Why women set their wedding dresses on fire

Scorned brides are saying “yes” to trashing the dress. lolzzz. This is interesting .....

It’s become somewhat of a trend for women to destroy their wedding dress after being dumped or mistreated by a husband or fiancé. Kristy Scott is the one of the latest to join this ex-wives’ club.

After discovering her husband cheated on her, the Louisiana woman covered her wedding dress in paint and then set it on fire — just as anyone might want to do after finding out her husband of 16 years was two-timing her with a pal. According to Metro,Scott’s husband had been having a three-month affair with a mutual Facebook friend.

“I wanted to burn the dress, because I couldn’t burn the marriage,” she told Metro. “I got my friend, she had a professional camera, we went down the bayou, on a road, and did my thing.” That is, she covered the gown with pink and purple paint before returning to her friend’s yard, where she set it ablaze. “It was a weight lifted off my shoulders,” she said. “It definitely helped me get through everything.”

How does simply setting a material object on fire mend a broken heart? “They have been burned at the altar and burned in the relationship. It becomes a way to release the anger and hurt they have experienced.

It’s apparently an effective method for moving on, because brides around the world are doing the same. Briana Barksdale, who survived an abusive marriage, recently hosted a “divorce garage sale” to rid herself of the memories from her harrowing relationship. The day’s centerpiece, a fluffy white bridal gown she wore 13 years ago, was not for sale, though.

“This is for every woman who has ever been in a relationship that was abusive, that hurt, that they shouldn’t have stayed in, that they didn’t know how to get out of,” the Houston resident said to news cameras before dousing the displayed dress with gasoline. Surrounded by friends and family, she then sparked a lighter at the hem of the gown in the driveway of her home. “Burn, baby, burn,” the divorcée sang out as the gown burst into flames.

Engaged Teacher Had Sex With 13-Year-Old Female Student From Her School

A teacher was sentenced on Wednesday to three years in prison for sexual battery after she pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old female student.

Brooke Rosendale was a fifth grade intervention specialist and a girls volleyball and basketball coach at Riverdale School in Ohio. According to an arrest report obtained by PEOPLE, Rosendale had sexual contact with the teen in January and February of 2017. The incidents did not happen on school grounds.

According to the arrest report, Rosendale was not the girl’s teacher, but they had met through the school’s extracurricular programs.

Rosendale, 27, was engaged to her long-term boyfriend when the incidents occurred.

In March 2017, the teen’s parents reported the incidents to the school district. After the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office launched a criminal probe, Rosendale resigned from her position. She has also relinquished her teaching certificate.

Rosendale was initially charged with three counts of sexual battery, a third-degree felony. Under a plea agreement on January 26, she has been found guilty of one count of sexual battery. The other two counts were dropped.

After her release, Rosendale will register as a Tier 3 sex offender and will no longer be able to work with children. She must also pay $225 in restitution to the family of the student.

In court on Wednesday, Rosendale apologized for her actions. The parents of the student appeared in court, but opted not to make a statement to the court.

“I want to apologize to the family,” Rosendale said in court. “I know I hurt them and I apologize.”

Rosendale’s attorney, Peter Halleck, did not immediately return PEOPLE’s call for comment, but he told the court that his client accepted responsibility for what she had done. He said that she was remorseful for her actions.

The presiding judge seemed unmoved by Rosendale’s apology. Hancock County Judge Reginald Routson questioned whether Rosendale fully understood the gravity of her actions. He cited a letter that she had written to the court, which he said indicated that she minimized her responsibility and placed some of the blame on the student.

Steve Helling,People.

Four people seriously injured in Vienna knife attacks

Four people were seriously injured in two knife attacks in one district of the Austrian capital Vienna on Wednesday evening but any motive or connection between the assaults was unclear, a police spokesman said.

The stabbings - the first of which took place at 6.45pm (GMT), occurred in Vienna's Second District, which includes the famous Prater park as well as the Praterstern transport hub. It also houses much of Vienna's small Jewish community.

"A man attacked a family - a father, a mother and their 17-year-old daughter - with a knife. The three people were seriously injured and their lives are in danger," the spokesman said.

"And half an hour later there was another attack ... at Praterstern and here a person was also seriously injured and their life is in danger. We do not know to what extent there is a connection here and any motive remains unclear," he said.

Witness Silvia Franke said she was about 100 metres away when the incident happened.

"I saw how someone in the middle of the street was screaming and shouting - I thought he was beating his dog judging from his hand movements," she said. "And in reality he was stabbing this man."

"He could have stabbed me as well had I been there by chance," Franke said. "He had lost all control." 

Another knife attack shortly afterwards in the same area seriously wounded a 20-year-old Chechen, Mr Maierhofer said, adding a male with Afghan nationality had been arrested.

Officers were investigating whether the two attacks are linked.

Vienna has not experienced deadly attacks by Islamist militant like the ones that have struck Paris, Berlin and Brussels since 2015.

Wife of Iranian-Canadian who died in jail barred from leaving Iran: son

LONDON (Reuters) - The wife of an Iranian-Canadian environmental activist who died in prison in Tehran last month was barred from leaving Iran, one of her sons said, in an unexplained move that drew an angry response from Canada.

Raam Emami said in an email to journalists that security forces had not allowed his mother Maryam Mombeini to get on a plane to Vancouver with him and his brother on Wednesday night.

Mombeini is the widow of Kavous Seyed-Emami, an environmental activist and sociology professor who was arrested on Jan. 24 and died in prison. Iran's judiciary said Seyed-Emami, 63, had committed suicide.

The family has called for independent probe into his death.

Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland, said in a message posted on Twitter that she was "outraged" to learn that Mombeini had been barred from leaving Iran.

"We demand that, as a Canadian, she be given the freedom to return home," she added.

Iranian judiciary officials were not immediately available for comment.

Seyed-Emami was the managing director of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, which seeks to protect Iran's rare animals. Iran's judiciary said he had set up the NGO as a cover to collect classified information on Iran's missile program.

Raam Emami said the family decided to leave Iran after being constantly "harassed".

"The government raided our home and seized all of our valuables (most importantly deeds to our homes), we can no longer stand this state of constant terror," he said.

Raam Emami has previously said that the family was under pressure from authorities not to publicize the case of Seyed-Emami.

"The authorities told our lawyers to tell the brothers 'to shut up or we'll shut them up,' Emami said, adding government agents had told him they were watching him.

Human rights activists have reported that at least six detainees have died in prison in the last two months in Iran. The judiciary has confirmed three deaths in custody but said all three had committed suicide.

Bilateral ties between Iran and Canada worsened in 2003 when an Iranian-Canadian photo journalist, Zahra Kazemi, died in Tehran’s Evin prison while in custody.

Canada cut all diplomatic ties with Iran in 2012.

(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin, additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati in Washington, Editing by William Maclean)

Tillerson says African countries should weigh Chinese loans carefully

Faki and Tillerson hold a news conference at African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

African Union (AU) Commission Chairman Moussa Faki, of Chad, and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hold a news conference after their meeting at African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia March 8, 2018. 

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday that African countries should weigh Chinese loans carefully, while adding that Washington was not trying to keep Chinese investment away from the continent.

Tillerson, a former Exxon chief executive, is seeking to bolster security alliances on a continent increasingly turning to Beijing for aid and trade.

The top U.S. diplomat may also seek to smooth relations after U.S. President Trump reportedly dismissed some African nations as "shithole countries" in January. Trump later denied making the comment.

"We are not in any way attempting to keep Chinese dollars from Africa," Tillerson told a news conference in the Ethiopian capital during his first diplomatic trip to the continent. "(But) it is important that African countries carefully consider the terms of those agreements and not forfeit their sovereignty."

Though the United States is the leading donor of humanitarian aid to Africa, China surpassed the U.S. to become Africa's largest trading partner in 2009.

Beijing has pumped billions into infrastructure projects, though critics say there is often little upside for local economies because Chinese firms and labor build the roads and rails.

Tillerson took that line on Thursday, saying that Chinese investments "do not bring significant job creation locally" and criticized how Beijing structures loans to African government.

If a government accepts a Chinese loan and "gets into trouble", he said, it can "lose control of its own infrastructure or its own resources through default." He did not give examples.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, visiting Zimbabwe on Thursday, told reporters he did not think it was appropriate for Tillerson to criticize China’s relationship with African countries.

Tillerson arrived in Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation, on Wednesday and visited the African Union headquarters on Thursday. The complex was fully funded and built by China and is seen as a symbol of Beijing's thrust for influence and access to the continent's natural resources.

Ethiopia is home to some of Beijing's biggest investments, from a railway to Djibouti that opened last year to factories and industrial parks.

His comments followed a speech earlier this week in which he criticized "China's approach" to Africa which he said encouraged dependency through "opaque contracts" and "predatory loan practices".

"We welcome Chinese participation, but we hope they will follow international rules, international norms and respect the sovereignty of countries," he said on Thursday.

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst