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US: Louisiana Police Say Mom Killed Three Daughters, Self


Reuters
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:54 UTC
Image
© AP Photo
Traumatised: Family members grieve for Nadia Braxton and her three little girls
Police said on Thursday that the shooting deaths of a mother and her three girls in a town near New Orleans was a case of murder-suicide.

Autopsies and interviews with family members, neighbors and the family's pastor convinced them that Nadia Braxton, 29, shot her three young daughters to death and then took her own life, said Police Lt. Wayne McInnis in Kenner, Louisana.

Braxton's common-law husband and the girls' father, Ronald Peters, found Braxton on Tuesday evening in a bedroom in their home, sprawled across the bodies of her three daughters -- Kayla Peters, 12; Nayah Peters, almost 2; and Nyla Peters, 6 months.

All but Kayla were shot in the forehead; Kayla sustained gunshot wounds to the back of her head, police said.

A semi-automatic handgun was at Braxton's feet, and there was gunpowder residue on her hands, police said.
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Newspaper

Coronado, US: Girlfriend of Drug Company Executive Found Dead at His Home

Marty Graham
Reuters
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 20:06 UTC
Image
© MySpace.com/AP Photo
A woman found dead at the historic mansion was nude and hanging from a balcony with her hands tied behind her back and her feet bound, investigators said Thursday.
The girlfriend of a prominent pharmaceutical executive was found bound, nude and hanged from a balcony at his mansion near San Diego, and homicide detectives said on Thursday they have not ruled out suicide.

The body of Rebecca Nalepa, 32, was discovered on Wednesday morning at the seaside home of Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp founder and CEO Jonah Shacknai in Coronado, an upscale island beach resort connected to San Diego by a long bridge, authorities said.

The strange death came two days after Shacknai's 6-year-old son, Max, was critically injured and placed in a medically induced coma from what police said was reported as a fall from a staircase in the home, Coronado Police Chief Louis Scanlon said.

Land records show that Shacknai, 54, whose Scottsdale, Arizona-based company is maker of the acne treatment Solodyn and wrinkle-filler Restylane, purchased the 27-room landmark property known as the Spreckels Mansion in October 2010.

Shacknai was not present when authorities were called to his home on Monday morning, finding only the injured boy and his girlfriend at the residence.
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Cell Phone

US: Suspect in bizarre text-message slaying arrested after fleeing Puerto Rico


The Los Angeles Times
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times
Artak Yepremyan and his wife, Ani Atajyan, look at a photograph of their son Mike Yepremyan, 19, who was shot to death in November 2009.
A suspect in a fatal Los Angeles shooting who was captured in Puerto Rico only to flee again after being released on bail was arrested in Van Nuys on Thursday afternoon, law enforcement sources said.

Zareh Manjikian is suspected of fatally shooting a 19-year-old just hours after the teen sent an insulting text message in a bizarre slaying that drew wide-scale media attention.

More than a year after the slaying, Manjikian was tracked down to a beach town outside Puerto Rico's capital city, San Juan, where federal authorities arrested him. Despite a no-bail arrest warrant issued by authorities in Los Angeles, he was released by a Puerto Rican judge on a $50,000 bond.

Then he disappeared, a turn of events that shocked police in Los Angeles, who have been investigating the case for more than 18 months, and the slain teenager's family.
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Handcuffs

Man charged for having explosives at the airport


KYMA News 11
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 23:37 UTC
An Army Private is accused of trying to board a plane with an explosive material at the Yuma International Airport. TSA detected the explosive material during a security check. U.S. Army Private First Class Christopher Eric Wey was detained for investigation before boarding a flight to Los Angeles from Yuma yesterday. TSA found one-half ounce of C4 explosive hidden in a tobacco can inside one of Wey's bags.

"He was taking part in a 7 week explosives training course in yuma, in which they were using and learning how to detonate explosives, including c4," explained Robert Sherwood with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona.

He said Wey was leaving Yuma after being released early from the program for poor performance.

"He was terminated from that course for failure to meet core standards," Sherwood said.

And allegedly, he tried to take home a souvenir. "He said that he found a small quantity of C4 in an area after a demonstration, and he picked it up, put it in his pocket and I quote, 'I was going to take it home and show my family and then dispose of it,'" Sherwood stated.
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Handcuffs

California, US: James Mitchell Verdict: Heir To Porn Empire Convicted Of Murder


The Huffington Post
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 07:21 UTC
Image
© Marin County Sheriff Records
A Marin County jury convicted James Mitchell, heir to a San Francisco porn empire, of first-degree murder Tuesday for the beating death of his ex-girlfriend and mother of his child in Novato two years ago.

According to SFGate, the jury considered the case for less than two days before reaching their verdict, read on the two-year anniversary of his arrest:
It also convicted Mitchell, 29, of kidnapping, child endangerment, child abduction, domestic violence and stalking. He faces a potential sentence of life in prison.

The jury acquitted him of murder during a kidnapping, a special circumstance that would have made him ineligible for parole.
Authorities arrested Mitchell in 2009 just hours after he allegedly attacked Danielle Keller, 29, with a baseball bat. According to witnesses, their daughter, Samantha, cried as she watched the ordeal. Mitchell then fled the scene with Samantha in the car. It was her first birthday.
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Heart - Black

US: Court upholds murder conviction for Iowa mom who slit her kids' throats, killed her son


The Washington Post
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the murder conviction of a woman who drove her two young sons to a pond and cut their throats, killing one of them.

Michelle Kehoe of Coralville is serving a life sentence for the Oct. 26, 2008 death of her 2-year-old son, Seth. She also is serving a 25 year sentence for the attack on her son Sean, who was 7 years old at the time. Kehoe initially told investigators she and her children were attacked by someone else.

Kehoe appealed her conviction, claiming her lawyer was ineffective and failed to object to jury instructions and to challenge constitutional issues related to her case.

The appeals court rejected Kehoe's arguments Wednesday.

Telephone messages left for attorneys in the case were not immediately returned.

Source: The Associated Press
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Info

UK: 'I want to make you pregnant... I prefer virgins': What Wikileaks boss Julian Assange told victim, rape extradition court hears

Rebecca Camber
The Daily Mail, UK
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 06:35 UTC
Image
© Getty Images
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is said to have told his alleged victim in Stockholm: 'Sweden is a good country to have kids in'
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told a woman he stands accused of raping that he wanted to impregnate her and other 'virgins', a court heard yesterday.

The 40-year-old is said to have told his alleged victim in Stockholm: 'Sweden is a good country to have kids in.'

The High Court in London heard yesterday that Assange had a 'strange' discussion with the museum worker and she later awoke to find him having unprotected sex with her.

The Australian is accused of saying he 'wanted to impregnate women' and that he 'preferred virgins because he would be the first to impregnate them'.

The former computer hacker is also accused of 'violently' forcing himself on another woman in Stockholm.

He is now appealing against a district judge's decision to extradite him to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning over allegations of rape and sexual molestation relating to two women.

Yesterday the Court of Appeal heard that the women did not consent to sex with Assange, which happened in August 2010 after he visited Sweden to give a lecture.

Clare Montgomery QC, prosecuting, acting for the Swedish authorities, said of the women: 'They describe circumstances in which they do not freely consent without coercion... either by physical force or by a sense of having already been in a position whereby they felt they had no choice.'
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Arrow Down

US: Cardiologist's License Revoked Over Accusations of Placing Unneeded Stents

Tricia Bishop
The Baltimore Sun
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 23:17 UTC
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Dr. Mark G. Midei can no longer practice in Maryland

The Maryland Board of Physicians revoked the medical license of Dr. Mark G. Midei on Wednesday, finding that the Towson cardiologist falsified patient records in order to justify unnecessary and expensive cardiac stent procedures.

"Dr. Midei's violations were repeated and serious," board members wrote in an 11-page order. "They unnecessarily exposed his patients to the risk of harm. They increased the cost of the patients' medical care."
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Evil Rays

Lawmakers Blast TSA for Airport Security Measures

Patrick Tricker
CBS News
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 02:56 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press
Lawmakers blasted the Transportation Security Administration on Wednesday for ineffective security at the expense of taxpayer dollars, after the Department of Homeland Security released documents showing there have been 25,000 security breaches since 2001.

Although the breaches represent a tiny fraction of the 5.5 billion passengers since 2001, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, reminded the committee that terrorists only need to slip through security once to cause serious damage, while reprimanding the TSA for doing more to appear secure than actually be secure.

"A lot of what we have been participating in here, in my opinion, has been security theater," Chaffetz said, "and has not truly done the job to secure the airports to the degree we need to."

Another report from the Government Accountability Office said that only 17 percent of the nation's airports have received joint vulnerability assessments, which Chaffetz said was "not acceptable."

The TSA has come under heavy criticism in recent months for using pat downs and body scanning machines which some passengers say makes them feel uncomfortable and violates their privacy.
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Briefcase

Cyprus leader vows 'thorough' probe of deadly explosion


ahramonline
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 21:57 UTC
cyprus protest
© Associated Press
Protesters shouts slogans as they run from tear gas during a protest over a fatal blast at a naval base that killed 12, outside of Presidential palace in Nicosia, Cyprus
The Cypriot president promised on Thursday a thorough investigation into the explosion of munitions at a naval base that killed 12 people and knocked out the country's major power plant

In his first public address since the Monday morning blast, which also injured 62 people and damaged hundreds of homes, The Cypriot president, Demetris Christofias said "the demand of everyone is to find those responsible and apportion responsibility, even if this is from the lowest to the highest level."

"I assure you responsibility will be apportioned and taken," he said in a televised speech, announcing that he had appointed lawyer Polis Polyviou to head the investigation.

Polyviou's remit will be to expedite the police investigation into "every aspect and all the circumstances of this tragedy." Only a "thorough investigation," in which people are made accountable, will suffice "to restore the public's trust in the state and its institutions," he said.
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