`The drug lords at war in central Mexico are no longer content with simply killing their enemies. They are putting their severed heads on public display.
In Michoacan, the home state of President-elect Felipe Calderon, 17 heads have turned up this year, many with bloodstained notes like the one found in the highlands town of Tepalcatepec in August: “See. Hear. Shut Up. If you want to stay alive.”
Many in Michoacan’s mountains and colonial cities are doing just that: They are tightlipped, their newspapers are censoring themselves and in one town, 18 out of 32 police officers quit saying they had received death threats from drug smugglers.’
`A convicted killer facing lethal injection beat the executioner to it Thursday, committing suicide by slitting his throat and arm with a blade in his Texas death row cell 15 hours before he was supposed to die.
Michael Dewayne Johnson, 29, was found in a pool of blood by officers making routine checks on him every 15 minutes, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Johnson apparently scrawled words in blood on the wall of his cell, but prison officials would not say what he wrote.’
`Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has been overheard joking about the virility of his Israeli counterpart, who is accused of multiple rape.
A Russian journalist said Mr Putin joked that President Moshe Katsav was a “mighty man”, adding “we all envy him”.
Mr Katsav is facing allegations that he raped members of his staff. He strongly denies the claims.
[..] the president continued: “What a mighty man he turns out to be! He raped 10 women – I would never have expected this from him. He surprised us all – we all envy him!”
There reportedly followed loud laughter among the official delegations.’
followup to: Israeli president could face rape charges
`A woman who stabbed her young granddaughter 62 times with a butcher knife after she received “spiritual messages from the geese flying overhead” has been determined to be criminally insane by the state mental hospital.’
`A teenager who put her bra on a car antenna before it flew off and led to a highway accident will be charged with littering, a prosecutor said.
Emily Davis, 17, of Bowling Green, told investigators she took her bra off while her friend was driving on Interstate 75.
James Campbell, who was driving behind the girls, said he swerved to avoid the bra and his car flipped several times. Campbell, 37, broke a vertebra in his neck during the Sept. 26 accident. His passenger, Jeff Long, 40, broke several ribs.’
`An internet user has been found guilty of what police said was Britain’s first “web-rage” attack.
Paul Gibbons, 47, tracked down John Jones using details obtained online after the pair exchanged insults in an internet chatroom, a court heard.
He travelled 70 miles to Mr Jones’ home in Clacton, Essex, and beat him up with a pickaxe handle in December 2005.’
`A Little Rock man whose SUV was cut off in traffic was arrested after he allegedly shot at a motorist with a crossbow following a brief chase. “It was a drive-by crossbow shooting,” said Steve Gilgenbach, a pitcher for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock baseball team who said he was the man’s intended target. “I’ve never been shot at by a crossbow before.”
Wayne Allen Dierks Jr., 26, posted bail after his arrest Sunday on charges of committing a terroristic act, possession of an instrument of crime, driving while intoxicated and driving on a suspended driver’s license. Committing a terroristic act is a felony; the other charges are misdemeanors. An arraignment was set for Oct. 25.’
Good old terroristic acts.
`A parent attempting to record a middle school football game from the school’s roof was misidentified as a sniper, causing police to evacuate hundreds of people from the field.
James Kranz wanted to shoot video of his children playing on Saturday. But an officer spotted him climbing a ladder onto the school’s roof with what looked like a rifle, said police Sgt. Gregg Olsen.
“An officer saw a man on top of the roof, walking around, pacing back and forth,” Olsen said. “He was acting extremely suspicious.”
It turned out to be a lawn chair that Kranz had with him — not a gun.’
`A man let his four-year-old child steer his car at up to 150 kph before ploughing into a group of teenagers, killing six of them, a court has been told.
Thomas Graham Towle, 35, also stank of alcohol in the hours after the crash and had been cheating in his methadone program in the days before, prosecutor Jeremy Rapke QC told Mildura Magistrates’ Court. [..]
He is facing 17 charges including six of culpable driving causing death, over the alleged hit-and-run on February 18 in Cardross, near Mildura.’
‘A major drug bust in Minnesota turns up some interesting evidence and Maplewood’s Eyewitness news is on the scene. These drug dealers are going to be the toast of prison.’
(1.8meg Windows media)
see it here »
`A sordid incident involving a carrot, a jar of Vaseline and “other food items” saw the owner of a local food outlet fined $350 in Griffith Local Court last week. [..]
The police statement said the carrot “appeared to have lubricant or some other liquid on it”. The man told police he was not able to get out of his car because he “was not wearing any clothing”, and officers noted he had an erection. An open jar of Vaseline and a number of food items, which police said had been used for “some purpose”, were visible in the front seat. [..]
Police noted the convicted man appeared to be affected by drugs and the court was told his actions could have caused “disgust” in the minds of a reasonable person.’
`Israeli Prsident Moshe Katsav, at the centre of a sexual harassment and rape scandal that threatens to end his career, is now under massive public pressure to resign amid allegations he forced women employees into sex.
Overnight, police told Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz there was enough evidence to indict Mr Katsav over charges of rape, sexual harassment and wire-tapping.’
`One of Britain’s most experienced journalists was unlawfully killed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq, an inquest into his death ruled on Friday, prompting calls for the perpetrators to be tried for war crimes.
Veteran war correspondent Terry Lloyd, 50, who worked for ITN, was killed in March 2003 in southern Iraq as he reported from the front line during the first few days of the U.S.-led invasion.
“He was fired on by American soldiers as a minibus carried wounded people away,” Coroner Andrew Walker said at the conclusion of the inquest, which U.S. soldiers declined to attend.’
‘”I didn’t even know he was in town,” Howards says. “He was walking through the area shaking hands. Initially, I walked past him. Then I said to myself, ‘I can’t in good conscience let this opportunity pass by.’ So I approached him, I got about two feet away, and I said in a very calm tone of voice, ‘Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.’ And then I walked away.” [..]
But the Secret Service did not take kindly to his comment.”About ten minutes later, I came back through the mall with my eight-year-old son in tow,” Howards recalls, “and this Secret Service man came out of the shadows, and his exact words were, ‘Did you assault the Vice President�'”
Here’s how Howards says he responded: “No, but I did tell Mr. Cheney the way I felt about the war in Iraq, and if Mr. Cheney wants to be shielded from public criticism, he should avoid public places. If exercising my constitutional rights to free speech is against the law, then you should arrest me.”
Which is just what the agent, Virgil D. “Gus” Reichle Jr, proceeded to do.’
`A Bulgarian woman who killed her son was released from prison because of terminal cancer. She then went home and killed her husband, police said Tuesday.
The 57-year-old was sentenced to 15 years in jail for killing her 29-year-old son with a garden hoe in April 2005 while he was sleeping.
Last month, authorities judged her to be in the final stages of cancer and let her go home, where she stabbed her husband in the throat with a knife.
“It was established she was in the last stage of cancer, she had it all over her body,” said a spokeswoman for the Bourgas regional police.
“They presumed she was feeling bad and she would treat herself and rest. But nothing of the kind. She got aggressive and … she killed her husband.”‘
`Three weeks ago, Maryland state Sen. Ed DeGrange was sitting at his desk when the phone rang. The caller was an inmate from a nearby prison with a list of complaints. But he wasn’t calling from the prison pay phone. He was calling from a mobile phone in his cell.
DeGrange says his first thought when he heard that was, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“He even went as far as to leave a number,” he adds. [..]
Last month, a warden in Texas also got a call — from the mother of one of his inmates. She was calling to complain that her son was getting poor cell-phone reception inside the prison.’
`When Willie Nelson’s bus was searched on Monday in Breaux Bridge, LA on Interstate 10, a “routine traffic stop” turned into a drug bust. Louisiana state troopers found more than a pound and a half of marijuana (0.7 kg) and more than three ounces (91 grams) of psilocibin mushrooms. See photo above’
`A spurned husband tried to murder his estranged wife by triggering her life-threatening allergy to latex with a rubber glove, a court heard yesterday.
Charles Henson, 39, put his fingers in Allison Phelps’s mouth while wearing the glove and told her she would die within four minutes, Lynne Matthews, prosecuting, told Bristol Crown Court. [..]
Miss Phelps had a life-threatening allergy to latex and carried an adrenaline injection with her at all times, the jury was told.’
‘Three fast-food restaurant workers were taken into custody Sunday evening after two police officers discovered that the hamburgers they had ordered had been sprinkled with marijuana.
The Isleta Police Department officers had eaten about half of their burgers from a Burger King restaurant in Los Lunas before realizing that something was wrong. Opening the burgers, they discovered marijuana sprinkled on top of the meat.
“One of the officers, when he was eating his hamburger, he said, ‘This thing tastes like it has marijuana in it,'” said Lieutenant Joseph Sanchez of the Los Lunas Police Department. “And that’s when he opened it up to see what was inside.”‘
`A couple caught having sex in a Kenyan mosque during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan have been sentenced to 18 months jail for what the judge called an “abominable” affront to religion. [..]
A worshipper heading for evening prayers found the couple having sex after investigating what the prosecution described as strange noises emanating from a dark corner of the mosque.
Kimani and Wairimu both pleaded for clemency at Monday’s hearing, saying they were too drunk to know where they were. Kimani told the court he thought he was in a lodging house.’
`Police said an Iowa woman wanted a wedding gown so badly that she would have traded her child for it.
Davenport, Iowa, police charged 31-year-old Marcy Gant with one felony count of sale of an individual. She is accused of trying to sell her 4-year-old son.
They said Gant bought a wedding dress from a local street vendor, paid part of the tab, and offered her son to make up the rest of the balance.’
`Angry parents say their children were traumatized, maybe scarred for life, in a bizarre grade school invasion in Kentucky.
Police say a sub-contracted teacher and her husband conspired to steal urine from students, some as young as 4 years old.
The accused made a court appearance Tuesday in Greenup County.
Glenda Neace worries her fifth grade son may never be the same after she says Nick Kintigos invaded Argellite Elementary and forced her boy to try and pee in a cup.’
`A woman used her 4-week-old baby as a weapon in a domestic dispute, swinging the infant through the air and striking her boyfriend with the child, authorities said.
The boy was in serious but stable condition Monday at Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, police said. [..]
The infant, whose name was not released, suffered a fractured skull and some bleeding in the brain, authorities said. His head hit Graham’s boyfriend, the baby’s father, police Lt. Dan Spizarny said.’
`A death-row inmate held in solitary confinement in Vietnam for almost a year is pregnant and is seeking a pardon to give birth, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
The Lao Dong newspaper quoted a police doctor as saying tests in September confirmed that convicted heroin trafficker Nguyen Thi Oanh, 39, was then 11 weeks pregnant.
The report said it was the first time that a death-row prisoner had become pregnant in Vietnam and that police were investigating how it had happened.’
`Police in Poland have launched a nationwide hunt for a man who farted loudly when asked what he thought of the president.
Hubert Hoffman, 45, was charged with “contempt for the office of the head of state” for his actions after he was stopped by police in a routine check at a Warsaw railway station. [..]
When told to show more respect for the country’s rulers, he farted loudly and was promptly arrested.
Hoffmann was arrested and released on bail but failed to turn up at a Warsaw court early this week to be tried, and the judge in the case rejected an appeal by defence lawyers to throw the charges out. [..]
Instead the court ordered the police to start a nationwide hunt for the man, and interpol have been alerted.’
`A fugitive gunman accused of killing a Florida sheriff’s deputy was shot 68 times by SWAT team officers who found him hiding in the woods, according to autopsy results.
Police fired 110 shots at Angilo Freeland, 27, the target of a massive manhunt in central Florida following the shooting death of Polk County Sheriff’s Deputy Matt Williams Thursday.
“That’s all the bullets we had, or we would have shot him more,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told the Orlando Sentinel newspaper.’
`A man upset that his neighbor’s children helped break his wife’s eyeglasses is accused of trying to bomb the neighbor’s house in retaliation. David Michielsen, 27, of Hammond is charged with detonating a destructive device with intent to intimidate or destroy and manufacturing a destructive device. He faces 58 years in prison if convicted on both counts.
Police said the canister was an explosive device made from a carbon dioxide container filled with a shiny black powder.
A search of Michielsen’s home turned up a wick matching the one in the device, a pack of model rocket engines and other items believed used to make the device, police said.’
`Sheriff’s officials said the paint-ball spree began Tuesday night and continued into the early morning hours.
When the men fired at a car about 2 a.m. near Green Hills Way on the northeastern edge of town, the occupants chased them down and pummeled one with a steel bar, sheriff’s officials said. They also smashed the paint-ball gun through the vandals’ car window and then took it with them.
The motorists fled, and deputies caught up with the two suspected vandals as they tried to leave in their car.’
`When Bobby Akien forced himself on women, he made his victims clear him in writing afterward, police say.
But his legal strategy backfired. Authorities say it helped him get caught. [..]
Police say he sneaked into her bedroom early Saturday morning and forced her to have sex while he concealed his identity. Later, detectives say, he ordered the girl to write a letter saying she had sex consensually on that day.
Then he left with the letter and her house key.’
`A man showed up Thursday for his preliminary hearing in Greensburg wearing a crisp dress shirt and a snappy tie — just like his attorney wanted — and a box on his head.
Yes, that’s right: a blue-and-white cardboard carton that covered his head and had two eyeholes cut in it so he could see. [..]
Box Man’s attorney, Jeff Leonard, said he decided that wearing the box would be in his client’s best interest. It literally was part of his defense, the attorney explained.
“I’m trying to think outside of the box, so to speak,” the lawyer said. [..]
Box Man’s case apparently did reach a conclusion. And he left the courthouse, with no comment coming from the box.’
