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Canada: Ex-Cop Who Allegedly Tried to Sell Informant Names to Mob Kills Himself

Andy Blatchford
The Canadian Press
Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes
The body of a former Montreal police officer is removed from the Chateauneuf Hotel in Laval, Que., Wednesday, January 18, 2012.
A retired Montreal police officer who allegedly tried to sell the names of informants to the Mafia is believed to have committed suicide.

Several news outlets reported that the former cop's body was found in a hotel room north of Montreal on Wednesday - the same day La Presse named him as the alleged mole.

Police in the city of Laval confirmed that a man's body was found Wednesday around 8:30 a.m. inside the hotel by an employee, but they did not release his name.

Montreal police drew a connection between the death and an investigation into allegations a retired, 33-year veteran of their force offered names of informants to the Mob in exchange for money.

But Sgt. Ian Lafreniere of Montreal police, which also searched the hotel for clues, stopped short of identifying the victim in Laval as the alleged mole.
      Read More...
Family

Norway authorities take away Indian couple's kids, say feeding with hands wrong


NDTV
Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC

Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya - an Indian couple from Kolkata are living a nightmare in Norway. Their children - a three-year-old son and one-year-old daughter - were taken away from them by Norway's child protective services and placed in foster care eight months ago.

The drastic measure was taken because, according to the child protective services, the couple were not bringing the children up properly. What did they do wrong? They fed the children with their hands and the infants slept in the same bed as the parents.

"My son was sleeping with my husband. They said he should sleep separately from your son," said Mrs Bhattacharya.

"Feeding a child with the hand is normal in Indian tradition and when the mother is feeding with a spoon there could be phases when she was overfeeding the child. They said it was force feeding. These are basically cultural differences," said Mr Bhattacharya.
      Read More...
Heart - Black

US, California: 10-Year-Old Charged with Murder in Friend's Stabbing Death

R. Stickney and Paul Krueger
MSNBC
Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© unknown
Ryan Carter, 12, was stabbed to death at his friend's home on Royal Road in El Cajon. The 10-year-old friend is accused in the killing.
A 10-year-old East County boy accused of stabbing a 12-year-old boy to death is facing murder and felony assault charges, according to the district attorney's office.

A hearing is scheduled in juvenile court on Thursday at 8 a.m.

Candles, flowers and a teddy bear sat outside the home of the 12-year-old Lakeside victim who was fatally stabbed Monday while visiting a friend.

While family and friends grapple with the loss of Ryan Carter, prosecutors moved ahead with their case.

"The district attorney's office has charged a juvenile with murder and felony assault in connection with the crime," prosecutors announced Wednesday afternoon.
      Read More...
Eye 2

US, New York: Brooklyn thug sentenced to 200 years -- but not before series of outbursts

William J. Gorta
New York Post
Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:25 UTC
Maksim Gelman.
© Spencer A. Burnett
Maksim Gelman
A wild scene unfolded inside a Brooklyn courtroom today after the confessed madman who admitted to killing four people while on a 28-hour rampage got into a shouting match with the boyfriend of one of his victims and the judge who sentenced him to 200 years to life in prison.

Maksim Gelman, 24, flipped out at his sentencing hearing in Brooklyn Supreme Court while Gerard Honig delivered a victim impact statement for his girlfriend Yelena Bulchenko who was killed during the rampage.

"You fell in love with a heroin addict you f--king faggot," Gelman yelled.

"You'll burn in hell for what you did," Gerard Honig replied.

Gelman was briefly ejected from the courtroom, but brought back when he promised he would behave.
      Read More...
Dollar

US: Jury Says TD Bank Owes $67M to Victims of Ex-Lawyer's Enormous Ponzi Scheme

Curt Anderson
The Associated Press
Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© TD Bank
A March 2009 handout photo of a TD Bank store in Lauderhilll, Florida.
A U.S. federal jury decided Wednesday that Toronto-based TD Bank owes an investment group $67 million for its role in a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme that was operated by a now disbarred lawyer, Scott Rothstein.

The verdict came in a lawsuit filed by Coquina Investments, based in Corpus Christi, Texas. It was the first to go to trial of several pending lawsuits filed by wronged investors against the bank and others. Coquina attorney David S. Mandel said the jury "sent exactly the right message to TD Bank."

A spokeswoman for TD said late Wednesday that the bank will continue to defend itself against claims of wrongdoing.

"We are disappointed with the jury's decision and are considering all of our options. We still maintain that we were Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler's bank, and that it was Scott Rothstein who defrauded investors," the bank said in an emailed statement.

Once a prominent South Florida lawyer, Rothstein is serving a 50-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to running a massive scam involving investments in phoney legal settlements that imploded in 2009.
      Read More...
Info

Fake iPad 2s Made of Clay Sold at Canadian Stores

Eric Pfeiffer
The Sideshow
Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© unknown
One of the clay tablets sold to an unwitting customer as an iPad 2
As many as 10 fake iPad 2s, all made of slabs of modeling clay, were recently sold at electronic stores in Vancouver, British Columbia. Best Buy and Future Shop have launched investigations into how the scam was pulled off.

The tablet computers, like most Apple products, are known for their sleek and simple designs. But there's no mistaking the iPad for one of the world's oldest "tablet devices." Still, most electronic products cannot be returned to stores. For the the stores and customers to be fooled by the clay replacements, the thieves must have successfully weighed out the clay portions and resealed the original Apple packaging.

Future Shop spokesman Elliott Chun told CTV that individuals bought the iPads with cash, replaced them with the model clay, then returned the packages to the stores. The returned fakes were restocked on the shelve and sold to new, unwitting customers.
      Read More...
Igloo

Canada, Alberta: 300 Forced from Home Overnight After Carbon Monoxide Leak


CBC News
Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:56 UTC
Image
© CBC News
Residents of a Calgary apartment, evacuated because of a carbon monoxide leak, are taking shelter in Calgary buses sent to the scene to keep them out of the cold.
Hundreds of people were not allowed to go home Wednesday night due to a carbon monoxide leak at their southwest Calgary apartment building.

More than 300 residents from forced to evacuate Wednesday morning in - 30 C weather.

The Calgary Fire Department received a call around 4:30 a.m. MT Wednesday and dozens of fire crews responded, along with emergency service crews and police.

Fire department duty battalion chief Don Huska said there are two issues in the building - the level of carbon monoxide and water in the basement.

It's suspected that motorized pumps being used in the basement to remove water that seeped into the parkade from the Bow River is the source of the carbon monoxide.

Residents were told Wednesday night that they could be escorted into the building to grab some belongings, but they would not be allowed to stay.
      Read More...
Heart - Black

Australia: Mother raped own daughter for 'sex education'


Global Post
Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:35 UTC
A young child and her mother
© Mark Kolbe/AFP/Getty Images
A young child and her mother pictured on October 31, 2010 in Sydney, Australia.

A mother of four who raped her 11-year-old daughter and filmed it as a form of "sex education" has been jailed for four years in Australia.

The 37-year-old woman from Queensland's Sunshine Coast made three films using her mobile phone showing her raping her youngest child and exposed her to other sexual activity "in response to repeated questions," The Sunshine Daily reported.

Judge John Robertson said sexual offenses against children by their own mothers were "rare," describing the relationship between mother and child as "seminal in our society."

He told the woman she had "no psychological or intellectual reason to explain this shocking behavior," as she had "a normal loving upbringing with parents and family who still support you."
      Read More...
Boat

Controlled Explosions Rock Costa Concordia in Search for 29 Still Missing

Antonio Denti and Gavin Jones
The Globe and Mail
Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:15 UTC
Image
© Nadia Shira Cohen/The New York Times
The cruise ship Costa Concordia, which struck a rock and capsized Friday, lays in shallow water in Giglio, Italy, on Jan. 15, 2012.
Rescue squads used controlled explosions on Tuesday to enter a stricken Italian cruise liner in the increasingly despairing hunt for survivors as authorities almost doubled their estimate of the number missing on the huge vessel to 29 people.

The Costa Concordia's owners accused their captain of causing Friday's disaster by veering the ship too close to shore, where it hit a rock, in a bravura "salute" to residents of a Tuscan island off Italy's Mediterranean coast.

Rescue workers carried out a series of controlled explosions on Tuesday to open up new entry points into the stricken liner Costa Concordia. The Italian mega-ship ran aground just off Giglio Island in Italy late on Friday.

Captain Francesco Schettino was arrested on Saturday accused of manslaughter and abandoning the ship before all people were evacuated, and he was due to appear before magistrates for questioning on Tuesday morning.

Prosecutors say Mr. Schettino also refused to go back on board when requested by the coastguard.
      Read More...
Alarm Clock

US: An Alarming Trend at University of Montana


The Huffington Post
Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:28 UTC
After the Penn State scandal broke, I was asked if this was finally the tipping point. Would colleges now take sexual assault seriously? Specifically, those by athletes who, as campus and sometimes, national celebrities, seem to operate with relative impunity.

Doubtful. And a new case of a university run amok has emerged to serve as evidence.

This past December, a report that alleged that multiple football players at the University of Montana drugged and sexually assaulted two female students, rumored to be female athletes on campus. On January 7, running back Beau Donaldson was arrested for felony sexual intercourse without consent. He admitted it. The female allegedly blacked out and woke up to him raping her. Most recently, a female student came forward with her story of a Rohypnol rape on February 16 of last year. Her last recollection was a man mouthing "roofie" to her before she blacked out. A friend found her with her pants pulled down to her ankles, lying motionless on the cold, snowy ground outside the University of Montana's Jesse Hall. She reported her assault to the University Health Services and Rape Crisis Center. Nothing happened.
      Read More...
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