‘A man in the German city of Cologne fatally stabbed his elderly father before cutting off his own head with an electric chainsaw, police said today.
The headless body of the 24-year-old offender was found when police raced to an the apartment yesterday after an emergency call, apparently from the dying father, had been broken off in mid-sentence, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.
Alf Willwacher, a senior prosecutor, said an electric chainsaw was next to the son’s body.
“We do not believe any third party was involved,” he said.’
‘Would you like to be the exclusive owner of a number, with the right to sue other people for knowing your number or telling other people what it is? Now you can.
Last week, the AACS consortium made history by issuing legal threats against the 1.8 million web-pages (and counting) that mentioned its secret code for preventing HD-DVD discs from being copied.
In effect, AACS-LA (the AACS Licensing Authority) claimed that it owned a randomly chosen 128-bit number, and that anyone who possessed or transmitted that number was breaking the law. Moreover, it claimed to own millions more random numbers — claimed that the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which criminalises telling people how to break anti-copying software, gave it exclusive dominion over its many keys.
Why should the AACS get all the fun? Princeton prof Ed Felten has come up with a great way of giving out legally protected 128-bit numbers to anyone who wants them. If he gives out 2^128 of these, then all 128-bit numbers will be owned and no one will ever be able to use a 128-bit key without breaking the law. Good times.’
BTW, I now own the following numbers:
E5 30 A4 6C BF AF 7B 85 59 26 F6 75 32 B2 02 36
06 80 45 C8 3F 90 1D B6 FC DD AE 35 0B C0 2F 64
C7 7C B3 43 96 66 C6 69 0C 0F 9D DA CC B1 2D 5C
If you wish to use them, please email me and we can discuss licensing fees. :)
‘Socialite Paris Hilton said police officers “hit on her all the time” and posed in a zebra-print outfit meant to resemble jail stripes before a judge ordered her to spend 45 days in prison.
The 26-year-old multi-millionaire said she attracted attention because of who she was, but added that officers did not usually arrest her. [..]
She tells the magazine: “I think I get in more trouble just because of who I am.
“The cops do it all the time. They’ll just pull me over to hit on me. It’s really annoying. They’re like, ‘What’s your phone number? Want to go to dinner?’
“They just pull me over, and the paparazzi, of course, take a picture. All the time. I have so many cops’ business cards.”‘
Followup to Paris Hilton gets 45 days in jail.
‘A city police officer who recently received an award from Mothers Against Drunk Driving has been charged with drunken driving, authorities said.
Specialist Charles Beebe’s SUV was pulled over Wednesday in Aurora, Ind., after a motorist reported that he had forced two vehicles off the road, the arresting officer’s report said. Beebe failed a field sobriety test and agreed to a chemical test.
His blood-alcohol content was 0.08 percent, the point at which a motorist is considered legally drunk in Indiana, according to the arrest report. [..]
The 32-year member of the Cincinnati Police Department received a Top Cop award this year from MADD’s Southwestern Ohio chapter.’
‘Before he was extradited to the United States, Hew Griffiths, from Berkeley Vale in NSW, had never even set foot in America. But he had pirated software produced by American companies.
Now, having been given up to the US by former justice minister Chris Ellison, Griffiths, 44, is in a Virginia cell, facing up to 10 years in an American prison after a guilty plea late last month.
Griffiths’ case — involving one of the first extraditions for intellectual property crime — has been a triumph for US authorities, demonstrating their ability to enforce US laws protecting US companies against Australians in Australia, with the co-operation of the Australian Government. [..]
In some corners of the Australian legal community, however, there is concern about Griffiths’ case. In a recent article for the Australian Law Journal, NSW Chief Judge in Equity, Peter Young, wrote: “International copyright violations are a great problem. However, there is also the consideration that a country must protect its nationals from being removed from their homeland to a foreign country merely because the commercial interests of that foreign country are claimed to have been affected by the person’s behaviour in Australia and the foreign country can exercise influence over Australia.”‘
‘A 13-year-old boy who lives with his gran has been exposed as one of Britain’s biggest internet conmen.
The boy earned more than £250,000 ($607,000) by posing as the boss of several multinational companies selling vacuum cleaners, stationery and office supplies.
Many goods weren’t sent, but he used the cash to revel in a luxury lifestyle way beyond his years: he wore designer suits, drank vintage champagne and travelled by chauffeur-driven limousine.
He even employed a personal bodyguard, flew abroad on business trips and claimed he was going to buy a private jet.’
‘Canoeist Dennis Bohrn and his companions were stunned when they saw a woman jump off the Perrine Bridge, her body landing near them in the Snake River. Many in the group were crying by the time they managed to reach the woman and paddle her body to shore.
So Bohrn was shocked when an officer walked up and instead of thanking or comforting the group last Sunday, wrote out a couple of $85 tickets for failing to have life jackets on board either of the two canoes.
“The body was right there,” said the 58-year-old Twin Falls resident. “A girl deputy was trying to console everybody. Then a sergeant walked up. He said, ‘I see you don’t have any life jackets so I am going to give you a citation.’ It seemed a little cold.”‘
‘Celebrity heiress Paris Hilton has been jailed for 45 days after being found guilty of violating her probation for a drink-driving conviction.
A Los Angeles judge ruled she must start her sentence on 5 June and has no prospect of an early release.
Ms Hilton told the judge she was very sorry and that she would “pay complete attention to everything” from now on.
The socialite said she did not know her licence had been suspended when caught driving without headlights in February.’
Followup to Paris Hilton May Have Probation Revoked.
‘A gang stripped a South African man before supergluing him to an exercise bicycle while they ransacked his house, according to a report Thursday.
SAPA news agency said the attackers, dressed in suits, hijacked a man in his 50s and forced him at gunpoint to take them to his home in Johannesburg.
“The victim was then forced to strip, after which he was superglued to the seat of an exercise bicycle, his hands were superglued, as were his feet and then his mouth was superglued shut,” SAPA quoted Mark Stokoe, a spokesman for emergency services Netcare 911, as saying.’
‘A disgruntled wife has admitted feeding her estranged husband a curry containing dog excrement after their relationship broke down.
Jill Martin, 47, pleaded guilty at Paisley Sheriff Court to culpable and reckless conduct against husband Donald Martin. [..]
Depute Fiscal Margaret Dunnipace told the court that on 13 March, after placing the dinner in front of her husband Donald and watching him start to eat it, Martin had burst out laughing. [..]
The couple have now begun divorce proceedings.’
‘A Jetstar call centre operator was allegedly told the budget airline had “just created a terrorist” after it charged excess baggage fees to a disgruntled Brisbane passenger.
Denis William Malizani, 30, of Morayfield in Brisbane’s north, was yesterday charged with making a threat to destroy an aircraft after being told he had to pay the baggage fee while checking in for a flight to Adelaide on April 26. [..]
He allegedly rang Jetstar’s call centre at a later stage and became “aggressive” when he was referred to the operator’s supervisor to further discuss the fees.
Prosecutor Clive Porritt said Malizani had told the operator “I will take it fucking further. I will tell you what I’ll do – I’ll blow up your fucking aircraft. You’ve just created a terrorist.”‘
‘A 29-year-old man wearing a purple wizard outfit was taken into custody in Daytona Beach and charged with abandoning his fiance’s 4-year-old son in a booth at a Denny’s restaurant, according to police. [..]
Workers at Denny’s restaurant located off International Boulevard said Nathan Sierbrasse, 29, left the 4-year-old asleep in one of the booths.
When officers investigated, they found a note for law enforcement with the boy’s name and contact information.’
‘A Chinese judge charged with corruption died in his cell from “adult sudden death syndrome”, Xinhua news agency said today.
Investigators said Li Chaoyang, 38, had been unco-operative while in detention in Xing’an county in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southwestern China.
“Cuts on his face and other injuries” had been caused by a fall during an escape attempt, they said. [..]
“Li Chaoyang’s sudden death conforms with adult sudden death syndrome,” said Mr Shi, citing a forensic report.’
‘A woman accused of holding police at bay by brandishing poisonous snakes was sentenced to house arrest and probation.
“I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind that night,” said Terry Jackson, 36, at her sentencing Monday.
Officers were trying to prevent the despondent woman from harming herself with a hunting knife when the confrontation took place October 25, police said.
Jackson picked up two western diamondback rattlesnakes, a pigmy rattlesnake and two copperheads to try to keep police from taking her into custody, authorities said.
Jackson, who was raising the snakes for laboratories, received several bites during the standoff and was taken to a hospital after police subdued her with a stun gun.’
‘Carson admitted to police that he had been “making it hard for her to get far in the game.” He said that after repeated online threats from the woman, she sent her husband and friends over to his house to “take care of him.” Carson later said that he had made the mistake of telling her where he lived and “if her husband was man enough to just come meet me to settle this.”
2 weeks leading up to the assault he said he had been harassed by a few characters constantly during game play. “I knew that I might be messed with in the game but I didn’t really expect her husband to come looking for me. I couldn’t have been more wrong.”‘
‘Underworld figure turned author Mark “Chopper” Read appeared in a Melbourne court today where he was fined $300 for careless driving. [..]
His lawyer Bernie Balmer told the court his client – who appeared to be sleeping at times in court – admitted bumping the other car while trying to get into a tight carpark.
However, he disputed the claim that the collision caused $1,500 damage to the other car, saying when Read inspected the cars he could not see any damage to either vehicle.
In a lighter moment, after the court was told Read had no relevant priors, Mr Balmer joked it was a “wonderful day” when you could say in court no priors for Mr Read.’
‘An employer in eastern India beheaded one of his workers for failing to milk his cows, police said on Saturday.
Neighbors watched in horror as Upendra Yadav was dragged out of his house in Jharkhand state on Friday by his angry employer.
The employer’s father and brother held Yadav down before he was beheaded with a sword, police said.
The employer has been charged with murder.’
‘An 82-year-old man wielding a bag of shopping has driven an armed robber from a village post office.
George Smith hit the man twice with a bag containing an iceberg lettuce and bottles of bleach and washing liquid.
The masked raider, who had a shotgun, fled from the shop in Speldhurst, near Tunbridge Wells, Kent, leaving the takings untouched. [..]
Mr Smith himself said his actions were “entirely automatic”.
“The best method of defence is attack – so I did. I whacked him in the face and then I clobbered him again.
“He ran off down to the corner still with the gun pointing my way.
“I took a couple of paces towards him and told him to clear off. And he did.”‘
‘On the afternoon of July 8, 2006, four private security guards rolled out of Baghdad’s Green Zone in an armored SUV. The team leader, Jacob C. Washbourne, rode in the front passenger seat. He seemed in a good mood. His vacation started the next day.
“I want to kill somebody today,” Washbourne said, according to the three other men in the vehicle, who later recalled it as an offhand remark. Before the day was over, however, the guards had been involved in three shooting incidents. In one, Washbourne allegedly fired into the windshield of a taxi for amusement, according to interviews and statements from the three other guards.’
‘More than a fifth of the approximately 385 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been cleared for release but may have to wait months or years for their freedom because U.S. officials are finding it increasingly difficult to line up places to send them, according to Bush administration officials and defense lawyers.
Since February, the Pentagon has notified about 85 inmates or their attorneys that they are eligible to leave after being cleared by military review panels. But only a handful have gone home, including a Moroccan and an Afghan who were released Tuesday. Eighty-two remain at Guantanamo and face indefinite waits as U.S. officials struggle to figure out when and where to deport them, and under what conditions.
The delays illustrate how much harder it will be to empty the prison at Guantanamo than it was to fill it after it opened in January 2002 to detain fighters captured in Afghanistan and terrorism suspects captured overseas.’
‘Whenever Antonio Moreno wanted to see his girlfriend, he’d jump in a car and drive right over.
But there was a problem. The 26 cars Moreno jumped into all belonged to someone else.
Authorities arrested the 31-year-old near his suburban home on Wednesday. They said he was behind the wheel of a 1987 Toyota when they found him. [..]
He was “stealing vehicles as transportation to pursue their relationship,” said a police spokesman in Santa Barbara, where some of the thefts took place.
He didn’t have a driver’s licence or car of his own.’
‘Authorities tried Friday to sort out the strange case of a letter demanding that a St. Louis television station pay a woman $10,000 or she would kill her children and possibly her ex-boyfriend.
The 29-year-old woman whose name was signed to the note denied writing it, Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke said. She was arrested on unrelated traffic warrants and released on bond while state officials took temporary custody of her two children. The sheriff said a handwriting expert will be consulted.
“The whole thing is pretty weird,” Toelke said.’
‘Olga Sanchez thought her 15-year-old son had stopped using “cheese,” a heroin mixture making its way across the Dallas area.
But this spring, Oscar Gutierrez’s brother found him dead in bed.
“He was very purple. He was very cold, cold,” said Sanchez, who had been attending drug counseling with her son since discovering his cheese habit last fall.
The deaths of at least 18 teenagers, ranging from ages 15 to 18, have been linked to the mixture of black tar heroin — a less refined form of the drug — and Tylenol PM tablets ground into a powder. [..]
Several factors appear to be driving the popularity of cheese. Kids often buy the drug from other kids. It’s affordable, selling for about $2 a dosage. And it is usually snorted rather than injected.’
‘A Syrian-born airline pilot allegedly tricked a schoolteacher from Haverfordwest into having sex with him by pretending he had to administer ointment on the end of his penis, a jury heard yesterday (Tuesday).
Fadi Sbano, 38, even pretended to know a gynaecologist who advised him on how often to have intercourse with her and whether to thrust “slowly or quickly”. And, on the “doctor’s advice”, he kept a clock on the bedside table to time the sessions.
The teacher put up with the treatment for nine months before telling her doctor.’
‘An Indian court ordered the arrest of Hollywood star Richard Gere on Thursday for kissing Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS campaign event this month saying it was an obscene act committed in public.
Gere’s repeated kisses on Shetty’s cheeks at an event to promote AIDS awareness in New Delhi sparked protests in some parts of India, mostly by Hindu vigilante groups, who saw it as an outrage against her modesty and an affront to Indian culture.
The order by a court in the northern city of Jaipur came in response to a complaint by a local lawyer.’
(3.2meg Flash video)
see it here »
‘David Hicks was a bumbling wanna-be who would have been a “total liability” for al-Qaeda in any terrorist attack.
In a scathing critique, Hicks’s US military prosecutors have privately described the convicted Australian as a man of “no personal courage or intellect” who rolled over as soon as he was questioned.
And they have undermined the Australian Government’s portrayal of Hicks as a dangerous terrorist by admitting that his crimes were relatively minor compared with those of his fellow inmates at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.’
‘Controversial US rapper Snoop Dogg is being denied entry to Australia after failing a character test.
The cancellation of the rapper, record producer and actor’s visa means he will not be able to appear at the MTV Australian Video Music Awards this weekend, as planned.
Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said Snoop Dogg was being issued with a notice of intention to cancel his visa after he failed to pass the requisite character test.
Snoop Dogg, 35, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, pleaded no contest to felony gun and drug charges in the US earlier this month.’
‘A woman has won nearly $240,000 compensation from RailCorp after a judge ruled she was raped because she had broken her ankle weeks earlier at a Sydney railway station.
RailCorp was found responsible for the woman’s rape at a private home, because she could not escape with her leg in plaster, and for her subsequent depression.
The 36-year-old Taiwanese television reporter, Yu-Mei Chu, had been in Sydney to learn English when she lost her footing on slippery stairs at Sydenham rail station in December 2002.
A few weeks later, while still on crutches with her leg ankle in plaster, she was sexually assaulted and beaten at a man’s home.
She told the court she could not get away because of her broken ankle.’
‘Boris Yeltsin was always good for a laugh, which is probably why on the occasion of his death people outside of Russia are not calling him words like scum and monster, but instead recalling him fondly, with a smile, as one would a retarded nephew who could always be counted on to pull his pants down at Thanksgiving dinner. [..]
He’s been on the verge of death so many times…His doctors themselves are in shock that he’s still alive. Half the blood vessels in his brain are about to burst after his strokes, his intestines are spotted all over with holes, he has giant ulcers in his stomach, his heart is in absolutely disgusting condition, he is literally rotting…He could die from any one of dozens of physical problems that he has, but contrary to all laws of nature — he lives.’
‘A 12-year-old Brooklyn boy is clinging to life after being impaled in the head with a stick, and police have charged an 11-year-old with the vicious attack.
The victim, Stevenson Celius, was rushed to Kings County Hospital on Thursday evening when police say two inches of a wooden stick was lodged into his brain. His family says the attack happened when the boy went to the store to buy candy. The suspect, an 11-year-old classmate of his, demanded his change and when he refused, a chase ensued.
Stevenson made it as far as the vestibule of his building before the brutal attack occurred.’
