is present in modern times, makes people feel cold and clammy, there is the nightmare that it may happen to them, that the weird person who lives in the house nearby and does not let people come in is actually a cannibal.
In recent times, Moscow saw cases where pieces of human bodies were found scattered around the city, and there were worries about a serial killer (link to article):

A man suspected to be behind the appearance of dismembered body parts across Moscow in recent weeks was arrested early Tuesday morning after half-eaten human innards were found in his home, police said.
Police found a stew made from a human liver in the fridge at the suspect's apartment in east Moscow. They believe the liver to be part of the same body as various dismembered body parts found scattered around Moscow in recent weeks.
The decapitated head of a middle-aged man was found in the Moskva River in the west of the city Wednesday.

Weird news - An eye for an eye - Iranian man to be blinded for throwing acid in girl's face

This is a moral dilemma for many people. What do you consider the just punishment for a man who stalked and pursued after a girl, and when she said No, was angry enough that he decided to punish her for this refusal by throwing acid in her face. Now, getting acid on the face is a grievous and horrible fate, since the acid causes immense pain by burning the skin, and in her case, went into the eyes, blinding her. The acid also dissolves some of the structures of the skin, causing the face to become disfigured, and a huge number of victims of acid attacks never fully recover even after a number of plastic surgeries.
This happened in Iran, where there was a twist. The judicial system is based on the Sharia, which allows the victim to claim the same punishment on the accused as he has done, and the victim demanded this revenge. She refused to accept blood money, and pushed for reciprocal punishment, and the judicial system of Iran is delivering, where the accused is due to get 5 drops of Sulphuric acid in each eye, which will cause blindness. Causing blindness did not cause as much pain as the prospect of being blinded, and the accused is very repentant. However, this is also seen as a form of punishment that is barbaric, and is being opposed by many other countries who have filed protests (link to article):

A human rights group on Saturday urged Iranian authorities not to put acid in the eyes of a man found guilty of blinding a woman who scorned him. Majid Movahedi is scheduled to be blinded by having five drops of acid in each eye Saturday, according to Amnesty International.
Movahedi was convicted in 2008 of throwing a bucket of acid on Ameneh Bahrami.
The attack blinded Bahrami, who sought to have authorities render the ancient punishment of "an eye for an eye" in accordance with Islamic law. The rights group is urging Iran to forgo the acid punishment. "It is unbelievable that the Iranian authorities would consider implementing such a punishment," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, an Amnesty International deputy director.

Weird news - Young boy (10 years old) charged with murder of third degree murder

In normal murder cases, it is fairly easy to settle matters; in most cases, there is a murder suspect, and there are evidence and other details. In a majority of cases, the judges do not have to do too much, there are not too many ethical dilemma and so on. However, things get difficult when things are not so simple. What happens when the accused is a minor ? In some cases, things are somewhat clearer when the accused is almost an adult (say when the accused is around 16-17 years old) and is accused of a heinous crime - in such cases, the prosecution argues for treating the accused as an adult and the judge also accepts. But what do you do when you have a 10 year old girl ? Such a young girl is not developed enough to be held responsible for her actions, and yet you cannot leave her because of the nature of the crime, where the girl has actually killed a toddler (link to article):

A 10-year-old girl has been charged with murder after allegedly violently shaking a baby boy and throwing him into a crib.
The fifth-grader, from Pennsylvania, was charged on Friday after an inquest into the death of 11-month-old Heath Conrad Ryder, who died of a traumatic brain injury at Hershey Medical Center in August last year.
The baby boy was at day care when the alleged assault happened a few months earlier. His mother, Shelly Ryder, came to pick him up and found him 'limp and lifeless'.
The young girl, who has no history of behavioural problems, will be tried as a juvenile and has been released into the custody of her parents until the next hearing later this month on condition that she does not have unsupervised contact with children under five.