Free Republic

FULL TITLE: ‘Pure evil’ Ohio stepmom charged with murder after sticking 4-year-old in bath of scalding water as punishment A “pure evil” Ohio stepmom killed her 4-year-old stepson by sticking him in a bath of scalding water as a horrific punishment, officials said. Anna Ritchie was indicted Monday for the March death of little Austin Cooper. Prosecutors said the 25-year-old — who now faces murder, involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault and endangering children charges — resented being the tot’s stepmother and used the 130-degree soaking as a sick form of punishment. “Anna Ritchie is pure evil,” Austin’s grandma Sheri Gredig said,...

Chelsea Clinton (L) speaks as U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton look on at a campaign rally at the Clark County Government Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, February 19, 2016 While campaigning for her mother in New York on Sunday, Chelsea Clinton told a room full of potential voters that the woman's right to abort her child is "at the core of our human rights." The 36-year-old daughter of Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton spoke to a room of a about 100 people in Poughkeepsie, New York just hours before Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump...

Attorney Ofir Sabag, who represents the Hasno family, responded to the prosecution’s decision to amend charges against Avraham Hasno’s murderer from manslaughter to murder. “I am happy to announce that justice was revived today. After countless meetings with the prosecution, an in-depth examination of the materials and a deep understanding of the bigger picture, the prosecution understood their mistake and changed the charges from manslaughter to murder, as it should have been. ...

After I published the previous post suggesting the Benghazi massacre demonstrated Hillary Clinton’s incompetence I received an email asking about the possibility that Clinton or someone intended for Ambassador Chris Stevens or another American to be murdered. I’m still inclined to believe the best explanation is incompetence, but I recognize the incident could have involved premeditated murder.

The thing that most bothers me about Hillary Clinton’s comments about Benghazi is that she doesn’t seem to understand why people are concerned about her mishandling of the Benghazi situation. She doesn’t seem to understand that her mishandling of the situation allowed al Qaeda to win a major victory at Benghazi by killing the top U.S. official in Libya..... Clinton foolishly decided to make it as easy as possible for al Qaeda to kill Ambassador Chris Stevens. Her handling of the situation would have made more sense if she had wanted him to die.

Canada on Thursday introduced a new assisted suicide law that will apply only to citizens and residents, meaning Americans won’t be able to travel to Canada to die. Canadian government officials said a person would have to be eligible for health services in Canada to take advantage of the law, which applies to “adults who are suffering intolerably and for whom death is reasonably foreseeable.” It says the person must be mentally competent, 18 or older, have a serious and incurable disease, illness or disability and be in an advanced state of irreversible decline of capability. Canada’s Supreme Court last...

Haruka Weiser, 18, from Portland, Oregon, was a first year theater and dance student at The University of Texas in Austin. Weiser was reported missing Monday morning by her roommates and was found dead Tuesday in a creek that runs through UT's campus. Haruka had been walking back to her dorm from the drama building on campus when she was assaulted, then killed. On Friday, Austin police arrested Meechaiel Khalil Criner, a black, seventeen-year-old, homeless, six-foot-tall punk and charged him with first degree murder. Poor Haruka. A gorgeous, eighteen-year-old girl with big hopes and dreams gets raped, has her life...

AUSTIN, Texas - New details are emerging about a homeless 17-year-old who will be charged with murder in the death of a University of Texas dance major in the heart of the bustling campus, police say. Meechaiel Criner wasn't believed to be a university student and hadn't been living in Austin long. Police Chief Art Acevedo said Friday that Criner could face additional charges in the slaying of 18-year-old Oregon native Haruka Weiser. . . . CBS News correspondent David Begnaud reported surveillance video showed the suspect following the victim, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out what was...

AUSTIN (KXAN) – In an article published in December 2014 by Texas High School in Texarkana, Meechaiel Criner, the suspect in the murder of UT freshman Haruka Weiser, said he was bullied his whole life and went through the foster care system as a child. In the story titled Voice of Hope, Criner said he was a victim of physical violence. He said one foster parent threw him to the ground and injured his back. The Department of Family and Protective Services confirms Criner was in the state’s foster care system and in August 2015 was enrolled at Killeen High...

Austin police say they have arrested a homeless 17-year-old they believe is connected in the death of University of Texas at Austin student Haruka Weiser. The Austin Police Department says Meechaiel Khalil Criner was booked into the Travis County Jail around 2 a.m. Friday and charged with murder. His bond has been set at $1 million. Police made the link to Criner after the Austin Fire Department alerted them to a trash fire they were called to on Monday, April 4 at 2900 Medical Arts Street, which is just off-campus. At the time on Monday, a woman called 911 to...

A 17-year-old homeless "runaway" was arrested on a murder charge in connection with the killing of a University of Texas freshman this week, Austin police said Friday. The suspect — identified as Meechaiel Criner — was arrested Thursday and booked in the Travis County Jail, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said at a news conference. Student Haruka Weiser, an 18-year-old dance and theater major, was last seen alive on the Austin campus Sunday night before she was reported missing the following morning. Her body was discovered near a creek on Tuesday, and investigators declared her death a homicide — setting...

APD Chief Art Acevedo says that an arrest has been made in the murder of UT student Haruka Weiser. A press conference is scheduled at 10:30 a.m.

As the police stood by and watched, a 27-year-old Muslim woman was brutally murdered by a mob in Kabul, Afghanistan after she was falsely accused of burning a Quran by an Islamic cleric. The young Muslim woman, Farkhunda Malikzada, was viciously beaten, stoned, deliberately run over by a car, thrown into a dry river bed, crushed with larger stones, and then set on fire.

Bangladeshi law student who criticized Islamism on his Facebook account has been attacked with machetes and killed, police said, the latest in a series of murders of secular activists and bloggers by suspected Islamist militants.

No excerpt allowed from USA Today, story here.

Brazil has been in crisis for some time now. The country’s economy shrunk -3.8% last year, and its President, Dilma Rousseff, is holding on for dear life. Once chairman of Petrobras, the state-run oil giant currently engulfed in a colossal political scandal, she is now being threatened with impeachment just 15 months into her second four-year yerm. Her approval remains at an all-time low of just 11%. The currency has halved in value since 2011, and the country’s credit has been downgraded to junk status. However, as VisualCapitalist's Jeff Desjardins explains, it’s not only the economic and political spheres that...

Winston Moseley, who stalked, raped and killed Kitty Genovese in a prolonged knife attack in New York in 1964 while neighbors failed to act on her desperate cries for help — a nightmarish tableau that came to symbolize urban apathy in America — died on March 28, in prison. He was 81. Patrick J. Bailey, a spokesman for the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, confirmed the death on Monday. A medical examiner would determine the cause of death, Mr. Bailey said. Mr. Moseley, a psychopathic serial killer and necrophiliac, died at the maximum security Clinton Correctional...

Special Agent in Charge Greg Bretzing has been providing press conferences in the wake of the Oregon standoff and the murder of LaVoy Finicum. However, it has come to my attention that Mr. Bretzing has also been linked to the lead agent at Bundy Ranch, as well as wrongful deaths related to a 2009 Indian Artifact Investigation. The Los Angeles Times has the complete story of what took place in Utah during the artifact investigation. It's a horrible story of entrapment that led to several suicides, including Dr. James Redd and an undercover agent. ... the wrongful death suit that...

Ted Cruz made his debut on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Wednesday night, and needless to say, fellow GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump received a not-so-honorable mention: Cruz joked about running Trump over with a car. Before Cruz sat down with Kimmel, a segment with April Fool's Day prank ideas was aired. One of the ideas involved putting a picture of Trump in front of the backup camera of someone's car so a person would mistakenly think they were about to hit Trump when they reversed. Cruz later brought up the prank when Kimmel asked the Texas senator who he liked least:...

Trump says women may need punishment if abortion is banned http://bloom.bg/25wR9aJ Follow the twitter link to the Bloomberg article.