U.S. Mother Featured on TV Says Not Guilty of Abuse

Reuters, AP, MT

The charge against the mother of six from Anchorage, Jessica Beagley, was based on footage from the daytime "Dr. Phil" show, which aired last fall.

Beagley was charged earlier this month by Anchorage prosecutors, who concluded that her discipline of her 7-year-old boy was "not reasonable."

Cold Baths, Tabasco Spark Adoption Flap

By Natalya Krainova

Russian authorities are considering canceling the adoption of a 7-year-old boy from Magadan whose U.S. parents said they punished him by dousing him with cold water and forcing him to drink spicy Tabasco sauce.

Moreover, U.S. authorities have opened a child abuse case against Jessica Bigley of Anchorage, Alaska, for her treatment of Daniil Bukharov, adopted in 2008 along with his twin brother, Oleg. If convicted in the U.S. case, Bigley faces up to a year in prison.

Sarcastic Smile of the Devil

By Sergey Matyunin

Ironically, one of the potentially most wide-reaching protest movements is being nurtured and led by the Moscow Patriarchate. On Dec. 22, 3,000 activists from various Russian cities got together in Moscow for the “Save the Family — Save Russia” forum to stand up to what they call “juvenile justice.” The forum is just the tip of the iceberg. To see what people think, you need to simply Google the words, and dozens of angry sites and hundreds of furious blogs will pop up before you ever see a positive web page.