Do you think video games encourage real violence?

 

The long-running debate about violence in video games was rekindled over the weekend with reports that an 8-year-old boy who police say shot and killed his elderly caregiver had been playing "Grand Theft Auto IV," a game rated as appropriate for adults.

To be sure, there's plenty of content in video games that's not for kids. Virtually everyone agrees on that, and there's an industry-created ratings system in place to help parents decide which games are appropriate and which ones aren't.

The ratings, like those at a movie theater, provide guidelines and create rules for game retailers. (California's law, which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in 2011, would have judged games differently though, making it a crime if a retailer doesn't follow them.)

But even the current ratings system was born out of controversy. And, as games get more graphic and complex, it hasn't stemmed the tide of complaints about some titles.

Studies have been inconclusive about what role, if any, video games play in encouraging real-world violence. But the argument isn't new.

In light of this week's shooting, here's a look at 10 video games that sparked controversy with their violent content -- and what it was that made them so polarizing.

1. 'Death Race' (1976)

At this point, it's downright quaint.

But when it hit arcades more than three decades ago, "Death Race" (based on the cult movie "Death Race 2000") may have been the first video game to spark controversy for its violence.

In the chunky, black-and-white pixilated graphics of the time, players ran down "gremlins" in their vehicles. The targets squealed and cried, and were then replaced by tombstones on the screen. It didn't help when word leaked that the working title had been "Pedestrian."

It was enough to prompt the National Safety Council to call the game "morbid" and earn it a spot in a "60 Minutes" segment on violence in games.

2. 'Mortal Kombat' (1992)

The '90s classic has spawned innumerable sequels that have found themselves pretty well in the middle of the pack in terms of fighting-game violence.

But when it hit arcades in 1992 and home consoles the next year, "Mortal Kombat" jumped out because of the gore it depicted in digitized graphics.

Brandishing severed heads, ripping out hearts and spines and the like helped put "Mortal Kombat" at the head of a pack of games that prompted hearings in Congress and, eventually, led to the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board.

The gore also helped it to become one of the most popular video games of all time.

This year's reboot (often called "Mortal Kombat 9") does its best to uphold the tradition. Options include eating an opponent's head, pulling out their stomach after spitting acid down their throat and slicing them in half with a buzz saw.

Read More  here

Wife paid N80,000 for rival’s assassination – Police

…The suspects

 …The suspects

I engineered murder plot   – Night guard
Did a housewife hire an assassin to kill her rival? Or did the family night guard try to assassinate his master’s wife? These are the knotty questions the police in Ibadan, Oyo State capital are attempting to answer after a suspected hired assassin, Ikechukwu Christopher, was arrested.

The suspect was said to be on his way from Enugu to Ibadan to carry out the assassination when he ran into the police. A locally-made single barrel gun and a woman’s photograph found on him gave him away. He was taken into custody.

Ikechukwu named one Adenola Adeniyi, a former timber contractor, based in Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, as his sponsor. The police went after Adeniyi who, in turn, named one Arowolo Lateef as the person who gave out the assassination job. Assassination fee was put at N80,000.

The police alleged that a woman, identified as Mrs. Funke Abidoye, contracted Lateef, the family nightguard, now apprehended, to assassinate the husband’s junior wife, Ololade.

But the nightguard denied the claim, saying he was the mastermind of the murder plot to avenge the ordeal of the first wife, Funke, in the hands of Ololade.

Meanwhile, Funke is said to be on the run.

Oyo State Police Commissioner, Mr. Mohammed Indabawa, narrating the story, said Ikechukwu, the suspected hired assassin, confessed that he was contracted by Adeniyi and Lateef to kill Ololade, “Based on his confession, the said Adenola was arrested and he too corroborated the statement made by Ikechukwu and added that he was hired by Arowolo at the rate of N80,000”, Indabawa said.

He continued: “Investigation revealed that Arowolo hired them at the rate of N80,000. After a diligent investigation, the said Arowolo too was arrested and he confessed that one Funke, the first wife to one Muyiwa Abidoye, hired him to kill the younger wife. He explained further that he, as the husband’s night guard, was contracted by the first wife to look for hired assassins that would kill the younger wife.

“Items recovered from the three suspects are one locally made single barrel, one dane gun, eight live cartridges, one expended cartridge, one dismantled locally made gun, two cutlasses, eight handsets, one nylon containing criminal charms, photographs of Mrs. Ololade Abidoye and her husband, Muyiwa Abidoye found on the prime suspect, Ikechukwu. Meanwhile, the second wife who was said to have contracted the arrested suspects to kill her colleague has absconded from her matrimonial home. Efforts are on top gear to prosecute the arrested suspects”.

But, Arowolo denied being contracted by the first wife as alleged by the police, stressing that he just wanted to kill the younger wife in annoyance and to avenge the ordeal the first wife suffered because of her younger wife.

Ikechukwu confessed that his boss in Enugu gave him the contract to carry out the assassination. “But, when I was going, the police stopped me and found the pistol I was carrying. I was arrested and taken into custody”.

When asked why he was the person his boss in Enugu instructed to commit the crime if he had not done anything like that before, he answered that he learnt the act of shooting through hunting game and he had never been involved in killing anybody.

Adeniyi said he was in Ago Iwoye as a timber contractor when the business went under and Arowolo offered to help.

“He gave me a motorcycle to work and he did not collect any money from me. After sometime, he told me a woman was owing him N20million and for three years, she had been avoiding him. I asked him the business he transacted with the woman but he told me to help him look for hired assassin to kill the woman. After sometime, he started to threaten me. I later got in touch with one man who now linked me with a man at Enugu”.

I just thank God that he is alive: Tenage stowaway’s mum..

 

The mother of the 13-year-old stowaway, Ricky Daniel Ohikhena, who on Friday hid in the tyre compartment of an Arik plane on a flight from Benin to Lagos, was on Monday quizzed for hours by a combined team of security operatives from the Department of State Security Service and aviation security.

The mother, Evelyn, who confirmed that she was quizzed by the SSS operatives, said her son was a nice boy who never displayed any tendency for such a dangerous venture.

An embattled Evelyn said Daniel was a nice boy who did not mingle with bad friends.

She said, “My son answers Daniel in school and Ricky at home. I went to my elder sister’s place who put to bed and when I got home the next morning (Saturday), I couldn’t find him. My daughter told me that they quarrelled in the night because he woke at midnight to watch movies and she told him to stop watching movie in the night and she said he eventually slept in the parlour while she said she went back to sleep in the room.

“One of his younger brothers said he saw him remove all his school books from his bag; so I asked my neighbours whether any of them saw him and they told me that at around 5 to 6 am, they heard sounds that somebody was opening the gate but never thought it was my son. He doesn’t go out. What I know is that he is always watching films in the house but he doesn’t have friends.

“I went to Oba Market police station, they referred me to Evbuotubu police station, when I got there they said they will declare him missing after 24 hours and that I should come back the next day.”

Speaking on the type of person her son is, Evelyn said, “He is always at home, I have never seen anybody come to look for him and he doesn’t have friends. I am begging the government to help me, because I have never been to the airport before, I have been to Lagos before so they should help me. I don’t know how he manage to get there but I just thank God that he is alive.

Switzerland launches 'sex drive-ins'

Swiss "sex drive-ins" open for business

 

(CNN) -- In an attempt to reduce open street prostitution and to improve security for sex workers, Switzerland's largest city, Zurich, is opening "sex drive-ins" Monday.

The nine garage-style structures, located in Sihlquai, a former industrial zone in the city, are equipped with alarm buttons and guarded by security personnel to ensure the safety of the prostitutes. Customers are not allowed to leave the area with the sex workers.

Read more: Brazil drops 'happy being a prostitute' ad campaign

"Prostitution has escalated in the city," said Michael Herzig, from the Zurich social services department. "It was done out in the open on the street and men harassed passers-by.

"It was noisy and dirty because men took the prostitutes to a side street and left used condoms on the streets. The drive-ins are more discreet and safer."

Sex workers learn English for World Cup

Spain making money from prostitutes

 

Herzig leads the project, which has cost 2.4 million Swiss francs ($2.6 million) to set up.

"The project is extremely controversial. Prostitution is about morals and religion. But we leave these things aside and see it as a business. The humanitarian aspect is more important for us," said Herzig.

Around 30 to 40 women are expected to work at the site each night. Sex workers have to pay 5 Swiss francs per night to make use of the so-called "sex boxes," but customers don't have to pay an entrance fee.

Read more: Ahead of Brazil World Cup, free English classes planned for prostitutes 
SOURCE

Yes Mag reacts to Genevieve’s denial… “we have evidence”

 

Publishers of Yes Magazine have responded swiftly to Genevieve Nnaji’s denial of an interview published in it’s soft sell, insisting they have evidence.

Yes in a statement said “Like we professionally stated in our intro, it’s an old interview she had with our Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, Azuh Arinze, years back at Oceanview Restaurants, Victoria Island, Lagos. He only stumbled on the tape again and reproduced it. Above all, we still have the tape of the interview as well as photographs taken on that day”

In the alleged exclusive interview, Genevieve Nnaji had been quoted as opening up on the kind of man she wants to spend the rest of her life with; an alleged relationship with Kunle Coker and plans to go back to school.

Hours after the story went viral, Genevieve had come on social medium twitter to refute the interview.

 

Read the controversial interview here

Efforts to get Genny to react to this twist as at press time has not been successful.