9-year-old US boy arrested for carrying gun to school
New York: A nine-year-old boy in the US has been arrested for carrying a loaded a gun to school to show it off to other students. Debra Dryden, who was driving a Hillsborough County school bus in Florida filled with students to Ippolito Elementary School on Wednesday morning said she had been keeping an eye through the mirror on a 9-year-old boy and an older student sitting next to him.
“I heard the other student say something to the effect of, ‘I won’t be picking on you anymore’,” Dryden was quoted as saying by Tampa Bay Times. “Then, I was really interested. You keep your eyes open, but you also keep your ears open. You can tell when they’re up to something. It’s kind of like being a mom,” she said.
Dryden monitored the boy through the mirror until they reached the school. As they pulled up to the bus ramp, she saw the 9-year-old take a gun from his backpack and put it into his pants pocket. She called the school district’s transportation dispatch line, which contacted the school and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. Police arrived at the school and later arrested the 9-year-old boy, charging him with possession of a firearm on school property.
The boy, whom the paper did not name because of his age and because he was not charged with a violent crime, was taken to the Hillsborough County Juvenile Assessment Center. The boy had a loaded two-shot, .22-caliber Derringer that he first told sheriff’s investigators belonged to his mother and that he had brought it from home, Larry McKinnon, sheriff’s office spokesman, said. He said he brought the gun to school to show it off to other students, McKinnon said.
The boy later told investigators he found the gun in a park. By the end of the interview with investigators, the boy had given four or five different accounts of how he got the gun, McKinnon said. The boy’s mother met deputies and her son at a sheriff’s office substation. She denied the gun belonged to her, he said. (PTI)
Chinese rushing to master English to cash in on plum job globally
Beijing: English literacy in China is increasing as people view mastery of the language as a gateway to get good jobs. The mainland climbed two notches from 36th place last year to 34th on an annual list showing the English proficiency of adults in 60 countries and territories.
The report was released on Wednesday by EF Education First, a global language training company. According to China Daily, Christopher McCormick, head of the company’s language research and training arm, said that almost everyone in China seems to have understood that in the environment of a global economy, mastering English is inextricably linked to their personal career advancement.
This year”s list is based on test results of nearly five million adults over a six-year period beginning in 2007. There are at least 50,000 registered English-language institutes across the country, with expenditures on learning by Chinese people reaching into the billions of dollars, the report said. One reason for the improvement in English proficiency is China”s growing wealth and middle class and tourism. (ANI)
‘Crowded Twitter’ loses popularity in Asia
Johannesburg: The microblogging site made its public debut in the year’s most-anticipated IPO, this week, however, Twitter’s popularity is reportedly ceasing in part of Asia, as users are increasingly finding it difficult to deal with.
A Paris-based social media research company, Semiocast had stated that led by Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and India, Asia was the fastest growing region for Twitter in summer 2010, but that has changed owing to popularity of alternative platforms.
According to News24, users in South Korea and Japan, who had joined the site in the wake of March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, are now spending less time on Twitter.
New mobile applications from companies such as South Korea’s Kakao and Japan’s Line have experienced explosive growth, making them potent competitors for eyeballs and advertising.
International users accounted for about three quarters of Twitter”s members but only a quarter of revenue in the first nine months of this year. About 25% of Twitter”s 232 million active users are in Asia.
Analyst at BNP Paribas Justin Lee said that in South Korea and Japan, open type social networking services like Twitter and Facebook are losing steam adding that closed social networking services where messages are shared among a small group of people will become more popular.
Semiocast stated that despite Twitter being banned in China’s vast market, it is still adopted in India where the site has amassed 27 million users there, but low use of smartphones in the country could hamper the company’s growth.
A social media producer and CEO of Logkr Media, Will Tachiiri said that sometimes one can be forced to leave the space or close the account since they were seriously offended, annoyed or traumatized, the report added. (ANI)