Poor Mojo's Newswire

A tour bus barreling south for Manhattan overturned at high speed on a highway in the Bronx early Saturday and was sliced open by a sign stanchion in a shriek of rending metal that hurled riders about like rag dolls. Fourteen people were killed and 19 were injured, 5 of them critically, the authorities said. Victims of the accident, which happened about 5:30 a.m. on Interstate 95 just across the Bronx line from Westchester County, were returning to Chinatown on a chartered bus from the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Conn. Some described grisly scenes of mayhem: at least one person decapitated, others maimed, people hanging upside down, victims gashed by flying glass, screaming in the darkness and struggling to get out. Some were thrown out on the ground, others were trapped in a maze of metal. The crash cast a grim light on a nocturnal New York City subculture of overnight gamblers, many of them older Asian and Hispanic people, who take cheap buses from Chinatown to casinos in Connecticut and New Jersey, play the slots and tables for a few hours and catch an after-midnight bus home, usually sleeping on the trip back and often arriving just in time to get to return to work. The driver, Ophadell Williams, 40, survived. He told the authorities that his bus was clipped by a passing tractor-trailer, which sped away, an assertion that the police later said was under investigation. . . .

A total of 14 Vietnamese women -- half of them pregnant -- have been rescued from an "illegal and inhuman" surrogate baby breeding ring in Thailand, the AFP is reporting. The company, called Baby 101, allegedly received orders by e-mail or via agents from childless couples offering thousands of dollars per newborn. In some cases, the male partner would also provide sperm to inseminate the women, who were being held in two houses in Bangkok and had their passports confiscated. "Nine of the women said they had volunteered to work because they were told they would earn $5,000 for each baby," deputy immigration commander Major General Manu Mekmok is quoted as saying. "Four said they were tricked." Officials said four Taiwanese, one Chinese and three Myanmar nationals were arrested in connection with the business and charged with illegally working in Thailand. In addition, a 35-year-old Taiwanese woman, who police said ran the operation, has been charged with human trafficking. The surrogacy service, from egg and sperm donation to the delivery of a baby, is advertised on the website believed to be run by the company for $32,000 plus other expenses. Nearly 40 women, who are identified only by a numbered code, are pictured in various poses on the site.

One plaintiff, Ms. A., served in the Coast Guard from 2005 until 2007, has said that she was threatened and harassed by her superior. When she made a mistake in a knot-tying quiz, her superior said she was a "stupid fucking female, who didn't belong in the military" in front of her colleagues. As she changed, Ms. A. said the same superior tried to force the door open and said he needed to "perform a Personal Protective Equipment Inspection." He would also roughly grab her rear end as she walked by, said the lawsuit. Once she reported the harassment up the chain of command, Ms. A. says her superior's behavior got worse -- he'd drive by her home and left voicemails threatening her life. Then he started breaking into her room at night and standing over her bed as he masturbated. Ms. A. said she started sleeping with a knife under her bed. The lawsuit charges that in November 2005 the superior broke into Ms. A.'s room when he was "drunk and had an erection" and told her to touch it. When she refused, he grabbed her hand and pushed it into his groin. She yelled and pushed him away, so he "struck her so hard against the left side of her face that she was thrown across the room and against the wall." A month later, when she was ordered to retrieve some keys from her superior, he allegedly grabbed her by the hair, pulled her into his stateroom, shut the door and raped her. When she tried to report the rape, she says she was instead forced to sign a statement in which she admitted to an "inappropriate relationship" with her rapist. Ms. B., who served in the Navy, said she was held down and raped repeatedly by two shipmates while on port of call in Thailand. She reported the rape to the military police on duty, who took her to get a medical exam. She was bruised and injured so badly that the physician stopped the exam and began to cry, according to the lawsuit. After she reported the rape, she became the target of harassment, was refused food and imprisoned on the medical ward. Her rapists remained on active duty, albeit with docked pay.