hijacker D.B. Cooper, who leapt from a commercial jet in 1971 after collecting a $US200,000 ransom.

Tattered, half-buried parachute found in a rugged region in the north-west of the United States state may yield clues to the fate of the robber behind a daring high-altitude hijacking 36 years ago.The FBI is examing the find to see if it belonged to hijacker D.B. Cooper, who leapt from a commercial jet in 1971 after collecting a $US200,000 ransom.FBI investigators have for years said Cooper most likely did not survive the jump from 3000 metres, but the hijacker's body has never been found.FBI agent Larry Carr said that earlier this month, children playing outside their home near the town of Amboy in Oregon state recently found fabric sticking...

Read more »

Canadian Mohamed Kohail a Saudi court sentenced Kohail and his friend, Muhanna Masoud, to execution.

Case of Mohamed Kohail was an important item on the minister’s agenda. “Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier has already written to his Saudi counterpart to review the sentence,” Day said.Kohail was convicted of killing a teenager, Munzer Hiraki, in a schoolyard brawl in Jeddah. On March 3, a Saudi court sentenced Kohail and his friend, Muhanna Masoud, to execution.There have been media reports, however, that Hiraki’s death was due to a heart condition. Kohail has 80 days to appeal from the date of the ruling. He was arrested, along with his brother Sultan last spring, and imprisoned in Jeddah. Sultan’s fate remains unclear. There has been a demand that Ottawa investigate allegations that confessions were obtained under duress. Kohail’s family spent several years in Montreal before...

Read more »

Riyadh Thirty criminal suspects of various nationalities have been arrested

Authorities raided 19 homes in a predawn operation in the capital’s Al-Faisaliyah district, netting over 30 suspected drug traffickers. “The element of surprise was a crucial factor in the raid,” a spokesperson for Riyadh police said.The police said the order to conduct the raids was given by Riyadh Gov. Prince Salman after authorities received information that dozens of homes there were used as shelters for covered up drug smuggling operations. “Thirty criminal suspects of various nationalities have been arrested,” the spokesperson said. “In addition, the raid netted a number of (other) suspects wanted for various crimes and drug offenses.”Police seized a large number of narcotic pills (probably Captagon) and hashish in the ra...

Read more »

Leonard Trujillo extradited to face charges of conspiring to kill convicted Greenwich real estate developer Kissel

Leonard Trujillo, 21, of 63-13 Outlook Drive, Worcester, did not enter a plea at his brief arraignment yesterday in state Superior Court in Stamford, where he was represented by Public Defender Benjamin Aponte. In requesting a $1 million bond, Assistant State Attorney Paul Ferencek told Judge Robin Pavia that Trujillo was a U.S. Army veteran who had served 10 months in a military prison on a unrelated crime and is unemployed. "He has no connection to the state of Connecticut, and we feel the level of bond is appropriate," Ferencek said. Aponte did not object to the bond but reserved the right to seek a reduction at a later date. Trujillo and...

Read more »

Finnish man stabbed to death in Pattaya, Thailand

A 64-year-old Finnish man was stabbed to death in Pattaya, Thailand, late on Monday night. As reported in the local daily Pattaya Daily News, the man was found assaulted in his room in the Grand Condotel Hotel near Jomtien Beach. The man had been stabbed over fifty times. He died of his injuries in hospital. According to the Finnish late-edition tabloid Ilta-Sanomat, the Thai police suspect two local Thai men of the attack. The men had forced their way into the Finnish man’s room. According to the Pattaya Daily News, the man had managed to drag himself onto his balcony to call for help. As a leg amputee, the man suffered from restricted mobility.A woman living in the next-door room heard the man’s cries and called for assistance.There were plenty of signs of struggle in the man's room, and...

Read more »

Danny Ware just broke your car window

Danny Ware, 39, of Winkelman, Ariz., was being held without bond Sunday in Lake County Jail. He was arrested Friday on preliminary charges of auto theft, fleeing, resisting law enforcement, driving with a suspended license and criminal mischief.Ware walked into a Gary police station Friday and said he was afraid gang-bangers had followed him from a bus station in Chicago to the Gary bus terminal, said Gary police Cmdr. Samuel Roberts. Ware asked for a police escort back to the bus station, and Cpl. Jeffery Patrick prepared to give him a ride.Roberts said there was no evidence Ware was being pursued by anyone, and officers were concerned about his mental stability.While Patrick left his car running and locked outside the police station and went inside to talk to desk workers, Ware broke out...

Read more »

Yair Klein Israeli merc wanted by Colombian government

The lawyer of an Israeli mercenary wanted by Colombian authorities for allegedly training guerrillas has appealed against a Moscow court decision to extradite him to Colombia.The appeal against the court's decision has been sent to the Russian Supreme Court. "In the appeal, the defense is asking to overrule the Moscow City Court's decision," the court's spokesperson said on Friday. Earlier this month the Moscow City Court approved a decision by the Russian prosecutor general's office to extradite Yair Klein to Colombia. Klein, a former Israeli army officer, was convicted in 2001 in absentia and sentenced to 10 years in prison for training far-right paramilitary groups in the South American country. He was also accused of working as a mercenary for Pablo Escobar's Medellin drug cartel in the...

Read more »

Sebastian Horsley denied entry to the U.S.My one concession to American sensibilities was to remove my nail polish

British writer and self-styled dandy Sebastian Horsley has been denied entry to the U.S. after arriving to promote his memoir of sex, drugs and flamboyant fashion.Horsley said Thursday that he was questioned for eight hours Tuesday by border officials at Newark airport in New Jersey before being denied entry on grounds of "moral turpitude."Horsley, 45, was travelling to New York for the U.S. launch of "Dandy in the Underworld," his account of a life dedicated to sex, drugs and finely tailored clothes."They knew more about me than I did," Horsley said Thursday from his London home. "They said, 'We know you're a heroin addict, we know you're a...

Read more »

William MacAllistYou can't be a little pregnant and you also can't be a little involved in criminality. You're either in it all the way or you're not.

William MacAllister said as much this morning during a National Parole Board hearing at a federal corrections institution in Laval where he was questioned about why he has spent much of his 65 years behind bars. The panel of two parole board members, Odette Gravel-Dunberry and Gilles Roussel, granted MacAllister full parole, a freedom he hasn't experienced in 15 years. Gravel-Dunberry, the NPB's regional vice-chairman in Quebec, described it as "a major decision." This is in part because MacAllister, who received a life sentence for his role in the September 1973 holdup of a Brink's armoured truck, violated his parole twice before. Claude Vienneau, 35, a Brink's guard, was shot and killed during the $270,000 robbery. Another Brink's guard was wounded. MacAllister was convicted by a jury who...

Read more »

custom built terminator model vehicle complete with gadgets designed to deter arrest.

Police in Mexico have come across a new weapon being used by the country's drug cartels - a custom built terminator model vehicle complete with gadgets designed to deter arrest. The car was abandoned by the gang members after a shoot-out. The police and army sent to fight Mexico's drug cartels have seen most things - sophisticated rocket launchers, powerful assault rifles and gold-plated pistols. But in the northern state of Tamaulipas even they were shocked to come across a Jeep Grande Cherokee kitted out with its own anti-police gadgets. Inside was a smoke machine and a device to spray spikes onto the road behind - the purpose to make a getaway easier and stop the car from being followed. Mexico is plagued by drug-related gang violence It is not known if the gadgets were ever used. The vehicle...

Read more »

Nai Yin Xue arrived in New Zealand under US guard

Nai Yin Xue, 53, appeared in the Auckland District Court yesterday almost six months after sparking an international manhunt.He fled to the United States after abandoning his three-year-old daughter, Qian Xun Xue — nicknamed Pumpkin — at Melbourne's Southern Cross Station in September. A few days later the body of his wife, Anan Liu, 27, was found in the boot of his car outside their Auckland home.Xue was captured in the US late last month. He arrived in New Zealand under US guard early yesterday and was charged with his wife's murder.Looking tired, he stood impassively in the dock. He was not required to enter a plea but occasionally nodded during the short hearing.Prosecutors dropped a charge of unlawful removal of Qian Xun from her mother.Judge Eddie Paul remanded Xue and adjourned proceedings...

Read more »

Organised criminal gangs are policing parts of the internet

Organised criminal gangs are policing parts of the internet to stop hackers interrupting lucrative global scams, it has been claimed.Hi-tech fraudsters are shutting down electronic troublemakers before they can hamper their illegal trade, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) said.Sharon Lemon, who is deputy director responsible for e-crime, said the vast majority of criminals operating on the internet are motivated by money.A previous generation of "show-offs" who created programmes aimed at simply causing widespread damage to networks are dying out.One of the best known examples was the "I Love You" worm, a type of self-replicating computer programme, which caused huge damage worldwide in 2000.Mrs Lemon said some cheats act as online enforcers in ways that mirror territorial criminal...

Read more »

Attack on the toddler in Valhalla Park has shocked Capetonians

Police have arrested a neighbour of two-year-old Randolene Fortune who died last week after being raped, allegedly by a 30-year-old family friend.Police spokesperson Superintendent Billy Jones said the man was arrested by Bishop Lavis police on Saturday at 11.30am in the Airport Industria area.He said the suspect would appear in the Bishop Lavis Magistrate's Court on Monday where he would face charges of murder and rape.The attack on the toddler in Valhalla Park on Thursday has shocked Capetonians.Jones said police had managed to speak to the suspect who told them he was too frightened to hand himself over. But he agreed to meet them in Airport Industria, where he was arrest...

Read more »

13 to 17-year-olds sold sexual services for money

Police are investigating cases where 13 to 17-year-olds sold sexual services for money - although they say that alcohol, drugs, CD's, jeans and clothes are an even more common form of payment. Around one in three underage prostitutes are boys, but as far as police know, all of the customers have been men.More and more men are buying sex from minors, reports the Helsingin Sanomat's web edition. The paper says that 178 such cases have come to the police's attention just in the past year - but that this is believed to be just the tip of the iceberg. The crime is difficult to track, as both buyer and seller are keen to keep the transaction secret. While prostitution is legal in Finland, buying sex from minors is not. Prevention or investigation of child prostitution is extremely difficult, as...

Read more »