‘More than 200 years since the first boatload of English convicts reached our shores, overcrowded British jails are once again considering sending their prisoners Down Under.
In a desperate move to combat what has become a national crisis, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced he will do anything possible — including sending convicts overseas — to relieve pressure on the country’s “full to bursting” prison system.
The Daily Telegraph reports that Australia’s High Commissioner to the UK Richard Alston acknowledged the prospect of accepting UK prisoners at a recent function.’
‘Parents of several students who watched police handcuff and arrest their second-grade teacher said Thursday they think the teacher was mistreated by West Contra Costa school district officials, and they plan to file formal complaints.
Sheldon Elementary teacher Jennie Mo, 57, is being held on suspicion of 18 counts of false imprisonment after police say she held her students hostage and used a child to shield herself from an officer after school officials placed her on leave Wednesday.’
‘A teenager stopped by a police officer at the Grand Avenue Mall as a suspected truant became disruptive and threw his colostomy bag at the officer, department spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said this morning.
The officer was responding to a truancy complaint at the downtown mall Monday at 1:17 p.m. and stopped the youth, who refused to tell the officer his name or age, she said. The suspect then became disruptive and threw his colostomy bag containing bodily waste at the officer.’
‘A rubber penis and fake severed head have been stolen from the set of new horror film ‘Hannibal Rising’.
The movie’s director Peter Webber revealed the theft and is convinced the guilty party is planning on selling them.
He said: “There’s a character called Dortlich whose head is severed during the course of the movie. It was stolen by someone. There’s also a scene with a body that Hannibal Lecter is working on. It’s a full-size replica human body, including the genitals. Somebody took the genitals – they had to cut them off. So someone somewhere has got a large rubber penis and a rubber head.”
Webber is going to check internet auction site eBay to see if they turn up.’
‘A senior Thai Buddhist monk has been charged with raping a Vietnamese Australian teenager during a ritual he claimed would protect her from bad luck, police said today.
“The victim did not know at first she had been raped because she thought it was part of the rite, until she called her parents and they told her to report to the embassy and the police,” Colonel Thanit Ratanopast said.
The 18-year-old woman went to the police, who told her to plant a camera in her bag when she went back to see Phra Wimonmunee, the 59-year-old abbot of a Bangkok temple, they said.
Police then arrested the monk while he was trying to rape the woman again, they said.’
‘A group of Greek nuns abandoned their convent and went into hiding after running up debts of more than 600,000 euros ($A1.01 million) from a knitting business that went bust, authorities said. [..]
The nuns are believed to have taken refuge at another monastery in central Greece and the Greek press has reported that the Church of Greece has offered to help them pay their debts and come out of hiding.
The church’s representative was not available for comment.’
‘A German court has ordered the arrest of 13 people in connection with the alleged CIA-backed kidnapping of a German citizen, regarded as one of the most notorious US “renditions” of a terror suspect, prosecutors said.
The prosecutor’s office in Munich, southern Germany, said the city’s administrative court had issued the arrest warrants against individuals thought to be CIA agents on suspicion of abduction and grievous bodily harm.
Authorities are probing allegations by Khaled el-Masri, a Lebanese-born German, that he was abducted by US agents in the Macedonian capital Skopje on New Year’s Eve 2003.’
‘Village of Kewaskum Police Chief Richard Knoebel said he was driving to work when he became distracted by a truck stopping on one side of the street.
He said he didn’t see a school bus with its lights flashing and a stop sign out on the other side of the four-lane road.
The chief said he didn’t know he had passed the stopped bus until it was too late.
When he realized what he had done, he issued himself a $235 ticket.
“When we get someone for not stopping for a flashing school bus we give them a citation. So I shouldn’t be any different so I did,” Knoebel said.
Not only did the chief have to pay a hefty fine, he gave himself a four-point penalty on his license.’
‘A woman who lost her premature baby a day after she was thrown in jail is suing the police department and two arresting officers who repeatedly ignored her pleas for medical help.
A police videotape released Tuesday shows Sofia Salva telling officers numerous times last Feb. 5 that she was pregnant, bleeding and needed to go to a hospital.
After the ninth request, the tape shows, a female officer asked: “How is that my problem?”’
Update: now with the video.
(42.1meg Windows media)
see it here »
‘A college student who told police she had been raped was jailed for two days after officers found an old warrant accusing her of failing to pay restitution for a 2003 theft arrest.
While she was behind bars, a jail worker refused to give her a second dose of the morning-after contraceptive pill because of the worker’s religious convictions, the college student’s attorney said.
The 21-year-old woman was released Monday only after attorney Vic Moore reported her plight to the local media.’
‘Edward Cowal, a registered sex offender in Florida, was the sole winner of a $14 million lottery drawing, officials said.
He elected to take a lump sum settlement of nearly $8 million before taxes.
State records show that Cowal has an extensive record of arrests for alleged offenses beginning in 1993, including burglary, lewd and lascivious or indecent assault upon a child, trespass, aggravated assault and driving under the influence.’
‘It was supposed to be college day for the students of Ware Shoals High School in South Carolina, a chance to learn about educational prospects at a local institution. But according to police, two of the school’s cheerleaders ditched the event (the exact date hasn’t been made public) and instead headed to a motel with Jill Moore, their coach. There, they met up for a tryst with two National Guardsmen who recruited at their school. Moore loosened things up by allegedly providing the girls with vodka. Then, the cops say, she repaired to a room with one of the soldiers and set up a different room for the two cheerleaders and the other soldier to “hook up.” According to authorities, the second Guardsman and one of the girls later admitted that they had a sexual relationship.’
‘An alleged plot to kidnap and murder a British Muslim soldier in a ‘Ken Bigley-style’ execution was foiled by security forces in Birmingham today.
Eight people were arrested during a series of pre-dawn raids in the city as part of a major nationwide anti-terror investigation.
Sources said it marked a “new departure” for terrorism in the UK and that a major “close quarters” terror strike had been thwarted. [..]
The intended hostage – said to be a young Muslim soldier in the British army who had served in Afghanistan – would have been filmed, made to plead for his life and ultimately executed, sources alleged.’
‘mmigrants wishing to live in the small Canadian town of Herouxville, Quebec, must not stone women to death in public, burn them alive or throw acid on them, according to an extraordinary set of rules released by the local council. [..]
“We wish to inform these new arrivals that the way of life which they abandoned when they left their countries of origin cannot be recreated here,” said the declaration, which makes clear women are allowed to drive, vote, dance, write checks, dress how they want, work and own property.
“Therefore we consider it completely outside these norms to … kill women by stoning them in public, burning them alive, burning them with acid, circumcising them etc.”‘
`A high school lunch period was disrupted Monday by a greased, naked student who ran around screaming and flailing his arms until police twice used a stun gun on him, authorities said.
Taylor Killian, 18, had rubbed his body with grapeseed oil to keep from being caught, and got up after the first time he was shocked to continue running toward a group of frightened students huddled in a corner at Westerville North High School, Lt. Jeff Gaylor said.
“That prank went a little farther than he intended, I guess,” Gaylor said. [..]
Police said that an administrator ordered Killian to stop, but that the student made a sexual gesture and kept running.
Killian is in jail and charged with inducing panic, public indecency, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.’
‘A feuding neighbour was arrested for mowing his lawn in the NUDE, a court heard yesterday.
Yan Price, 30, exposed himself to shocked housewives two weeks after cops reprimanded him for sunbathing naked in his garden, it was claimed.
They saw him in the buff, apart from one glove, while bending to pick up dog muck.
A shocked young mum told York Crown Court: “I felt intimidated. You could see everything.”’
‘An ID badge that Taylor wore when he was arrested indicated that he worked for Microsoft. But that was no more accurate than the two-dozen other employee badges he possessed for E-Trade and AT&T Broadband, or the 15 driver’s licenses from various states that featured his congenial face and a dozen aliases. Nor did Thomas’s California driver’s license help authorities identify him. Although it had his picture, the name and address on the ID belonged to a producer for the A&E channel.
With so many fake IDs in play it was unclear to police exactly who they had in custody. Then as they read Thomas his rights, he told them: “Get me some federal agents and I’ll give you a case involving the Russians and millions of dollars.”‘
This is quite long, but it’s fairly interesting.
‘Northern Territory police are on the trail of a serial cat killer after the tenth victim in less than three months was found horribly butchered in Darwin’s satellite city of Palmerston.
Since November, ten cats in the area have been killed and mutilated, with three found dead in the last two weeks. Police believe the same person is responsible for all ten deaths.
The way in which the animals have been killed is chilling. Each cat is skinned, disembowelled and then been put on show for the public to find. Often meat is cut from the bodies and found nearby. Other times it is removed and taken away altogether for an unknown purpose.’
`According to authorities, the suspect entered the store at about 10:30 p.m. dressed in skin-tight black clothing and armed with a samurai-style sword.
The suspect stood in line before he demanded the cashier turn over the money in the register, reportedly waving his sword in the air.
The cashier and other customers inside thought the suspect was pulling a prank. The cashier refused to give the suspect the money and he fled the scene.
Richfield Police were called. They searched the neighborhood for the suspect but he managed to slip away into the night in the manner of a ninja.’
‘A Screaming naked woman was found by police beating her husband in the front of a van.Officers were alerted to screams coming from a vehicle in Brynawelon, and discovered Mary Nurse stripped bare hitting her partner.
She then ran starkers into the street when officers tried to arrest her.
The 40-year-old was given a conditional discharge after she admitted causing harassment, alarm and distress when she appeared before Llanelli magistrates.’
‘Six girls at a rural high school were charged with homicide conspiracy after their principal found a list of 300 names and officials discovered online postings suggesting they kill people, authorities said Thursday.
School officials said the list, discovered in a classroom trash can, mostly named students and faculty members but also included Tom Cruise, Oprah Winfrey and the Energizer Bunny.
Sequatchie County High School Principal Tommy Layne said that he initially considered it a joke, but that authorities then found the ninth-graders’ online MySpace pages and postings that included the word “kill.”‘
‘The body of a 3-year-old boy was found in a septic tank less than 10 feet from the house where he was reported missing, Flathead County Sheriff Mike Meehan said Saturday.
The body of Loic J.M. Rogers was found late Friday, and an autopsy showed that he drowned, Meehan said.
“This is a tragedy,” Meehan said.
It was unclear how the boy got into the septic tank, and the manhole-sized lid was closed. Meehan did not classify the death as a homicide, but said investigators do not believe he could have climbed into the tank and put the lid back on himself. An investigation is continuing.’
`Dozens of street children have invaded a five-star hotel food tent and feasted on meals meant for sale at the World Social Forum in Kenya’s capital.
The hungry urchins were joined by other participants who complained that the food was too expensive at the annual anti-capitalist get together.
The police, caught unawares, were unable to stop the free-for-all that saw the food containers swept clean.
The gathering in Nairobi is discussing social problems, including poverty.
A plate of food at the tent being operated by the prestigious Windsor Hotel was selling for $7 in a country where many live on less than $2 a day.’
‘The good kind of rape though. In his upcoming autobiography, “Let’s Face it – 90 Years of Living, Loving and Learning,” Douglas reveals that he lost his virginity was he just 15 years old–to a school teacher! The movie legend claims he didn’t know his teacher could have gone to prison for statutory rape if their relationship had been discovered. Recalling his lover, Douglas writes:
“I had been a ragamuffin kid of 15 coping with a neighborhood filled with gangs… Under her guidance I became a different person. I am eternally grateful. By today’s standards she would have gone to jail. I had no idea we were doing something wrong. Did she?”‘
‘A man who used a stun gun on his 79-year-old grandmother-in-law was arrested for investigation of domestic violence assault. [..]
The argument began Wednesday morning when his 7-month-old son tried to grab electrical wires, de Bruyn told The Columbian newspaper of Vancouver.
Fearing the boy would shock himself, he told the boy “no” and gave the child a swat on his bottom. De Bruyn said his grandmother-in-law told him that was child abuse and threatened to have the child taken away. He said he then told her to leave.
After arguing, he pulled out his Taser stun gun and told her he would use it on her if she didn’t leave within 60 seconds. He counted down, and when she didn’t leave, he shocked her on her right shoulder. She did not need medical attention.’
‘It said a so-called “open XML” platform file format, known as OOXML, is designed to run seamlessly only on the Microsoft Office platform. It governs the way a document is formatted and stored.
“The end result will be the continued absence of any real consumer choice, years of waiting for Microsoft to improve — or even debug — its monopoly products and of course high prices,” said Thomas Vinje, lawyer for ECIS, in the statement.
Other complainants in the group include Corel, RealNetworks , Linspire and Opera.’
`People living in the western region of the United States may be the most likely to become victims of a serial killer, while those living in the Northeast may be the least likely, according to a new study led by James DeFronzo, professor emeritus of sociology.
The study, published in the February issue of the journal Homicide Studies, also found that someone living in California may be almost three times more likely to become the victim of a male serial killer than a person living in the state of New York.’
`A motorist made homophobic remarks toward three men on a Hillcrest roadside, then assaulted one of them, biting off a piece of his ear, 10News reported.
A 43-year-old man and his two companions were in a parked car in the 500 block of Redwood Street last night when a man in another vehicle drove up at about 11:10 p.m. Friday, told them to get out of the way and called them “faggots,” according to San Diego police.
When the 43-year-old man got out of the car to confront the suspect, the assailant punched him, knocking him to the ground, and bit off a piece of his ear, San Diego police Sgt. Alan Hayward said.
The victim got back into his vehicle and drove away, he said.’
`Madison lawyer Rick Petri says he hopes there’s a lesson for others in what happened to him early Thursday.
Petri found himself in the embarrassing position of going to the Madison Police Department to pick up a client who had been arrested for drunken driving, only to be arrested himself for the same offense.
“I did not think I was intoxicated, and I was wrong,” Petri said.’
‘Police officers were searching for a Roman Catholic priest they believe may have sexually assaulted and struck a woman at a Las Vegas, Nevada, church.
Authorities said they were called to Our Lady of Las Vegas Catholic Church on Friday evening by someone who heard a woman in the church cry for help.
Officers found a church employee who said she had been assaulted and hit in the head with an object by a priest. Investigators consider the Rev. George Chaanine a person of interest, police spokesman Bill Cassell said.’
