UVF supergrass trial

 

Fourteen alleged members of the UVF, including one of its former leaders Mark Haddock, are due to appear at Belfast Crown Court on Tuesday for the start of the first so-called "supergrass" trial to be held in Northern Ireland for 26 years. The charges include the murder of leading UDA member Tommy English during a loyalist feud. Critics say the process being used is unsafe and unjust, while the police and prosecutors insist it is legally sound. Our Home Affairs Correspondent Vincent Kearney looks at the background to the case. The police bristle at the very mention of the word "supergrass" because of its association with a series of high profile trials in the 1980s. Hundreds of republicans and loyalists were convicted on the word of informers and suspects who agreed to give evidence against them in return for reduced sentences and new identities and lives outside Northern Ireland. There were claims that many also received financial rewards. The deals were arranged at a political level, approved by the Secretary of State, and the details were secret. No-one, not the defence teams, the relatives of victims, nor the accused, knew anything, and in many cases there were question marks over whether convicted informers actually served any time in prison at all. Credibility The trials were the largest in British criminal history. In one in 1983, 22 IRA members were given jail terms totalling more than 4,000 years. But 18 of them had their convictions quashed three years later, and the vast majority of the others convicted in a series of similar trials were also released on appeal. The system collapsed in 1985 because of concerns about the credibility of the evidence provided by the so-called supergrasses, with members of the judiciary complaining that they were being used as political tools to implement government security policy. The police and prosecutors say the trial starting today is based on an entirely different legal foundation. The investigation has centred around the activities of the UVF in the Mount Vernon estate in north Belfast New legislation introduced in 2005, the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, enables an accused to enter into a written agreement indicating that they will help the prosecution by giving evidence against other criminals. Where this happens, the court may take this into account when passing sentence. The journey that led to the trial beginning today began with an investigation by the former Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan into the activities of the UVF in Mount Vernon in north Belfast. In January 2007, she published the results of Operation Ballast. 'Impunity' It was a highly critical report which said members of RUC Special Branch had allowed UVF informers to act with impunity, and that the gang may have been involved in up to 15 murders. Mark Haddock wasn't named in the report, but was referred to as Informant 1. Alarmed by the findings, the then Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Orde, asked the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) to take over Operation Ballast. Then, in 2008, two brothers, Robert and David Stewart walked into Antrim police station, admitting that they were members of the UVF, and their role in more than 70 offences. They offered to give evidence against a number of alleged former comrades under the teams of the 2005 legislation. The HET then spent more than a year debriefing them, and arresting suspects as they went along. But, despite being given additional funding, the investigation became too big for the team to handle. In December 2009, the case was given over to the PSNI. The investigation is now led by Crime Operations Department headed by Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris, and is now called Operation Stafford. As a result, just over four and a half years after Nuala O'Loan published her report, Mark Haddock and 13 others will appear in court on Tuesday. They will appear before a judge sitting without a jury because of fears of intimidation. Haddock and eight others are charged with the murder of Tommy English and a range of other offences. The remaining five face a range of charges, possession of firearms, kidnap and assault. The latest investigation into the Mount Vernon UVF began following a report by the former Police Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan Sealed containers The two chief prosecution witnesses, the Stewart brothers, have been held in isolation at Maghaberry prison, protected by a team of highly trained guards. Their food is brought into the prison in sealed containers to ensure they are not poisoned. They have admitted a total of 74 offences, but were sentenced to just three years each because the judge took into account their offer to testify. Their sentence was determined in open court, not secretly by the Secretary of State. The 2005 legislation contains penalties. If it emerges that the assisting offender is guilty of serious crimes they may not have admitted to, they are in breach of the agreement. If this is discovered after the trial, they can be re-arrested and charged with the additional offences. If they tell the truth but re-offend at a later stage, they can be re-arrested and charged. Supporters say this system is much more open and transparent than the discredited system used in the 1980s. Those on trial, and their families and supporters, insist that only the name has changed.

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Nine people stabbed to death, five killed in a deliberately set fire and an innocent grandmother’s body shoved in the trunk of her own car.

 

These troubling deaths are just a portion of Winnipeg’s climbing homicide cases this year. As of Thursday, Winnipeg has 29 homicides recorded, well above last year’s total of 22. Winnipeg’s deadliest year on record was 2004 when there was 34. “The numbers are a lot higher than we would like to see,” said Const. Jason Michalyshen, Winnipeg police spokesman. “It’s concerning to us, and it should be concerning to everyone.” The latest victim is Joseph Lalonde, 48, who was brutally beaten with a baseball bat. Two 15-year-old boys were charged with second-degree murder. A total of 10 youths have been charged in connection to the 2011 deaths. Michalyshen said it’s been a challenging year. “Our resources have been very busy making sure no stone is unturned, making sure that these investigations are investigated thoroughly, and arrests are made,” he said. Three cases are unsolved — Cara Lynn Hiebert, 31, was found dead in her home on Redwood Avenue on July 19; Baljinder Singh Sidhu, 27, was stabbed to death during a brawl on Osborne Street on Aug. 5; and 24-year-old April Hornbrook was found dead outside a building on Main Street on Aug. 27. Many violent crimes continue to occur in Winnipeg’s North End, a concerning stat for Coun. Harvey Smith (Daniel McIntyre). “The communities have to be working together and you don’t really have enough of that in the North End,” Smith said. “You have to have recreational activities, and ... I tend to think we should get more support for Citizens on Patrol.” Edmonton has the most homicides in Canada, with 34. Calgary has just three. “We’re very fortunate right now, but that could change before the end of the year,” said Calgary police Insp. Cliff O’Brien, who works in that city’s major crimes unit. O’Brien said there’s “no magical answer” for why the numbers are so low, but gave credit to the good work of officers and medical staff. Calgary police has a gang suppression team, who monitor entertainment districts, targeting known gang or organized crime members. “We have legislation here where we can kick people out if we can prove they’re associated with a gang,” he said. “That has helped us a lot.” O’Brien admits there’s a certain “element of luck.” “We’ve had those high rates before and I know that we will have those high rates again.”

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Contract Killing On The Increase In Costa Rica

 

According to the Sección de Estadísticas del Departamento de Planificación del Poder Judicial (Statistics Section of the Planning Department of the Judiciary) the number of murders presumed by hired killers in 2010, went from 13 victims in 2009 to 40 in 2010, placing the La Carpio, Leon XIII, Los Cuadros y Guararí de Heredia as the places of highest incidence. Judicial authorities presume that organized crime groups, use this method to assert their interests in various criminal activities, as they are listed in order of importance: drug trafficking, gang revenge, robbery of drug traffickers (known as tumbonazos) and executions tied to the sale of illegal drugs. However, statistics show a slight increase in intentional homicides during the past year, compared to 2009, from 525 to 527 victims. The study found that the rate of homicide victims per 100.000 inhabitants remained virtually unchanged from 2009, settling at 11.5%. The existence of homicides associated with what is known as "error or omission," or those who were not the target and suffered mistaken identity or omission by the murderer, almost doubled in 2010 over 2009, for a total of 16 deaths. Also, the number of foreigners killed in the country increased by 7.6%, bringing the figure to 112 individuals, Nicaraguan and followed by Colombian nationals being the target. The use of firearms to commit homicide, again saw increases during 2010, bringing the total number to 319, which is equal numbers in 2008 and the highest throughout history. Good news for women as statistics indicate that the number of femicides dropped in 2010, from 15 victims in 2009 to 10 last year. However, the major cause of femicides continues to be attacks by cohabitants (60%) and spouses (40%). Contract or hired killing (sicario in Spanish) is a form of murder, in which one party hires another party to kill a target individual or group of people. It involves an illegal agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to kill the target in exchange for consideration, monetary, or otherwise. The hiring party may be a single person, a group of people, a company, or any other kind of organization. The hired party may also be one person, such as a hitman, or a group of people, or an organization. In most countries, including Costa Rica, a contract to kill a person is void, meaning that it is not legally enforceable. Any contract to commit an indictable offense is not enforceable. Furthermore, both the actual killer and the person who paid the killer can be found guilty of murder. Contract killing provides the hiring party with the advantage of not having to be directly involved in the killing. This makes it more difficult to connect that party with the murder. Throughout history and in many different parts of the world, contract killing has been associated with organized crime and also vendettas. For example, in recent United States history, the gang Murder, Inc., which committed hundreds of murders in the 1920s to the 1940s on behalf of the National Crime Syndicate, is a well-known example of a contract killer.

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Vallucos gang members get life in prison for 'ice pick' murder

 

Cameron Park man accused of stabbing and killing a woman with an ice pick will spend the rest of his life in jail. After two and a half hours of deliberation, a Cameron County jury sentenced Ernesto Berlanga to life in prison for the August 2005 murder of Patricia Salas. The two had been fighting when he stabbed her in the neck and then fled the scene. Prosecutors previously identified Berlanga as a member of the Vallucos prison gang. Berlaga was already serving a 25-year sentence for gouging the eye of a fellow inmate at the Carrizales-Rucker Detention Center back in 2006.

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Domestic helps’ accomplices prime suspects:

 

The two accomplices of the two domestic helps arrested for the murders of Juhu resident Kavita Suchak and her manager Prakash Bagwe on August 30 were the masterminds behind the murders said investigators, a day after arresting all four, two from Navi Mumbai and two from Nanded. Based on the investigations, police said the two domestic helps identified as Ram Singh Badaila and Tek Singh Badaila, also have a past crime record. According to Vishwas Nangre-Patil, Additional Commissioner (West region), the police are now compiling a database of domestic helps working in each society in the western region and their backgrounds would be checked. However, the victim had not verified the backgrounds of the two before hiring them, which made it difficult to trace them, said Nangre- Patil. The police arrested the Badailas and their accomplices from Navi Mumbai on Saturday. Nangre- Patil further said that the two Nepali nationals had been working for the Suchaks for the past five years. They had come in contact with two of their friends, Prem Bahadur Badaila and Bhim Bahadur Beek over the years. “The Suchaks owned a traditional safe in the house, apart from an electronic vault. The domestic helps hoped to find a large sum of money in the traditional safe. But the safe was empty as it was only maintained as a showpiece and as a object of faith. The gang bludgeoned Kavita with a crowbar when she returned home after dropping her kids to school a few minutes earlier than her usual schedule on August 30. Bagwe was strangled and gagged by the accused, as he had witnessed Kavita's murder and raised an alarm," Nangre-Patil added. The gang stole a laptop, three cellphones, jewellery and cash, collectively worth Rs 1.24 lakh. After leaving Kavita's house, the gang split up. Prem headed to Nerul in Navi Mumbai while the other three went to Pune. From Pune, they went to the house of a relative, Dev Bahadur, in Nanded. The police tracked down Prem first, by tracing the location of the stolen cellphones. “One of our teams went to Nepal and with the help of BSF kept a watch on the border to stop the accused from leaving the country. Another team went to Nanded with Prem,” said Pratap Dighavkar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (zone IX). Dressed in plainclothes, the policemen accompanied Prem to Dev Bahadur's house. “We did not want to reveal that Prem had been arrested, so we let him walk alone towards the house. Dev Bahadur came out of the house and Prem signaled to us that he was not a part of the gang. Prem then led us to Bhim who had sat in an autorickshaw and to Ram and Tek who were hiding in a water pipeline,” an official said. Bhim was arrested in the past for two cases of theft while Prem was booked for assaulting a government servant at MIDC. “The robbery at Suchak's residence was planned in detail. Bhim purchased a rope, crowbar, screwdriver and tape from Andheri. Tek who had keys to the vault was assigned the job of cleaning up the house while Ram kept watch. Prem and Bhim hid inside the house and struck after Kavita left for dropping her kids to school around 8.15 am,” an official said. So far, Rs 80,000 in cash has been recovered, besides some ornaments. The laptop was destroyed by the gang. “We are now trying to ascertain whether the Rs 80,000 is from the Suchak residence or elsewhere,” said Nangre-Patil.

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70 stabbings in public view! Gruesome gang murders man in Ahmedabad

 

Yafizuddin Sheikh, a resident of Juhapura, was brutally killed when some people repeatedly ran a car over him and then stabbed him over 70 times on Friday night in Amraiwadi. Sheikh's assailants continued to stab him till he succumbed to his wounds on the spot. A murder complaint has been filed with the Amraiwadi police against members of the Daddu gang for the gruesome murder. Yafizuddin and another man Mohammad had gone to Bal Bhavan in Khokhra to meet his friend, one Harish Darbar alias Harry in their Maruti Esteem car.While the victim waited there to meet his friend, a group of people, in a Santro car, rammed into Yafizuddin. They then reversed the car and ran it over him again repeating the process thrice. They then came out and stabbed Yafizuddin so much so that he had around 70-odd stab wounds on his body when he died. The victim cried for help but a crowd that had gathered to make arrangements for the ongoing Ganesh Chaturthi did not bother to intervene. The people were allegedly afraid of the Daddu gang that is very notorious in the area for its anti-social activities. The attackers were identified as Daddu Vaghela, his nephew Divyaraj aka Montu along with Naresh Thakor alias Jigo, Rahul aka Chako, Suresh Thakor and Rakesh Bihola. Two more men on a motorcycle also accompanied them. They were identified as Prakash aka Kaaniyo and Rahul aka Kalu Bhil. Two others, who were also involved in the incident, remained unidentified. Daddu Vaghela is a notorious bootlegger of the city and along with his gang has around 21 cases registered against him. Vaghela is wanted by the cops in at least 11 cases from the same area. According to the complaint, the gang attacked the already injured Yafizuddin with their weapons and inflicted 70-odd wounds all over his body. The victim lay in a pool of blood before breathing his last. Police said that the incident was a fall out of a scuffle between Daddu gang and Harry. The victim had come to his friend Harry's rescue during the scuffle.Teams of detection of crime branch reached the scene to investigate the matter following direct orders from the city police commissioner.

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NSW businesses warned of travelling conmen

 

Residents and businesses in NSW are being urged to be on the lookout for travelling conmen and itinerant domestic gangs. A nationwide crackdown aims to have scammers who visit Australia seasonally removed from the country and barred from re-entering, as well as local gangs that travel around conning people. NSW Fair Trading Minister Anthony Roberts on Monday warned of conmen specialising in scams such as bitumen laying, roof painting and back-of-truck dealings on electronics. "We want to catch these crooks, hold them accountable for their crimes and keep the market fair and free of rip-offs," he said in a statement. "What we are dealing with is organised, criminal activity that creates market distortions as legitimate businesses face unfair competition." The conmen structure their operations so consumers are often unable to get remedies in courts, consumer tribunals or through dispute resolution. They are the focus of a new nationwide strategy finalised at the Ministerial Council on Consumer Affairs in Canberra earlier this year. "All Australian consumer protection jurisdictions are working together under the new Australian Consumer Law with concerted, nationally coordinated operations using new prosecution powers and remedies," Mr Roberts said.

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We needed a fightback and a fightback is under way

"We needed a fightback and a fightback is under way", the Prime Minister has said after four days of riots.

David Cameron said every action would be taken to restore order, with contingency plans for water cannon to be available at 24 hours' notice.

On Tuesday night, unrest spread to cities including Manchester, Salford, Liverpool, Nottingham and Birmingham, with shops being looted and set alight.

Three men died when they were hit by a car in Birmingham.

Mr Cameron, speaking after a meeting of the government's Cobra emergency committee said police were authorised to take "any action necessary" to bring the situation under control.

He said: "This continued violence is simply not acceptable, and it will be stopped. We will not put up with this in our country. We will not allow a culture of fear to exist on our streets.


"We have seen the worst of Britain, but I also believe we have seen some of the best of Britain - the million people who have signed up on Facebook to support the police, coming together in the clean-up operations."

The PM said more arrests would take place as police worked through CCTV evidence. "Picture by picture, the criminals are being identified and arrested," he said.

'We have your face'
Earlier, London Mayor Boris Johnson urged the government to reconsider its plans to cut police numbers, saying the argument had been "substantially weakened" by the riots.

Greater Manchester Police's Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan said he had seen "the most sickening scenes" of his career, and said the force had been overwhelmed.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday morning, he said force was "absolutely intent" on bringing the rioters to justice and officers were already studying CCTV.

"Hundreds and hundreds of people, we have your image, we have your face, we have your acts of wanton criminality on film. We are coming for you, from today and no matter how long it takes, we will arrest those people responsible," he said.

Some 113 people have been arrested so far over the trouble in Manchester and Salford, where hundreds of youths looted shops and set fire to cars and buildings.

In the West Midlands, 109 have been arrested and 23 charged following scenes of disorder in Birmingham, Wolverhampton and West Bromwich - where vehicles were set on fire.

Meanwhile, West Midlands Police are to question a 32-year-old man on suspicion of murder after three men were run over and killed.

One of the victims has been named as Haroon Jahan. His father Tariq Jahan paid tribute to him, saying he "had his whole life ahead of him".

In other developments:

Canning Circus police station in central Nottingham was firebombed by a male gang on Tuesday evening. Nottinghamshire Police said 90 people had been arrested
In Liverpool, Merseyside Police have arrested 50 people in relation to disorder in the city
Nine people have been arrested in Gloucester after police officers came under attack from youths throwing stones and bottles from 23:00 BST
In Leicester, a group of up to 100 youths attacked shops and threw items at police, with 13 arrests
In Bristol, police arrested 19 people following a second night of trouble
Thames Valley Police made 15 arrests linked to trouble overnight
Metropolitan Police have arrested 768 people and charged 105 in connection with the violence in the capital, including a 21-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life following a fire which took hold of the Reeves Furniture store in Croydon on Monday night
Officers from all eight Scottish Police forces are being sent to help colleagues in the Midlands and North of England deal with rioting and looting
A 26-year-old man found shot in a car in Croydon, amid rioting in the south London town, has died in hospital
Government minister Michael Gove has praised the Met's response to the riots, saying bringing in an extra 10,000 officers helped to prevent further riots from taking place in London
Meanwhile, two 18-year-olds in Folkestone, Kent, and a 19-year-old woman in Wakefield have been arrested. A 16-year-old boy in Glasgow was charged with breach of the peace while another man, aged 18, has been arrested. All relate to allegations of inciting violence through internet social networking sites
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said on Tuesday that ballistic tests presented "no evidence" that a handgun found at the scene where Mark Duggan, 29, was killed in Tottenham had been fired at officers
Wounded officers
Scotland Yard drafted in special constables and community support officers in London to ensure five times the usual number of officers for a Tuesday - 16,000 - were on duty. They made 81 arrests.





Asst Chief Constable Garry Shewan: "We have your image, we have your face ... we are coming for you"
Downing Street said the increased level of policing would remain in place "as long as necessary" to prevent a repeat of the violence.

It said while there was "no complacency," police tactics in London had "clearly worked".

It followed three nights of rioting in the city which saw shops looted, property set alight and police attacked, with some 111 Met officers suffered injuries including serious head and eye wounds, cuts and fractured bones after being attacked by rioters wielding bottles, planks, bricks and even driving cars at them. Five police dogs have also been hurt.

The Met's Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Stephen Kavanagh said London deserved "some resilience and sustainability from police".

'Rapid response'
Referring to proposed police cuts, London Mayor Boris Johnson said: "That case was pretty frail and it's been substantially weakened. This is not a time to think about making substantial cuts in police numbers."

But the Home Office said the reductions in the police budget were manageable.

Labour leader Ed Miliband called for a "rapid response" from the government to help affected communities.

He urged the government to work with the insurance industry "to put in place fast-track procedures with immediate effect so that individuals and businesses making claims do not have to wait for the money they need to start putting things right".

The Association of British Insurers says the damage is likely to cost insurers "tens of millions of pounds".

The riots first flared on Saturday after a peaceful protest in Tottenham over the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan, 29, by police.

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Regional business groups are warning that retail hotspots could become "ghost towns" as violence and looting spread across the country.

Regional business groups are warning that retail hotspots could become "ghost towns" as violence and looting spread across the country.


Miss Selfridge in central Manchester was set on fire
Shops in cities including Manchester, Nottingham, Liverpool and Birmingham were targeted on Tuesday night causing damage that will "cost millions" to repair.
The Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce (GMCC) said the violence would severely hit business in the city.
"Repairs, stock replacement and lost trading time is going to costs millions of pounds and have a huge impact on takings," Chris Fletcher, deputy chief executive of the chamber, said.
But he stressed it is not just immediate costs that will hit businesses.

Looters run from police in Manchester
"This isn't a case of a few smashed windows – there will be severe knock-on effects," he added.
"There's the potential Manchester could become a ghost town, with shoppers scared of coming into the centre because they fear a repetition of violence."
Both independent shops and chain stores were affected by Tuesday's violence.

Shops in Croydon closed early on Tuesday in anticipation of further violence
Miss Selfridge in central Manchester was set on fire causing thousands of pounds worth of damage, and the city's Arndale shopping centre was broken into.
Elsewhere, rioters damaged premises including a McDonald's and the entrance to the Pyramid shopping centre in Birkenhead, Merseyside.
Looters also targeted electrical and jewellery shops in Birmingham, and vandalised shops in the Bullring and Mailbox shopping centres.
GMCC urged any businesses affected by the disturbances to contact the police and insurance companies as soon as possible.

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Operation to ensure strength of forces nationwide highlighted by rioting in Manchester and other cities that sent officers to London

National police coordinators are reviewing the mutual aid operation on "an hourly basis" after violence flared in cities which had sent officers to London leaving three men dead.

The logistical operation to make sure forces across the country have adequate numbers to tackle fast-moving flash points across the UK has been highlighted by the rioting on Tuesday in Manchester, Birmingham and other cities. In contrast the Metropolitan Police faced a quiet night with 16,000 officers on the streets – 1,500 of them sent from 30 other forces.

In Manchester riot teams were "overwhelmed", senior officers said. "We had to draw resources from all over the northwest to be able to ensure that we could protect life and property here in Manchester and Salford," said assistant chief constable Gary Shewan.

Manchester had sent 100 of its public order officers to London on Tuesday – raising serious concerns that as police forces moved to help the Metropolitan police they left themselves vulnerable.

In the West Midlands – where the officers were faced with a volatile and fast flowing situation – 163 arrests were made, bringing the overall total to around 300 since the disorder began.

The arrests were for a variety of offences including aggravated burglary, violent disorder and various other public order offences.

A total of six police officers have sustained minor injuries in the overnight disorder.

But in the midst of the rioting three men from a local mosque were mown down and killed by a car in the chaos. West Midlands did not sent officers to London but has been receiving mutual aid itself.

The Association of Chief Police officers, which is co-ordinating the mutual aid, said it was being reviewed on an hourly basis and if any force called for support their request would be met. The geographical spread of the looting and rioting and the difficulty of predicting where the flashpoints will come make the task difficult.

And there is concern that the very issue of mutual aid – and the publication of details of the 30 forces which have sent teams to London – has given looters information on which cities to target. The Police service of Northern Ireland refused to send officers – faced with disturbances in Belfast and the ongoing security situation there.

In London the sheer scale of the operation appears to have put off the looters. In addition the Met has made more than 768 arrests over the last four days, essentially taking a substantial proportion of those allegedly causing the trouble off the streets. But trouble flared in other areas including Wolverhampton, Nottingham where a mob firebombed the police station and college, with more than 90 troublemakers arrested and Leicester.

There was also trouble in Gloucester city centre, where mounted officers were deployed to combat groups of youths attacking shop windows, some with their faces covered and in Bristol police arrested 19 people following a second night of trouble.

The chief constable of Humberside, Tim Hollis is co-ordinating the mutual aid progamme. Commander Steven Kavanagh deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police told the Today programme the mutual aid operation was a national one to provide support for any force that needed it.

A spokesman for Acpo said the mutual aid programme was being reviewed on an "hourly basis" as the situation developed. With many officers from the north now in London there is also logistical problem. In some cases instead of officers returning to their home forces, others may be sent from nearby forces to help out tonight. "There is an issue of logistics and of the officers needing breaks. It may be better to send officers from other forces rather than return officers. But we are reviewing all of this," said a source.

The difficulties of coordinating a response to geographically disparate rioting led Boris Johnson, London's mayor to call for a rethink of government plans to cut 16,200 police officers. "This is not a time to think about making substantial cuts in police numbers," said Johnson.

 

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SKULL found buried in Sir David Attenborough’s garden belonged to the victim of a gruesome murder

SKULL found buried in Sir David Attenborough’s garden belonged to the victim of a gruesome murder, a coroner ruled yesterday.

It was dug up in October when the broadcaster, 85, was having an old pub excavated at his home in Richmond, South West London.

Julia Martha Thomas was killed aged 55 in 1879 by her maid. Kate Webster pushed her down stairs, strangled her then chopped her up.

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She then boiled the remains, dumped the flesh in the Thames and gave the dripping to children to eat.

Webster stole Mrs Thomas’s identity – and false teeth – and fled to Ireland. She was later arrested and hanged.

West London coroner Alison Thompson said: “There is clear evidence this is Julia Martha Thomas.”

She recorded the cause of death as ­strangulation and from a head injury.

Now the skull will finally be given a proper burial.

Verdict: unlawful killing.

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A man has been arrested following the seizure of cocaine with an estimated street value of €250,000.

A man has been arrested following the seizure of cocaine with an estimated street value of €250,000 in Dublin.
The man, who is aged in his 20s, was arrested following the search of a van on the North Circular Road last night.
The man is currently being detained under Section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act at Store Street Garda Station.

 

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178 Indonesian nationals are facing the death penalty in Malasyia, with the trials of 167 underway.

“Most were involved in drugs cases. The rest were charged with murder and firearm possession,” Mulya Wirana, the Indonesian Embassy’s deputy ambassador said in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.


Mulya said the embassy would defend all Indonesian citizens in Malaysia. The embassy is currently seeking clemency for 11 Indonesians who have been sentenced to death by hanging. “The embassy is still updating the status of the 11 nationals,” he said, declining to identify them by name.


Pressure to protect Indonesian migrant workers has increased following the recent beheading of Indonesian national Ruyati binti Satubi in Saudi Arabia.


In response, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono formed the Indonesian Migrant Workers Task Force to handle cases of Indonesian migrant workers facing the death sentence abroad.


Former Nahdlatul Ulama chairman, Hasyim Muzadi, urged Yudhoyono to manage the cases first hand and lamented the establishment of the task force. “Migrant worker protection is a sensitive matter, even more than political and economic affairs. When it concerns the lives of our citizens overseas, that is about honor,” he said.

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Murder accused killed himself in prison

man waiting to go to trial for murdering his wife used a sheet and twine to hang himself in the shower of his prison cell, an inquest has heard.

Neil Heyward had been in custody for about 18 months, after being charged in December 2007 with the murder of his de facto wife Glenys Heyward, when he took his own life at the Port Augusta jail in June 2009.

The pair's son Matthew and a farmhand on the family property, Jeremy Minter, were also charged with her murder and later jailed after a long trial.


In her prepared opening of an inquest at Port Augusta on Tuesday, counsel assisting Amanda Taylor said Heyward had taken the twine from the prison laundry where he worked.

He had tied it to one end of a bed sheet and managed to slide the other end of the sheet in between a bench top in his cell and the shower wall.

The sheet was then hung over the shower wall attached to the twine which had been fashioned into a noose.

Heyward also placed his belongings in his bed to make it look like he was asleep.

Ms Taylor asked SA coroner Mark Johns to note that another man, Brian Keith Dewson, took his own life in similar circumstances at Port Augusta in 2000.

In his case, Dewson slid a strip of bed sheet under a utility shelf, tying it to a steel support bar.

At the time a coroner recommended the safe cell principles be adopted in prisons throughout South Australia as a matter of urgency to prevent such deaths.

"The case is relevant to this matter as the equipment used to facilitate the suicide, being the utility shelf or bench top ... are identical but for size," Ms Taylor said in her opening statement.

She said the two deaths came nine years apart, "in the face of repeated coronial recommendations".

Earlier this year an appeal court judge described the murder of Ms Heyward as planned and callous. He rejected a bid by Minter to have his 23-year jail sentence reduced.

Ms Heyward, 53, was bludgeoned to death in an empty house on a property near Mt Gambier in SA's south-east.

Neil Heyward inflicted the fatal blows on his estranged wife to prevent the break-up of the family's $6 million farming and property assets.

The woman's body was buried on a property in western Victoria and went undiscovered for several months after she went missing.

The inquest was continuing.

 

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THE man suspected of shooting dead his daughter and her mum blasted his face off when he tried to kill himself,

THE man suspected of shooting dead his daughter and her mum blasted his face off when he tried to kill himself, it emerged yesterday.
The kick of his double-barrelled shotgun forced it to slip as he pulled the trigger.

He was left "unrecognisable" but is expected to survive. A source told The Sun: "Many will see the horrific wounds as some sort of justice."

Chrissie Chambers, 38, and two-year-old daughter Shania were gunned down in their home on Sunday. Chrissie's ex, David Oakes, was taken to hospital with terrible face wounds.

Oakes - 6ft 4ins and 18 stone - had split with Chrissie seven weeks earlier. He was due to face Chrissie in court over a custody battle for Shania.

Chrissie's other daughter Chelsea, ten, fled the house in Braintree, Essex, after her mum begged her: "Run! Save yourself while you can."

Chelsea clambered from a window in her nightie as the killer forced a gun into her mother's mouth. She ran half a mile to her father Ian Flitt's home.

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POLICE are investigating reports of a mass grave in Texas containing dozens of bodies following a tip off to police.

Cops were called to a house where dismembered remains of 25 to 30 people including children were thought to be found.

Police activity was focused on a rural area of fields and a small wooded zone, with police positioning themselves near a house surrounded by trees.

A neighbour said the occupant of the house lived there with her fiance but moved out of the property a week ago. Her parents also lived at the house but were long-haul truck drivers.

Police rushed to the property between Hardin and Daisetta, Liberty County, and are now seeking a search warrant to search the home after finding blood at the scene.

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Police in Texas may have found a mass grave containing up to 30 dismembered bodies, possibly all children

Police in Texas may have found a mass grave containing up to 30 dismembered bodies, possibly all children, according to local media reports.

But the Liberty County sheriff's office said there was no evidence yet that any bodies had been discovered.

Liberty County sheriff's department spokesman Rex Evans said the office had received an anonymous report on Tuesday that there were bodies in the house in a rural location around 70 miles east of Houston.

KPRC television, a local station, said 25 to 30 bodies were found by officers acting on a tip-off.

FBI spokeswoman Kim Barkhausen in Houston confirmed to the Reuters news agency that the FBI had been asked to help with an investigation, but would not elaborate.

Preliminary reports indicated the bodies are those of children, the TV station reported.

One local paper, the Cleveland Advocate, said the tipster told authorities dozens of dismembered bodies were buried at the scene.

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CCTV footage shows the victim of a fatal stabbing at a train station in Sydney's south-west pulled the knife out of his own chest and stabbed his alleged killer.

Brandon Nunu Asiata, 16, managed to stab the 22-year-old man in the face, head, wrist and leg before he collapsed and died on the platform at Bankstown railway station in front of commuters yesterday evening.

The boy's 15-year-old brother was stabbed in the leg.

The alleged killer, Mosa Julius Mbele, has been charged with murder over the stabbing death.

Superintendent Dave Eardley says Mbele has faced a bedside court hearing in hospital. Mbele has serious stab wounds.

"Earlier this afternoon, the 22-year-old Bankstown man was remanded in custody charged with the murder of the 16-year-old boy," he said.

"He's currently remaining in hospital being treated. As soon as he's able, he'll be transferred to the care of Corrective Services."

Friends say they cannot understand why the 16-year-old was stabbed to death.

Some are gathering at the station dressed in red to remember him, while hundreds have left tributes on Facebook.

RailCorp says there was one security guard there, who acted appropriately, when the fight broke out.

Police say they had spoken to the victim in the past month.

Friends say the boy was a good person who made them laugh.

Brandon Asiata's cousin, Julia Kepu, says she warned him not to go to the train station last night.

She says Brandon had promised he would not go.

"I'm still shocked by what's happened. I couldn't even make it down the stairs to put his flowers down for him," she said.

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Belgrade court approved a plea bargain Monday allowing Serbia's biggest folk music star, the widow of the Serbian warlord known as Arkan, to avoid jail time over charges of embezzlement and illegal weapons.

Belgrade court approved a plea bargain Monday allowing Serbia's biggest folk music star, the widow of the Serbian warlord known as Arkan, to avoid jail time over charges of embezzlement and illegal weapons.

Under a deal some saw as evidence that the rich and famous get preferential treatment in Serbia's legal system, Svetlana Raznatovic, best known by her stage name Ceca, will serve a year under house arrest and wear an electronic surveillance bracelet.

She will also pay a 1.5 million euro ($2.16 million) fine.

"This plea bargain is an insult to common sense and justice," said Marko Karadzic, a Belgrade-based human rights activist.

Ceca (pronounced TSE-tsa) gained fame in the 1990s Balkans with her patriotic folk tunes set to a techno beat. She married nationalist warlord and mafia boss Zeljko (Arkan) Raznatovic and the two became the country's most prominent couple after then Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and his wife.

Serbian prosecutors indicted Svetlana Raznatovic, her sister and two associates in March on charges of embezzling four million German marks (two million euros) and $3.5 million from murky sales of 10 players from Belgrade's Obilic soccer club, which she owned in the early part of the last decade. The prosecution alleged Raznatovic and her associates sold soccer players to foreign clubs and shared profits without paying taxes or declaring the deals through the Obilic club.

Ceca took over the club, previously owned by Arkan, after a rival gang gunned him down in 2000 in the lobby of a swanky Belgrade hotel.

Judge Sladjana Markovic said that the plea bargain was aimed at preventing a long trial after an eight-year investigation.

"Raznatovic is a single mom ... Her sister is a family woman, the Obilic club did not file charges and the two did not commit any crimes since 2002, a testimony to their good character," Markovic said.

Dragan Krgovic, Raznatovic's lawyer, highlighted the money element of the plea deal. "The state will cash in 1.5 million (euros) and ... this is a real bargain for the state and prosecutors," he said.

Some ordinary citizens disagreed. "This is an outrage, it shows crime pays ... how can I tell my children to be honest and hard working?" said Dragisa Savic, 44, a security guard.

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Questions have been raised about the role played by a sawmill foreman convicted of Russia's largest tax fraud

Victor Markelov, 43, confessed in April 2009 to a vastly complex $230m theft of taxes paid to the Russian people and was jailed for five years with no fine in an apparent attempt to draw a veil over what was becoming an embarrassing episode for senior state officials implicated in the crime.
According to claims filed with the Russian prosecutor's office, Mr Markelov may have been paid to take the fall. Two days after being arrested for the alleged kidnapping of a company director in late 2006 and attempting to extort $20m out of his boss, Mr Markelov was transferred ownership of a company with a book value of $1m.
One month later and still in custody, he became owner of another company worth $1.1m. He was released six months after his arrest and just months before the alleged $230m tax fraud was perpetrated in summer 2007 with the alleged involvement of the same policemen and financier as in the kidnapping.
The larger tax fraud was uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer working for the UK hedge fund Hermitage Capital who presented evidence against the police allegedly involved. He was later arrested on tax evasion charges and held in custody for a year awaiting trial before dying of medical complications that were left untreated.
Mr Magnitsky has since become a symbol of the struggle against corrupt forces in Russia. This week, the Foreign Office cited his case in a report into "human rights violations" in Russia.

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New York police search for more bodies on Long Island beach

Police have returned to an overgrown stretch of land off Long Island a day after three more bodies were found, taking the number of victims of a suspected serial killer in the New York city area to eight.

It is a huge crime scene – several square miles of windswept sand dunes and thick undergrowth – that has been scoured several times by police searchers, but more bodies keep turning up.

All of the corpses identified so far are young, white women who worked as prostitutes, and police believe they are dealing with a serial killer, or killers.

The victims found their clients on Craig's List or other similar websites and police believe some of them, perhaps all, were killed elsewhere and then dumped on Oak Island, a narrow barrier island an hour's drive from Manhattan.

The grisly harvest of bodies has come in several batches.

In December, police began to search for a missing prostitute, Shannan Gilbert, 24. She had fled a client's beachside house early one morning in May, screaming for help then disappearing into the dunes. They never found her. The client was cleared from being a suspect after police searched his home and vehicle.

While looking for Gilbert, they found four bodies hidden in and around Gilgo Beach. All were wrapped in hessian sacks and appeared to have been deposited during the past three years. None were Gilbert.

More than three months later and with no one caught for the crimes, police have made yet more grim findings. At the end of last month and about a mile from the original dumping ground, a policeman passing Oak Beach in his patrol car noticed an object. It turned out to be yet another body of a young woman.

Immediately a mini-army of police and firefighters, helicopters and dog handling teams, sealed off the huge area with police tape, scouring the tick-infested scrub. They later found three more bodies.

The authorities are working 12-hour days, searching the area again and again.

None of the new bodies has yet been officially identified, but police are working on the assumption that they fit the pattern of the earlier victims.

Investigators are appealing for information from people involved in the local sex trade. "They certainly must have some information. Anything that they may deem to be significant or even insiginificant may be significant to us," said Thomas Spota, the Suffolk County district attorney.

Forensic experts are trying to identify the latest remains and see if they include Gilbert. Her disappearance might harbour key clues. She was last seen running from a client's house and shouting: "They're trying to kill me."

She banged on a neighbour's door but ran off before the police were called. Police spoke to her later on her mobile phone but she was disorientated and told them she was on a different beach. She was never heard of or seen again.

The victims identified so far are Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25; Melissa Barthelmy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; and Amber Lynn Costello, 27.

Police insist that they have devoted huge resources and they continue to appeal to the public not to be prejudiced by the fact that at least some of the victims so far have been sex workers.

"What activities these victims may have engaged in prior to their murder does not matter. They were young women whose lives were cut tragically short," said Richard Dormer, Suffolk County's police commissioner.

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Senator Raymond Lavigne has been found guilty of fraud and breach of trust.

Senator Raymond Lavigne has been found guilty of fraud and breach of trust.

Ontario Superior Court Judge Robert Smith handed down the ruling yesterday, saying Lavigne "committed a false and dishonest act" when he requested $12,365.50 from the Senate for travel actually made by former staffer Michel Gendron, when the true cost had been $2,700.

The judge said he believed the testimony of Gendron, who said Lavigne gave him $50 for return trips from Ottawa to Montreal while the senator personally claimed $217 for the trips.

The judge said he believes Lavigne received more than $9,665.50 for expense claims that were not owed to him.

The judge said he believed another witness, Daniel Côté, who testified Lavigne filed travel claims on his behalf.

The senator was convicted of the breach-of-trust charge for directing Côté to cut trees on his property in Wakefield, while he was paid by the Senate in order to not spend on hiring an external contractor.

The Mounties charged Lavigne in 2007 with fraud over $5,000, breach of trust and obstruction of justice after a yearlong investigation by the Senate.

He was found not guilty yesterday of obstruction of justice.

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Gmail snafu leaves thousands of users missing emails | News | TechRadar UK

Gmail snafu leaves thousands of users missing emails | News | TechRadar UK: "Google Gmail hit a bit of a snag over the weekend with around 150,000 users missing old emails, folders and contacts from their accounts.

The problems surfaced on Sunday, and while the reason behind them is not entirely clear, Google is working feverishly to fix the issues and restore all user data."

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'Gun concealment' jeans: the disturbing new craze in our jails

'Gun concealment' jeans: the disturbing new craze in our jails | Mail Online: "Prisoners are wearing specially designed jeans imported from America which can conceal handguns and knives, according to leaked confidential documents.

A security bulletin distributed among prison governors warns of the need to ‘proceed with caution’ when encountering an inmate wearing denim trousers. The trousers are favoured by American street gangs but have only recently been seen in British prisons.

The development is the latest indication of the disorder in Britain’s prisons which reached a flashpoint in January when drunk prisoners rampaged through HMP Ford, near Arundel, burning down buildings and attacking officers.

Investigations into the riot’s ringleaders and the smuggling of contraband into prisons are ongoing. However, the security bulletins for September and October 2010 make clear that the problems are not unique to that institution."

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US Immigration Agent Shot Dead in Mexico

Special Agent Jaime Zapata and a second unidentified agent were attacked on the country's north-south highway about 200 miles north of Mexico City.
The two were on duty for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency when they were stopped by unknown gunmen at what appeared to be a military checkpoint.
However, Mexican officials said there were no authorised checkpoints in the area.
Agent Zapata was shot dead and the second agent was wounded in his arm and leg, but is said to be in stable condition.
The US embassy said the two workers were making their way from Mexico City to Monterrey in the north when they were stopped.DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.

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U.S. Refuses to Help Polish Probe of Secret CIA Prisons

U.S. Refuses to Help Polish Probe of Secret CIA Prisons: "An international human rights group has revealed the Obama administration has refused to help the Polish government investigate claims that the CIA ran a secret black site prison inside Poland. Polish prosecutors launched a probe in August 2008, but U.S. authorities have refused to cooperate, claiming that they consider the matter closed. Flight records show that seven CIA planes landed in 2002 and 2003 at Szymany, a Polish military base in northeast Poland."

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Crossbow cannibal Stephen Griffiths - stalked and beat ex-girlfriend - mirror.co.uk

Crossbow cannibal Stephen Griffiths - stalked and beat ex-girlfriend - mirror.co.uk: "EX-GIRLFRIEND Kathy Hancock has told how she was stalked by Griffiths – who she calls Psycho Steve – for 10 YEARS.

Former prison officer Kathy, 37, repeatedly fled but time and time again he tracked her down.

She shuddered: “I was completely brainwashed by him. It was 10 years of mental torture and abuse. I couldn’t get away.

“He wants control of everything but he does it in such a passive way. He would make you doubt the way you are.”

Kathy was introduced to Griffiths in February 2000 and at first she enjoyed talking to a man she saw as a shy loner."

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Man shot dead on Cheshire street - Crime, UK - The Independent

Man shot dead on Cheshire street - Crime, UK - The Independent: "man has died after being shot in the street.

Officers were alerted after residents in Hale, Cheshire, heard gunfire shortly after midnight.

The 30-year-old victim, from nearby Widnes, was found on Pepper Street with serious head injuries and was taken to hospital where he later died.

His next of kin have been informed."

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Crossbow cannibal may have killed six women, police fear

When he was first arrested he indicated to detectives that he had murdered five or six women in total.

He held up one hand with his fingers outstretched and put up a finger on another when asked about killings he had carried out.

But he only named Susan Rushworth, Shelley Armitage and Suzanne Blamires, refusing to co-operate further about the identities of the others.

It is not known if he was attempting to exercise some form of control over investigators, exaggerating his notoriety or hinting at the truth.

West Yorkshire Police’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Team is considering the possibility that he has killed before.DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.

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A lot of drugs, a lot of money.”U.S. authorities deport Salvatore Montagna, a reputed New York crime boss to Montreal

U.S. authorities deport Salvatore Montagna, a reputed New York crime boss to Montreal, the city of his birth.Within months, bodies begin to fall.The decimation of Montreal’s ruling crime family, the Rizzutos, has begun.Montagna, 39, known as Sal the Ironworker because of his family’s metal business in Brooklyn and who was dubbed Bambino Boss by New York media, was reportedly acting boss of New York’s powerful Bonanno family.What part — if any — Montagna is playing in the bloody mob war in Montreal is unclear.He arrived back from the States in April 2009.In August 2009, the assault on the crime group starts with the murder of convicted drug trafficker Federico del Peschio, 59, a former cellmate and friend of the godfather, Nicolo Rizzuto, Sr.In December 2009, Nicolo Rizzuto Jr., 42, son of Vito Rizzuto and grandson of the don, his namesake, is shot to death.



In May 2010, Rizzuto consigliere Paolo Renda vanishes.



That is followed with the June 2010 murders of Agostino Cuntrera, 66, who was in charge of the Rizzuto crime family’s daily operations and of his bodyguard Liborio Sciascia, 40.



And on Nov. 10, Nicolo Rizzuto Sr., 86, was assassinated by a sniper in his home.



Montreal police refused to comment on Montagna because of ongoing investigations but they don’t seem to be paying much attention to the Bambino Boss.



In a decision that stunned police intelligence officers in the GTA, some Montreal and U.S. cops apparently took him at his word when he said — while being deported — that he was retiring.



“They got to make this guy for who he really is,” a veteran organized crime investigator in the GTA said.



“You know he’s not going to hang up his reins.



“Who in the right mind is going to believe that he’s retired?”



The violence in Montreal has spawned a number of theories.



One scenario police are considering is that the Bonanno mob of New York that Montagna reportedly controlled is consolidating its hold on Montreal and with it southern Ontario.



Yet another theory is that Italian crime families between Hamilton and Montreal, a lethal mix of Sicilian and Calabrian mobs, are now operating as one.



The Sicilian Bonanno family’s ties to Quebec go back to shortly after the Second World War when New York’s Joe “Bananas” Bonanno gave his blessing to the Montreal mob.



The Cotroni family, of Calabrian heritage, was put in charge but the relationship between them and Sicilian families within the Montreal organization crumbled during the 1970s.



The Sicilians, through Nicolo Rizzuto Sr., made a push for control and his son, Vito, would later struggle for more independence.



Police say the Rizzutos’ influence in southern Ontario was spread through the crime family run by Toronto’s Pietro Scarcella, the last man to see mob boss Paul Volpe alive — his body was found in a car trunk at Toronto International Airport in 1983, and through the Musitano family in Hamilton.



The Rizzutos forced their way into the Niagara-Hamilton area in the late 1990s, police investigators say. Two of the casualties in 1997 were Hamilton mob boss John Papalia and his Niagara associate Carmen Barillaro.



But suddenly in 2009 the tables were turned on the aggressive Rizzutos.



“It’s almost like the entire annihilation of an entire family,” the police intelligence officer said. “The Rizzutos were responsible for a lot of pain and suffering.”



n n n



When Montagna arrived in Montreal the crime scene was chaotic.



The once powerful Rizzutos were in trouble.



Their ranks were decimated by Ontario’s Project R.I.P. and Quebec’s Project Colisee, that stripped away layers of mob middlemen.



“It created a power void,” the source said, but added “the demand for organized crime, via drugs, money-laundering” remained.



Colisee also picked up in wiretaps that mobsters were ripping off and betraying each other.



When the evidence was released through disclosure before trial “it showed how everybody f---ed each other.”



The Rizzutos were suddenly vulnerable.



Montagna, who was born in Montreal and spent his youth in Sicily before moving to the U.S., was arrested April 6, 2009, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and deported later that month on the strength of a Sept. 2, 2003, conviction when he pleaded guilty to criminal contempt for refusing to testify to a grand jury.



Montagna refused to answer questions put to him during his Sept. 24, 2002 grand jury appearance.



A police source said Montagna lived up to the code of “omerta”, the organized crime rule of not revealing anything to authorities, when he failed to testify to the grand jury. He was sentenced to five years probation.



The contempt charge was filed in November 2002 when the Manhattan district attorney’s office announced the arrest of 19 mobsters for their “participation in the criminal activities of an organized crime crew of the Bonanno organized crime family.”



The crew was involved in gambling and loan-sharking, uncovered after a New York City Police undercover detective infiltrated the group based at the Aquarius Social Club on Waterbury Cres. in the Bronx.



It was during the racketeering investigation of three men, Bonanno soldiers Baldassare “Baldo” Amato and Stephen “Stevie” Locurto, and associate Anthony Basile, that FBI investigators realized Montagna’s role in the Cosa Nostra family.



U.S. immigration argued Montagna took over the Bonanno crime family at the age of 36 and police say he behaves like a seasoned, mature boss.



The contempt conviction was enough for U.S. immigration officials to deport Montagna to Montreal.



“Following that,” said the GTA police source, “the level of violence in Montreal is more active than in New York City.”



He suggested the list of motives and possible suspects for the elimination of the Rizzuto crime family could be long but in the end it’s all about the business of crime.



What’s occurring is a collaborative settling of disputes based on common goals, he said.



“A gun is pointed at a man, but how many hands are on that gun?” the cop said.



Determine how many are involved and “then you get to understand how (Italian organized crime) works,” he said.



“The key to remember, it was clear at a time, that Montreal was the centre of the universe for organized crime,” the police source said, adding there is a seismic shift taking place.



“Clearly what we’ve seen is that true power is in Ontario. We’re now one, Hamilton, Toronto, Montreal is one criminal enterprise,” he said.



“They have business plans,” the source said. “The money they have is insane. They have millions.”



Police estimate, for example, the Caruana-Cuntrera faction had in the late 1990s an estimated net worth of more than $1 billion in property and businesses.



“At the end of the day, this has to do with drugs and money,” the source said.



“A lot of drugs, a lot of money.”DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.

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S.African police probe Dewani case link to 2007 murder

AFP: S.African police probe Dewani case link to 2007 murder: "South African police are probing a link between a Cape Town murder of the wife of a British businessman and a 2007 killing of a local doctor under similar circumstances, media said Sunday.
The Sunday Times said the doctor, Pox Raghavjee, was found shot dead in his car in Bhisho, a small town in the Eastern Cape region, but nothing was stolen from him.
His widow, Heather Raghavjee, travelled to Cape Town to comfort businessman Shrien Dewani after the murder of his wife Anni last month, the paper said.
'National police commissioner Bheki Cele confirmed yesterday that police were probing links between the 2007 killing of an Eastern Cape doctor to Anni's murder,' said the paper.
She was killed in a poor suburb outside Cape Town, after a taxi she was travelling in with her husband was hijacked.
The hijackers released Dewani and made off with his wife. Her body was later found with a single bullet to her neck.
One of the men who have been arrested for the killing, Zola Tongo, turned state witness and implicated Dewani in his wife's murder."

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Now Wikileaks suffers its own leaks - Telegraph

Now Wikileaks suffers its own leaks - Telegraph: "The development comes as a senior WikiLeaks activist told The Sunday Telegraph that she and others had resigned from the organisation because of their deep concern about its treatment of sources and 'lack of transparency with relation to large sums of money'.
This newspaper has learned that one of WikiLeaks's main funding channels, the Germany-based Wau Holland Foundation, has been issued with two official warnings by charity regulators after failing to file financial records.
It has also emerged that the online payment service PayPal, which last week cut off donations to WikiLeaks, suspended the site's account twice before, once under money laundering regulations."

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Russia 'tracked' spy killers in UK - Europe - Al Jazeera English

Russia 'tracked' spy killers in UK - Europe - Al Jazeera English: "Russia was following the suspected killers of former spy Alexander Litvinenko before he was poisoned in London in 2006, but had been told to stand down by British authorities, according to remarks in leaked US diplomatic cables.

'[Russian Special Presidential Representative Anatoly] Safonov claimed that Russian authorities in London had known about and followed individuals moving radioactive substances into the city but were told by the British that they were under control before the poisoning took place,' the cable said.

Litvinenko, a former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic, died in hospital after being poisoned with the radioactive substance polonium-210 in a restaurant.

The leaked US cable, quoting a meeting in Paris between a Russian official and Henry Crumpton, US Ambassador-at-Large, was released by WikiLeaks and published on The Guardian's website on Saturday."

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Mark Madoff in suicide 2 years on from dad Bernard Madoff's arrest - mirror.co.uk

Mark Madoff in suicide 2 years on from dad Bernard Madoff's arrest - mirror.co.uk: "The son of jailed financier Bernard Madoff was found dead yesterday - on the second anniversary of his father's arrest.
Mark Madoff, 46, was found hanging from a dog collar attached to a pipe in an apparent suicide at his New York apartment. His two-yearold son was sleeping nearby. Bernard Madoff, 72, was jailed for 150 years for swindling billions from investors in a fraudulent 'Ponzi scheme'.
Mark had also been under investigation even though he is said to have turned his father in. But he had yet to face criminal charges.
Last night close friends say he had been left 'unalterably bitter' by his father's crimes."

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WikiLeaks backlash: The first global cyber war has begun, claim hackers | Media | The Observer

WikiLeaks backlash: The first global cyber war has begun, claim hackers Media The Observer: "He is one of the newest recruits to Operation Payback. In a London bedroom, the 24-year-old computer hacker is preparing his weaponry for this week's battles in an evolving cyberwar. He is a self-styled defender of free speech, his weapon a laptop and his enemy the US corporations responsible for attacking the website WikiLeaks.
He had seen the flyers that began springing up on the web in mid-September. In chatrooms, on discussion boards and inboxes from Manchester to New York to Sydney the grinning face of a Guy Fawkes mask had appeared with a call to arms. Across the world a battalion of hackers was being summoned.
'Greetings, fellow anons,' it said beneath the headline Operation Payback. Alongside were a series of software programs dubbed 'our weapons of choice' and a stark message: people needed to show their 'hatred'."

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Police chief suspended over 'fraud' - mirror.co.uk

Police chief suspended over 'fraud' - mirror.co.uk: "senior police officer has been suspended after a fraud probe was launched.
Acting deputy chief constable Gordon Fraser, who joined Leicestershire Police in January, is being investigated over foreign property investment deals.
Two other officers are also being investigated."

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Among the pressures Mark Madoff faced was a strongly worded lawsuit by Irving Picard.

Almost a year after the multibiliion dollar fraud conducted by his father, Bernard Madoff, was revealed, both Mark and Andrew Madoff were sued by Mr. Picard, the trustee gathering assets for Bernard Madoff's victims. Also named were their uncle Peter and cousin Shana, who worked with them at the firm. Mr. Picard accused Mark Madoff in the October 2009 lawsuit of receiving at least $66.9 million improperly through the investment company.






"Mark Madoff lived a high-end lifestyle with homes in Manhattan, Nantucket, and Greenwich, Conn. Investment firm funds paid for all aspects of his lavish lifestyle from the purchases of his high-end homes to the mattress and box spring he slept on, the television he watched in his home gym, and the outdoor shower in his home," the lawsuit said.



According to Mr. Picard, Mark received "astronomical compensation"— $29.3 million from 2001 to 2008, including bonuses of $4.8 million in 2006 and more than $9 million in 2007.



He said Mark deposited a total of $745,482 into seven customer accounts he held and his family held, but redeemed $18.1 million.



"It was—or at the very least, should have been—obvious to Mark that the massive gains reflected in his customer account statements did not reflect actual securities transactions or market conditions," the suit said.



In one account, opened in 1998, no money was ever invested, but account records reflected shares of Dell that were purportedly purchased in early 1997, 18 months before it was opened, Mr. Picard alleged. In 1998, nearly $2 million was allegedly redeemed from the account.



Mr. Picard alleged that Andrew Madoff withdrew $17 million from his accounts over the years, also with an investment of less than $1 million. Mr. Picard described Bernard Madoff's firm as a "family piggy bank" that relatives used to support lavish spending habits.



A lawyer for the sons said they strongly disagreed with Mr. Picard's "baseless" complaint and were seeking to have it dismissed. At a hearing in October, their lawyer, Martin Flumenbaum, said the sons had been "incredibly victimized by their father's sociopathic fraud."



"The time has come for the sins of the father not to be visited on the children," he said.



Mark and Andrew Madoff agreed with Mr. Picard not to transfer or sell certain assets.








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Madoff trustee files lawsuits worth $20bn

BBC News - Madoff trustee files lawsuits worth $20bn: "trustee charged with recovering funds for the victims of Bernard Madoff's multi-billion dollar fraud scheme has filed lawsuits seeking nearly $20bn (£12.6bn) in damages.
Irving Picard has charged nearly 60 people, including a key shareholder in Austria's Medici Bank.
Mr Picard accused Sonja Kohn of 'masterminding an illegal scheme' to help Madoff defraud investors.
Earlier this week, Mr Picard sued HSBC bank for $9bn."

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BBC News - Madoff trustee files lawsuits worth $20bn

BBC News - Madoff trustee files lawsuits worth $20bn: "trustee charged with recovering funds for the victims of Bernard Madoff's multi-billion dollar fraud scheme has filed lawsuits seeking nearly $20bn (£12.6bn) in damages.
Irving Picard has charged nearly 60 people, including a key shareholder in Austria's Medici Bank.
Mr Picard accused Sonja Kohn of 'masterminding an illegal scheme' to help Madoff defraud investors.
Earlier this week, Mr Picard sued HSBC bank for $9bn."

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Don Ching Trang Chu, the “expert-network” executive arrested this week

Don Ching Trang Chu, the “expert-network” executive arrested this week on insider-trading charges, had a roster of Asia-based employees of North American technology companies to feed information to clients, court documents show.

Chu, who lives in the Somerset section of Franklin Township, worked for Primary Global Research of Mountain View, California. He offered to set up hedge-fund manager Richard Choo-Beng Lee with employees of Sierra Wireless, Broadcom and Atheros Communications when he planned to travel to Taiwan in 2009, U.S. prosecutors said in a criminal complaint filed this week in Manhattan. Lee, co-founder of Spherix Capital, was secretly cooperating with the government after being ensnared in the Galleon Group insider-trading probe.

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former secretary who funded a luxury lifestyle on the proceeds of a £12 million VAT fraud in areas including Walsall has been jailed for 10 years,

former secretary who funded a luxury lifestyle on the proceeds of a £12 million VAT fraud in areas including Walsall has been jailed for 10 years, according to Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

Jayne Mitchell, 40, bought Ferraris, luxury properties and went on lavish shopping sprees with the cash she made from the huge tax fraud involving the importation of vehicles from across Europe, HMRC said.

Mitchell, along with six others, imported more than 7,000 new vehicles which they sold on through a complex web of fake companies with a turnover of more than £80m in two years.

Revenue officials said the cars were imported VAT free, passed through a chain of fake companies, and eventually sold on to unsuspecting car supermarkets and dealerships across the UK. But many of the fake companies disappeared without paying the VAT due on the sales.

The companies were spread around England including some based in Selby, North Yorkshire; Pudsey, West Yorkshire; Walsall, West Midlands and in Northamptonshire.

Mitchell, who was originally from Selby, had a luxury home near the North Yorkshire town and another in Belgium, where she was arrested.

She once worked as a secretary and is a well-known pigeon fancier. Mitchell, of Wilsden Road, Allerton, Bradford, was found guilty on Friday at Bradford Crown Court of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue. She was jailed for 10 years by Judge Jonathan Durham Hall.

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Cobb lawyer gets prison for fraud | ajc.com

Cobb lawyer gets prison for fraud  | ajc.com: Steven Zagoria, 59, was sentenced to one year and nine months in jail for bilking his law firm of $343,639 and using the money to pay his mortgage, credit card bills and child’s college tuition, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
U.S. District Judge Marvin Shoob on Monday also ordered Zagoria to pay $318,000 in restitution as well as $4,000 in a special assessment.
Zagoria was found guilty of forging the signature of one of the law firm’s principals on checks that were actually for attorney’s fees – and then depositing that money into his own personal bank account, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
Zagoria also gave some of the money to his wife so she could buy a second home, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
“An attorney has an obligation to put his clients’ best interests before his own. Instead, this defendant betrayed this trust by stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from not only his clients but his partners,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said"

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Officers of prepaid funeral business charged with fraud - KansasCity.com

Officers of prepaid funeral business charged with fraud - KansasCity.com: "Officers at a prearranged funeral business defrauded customers, funeral homes and states out of as much as $600 million, according to a 50-count federal indictment announced Monday.
The U.S. attorney’s office in St. Louis announced indictment on fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and other charges against Randall Sutton, 65; Sharon Nekol Province, 66; Doug Cassity, 64; his son Brent Douglas Cassity, 43; Howard Wittner, 73; and David Wulf, 58.
All six defendants are from St. Louis County, and all were controlling officers for National Prearranged Services Inc., based in Clayton.
Brent Cassity is listed in the Missouri secretary of state’s office as the owner of Mount Washington Forever Funeral Home in Independence, which closed in July."

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Ralph Esmerian, Jeweler, Is Charged With Fraud - NYTimes.com

Ralph Esmerian, Jeweler, Is Charged With Fraud - NYTimes.com: "Duchess of Newcastle diamond brooch, circa 1887. A gilded album commissioned by Marie Antoinette in 1781. A carved ivory, enamel and jeweled case made at the request of Czar Nicholas II in 1893.
The Endymion butterfly brooch, worth about $2.4 million, figures in the case. Taken together, these intricate pieces and sparkling objects are valued at about $3 million. But they make up only a fraction of the jewelry and other collectibles that federal prosecutors say were at the center of an equally intricate series of frauds orchestrated by Ralph O. Esmerian, the former owner of the jewelry company Fred Leighton, who has draped his glittering treasures around the necks and wrists of celebrities in what some have called a red-carpet marketing campaign.
Agents from the United States Postal Inspection Service arrested Mr. Esmerian, 70, a former board president of the Museum of American Folk Art and one of its biggest patrons, on Monday morning. He was charged with bankruptcy fraud and wire fraud and concealing assets, and he appeared later in the day before a federal magistrate in United States District Court in Manhattan."

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He's known as the "Merchant of Death" and the "Lord of War,"

-- an alleged international arms dealer straight out of a cloak-and-dagger spy novel who eluded authorities for years and inspired Hollywood villains.
But in reality, according to those who have seen or met Viktor Bout, he is a somber man, sometimes nattily dressed, a wheeler-dealer who has insisted he is innocent of the allegations leveled against him.
Bout, a Russian citizen and former military officer, speaks six languages "and I could see him bargaining in all six at the same time," wrote CNN's Jill Dougherty in 2008, recalling her meeting with Bout in 2002 in Moscow, Russia.
Bout arrived in New York late Tuesday after being extradited from Thailand. He faces charges in the United States of conspiring to kill U.S. nationals, conspiring to kill U.S. officers or employees, conspiring to acquire and use an anti-aircraft missile and conspiring to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. American law enforcement officers have spent years pursuing him, and the extradition process from Thailand was an arduous one for them.
Before his 2008 arrest, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents led a sting operation by posing as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), officials said.

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British woman killed in carjacking on honeymoon - Scotsman.com News

British woman killed in carjacking on honeymoon - Scotsman.com News: "YOUNG woman has been killed in a carjacking while she and her British husband were honeymooning in South Africa.
The horrific attack happened after the newlyweds were being taken back to their hotel in Cape Town and asked to drive through a township because they 'wanted to feel the vibe'.

As they were driving through the area, masked gunmen forced the driver
and her husband from the car before driving off with the 28-year-old woman.

The body of the woman, believed to be Indian, was discovered just 15 miles from where the attack took place on Saturday night. Police said she suffered a 'violent death'. Her husband, who is 31, was unhurt, and is being comforted by relatives who live in South Africa."

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Hell's Angels lose bid to quash convictions - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Hell's Angels lose bid to quash convictions - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): "Two Hell's Angels members have lost their appeal against aggravated assault convictions they received for a brawl at the Darwin Airport Hotel.
Nicholas Frank Cassidy and James Parnwell Knight were convicted and sentenced to more than two years' jail for the brawl in December 2007.
The men appealed against their convictions and the length of their sentences.
But the Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed all grounds of the appeal, and upheld both men's sentences, angering Cassidy's brother Ray Padden.
'We'll be fighting the decision,' he said outside court.
'It's not fair. We'll be putting it to the public as well, so everyone will know what's going on.'
Knight has been released on parole and Cassidy is still serving time in jail.
Cassidy became a full member of the Hell's Angels after the assault, but argued that it would not affect his prospects for rehabilitation."

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Accused drug kingpin will go to Venezuela: Chavez | Top News | Reuters

Accused drug kingpin will go to Venezuela: Chavez | Top News | Reuters: "Colombia will extradite a businessman accused of being a major drug kingpin back to his native Venezuela to face justice, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday on Cuban television.Chavez said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos promised in a recent meeting that Walid Makled, known as 'The Turk,' would go to Venezuela, not the United States, where he is also wanted.
Chavez fears that the United States, with whom he has frosty political relations, would use Makled to try to discredit him.
Makled was captured in August in Colombia in a joint operation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and the head of Colombian police said at the time he would be extradited to the United States.
He is accused of shipping tons of cocaine each month to the United States and Europe, in an alliance with Colombian leftist rebels."

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Andy Carroll set to face police quiz over 'drugs orgy' - mirror.co.uk

Andy Carroll set to face police quiz over 'drugs orgy' - mirror.co.uk: "Newcastle bad boy Andy Carroll celebrates his winning goal at Arsenal yesterday - as police get set to quiz him over an alleged drug-fuelled orgy.
The striker, 21, managed to put aside his latest scandal to become the hero of the 1-0 victory.
But police said they were taking 'very seriously' reports of his 14-hour booze bender when a substance which appears to be cocaine was taken at club captain Kevin Nolan's mansion. There is no evidence the two Premier League stars snorted the white powder at the house.
Carroll apparently yelled 'Ride me! Ride me!' as he romped with two young women, one in a cat suit, in a bedroom. It is understood Nolan was not involved with any of the girls."

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Ex-Deutsche Bank, AIG Executive Charged With Fraud - WSJ.com

Ex-Deutsche Bank, AIG Executive Charged With Fraud - WSJ.com: "former Deutsche Bank AG and American International Group Inc. executive has been charged with diverting company money to her husband's marketing firms, in part to cover expenses for their upstate New York horse farm.
Heidi Walker allegedly caused false invoices to be filed with Deutsche Bank's asset management unit, and later AIG's Global Investment Group, on behalf of companies owned by her husband,"

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Hedge Fund Hit With Side-Pocket Fraud Charges | FINalternatives

Hedge Fund Hit With Side-Pocket Fraud Charges | FINalternatives: "pair of hedge fund managers have been accused of using a side-pocket to conceal losses and overcharge investors.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said that PEF Advisors, run by Paul Mannion and Andrew Reckles, overvalued the hedge fund's investment in World Health Alternatives by more than a factor of 10. The Atlanta firm's Palisade Master Fund had about 20% of client assets invested in the company five years ago, when WHA announced that it was under investigation for accounting fraud.
PEF moved the WHA investment into a side-pocket as the stock's value plummeted by more than 90%. But according to the SEC, PEF continued to value the stake at $4.12 million, when it was worth $362,000, 'at most.'"

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gang known as the Harlem Boys has terrorized the Bartram Village housing development

gang known as the Harlem Boys has terrorized the Bartram Village housing development, federal authorities said, selling drugs and enforcing their rule with carjackings, shootings, and robberies.
One of their members was known by the fearsome nickname "Murder," and another recently gained citywide notoriety when he escaped from police by leaping from a van taking him to jail.

The gang members marked their territory with graffiti and their skin with tattoos, and prosecutors said they visited violence on anyone who strayed too close - rival dealers and innocent victims alike.

Since 2001, the Harlem Boys sold $3.5 million worth of crack cocaine and distributed a smorgasbord of other drugs, including prescription narcotics, prosecutors said.

At least six gang members were residents of Bartram Village, a Philadelphia Housing Authority property in Southwest Philadelphia.

Prosecutors said the gang controlled an area near the 5400 block of Harley Terrace and 2700 block of 54th Street, which the gang referred to as Harlem.

The gang used at least two apartments there for storing and cooking crack cocaine, according to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday.

The 73-count indictment named 17 defendants, 10 of whom were arrested Wednesday in a joint operation between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Philadelphia police.



Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20101007_Drug_raid_in_S_W__Philly_housing_complex_targets_Harlem_Boys_gang.html#ixzz11iIUg2on
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Judge: Conrad Black's crimes 'old-fashioned fraud' :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Business

Judge: Conrad Black's crimes 'old-fashioned fraud' :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Business: "Attorneys for media mogul Conrad Black argued to an appeals court panel Wednesday that the conviction of the onetime newspaper baron should be overturned, given a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year.
However, an attorney for Black bristled under questioning by Appellate Judge Richard A. Posner, who at one point called one of Black’s crimes “old-fashioned fraud.”

“You get $600,000 without an agreement . . . that’s old-fashioned fraud,” Posner said.
Black was convicted in 2007 of stealing millions of dollars from publisher Hollinger International, the former owner of the Chicago Sun-Times. He was convicted of attempting to disguise some of the money as “non-compete” payments. Black was also convicted of obstruction of justice for carting documents out of an office — some of which were sought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, prosecutors said."

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Real IRA Threatens British Banking Industry - Infoshop News

Real IRA Threatens British Banking Industry - Infoshop News: "guerrilla group, the Real IRA (RIRA) has threatened to attack the British banking inustry. The question is can they actually do it. Some say the group is little more than a rag tag operation of Northern Irish dissidents. Others give it more credence than that.
The group has set off bombs in London before including attacks at MI5 headquarters, and the BBC.
The Real IRA (RIRA), also known as Óglaigh na hÉireann, is a socialist republican guerrilla group that was formed by hardliners who broke out of the provisional IRA when it was clear that the provisionals would go along with the good Friday agreement and subsequently call a ceasefire with the northern Ireland Unionists. The group believes 'that Ireland should be ruled by the Irish and that the only way to acheive that end is through armed struggle."

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Prison for £9.5million drug smuggling gang (From Brentwood Weekly News)

Prison for £9.5million drug smuggling gang (From Brentwood Weekly News): "GANG has been jailed for smuggling £9.5million worth of cannabis into the country.
A dozen men were jailed for a total of 64 years and eight months for a conspiracy to import two huge shipments of the drug, hidden in boxes of cucumbers in the back of lorries from Spain.
They were all arrested during an undercover operation by the Serious and Organised Crime Agency last summer.
The first wave of arrests were made as they attempted to process nearly two tonnes of cannabis, with a street value of £4.5milion, at the Convoys Commercials industrial yard, in Baker Street, Orsett, on June 27 last year.
Then, just a fortnight later on July 12, undercover officers watched other members of the gang unload another two tonnes, worth an estimated £5million, from a lorry in Hounslow, West London.
Judge Alan Saggerson, sitting at Basildon Crown Court, said it had been a “sophisticated operation” which would have netted “significant financial rewards”."

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Witness loses his protection - Nova Scotia News - TheChronicleHerald.ca

Witness loses his protection - Nova Scotia News - TheChronicleHerald.ca: "career criminal who helped put a Halifax Hells Angel and three other men away for a Dartmouth murder says he has been pulled from Canada’s witness protection program.
'As of last Friday, they’ve officially given me the boot,' Paul Joseph Derry said in a telephone interview.
'Happy to see me gone, I’m sure.'
On May 28, Assistant Commissioner Stephen White wrote that 'all protection provided to you pursuant to the protection agreements . . . between you and the RCMP and pursuant to the Witness Protection Program Act is hereby terminated effective immediately.'
Derry, who now goes by another name, had been fighting to stay in witness protection since October, when RCMP first sent him a letter saying it was going to end its contract.
News outlets reported at the time that Derry had 13 alleged breaches to the terms of his witness protection agreement. The Chronicle Herald hasn’t seen the list of breaches, but Derry said those incidents included interviews with reporters and radio shows, especially following a book he published in April 2009 about the killing — Treacherous: How the RCMP Allowed a Hells Angel to Kill."

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NJ.com : Teens shot in front of Carteret home were Crips gang members, officials say

NJ.com : Teens shot in front of Carteret home were Crips gang members, officials say: "Isilma Samuel knew her son was involved with the wrong people, so she moved from Orange to Carteret, two counties away, believing her children would be safer.
Her efforts weren’t enough. Late Tuesday night, Devon Mbachu, 19, was shot and killed, and another teenager was wounded, in front of the Lowell Street home in Carteret where Samuel lived with her two sons.
Police told the mother that her son had again become involved with the wrong people.
'I warned him not to hang out, not to draw attention to himself,' Samuel said of her son, who was to graduate from Carteret High School today."

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Air Marshal Accused of Rape at Gunpoint - CBS News Investigates - CBS News

Air Marshal Accused of Rape at Gunpoint - CBS News Investigates - CBS News: "woman claims a federal air marshal forced himself on her after he stood naked with his government ID badge around his neck holding a gun.
A U.S. federal air marshal was arrested Saturday, accused of raping a woman at gunpoint inside a Seattle hotel room while on a layover for his job."

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former CEO of Homestore.com has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in federal prison for artificially inflating the company's ad revenue.

The former CEO of Homestore.com has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in federal prison for artificially inflating the company's ad revenue.
Prosecutors say 46-year-old Stuart Wolff was sentenced Monday in Los Angeles and ordered to begin serving his time in June.
Judge Gary A. Feess says the scheme was a "calculated deception of the public."
Wolff pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to commit securities fraud through "round-trip" transactions in 2001.
Homestore paid vendors for products and services that the company didn't need or use. Those vendors then returned the money to the company, which listed the funds as $60 million in phony advertising revenue.
When the scheme was revealed, the company's stock plummeted and at least 1,000 jobs were cut.

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promotion for the new Splinter Cell game in Auckland New Zealand ends with police nearly shooting a man.

Someone, somewhere is getting fired right now. In a promotion for the newly released game, Splinter Cell: Convictions, a marketing company in New Zealand thought that it might be fun to send an actor down to the busy Viaduct Basin section of Auckland and engage with shop goers and bar patrons. With an imitation gun. Police were not amused.The NZ Herald is reporting that a man with a bandaged hand and carrying a plastic gun (the gun and bandaged hand are visually distinctive marks of the game’s title character Sam Fisher) was seen wandering by a pub, when the actor pointed a gun at several people. Hilarity ensued.Terrified screams filled the street, as people began to scramble for cover, diving behind tables and running in every direction. Police quickly responded, fully prepared for a shootout. Luckily for the Sam Fisher wanna-be, the New Zealand police have never been to LA, so a brief conversation turned the possibly tragic shootout into an incredibly stupid incident.

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Daily Herald | Arlington Hts. police working to ID body parts found Saturday

Daily Herald | Arlington Hts. police working to ID body parts found Saturday: "Arlington Heights police are investigating the discovery of a partial human corpse found in an alleyway behind 21 N. Dryden at the Marketview Apartments in Arlington Heights."

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