Different

Police deemed that 36-year-old Shannon Jackson violated a protection order – similar to a restraining order – by using the site’s feature to attract the attention of another user.

The order previously obtained by the woman who received the poke banned Jackson from “telephoning, contacting or otherwise communicating with the petitioner”.

While police interventions to halt online harassment are not uncommon, this is believed to be one of the first cases of someone being detained for a poke – one of the most rudimentary forms of virtual communication.

The feature, which allows Facebook users to make themselves known to other users of the site without sending a message, is commonly used by members to say hello to their friends, or to flirt with people they do not know.

Police in Hendersonville, Tennessee have obtained screen grabs of the victim’s Facebook page showing evidence of the poke, according to the local newspaper The Tennessean.

Jackson, who lives in Hendersonville, faces up to a year in prison and fine of $2,500 if she is found guilty of breaching the protection order. She is due to appear in court later this month.

Although the poking angle may be unique, this is not the first time that Facebook communication has led to an arrest. Earlier this month a burglar in Italy was held after logging on to Facebook while carrying out a break-in.

Sauce: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/6305822/Woman-arrested-for-poking-Facebook-user.html

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FANS of popular cartoon Crayon Shin-chan need not worry that they will not get to see the boy any more following the death of his creator Yoshihito Usui.

Sin Chew Daily reported yesterday that there are plans to have other cartoonists draw the character because of his popularity in Japan.

The daily, quoting a newspaper report in Japan, said Usui’s family had also agreed to let other cartoonists continue drawing the boy.

It has been reported that the body of Usui was discovered at a cliff of the 1,423m Mount Arafune in Japan recently.

Police believe he might have slipped while climbing.

The 51-year-old cartoonist went missing after telling his family he was going to climb the mountain on Sept 11, and would be back the same evening.

Crayon Shin-chan, the story of an energetic kindergarten boy and his family, became popular after the series was published as a comic book in 1990.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/10/2/nation/4823808&sec=nation

By LIM AI LEE

I just read the most disturbing article about the ill-treatment of women prisoners in Iran. An anonymous paramilitary Basiji militia has just exposed the rape ritual of virgin female prisoners on the eve of their executions. These rapes are ordered and condoned by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s regime in Iran. The Jerusalem Post reports:

He said he had been a highly regarded member of the force, and had so “impressed my superiors” that, at 18, “I was given the ‘honor’ to temporarily marry young girls before they were sentenced to death.”

In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a “wedding” ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard – essentially raped by her “husband.”

“I regret that, even though the marriages were legal,” he said. Why the regret, if the marriages were “legal?” “Because,” he went on, “I could tell that the girls were more afraid of their ‘wedding’ night than of the execution that awaited them in the morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die.

“I remember hearing them cry and scream after [the rape] was over,” he said. “I will never forget how this one girl clawed at her own face and neck with her finger nails afterwards. She had deep scratches all over her.”

According to Islamic law, if a woman dies a virgin she is considered a martyr and guaranteed a place in heaven. To avoid this undesirable scenario, the virgin prisoner is raped to ensure she goes to hell. Rape is the final human contact for many female prisoners. As for why the prison guards ‘marry’ these women- rape outside of marriage is a crime in Iran, but no such crime exists in marriage. The guards marry to preserve their ‘purity’ and avoid the same destination to hell. The marriage is conducted as a legitimate and official contract which includes, among other things, an estimated dowry. To add salt to the wound, the dowry is then paid to the family of the victim. It becomes the equivalent of an official notification that she was executed.

Sauce: http://femina-elisa.blogspot.com/2009/07/iranian-virgin-prisoners-raped-before.html