‘They had just been wed in the castle which features in the TV series Monarch of the Glen, and their guests were waiting for them at the reception.
Not the ideal time for Mark Allerton and the former Teresa Brown to have the first blazing row of married life.
After some well-chosen insults, the newly-weds ended up grappling together in their hotel bridal suite and 33-year-old Mrs Allerton spiked her husband in the head with one of her stiletto heels.
The 40-year-old oilman staggered down to the hotel desk with blood pouring from a puncture wound, causing staff to call an ambulance.’
‘A diligent Harvard Square restaurant worker tied a tourniquet around his bloody penis and continued working for several hours after armed robbers stabbed him last week, police said.
The 45-year-old East Boston man told police he was stabbed by two black men in their 20’s outside Z Square restaurant at 14 JFK St. on July 2.
After the 3 a.m. attack, the victim — who noticed he was bleeding from the groin — ran back into the restaurant bathroom and tied a knot around his penis to stop the bleeding, police said. The victim then continued working until 5 a.m. that morning, police said. The victim finally called an ambulance after he rode the T back to his home in East Boston. A doctor at Boston Medical Center told police the victim suffered a three-inch cut to his penis.’
‘German police broke into a darkened flat fearing they would find a dead body after neighbours complained of a nasty smell seeping out onto the staircase.
The shutters of the apartment had been closed for more than a week and the post-box was filled with uncollected mail.
But instead of a corpse police found a tenant with badly smelling feet asleep in bed next to a pile of foul-smelling laundry, police in the south-western town of Kaiserslautern said on Sunday.’
‘A father took his life in a courtroom moments after being found guilty of assaulting his baby daughter.
Ratnasabapathy Anandakumar, 40, smuggled poison in a Coca-Cola bottle into the dock in his bag, drinking it after being convicted of brutally attacking his daughter when she was three months old.
As judge, lawyers and jurors looked on, he drank the liquid before a security guard could intervene.
He died later in hospital. It is thought to be the first time a suspect has apparently committed suicide in court.’
‘Three people who kept an epileptic man prisoner in a garden shed in Gloucestershire for six weeks have been jailed at Bristol Crown Court.
Kevin Davies, 29, was found dead by paramedics at a house in Badgers Way, Bream on 26 September 2006. [..]
In her diary Baggus wrote about the punishments they inflicted on Kevin Davies and noted his cries for help.
They also made a hostage-style video of him in which they forced him to say he was being “fed perfectly”.
In fact he was being fed only scraps.’
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‘Ireland’s top bookmaker, Paddy Power PLC, paid out more than $13,500 on Friday to people who bet that Al Gore would be arrested. Trouble was, the company neglected to specify which one.
The former U.S. vice president and global-warming activist was rated as a 14-to-1 outsider in a list of American celebrities likely to be arrested next. On Wednesday _ the day after the betting went live on Paddy Power’s Web site _ Gore’s 24-year-old son, Al Gore III, was arrested and charged with illegally possessing marijuana and prescription drugs.
Paddy Power said it was paying out winnings to about 50 people, because it had failed to identify which Gore it meant. “We got a good stoning,” the Dublin-based company said in a statement.’
‘More than 300 high definition CCTV cameras have been placed in potential terrorist targets in the lead-up to Sydney’s APEC Summit, acting Premier John Watkins says.
The new cameras bring to 6400 the total number of cameras watching people using buses, trains and ferries.
The cameras, 200 of which use cutting-edge facial recognition technology, have been installed across the city in buses, ferry and train stations.
“The technology which includes live streaming to large LCD displays will also prove a strong deterrent to common criminals and thugs,” Mr Watkins told reporters today.’
‘Investigators say James Coldwell, 49, robbed the Citizens Bank at 1550 Elm St. while clad in clothing adorned with tree branches held on by duct tape.
Coldwell was charged with one count of robbery after answering questions at the police station, Capt. Dick Tracy said.
Video surveillance of the Saturday morning robbery showed a thin white man leaving the bank in a shroud of tree branches, all duct-taped to his shirt and head. His short, dark hair and mustache were clearly visible between the leaves.
Bank
Tracy said police were tipped off by several anonymous callers after the footage appeared on a nightly news broadcasts.’
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‘The delivery man told officers he was taking pizza and sodas to an apartment in the area about 8:30 p.m. when two men approached him and demanded the food and beverages. As one of the men grabbed them, the delivery man felt a shock and pain in his back that officers later determined was from a Taser, according to a police statement recounting the episode.
The delivery man was not seriously injured, according to the statement.’
‘A Sydney woman charged with murdering her father and sister and seriously injuring her mother was apparently denied psychiatric treatment because of her parents’ alleged Scientology beliefs, a court has been told.
The 25-year-old woman, who cannot be named, appeared briefly in Bankstown Local Court today charged over the stabbing attacks at her family home in Revesby in Sydney’s south-west last Thursday.
She made no application for bail because she was unfit to be interviewed, her legal aid lawyer Wade Bloomfield told the court.
In a report tendered to the court, Dr Mark Cross, consultant psychiatrist and clinical director of Liverpool and Fairfield Mental Health Services said the woman was diagnosed with a psychotic illness at Bankstown Hospital in late 2006.
But her parents had refused her appropriate follow-up treatment.’
Tommy Chong and Steven Colbert talk a bit about Paris Hilton.
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‘They might seem like modern-day Robin Hoods, but they’re really just cyber-robbers.
Some fraudsters have become generous — with other people’s money, donating to charities with stolen credit cards to verify the numbers are valid before selling them, the security firm Symantec Corp. said Friday on its blog.
Unverified cards fetch up to $6 while verified cards can bring up to $18, said Javier Santoyo, a manager at Symantec. “Even the bad guys want to verify the other bad guys.”
The verification method has become popular because the monitoring software at credit-card companies may not question donations to charities, according the Symantec blog. Santoyo said the schemers usually donate less than $10.’
‘Although crime did fall dramatically in New York during Giuliani’s tenure, a broad range of scientific research has emerged in recent years to show that the mayor deserves only a fraction of the credit that he claims. The most compelling information has come from an economist in Fairfax who has argued in a series of little-noticed papers that the “New York miracle” was caused by local and federal efforts decades earlier to reduce lead poisoning.
The theory offered by the economist, Rick Nevin, is that lead poisoning accounts for much of the variation in violent crime in the United States. It offers a unifying new neurochemical theory for fluctuations in the crime rate, and it is based on studies linking children’s exposure to lead with violent behavior later in their lives.
What makes Nevin’s work persuasive is that he has shown an identical, decades-long association between lead poisoning and crime rates in nine countries.
“It is stunning how strong the association is,” Nevin said in an interview. “Sixty-five to ninety percent or more of the substantial variation in violent crime in all these countries was explained by lead.”‘
‘A missing staple in the court file of two of the state’s most notorious killers has given them a fresh appeal – and the possibility of being set free.
In an astonishing blunder, sloppy record keeping in the Court of Criminal Appeal registry has led to two murderers of Sydney clerk Janine Balding being given special leave to take their case to the High Court.
Amazingly, the appeal has been granted because a staple was found to be missing in their court file.
Janine’s mother, Bev Balding, yesterday expressed dismay and outrage at the legal loophole, which effectively quashes the pair’s unsuccessful 1992 appeal.’
‘A Chewbacca impersonator sexually assaulted a Marilyn Monroe impersonator in front of the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood in June. The wookie then evaded arrest, police said.
According to an officer with the LAPD, Chewbacca allegedly took the platinum-coiffed actress’s hand and placed it on his private parts as the characters performed for tips from tourists. [..]
Earlier in the year, police arrested an actor in a Chewbacca costume after a tour guide told him to stop harassing a pair of Japanese tourists. Police are unsure if the same wookie is involved in today’s assault.’
Followup to Superman witnesses Wookie attack
‘A man was charged with elderly abuse after his mother was found covered in red ants and lying in her feces in a trailer with no electricity, authorities said Friday.
Lillian V. Smith, 83, died at a hospital Thursday, two days after she was discovered in the abandoned trailer with no running water or bathroom, authorities said. Newspapers had been stuffed in her anus to stop feces from spilling onto the bed, according to a police report obtained by The Miami Herald.
Doctors said she also had a fractured right leg that had not been treated, the arrest report said.’
‘Two teenagers were accused of gang raping a woman and forcing her 12-year-old son to join in the attack, then beating him and pouring cleaning solution into his eyes.
Authorities allege Avion Lawson, 14, and Nathan Walker, 16, were among a group of about 10 masked suspects who forced their way into the woman’s apartment in a crime-ridden housing project the night of June 18. [..]
“Any rape case is horrible but this takes it to another level, something you can’t think of even in your worst dreams,” police spokesman Ted White said.
According to the police report, a man knocked on the woman’s door at about 9 p.m. and told her he had a flat tire. The mother and son, whom police have not identified, went outside and were ambushed by a group of gun-wielding suspects.’
‘The infection incident occurred on 9 February 2006. Several A&M researchers, including Principal Investigator Thomas Ficht, were in a BSL-3 lab training in the use of the Madison Aerosol Chamber. Supervising was David McMurray, an A&M professor and self-described inventor of the chamber, who has characterized it as “foolproof”.
Following a “hot” run that blew aerosolized brucella into the chamber to expose mice, researchers began clean up procedures. Using what Texas A&M now admits were inappropriate protocols, a researcher “cleaned the unit by climbing partially into the chamber to disinfect it.” A&M officials later concluded that the brucella bacteria likely entered her body via her eyes as a result of this improper procedure. (This is the third instance of lab-acquired infections related to the Madison chamber that the Sunshine Project has uncovered. The others were in Seattle and New York City.)
By April 2006, the researcher had “been home sick for several weeks.” Nobody apparently suspected brucellosis, despite the occupational exposure and, presumably, familiarity with its symptoms. [..]’
‘Nearly half of the US public wants President George W. Bush to face impeachment, and even more favor that fate for Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a poll out Friday.
The survey by the American Research Group found that 45 percent support the US House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against Bush, with 46 percent opposed, and a 54-40 split in favor when it comes to Cheney.
The study by the private New Hampshire-based ARG canvassed 1,100 Americans by telephone July 3-5 and had an error margin of plus or minus three percentage points. The findings are available on ARG’s Internet site.
The White House declined to comment on the poll, the latest bad news for a president who has seen his public opinion standings dragged to record lows by the unpopular war in Iraq.’
‘A man who told two women they were extremely beautiful was arrested on charges of harassment last week, Denver police said.
Police said 32-year-old Jeff John Hergert approached the women and “expressed interest in them.” He told each woman in two separate incidents that they were extremely beautiful and that they should consider modeling.
Hergert was arrested and is being held on two counts of harassment. He is being held on a $10,000 bond.’
‘An engineering student at UNC Charlotte was caught with a device made to block police photo radar. He used a switchable electric window glazing that turned his car license plates to gray at a touch of a button.
The student’s job caused him to work late at a local restaurant. Having to sit at a near by traffic light for what he considered to long made him come up with the idea to make a device to allow him to go through the red light with out the photo radar getting a shot of his plates.
He said he ordered the glass cut to the shape of his plates and wired a switch to his dash so he could darken his plates before going through the red light. After weeks of getting photos of the same car with no visible plates local police waited for him at his usual red light. With in 2 hours they caught him coming home from work.’
‘As stabbing victim LaShanda Calloway lay dying on the floor of a convenience store, five shoppers, including one who stopped to take a picture of her with a cell phone, stepped over the woman, police said.
The June 23 situation, captured on the store’s surveillance video, got scant news coverage until a columnist for The Wichita Eagle disclosed the existence of the video and its contents Tuesday.
Police have refused to release the video, saying it is part of their investigation.’
‘Six more youths have lost their penises as a result of bungled circumcisions in the Eastern Cape.
Provincial health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said 18 would-be initiates were admitted to hospital in Port St Johns last week and four had to have their septic penises amputated. [..]
Kupelo said the death toll in the current winter circumcision season in the province now stood at seven.
Five of the deaths were the direct results of circumcisions; one youth was murdered at a school and another died in a fire at a school in the East London area.’
‘Police detained a man in eastern Belgium after a dinner guest found the bodies of the host’s wife and stepson in a freezer, authorities said Thursday.
The female guest opened the freezer while helping to clear up after a dinner with a group of friends Tuesday at the man’s home in the city of Verviers, 78 miles east of Brussels, said Christine Wilwerth of the city prosecutor’s office.
“It was a lady who at the end of the meal at a friend’s house, and after washing the dishes … decided to take the leftovers of the meal down to the basement to store in the deep freeze,” Wilwerth said. “Once she opened the deep freeze, she discovered the bodies.”‘
‘Authorities tracked down a 4-year-old girl who called 911 nearly 300 times last month by offering to deliver McDonald’s to her suburban Chicago apartment.
Unbeknownst to her mother, the girl used a deactivated cell phone to call dispatchers 287 times in June–sometimes as often as 20 times a shift.
Dispatchers heard the child’s voice but could only track the phone’s signal to the apartment complex.
So authorities used a ruse to pinpoint her.
“We asked (the caller) what she wanted. She said she wanted McDonald’s,” said Steve Cordes, executive director of QuadCom’s emergency center, which covers Carpentersville.
“We talked with her and we convinced her if she told us where she lives, we would bring her McDonald’s,” he said. “She finally gave us her address. So we sent the police over–with no McDonald’s.”‘
‘An 11-year-old Perdido Key girl has been charged with driving under the influence after she led Orange Beach police on a high-speed chase.
Greg Duck, Orange Beach assistant police chief, said the Tuesday night chase — which was caught on a dashboard camera in a police cruiser — started about 10:30 p.m. in Orange Beach near the Florida line. It ended just inside the Gulf Shores city limits when the girl crashed and rolled the Chevy Monte Carlo she was driving. [..]
Police said the car sideswiped another vehicle during the chase, which reached speeds of more than 100 miles per hour. [..]
Duck said the girl told police she was on her way to pick up her sister at a concert in Orange Beach.’
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‘A pair of pre-teen sisters are accused of kidnapping an infant in Enid on Thursday, police said.
The 10-year-old and 12-year-old girl allegedly broke into a neighbor’s home Thursday morning about 5:30 a.m., taking a 1-year-old baby while his mother, Sheila Wells, slept, police said. A ransom note was left. According to police, they were accused of kidnapping for extortion and first-degree burglary.
Officers said the girls not only took the baby boy, Brandon Wells, from a crib in which he was sleeping, they also took assorted baby items, $20 in cash and left a ransom note telling the mother of the baby that “if you want to see your son again, then you won’t call police and report him missing, and you will leave $200,000 on the sofa tonight, and we will return your son back safe.”
Police said the note was signed “the kidnappers.”‘
‘This Friday, it became known that the Swedish Police Board will shut down The Pirate Bay, the popular file sharing site, by classifying it as a child pornography site in the blocklist that Swedish Internet Providers respect. Some time next week, an update to the blacklist will include The Pirate Bay.
This means that anyone from Sweden visiting the well-known file sharing site The Pirate Bay will be greeted by a block page from the Police Board saying they’re not allowed to visit child pornography sites.
“This is a devastatingly ignorant abuse of the trust relationship between the Internet world and the Police that was created in order to stop child pornography”, says Rick Falkvinge, leader of the Pirate Party. “Once given the means to shut down unwanted sites, the Police uses the filter to shut down the Pirate Bay after the failed attempt last year. And just like last year, through abuse of procedure.”‘
‘A Hong Kong woman who blinded her boyfriend in one eye in a fight six years ago has been jailed for jabbing a chopstick into his other eye.
Last November, Po Shiu-fong, 58, accused long-time boyfriend Kwok Wai-ming, 49, of having an affair, the South China Morning Post reported.
During the row, Po stabbed a plastic chopstick into his left eye, which she had already blinded six years ago when she poked it with her finger.
“Po became hysterical when she saw the wound and mopped it with a towel. The pair then went to bed,” the paper said.
“The next morning they had another argument in which she grabbed a chopstick and stabbed Kwok’s right eye,” it said.’
‘Five boys have appeared in the Perth Children’s Court charged over the kidnap and assault of a high school classmate.
The boys aged 12 to 14 are accused of grabbing the boy from the school last Wednesday and dragging him into nearby bush.
It is alleged they hung the 13-year-old up by his underpants and assaulted him.
Police say the boys then dug a grave, pushed the teenager into it and shovelled dirt on top of him.’
