Anatoly Shesteryuk, Former Russian Official, Arrested

MOSCOW — The police said Tuesday that they had arrested a former official of a federal agency that manages state enterprises on charges of stealing $330 million in property, a theft noteworthy even by the standards of Russian public corruption.

The official, whom the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper identified as Anatoly Shesteryuk, worked for the Federal Property Management Agency and was in charge of companies in Moscow owned by the federal government.

Most of Russia’s profitable public companies were privatized in the immediate post-Soviet period, creating a capitalist economy and overnight billionaires. The state companies that were not privatized were of dubious commercial value; many limped into the new century barely profitable.

These companies were the focus of the corruption investigation that ensnared Mr. Shesteryuk and at least two other co-conspirators, said the Main Economic Crime Directorate of the Interior Ministry, which divulged details of the case in statements published by several Russian newspapers.

To pull off the plot, the investigators said, Mr. Shesteryuk and the other suspects, who were directors of private companies, worked from a database of failing government enterprises — the worse off, the better.

Mr. Shesteryuk, the investigators said, would arrange for the managers of these failing companies, like gas stations and other businesses with substantial real estate holdings, to take out loans using their land as collateral, and drawn from a financial company that was also part of the plot. When, predictably, the struggling enterprise was unable to repay the loan, the land was seized in bankruptcy court, and the conspirators — who included the managers of the failing companies — would divide the proceeds.

The plot led to the theft of more than 100 parcels of state property worth more than 10 billion rubles, or about $330 million, the Komsomolskaya Pravda article quoted an unnamed investigator as saying.

The investigators said they were looking into whether the judges in the Treteysk court, where the bankruptcies were processed, were complicit in approving the title changes.

The plot, though eyebrow-raising for being so lucrative, was not unprecedented for corruption cases here.

Sergei L. Magnitsky, a lawyer representing a hedge fund, uncovered what he said was a plot against the Russian government in which taxes paid by at least two investment firms were stolen. Some estimates put the amount involved at more than a half-billion dollars.

Mr. Magnitsky, who was arrested in November 2008 as he tried to expose the fraud and died in prison, said about $230 million in taxes paid by his employer, the Hermitage Capital hedge fund, had been stolen. Collusive lawsuits in Russia’s flawed court system were also a factor in that case.

In 2010, a leaked audit suggested that as much as $4 billion had gone missing in a contracting fraud involving a pipeline project to connect Siberian oil fields with a refinery in China.

In neither case were any senior figures prosecuted.

But arrests have been made in more recent corruption cases. Since Vladimir V. Putin was elected to a third term as president last spring, the police have made half a dozen high-profile arrests for corruption. In November, Mr. Putin ousted his minister of defense in a corruption scandal, and the police have arrested housing officials in St. Petersburg and state telephone company executives in Moscow.

Selective prosecution of corruption cases, Kremlinologists say, serves to purge the elite of figures who have fallen from favor or whose loyalty has been called into question.

Removing the most visible signs of corruption and making high-profile arrests are also seen as a way to mollify the anger of Russians — who must pay bribes in many ordinary situations, as when they visit an emergency room — lest they embrace the opposition.

Also on Tuesday, Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev fired a deputy minister of regional development who is also director of the federal agency for housing maintenance and utilities, the Interfax news service reported, without providing an explanation for the dismissal.

And far to the east, in the Siberian city of Yakutsk, the police accused a regional official in the same housing agency of taking a $9,000 bribe from a contractor.

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Tajikistan blocks scores of websites as election looms

DUSHANBE (Reuters) – Tajikistan blocked access to more than 100 websites on Tuesday, in what a government source said was a dress rehearsal for a crackdown on online dissent before next year’s election when President Imomali Rakhmon will again run for office.

Rakhmon, a 60-year-old former head of a Soviet cotton farm, has ruled the impoverished Central Asian nation of 7.5 million for 20 years. He has overseen constitutional amendments that allow him to seek a new seven-year term in November 2013.

The Internet remains the main platform where Tajiks can air grievances and criticize government policies at a time when the circulation of local newspapers is tiny and television is tightly controlled by the state.

Tajikistan’s state communications service blocked 131 local and foreign Internet sites “for technical and maintenance works”.

“Most probably, these works will be over in a week,” Tatyana Kholmurodova, deputy head of the service, told Reuters. She declined to give the reason for the work, which cover even some sites with servers located abroad.

The blocked resources included Russia‘s popular social networking sites www.my.mail.ru and VKontakte (www.vk.com), as well as Tajik news site TJKnews.com and several local blogs.

“The government has ordered the communications service to test their ability to block dozens of sites at once, should such a need arise,” a senior government official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

“It is all about November 2013,” he said, in a clear reference to the presidential election.

Other blocked websites included a Ukrainian soccer site, a Tajik rap music site, several local video-sharing sites and a pornography site.

VOLATILE NATION

Predominantly Muslim Tajikistan, which lies on a major transit route for Afghan drugs to Europe and Russia, remains volatile after a 1992-97 civil war in which Rakhmon’s Moscow-backed secular government clashed with Islamist guerrillas.

Rakhmon justifies his authoritarian methods by saying he wants to oppose radical Islam. But some of his critics argue repression and poverty push many young Tajiks to embrace it.

Tighter Internet controls echo measures taken by other former Soviet republics of Central Asia, where authoritarian rulers are wary of the role social media played in revolutions in the Arab world and mass protests in Russia.

The government this year set up a volunteer-run body to monitor Internet use and reprimand those who openly criticize Rakhmon and other officials.

In November, Tajikistan blocked access to Facebook, saying it was spreading “mud and slander” about its veteran leader.

The authorities unblocked Facebook after concern was expressed by the United States and European Union, the main providers of humanitarian aid for Tajikistan, where almost a half of the population lives in abject poverty.

Asomiddin Asoyev, head of Tajikistan’s association of Internet providers, said authorities were trying to create an illusion that there were no problems in Tajik society by silencing online criticism.

“This is self-deception,” he told Reuters. “The best way of resolving a problem is its open discussion with civil society.”

Moscow-based Central Asia expert Arkady Dubnov told Reuters that Rakhmon’s authoritarian measures could lead to a backlash against the president in the election. “Trying to position itself as the main guarantor of stability through repression against Islamist activists, the Dushanbe government is actually achieving the reverse – people’s trust in it is falling,” he said.

(Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Pravin Char)

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Boy Scout files on suspected abuse published by The Times

The Times on Tuesday released about 1,200 previously unpublished files kept by the Boy Scouts of America on volunteers and employees expelled for suspected sexual abuse.

The files, which have been redacted of victims' names and other identifying information, were opened from 1985 through 1991. They can be found in a database along with two decades of files released by order of the Oregon Supreme Court in October. The database also contains summary information on about 3,200 additional files opened from 1947 to 2005 that have not been released publicly.

Together, the material in the database represents the most complete accounting of suspected sexual abuse in the Scouts that has been made public. All of the material was obtained as a result of lawsuits against the Scouts by alleged abuse victims or by media organizations. The Boy Scouts kept the files for nearly a century for internal use only, to keep suspected abusers from rejoining.

DATABASE: Tracking decades of allegations

About as many files were opened in the six years before 1991 as in the previous two decades. At least in part, that reflects greater reporting of accusations, as awareness of child sexual abuse rose in the Scouts and society at large. About that time, the Scouts launched a concerted effort to train youths and adults on how to identify and prevent sexual abuse.

The files do not represent a complete accounting of alleged abuse in Scouting. Experts say many cases probably were not reported to the national office, and the Scouts say the organization destroyed an unknown number of files over the years.

The latest dossiers — used as evidence in a 1992 court case — are among those reviewed by The Times for a series of stories over the last year, http://www.latimes.com/boyscouts/ which detailed the Scouts' repeated efforts to keep allegations from police, parents and the public and its resistance to performing criminal background checks on all volunteers. The BSA's inaction or delayed response to allegations at times allowed alleged molesters to continue sexually abusing children. Alleged abusers consistently violated a policy, instituted in 1987, prohibiting adults from being alone with Scouts.

DOCUMENTS: A paper trail of abuse

The alleged abusers — including doctors, teachers, priests and other professionals — commonly preyed on children without father figures or gained the trust of both parents.

The Boy Scouts of America says it has improved its youth protection policies over time and now is regarded by many experts as a national leader in the field. It has conducted criminal background checks on all volunteers since 2008 and since 2010 has mandated any suspicion of abuse be reported to police.

Among the accusations in the newly posted files:

• Samuel J. Becker of Canoga Park was a Scout committee chairman for four years before the Scouts became aware in 1991 that he had "quite a record in regards to child molestation and had served a prison term" and was on probation for exposing himself.

• Leader Gary L. Findlay of Carol Stream, Ill., was accused of abusing a 15-year-old in 1986, convicted of sexual abuse and expelled from the Scouts. After the arrest, another area scoutmaster wrote to scout executives, saying, "This situation could have been avoided." He had reported suspicions of abuse to a superior but said he had been ignored. The Scout leader wrote, "I am angry and frustrated by the ineptness of this scouting executive."

• Beatrice T. Oubre, a transportation volunteer from Morgan City, La., was accused of molesting a 16-year-old Scout in 1988. The Scouts asked Oubre to resign, but there is no indication she was reported to police.

FULL COVERAGE: Inside the 'perversion' files

Becker, Findlay and Oubre could not be reached for comment.

Most files opened after 1991 have not been made public, although their release is being sought in various court cases. The brief case summaries posted by The Times, covering 1947 to 2005, were obtained from a Washington attorney whose office prepared them mostly from documents sealed by a court.

jessica.naziri@latimes.com

nell.gram@latimes.com

Naziri and Gram are researchers for The Times.

Times staff researcher Maloy Moore and staff writer Jason Felch contributed to this report.

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As Envoy Meets Syria’s Assad, Russia Signals New Pessimism

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lakhdar Brahimi, the special envoy seeking an end to the Syria crisis, held an urgent meeting with President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Monday as new signs emerged that Russia, Mr. Assad’s most important foreign backer, was moving forward with plans to evacuate Russian diplomats and other expatriates.

Sana/European Pressphoto Agency

Syria's Arab News Agency, SANA, provided a photograph of President Bashar al-Assad meeting with the international envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi on Monday.

The New York Times

A Syrian warplane was reported to have conducted airstrikes that killed dozens of people in Hilfaya, according to antigovernment activists in the area.

Mr. Brahimi, the Algerian statesman who has been the special Syria representative for the United Nations and Arab League for three months, did not specify the substance or tone of his discussion with Mr. Assad, describing it only in general terms in brief remarks afterward.

“The president expressed his view regarding the current situation, and I briefed him on the meetings I had in several capitals with officials from different countries inside and outside the region,” Mr. Brahimi told reporters, according to an account posted on the United Nations’ Web site. “I also told him about the steps that, in my view, need to be taken to help the Syrian people find a way out of this crisis.”

But one member of Syria’s political opposition who said he had spoken with Mr. Brahimi’s aides said the envoy had intended to advocate a plan for a negotiated solution first proposed in June. The opposition member, Mohamed Sarmini, said the proposal would temporarily leave Mr. Assad in power, but curb his authority — an arrangement that some members of the opposition had previously rejected as inadequate.

Another prominent opposition member, who requested anonymity because of the delicacy of the talks, said he understood that Mr. Brahimi had been intending to deliver a “final proposal” to Mr. Assad to leave with members of his intelligence and security services.

Mr. Brahimi was scheduled to meet with opposition members in Damascus on Tuesday, according to Hassan Abdel Azim, a longtime domestic dissident who took a favorable view of the envoy’s visit.

“We are going to listen first to his proposals,” he said. “We support the Brahimi initiative, and we don’t say it has failed at all.”

The envoy arrived on Sunday as new violence gripped the country, particularly in west-central Syria, where rebel groups are trying to capture territory around the strategic city of Hama. Dozens of people were killed Sunday when a Syrian warplane dropped bombs on a bakery on the town of Halfaya, killing at least 58 people — all but three of them men — according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an antigovernment group based in London that maintains a network of contacts inside Syria.

In the signs of the growing perils facing civilians in Hama Province, a jihadist rebel brigade, the Nusra Front, along with other rebel groups, stormed parts of Maan village, where many of the residents belong to the minority Alawite sect, according to the Syrian Observatory. In recent days, some rebel groups have threatened to retaliate against Christian and Alawite villages where government forces have taken up positions.

Top Russian diplomats said that Mr. Brahimi, perhaps trying to broker a deal that would help ease out Mr. Assad, may visit Russia as soon as this week. Russian officials have sought to distance themselves from Mr. Assad in recent weeks as the nearly two-year conflict in Syria has worsened, although they still strongly oppose military intervention in favor of a negotiated transition. Some Russian expatriates working in Syria were abducted this month.

Russian security officials were quoted in Monday’s edition of Kommersant, a Russian daily newspaper, as saying that diplomats in Damascus would be evacuated with the help of special forces, if necessary. The authorities are also prepared to dispatch 100 officers from a special armed unit of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, called “Screen,” which was last used to evacuate Russian diplomats from Baghdad in 2003. The newspaper quoted an intelligence source saying the officers were “ready for a transfer to Damascus, however, the order from above has not been given.”

Ruslan R. Aliyev, an analyst with the Center for the Analysis of Strategy and Technologies, a defense research group based in Moscow, said renewed discussion of evacuations by Russia’s Foreign Ministry reflected what he described as Moscow’s deeply pessimistic prognosis for the region..

Reporting was contributed by Ellen Barry from Moscow, Hwaida Saad from Beirut, and Rick Gladstone from New York.

Kareem Fahim reported from Beirut, and Hala Droubi from Jidda, Saudi Arabia. Ellen Barry contributed reporting from Moscow, Hwaida Saad from Beirut, and Rick Gladstone from New York.

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Jack Klugman, Odd Couple and Quincy, M.E. Star, Dies

By Stephen M. Silverman

12/24/2012 at 07:35 PM EST

Jack Klugman, The Odd Couple and Quincy, M.E. star beloved by TV, movie and theater audiences for five decades, died suddenly in Los Angeles on Monday, one of his sons told the Associated Press. He was 90.

"He had a great life and he enjoyed every moment of it and he would encourage others to do the same," son Adam Klugman said of his father, who had lost his voice to throat cancer in 1980 and then taught himself to speak again through breath control.

With Tony Randall on ABC's adaptation of the smash Neil Simon play and movie of the '60s, Klugman played sloppy Oscar Madison from 1970 to 1975 to Randall's Felix Unger, and though they really were an odd couple, offscreen they were adoring friends. Randall died in 2004.

Born in Philadelphia, Klugman started acting in college, and his film credits included the all-star courtroom drama 12 Angry Men. On Broadway he starred as the love interest Herbie in the original production of the quintessential backstage musical, Gypsy, with the legendary Ethel Merman.

Klugman's wife, actress-comedian Brett Somers, costarred on The Odd Couple as his ex-wife Blanche. According to the AP, they married in 1953 and had two sons, Adam and David, and had been estranged for years at the time of her death in 2007.

Besides their sons, Klugman is survived Peggy Crosby, whom he married in February 2008.

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Predicting who's at risk for violence isn't easy

CHICAGO (AP) — It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.

Still, a combination of risk factors in troubled kids or adults including drug use and easy access to guns can increase the likelihood of violence, experts say.

But warning signs "only become crystal clear in the aftermath, said James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminology professor who has studied and written about mass killings.

"They're yellow flags. They only become red flags once the blood is spilled," he said.

Whether 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who used his mother's guns to kill her and then 20 children and six adults at their Connecticut school, made any hints about his plans isn't publicly known.

Fox said that sometimes, in the days, weeks or months preceding their crimes, mass murderers voice threats, or hints, either verbally or in writing, things like "'don't come to school tomorrow,'" or "'they're going to be sorry for mistreating me.'" Some prepare by target practicing, and plan their clothing "as well as their arsenal." (Police said Lanza went to shooting ranges with his mother in the past but not in the last six months.)

Although words might indicate a grudge, they don't necessarily mean violence will follow. And, of course, most who threaten never act, Fox said.

Even so, experts say threats of violence from troubled teens and young adults should be taken seriously and parents should attempt to get them a mental health evaluation and treatment if needed.

"In general, the police are unlikely to be able to do anything unless and until a crime has been committed," said Dr. Paul Appelbaum, a Columbia University professor of psychiatry, medicine and law. "Calling the police to confront a troubled teen has often led to tragedy."

The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry says violent behavior should not be dismissed as "just a phase they're going through."

In a guidelines for families, the academy lists several risk factors for violence, including:

—Previous violent or aggressive behavior

—Being a victim of physical or sexual abuse

—Guns in the home

—Use of drugs or alcohol

—Brain damage from a head injury

Those with several of these risk factors should be evaluated by a mental health expert if they also show certain behaviors, including intense anger, frequent temper outbursts, extreme irritability or impulsiveness, the academy says. They may be more likely than others to become violent, although that doesn't mean they're at risk for the kind of violence that happened in Newtown, Conn.

Lanza, the Connecticut shooter, was socially withdrawn and awkward, and has been said to have had Asperger's disorder, a mild form of autism that has no clear connection with violence.

Autism experts and advocacy groups have complained that Asperger's is being unfairly blamed for the shootings, and say people with the disorder are much more likely to be victims of bullying and violence by others.

According to a research review published this year in Annals of General Psychiatry, most people with Asperger's who commit violent crimes have serious, often undiagnosed mental problems. That includes bipolar disorder, depression and personality disorders. It's not publicly known if Lanza had any of these, which in severe cases can include delusions and other psychotic symptoms.

Young adulthood is when psychotic illnesses typically emerge, and Appelbaum said there are several signs that a troubled teen or young adult might be heading in that direction: isolating themselves from friends and peers, spending long periods alone in their rooms, plummeting grades if they're still in school and expressing disturbing thoughts or fears that others are trying to hurt them.

Appelbaum said the most agonizing calls he gets are from parents whose children are descending into severe mental illness but who deny they are sick and refuse to go for treatment.

And in the case of adults, forcing them into treatment is difficult and dependent on laws that vary by state.

All states have laws that allow some form of court-ordered treatment, typically in a hospital for people considered a danger to themselves or others. Connecticut is among a handful with no option for court-ordered treatment in a less restrictive community setting, said Kristina Ragosta, an attorney with the Treatment Advocacy Center, a national group that advocates better access to mental health treatment.

Lanza's medical records haven't been publicly disclosed and authorities haven't said if it is known what type of treatment his family may have sought for him. Lanza killed himself at the school.

Jennifer Hoff of Mission Viejo, Calif. has a 19-year-old bipolar son who has had hallucinations, delusions and violent behavior for years. When he was younger and threatened to harm himself, she'd call 911 and leave the door unlocked for paramedics, who'd take him to a hospital for inpatient mental care.

Now that he's an adult, she said he has refused medication, left home, and authorities have indicated he can't be forced into treatment unless he harms himself — or commits a violent crime and is imprisoned. Hoff thinks prison is where he's headed — he's in jail, charged in an unarmed bank robbery.

___

Online:

American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: http://www.aacap.org

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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Husband sets wife on fire during fight with child nearby, police say

A Fresno man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and domestic violence after he allegedly set his common-law wife on fire Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

The 21-year-old man apparently "became emotional" while discussing his relationship with the woman in a car in southeast Fresno, police Sgt. Steve Crawford told the Fresno Bee. The man allegedly threw gasoline on the woman and lighted her on fire.

When police arrived, Crawford said, the woman was rolling on the ground to put out the flames. The vehicle was also on fire.

The woman was taken to an area hospital with minor injuries, Crawford said. The couple's 2-year-old boy, who was near the car when the fire began, was not hurt.

The suspect's name has not been released by authorities.

ALSO:

Full coverage: Connecticut school shooting

Rain, chilly temperatures expected for Southern California

Jenni Rivera's generosity to needy honored; memorials planned

-- Kate Mather

Follow Kate Mather on Twitter or Google+.

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Madrid Journal: Spain Turns Christmas Into a Season of Thrift

MADRID — This is the season when barren stone plazas and broad sidewalks here fill with Christmas markets peddling sweets, candles, holiday decorations and crafts. But alongside the festive stalls this year, another kind of market has sprung up in response to Spain’s hard times.

They are the “mercadillos,” or little markets, where the entrepreneurial-minded have found a niche by gathering and selling the unsold stock of more established retailers whose sales have plummeted, or unwanted clothing and other items from people in need of cash.

Buyers and sellers rely heavily on Facebook and other social networking sites to promote the improvised exchanges, which have transformed the way Spaniards shop for the holidays.

For the hard-pressed, the markets are a bargain hunters’ paradise, and for the jobless, they offer an economic lifeline and a chance to recast their fortunes.

Cristina Aresti and Sofía Bourne had never thought about working in fashion until they lost their jobs, joining the more than 25 percent of Spaniards who are unemployed. But this month they opened Abo Cool Market, a pop-up shop that sold secondhand women’s clothing over six days inside a Madrid furniture store.

The two women said they had intended to limit their sales to 500 items. But given the avalanche of offers from people wanting to sell off their wardrobes, they ended up selecting 800 pieces of clothing, with a combined retail value of more than $59,000.

“We just couldn’t believe how many people now want to sell clothing that they had hardly worn,” Ms. Bourne said. Among the most expensive items on sale — a totem of more prosperous times — was an unworn Gucci silk dress that still bore its original sales tag. It was on sale for $650, about a quarter of the original price.

Ms. Aresti and Ms. Bourne will keep 35 percent of their sales receipts; the rest will go to the women who supplied the clothing. The original owners then have the choice of either retrieving unsold items or donating them to charity groups.

Many of the people running this year’s mercadillos had little or no experience in retail sales. Ms. Bourne was laid off by a real estate company; Ms. Aresti lost her job as director of a company that organizes business conferences.

“I don’t yet know whether my future really lies in fashion,” Ms. Aresti said, “but there comes a point in such a hopeless job market when you’ve at least got to try to reinvent yourself.”

Even merchants with long experience in retail or fashion are borrowing some of the practices of the little markets as a way to lure customers.

“Store sales have been plummeting, so you need to go out of your way to make it fun and worthwhile for people to still do some shopping this Christmas,” said Cristina Terrón, a fashion stylist whose mercadillo sold some clothing she had initially selected for television and movie productions. “Something that started out of economic necessity is now also turning into a fashion.”

On average, Spanish households are set to spend $790 to $920 on Christmas shopping this year, down as much as 38 percent from 2007, before the onset of the economic crisis, according to a study published this month by Esade, a Spanish business school.

Jaime Castelló, a marketing professor and one of the authors of the study, said the crisis was not only reducing spending, but also speeding up changes in consumer habits.

About 70 percent of Spanish households said they would search online before buying any Christmas gifts, and 25 percent said they would not even step into a department store, according to the study. The mercadillos, Mr. Castelló suggested, were “another alternative in this crisis to the traditional buying channels.”

Ana María Menoyo Delgado, 26, said she had “lots of fun” searching the Christmas mercadillo Web sites as she worked her way through her holiday shopping list. At Abo Cool’s market, with her mother’s help, she ended up with two designer hand bags, a skirt and a coat, spending a total of $659.

While bargain hunting is part of the attraction, several buyers said they simply preferred the mercadillos to department stores.

“I can’t stand anymore walking into a conventional luxury store where you are likely to be welcomed by a pretty and young but utterly grumpy sales attendant,” Irene Trigueros, a commodities trader, said as she tried on a pair of secondhand sunglasses.

Some of the mercadillos have even been held in bars. “Having a cocktail while trying on some nice clothing seems to me a perfect way to end the day,” said Alberto Martínez, owner of the 1862 Dry Bar, who allowed his basement to become a mercadillo for three days this month.

Mr. Martínez did not charge any rent, but some of the larger mercadillos add to their revenue by renting out booths in their spaces to smaller sellers, normally for $200 to $400 a weekend.

In Alcobendas, on the outskirts of Madrid, a warehouse was transformed into La Galería del 32, a market that sold, among other things, wine, ham, sculpture, jewelry and handbags. The warehouse used to store electronics equipment and other goods until about three years ago, when the demand for storage space dried up as retail sales slumped.

“This kind of event is a great way for those who exhibit to attract more shoppers, while we earn something from renting the space rather than allowing it to stand empty,” said Leticia Martínez Rubio, one of the organizers.

A charity foundation, the Fundacíon Dar, also took part in the weekend event, encouraging shoppers to bring toys that the foundation would distribute to underprivileged children in the Madrid area.

“Beside having a successful weekend sale, I think it’s also important to keep some of the Christmas spirit,” Ms. Martínez Rubio said.

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RIM’s biggest problem: It’s still scrambling to catch yesterday’s hottest mobile app

The moment I first realized that RIM (RIMM) was truly in enormous trouble was back in 2010 when I heard then co-CEO Jim Balsillie downplay the importance of apps. Yes, you read that correctly. Balsillie actually told attendees at a Web 2.0 summit in 2010 that the Internet itself was the most important “app” for mobile devices and contended that the “Web needs a platform that allows you to use your existing Web content, not apps.” My feelings on this matter were only solidified when I attended the BlackBerry World conference in May 2011 and watched RIM executives proudly announce that the Playbook tablet would soon get its own version of Angry Birds sometime in the near future. In reality, Angry Birds didn’t release for BlackBerry until late December of that year, or two full years after it was originally released for iOS.

[More from BGR: WhatsApp goes free for iPhone for a limited time]

All of which brings me back to RIM’s current state: Despite the great looking hardware and user interface pictures we’ve seen from new BlackBerry 10 smartphones so far, the company still has an app problem. I was reminded of this when I read a post over at CrackBerry titled, “There’s still a chance for WhatsApp on BlackBerry 10.” The issue here isn’t whether RIM eventually does or doesn’t get WhatsApp on its platform — the issue is that RIM always seems to be one step behind when it comes to getting the hottest apps of the day on its devices.

[More from BGR: BlackBerry 10 browser smokes iOS 6 and Windows Phone 8 in comparison test [video]]

The most absurd example of this, of course, is Instagram. Yes, it’s very likely that BlackBerry 10 will support the popular photo-sharing app right out of the gate given the company’s partnership with Instagram owner Facebook (FB). But we still have no official confirmation that Instagram will be a BlackBerry 10 app just over a month before the new platform launches, and this is symbolic of the fact that RIM is always stuck at the back of line when it comes to app developers’ priorities.

Simply put, RIM can’t possibly hope to compete with Android, iOS or even Windows Phone 8 if its users will always wonder if they’ll be able to do all the cool things with their phones that their friends can do. In the unpredictable Wild West of today’s app market, where new apps seemingly go viral overnight to become global powerhouses, platform developers need to make sure they have quick and simple ways for app developers to port over their software. And until RIM figures out a way to get this done, it still has no shot in the long term.

This article was originally published by BGR

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Sandy Hook Shootings: How to Cope

By Howard Breuer

12/23/2012 at 06:00 PM EST

State police personnel lead children to safety away from the Sandy Hook Elementary School

Shannon Hicks/Newtown Bee/Reuters/Landov

The Sandy Hook massacre, in which 20 innocent children and six heroic elementary school faculty members were gunned down last Friday, is particularly difficult for people – even those thousands of miles away from Newtown, Conn. – to process, according to mental health experts.

"This tragedy is so deeply affecting the national psyche, reminding us of 9/11, because of its assault on Norman Rockwell's vision of America," psychiatrist Carole Lieberman tells PEOPLE.

Friday was proclaimed a national day of mourning for those lost a week ago, with a moment of silence called for at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time, as 26 churchbells rang in Newtown and elsewhere. In addition, First Lady Michelle Obama sent an open letter of condolence to the town, saying the entire nation "is holding you in our hearts."

But how do those directly involved with the tragedy find the strength to cope?

To do that, family members who lost loved ones need immediate counseling and to maintain their normal routines. They also need to draw support from other affected families who can relate to what they're going through, says Dr. Stephanie N. Marcy, a psychologist at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

"I think the people on the ground are feeling a sense of hopelessness because there is no way to justify what happened," Marcy says. "They need to be around other people who have experienced and understand it. If you were all involved together, you can empathize and grieve together."

In many of these families, the remaining children might have survivor's guilt, she adds.

"They rethink what they did that day and wonder if they in some way contributed to the death of a sibling, or they wonder, why did I survive?" Marcy says.

Therapists will need to explain to kids who lost a sibling that their "false belief that they should have been able to prevent it is not correct," adds Marcy.

Children at Sandy Hook may also have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and will need therapy, Lieberman says.

What to Tell Children

And what do parents whose children were not involved in the tragedy tell their own youngsters about what happened? That, Marcy says, depends on how old they are and how much they know already.

"Kindergarteners and first graders don't need to be told about it unless you think they will hear it somewhere else. For older kids, you have to get to know what they know, answer any questions they might have, and be truthful – but don't say too much," Marcy says. "Say that a person who was having problems, that was sick, went into a school and injured some people for no particular reason. Tell them it would never happen at their school."

"Yes," she adds, "it could happen anywhere. But there's no point in letting your child think that, [because] they may be flooded with fear."

For the adults and children across the country who have been vicariously traumatized, Marcy says, "We need to regain our sense of control, because this type of event makes us feel completely helpless."

Lieberman adds that Americans "are also feeling a generalized anxiety, a fear that no place is safe anymore. They need to talk to friends and family, get involved in championing causes that make society better, to volunteer for charities, and to get psychotherapy if the sadness and anxiety persist."

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