BLACKSBURG, Va. – A graduate student from China was decapitated with a kitchen knife in a campus cafe at Virginia Tech by another graduate student who knew her, police said Thursday.

Xin Yang, 22, was killed Wednesday night after arriving at the campus from Beijing on Jan. 8 to begin studying accounting, Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said.

Her accused attacker, 25-year-old Haiyang Zhu of Ningbo, China, knew the victim but no motive for the slaying has been determined, Flinchum said. School records showed that Haiyang was listed as one of Xin’s emergency contacts.

Haiyang was charged with first-degree murder and was being held without bond at the Montgomery County Jail. His attorney, Stephanie Cox, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Haiyang and Xin had been having coffee in a cafe in the Graduate Life Center, where Xin was living. About seven other people who were in the coffee shop told police that the two hadn’t been arguing before the attack.

Police received two 911 calls shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday, Flinchum said, and were on the scene in a little more than a minute to take Haiyang into custody.

Flinchum said Haiyang was not known to the campus police or to the university team that deals with mentally disturbed students.

University officials said Haiyang arrived on campus last fall and was a Ph.D. student in agricultural and applied economics.

The stabbing was the first killing on campus since a mass killing on campus in 2007, when a student gunman shot 32 people and then took his own life.

“An act of violence like this brings back memories of April 16,” university President Charles Steger said. “I have no doubt that many of us feel especially distraught.”

University spokesman Larry Hincker said a campus alert system put in place after the mass shootings by Seung-Hui Cho in 2007 sent out messages to 30,000 subscribers by e-mail, text messages and telephone voice mails Wednesday night.

Because a suspect was in custody, the messages were sent out as notifications rather than as emergency alerts, he said.

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine offered condolences to the campus.

“My thoughts and prayers are with the friends and family of Xin Yang today — and with the broader Virginia Tech community,” he said in a statement. “The tragic attack on campus this week has no doubt revived terrible memories for countless members of the Hokie family.”

This happened last night!

Seven people watched Zhu decapitate Yang with a kitchen knife in the school cafe! And no one made an attempt to stop this?

More from Roanoke.com

When Virginia Tech authorities arrived Wednesday night at a cafe inside the Graduate Life Center, they found a decapitated female victim who had arrived on campus just two weeks ago and a young man they have now charged with killing her.

Authorities, including Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum, outlined some of the gruesome details of Wednesday night’s murder on campus at a press conference this morning.

They said Xin Yang, a 22-year-old graduate student from Beijing, arrived Jan. 8 to begin her studies in accounting at the Pamplin College of Business. She lived in the graduate life center.

Haiyang Zhu, 25, a graduate student from China, was charged late Wednesday with first-degree murder and is being held without bond. He is a Ph.D. graduate student majoring in agricultural and applied economics. He began his studies at Virginia Tech at the start of the 2008 fall semester. Tech officials said the victim and suspect knew each other and Yang listed Zhu as an emergency contact.

Flinchum said the two were sitting at a table at the Au Bon Pain cafe in the Graduate Life Center when the disturbance began. There were seven witnesses to the events and two called 911 at 7:06 p.m.

When authorities arrived less than two minutes later, they discovered Yang’s dead body, Zhu and a large kitchen knife that they believe is the murder weapon. Zhu did not resist arrest. There is no record of him being called to the attention of Tech or Blacksburg police or the university’s threat assessment or CARE team before Wednesday.

Classes were not canceled today and the graduate life center is open. The windows and glass doors of Au Bon Pain are blocked from the inside and the cafe is closed.

Holy crap!

Hat Tip: The Jawa Report

ALBERT LEA, Minn. – Allegations that two young assistants groped, spanked and spat on several nursing home residents suffering from dementia have shaken members of this southern Minnesota community, including the lead prosecutor in the case.

Brianna Marie Broitzman and Ashton Michelle Larson, both 19, appeared in court Wednesday to face multiple charges over the alleged abuse at Good Samaritan Society. The young women did not enter pleas, and both were released on bail.

“I think that they are very serious charges,” Freeborn County Attorney Craig Nelson said after the hearing. “We’re dealing with people who are vulnerable adults. People who are clearly … in need of our care and our concern and our monitoring. They depend on us for everything.”

Nelson added: “I, as a member of this community, certainly can feel it in my bones.”

Four younger aides were also charged earlier, with one pleading guilty and the others facing trials in Juvenile Court.

A criminal complaint alleges the abuse occurred over several months in early 2008. The complaint says in one case, Broitzman and Larson allegedly poked a woman in the breasts and laughed when she told them to stop.

The Associated Press does not routinely identify victims of sexual abuse.

The complaint said Larson admitted lying on a bed with another patient, hugging her, kissing her forehead and telling her she loved her. Witnesses said Larson also groped the woman in bed and played with the woman’s wig to make her angry, the complaint said.

The allegations surfaced when a teenage nursing assistant told an administrator about alleged abuse during an exit interview, prosecutors said. Follow-up interviews by state investigators and police found that Broitzman and Larson “would talk and laugh about the incidents” with others, including young co-workers who were sometimes witnesses, according to the complaint.

Broitzman and Larson, who no longer work at the home, considered the abuse “something fun to do at work,” the complaint said. The two were confident they wouldn’t get caught because “residents did not have their minds,” a co-worker told investigators.

Many of the patients suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia.

Broitzman’s attorney, Lawrence Maus, said in court: “Obviously she wants to challenge this complaint.” Larson’s attorney, Evan Larson, is also challenging the allegations against his client.

I hope cute, 19-year-old girls grope, spank, and spit on me when I am 95-years-old.

WXVT.com

LEESVILLE, La. (AP) - A teacher’s aide for a Vernon Parish school has been arrested in connection with “inappropriate activity” between her and a 15-year-old male student.

Sheriff’s deputies say 24-year-old Kendra Hoffpauir of Leesville was arrested Friday and booked with felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.

Deputies say the mother of the teen reported to authorities that there was inappropriate activity between the two.

Officials say Hoffpauir wasn’t an aide at the boy’s school, but was employed by the Vernon Parish School Board.

She is cute.

Too bad she is a pedophile.

TBO.com

A 20-year-old man who shares his name with the 40th President of the United States, an international airport and a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was arrested early Tuesday morning during an undercover drug operation, according to a criminal arrest affidavit.

Ronald Reagan Reed, 1942 31st St. S., St. Petersburg, has been charged with delivery of cocaine, possession of cocaine with intent to sell, possession of drug paraphernalia and unlawful use of a two-way communication device.

Tampa police say Reed agreed to sell the cocaine to an undercover officer near Westshore and Kennedy Boulevards just after midnight Tuesday. Reed used a cellular phone to contact the undercover officer and arrived at the location of the buy with crack cocaine packaged in clear plastic and hidden inside a foam cup, the affidavit states.

Reed is also known by the alias “King,” according to the affidavit.

He was being held Tuesday night at Orient Road Jail on $17,500 bail.

Oh.

Ronald Reagan Reed.

I bet he voted for Barack Obama.

LONDON (AFP) – The crew of a South African Airways plane were arrested Tuesday after more than 310,000 pounds worth of cannabis and cocaine was found on a Johannesburg-London flight, customs officials said.

Border agency officials found 50 kilos (110 pounds) of cannabis worth 150,000 pounds (210,000 dollars, 160,000 euros)and four kilos of cocaine worth about 160,000 pounds in three bags, said a HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) spokesman.

The flight and cabin crew — 10 women and five men — from the plane, which landed at London’s Heathrow airport at 8:00 am (0800 GMT), were arrested.

“When the crew were passing through a customs clearance point… the UKBA (UK Borders Agency) officers found a quantity of cannabis in three suitcases,” spokesman Bob Gaiger told AFP.

“As a result of that the entire crew of the plane… were arrested and they’re now being held in custody and being interviewed by HMRC,” he added, confirming that the pilot was also among those detained.

Further searches revealed a white powder that tested positive for cocaine.

“Interviews will be taking place and will probably go into tomorrow, and then we will decide whether we are going to charge anyone,” or release some or all, on bail if necessary, the spokesman said.

He underlined how seriously British customs take such cases.

“HMRC, together with UKBA, play a vital role in the fight to prevent illegal drugs from entering the UK and in protecting our communities from the violence and corruption that always accompany this hideous trade,” he said.

Puff, puff, pass.

Hat Tip: JammieWearingFool

A Romanian immigrant brutally raped a young woman on a railway station so he could be sent to prison for a bed, food and English lessons at the same jail as his brother.

Ali Majlat, who has a string of convictions in his home country and the UK, punched, kicked and dragged his 21-year-old victim along the ground as she waited for a train home after seeing friends.

She briefly escaped his clutches but he caught up with her in an underpass at Wakefield Kirkgate station in West Yorkshire and subjected her to a sustained attack which was captured on CCTV.

He then stole her mobile phone, purse and a bracelet before fleeing. When he was caught five days later he admitted his guilt and claimed he did it so he would end up in jail.

‘When I was on the railway station I thought I should rape this lady in order to get a place to eat and sleep and learn the English language,’ he told a psychologist.

His bizarre explanation for the attack
emerged at Leeds Crown Court on Monday when Majlat pleaded guilty to rape and robbery.

On hearing it, Judge Alistair McCallum was so surprised that he asked the defense barrister to repeat it to be sure he had heard correctly.

Hours before the attack Majlat had tried to visit his brother in Wakefield prison where he is serving a jail term for rape and attempted murder. However, he was turned away because he did not have the correct paperwork.

The 35-year-old later told police that he attacked the girl in the hope he would be sent to the same prison as his brother.

‘All he seems concerned about is being in the same jail as his brother,’ a police source said. ‘When he was told that he would be deported after his sentence, he seemed horrified.

‘He doesn’t want to go back to Romania. He just wants to stay in a British jail.’

Idiot.

Try the library next time.

I hope the woman in this case shoots this guy after he gets out of prison.

Hat Tip: Hot Air Headlines

TampaBay.com

ST. PETERSBURG — Cassady C. Catolico was arrested early Sunday morning, accused of hitting a man in the head with a bagel. According to an arrest report, the bagel battery took place at 2:18 a.m.

Catolico, 28, shown here, was on probation from a criminal mischief case in 2006, the report said.

She was also violating a temporary injunction filed last week by Steven Bunaisky, the victim in the battery.

Catolico faces charges of battery, violation of an injunction violation of probation.

Was it a plain bagel, or poppyseed?

Russell Rhodes looks like Two-Face.

Damn.

MyFoxTampaBay.com

TAMPA – FOX 13 morning anchor Russell Rhodes was arrested Friday night and charged with obstructing or opposing an officer without violence. The incident happened in the parking garage at Channelside.

Hillsborough County Sheriff’s spokesman J.D. Callaway says that Rhodes repeatedly walked away from an off-duty deputy and refused to surrender his keys.

Callaway told FOX 13 that Rhodes was then injured as the deputy “took him to the ground and cuffed him.”

Rhodes was released from the Orient Road Jail Saturday morning on $500 bond.

FOX 13 management is aware of the matter and is reviewing it.

TBO.com has a more detailed story.

I have seen Russell Rhodes on television many times. He seems like a nice guy, and this type of behavior is not normal for his demeanor.

I heard that he was at a party and was drinking. His friends tried to stop him from driving, but he left the party. Rhodes was driving erratically while trying to back out of a parking lot, but was having problems negotiating the vehicle. An off-duty cop still in uniform stopped him and arrested him. Rhodes was not cooperating, and he fell on his face while the cop was trying to arrest him. Rhodes was taken by ambulance to Tampa General Hospital’s emergency room to be treated for a laceration to his lip and a contusion to his left cheek.

Hopefully, things work out for Russell but he could be facing DUI charges, too.

A Deltona man is in jail, accused of shoving his mother and throwing a taco at her, in a dispute that began when she unplugged his video game.

Dena Moir, 54, told Volusia County deputy sheriffs she called her 19-year-old son Zachary several times to come downstairs for dinner Tuesday. When he didn’t respond, she said she went upstairs and unplugged his Xbox. She told deputies her son pushed her, called her names and ordered out of his room.

The woman said she was cleaning the kitchen when her son came down to eat and that she pushed him to the side because he was in her way. At that point, deputies said, the man smacked his mother on the left arm, called her an offensive word and threw his taco in her face.

He is being held without bail in the Volusia County Branch Jail, charged with domestic violence battery.

What a bastard.

CAIR (The Council of American-Islamic Relations) has paid the counties of Broward and Miami-Dade in Florida $60,000 to place inflammatory advertising on public city buses that read:

Islam: The Way of Life of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad.

Click Here for a larger view of the bus.

Miami Herald

Campaign to debunk fallacies about Islam in full swing: A two-county advertising campaign asks those who have questions about Islam to call a toll-free number. The aim is to educate.

City buses in Broward and Miami-Dade counties have been advertising information on a religious topic that some people have found surprising — Islam.

The advertisement reads ”Islam: Got Questions? Get answers,” and gives this telephone phone number: 1-888-ISLAM-55. It is an effort to educate Americans about a faith that has been villainized in the media, said Dr. Sabeel Ahmed, a physician from Chicago who is director of the effort.

Well, if this advertising is a call to “educate”, then CAIR should know that Abraham, Moses, and Jesus did not practice Islam.

Also, radical Muslims in Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups have villianized Islam, not the media.

UPDATE 1: Scoop This first reported this story on January 8th.

The Jawa Report has picked up on it, so the story will now garner much more attention (since the Jawas have about a billion readers.)