California ban on sale of 'violent' video games to children rejected

Washington (CNN) -- The Supreme Court has struck down a California law that would have banned selling "violent" video games to children, a case balancing free speech rights with consumer protection.

The 7-2 ruling Monday is a victory for video game makers and sellers, who said the ban -- which had yet to go into effect -- would extend too far. They say the existing nationwide, industry-imposed, voluntary rating system is an adequate screen for parents to judge the appropriateness of computer game content.

The state says it has a legal obligation to protect children from graphic interactive images when the industry has failed to do so.

"As a means of assisting concerned parents it (the law) is seriously overinclusive because it abridges the First Amendment rights of young people whose parents (and aunts and uncles) think violent video games are a harmless pastime," wrote Justice Antonin Scalia for the majority.

In dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer framed the law's intent differently.

As a means of assisting concerned parents it (the law) is seriously overinclusive because it abridges the First Amendment rights of young people whose parents (and aunts and uncles) think violent video games are a harmless pastime.
--Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority

"The First Amendment does not disable government from helping parents make such a choice here -- a choice not to have their children buy extremely violent, interactive games," he wrote.

At issue is how far constitutional protections of free speech and expression, as well as due process, can be applied to youngsters. Critics of the content-based restrictions say the government would in effect be engaged in the censorship business, using "community standards" to evaluate artistic and commercial content.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco last year tossed out the law before it took effect, after then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed it in 2005. He had applauded the high court's decision to intervene. "We have a responsibility to our kids and our communities to protect against the effects of games that depict ultraviolent actions, just as we already do with movies," the governor said. The onetime actor made his name playing characters engaged in similarly violent acts in such movies as "Terminator."

The legislation was designed to strengthen the current industry-controlled rating system, and would have placed an outright ban on the sale or rental to those under 18 of games deemed excessively "violent." As defined by California, such interactive games are those in which the player is given the choice of "killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting an image of a human being" in offensive ways. It also defined such games as those that would "appeal to a deviant or morbid interest of children and are patently offensive to prevailing community standards."

Retailers would have faced up to $1,000 fine for violations. The law would also have required game makers and retailers to place an "18" label prominently on excessively violent games.

In an unusual coalition, Scalia's majority opinion had the support of Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sonia Sotomayor.

Scalia noted the court had never permitted government regulation of minors' "access to any forms of entertainment except on obscenity grounds."

He said the California law was one of many similar ones over the years, which he called "failed attempts." He cited movies, comic books, television, music lyrics, even Grimm's fairy tales and "Snow White," for their violent content.

But Justices Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts, while agreeing California went too far, nevertheless suggested a more narrowly tailored law might meet free-speech scrutiny.

"We should make every effort to understand the new technology" presented in these sophisticated video games, said Alito.

The First Amendment does not disable government from helping parents make such a choice here -- a choice not to have their children buy extremely violent, interactive games.
--Justice Stephen Breyer , in a dissent

Along with Breyer, Justice Clarence Thomas also dissented, saying the law's requirement of having parents purchase the games for their underage children was reasonable. "The freedom of speech as originally understood, does not include a right to speak to minors, without going through the minors' parents or guardians," he said.

The gaming industry sued in federal court and won an injunction halting enforcement of the law until the courts sorted out the constitutional questions. The game "Postal 2" was specifically cited by the state as potentially subject to the proposed statutory ban. The manufacturer, Running With Scissors, Inc., based in Tucson, Arizona, rates it as "M" for a mature audience only, with "blood and gore," "intense violence" and "sexual themes" as part of its content.

Other games listed by parent groups as being of concern are "Full Spectrum Warrior" and "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," where players at one level can view terrorists slaughtering civilians at an airport.

The video game industry, as part of its appeal, sent several PlayStation video games to the justices to view, including "Medal of Honor" and "Resident Evil 4."

The game industry racks up $10.5 billion in yearly sales. The industry claims more than two-thirds of households have at least one member who plays video games.

The motion picture industry has its own self-monitoring ratings system, imposed decades ago after complaints that some films were too explicit for the general audience in what was seen and heard. The gaming industry says its ratings system roughly follows the same self-imposed guidelines, and ratings are clearly labeled on the packaging.

Similar complaints have been raised over the decades over children's exposure to pulp novels and comic books, in addition to pornography.

Efforts in at least eight other states to restrict gaming content have been rejected by various courts. Video game makers have the support of various free-speech, entertainment, and media organizations. Nine states also agree, noting California's law has good intentions but would compel law enforcement to become "culture critics" and "distract from the task of policing actual violence."

But 11 other states back California, saying they have enjoyed a traditional regulatory power over commerce aimed at protecting children, including such goods as alcohol and cigarettes.

The Supreme Court in recent years has thwarted repeated congressional attempts to protect children from internet pornography, saying legislation went too far in limiting adult access to lawful, but explicit, sexual content on the Web.

And the justices this spring threw out a federal law limiting the sale of graphic videos of animal cruelty.

The case is Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Assn. (08-1448).

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School bus crash injures 15 children, 8 adults in Pennsylvania

(CNN) -- Fifteen children and eight adults are recovering from injuries after a school bus slammed into a car and rolled over near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, authorities said.

The bus, carrying 22 people, was on its way to a children's camp when the wreck occurred Sunday, the Pennsylvania State Police said in a written statement.

Everybody on board the bus was taken to area hospital with injuries ranging from minor to moderate, the statement said. The driver of the car was also being treated for injuries, it said

Authorities said the crash took place when the driver of a Cadillac attempted to pass the bus but failed to see oncoming traffic. The driver, identified as 79-year-old Edward Shaffer of Hagerstown, Maryland, overcorrected and ended up in the path of the bus, it said.

The force of the crash caused the bus to roll over, the statement said.

Emergency crews were forced to extricate three children who were pinned in the bus, police said. Shaffer was also extricated from his car, police said.

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Two children killed in Pakistan blast

A paramilitary spokesman says a bomb was planted on a motorbike He says five security personnel and two women are among the injured

(CNN) -- An explosion in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province killed two children and injured 21 people, a paramilitary spokesman said.

Murtaza Beg, spokesman for the Frontier Corps of Balochistan province, said a remote control bomb planted on a motorbike in the city of Panjgur exploded when a security vehicle came across it in a crowded market area.

Beg said five security personnel and two women are among the injured.

Frontier Corps is Pakistan's paramilitary force whose primary job is to protect the borders. It operates under the interior ministry. But on the request of all four provinces, many of its soldiers have been assigned to maintain law and order in many cities across the country.

Security forces in Balochistan province are simultaneously fighting against militants who support the Taliban and tribal elders who are fighting for greater provincial autonomy and an increased share of mineral resources from the gas- and oil- rich province.

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Seven French children hospitalised by E. coli outbreak (AFP)

LILLE, France (AFP) – Seven children were hospitalised in France with E. coli infections after eating meat that may have been imported from Germany, but health authorities said there was no link to a similar bacteria outbreak there.

The children, aged from 20 months to eight years old, had eaten defrosted hamburgers made by the French company SEB which said the meat was taken from animals slaughtered in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, and processed in France.

The cases come after a major E. coli outbreak that killed 39 people -- all in Germany except for one woman who died in Sweden after visiting Germany -- and sickened 3,300 people in 16 countries.

Doctor Michel Foulard of the University Hospital Centre where the children were being treated in Lille, northern France, said one of them was in critical condition.

But junior health minister Nora Berra later said on BFM television this was "not the case".

Officials said the infection was a rare strain of the E. coli bacteria but was not linked to the similar outbreak in Germany.

"There's meat from Germany, there's meat from Belgium and from Holland" in the burgers, SEB chief executive Guy Lamorlette told AFP.

"There are several suppliers. We will have to await the test results to say which is contaminated."

Six of the children were hospitalised on Wednesday and a seventh on Thursday, authorities said. They came from different towns in France's Nord region, but there were no connections between them.

The "Steak Country" burgers were bought in French branches of German supermarket Lidl. SEB said it had recalled them and Lidl said it had removed them from its shelves in France.

Regional Health Agency (ARS) officials in Lille said the children suffered from bloody diarrhoea, a symptom that also struck victims of the outbreak in Germany which has been blamed on infected bean sprouts.

They also became anaemic quickly and blood transfusions were required for four of the children. Three others suffer from renal failures severe enough to require dialyses, said Foulard.

"We are certain that this is not the same strain as the bean sprouts in Germany," ARS head Daniel Lenoir, told reporters in Lille, however.

The children suffer from a syndrome that "may be the source of an acute renal failure", the ARS said, adding that the bacteria was a "rare type" which produces dangerous "Shiga" toxins.

"This food poisoning...may be very serious," said ARS medical advisor Joelle Perrin, after another official earlier in the day said the cases were "serious but not worrying".

In Brussels, the European Commission said it had been informed of the outbreak but "the origin of the meat has not been confirmed", said Frederic Vincent, spokesman for Health Commissioner John Dalli.

"There's no need to compare with Germany, because this isn't the same strain of the E. coli bacteria. This is different, even if it's as strong," Vincent said.

SEB boss Lamorlette said that the origin of the illness had yet to be confirmed.

"I'm not saying it's false (that the contamination came from the burgers), just that for now nothing is confirmed. It's a possibility, that's all. We have to await the test results before saying anything."

Lamorlette insisted that the suspicious meat had been subjected to stringent tests and declared fit for human consumption, suggesting consumer negligence such as under-cooking or refreezing could be to blame.

Belgian health authorities on Thursday denied the country was behind the toxic meat exports "but other European countries".

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China downplays risk to children from lead poisoning: report (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese children suffering lead poisoning from polluting smelters and factories have been denied testing, effective treatment and even basic information by officials who downplayed health threats, a human rights advocacy group said on Wednesday.

The report from Human Rights Watch comes after China's latest lead pollution outbreak, when 103 children and scores of adults were poisoned by tinfoil-making workshops in eastern Zhejiang province.

Beijing has vowed to clean up this chronic pollution, but New York-based Human Rights Watch said those efforts only go so far in addressing the needs of hundreds of thousands of children it says are suffering from lead poisoning in China.

Lead, especially harmful for children, can lead to learning difficulties and behavioral problems, and often parents who work at the plants bring home extra doses on their clothes and skin.

"I want to know how sick my son is, but I can't trust the local test results," one mother from Hunan province in southern China told investigators, according to the report available on the Human Rights Watch website: (http://www.hrw.org).

Citizens who complain about the problem face pressure, the rights watchdog said, citing dozens of interviews with parents in areas afflicted by pollution.

"Parents, journalists, and community activists who dare to speak out about lead are detained, harassed, and ultimately silenced," Joe Amon, health and human rights director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement released with the report

Rapid industrial growth in China has increased citizens' worries about their health, especially where towns and villages located next to poorly regulated factories and workshops have been stricken by pollution problems.

China is the world's biggest consumer of refined lead, and battery making accounts for 70 percent of that consumption, which is likely to grow to 4.1 million tonnes in 2011.

China's environment ministry has promised to tackle heavy metal poisoning as widespread cases have sparked public anger and protests.

Three-quarters of lead-acid battery manufacturing plants in China could be phased out in the next two to three years, an industry body said last month.

MISLEADING INFORMATION

Despite those vows, leaders in Beijing have struggled to rein in local officials who put jobs and economic growth ahead of environmental protection.

Based on 52 interviews, Human Rights Watch found that local governments denied the scope of potential poisoning and issued misleading information about the dangers of living close to polluting factories.

Parents were often told that drinking milk or eating garlic and eggs was adequate treatment for lead poisoning, the advocacy group said.

"The doctor told us all the children in this village have lead poisoning. Then they told us a few months later that all the children are healthy. They wouldn't let us see the results from the tests though," said a parent from Yunnan province quoted in the report.

"The government doesn't want to have to give us anything so they make up the results," another parent from Henan province said.

Lead poisoning can build up through regular exposure to small amounts, damaging the nervous and reproductive systems and kidneys, as well as causing high blood pressure and anemia.

"In villages where lead exposure is highest, a generation of cognitively and physically disabled children will need significant and ongoing support," the report said.

The group compared the corruption and cover-up of nationwide lead poisoning cases to the high-profile AIDS and SARs scandals that shattered international confidence in China's public health administration in the 1990s and early 2000s.

"The response to lead poisoning has so far followed this same road, but it is not too late for the Chinese government to take a different approach," the report said.

(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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Afghans say NATO air strike kills 12 children, two women (Reuters)

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) – An air strike called in by NATO-led troops in southern Afghanistan killed 12 children and two women, Afghan officials said on Sunday, one of the worst civilian death tolls by foreign forces in months.

A U.S. Marine base came under fire from insurgents in Taliban stronghold of Helmand on Saturday, the Helmand governor said in a statement, leading the base to call for help from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

"ISAF's air strike took place on two civilian houses. Unfortunately 14 innocent civilians were killed and six civilians wounded," the Helmand governor's statement said.

It said seven boys, five girls and two women were among the dead. Three children were among the six wounded, it said.

An ISAF spokesman in Kabul said: "We are aware of the reports that alleged civilians were killed yesterday in Helmand." He said an assessment team had been sent to the area and would issue its findings shortly.

The mistaken killing of civilians by foreign troops, usually during air strikes or "night raids," is a major source of friction between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers, and complicates efforts to win support from ordinary Afghans for an increasingly unpopular war.

On Saturday, Karzai ordered the Defense Ministry to take control of so-called "night raids," saying Afghan troops should be carrying out the sensitive operations themselves.

Afghans say the raids, carried out in darkness on houses suspected of harboring insurgents, often lead to civilian casualties.

Residents and local officials from Helmand's Nawzad district, where the air strike took place, said the attack began at around 11 p.m. local time (0630 GMT) on Friday night.

Bereaved male relatives cradled the bodies of several young children on Sunday, who were wrapped in bloody sheets and placed side to side, and brought them in the back of a truck to the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, Reuters pictures showed.

"My house was bombarded in the middle of the night and my children were killed ... the Taliban were far away from my home, why was my house bombed?" relative Noor Agha told Reuters.

The NATO air strike comes at a time of high anti-Western sentiment in Afghanistan and days after deadly protests by thousands of people against a night raid by NATO troops in which four people, including two women, were killed.

Twelve people were killed during those violent protests and clashes with police in usually peaceful northern Takhar province and more 80 were wounded.

In February, four days of joint operations by Afghan and foreign troops killed 64 civilians in the eastern Kunar province, including many women and children.

That assault followed a NATO rocket attack last July which killed 39 civilians, almost all women or children, in Helmand.

Under a plan agreed by NATO leaders in Lisbon last year, foreign troops will begin handing over security responsibilities to Afghan troops from July, with a plan to withdraw all combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Despite the presence of some 150,000 foreign troops, violence in Afghanistan last year reached its deadliest phase since U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001, with record casualties on all sides. This year is following a similar trend.

The Taliban this month announced the start of a long-awaited "spring offensive" vowing to carry out attacks, including suicide assaults, on foreign and Afghan troops and government officials.

(Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Paul Tait)

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3 children, adult die in Texas mobile home fire

Three people were injured in the blazeThe cause of the fire is under investigation

(CNN) -- Four people, including three children, died early Sunday in a mobile home fire in Conroe, Texas, according to the town's fire chief.

The blaze was reported about 2:41 a.m., said Chief Ken Kreger, and five engines and a ladder company responded. The first unit on scene found the mobile home was "totally involved," he said. Three injured people were outside and told firefighters that others remained inside the mobile home.

Two children between the ages of 3 and 8 were pulled out of a bedroom that was not involved in the fire but had heavy smoke. They could not be revived, Kreger said. Firefighters found another child between 3 and 8 and a woman, believed to be about 27 years old, dead in another area.

An adult male and female had escaped through a door and pulled a 7-year-old girl out with them, he said. All three were taken to a hospital. The two adults were in stable condition after being treated for cuts and smoke inhalation, Kreger said. The 7-year-old was transported to a Houston hospital because she was having trouble breathing.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, Kreger said. Firefighters believed three separate families lived in the home. Autopsies were ordered on the victims, he said.

Conroe is about 40 miles north of Houston.

CNN's Maggie Schneider contributed to this report.

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Mother, 3 children dead after she drives van into river

Mom, kids dead after car goes into riverSTORY HIGHLIGHTSA mother and 3 children are found dead after their van runs into the Hudson RiverAuthorities don't know if the woman deliberately drove the van into the waterRELATED TOPICSHudson RiverDeath and Dying (CNN) -- A mother and three of her children were found dead after the woman drove her van into the Hudson River Tuesday night, a fire department official said.

The woman drove her van into the river in Newburgh, New York, according to Michael Vatter, the city's fire chief.

A 10-year-old boy alerted authorities to the incident upon arriving at the city's fire station shortly before 8:00 p.m., Vatter said. Responders found the van approximately 25 yards offshore in 8 to 10 feet of water, according to the chief.

Vatter said it's "hard to tell" at this point whether the woman drove the van into the water deliberately.

"There was apparently a domestic disturbance just prior to this incident involving that family," Vatter said.

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