Bizarre: Teen pours petrol on sleeping mom

US: A Southern California teenager has been caught pouring gasoline on his sleeping mother.
 
The woman wasn't hurt.
 
Orange County sheriff's investigators say the 16-year-old boy's stepfather walked into the bedroom of the Tustin home on Sunday night before the gas was ignited.
 
The teen and his mother had been arguing earlier in the day.
 
The Orange County Register says the boy is in juvenile hall where he has been booked for investigation of attempted murder.
 
The nature of the argument hasn't been disclosed. (AP)

Boxer's body stuffed into freezers

BRITAIN: A former British boxing champion was dismembered and the body parts stuffed into freezers at his home.

The murder came to light when the neighbours complained of an awful stench emanating out of the champ's home, reports Daily Mail.

The sportsman was paralysed after he met with an accident in 2004.

The police charged a 28-year-old man of committing the murder. It is still not clear why the British boxing champion was murdered.

Father hacks daughter, 17, to death

INDIA: A 17-year-old girl was murdered by her father for having an affair with her next-door neighbour in the Indian state of West Bengal.

The girl had run away from home and taken shelter in her lover's home in a neighbouring village. Her parents, brother and uncle tracked her down to her hiding place. The father dragged her out of the house and hacked her to death in front of everyone.

The girl was in a relationship and her family were not happy with the situation, reports The Times of India.

The father, uncle and brother are absconding. The girl's mother has been arrested and is behind bars. The boy and his parents have also fled in fear of the girl's family.

The teenager's body was handed over to some distant relatives and she was cremated.

Mother-of-3 kills daughters before turning gun on herself

US: A Missouri woman sent a goodbye email to her ex-boyfriend, then apparently shot and killed her three young daughters before turning the gun on herself, authorities said Thursday.
 
The bodies of 22-month-old Faith Ehlen, 10-year-old Autumn Cochran and 11-year-old Alyssa Cochran were found early Thursday inside a vehicle parked outside the home of their mother's boyfriend, Christopher Ehlen, near De Soto, about 45 miles south of St. Louis.
 
Their mother, 32-year-old Lisa Cochran, was found dead on the front porch steps.
 
Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer said all four had been shot in the head. A 12-gauge shotgun purchased by Cochran at a Walmart store on Aug. 29 was found beside her.
 
"That information, the purchase of the shotgun and compiling everything we have so far, leads us to believe we're dealing with a murder-suicide and not a homicide," Boyer said.
 
Faith was the daughter of Ehlen and Cochran. The older girls were from a previous marriage.
 
Boyer said an email sent by the mother to relatives and her ex-boyfriend led investigators to believe she killed the children, then herself. He said the email sent by Cochran to Ehlen after 8 p.m. Wednesday had the subject line "Goodbye" and made references to her "not being able to take it anymore," though the cause of her distress wasn't known.
 
Boyer said no one received the emails in time to react.
 
The ex-boyfriend called authorities shortly after midnight when he spotted Cochran's vehicle in the driveway at his home, Boyer said. She had an order of protection against Ehlen obtained on Aug. 13. Because of that order, he didn't want to approach her vehicle, instead driving to a nearby highway to call the sheriff's department rather than stay home and confront her, Boyer said. (AP)

Coach sexualy abuse Olympic bronze medalist

US: Olympic bronze medalist Lana Gehring, U.S. teammate Jessica Smith and seven other speedskaters signed a statement Tuesday claiming abuse allegations against their coach are "baseless" and a "false attack on his character."
 
Gehring and Smith said they don't believe allegations leveled against short track coach Jae Su Chun or assistant Jun Hyung Yeo. The charges were leveled recently by more than a dozen other athletes in complaints to the US Olympic Committee and U.S. Speedskating.
 
"We have never seen any abuse take place - physical, sexual, verbal or emotional - and we know these men are not capable of abuse," the statement reads.
 
The statement was emailed to select media outlets. It also is signed by U.S. Short Track National Racing Program skaters Kimberly Derrick, John-Henry Krueger, Tamara Frederick, Cole Krueger, Eduardo Alvarez, Chris Creveling and Keith Carroll Jr. Derrick and Gehring both won bronze medals at the 2010 Vancouver Games.
 
U.S. Speedskating announced Monday that Chun was being placed on administrative leave and Yeo in charge while an independent law firm investigates the abuse claims.
 
Gehring and Smith said Chun pushes hard and not everyone may like his style, but they believe he cares deeply about his skaters.
 
"Any coach at an Olympic level is going to have high expectations and will push their athletes to be the very best they can be," the statement said.
 
Chun issued a statement Sunday denying that he abused athletes in any way while expressing confidence he would be found innocent.
 
Gehring and Smith, in their statement, questioned the timing of the allegations.
 
They noted how their Summer Olympic counterparts rallied a nation by leading the world in medals won in London, and how every member of their short track team brought home at least one medal in Vancouver.
 
"Now 17 months away from our moment under the bright lights in Sochi, Russia, at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, at a time when we should be focused on how we are going to take on the world, we are instead forced to defend our coach against baseless allegations of abuse that are nothing more than a false attack on his character," the statement said.
 
Fourteen current members of the national team, including 2010 Olympic medalists Allison Baver, J.R. Celski, Alyson Dudek, Travis Jayner and Jordan Malone, and five former skaters, signed the complaint alleging abuse.
 
The athletes who filed the complaint are boycotting the national team, working instead with a local program at the Utah Olympic Oval in suburban Salt Lake City.
 
"They will not skate for these coaches," said their New York-based attorney, Edward Williams. "They will end their careers rather than skate for a team that includes any of the three coaches who have been abusing them."
 
Williams on Tuesday filed a demand for arbitration against U.S. Speedskating with the American Arbitration Association. He wants an expedited hearing with the goal of getting a new coaching staff in place before the fall World Cup teams are selected at the U.S. Single Distance Championships. That competition will be held Sept. 27-30 at the oval in Kearns, Utah.
 
"The athletes hope that, with today's filing of a demand for arbitration with the American Arbitration Association containing further and more specific allegations of abuse and other coach misconduct, US Speedskating will realize it can no longer defend the abusive conduct of their coaches, much of which occurred in their very own facility and in the presence of USS Staff, and was reported to USS by the athletes; and that the US Speedskating Board of Directors, now armed with this additional information, will finally take appropriate action with respect to the coaches, and thereby make the arbitration unnecessary." Williams said in a statement.
 
Registration closed for the competition Monday night and speedskating officials said all of the major athletes were among those listed, except Katherine Reutter, who is still recovering from surgery.
 
"What we're concerned about is when my clients make the international World Cup team to represent the U.S., they will be asked about an hour after the team is selected to skate with whoever U.S. Speedskating puts in the coaching position. ... I am concerned after the trials are over, Mr. Chun will be taken off administrative leave," Williams said.
 
The code of conduct complaint Williams filed accuses Chun of slamming an athlete against a wall and repeatedly hitting him, throwing bottles and chairs at skaters, and repeatedly telling female skaters they were "fat" and "disgusting." It also claims that Chun told his skaters to be "obnoxious" to Canadian rivals at the 2011 World Team Championships.
 
Williams said a police report was filed Friday in Utah, though no criminal charges have been brought.
 
US Speedskating has brought in an independent law firm to investigate. The U.S. Olympic Committee is also looking into the matter, which threatens to disrupt a program that has long produced a steady stream of medals for the Americans despite persistent financial problems.
 
Gehring and Smith said in their statement that they have faith Chun would take them to the top of the podium in Sochi in 2014.
 
"We truly believe that Jae Su is the most knowledgeable short track speedskating coach in the world and that he conducts himself ethically and with integrity in every way," the statement said. "An investigation is in process. We are fully cooperating with that investigation, and are confident that our coaches will be cleared so that we can put this behind us and get back to focusing on what U.S. speedskaters do best - winning medals!" (AP)

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