FONTANA— Her eyes were the introductory sparks to a sassy personality. But, on her 16th birthday, Ashley Caldera was taken from her family by gun violence. Lorraine Valdez had to spend her Memorial Day making funeral plans for her daughter. “I can’t believe she’s gone. I want her to walk through that door but I know it’s not going to happen,” her mother said. READ MORE HERE

Rome– A US marine sergeant has been arrested by Italian police after he allegedly made a video of his repeated rape of a seven-year-old girl and posted it online. The 28-year-old soldier from Florida was arrested Tuesday by the Italian carabinieri military police and is being held at a prison in Pisa. The US has the right to request his extradition. The US marines took part in the investigation.  READ MORE HERE

A woman who injected ‘waste matter’ into a child’s intravenous drip as she lay ill in hospital has been spared jail, after a judge said she needed help. Nicola Clark was caught on CCTV injecting the bacteria, which contained E.coli, into the child’s drip as she lay ill at Medway Hospital in Gillingham, Kent, in April last year.  READ MORE HERE

LOS ANGELES  — One of two brothers who plead guilty to taking their sons out of the country without the consent of the children’s mothers was sentenced today to 27 months behind bars. George Silah, 49, was extradited from the Netherlands last October and pleaded guilty in February to two counts of international parental kidnapping.  READ MORE HERE

CARTHAGE — A former western Illinois school board member has been sentenced to 60 days in jail and two years of probation for sexually abusing a boy. The Quincy Herald-Whig reports 44-year-old August Dion Gregory apologized during the Hancock County sentencing hearing Friday for what he called “a terrible mistake.” He was found guilty in March of felony criminal sexual abuse of a minor.  READ MORE HERE

(Plum, Pa.) Three daycare employees from Pittsburgh East Community Church’s Genesis Childcare are facing charges after reportedly assaulting toddlers at the daycare. Police have brought criminal charges against childcare workers Eileen Andrews, Angela Russo and Terry Bachner.  READ MORE HERE

A Mississippi public school caught handcuffing its students for misdemeanors as minor as violating the dress code has been banned from using the ‘abusive’ punishment. Capital City Alternatives school in Jackson was found to be regularly chaining children to railings and poles, sometimes for up to four consecutive school days. But a district judge has now outlawed the extreme disciplining technique, labeling it tantamount to abuse.  READ MORE HERE

WARREN, MI–A woman who is nine months pregnant was abducted, set on fire and shot. The 22-year-old and her unborn baby were expected to live after the horrific ordeal on Saturday morning. The unknown attacker apparently told the woman that the abduction was linked to her pregnancy. The child’s father witnessed the attack, but did not call 911 – and police suggested the man did not want another baby. READ MORE HERE

A couple who kept their 11-year-old son a virtual prisoner in a former coal bunker were each jailed for two years yesterday. The boy’s mother and stepfather padlocked him into the 6ft by 4ft ‘cell’ every night for a year, forcing him to sleep on a soiled mattress and use a potty. When police were alerted they found the slightly-built boy asleep in the rubbish-strewn room with no heating or washing facilities, a bare light-bulb and concrete walls and floor. READ MORE HERE

The livid white-haired Syrian?s question to the U.N. blue helmet was rhetorical. He didn?t expect a real answer, not to that question. “Did the infant carry an RPG?” he asked angrily, gesturing wildly, his hands clad in red rubber gloves. He had washed the bodies of nine slain children already, one of whom was not even a year old, he told the U.N. observer. He wanted to know why. That question he actually wanted answered. The observer appeared overwhelmed. READ MORE HERE  (and) HERE

OXNARD, CA — A man has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a child inside a Walmart store in Oxnard. Police were called to the Walmart Supercenter Store at 2001 N. Rose Avenue in Oxnard around 8 p.m. on Friday. A child told officers that he had been in the electronics area of the store when Gonzalez approached him and sexually assaulted him. The incident was captured on the store’s surveillance cameras. READ MORE HERE

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An apparent murder-suicide rocked a Kansas town Friday. Four people are dead from gunshot wounds in Blue Spring, including two girls aged two and four years old. According to the Kansas City Star, the mother of the children discovered them and her boyfriend dead at the scene.  READ MORE HERE

A woman was arrested on Sunday for stabbing her one-year-old daughter to death in Kagiso on the West Rand, police said. Warrant Officer Solomon Sibiya said police arrested the 19-year-old mother around 3am on Sunday at her house in Kagiso. “The little girl was found with five stab wounds to the chest. The child was still breathing when police arrived.”  READ MORE HERE