‘Mean girls’ trend points to deeper problem (video)

Even the officer leading the police investigation admits that the video of three New York girls beating up a classmate — widely available for a time on MySpace.com — is hard to take.

“Every time I watch it — the second time you watch it, the third time — it’s not any easier than the first time,” Suffolk County Lt. Robert Edwards said Thursday in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Jansing. “It’s pretty traumatic and kind of graphic.”

But you need to watch it. Psychologists and educators say it points to a disturbing trend that is being left unchecked by parents and school officials: the eagerness of American girls to seek approbation by flaunting increasingly outrageous behavior.

Suffolk County police arrested three teenage girls this week and said they were the assailants seen kicking, punching and pulling the hair of a 13-year-old girl last month. Several boys could be seen watching the beating but doing nothing, and Edwards said further arrests were possible.

American Idol's ratings explode Whopping 36.9 million watch season’s second night, 17% above last year's

PASADENA, Calif. - The parade of awful amateurs on “American Idol” attracted viewers in staggering numbers this week as the series continues to grow in popularity.

An estimated 36.9 million people watched the two-hour special on Fox on Wednesday night, down only slightly from the 37.3 million who tuned in for Tuesday’s two-hour season premiere, according to Nielsen Media Research.

They were the two biggest nights of prime-time entertainment on Fox since it came onto the air nearly two decades ago.

Mo. Couple Say They Think Son Was Abused

UNION, Mo. (AP) -- The parents of a Missouri teen told Oprah Winfrey in a show airing Thursday that their son hasn't told them directly but they believe he was sexually abused during the more than four years he was missing.
"OK, I'm going to go there and ask you, what do you think happened? Do you think he was sexually abused?" Winfrey asked Craig and Pam Akers, parents of 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck.



Both nodded and said, "Yes."

Chinese test missile obliterates satellite

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- China last week successfully used a missile to destroy an orbiting satellite, U.S. government officials told CNN on Thursday, in a test that could undermine relations with the West and pose a threat to satellites important to the U.S. military.

According to a spokesman for the National Security Council, the ground-based, medium-range ballistic missile knocked an old Chinese weather satellite from its orbit about 537 miles above Earth. The missile carried a "kill vehicle" and destroyed the satellite by ramming it.


Aviation Week and Space Technology first reported the test: "Details emerging from space sources indicate that the Chinese Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) polar orbit weather satellite launched in 1999 was attacked by an asat (anti-satellite) system launched from or near the Xichang Space Center."