MySpace imposter charged
Lori Drew, a 49-year-old from Missouri, has been charged after impersonating a teenage boy on MySpace.com and pretending to be in love with a 13-year-old girl. The incident eventually resulted in the girl’s suicide. Drew, along with others, created the fake MySpace identity of a 16-year-old boy to woo her neighbour, Megan Meier. In 2006, Meier committed suicide by hanging after receiving messages that the relationship was over and that the world would be better off without her. The suicide spurred international calls for social networking sites to crack down on cyber-bullying. Drew was indicted May 22 on federal charges of conspiracy and accessing protected computers.
Nargis death toll on the rise
More than 130,000 people are dead or missing in Myanmar as victims of Cyclone Nargis. The shocking death toll surpassed international aid agency estimates. The United Nations said only a fraction of the needed water, food and emergency shelter materials is getting through. About 2.5 million people are barely surviving in the Irrawaddy River delta where they are begging for help along roadsides in the absence of large-scale government assistance. The ruling Junta insist that domestic relief efforts are adequate and deny the need for foreign relief operations.
Xenophobia in Italy
The Roma people of Italy are getting the boot as part of the country’s latest move in a national anti-immigration campaign. Many Italians blame the transient group’s increasing population for high crime rates and are calling for their expulsion. Civilians have started demolishing Roma camps and assembling angry mobs to attack members of the nomadic group. The government has done little to discourage such actions, going so far as assembling special forces to impose their anti-immigrant policies, despite calls from human rights groups and European Union officials to treat the Roma people with respect.
Canada officially gay-friendly
Prince Edward Island has become the latest and final province in Canada to approve gay marriage. The legislation puts the province in line with a July 2005 bill that approved gay marriage throughout the country. The new ruling changes the term “married couple” to “spouses” and encompasses mixed-sex, same-sex and common-law unions. The wording allows for changes in the Adoption Act that will allow same-sex couples to adopt children. The decision will also give same-sex partners a definitive ability to act as their spouse’s next of kin in the event of a medical emergency, something that wasn’t guaranteed across the province previously.
U of C student on the runway
Six-foot-two, blue-eyed, Taylor Fuchs was innocently studying natural sciences at the University of Calgary when he was approached about modelling. He started modelling over a year ago and has since been named the “World’s Most Successful” male model by Forbes Magazine. Fuchs has modelled for Dolce and Gabbana, Fendi, Yves St. Laurent, Burberry and walked the catwalks of Paris and Milan. He plans on returning to the U of C once modelling becomes less successful.