An Indian student was shot dead in Greater Manchester on Boxing Day, and sadly, family members came to know of it only through Facebook.

Anuj Bidve, 23, took admission in Lancaster University in October this year and was on Christmas vacation in Manchester City with his friends where he was shot dead, near their hotel.

So far, five persons have been arrested in connection to the murder. The murder weapon, believe to be a small handgun, is yet to be found. Police says they are treating the murder as a hate crime even if there is no evidence because of concerns within the community.

The father accused British authorities of failing to contact him in India to break the news of the death. He revealed that he found out about his son’s death over Facebook.

According to a report on The Times of India, condolences and messages extending help has been pouring in on the ‘Anuj Bidve Help Page’ on Facebook, with some even offering to help the bereaved family get their only son’s body back to Pune.

The Indian Government also stepped in and decided to bear the expenses of bringing Anuj Bidve’s body to India.

A woman and her son held captive in a Utah home for several days were rescued after the woman’s plea for help on Facebook were reported to the police.

The woman’s post that said she and her son would be “dead by morning” prompted someone to call police. She reportedly posted her SOS message from a laptop while hiding in the closet.

According to the Tribune, the victims phones, were taken away and they were not allowed to leave home.

The woman told the police that she was choked every time she tried to leave home. Her husband, the accused, would not let her feed their family dog, and had even “thrown” her 17-month-old son at her. She was repeatedly hit, and sexually assaulted over a period of nearly five days.

The accused, Troy Reed Critchfield, 33, was arrested and booked for investigation of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, domestic violence, child abuse, animal cruelty and other charges.

Mr. Critchfield who already has a history of felony-level assault against her is being currently held in the Salt Lake County jail without bail.

A disturbing Facebook photo of a little girl bound with tape has sparked a police investigation.

The image of the little girl with a tape across her mouth, and her hands and feet bound by tape was accompanied with the caption “this is wut happens wen my baby hits me back. .”

According to The Smoking Gun, the photo was uploaded by the father of the girl, Andre Curry of Chicago, back in July and since has come under fire.

A friend of the 21-year-old dad, defended the Curry as a man who “never do anything to harm anyone” and added “[He was] being playful with his child. People play with their child differently.”

The Chicago Police Department confirmed that they are looking into the matter.

Curry reportedly hasn’t commented anything about the issue.

What do you think about this incident?

A young Philadelphia mother was arrested and charged with solicitation to commit murder after she allegedly tried to hire hit man on Facebook.

On May 23, London Eley, a young mom, posted a message on Facebook following a row with Corey Jerome White that read, “I will pay somebody a stack to kill my baby father.”

Eley’s offer generated quite a lot of interest. An 18-year-old named Tim Bynum replied to her post: “say no more,” “what he look like?” “where he be at,” “need dat stack 1st,” and “ima mop that bull”, according to ABC News.

She Bynum the address and description of White after allegedly agreeing to a price of $1000 to carry out the hit.

White reported to the cops, after he was alerted by his relatives who happened to see the exchanges on Eley’s page.

Eley is charged with solicitation to commit murder and Bynum is charged with attempted murder and conspiracy.

A Philippines actor-director was stabbed several times by his Facebook buddy early Monday.

Rivero and Hans Ivan Ruiz met over Facebook about five months ago.

According to the Inquirer, Ruiz stabbed Rivero 10 times in the chest area while he was asleep, and tried to choke him with a towel when the latter escaped into the toilet.

Rivero managed to escape and drive himself to Philippine Heart Center.

Ruiz was apprehended at Rivero’s home with the actor-director’s bag, containing several personal items including a laptop and cell phones, by the police. However, Ruiz is reportedly maintaining that he took no part in the crime. He added that he did not know where the knife came from and even offered to take the victim to the hospital. As for the bag he was caught with, he explained that Rivero had instructed him to get valuables from his home before heading to the hospital.

Two teenage burglars were castigated by a judge for mocking his judgment in social networking site (Facebook). Liam Cunliffe befor his sentence bragged on facebook stating that he was just “a happy bunni” adding “I’m only looking at 6 months, haa bring it on easy!” Bad move! Cunliffe with his co-accused Louis Corbett both 18, were facing manslaughter trial since their victim, 80 year old Pauline Reddick, who has a record of high blood pressure, died of a stroke hours after the break-in. But the manslaughter charges were dropped because the death could not be directly linked (hard scientific evidence) with the symptoms of her stroke to the high blood pressure owing to the  raid.

Judge Ford pronounced in Bristol Crown Court that they could only be jailed for buglary but stated  “What is most distressing in your case is your perceived attitude that you have done nothing wrong. I cannot sentence you for a lack of moral fiber and decency but I am of the view you have shown no remorse”

Cunliffe and Corbett were sentenced to 27 and 24 months respectively in young offenders’ institutions. However Corbett also posted on Facebook that  “I’m not goin Prison. I refuse.” But then Corbett is already behind bars regardless of his unwillingness.

Shouldn’t We need to keep our private matters on social networking sites. Really these kits will think before they brag on Facebook

A 26-year-old citizen of U.K was charged for hacking Facebook and arrested on Thursday.

The case is still under investigation while Facebook maintains that no information of users has been compromised. Facebook is reportedly taking the matter under the assistance of U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), London’s Metropolitan Service and Scotland Yard.

The man was arrested from North Yorkshire on Thursday and is now released on bond. The motive behind the attack is not clear at the moment. Facebook being popular and having command over large network of of users is often targeted by spammers tricking users into clicking on links or installing harmful software.

For Facebook, being the world’s largest social-networking site with almost 700 million users, such incidents are not unexpected. But, do you think Facebook is doing enough to keep it’s users safe?

A freshman of Chisholm high school, Minnesota was expelled for allegedly posting a hit list on his Facebook page.

The Facebook hit list listed 30 names that include school staff, students, and graduates that the student wanted to see dead.

School Superintendent James Varichak told Duluth News Tribune that there was no threat in the post other than the heading, but decided to expel the student after a special board meeting.

“We have to prove that it was a substantial disruption to the education process, and we believe it would be if he was to return (to school)”, Varichak told the newpaper.

The St. Louis Country Attorney’s Office is reportedly considering whether to press criminal charges.

Because of the incident, the teen is now enrolled in an alternative education program, while the school is holding a seminar for all student and their parents on the proper use of social media.

Last month, a teen searching for Facebook landed in prison and last year, hit lists suspected to be posted by local criminal gangs in Columbia, turned into global news when people listed in the hit list started to get murdered.

Do you think the student deserve criminal charges? Do you think Facebook should close down the accounts of users who post such things to prevent similar incident?

A man from Albany, New York was sentenced to 13 years in prison for raping four teenage girls he met on Facebook.

David Bradt used Facebook to meet more than 700 girls, mostly between the ages 15 and 20.

According to the Times Union, he would first ‘friend’ one teenager on Facebook, then send friend request to all her friends.

He was arrested after the mother of a 16-year-old girl became concerned over unusual text messages her daughter received from him.

Albany County District Attorney David Soares told reporters Bradt targeted high-school cliques and exploited them.

“When he was ‘friending’ one girl and he was able to see her list of friends, he was basically using those girls as leads, like you would in a business…That’s how he was venturing into these other networks and was able to identify and find all of his prey,” Times Union quotes Soares.

Bradt pleaded guilty to four counts of third-degree rape for having sex with underage victims.

This isn’t the first time sexual offenders have use Facebook to find their prey. Users should exercise more caution in their judgments when accepting/making friends on social networks.

Do not think your secrets are safe from a person once you defriend them on Facebook.

Richard Leon Barton Jr. thought so, but learnt it the hard way.

The 34-year-old Michigan man was arrested for polygamy, after he posted wedding photos of his second marriage after defriending his first wife on Facebook.

According to The Grand Rapids Press, Barton met his first wife online and married her in 2004. But they quickly became estranged after Barton was taken back to Michigan and imprisoned for violating his parole and the couple fell out of touch.

They eventually reconnected on Facebook about a year ago after Barton’s release. But, Barton abruptly ended their online friendship.

Wife no. 1 became suspicious and began snooping around still-public sections of his Facebook page and discovered photos of Barton’s marriage.

Barton reportedly told wife no. 2 that he was divorced.

Wife no. 1 somehow managed to communicate with Barton and convinced him to file for divorce – and eventually contacted authorities when he failed to do so.

Barton, who claimed that he thought he signed divorce papers in 2007, has been charged with polygamy, a four-year felony.