Copies of Grand Theft Auto IV have been pulled in Thailand after a teenager confessed to murdering a taxi driver. The 18-year-old high school student is accused of stabbing the cab driver to death by trying to copy a scene from the game.
The biggest video game publisher in the south-east Asian country, New Era Interactive Media, has told retailers to stop selling GTA IV. It is due to be replaced by another video game title.
Thai newspapers say the teenager, whose name has been withheld, was arrested while trying to steer a cab backwards out of a Bangkok street with the driver still in the back seat. Police claim the 18-year-old confessed to stealing the taxi and said he killed the 54-year-old driver after he fought back. The teenager could face the death penalty if he is found guilty. Bangkok police Captain Veerarit Pipatanasak said: "He wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game.
A state court has rejected a move to reinstate a lawsuit against makers of a video game played by a teenager who killed three of his family members in 2004.
The killings occurred on newsman Sam Donaldson's ranch in southern New Mexico.
The lawsuit had alleged that the video game "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" contributed to the killings because Cody Posey played the game "obsessively" and it trained him to act out the violence when he shot and killed his father, stepmother and stepsister in July 2004. He was 14 at the time of the killings.
Posey's father worked as foreman on Donaldson's ranch.
The lawsuit contended that Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. and its subsidiary, Rockstar Games, and Sony Corporation of America should have foreseen that the game "would spawn such copycat violence." Sony produced the PlayStation 2 on which Posey played the video game.
The lawsuit was filed by Verlin Posey, brother of P... More »
The Telegraph headline is "Grand Theft Auto IV: Violence flares after launch" and they know the cause: A 23-year-old was repeatedly stabbed in Croydon, south London as he walked past 100 people queuing to buy the controversial game, in which players rob and murder their way through the criminal underworld.
The Mail, as ever, don’t pull their punches with "Teenager stabbed in queue at midnight launch of ultra violent video game Grand Theft Auto IV". They too know what happened: A man was stabbed last night while queueing to buy one of the first copies of a controversial new video game.
The BBC report the stabbing but make no mention of any game.
The Press association, which many journalists will use as their source, headline with "Police hunt video game attacker" and say: Police are hunting a hooded man who stabbed a passer-by as he waited to buy a new edition of a notoriously viole... More »
Police in New Zealand have questioned a teenager believed to be the ringleader of an international cyber-crime group.
The group is alleged to have infiltrated more than one million computers and skimmed millions of dollars from people's bank accounts.
The teenager, who is 18, cannot be named for legal reasons but was known by an alias as "Akill".
He was detained as part of an FBI crackdown on hi-tech criminals who run botnets - networks of hijacked PCs.
Global crackdown
After being questioned "Akill" was released without charge, but police say he is still being investigated.
Police allege that he was responsible for setting up a global network of hijacked PCs - known as a botnet.
The term describes the process of installing malicious software on PCs around the world to collect information such as login names, bank account details and credit card numbers.
A teenager in New Jersey has broken the lock that ties Apple’s iPhone to AT&T’s wireless network, freeing the most hyped cell phone ever for use on the networks of other carriers, including overseas ones.
George Hotz, 17, confirmed Friday that he had unlocked an iPhone and was using it on T-Mobile’s network, the only major U.S. carrier apart from AT&T that is compatible with the iPhone’s cellular technology.
While the possibility of switching from AT&T to T-Mobile may not be a major development for U.S. consumers, it opens up the iPhone for use on the networks of overseas carriers.
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