Police in Houston have charged a 10-year-old girl with aggravated sexual assault after she was allegedly spotted playing a game of "doctor" with a 4-year-old boy near her house.

According to Fox affiliate KRIV, the incident, which took place back in April, resulted in "Ashley" (not her real name) spending four nights in the Harris County Juvenile Detention after charges were filed against her in June.

Ashley, who was nine years old at the time, had been playing "doctor" with a bunch of children in the courtyard of the apartment complex where she lives, when a neighbor reportedly saw her touch the private parts of the 4-year-old boy and phoned the child's mother.

Two months after the initial complaint was filed, HPD officers arrived at Ashley's home and arrested her on suspicion of rape.

"I was crying and they took me to the car and I didn't want to get in and I was crying and I was moving and trying not to get in the police car and my Mom told me to calm down," Ashley told My Fox Houston.

Quanell X, a family friend and the leader of the local New Black Panther Party chapter, says he was shocked to learn of a child this young being charged with such a serious crime over a game of doctor.

"In fact this was nothing more than inappropriate horseplay that has now lead to a child that is ten years old being charged with aggravated rape," he said.

Ashley was due to appear before a judge last week, but her hearing has been re-set for October.

[screengrab via Fox 26]

"I was ordering like everything on Etsy. Everything! Like ferrets dressed as Edwardian nannies. Crazy shit." Never change, Courtney Love.

Internal emails from Texas-based private intelligence firm Stratfor leaked by Wikileaks show that it is, at best, a sleazy operation, offering corporate and government clients dubious information and advice. Julian Assange goes further, crowing that Wikileaks' cache of Stratfor emails reveals a corrupt and nefarious "global network of informants who are paid via Swiss banks accounts and pre-paid credit cards—which includes government employees, embassy staff and journalists around the world." The good news is that Alexis Ohanian, Internet do-gooder-in-chief and co-founder of geek Shangri-la Reddit, is not in cahoots with Stratfor. The bad news is that he wanted to be.

In 2011, Ohanian proposed consulting for Stratfor on social media strategy, according to emails newly leaked by Wikileaks as part of its Global Intelligence Files project, meant to expose the firm's misdeeds. The negotiations stemmed from a chance January, 2011 meeting between Ohanian and Stratfor Chairman George Friedman in the green room at Bloomberg TV (the source of much of the evil in the world). "He's a huge Stratfor fan," Stratfor communications VP Meredith Friedman gushed after the meeting. "He and George met and talked about doing something with Reddit for social media."

Emails show that Ohanian did indeed met with Stratfor on a trip to Austin for SXSW a couple months later. That meeting apparently went well, because soon after Ohanian emailed a proposal for a social media consulting gig. The brain that built Reddit does not come cheap:

We're proposing $25,000 for April to include the following discovery phase:

- Audit of the Economist in social media & online

- This includes twitter, facebook, youtube, blogs, forums, social news, podcasts, etc.

- Audit of Stratfor in social media & online

- Audit of another competitor (if you so desire) in social media & online

- Three potential campaigns for going forward based on our analysis

- Five recommendations concerning your existing profiles (e.g., top 5 ways to improves how you're using twitter right now)

Moving forward, assuming you love our expertise as much as we think you will, we'd be open to discussing consulting services on retainer.

Stratfor responded that they would consider the offer. In the meantime, Ohanian, who's Armenian, said, he'd be "happy to introduce [Stratfor chairman George Friedman] to some of my pals in Armenia."

A few days later, Ohanian followed up and offered a (very slightly) more affordable option: "If you'd like to call me up for a skype consulting session I run $1,000/hour," he emailed Friedman. $1,000 an hour! Maybe the whole consulting thing was a secret act of subversion: bankrupt Stratfor with outrageous fees so it has to stop spying on people. I once spoke to Ohanian in real-life, for free; I wish I knew at the time what a deal I was getting.

Soon after these emails were leaked by Wikileaks, they were picked up by angry Redditors. Some floated the possibility that Ohanian was somehow manipulating Reddit on behalf of Stratfor.

"No one believed this place was any more independent than huffpo, did they?" wrote Redditor Limrickroll. The conspiracy theories were fueled by the fact that nearly all threads about the emails were quietly censored by moderators. This precluded the sort of networked mob justice that would likely engulf Reddit if any luminary besides Ohanian was found to have engaged in a similar discussion with a Wikileaks nemesis, and proves again that Reddit embraces free speech as long as it is not speech about Reddit.

But Ohanian quickly tweeted that the deal didn't go through, and he didn't end up consulting for Stratfor. "They asked me for a quote in the meeting, so I gave it to them," he wrote in an email to Gawker. Ohanian explained he was cool with Stratfor in 2011 because this was before the Wikileaks leak, and he only knew of the company from the daily email briefings on world events they sent out. In follow-up tweet, he revealed this wasn't his first encounter with the surveillance-industrial complex: in 2007 he gave a paid talk at government contracting giant Booz Allen Hamilton, NSA analyst Edward Snowden's former employer, about new media.

This episode would barely be worth mentioning if Reddit was just another tech company and Ohanian another tech founder. After all, Ed Snowden's recent revelations show Silicon Valley companies like Google and Facebook are so tight with U.S. spy agencies they've practically undergone a merger, accepting millions of dollars to turn over their users' information to the NSA. Charging a private intelligence firm a few thousand bucks to boost their Klout score seems pretty trivial.

But Ohanian's entire public image is based on the idea that he's not just another craven tech entrepreneur. He's been branded the "Mayor of the Internet" and built a sterling reputation as an arch technoutopian and information freedom activist, most notably through his work on defeating SOPA. Tech blogs, which are structurally prohibited from encountering a bad idea without whole-heartedly embracing it, keep urging Ohanian to run for office for real. I wouldn't be surprised if this happens within the next few years. Now it turns out Ohanian champions Wikileaks and the ideology of radical information freedom it embodies while schmoozing with government contractors that represent everything Wikileaks, not to mention Reddit, hates most. He'll fit right in in Washington.

[image via Getty]

Career mother Kate Gosselin has just filed what is believed to be a multi-million dollar lawsuit against her former co-star, business partner, and roommate (and husband) Jon Gosselin, accusing him of hacking, computer fraud, wiretapping, identity theft, and invasion of privacy.

In the filing, the documents of which appear to have been first published on Kate Gosselin-approved anti-bullying website Bullyville.com, Kate alleges that Jon illegally accessed her personal email, phone, and bank accounts after their 2009 divorce and used the information he gleaned to sell negative stories about her to tabloids. She also claims that Jon also provided stolen information to his friend and business partner, author Robert Hoffman, for use in the latter's "defamatory ebook" (LOL) Kate Gosselin: How She Fooled the World. According to the lawsuit, the ebook was pulled from Amazon two days after it was published, because it was found to contain information obtained illegally.

Faithful viewers of Jon & Kate Plus 8 will remember that, early on in the series, Jon held down a job doing...computers. Something with computers. He would leave the house in the morning, do computers all day long, and then come home to his crying family. Guess it's not as easy to remember as we thought. Perhaps even Jon would like to forget.

From the language of the lawsuit, it seems that Jon accessed Kate's email simply by knowing (or guessing) her password. He is also accused of stealing a hard drive containing "protected, private, and confidential material" from her home.

In other Gosselin news, Hannah recently had her braces removed.

[Image via AP]

While you were watching our national twerking nightmare unfold on your TV last night, venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar was backstage at the VMAs making his daughter's birthday dream come true.

But rubbing shoulders with Miley Cyrus is hardly the Silicon Valley fixture's first brush with fame. Pishevar is a board advisor to Uber, has invested in Fab.com, Warby Parker, Tumblr, and helped Menlo Ventures team up with Lady Gaga's talent manager for its $20 million Menlo Talent Fund:

All decisions will be made within 24 to 72 hours, and investments will range between $50,000 and $1 million and can be made without all partners buying in, he said.

There will also be what Pishevar described as a “Jedi Council” with mentors, advisors and investors including Troy Carter, founder of music management company Atom Factory, who manages Lady Gaga and other artists.

Because nothing says due diligence like gimme a day to think about it.

Pishevar caused some commotion when he gave up his role as managing partner at Menlo after a scant 20 months to launch an incubator. But in our hearts, he'll always be the first VC we ever spotted on TMZ.

To contact the author of this post, please email nitasha@gawker.com.

[Image via Instagram]

For Shitty Conference, A Whole Website.

Why did Fox News president Roger Ailes fire his top lieutenant? The sudden ousting of PR chief Brian Lewis, who had pioneered the channel’s aggressive public relations strategy since its founding in 1996, inspired plenty of speculation and spin — some of it from the network’s on-air talent — about Lewis’s reputation at the channel, Fox’s vague claims of “financial irregularities,” and what the channel called “multiple, material and significant breaches of [Lewis’s] employment contract.”

But it was suspicions about Lewis’ relationship with writer Gabriel Sherman that sent boss Roger Ailes over the edge, an insider source at 21st Century Fox confirmed. “The financial stuff would have been a slap on the wrist if there weren’t a sense that [Lewis] was talking outside the company,” the source told Gawker, referring to Sherman and his upcoming inside account of Fox News, The Loudest Voice in the Room. “Ailes felt: This guy fucked me, and I am going to fuck him harder.”

Lewis had long served as a liaison between Ailes and non-Fox media, including the (authorized) Ailes biographer Zev Chafets, so dealing with people like Sherman was a central part of his job. But Sherman, unlike Chafets, has criticized Ailes and his channel, and publicly feuded with Ailes’s wife, who cancelled Sherman’s subscription to a upstate New York newspaper Ailes bought in 2008. And Lewis was placed highly enough that Sherman’s biggest revelations could, in theory, be attributed to him.

Lewis’s relationship with Sherman, according to the 21st Century Fox source, gave his colleagues, including Irena Briganti, an opening to push Lewis out. “It was Irena and others who worked for him that divulged a lot of this stuff to Ailes—that he was talking to Sherman and the financial stuff,” the source said.

That “financial stuff,” we are told, involves allegations that Lewis expensed vacations and other leisure activities that weren’t strictly work-related.

The source added, referring to Briganti’s penchant for unnecessary aggression: “Irena is now trying to tell people that Brian forced her to be the pit bull with reporters so that he could play the good guy. Everyone there was terrified of him. All the ugliness they were putting out was manifested on the inside.”

One of the vectors of that “ugliness” is Greta van Susteren’s blog, which last week attempted to shrug off news of Lewis’s departure by claiming, laughably, that he was essentially a nobody—“Frankly, I don’t think I could pick Brian out of a line up!” van Susteren wrote. She may not have seen Lewis around the office much, working as she does out of the network’s Washington bureau. But our source said she certainly knew who he was, having engaged in a lengthy internal battle with him over his efforts to replace her with Megyn Kelly. “That’s such bullshit,” our source said. “They hated each other, because Brian was always pushing for Megyn Kelly to take over her timeslot. She knows who he is.” (Indeed, Kelly will reportedly take Sean Hannity’s slot soon, leaving observers to wonder whether Hannity will take over Van Susteren’s in turn.)

It remains unclear precisely what kind of relationship Lewis had with Sherman. But his job certainly involved attempting to manage a book that would, for better or worse, have a role in shaping Ailes’ legacy. And Sherman has certainly let loose a string of scoops on Fox News’ internal struggles over the past two years. Lewis could have been feeding them to Sherman, or Ailes’ legendary paranoia could have set in. The mere appearance of betrayal, regardless of actual proof, might have been enough for Ailes to cut ties with Lewis.

That’s not to say there was no proof. Shortly after the news of Lewis’s firing surfaced, Sherman recounted an exchange in which Lewis called anchor Bill O’Reilly a “chucklehead” for being photographed next to a woman’s exposed breasts.

Nor is Lewis the first News Corporation (now 21st Century Fox) image specialist to be shown the door — by force or encouragement — over a bungled book project. Rupert Murdoch flack Gary Ginsberg quietly left the company in 2009 over the fallout of media critic Michael Wolff’s less-than-positive biography of the aging Australian, which claimed that Murdoch is routinely ashamed of Fox News. (Ginsberg, much like Lewis, negotiated the ground rules between Murdoch and Wolff.)

Lewis declined to comment for the record. Sherman was not available to comment.

Update: A 21st Century Fox spokesman sent the following email in response.

Brian Lewis was terminated for cause on July 25 for a multitude of infractions. Irena Briganti and the entire staff of the FOX News PR department had absolutely nothing to do with his termination and had no role in the investigation or the current press surrounding his termination. Anything that suggests the contrary is nothing more than vicious gossip by sources without first-hand knowledge of the situation.

[Photo credit: Getty Images]

Email the author of this post at trotter@gawker.com

In a statement on Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry blamed the Syrian government for last week's alleged chemical weapon use against civilians, calling the attack “undeniable” and a “moral obscenity.”

“What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world,” Kerry said. “It defies any code of morality. Let me be clear: The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard it is inexcusable...and it is undeniable.”

“There is a clear reason that the world has banned entirely the use of chemical weapons,” he added. “There is a reason why President Obama has made it such a priority to stop the proliferation of these weapons.”

Kerry went on to discuss his experience of rewatching the videos of the attacks, describing what he saw as “human suffering that we can never ignore or forget...What is before us today is real, and it is compelling.”

Kerry's comments are by far the strongest indication that a forceful response from the Obama administration against the Syrian government is forthcoming, though he made sure to emphasize that investigations were still underway. Those investigations include the use of UN investigators, who earlier this morning were temporarily denied access to a Damascus suburb by sniper fire.

The Obama administration has been considering military intervention in Syria since the civil war began two years ago, and in June the U.S. provided Syrian rebels with weapons. Last week, Obama told CNN that the U.S. faced an “abbreviated timeline” in deciding a response to the chemical attacks, which reportedly killed over 1,300 people. Since the war began two years ago, over 100,000 Syrians have been killed and thousands more have been displaced.

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If the Internet has one discernible talent, it's the uncanny ability to take two seemingly disparate things and mash them together in a way that just make sense.

With the vast majority of culture consumers torn between watching Miley Cyrus appropriate arrhythmic flailing and watching Walter White [big fat spoiler], it was really only a matter of time before those two worlds collides to form a Utopian planet I like to call Tread Lightly Cyrus.

Behold:

[H/T: Uproxx, animated GIFs via Conan O'Fallon]

THIS IS NOT A TEST: In an interview with Variety, newly elected LA mayor Eric "I'm Not a Regular Mayor, I'm a Cool Mayor" Garcetti declared a state of emergency for California—a figurative state of emergency, duh—as film and television productions continue their exodus out of the state in lieu of locations with more favorable tax breaks.

And you all thought those of us in LA just lived a charmed existence of movie stars, poolside parties at the Roosevelt, and perfect weather. We have real problems! Movie problems!

Making good on promises to campaign backers, many of whom are VVIP's in Hollywood (Jimmy Kimmel hosted multiple Garcetti fundraisers; Screen Gems SVP Eric Paquette was his Finance Chairman), Garcetti vowed in his June 30th inaugural address to make runaway production a number one priority. How does he plan to do it? For one: by appointing a Film Czar. The Czar would, theoretically serve as a liaison for filmmakers to cut through the legal red tape at City Hall, and help incentivize studios and networks to keep their business within state limits.

Thanks to recent deep budget cuts, California's incentive program lags far behind other states: New York outpaces California four to one, with its $420 million yearly incentive program. To qualify for the program, productions must have a budget of over $1 million and under $75 million, which has quickly shifted blockbuster films out of state, given that tax breaks can often save productions tens of millions of dollars. California's $100 million incentive pool is further burdened by a cumbersome lottery program: All eligible productions must apply to be considered and tax breaks are handed out to a random selection, which can gum up production budgets as they wait to hear how much money they may or may not get. California's share of national production wages has fallen almost 10 percent from 2004 to 2011, and the 89 percent of television dramas shot in-state in 2005 has been reduced to just 37 percent in 2012.

Garcetti's biggest opposition thus far has been large politically mobile groups, such as the California Teachers Association, which—not incorrectly—finds further tax breaks foolhardy in the face of an already slashed California budget. He also faces opposition from California governor Jerry Brown.

But what they don't know is that Garcetti already has plenty of experience as a Los Angeles mayor: He starred (twice!) as Ramon Quintero on TNT's The Closer. This sort of political navigation within the confines of L.A. City Hall is nothing new to him.

Meanwhile, San Francisco remains in an actual state of emergency, due to the Rim Firestorm just 150 miles past its borders.

As if these photos of Colin Powell cutting a rug—pursed lips conveying his boogie-woogie seriousness in one; hands-on-hips stance indicating he may be contemplating a hernia-inducing squat dance in another—weren't uncomfortable enough, now we have approximately 20 digital-video seconds of the former secretary of state grooving out to a Daft Punk song about staying up all night for the nookie. Also, included: Pharrell's croon, Katie Holmes Doing the Shoulders, and a full-club karaoke singalong. The Hamptons will embarrass you every time.

[h/t TPM]

A Connecticut man was hospitalized Sunday after an ill-timed sneeze caused him to accidentally shoot himself during a raccoon hunt.

For several days last week, James Pace, 81, of New Haven, was bothered by a giant raccoon scratching at his door. Eventually, the scratching grew bothersome enough that Pace hatched a plan to stop the raccoon and its scratching for good. So on Sunday, Pace sat by his door, armed with a .22 rifle, waiting for the critter to return.

But before Pace could take his shot, he sneezed and fell from his chair, at which point his rifle discharged. Pace realized he was shot in the leg and quickly “secured the rifle” before calling his son. He suffered a non-life threatening wound to his shin and was treated a nearby Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Instead of hunting the raccoon, Pace would have been better off teaching it how to dance.

[via Daily Mail/Image via Shutterstock]

Kachemak Sea Otter, a 23-year-old sea otter who, despite having a cute little face and compact, huggable body, would have watched nonchalantly as you were brutally stabbed to death in front of her, then cracked open a clam on her tummy for breakfast (because her brain was not wired for empathy), died on Saturday at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. It was sad in the knee-jerk way that something different is often described as "sad"; like when you say "I miss when these walls were painted yellow" but what you mean is "I remember when these walls were painted yellow and now they're different."

Discovered orphaned on the shore of Kachemak Bay in Alaska when she was just three or four weeks old, Kachemak was flown to Illinois, which would have had no special significance to her, since sea otters do not internalize the political borders of the United States. She probably didn't even realize she had left Alaska, except that was also never aware of having been in Alaska.

The first of Shedd Aquarium's sea otters raised from infancy, Kachemak lived beyond the expected life range (15 - 18 years) of sea otters in the wild. Kachemak's caretakers, which, to her, were just some animals that she knew, were very proud of this fact. A bulletin posted after her death declared her "the oldest sea otter known in any North American aquarium or zoo," which again, probably meant very little to Kachemak. As far as she could tell, all the sea otters in the world (before Saturday: five total, including her) lived in the Oceanarium at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.

Kachemak was not afraid of dying before she was put to sleep on Saturday ("releasing her from a rapid decline in the last week from age-related infirmities"), because Kachemak was not aware that dying was something that could happen to her. She wasn't unhappy about leaving the other sea otters. She didn't worry about whether or not she would be remembered fondly. She didn't reminisce about her lost youth or dream about all the things she had never done. The final moment of her life was not particularly different from any of the moments that proceeded it; she just kept on living right up until she didn't. It was different, but not sad.

Anyway, she's in heaven now!!!

[Shedd Aquarium // Image via AP]

According to dicknosed baldy Donald Trump, the $40 million dollar lawsuit filed against Trump University was President Obama's idea and “could very well be a mini IRS scandal.”

Trump claims that Obama orchestrated the lawsuit during a meeting last Thursday with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who filed the suit on Saturday.

"They meet on Thursday evening - I get sued by this AG Schneiderman... Saturday at one o'clock," Trump said Monday on Fox and Friends. "Think of it. What government in the history of this country has ever brought a suit on Saturday? I never heard of such a thing....They obviously did it very quickly, but probably Obama - maybe this is a mini IRS. Maybe we have to get the tea party after these people, because this could very well be a mini IRS."

It's worth noting that Trump's "mini IRS" statements are in reference to a "scandal" that turned out not to be a scandal at all, at least not in the way Trump is presenting it.

Schneiderman denied Trump's claims during an appearance Monday on CNN. "The president and I have much more important stuff to talk about than Donald Trump," he said, adding that the two discussed education. "I've never discussed Donald Trump with the president."

The lawsuit very believably alleges that Trump's for-profit "university" was an "elaborate bait-and-switch" that defrauded at least 5,000 people out of thousands of dollars in tuition.

[via Daily Intelligencer/Image via AP]

To contact the author of this post, email taylor@gawker.com

George Zimmerman will ask the state of Florida to reimburse him for $200,000 to $300,000 of his legal expenses, according to his attorney. Because Zimmerman was acquitted, Florida is required by law to repay all of his legal costs except for his lawyer's fees.

Last Tuesday, Michael Brandon Hill allegedly entered a Georgia elementary school with more than 500 rounds of ammunition, an AK-47, and a clear intention to end his life and the lives of those around him. Fortunately, the 20-year-old came in contact with Antoinette Tuff, a compassionate bookkeeper who ultimately talked the young man into surrendering before anyone on the premises was physically hurt.

After Hill's arrest, reports about his history of mental illness surfaced: He'd been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, among other things; earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to charges of terroristic threats after vowing to shoot his brother Timothy in the head on Facebook.

Last week, Timothy appeared on Piers Morgan Tonight to talk about his estranged sibling, saying that his brother's behavior had changed dramatically once he'd hit adolescence. One time, Brandon—they'd called him by his middle name—set a fire in the Hill's attic while eight people downstairs slept. Another time, their mother woke up to find Brandon hovering over her with a butcher knife, forcing her and their stepfather to lock up all the knives in the trunk of a car.

Over the years, the family had to contact the local police more than a dozen times about Brandon's increasingly erratic tendencies. He was committed involuntarily in 10 different instances, and doctors responded by shifting his medication, but his behavior was more than the family could handle or any bureaucratic arm could accommodate. (“We even brought it to judge's attention and they just didn’t want to do nothing,” Hill told WSB-TV.)

However, Timothy's takeaway from all this was somewhat surprising. When Piers Morgan asked his guest if he'd felt that his family was betrayed by the system, Hill said no, but that "I feel like there's just a whole lot more they could have done." Fair enough. But then he suggested that "rich, famous people" who reach out to the victims of tragedies should instead reach out to "people that have mental disorders and can wind up doing something he did."

Certainly, if Antoinette Tuff's actions proved anything, it's that empathy can very truly save lives. Yet when Piers Morgan asked Hill about why he'd been "angry" seeing Tuff receive a thank-you call from President Obama—which Hill watched on Anderson Cooper 360 from the green room—he seemed upset that the US leader gave her attention. "I'm pretty sure she's been thanked by 100s and 100s of people," he said. He acknowledged his gratitude, but didn't think the President should be using his time to thank her. "I honestly did not see it necessary for President Obama to call her up when he could have been focusing more on what could be done to prevent things like this."

A clip of Timothy Hill on Piers Morgan here:

[screenshot via CNN]

To contact the author of this post, email camille@gawker.com.

Sometime in the next day or two, the Obama administration will release a declassified report justifying a U.S. military strike in Syria, according to CBS News. The news comes just hours after Secretary of State John Kerry held a press conference in which he described last week's chemical attacks in Syria as an "obscenity” that “defy any code of morality."

The CBS News report describes a meeting of Obama's national security team that took place on Saturday. The meeting reportedly included “detailed analysis” of evidence about the chemical attacks that provides “a near air-tight circumstantial case that the Syrian regime was behind it.”

From CBS News:

There was no debate at the Saturday meeting that a military response is necessary. Obama ordered up legal justifications for a military strike, should he order one, outside of the United Nations Security Council. That process is well underway, and particular emphasis is being placed on alleged violations of the Geneva Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention.

And if/when Obama launches an attack, the U.S. is already well-positioned; there are four Navy warships stationed in the eastern Mediterranean, on-call to launch cruise missiles within hours of receiving Obama's orders, and a British submarine is reportedly stationed nearby. Any strike would likely be limited in scope, according to a report in the New York Times

Administration officials said that although President Obama had not made a final decision on military action, he was likely to order a limited military operation — cruise missiles launched from American destroyers in the Mediterranean Sea at military targets in Syria, for example — and not a sustained air campaign intended to topple Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, or to fundamentally alter the nature of the conflict on the ground.

[Image via AP]

To contact the author of this post, email taylor@gawker.com

Zuck promised more details on how much of your online life Facebook hands over to the government, and he's starting to deliver. Bonus: we're not just getting The Government, but dozens of governments around the world. Guess who Facebook is working with the most?

Of course, it's the Stars and Stripes: between "the first 6 months of 2013, ending June 30," the U.S. government asked Facebook for the accounts somewhere between "20,000 - 21,000" users. These requests pertained to "both criminal and national security" matters. Facebook cooperated with 79% of these—the highest disclosure rate in the world other than Iceland and Hong Kong (which only requested one user apiece) and Albania. The sheer number of accounts the U.S. requested dwarfs the entire rest of the planet.

Read the full report here.

When Leon Smith felt a warm body nuzzling his neck in the middle of the night, he naturally assumed it was his girlfriend looking for some late-night love.

He was half right: The amorous animal lying beside him in bed did indeed want to cuddle, but unless Smith's girlfriend had recently made fun of a witch or denied that an enlightened person falls into cause and effect, the IT worker was lying next to an honest-to-goodness fox.

"I just couldn't believe it. It was so calm, just staring at me," the 30-year-old London native told The Sun.

After 10 "tense" minutes, the Frisky Mr. Fox realized nap time was official over and decided to scurry off.

Smith said that his midnight caller probably came in through the cat flap, and he might have to remove it to keep the fox from coming back.

Although his girlfriend Sophie (who was at work at the time) found the whole thing fairly amusing, she said she wasn't particularly interested in her snuggle rival making another impromptu booty call.

[photo via Shutterstock]