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UK: 34,000 Police Jobs to be Axed


The Telegraph, UK
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 04:43 UTC
Image
© Press Association
More than 34,000 police staff will lose their jobs by 2015
More than 34,000 police staff will lose their jobs by 2015 as part of Government cuts.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary said that about 16,200 police officers will be axed by 2015 amid fears crime could go up by 3 per cent.

Up to 1,800 community support officers and 16,100 police staff will also go as part of an overall reduction of 14 per cent, the study of 43 forces across England and Wales said.

Protecting frontline policing will be "very challenging" over the next 18 months, inspectors found.

"Forces will have to transform their efficiency if they are to protect frontline services," the report added.

Roger Baker, of HMIC, said it "went without saying" that forces were facing their biggest financial challenge in a generation.
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Arrow Down

US: Texas Executes 9/11 "Revenge" Killer


The Guardian, UK
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 02:31 UTC
Image
© Ho/AFP/Getty Images
Mark Stroman died by lethal injection despite last-minute representations by his lawyer at the US supreme court.
Mark Stroman shot dead two convenience store workers he believed to be Arab in Dallas shooting spree in 2001

A man who embarked on a shooting spree in what he claimed was retaliation for 9/11 has been executed at a prison in Texas.

The lone survivor of Mark Stroman's attack on convenience store workers in late 2001, Rais Bhuiyan, originally from Bangladesh, unsuccessfully sued to stop the execution, saying his religious beliefs as a Muslim required him to forgive the man. The courts denied his request.

Stroman, 41, had said hate in the world needed to end and asked for God's grace shortly before the fatal drugs began flowing into his arms. He was pronounced dead less than an hour after his final court appeal was rejected.

Stroman claimed the shooting spree that killed two men and injured a third targeted people from the Middle East, though all three victims were from south Asia. It was the death of 49-year-old Vasudev Patel, from India, that put Stroman on death row. He was also charged but not tried in the shooting death of Waqar Hasan, 46, a Pakistani immigrant who moved to Dallas in 2001 to open a convenience store.
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Handcuffs

US: Con artist sentenced to 5 to 10 years for earthquake-relief scam

David K. Li
New York Post
Mon, 18 Jul 2011 02:43 UTC
Image
© DNAinfo.com
Marcus Payen arrives for arraignment in July.
A career con artist will do hard time for passing himself off as a United Nations rep to run a Haitian earthquake-relief scam, a judge ruled today.

Marc Payen, 29, was sentenced to serve five to 10 years in prison by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber, who also ordered him to pay $17,179.05 in restitution.

Payen had been previously busted for claiming to be an immigration lawyer. In this latest scam, Payen used bogus UN stationery to raise funds for medical and humanitarian efforts in Haiti.

He was convicted of two counts of grand larceny, forgery and criminal possession of a forged instrument.
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Heart - Black

US: Ex-Cop Who Called 911 About Girlfriend's Shooting Now Charged with Her Murder

Reshma Kirpalani
ABC News
Mon, 18 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC

A 911 call reporting the drive-by shooting of a Chicago woman was made by her ex-cop boyfriend who is now being charged with her murder.

Devin Bickham Sr., 39, his son, Devin Bickham Jr., 20, and a third man, Cardell Taylor, 35, have all been charged with first-degree murder for allegedly orchestrating and committing the murder of Chervon Alexander, Bickham Sr.'s girlfriend.

Bickham Sr. was a former North Chicago police officer, according to local reports. Last Monday, he pulled into a River Forest parking lot that authorities say was darkened after an electrical outage. The State Attorney's office said that he and Alexander were in a romantic relationship. According to local police Bickham was married.

"Bickham Sr. thought that the victim was interfering with his life and wanted her out of the way, allegedly," said Chief Deputy Craig Rutz from the River Forest police department. "[Alexander] had told others that she was going to be getting married in August."
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Pistol

Pennsylvania, US: Church Bingo Game Robbed In Braddock Hills


CBS News, Pittsburgh
Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:53 UTC

A masked man with a gun barged into bingo at Sacred Heart Church in the Good Shepherd Parish in Braddock Hills Tuesday night.

The robber demanded money and wound up grabbing about $300 out of a cash drawer before taking off.

People waiting to play bingo down the hall heard a commotion, but never actually saw the robber.

As soon as Rev. Thomas Burke discovered what had happened, he ran outside and asked a parishioner to drive down the hill to follow the robber.
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Attention

US: No Felony Charges For Longmont Woman In TSA Groping Case


CBS News, Denver
Tue, 19 Jul 2011 07:38 UTC

No felony charges will be filed against the Colorado woman who allegedly sexually assaulted a Transportation Security Administration agent in Phoenix.

On Tuesday the Maricopa County district attorney decided to turn the case of Yukari Miyamae, 61, of Longmont over to city prosecutors. She could still be charged with a misdemeanor.

Police say Miyamae grabbed the female agent's left breast, squeezed and twisted it with both hands on July 14 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Miyamae was getting ready to board a flight from Phoenix to Denver.

Miyamae's attorney Judd Golden says his client was violated, endangered and threatened by the actions of TSA agents. She denies doing anything wrong.
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Bizarro Earth

Arizona College Student Killed & Tortured In Nogales, Mexico

Mike Broomhead
Fox Newsradio 550 KFYI
Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
A southern Arizona student and father expecting his first child has been found dead in Nogales, Mexico, with what authorities say are signs of torture.

Sonora State Police say the body of 21-year-old Juan Carlos Navarro of Nogales, Ariz., was found wrapped in a blanket on a roadside in the upscale Colonia Kennedy neighborhood.

The Nogales International reports Navarro had been shot once in the head. He was a 2008 graduate of Nogales High School and was taking college courses with an eye toward a degree in business administration.

Family members tell KGUN-TV Navarro was in school to give his girlfriend and their unborn child a better life.

Source: The Associated Press
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Satellite

Billionaire Sheikh Carves His Name in Desert so Big it Can be Seen from Space

Harry Haydon
The Sun
Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
A desert sheikh has carved out a big name for himself - by having his moniker etched in capital letters visible from space.
Image
© News Group Newspapers
A big name in the desert ... Sheikh Hamad Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan's handywork

Workmen scoured "HAMAD" into the sand on the orders of Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Hamad Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan.

The name is two miles across - with letters a kilometre high. It is so huge that the "H", the first "A" and part of the "M" have been made into waterways.

The mega-rich sheikh, 63 - a member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi - in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates - boasts a £14billion fortune that is second only to the Saudi king's.
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Info

US: Cops: Indiana Couple had sex in public pool for 30 mins in front of children


The Smoking Gun
Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© unknown
An Indiana couple is facing public indecency charges after they allegedly had sex for 30 minutes Sunday afternoon in a community pool while dozens of witnesses, including children, watched the illicit aquatic action.

Connersville Police Department officers were summoned to the Roberts Park Family Aquatic Center (seen at right) after pool patrons complained to the facility's manager.

Cops initially issued no trespass orders to Myron Helms, 33, and Victoria Cross, 40, but prosecutors yesterday decided to charge the pair with the misdemeanor indecency count.

Pool manager Cindy Schwab told cops that she walked up behind Helms and Cross "when she realized what they were doing," according to a Connersville Police Department report. After telling the pair to stop, Schwab said that Cross moved away from Helms, which was when "she could see the male's penis."
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Info

UK: Hugh Grant Wins Court Ruling in Hacking Scandal


Reuters
Wed, 20 Jul 2011 06:18 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Tobias Schwarz
Hugh Grant at a promotional event for his movie Did You Hear About the Morgans? in Berlin, December 4, 2009.
A High Court judge on Wednesday ordered police to hand over information to actor Hugh Grant or former girlfriend Jemima Khan which could show phone messages between them were intercepted by a private investigator working for a newspaper.

The ruling by judge Geoffrey Vos followed a 20-minute hearing at the London court where neither Grant nor campaigner Khan were present, according to the Press Association.

The couple split in 2007 after a three-year relationship.

Grant has been a vociferous critic of News Corp since the phone-hacking scandal broke earlier this month, and is a member of the Hacked Off lobby group which has campaigned for a rigorous inquiry into illegal eavesdropping by newspapers.

Vos said police should disclose information relating to messages allegedly intercepted by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire and used in the News of the World and other newspapers.

Several celebrities have been targeted by the now-defunct weekly tabloid, including actress Sienna Miller who settled a phone-hacking lawsuit against it in June.
      Read More...
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