Iraq Is No Longer Most Violent Nation In The World
With things quieting down in Iraq (U.S. casualties hit an all-time low in May, 2008), South Africa has regained its position as the most violent country on the planet, with a murder rate of 65 per 100,000 population. The death rate is also high in some other African countries (like Sudan, Somalia and Congo), but those placed don’t keep records as effectively as South Africa. The Iraqi rate is now running at about 48 per 100,000.
Citys Top Crane Inspector Is Arrested
The city’s chief crane inspector was arrested Friday and charged with taking bribes to allow cranes under his review to pass inspection and for taking money from a crane company that sought to ensure that its employees would pass the required licensing exam, the authorities said.
The man, James Delayo, the acting chief inspector for the Cranes and Derricks Unit at the city Department of Buildings, was in charge of overseeing the issuance of city licenses for crane operators.
He is also facing charges that he provided a copy of the crane operator’s exam and the test answers to a crane company in exchange for $3,000, said an official involved in the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the charges had not yet been formally filed.
Statue of Jesus Stolen Off Cross in Detroit
Thieves seeking copper to sell as scrap may have stolen an 8-foot statue of Jesus Christ off a crucifix in Detroit. Problem is, it’s made of plaster.
The Rev. Barry Randolph said Wednesday that the statue at the Church of the Messiah is a green color and looks like copper, one of several metals coveted by thieves because of soaring scrap prices.
Thieves have damaged copper pipes and stolen aluminum gutters at the church over the past few months as the congregation has dwindled from about 350 members to just 50, congregation member Donya Ray-Gregg said.
Nurse Charged With Injecting Patients With Bleach
A former nurse accused of intentionally injecting bleach into two patients at a dialysis center was arrested Friday, police said.
Two witnesses said they saw Kimberly Clark Saenz, 34, draw bleach into syringes and inject it into two patients’ dialysis lines at the DaVita Dialysis Center on April 28, Lufkin police said in a statement.
Both patients survived, but one required treatment at a hospital, police said.
Police said tests showed bleach in the syringes and dialysis lines.
Saenz, who remained in Angelina County jail Friday evening, is charged with two counts of aggravated assault. Her bail was set at $200,000. A jail official said he did not know whether she had an attorney. Attempts to find her home phone number were unsuccessful.
Japanese woman caught living in man’s closet
A homeless woman who sneaked into a man’s house and lived undetected in his closet for a year was arrested in Japan after he became suspicious when food mysteriously began disappearing.
Police found the 58-year-old woman Thursday hiding in the top compartment of the man’s closet and arrested her for trespassing, police spokesman Hiroki Itakura from southern Kasuya town said Friday.
The resident of the home installed security cameras that transmitted images to his mobile phone after becoming puzzled by food disappearing from his kitchen over the past several months.
One of the cameras captured someone moving inside his home Thursday after he had left, and he called police believing it was a burglar. However, when they arrived they found the door locked and all windows closed.
E-mail ‘bloodbath’ threat paralyzes Mexican city
Mexico’s northern border town of Juarez, infamous for its history of drug-related violence, has gone into lockdown after an e-mail began circulating warning of an unparalleled “bloodbath” in the coming days.
Shops, bars and restaurants have shut and soldiers are patrolling the streets, giving a surreal and dangerous tone to this city of 1.4 million people which sits just across the US border from the Texan town of El Paso.
Authorities are taking seriously the anonymous e-mail, which menaced “the bloodiest and most violent weekend in the history of Juarez.”
The place is already reeling from a surge in murders that has claimed around 400 lives so far this year, several of them police officers and members of rival narcotics gangs.
The US embassy to Mexico has told US citizens that the message represented a “potential threat” and that public places, nightspots and the main streets in Juarez should all be avoided.
In Juarez, nerves frayed by the rising body count — including at least 20 people killed over the past weekend, among them two policemen gunned down as they finished their shift — have begun to shred in terror because of the much-forwarded e-mail, even though its veracity was unknown.
Austrian man kills five family members after investment loss
AN AUSTRIAN man who lost a six-figure sum in bad investments has admitted killing five family members with an axe to spare them the “disgrace” of financial ruin.
The 39-year-old public relations consultant, identified only as Reinhard S, walked into a Vienna police station at 3.20am yesterday, and told the duty officer: “In my apartment are my dead wife and my dead child.”
The man said that, after killing the two, he drove two hours to Linz, where he killed his father-in-law and his parents.
After trying and failing to hang himself, he turned himself in.
Angry flight attendant charged with setting fire on plane
A flight attendant angry about his work route smuggled a lighter aboard an airplane and set a fire in a bathroom, forcing an emergency landing, authorities said Thursday.
The Compass Airlines flight carrying 72 passengers and four crew members landed safely in Fargo on May 7 after smoke filled the back. No injuries were reported. The plane was flying from Minneapolis to Regina, Saskatchewan, authorities said.
Eder Rojas, 19, appeared in court Thursday, following his arrest a day earlier in Minneapolis, and was ordered held without bail, prosecutors said. The charge of setting fire aboard a civil aircraft carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
His public defender did not return a phone call seeking comment. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynn Jordheim, who is prosecuting the case in Fargo, would not comment.
Court documents said Rojas, of the Twin Cities suburb of Woodbury, told authorities he was upset at the airline for making him work the route. He is accused of taking a lighter with him through the security checkpoint, authorities said.
Drunk ‘Darth Vader’ spared jail
A man has been given a suspended jail sentence for attacking two Star Wars fans while dressed as Darth Vader.
Arwel Wynn Hughes, 27, from Holyhead, Anglesey, admitted assaulting Barney Jones and cousin Michael with a metal crutch, whilst shouting “Darth Vader”.
Hughes told police he had no memory of the incident as he was drunk.
District Judge Andrew Straw said the publicity his case had received was perhaps a good thing, and a “wake up call” to deal with his alcohol problem.
Diane Williams, prosecuting, said the two cousins had set up a Jedi faith church with around 30 local members in the Holyhead area.
Report: Girls Gang Blows Up Houses With Homemade Bomb Over Boy
A gang of London teenage girls is suspected of destroying three houses and killing a man with a homemade liquid bomb during an argument over a boy.
According to the U.K.’s Daily Mail, witnesses say a purple, smelly liquid was poured into a mailbox of one of the homes, which set off a massive explosion.
The intended target of the attack, Charlotte Anderson, was injured in the blast and rushed to the hospital with severe burns. Her next-door neighbor, Emad Qureshi, 26, who was at home with his parents, was killed when he was crushed by falling debris, it was reported.
Police find 300 cats in freezers
A Sacramento man faces criminal charges after police searched his home and found at least 300 dead cats in his freezers, authorities said.
Michael Parnell, 46, also known as Michael Vondueren, was charged with possessing an assault weapon and obstructing an officer when he was arrested, KXTV, Sacramento, reported.
. Police Sgt. Jim Hose said authorities entered the home because of concern for the well-being of the Parnell’s 81-year-old mother.
Three Babies Found Dead in Freezer in West Germany, Mother Arrested
The bodies of three German infants have been found stuffed in a basement freezer and their mother has been arrested, a prosecutor’s spokesman said Monday.
Johannes Daheim said police determined the three infants had not been stillborn but did not say how old they were or what the cause of death was. He said the bodies were found Sunday night after police received a tip and searched the home in Wenden in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The name of the woman was not released. Police said they planned to hold a news conference about the case later Monday.
There have been a number of similar cases in Germany.
2 injured in explosion of homemade bomb
Two men were arrested Wednesday after their homemade bomb exploded prematurely, injuring both, authorities said.
Acting on an anonymous tip, Sampson County deputies found a Chevrolet minivan outside Sampson Regional Medical Center with a side window blown out and blast marks on the outside of a door, authorities said.
Inside the hospital emergency room, Martin Bryant Boyette and Julio Frentez Morales were receiving treatment for injuries from a bomb blast, authorities said. An investigation determined that the pair had made several bombs at Boyette’s house, where both lived, and Morales tried to throw one out the window of the minivan on U.S. Highway 701 as they drove past Hobbton Schools, authorities said.
Former ‘Mr Gay UK’ charged with murder amid fears victim’s flesh was ‘prepared for cooking’
A former ‘Mr Gay UK’ has been charged with murdering a man, amid fears that part of the victim’s leg was chopped up and chunks of it eaten.
When police discovered the body of Damian Oldfield, 33, at a terraced house in Harehills, Leeds, they are said to have found part of his right leg had been carved up and the flesh diced and cooked on a kitchen worktop. It is thought tests showed the flesh was human.
A police source told a newspaper: “It appears it was being prepared for cooking.”
Hat tip to Kara!
Boys sentenced over Goth murder
Two teenage boys have been jailed for life for the murder of a woman who was killed for dressing as a Goth.
Sophie Lancaster was kicked and stamped to death by Brendan Harris, 15, and Ryan Herbert, 16, in Stubbylee Park in Bacup, Lancashire, last summer.
The pair turned on Miss Lancaster, 20, in an act of “feral thuggery” as she tried to get them and three other youths to stop attacking her boyfriend.
Harris must serve a minimum of 18 years and Herbert 16 years, the judge said.
Massive Attack: Half A Million Microsoft-Powered Sites Hit With SQL Injection
A new SQL injection attack aimed at Microsoft IIS web servers has hit some 500,000 websites, including the United Nations, UK Government sites and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. While the attack is not necessarily Microsoft’s fault, it is unique to the company’s IIS server.
The automated attack takes advantage to the fact that Microsoft’s IIS servers allow generic commands that don’t require specific table-level arguments. However, the vulnerability is the result of poor data handling by the sites’ creators, rather than a specific Microsoft flaw.
In other words, there’s no patch that’s going to fix the issue, the problem is with the developers who failed follow well-established security practices for handling database input.
Austrian ‘hid daughter in cellar’
An Austrian man allegedly held his daughter captive in a cellar for 24 years and fathered four children with her, reports say.
The existence of the woman, believed missing since 1984 and now 42, emerged after one of the children was found in the house in a “serious condition”.
A search was begun by the authorities for her mother after she was found, Austrian broadcaster ORF reports.
The 19-year-old is now in hospital in the Lower Austrian town of Amstetten.
Chris Jenkins murder connects dozens around country
University of Minnesota college student Chris Jenkins was found in the Mississippi River in February of 2003.
Minneapolis Police began investigating the case, which also caught the attention of two retired NYPD detectives.
Turns out, Jenkins’ death was the missing part of the puzzle for Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte.
They think Jenkins connects dozens of other deaths around the country over the last decade. The stories are the same all over the country–an athletic, intelligent, well-liked college student goes missing.
Family and friends launch a massive search. Weeks or months later, the young man is discovered drowned. In more than 40 cases, the deaths are blamed on a drunken accident–except for one.
…
While most local investigations focused on where a body was recovered, Gannon and Duarte tried to figure out where the body went into the river.City after city, when they’d find the spot where the body went into the water, they would find something else: The symbol of a smiley face
“It’s very disturbing,” Duarte said.
The paint color and size of the face varies, but the detectives are convinced that it’s a sick signature the killers leave behind.
Mexican Police: 13 Dead in Tijuana Shootouts
Massive gunbattles broke out between suspected drug traffickers who fired at each other while speeding down heavily populated streets of this violent border city early Saturday, killing 13 people and wounding nine.
All of the dead were believed to be drug traffickers, possibly rival members of the same cartel who were trying to settle scores, said Rommel Moreno, the attorney general of Baja California state, where Tijuana is located.
“Evidently this is a confrontation between gangs,” Moreno told reporters.
Eight suspects and one federal police officer were injured in the pre-dawn shootings, none gravely, said Agustin Perez Aguilar, a spokesman for the state public safety department. The suspects are being held on suspicion of weapons possession among other possible charges.
Police recovered 21 vehicles, many with bullet holes or U.S. license plates; a total of 54 guns; and more than 1,500 spent shell casings at various points in the city where the battles broke out, Perez Aguilar said.
Mexican Embassy: Official Fired After Getting Caught With White House BlackBerries
Whether he was up to no good or simply desperate to play BrickBreaker, a Mexican press attaché was caught on camera pocketing several White House BlackBerries during a recent meeting in New Orleans and has since been fired, FOX News has learned.
Sources with knowledge of the incident said the official, Rafael Quintero Curiel, served as the lead press advance person for the Mexican Delegation and was responsible for handling logistics and guiding the Mexican media around at the conference.
Mexican Embassy spokesman Ricardo Alday said Thursday he was asked to tender his resignation once he arrived back in Mexico City.
“Mr. Quintero will be responsible for explaining his actions to the American authorities conducting an investigation. The Mexican Government deeply regrets this incident,” he said.
Quintero Curiel took six or seven of the handheld devices from a table outside a special room in the hotel where the Mexican delegation was meeting with President Bush earlier this week.
N.J. Officer Allegedly Performed Sex Acts On Cows
More charges have been filed against a Burlington County police officer who was recently charged with sexually assaulting three girls.
Authorities announced Moorestown Officer Robert Melia Jr., 38, has been charged with four counts of animal cruelty after allegedly engaging in sex acts with cows between June and December of 2006.
‘I infected 1500 girls with AIDS’
A SERIES of sickening videos have been posted on the internet showing a man who claims to have deliberately “infected” thousands of women with AIDS.
Calling himself ‘Trashman’ and speaking with an American accent, the masked man says he has infected between 1200 and 1500 unknowing victims with the devastating disease.
He can be seen reading the names and ages of some of the women he claims to have had unprotected sex with in the video clips on website YouTube.
The videos – one of which has been viewed 195,000 times – also feature a web address to a “gangsta” portal filled with pornography and where Trashman has a profile.
Dozens Involved In Wild Brawl In Nyack
Police say two people have been injured and five people arrested after dozens fought in the streets of the Rockland County village of Nyack.
Orangetown police say fights among 40 to 50 people broke out Wednesday afternoon.
It took police officers from seven departments to finally break up the fights, which continued across Nyack for an hour.
Police say some involved in the fight were armed with knives, bats and an ax.
Texas inmate cons way onto Idaho ballot
A federal prison inmate got himself listed on the ballot for Idaho’s May 27 primary as a Democratic presidential candidate, the state’s top election official said.
Keith Russell Judd is serving time at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas for making threats at the University of New Mexico in 1999. He’s scheduled for release in 2013.
Judd, 49, qualified for the ballot by submitting a notarized form and paying the required $1,000 fee, state Secretary of State Ben Ysursa said. As a result, Democratic voters will be able to choose among Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Judd.
Fresno Student Shot, Killed by Police Officer After Bat Attack
A police officer shot and killed a high school student Wednesday after the teenager attacked the officer with a baseball bat on campus, authorities said.
Police said the officer fired shortly before noon, after a 17-year-old boy at Roosevelt High School allegedly came up behind the officer and hit him in the head with the bat, according to Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer. The officer fell down dazed, grabbed a gun from his ankle holster and fired, Dyer said.
“The officer was fortunate that he was able to defend himself,” the chief said.
The cause of the attack was not immediately known. Dyer said there was no history of prior run-ins between the student and the officer, who was employed by the police department as the school’s resource officer.
Police did not immediately release the identities of the officer or student, who was described as a longtime Fresno resident who recently transferred to the school. The teenager was 6 feet tall and 250 pounds — larger than the officer, authorities said.
Chronic NYC Subway Groper Could Get Life
About two weeks after he was released from prison, Freddie Johnson was arrested on charges of illegally rubbing up against a woman on a crowded Manhattan subway train.
It is a fairly common crime in New York. But this was no common criminal.
Johnson has been arrested a staggering 53 times—the majority for allegedly groping women on subway trains.
In his latest arrest, Johnson was being followed by plainclothes officers who recognized him from police photos. He was charged with persistent sexual abuse, and if convicted this time he could be sent away for life.
But the fact that Johnson was roaming the subways in the first place has raised questions about how the state deals with the problem of repeat sex offenders. His case even drew the scorn of a recent newspaper editorial that labeled him the “Subway Rat.”
‘World peace’ hitcher is murdered
An Italian woman artist who was hitch-hiking to the Middle East dressed as a bride to promote world peace has been found murdered in Turkey.
The naked body of Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, 33, known as Pippa Bacca, was found in bushes near the northern city of Gebze on Friday.
She had said she wanted to show that she could put her trust in the kindness of local people.
Turkish police say they have detained a man in connection with the killing.
Reports say the man led the police to the body.
Man chased us with saw, 5 homeless men charge
The stories unfold like scenes from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, only this isn’t Texas and the alleged victims claim the roaring sound of the chainsaw is very real.
For months, five homeless men have complained to the Fort Lauderdale Police Department that they have been terrorized by a local businessman known to them only as “the Chainsaw Man.”
They say he chases them through fields and over railroad tracks, armed with a chainsaw, and has even shot at them with a pistol.
Police probe ‘new KGB poison attack’ as defector Gordievsky is found unconscious in Surrey home
Special Branch is investigating an alleged attempt to murder Oleg Gordievsky, the KGB double-agent who spied on Russia for British intelligence at the height of the Cold War.
The former Soviet colonel, who escaped to Britain in 1985, says he was poisoned by a Russian assassin who visited him at his secret safe-house in Surrey.
He fears he is the latest victim of revenge attacks by Russian intelligence on high-profile defectors.
Alexander Litvinenko, another former Russian spy, was murdered in London in 2006.
Gordievsky – awarded one of Britain’s highest honours by the Queen last October – was rushed to hospital after collapsing at home.
He lay unconscious and “close to death” for 34 hours. He spent a further two weeks recuperating in a private clinic paid for by his former bosses in MI6.
He was initially left partially paralysed by the alleged attack and still has no feeling in his fingers.
Last night Surrey Police confirmed they were investigating a possible attempt on Gordievsky’s life.
Sonny Bono ‘assassinated by hitmen’
SONNY Bono, former husband and singing partner of superstar Cher, was clubbed to death by hitmen on the orders of drug and weapons dealers, an ex-FBI agent claims.
Ted Gunderson, now a private investigator, has told the US Globe tabloid that Bono, who served as mayor of Palm Springs for four years, did not die after hitting a tree on a Nevada ski slope in January 1998 as everyone believed.“It’s nonsense for anyone to now try to suggest that Bono died after crashing into a tree. There’s zero evidence in this autopsy report… to show such an accident happened. Instead, there’s powerful proof he was assassinated.
French Navy Works to Save Crew on Yacht Captured by Pirates
France’s military is keeping close tabs on a French luxury yacht seized by pirates off Somalia’s coast, and officials hope to avoid using force to free the 30 crew members, the prime minister said Saturday.
Attackers stormed the 288-foot Le Ponant on Friday as it returned without passengers from the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean, toward the Mediterranean Sea, officials with French maritime transport company CMA-CGM said.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said officials were “following the hostage situation minute by minute.”
“Our priority is to protect the lives of the people on board,” Fillon said while visiting the town of Le Mans. “All channels of discussion are open to try to resolve this case by trying not to use force.”
Witchdoctor killings condemned
Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete has condemned witchdoctors who kill albinos and harvest their body parts in the hope it will bring prosperity.
He said 19 albinos had been murdered since March 2007, and another two were missing presumed dead in the east African country.
“Sometimes, word spreads around that body parts of people with certain physical attributes like bald people or albinos contribute greatly to attaining quick prosperity,” Kikwete said in a monthly state of the nation speech late on Wednesday.
“These killings are shameful and distressing to our society,” he added.
Theft-to-order ring went from Cleveland to Pittsburgh
The pitch to co-workers or bar patrons, police say, went like this:
“Hey, anybody interested in buying a trailer?”
Somebody was. Big-screen TVs, riding mowers, motorcycles, frozen food and more exchanged hands in what authorities charge was a sophisticated theft-to-order ring in the Rust Belt region stretching from Cleveland to Western Pennsylvania.
Police said the thieves, seeking quick cash for drugs, stole and sold high-demand items for more than 1 1/2 years, often at up to 85 percent discount from retail prices and sometimes to return customers.
“You don’t steal these things unless you have a customer,” said Canfield police Detective Sgt. Andy Bodzak.
Hat tip to Kara!
Saudi woman killed for chatting on Facebook
A young Saudi Arabian woman was murdered by her father for chatting on the social network site Facebook, it has emerged.
The unnamed woman from Riyadh was beaten and shot after she was discovered in the middle of an online conversation with a man, the al-Arabiya website reported.
The case was reported on a Saudi Arabian news site as an example of the “strife” the social networking site is causing in the Islamic nation.
Saudi preacher Ali al-Maliki has emerged as the leading critic of Facebook, claiming the network is corrupting the youth of the nation.
“Facebook is a door to lust and young women and men are spending more on their mobile phones and the Internet than they are spending on food,” he said.
Nun Pleads Guilty to Taking Archdiocese Money, Using It to Gamble
A Roman Catholic nun accused of taking more than $250,000 from the Archdiocese of Omaha and gambling much of it away has pleaded guilty to theft.
Sister Barbara Markey entered the plea to a charge of theft of more than $1,500 on Monday in Douglas County District Court, according to her attorney, J. William Gallup. She also agreed to pay $125,000 in restitution to the archdiocese.
In exchange, Gallup said, the state and the archdiocese agreed not to object to probation for the 73-year-old Markey. Her sentencing is set for July, and she faces up to 20 years in prison.
Zimbabwe on a knife edge as fears deepen that result is being rigged
From the deserted streets of Bulawayo to the fetid slums of Mbare, Zimbabwe was waiting on tenterhooks last night to discover the fate of President Mugabe as he appeared to be heading towards election defeat.
With official counts trickling out of Harare, the clamour grew for the authorities to tell the people what they already knew from their own polling stations: that for the old tyrant, the writing was on the wall.
Lists posted outside each station announced the scale of the swing to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which scooped up the figures from teams of observers to declare that it was bound for a landslide victory in parliamentary and presidential polls.
Hackers Flood Epilepsy Web Forum With Flashing Lights
Web-site hacking has reached a new low, both morally and technically.
Unknown miscreants had a good time two weekends ago when they posted hundreds of flashing animated images onto discussion boards hosted by the Landover, Md.-based Epilepsy Foundation.
Flashing lights or bold moving patterns can trigger often violent seizures among 3 percent of the estimated 50 million epileptics worldwide.
“I was on the phone when it happened, and I couldn’t move and couldn’t speak,” RyAnne Fultz, who has epilepsy, told Wired News about her reaction to viewing one of the images on March 23.
Fultz’s 11-year-old son walked over and closed the browser window after about 10 seconds. Fortunately, she suffered nothing more than a bad headache.
By then, the second day of vandalism on EpilepsyFoundation.org, the jerks had moved on to hijacking the browsers of anyone who clicked on certain forum posts, filling the screens with bright, flashing colors.
Police Shut Down Italian Circus After Woman Forced to Swim in Piranha Tank
Police have closed down a circus in southern Italy after a terrified 19-year-old woman was forced to swim in a tank full of piranha fish while her younger sister endured the company of snakes and tarantulas.
Three men have been arrested and charged with holding the Bulgarian women in slavery and breaching international human rights conventions.
The trio, who are accused of running a “circus of horrors,” were named as Enrico Raffaele Ingrassia, 57, the owner, his son William Ingrassia, 33, and his son-in-law Gaetano Belfiore, 25.
The Marino Circus has been offering shows at Petina, south of Naples in southern Italy, in a tent with 200 plastic seats inside it.
17.03.2008: 0230 LT: Enroute Cagbalite, Mituban and Balisen, Polilio Island, Philippines.
A passenger boat with ten passenger including five crewmembers was returning to Polilio Island after discharging her cargo on the mainland. Two passengers who had earlier boarded after asking for a ride to Polilio Island took control of the boat and shot dead three crewmembers including the captain. The pirates then tied them to the anchor and threw them overboard. The pirates shot the remaining two-crew members and injured them. One of the injured jumped into the sea and is still missing. The other injured crew is recuperating in the hospital. Three other passengers including a child were unharmed. The coast guard has mounted a search for the missing and dead crewmembers and the pirates who fled in a motor boat.
Simple Justice: Settlement Demands Have Their Risks
Daniel Hynes was a newly minted lawyer, only one month in, when he apparently came up with a bright idea, according to this report in the New York Lawyer.
Fifteen months ago, Daniel Hynes of Manchester told a Concord hair salon to pay him $1,000 or face a lawsuit because its different prices for men and women were discriminatory. In one court document, he said the unequal prices at Claudia Lambert’s salon caused him mental anguish. That’s even though the salon charged women more than men.
Well, how is a young lawyer supposed to make a living when he’s got no clients and needs a haircut?
Unfortunately, a jury was unimpressed by Hynes’ career move, and convicted him of misdemeanor theft by extortion.
Hynes, apparently relying on his vast legal experience, disagreed with the jury.
“The conviction goes against the First Amendment,” he said. “People have a right to petition the courts.”
KGB plot fears as London oligarch vanishes and traces of blood are found in his mansion
An international manhunt was launched last night for a Russian-born British media magnate whose mysterious disappearance has possible links to the murder of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko.
Jet-setting billionaire Leonid Rozhetskin, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, vanished from his £1 million home just outside the Latvian capital Riga a week ago.
Last night, Latvian authorities expressed fears that Mr Rozhetskin, one of the co-founders and major shareholders in British business newspaper City AM, may have been murdered.
‘Hypnotist’ thief hunted in Italy
Police in Italy have issued footage of a man who is suspected of hypnotising supermarket checkout staff to hand over money from their cash registers.
In every case, the last thing staff reportedly remember is the thief leaning over and saying: “Look into my eyes”, before finding the till empty.
In the latest incident captured on CCTV, he targeted a bank at Ancona in northern Italy, then calmly walked out.
A female bank clerk reportedly handed over nearly 800 euros (£630).
The cashier who was shown the video footage has no memory of the incident, according to Italian media, and only realised what had happened when she saw the money missing.
Disabled pregnant woman used as target practice
Banished to the basement, the 29-year-old mother with a childlike mind and another baby on the way had little more than a thin rug and a mattress to call her own on the chilly concrete floor.
Dorothy Dixon ate what she could forage from the refrigerator upstairs, where housemates used her for target practice with BBs, burned her with a glue gun and doused her with scalding liquid that peeled away her skin.
They torched what few clothes she had, so she walked around naked. They often pummeled her with an aluminum bat or metal handle.
Dixon — six months pregnant — died after weeks of abuse. Police have charged two adults, three teenagers and a 12-year-old boy with murder in the case that has repulsed many in this Mississippi River town.
“This is heartbreaking,” police Lt. David Hayes said. “It was almost as though they were making fun of the abuse they were administering. This woman was almost like living in a prison.”
Spring Breakers Arrested After Dynamite Explodes On Hotel Sundeck
Three spring breakers were arrested after an explosion rocked two hotel guests from their bed and shattered the windows of their Daytona Beach Shores hotel room around 2:30am Friday.
Officers patrolling the Oceanside Inn on South Atlantic Avenue in Daytona Beach Shores (see satellite map of location) heard a loud explosion early Friday morning. Several witnesses said the explosion came from the sundeck, located on the second floor of the hotel.
When officers first arrived, they found three safety windows had been shattered, along with a metal light pole that had been destroyed. They also noticed metal and glass debris scattered across a 100-foot area.
Police said surveillance video from the hotel showed three hotel guests running from the scene. The guests, three college students, were identified as 21-year-old Timothy Bechtel of La Grange, Illinois, 21-year-old Christopher Romano of Dayton, Ohio, and 21-year-old Michael Bolt, also from La Grange. When officers contacted Bechtel, he was found to have a cut on his arm and he admitted to being involved in the incident.
Naked Man Creates Havoc in Vandalism Spree in Pennsylvania
A hotel and store in Lancaster County are assessing the damage after a naked man ran amok and allegedly did thousands of dollars worth of damage to two businesses.
West Lampeter Township police said they were dispatched to the Willow Valley Resort, and later Darrenkamp’s Market, on Friday amid reports of a naked man on a rampage.
Some office space at the resort was trashed and a forklift was driven into an interior wall, also damaging an overhead sewer pipe, authorities said.Police said the man, whom they identified as Nicholas Hadzick, 28, of Freeland, then crossed the street and entered Darrenkamp’s in the Willow Valley Shopping Center, causing more destruction.
Brother: Man Hospitalized in Vegas Says He Was Sickened by Ricin
A man who has been hospitalized since Valentine’s Day with respiratory ailments and failing kidneys told his brother he believes he was contaminated by the deadly ricin poison found in his Las Vegas motel room.
Roger Bergendorff regained consciousness on Wednesday but remains in critical condition at a Las Vegas medical center.
His younger brother, Erich Bergendorff, told The Associated Press that they spoke briefly on the telephone Sunday for the first time since the ricin was found, and said Roger claimed he had never had any intention of endangering anyone with the toxin.
“He did mention that he would have never done anything to anybody,” said Erich Bergendorff. “He himself is under the impression he was contaminated by it — he did mention the ricin and seemed to say something like, ‘Gee, it sure worked on me.”‘
Erich Bergendorff said his brother told him the ricin was easy to make. But he added that his brother, who was on a ventilator until last week, still had a hard time speaking clearly, so it was not clear whether Roger Bergendorff made it himself or watched someone else manufacture the powder.
Searchers find possible graves at Manson compound
Bone-white stretches of salt, leached up from the lifeless soil, lay like a shroud over the high desert where a paranoid Charles Manson holed up after an orgy of murder nearly four decades ago.
Now, as then, few venture into this alkaline wilderness — gold-diggers, outlaws, loners content to live and let live.
But a determined group of outsiders recently made the trek. They were leading forensic investigators searching for new evidence of death — clues pointing to possible decades-old clandestine graves.
And the results of just-completed followup tests suggest bodies could indeed be lying beneath the parched ground. The test findings — described in detail to The Associated Press, which had accompanied the site search — conclude there are two likely clandestine grave sites at Barker Ranch, and one additional site that merits further investigation.
Next step, the ad hoc investigators urge: Dig.
Backyard Body Count Up To 33 In Mexico
Mexican investigators found 19 more bodies buried in the backyard of a house in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, increasing the tally of corpses found there to 33, officials said Thursday.
Federal agents began digging in the yard in the La Cuesta neighborhood on March 1, initially finding six dismembered bodies, Mexico’s federal attorney general’s office said in a statement.
The remains date back about five years and all but three apparently are males, the statement said.
Click here to find out more!The attorney general’s office did not say how the victims died or who may have buried the bodies. In the initial raid, authorities found 3,740 pounds of marijuana in the house.
Ciudad Juarez has been plagued by violence as Mexico’s crackdown on powerful drug cartels stokes turf wars among traffickers that have been linked to hundreds of killings in the past two years.
Hat tip to Kara!
Youth aged 15 ‘kicked a woman to death because she was a Goth’
A drunken 15-year-old boy stamped to death a young student because she was dressed in the distinctive fashion of a ‘Goth’, a court was told yesterday.
Sophie Lancaster, 20, and her boyfriend Robert Maltby, 21, had been meandering home through a skate park late on a Friday night when they were set upon by a gang of teenagers in a savage and unprovoked attack, the jury heard.
The five-strong gang acted “like a pack of wild animals”, first targeting their violence on Mr Maltby, an arts student also dressed in the style of a Goth or mosher, raining punches and kicks on his head as Miss Lancaster pleaded with them to stop, it was alleged. It was as Miss Lancaster was kneeling down cradling her boyfriend’s head that the accused, along with another teenager who has already pleaded guilty to murder, are said to have turned their attention to her.
The two teenagers kicked and stamped on her head, the jury at Preston Crown Court was told.
Probers check to see if Eliot Spitzer used tax dollars for trysts
As Gov. Spitzer held the state hostage to negotiate a sweet plea deal Tuesday night, probers looked to see if he used tax dollars for trysts with high-priced hookers totaling up to $80,000.
A source familiar with the probe said IRS and FBI investigators found at least nine instances going back 18 months in which Spitzer made multiple cash transfers linked to Emperors Club VIP, a high-priced prostitution ring.
Although the cash used to pay for a $4,300 prostitute named “Kristen” apparently came from Spitzer’s account, he used taxpayer dollars to fly to and from his .illicit rendezvous.
Investigators are looking to see whether he used state money for the hotel rooms.
Spitzer May Have Spent Tens of Thousands
With pressure mounting on Gov. Eliot Spitzer to resign over a call-girl scandal, investigators said Tuesday he was clearly a repeat customer who spent tens of thousands of dollars — perhaps as much as $80,000 — with the high-priced prostitution service over an extended period of time.
Spitzer and his family, meanwhile, remained secluded in their Fifth Avenue apartment, while Republicans began talking impeachment, and few if any fellow Democrats came forward to defend him. A death watch of sorts began at the state Capitol, where whispers of “What have you heard?” echoed through nearly every hallway of the ornate, 109-year-old building.
John Denver karaoke sparks Thai killing spree
A gunman in Thailand shot-dead eight neighbours, including his brother-in-law, after tiring of their karaoke versions of popular songs, including John Denver’s Country Roads.
Weenus Chumkamnerd, 52, put his gun to the head of a respected female doctor and seven of her guests as they partied at her home in Songkhla Province, South Thailand.
“When I began shooting nobody pleaded for his life because they were all drunk,” he said after his arrest.
He said he was so furious with their awful singing that he did not notice he had murdered his own brother-in-law.
“I warned these people about their noisy karaoke parties. I said if they carried on I would go down and shoot them. I had told them if I couldn’t talk sense into them I would come back and finish them off,” he added.
Woman gets 2 years for breakup-bomb hoax
A woman who called in a bomb threat to an airport in an attempt to break up with her boyfriend was sentenced to two years in prison, the U.S. attorney’s office said Wednesday.
April Wormly, 36, of Hobbs, N.M., also was ordered to pay $19,761 in restitution for phoning in the threat to San Antonio International Airport.
Federal prosecutors say she admitted calling the airport several times April 21 to claim there was a bomb aboard a Southwest Airlines flight bound for Dallas. Five of the 36 phone calls were recorded, prosecutors said in a statement.
Police Find Woman’s Body on Ice in California Hotel Room
Police discovered the body of a woman packed in a large container with dry ice in a hotel room as they were serving a search warrant in a cocaine investigation, authorities said.
Detectives found the fully clothed and “well preserved” body late Thursday after arresting a guest at the Fairmont Newport Beach for investigation of selling and possessing cocaine on the hotel grounds, police Sgt. Evan Sailor said Friday.
When they searched Stephen David Royds’ room, they found the body inside a Rubbermaid container filled with dry ice, he said.
“It’s definitely weird,” Sailor said.
Dad Who Burned Kids in Dryer: Thought They Could Have a Good Time Without Money
A Hutchinson man is on trial this week on charges he put his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son in a hot clothes dryer.
In a videotaped interview with detectives shown in court Wednesday, Aron Pritchard said he put the children in the dryer to show them they could have a good time without much money. An hour later, the dryer had become hot and the boy had second-degree burns.
Pritchard told the detective that he didn’t mean for the boy to get hurt.
Golfer Faces Charges in Hawk Killing
PGA Tour golfer Tripp Isenhour was charged with killing a hawk on purpose with a golf shot because it was making noise as he videotaped a TV show
Isenhour was with a film crew for “Shoot Like A Pro” on Dec. 12 at the Grand Cypress Golf course. The 39-year-old golfer, whose real name is John Henry Isenhour III, was charged Monday with cruelty to animals and killing a migratory bird.
According to court documents, Isenhour got upset when a red-shouldered hawk began making noise, forcing another take. He began hitting balls at the bird, then 300 yards away, but gave up.
Isenhour started again when the hawk moved within about 75 yards, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer Brian Baine indicated in a report.
Isenhour allegedly said “I’ll get him now,” and aimed for the hawk.
“About the sixth ball came very near the bird’s head, and (Isenhour) was very excited that it was so close,” Baine wrote.
A few shots later, witnesses said he hit the hawk. The bird, protected as a migratory species, fell to the ground bleeding from both nostrils.
Hat tip to Kara!
The new buyers of a rundown graystone on the South Side showed up Jan. 9 to look at the house they won at a foreclosure auction. They took the plywood off the front door and went inside to make sure the utilities had been shut off. Then they called the police.
Sitting upright in the corner of a bedroom off the kitchen was a human skeleton in a red tracksuit. Next to him lay a dead dog. Neighbors told police the corpse was almost certainly Randy Johnson, a middle-age man who lived alone in the North Kenwood house.
The cause of Johnson’s death has not yet been determined, but it is just one of the mysteries about 4578 S. Oakenwald Ave. Somehow, Johnson’s house was transferred three times to new owners without anyone noticing he was inside. It’s a story involving forged deeds, a corrupt title company and a South Side family that has been under investigation for mortgage fraud.
Left holding the bag is Countrywide Home Loans, the nation’s largest mortgage lender and a company whose practices are being scrutinized by the Illinois attorney general’s office. Countrywide made mortgages of $450,000 on the property. Now it is likely to lose it all because it financed the sale of a home whose rightful owner was in no condition to sell.
“Scary find” made in Gaston Co.
A trooper in Gaston County said he stopped a man for speeding on Interstate 85, but discovered a lot more once looking inside the vehicle.
The trooper said Milan Krivsky had identification from several states and a West Virginia registration.
When the trooper looked inside the SUV, he says he found a radar gun, video monitor, digital video and audio equipment, laptops, cell phones and blue lights. Other items found inside, such as various kinds of tape and cutting devices, could also be a cause for concern.
“There’s a lot of disturbing things we found inside of the vehicle,” said Trooper J.J. Letcavage. “I would definitely fear the worst, anywhere from a possible abduction to physical harm. I have no doubt in my mind that that would be a capability of this guy.”
BBC: Hells Angels sought to kill Jagger
Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger escaped an assassination plot hatched in 1969 by the Hells Angels, a new British Broadcasting Corp. documentary has claimed.
A program to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Monday says the rock star was the target of the plot following a purported dispute with the motorcycle gang over concert security.
Jagger had vowed not to use Hells Angel members as bouncers following the death in December 1969 of an 18-year-old fan at a notorious free performance at Altamont Speedway in Northern California.
In return, gang members hatched a plan to kill Jagger at his holiday home in Long Island, N.Y., the BBC claimed.
Man Butchers 15-Month-Old Nephew in Jeddah Supermarket
Early morning shoppers at a supermarket in Jeddah were left reeling yesterday, with some falling unconscious, after a well-built Syrian man clinched a knife and decapitated his 15-month-old nephew in front of his mother in the store’s fruit and vegetable section.
In a brutal murder that has shocked the city, the 25-year-old man beheaded the boy, who was out shopping with his mother — in full glare of shoppers and staff at Al-Marhaba supermarket on Sari Street around 9.30 a.m. The man, who is the boy’s maternal uncle, apparently killed the boy following a dispute with his sister and brother-in-law.
Eyewitnesses said that the man picked up a knife from inside the store and severed the boy’s head. The mother and a shopper standing close by fainted, while several other stood in shock and disbelief over what had happened.
Alleged robber leaves W-2 form
The robber of a convenience store left behind an unusual clue — a W-2 form. The man robbed a Git-N-Go store in Des Moines early Friday after telling a clerk he had a gun. He left the store with about $115 but at some point took off his hat and jacket.
When police responded, they found the tax form in the coat pocket.
Pool hall patrons scratch holdup try
The pool cue can be mightier than the gun.
That seemed to be the message sent by patrons of a San Francisco pool hall Friday night when they disarmed an alleged would-be robber.
San Francisco police said Mario K. Woods, 18, entered the crowded Billiard Palacade in the Outer Mission shortly after 10 p.m. and allegedly attempted to rob a patron at gunpoint in the bathroom.
But the patron – a carambolero, or player of a three-ball form of billiards called carambole – wrestled with his assailant, according to pool hall owner Mirna Batres. The patron’s brother and cousin came to his aid.
“They brought him out, and somebody else grabbed the gun,” said Batres, who wasn’t present during the robbery attempt but watched it afterward on a security videotape. “Then my patrons got involved and said, ‘Not in our pool room.’ “
Toxin mystery at Las Vegas motel deepens
As police tried to piece together how a rare, deadly poison ended up in a motel for transients, the 57-year-old man who could hold the key lay unconscious in a hospital.
Adding to the mystery, police said firearms and an “anarchist type textbook” were found in the same room where the ricin was discovered two days later.
Capt. Joseph Lombardo said at a news conference late Friday that the book was tabbed at a spot with information about ricin. Police found the firearms and books on Tuesday after a manager at the Extended Stay America motel called police upon discovering weapons, he said, without elaborating.
Deadly toxin found at Las Vegas hotel
Police in Las Vegas, Nevada, are investigating the discovery of the deadly poison ricin in a hotel room Thursday.
Authorities were called to an Extended Stay America hotel around 3 p.m. after a man brought a bag holding a small container to the manager’s office. The man said he found it while retrieving items from a hotel room.
It’s “100 percent ricin,” said Capt. Joe Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. “We don’t know who (the ricin) belongs to or why it would be here at this time.”
Rogue wheat trader costs $141.5m
A rogue trader dealing in wheat future contracts has caused his company more than $140m (£70m) in losses.
Trading giant, MF Global, said it detected unusual trades at one of its US offices on Wednesday.
It found that an employee had been taking large, unauthorised bets on the direction of wheat prices, which cost the company $141.5m to reverse.
Tourist has penis chopped in D.R
A British tourist is recovering in the Dominican Republic after mystery attackers apparently tried to slice off his penis.
Alan Reed, 43, was found lying in a pool of blood by his fiancée Ellie Rothery, 21, after a night out in the popular resort of Cabarete near Puerto Plata.
Reed, who claims not to remember very much about his ordeal, is expected to fully recover.
“I have a lot of stitches and I’m still in a lot of pain but it could be a lot worse,” he said Wednesday. “The doctors have sewn me up and have told me there’ll be no long term damage.
The pair, both from London, separated after Rothery accompanied a pal to a nearby taxi stand at the end of a dinner. When she returned, Reed was gone.
Rothery said she spent nearly two hours combing the town and nearby beach in search of him after he disappeared from the restaurant table she left him at, before heading back to their hotel and finding him lying semi-conscious on their bed.
Hat tip to Kara!
Biker surprise for Sydney robbers
Two armed robbers who targeted a Sydney bar that was hosting a bikers’ meeting must have “failed robber school”, said the club’s chairman.
The men stormed the bar brandishing machetes and wearing balaclavas – unaware that 50 bikers were holding a meeting in an adjoining room.
Alerted to the robbery, some of the bikers chased the men as they fled.
One was caught after trying to escape through a back door. He was later treated in hospital for minor injuries.
The other man ran off but was arrested by police in a street nearby.
Officers trying to track down a drug dealer in Ohio stumbled across two alligators guarding his back door instead.
The snipping and snapping gators were far from full-sized – one was about two feet long and the other was about four feet long – but were scary enough to make a team of tough federal marshals and Dayton, Ohio police officers call for help.
“Nobody wanted to play catch a gator,” said William Taylor, supervisory deputy US Marshal.
“We haven’t got any Crocodile Dundees on the task force,” he joked, adding that the marshals are having fun putting on fake Australian accents as he made reference to the adventurous croc hunter from the Hollywood movie.
Cocaine galore! £7m of Colombia’s finest washes up on Cornish beaches
Frank Partridge is partial to a spot of beachcombing. He likes to pop down to Pentreath Beach on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall and find out what odds and ends have been washed in by the tide.
But rather than the usual hunks of weather-beaten wood and pieces of broken lobster pot, Partridge’s latest expedition yielded a rather more valuable haul – a package of cocaine with a street value of more than £1m.
As a law-abiding citizen – and clerk of the local parish council – Partridge knew he had to had to prevent the drugs from falling into the wrong hands.
“I thought if I didn’t take it, someone who might not go to the police would.” So he dragged the 25kg (55lb) package off the beach and rolled it home in a wheelbarrow.”
Cops say driver was unaware he was missing a wheel
There may have been a reason that Jeffrey Ho lost control of his car and hit a stop sign and a snowbank on Rose Hill Avenue early Sunday.
Besides being intoxicated, that is.
Police said the 24-year-old Katonah, N.Y. man’s vehicle was missing it’s right front wheel when they arrived at the accident scene about 3:15 a.m., and Ho had no idea that it was gone.
Police started looking for Ho’s car after receiving a call from the Food Bag on West Street about a vehicle leaving the convenience store, minus the wheel. They found the car a short distance away, with Ho behind the wheel. The driver did know he was in Danbury, Lt. Shaun McColgan said, although he misidentified the officers who were questioning him as “Danbury State Troopers.” Ho also knew that he was intoxicated, but said that was alright, because “he wasn’t driving.’”
Gynecologist Accused of Mutilating, Abusing Hundreds of Women
Australian police have launched an investigation into the rogue doctor, known as the Butcher of Bega, who is accused of mutilating and sexually abusing hundreds of women.
As ex-doctor Graeme Reeves, of Castle Hill, New South Wales, went into hiding Monday, The Daily Telegraph can reveal that other doctors accused of serious misconduct, including removing the wrong breast from a cancer victim, continue to practice.
Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione’s office confirmed allegations made against Graeme Reeves by hundreds of women across the state was likely to be referred to the state crime command.
As many as 500 of his female patients have come forward with complaints that Reeves sexually assaulted them or mutilated their genitals during operations performed when he was illegally practicing as an obstetrician on the South Coast.
Police arrest man suspected of having sex with a dog
A woman responding to a break-in in her garage found a man having sexual intercourse with her 4-year-old female rottweiler, police said Wednesday.
The woman called police Tuesday night after finding the 20-year-old man.
Police arrested the man, who they say had a prior conviction for the same crime less than six months ago.
“This is the first time that I’ve ever seen this… and I’ve been in law enforcement a long time,” said Lt. Sam Hanley, who leads the department’s sex crimes unit.
The man was booked into Sedgwick County Jail on suspicion of criminal sodomy and aggravated burglary.
The burglary was included because the man is suspected of breaking into the garage while someone was home, police said.
Mexican drug hitmen kill singer near U.S. border
Drug hitmen have killed a popular Mexican singer along with his manager and assistant near the U.S. border, authorities said on Wednesday, the latest murder among musicians who sing “narcocorrido” ballads glorifying drug traffickers.
The body of Jesus Rey David Alfaro, known as “The Little Rooster,” was one of six that turned up tortured, murdered and pinned with threatening messages for Mexico’s army last week in the border town of Tijuana near San Diego.
“We believe Alfaro had links to the Arellano Felix cartel,” said an official with the Baja California state attorney general’s office who declined to be named.
Danish police arrest almost 30 people in 8th night of youth violence
Nearly 30 people were arrested for setting fires to buildings, cars and trash bins in an eight consecutive night of youth violence in Danish cities, mostly in immigrant neighborhoods, police said Monday.
The violence appears to be subsiding after peaking over the weekend, police said.
It was not clear what triggered the unrest, which started on Feb. 10. Some observers say the youth are frustrated over police harassment and the reprinting of a cartoon lampooning the Prophet Muhammad.
Danish newspapers reproduced the drawing on Wednesday to show their commitment to free speech after police foiled an alleged plot to kill the cartoonist who created it.
About 90 fires were reported late Sunday in Copenhagen and other Danish cities, mostly small fires in trash bins and cars, police said. No one was injured.
Arrests on 7th night of unrest across Denmark
Angry youths who have been setting fires in immigrant neighborhoods across Denmark for seven consecutive nights should expect no sympathy from society, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Sunday.
“I think it will be the opposite, that a lot of people will turn their backs on them,” the prime minister said in interview with Denmark’s TV2 news channel.
It was the first time he had commented publicly on the weeklong youth violence that has kept police and firefighters busy in cities across Denmark.
It’s not clear what triggered the unrest but some observers say youths from Denmark’s immigrant communities were protesting against perceived police harassment, and suggested Wednesday’s reprinting of a cartoon lampooning the Prophet Muhammad may have aggravated the situation.
Fatal 44 shots of tequila served to boy
Two bartenders were convicted of grievous bodily harm by a Berlin state court on Monday for their role in serving at least 44 shots of tequila to a 16-year-old German boy who died after the drinking binge.
The court sentenced the two men, aged 21 and 18, to 10 months of social training.
A third bartender was acquitted while the trial for a fourth bartender, who is facing more serious charges of bodily harm with fatal consequences, has not yet started.
‘Penis murder’ like a Hitchcock horror
A SYDNEY man accused of murdering his former wife’s lover has told a jury he was provoked into cutting off the man’s penis.
The NSW Supreme Court has been told Gabor Ziha repeatedly stabbed Barry Corbett who was in bed with his estranged wife, Marija Ziha.
A human penis was found in the bedside drawer on top of a magazine, the jury of 11 men and one woman has been told.
Ziha has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Corbett, 58, on August 1, 2006, in a flat at Parramatta in Sydney’s west.
7 Killed As Car Hits Md. Drag-Race Crowd
A car plowed into a crowd that had gathered to watch a drag race on a suburban road early Saturday, killing seven people and injuring at least four, police said.
Witnesses said they had just watched two cars in the illegal street race speed past when a car without any lights on came up behind them and veered into a crowd of about 50.
“There were just bodies everywhere; it was horrible,” said Crystal Gaines, 27, whose father was among the dead.
Gaines said she grabbed her child but could not help her father, William Gaines Sr., 61.
“He wasn’t breathing, he wasn’t moving,” she said. “His body was in pieces.”
Vikings Go On Rampage At Lodge
Presumedly seeking revenge against the Mid-Atlantic Hockey League for calling it quits in the middle of the season, several players with the Jamestown Vikings trashed the historic Vikings Lodge on the corner of Washington and West Fourth Street early Thursday, leaving most of the building in shambles.
Trash and debris were everywhere, especially on the second and third floors where the stench of beer and rotting food was almost overpowering. Bar stools were smashed through doors, and virtually every piece of glass in the building had been shattered, the broken shards unavoidable underfoot.
Man Accused of Posting Bond for Strangers in Exchange for Sex
A man is accused of using court records as a way to find victims for sex crimes. An alert judge stopped him in his tracks. Jason Lee is a registered sex offender. He is accused of looking up women on the Clerk of Court’s website. Lee is now behind bars on un-related charges.
In this developing story alert, Local 12’s Richard Jordan shares how the judge sensed something was wrong.
So far, Lee is accused of posting bond for two different women, women he never met before, but the move was not an act of goodwill, there was an ulterior motive.
“After 21 years up here, this little bell went off and I said, what are you doing here, and he said he posted her bond.”
Badri Patarkatsishvili Death Was Suspicious After Georgia Plot Claims
The sudden death of an exiled Georgian billionaire may have been another “Alexander Litvinenko-style” murder, it is feared.
Badri PatarkatsishviliA major crime squad is investigating the death of 52-year-old Badri Patarkatsishvili, whose body was found at his country mansion in Surrey at about 11pm last night.
His family said he suffered a heart attack – but Surrey Police have launched an investigation to confirm the exact cause of death after reports of a plot to kill him.
However, officers say there is no suggestion any radioactive substance were involved in his death.
Sky News’ home affairs correspondent Mark White said: “The police want to leave no stone uncovered.
New York Psychologist Hacked to Death in Meat Cleaver Attack at Her Office
Police have identified the 56-year-old psychologist who was hacked to death with a meat cleaver at her office on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Police were searching for a male suspect in the Tuesday night killing of Kathryn Faughey at her office on East 79th Street. She lived across the street.
Police say a male therapist who attempted to assist Faughey during the attack was also seriously injured with cuts to his face and was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill/Cornell. He has not been identified.
