Month: December 2022

The mother and stepfather of a missing 11-year-old North Carolina girl are in the custody of the FBI. The Cornelius Police Department in North Carolina said in a statement that Diana Cojocari, 37, and Christopher Palmiter, 60, were arrested on Sunday for failure to report the disappearance of a child. Both are being held at the Mecklenburg County Detention Center.

Their daughter, 11-year-old Madalina Cojocari, has been missing since Nov. 23. She was last seen at her home in Cornelius and missed about three weeks of school before the school was notified by her parents on Thursday.  North Carolina law requires parents or guardians to report the disappearance of any child less than 16 years old within a reasonable time. A child is considered to have disappeared when the person supervising them has not seen them or had contact with them for more than 24 hours.

The FBI said that Madalina, who is a student at Bailey Middle School in Cornelius, weighs approximately 90 pounds and is about 4 feet and 10 inches tall. Madalina has brown eyes and brown hair and was last seen wearing jeans, a white t-shirt, a jacket and pink, purple and white Adidas shoes.

Anyone with information about Madalina Cojocari are asked to contact Cornelius Police Department at 704-892-7773 or 1-800-CALL-FBI

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On Sunday, Twitter announced a new policy that prohibits users from using the platform to advertise their profiles on competitors such as Facebook, Instagram and Mastodon. Twitter Support tweeted: “Specifically, we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post.” Twitter will continue to allow paid advertisements and promotion of the aforementioned platforms.

Under Musk’s ownership, many users pledged to leave Twitter, and especially after the suspensions of journalists. Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz was suspended from Twitter after posing a question to Musk about a story she was working on with colleague Drew Harwell. Musk tweeted that the suspension is temporary and was done due to alleged “doxxing.” (doxxing is the act of publishing or posting private information about someone with malicious intent).  Musk did not specify when this occurred.

On Friday, Twitter suspended several journalists who have reported on Musk in the past, including reporters from CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times. Musk claimed journalists have violated Twitter’s terms of service by posting “assassination coordinates” for the tech mogul.  However after taking a poll on Saturday, Musk reinstated some of the journalists. About 3.6 million people voted on the poll and more than 58% responded that he should immediately reinstate the suspended accounts as opposed to waiting seven days.

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Led by Lionel Messi, Argentina defeated France to earn the 2022 FIFA World Cup on Sunday in Lusail, Qatar, in a game that many are saying will be remembered as ‘one of the great finals of all time.’

The thrilling match went to extra time and then a penalty shootout between Argentina and the former reigning champion France, with Lionel Messi scoring two goals to help secure the win for Argentina. France’s star player Kylian Mbappe scored three times, twice in regulation to tie the game and again to tie the game in extra time. Mbappe finished as the top scorer with eight goals; but his team fell short in the penalty shootout with the chance to win a second consecutive World Cup. The final score was 3-3 decided in a shootout, which ended 4-2.

This is Messi’s first World Cup win and Argentina’s third. In his last World Cup appearance, Messi won the title that has eluded him throughout his career. Argentina previously won the FIFA tournament in 1978 and 1986. Before that, Argentina had been runners-up in 1930, 1990, and 2014. France had previously taken home the title in 2018, defeating Croatia 4-2 in the final round.

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