Pope condemns organised crime in south Italy visit

Pope Benedict leads the Sunday mass during his one day pastoral visit to the Italian southern city of Lamezia Terme October 9, 2011.

Pope Benedict today condemned “ferocious” organised crime groups in the southern Calabria region, where lawlessness, corruption and underdevelopment have resulted in one of Italy’s highest unemployment rates.

The pope, in a homily for tens of thousands of people from all over the region that forms the “toe” of Italy, said the area seemed to be in a constant state of emergency and that he wanted to encourage the people’s efforts to improve their condition.

“This is an area .... where problems exist in acute and destabilising forms, where crime groups that are often ferocious tear at the social fabric, a land that seems to be in a constant state of emergency,” he said.

Calabria is home to the ‘Ndrangheta, considered among the most dangerous and powerful crime syndicates in western Europe.

UK teenager arrested in global hacking probe

British police arrested a 19-year-old man in England on suspicions that he was linked to cyber attacks on the CIA, Britain’s anti-organised crime agency and Sony Corp.

As part of international efforts to catch the culprits behind a string of high-profile hacks, London’s Metropolitan Police, working with the US FBI, said they arrested the teenager in the town of Wickford, close to London.

The raid was linked to recent attacks on the websites of the US Central Intelligence Agency and the British police Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), which targets organised crime in Britain and overseas, police said.

The suspect’s computer was being examined for data linked to Sony, whose websites have also been attacked.

Strauss-Kahn pleads not guilty to sex charges

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn (L) stands with his lawyer Ben Brafman at his arraignment hearing in New York Supreme Court in New York, June 6, 2011. Strauss-Kahn entered a plea of not guilty to sexual assault charges and will appear in court again on July 18.


Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn pleaded not guilty today to charges he sexually assaulted a New York hotel maid in a case that cost him his job and a chance at the French presidency.

Wearing a dark suit, Strauss-Kahn arrived at the courthouse with his wife, French television journalist Anne Sinclair, walking beside him, arm-in-arm. They were flanked by two private security guards hired to prevent him from skipping bail.

The couple walked past a throng of media and a large group of hotel workers there in solidarity with the woman who said Strauss-Kahn attacked her. “Shame on you,” they chanted.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted on charges including attempted rape, sex abuse, a criminal sex act, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching.

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Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund who has been charged with sexually assaulting her, a person briefed on the matter said on Monday.

£1.7m and you can save your eyes: Iranian woman blinded in acid attack names her price

It will cost an Iranian man convicted of throwing acid in the face of a fellow student two million euros - or £1.7million - to escape a court-ordered blinding.

‘I announced that I want two million euros to guarantee my life and my future, and not for treatment,’ Ameneh Bahrami told the Arman newspaper.

‘It is only then that I will give up qesas (retributive justice) against Majid, although they said - and I hope it is true - that the sentence will be carried out next week,’ she added

 Revenge: Ameneh Bahrami was left with horrific scars after Majid Movahedi threw sulphuric acid in her eyes after he had begged her in vain to marry him. She is seen here holding photos of how she used to look

Twisted: Majid Movahedi had stalked Ameneh before his heinous crime

Malicious attack hits a million web pages

A sophisticated hacking attack, which experts say is the largest of its kind ever seen, has managed to insert malicious code into website


More than one million website pages have been hit by a sophisticated hacking attack that injects code into sites that redirect users to a fraudulent software sales operation.

The so-called “mass-injection” attack, which experts say is the largest of its kind ever seen, has managed to insert malicious code into websites by gaining access to the servers running the databases behind the Internet, according to the technology security company that discovered it.

Websense, which first found evidence of the attack earlier this week, has called it ‘LizaMoon,’ after the site to which the malicious code first directed its researchers.

American Apparel CEO held teen as sex slave

American Apparel owner Dov Charney speaks during a May Day rally protest march for immigrant rights, in downtown Los Angeles on May 1, 2009.


American Apparel Inc founder and chief executive Dov Charney is being sued for US$250 million (RM757.5 million) by a woman who said he treated her as a sex slave when she was a teenage sales employee at the clothing chain.

Irene Morales of Brooklyn, New York, has accused Charney, 42, of sexual harassment, creating a hostile workplace, gender discrimination and retaliation.

American Apparel and directors at the company have also been named as defendants in the lawsuit, filed in a New York state court on Friday. Morales accused them of failing to protect her, and said they knew or should have known that Charney was a “sexual predator.”

Two US Marshals and One Cop Wounded in Shootout

A US marshal is hospitalized in critical condition after receiving a gunshot wound to the head following a shootout with a suspect in St. Louis during the execution of an arrest warrant.

Beauty student puts on brave face after being beaten to pulp by her boxer boyfriend

A beauty student who was so badly battered by her boyfriend that medics couldn't tell what sex she was has spoken for the first about the attack.

Tirion Lewis was left in a coma for a month - and has spent 18 months trying to recover from the brutal attack by 6ft 2in bareknuckle fighter Wayne Fox.

The 20-year-old - who was 19 at the time of the attack - was yesterday in a specialist brain clinic where trauma specialists are still trying to help her get back to a normal life.

Recovering: Tirion Lewis's physical scars have healed - although the university student is still undergoing treatment after suffering post traumatic stress disorder, memory loss and epilepsy

Horrific attack: Tirion was 19 when she was savagely beaten after being kidnapped and attacked by boyfriend Wayne Fox

New York taxi drivers to wear bulletproof vests in pilot scheme

Safety: The scheme for New York cabbies to wear bulletproof vests has been started following a fatal shooting in June

New York taxi drivers are notable for their unique yellow cabs.

But soon they could have something else to distinguish them: bulletproof vests.

A dozen Big Apple cab drivers, who have to work in suburbs with high crime-rates, have been selected to pilot the scheme.

The president of the New York Federation of Taxi Drivers, Fernando Mateo, believes the vests will provide another - potentially vital - layer of protection for drivers in high-crime areas.

Mr Mateo said there are some 300 robberies and assaults against New York taxi drivers every month.

'One shooting is a lot and whatever we can do to help improve the safety of our drivers is something that we will do,' he said.

Bulletproof: To begin with about a dozen taxi drivers will use the vests - but if the NYPD hand over their old vests, the numbers could increase soon enough

Lee Harvey Oswald’s coffin auctioned for RM272,000

Lee Harvey Oswald’s coffin, exhumed to clear a conspiracy theory

An anonymous buyer has paid more than US$87,000 (RM272,100) to buy the wood coffin that held Lee Harvey Oswald’s body for 20 years, an auction house said yesterday.

The winning bid of US$87,469 (RM273,600), which included a 20 per cent commission, exceeded the target price of US$60,000 set for the simple pine coffin that held the alleged presidential assassin’s remains until 1981.

Oswald was arrested less than an hour after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. He was shot and killed two days later, while in police custody, by nightclub owner Jack Ruby.

“‘This was a one-of-a-kind item,”‘ said Sam Heller, spokesman for auction house Nate D. Sanders in Santa Monica, California. “This was the first coffin that this auction house has ever auctioned and it was quite a unique item.”

Bidding began on the coffin when it was posted online two weeks ago.

Auction house manager Laura Yntema declined to identify the buyer except to say that he was a “private individual” who was apparently bidding for himself.

The coffin was unearthed in October 1981 after a legal dispute between Oswald’s widow, Marina, and his brother, Robert.

Marina successfully sought an exhumation to test a conspiracy theory that a look-alike Russian agent had been buried in her husband’s place, according to the auction house.

A medical exam showed the badly decomposed body was indeed Oswald’s, and he was returned to Shannon Rose Hill Memorial Park in Fort Worth, Texas, in a new casket.

The original coffin, which had suffered extensive water damage, was sold by Baumgardner Funeral Home, the local undertaker that handled the reinterment.

Hindu priest wins $2.3m after temple owners forced him to 'work as a slave' for seven years

Temple slave: Devendra Shukla, 34, was forced to work in various jobs for a pittance by Sat Prakash Sharma

A Hindu priest has won $2.3million compensation after being forced to 'work as a slave' for seven years at a Hindu temple in New York.

Devout Devendra Shukla had his passport confiscated by Sat Prakash Sharma and his wife Geeta - who ran the Corono ashram in Corona, Queens - and was then forced to do their bidding for a pittance in exchange.

The court was told the 34-year-old worked 18-hour days, including heavy labour on a construction site, for which he received a paltry $50 a week.


Over the seven years he stayed with the Sharmas, Mr Shukla received a miserly $21,000 and was unable to once go home and see his family the whole time.

Woman who stabbed abusive husband to death is acquitted

A nursing assistant who stabbed her husband to death has been acquitted of his murder after a court heard she suffered years of domestic abuse.

Donna Cobb, 42, plunged a butter knife into Kevin Cobb's heart in self-defence during a violent struggle at their home in Harlem, New York, on a night in November 2006.

Her husband was high on cocaine when he returned home at 3am and attacked her while screaming that he was going to kill her, the court was told.

Cleared: Donna Cobb plunged a butter knife into her husband in self-defence during a violent struggle at their home in New York in November 2006

Moment grieving mother fights off violent mugger's attack as he tries to steal her phone... with a video of her dead baby on it

This is the horrifying moment a mother is punched to the ground by a violent mugger trying to steal her purse.

But the brave woman fights the thug off in a desperate bid to keep hold of her purse - because inside it was a recording of her dead baby calling her 'Mommy'.

The unnamed woman was punched in the face and dragged along the street in the Venice beach area of Los Angeles.

One of the possessions in the bag was a mobile phone with recordings of her infant daughter Minty on it.

Ready to die: Footage shows the unnamed mother and her baby daughter, Minty, who died ten weeks ago of cancer

Not letting go: The defiant woman is dragged into the road by her attacker

Sledgehammer gang's daring daylight jewellery raid foiled by 50 angry shoppers

A daylight jewellery store raid was foiled yesterday when members of the public wrestled a masked robber to the ground.

Five sledgehammer-wielding thieves arrived on motorbikes and smashed their way into the shop on a busy London street, grabbing armfuls of watches from the front window.

But as they made their getaway, passers-by pulled one from his bike and pinned him down until police arrived.

The four remaining robbers, who wore dark clothing and balaclavas, fled the scene and tried to hide in a nearby park, but three were caught.

Among the heroes outside the Ernest Jones jewellery store in High Street Kensington was Charlie Masud Riyahi, 51, who wrestles as a hobby.

 

Got him: The robber is pinned down by the crowd after smashing into the jewellery store in central London

Daylight robbery: A gang armed with sledgehammers smashed the windows of the Ernest Jones jewellery store in High Street Kensington before grabbing armfuls of watches worth around £400,000

Eye-witnesses told how a mob of more than 50 people tackled one robber as he tried to make his getaway in scenes of 'mayhem' similar to a medieval 'hue and cry' or a Hollywood film

'Depraved' gang leader who forced 91-year-old woman to perform sex act on her elderly carer is jailed indefinitely

A depraved gang leader who filmed himself humiliating a 91-year-old woman and her carer at knife-point has been jailed indefinitely for an attack that filled a judge with 'utter revulsion'.

Michael Lewis, 21, who led the Brixton Hill Blood gang in south London, is believed to have made the film as a 'trophy' to show other members.

The fiend broke into the 91-year-old woman's flat and filmed her carrying out sex acts with her elderly carer before cutting the phone line and threatening to return if they called the police.

Lewis, known as 'Joker 187 General' - 187 being the code for murder in the US - will serve at least eight years before he can be considered for parole after being branded a 'danger to the public'.

Cult leader who styled himself 'Black Jesus' convicted of raping young 'flower girls'

A cult leader known as 'Black Jesus' has been found guilty of raping young 'flower girls' belonging to his Papua New Guinea sect.

Steven Tari, 38, avoided a murder charge even though villigers claimed he had sacrificed at least three of the girls and drunk their blood.

The Lutheran pastor's first hit the headlines when he was captured in 2007 after eluding police for more than a year by moving from village to village in the Transgogol area of Madang province.

Guilty: Steven Tari (pictured) has been convicted by a court in Madang of four counts of rape

Male escort who visited Saudi prince's hotel room stripped to give him a massage and was paid in £50 notes, court told

A male escort told the Saudi Prince Old Bailey murder trial today that he stripped to give the prince a massage but could not be sure there was a 'sexual element' to it.

Student Pablo Silva said he had visited the hotel room of Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud two weeks before he allegedly murdered Bandar Abdulaziz, 32, during a ferocious attack with a 'sexual element' on February 15.

The 34-year-old denies murder and a second count of grievous bodily harm with intent in relation to an alleged assault on Mr Abdulaziz in a lift on January 22.

His lawyer, John Kelsey-Fry QC, today denied the suggestion that the two men were in a gay relationship.

Prosecutors claim two male escorts had visited the prince at the Landmark Hotel in Marylebone, central London.

Trial: Al Saud, left, on his way to City of Westminster magistrates court in a prison van for his original hearing following the death of Bandar Abdulaziz, right

Supermodel Heidi Mount's husband accused of raping woman at London Fashion Week

The husband of a model has been arrested over allegations he raped a woman during London Fashion Week.

Shawn Mount, 30, who ismarried to Chanel model Heidi Mount, 23, is accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a five-star London hotel.

The top New York hairstylist is alleged to have carried out the attack after he and his 24-year-old accuser, who cannot be named for legal reasons, attended a party together.

Mount's wife was on an assignment in Milan when the alleged incident happened.

Fashionable couple: Stylist Shawn and Heidi Mount married in 2007

Devoted father: Shawn with his young son Liam

Woman severely burned after acid-like liquid thrown into her face tells of horror attack by total stranger

A 28-year-old woman severely burned when a stranger threw an acid-like liquid in her face has vowed that the attack will not ruin her life.

Bethany Storro was about to walk into a Starbucks cafe when a female approached her out of the blue and asked, 'Hey pretty girl, do you want to drink this?'.

The total stranger then threw a cup of liquid in Miss Storro's face - and doctors believe it was a kind of acid.

She is now recovering in the burns unit at a hospital in Portland, Oregon, having undergone surgery - and she held a press conference today recounting her ordeal.

Severely burned: Bethany Storro is flanked by her parents Nancy and Joe Neuwelt during a news conference today at Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland, Oregon. She is recovering after a stranger threw an acid-like substance in her face