Russian ex-PM says tycoon’s arrest was political

The Kremlin ordered the arrest of Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky because he had angered Vladimir Putin by funding opposition parties, Putin’s former prime minister said on Monday in court.

Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, was arrested in 2003 and his business empire was then carved up and sold, mostly to state-controlled companies.

Mikhail Kasyanov, who became a vociferous Kremlin critic after serving as Putin’s prime minister from 2000 to 2004, said at a court hearing that Putin had told him YUKOS owner Khordorkovky and long-term business partner Platon Lebedev were arrested for bankrolling the Communist party.

“Both (YUKOS) co-owners were arrested on politically motivated grounds,” Kasyanov told the court. Russian officials have always denied any political motivation for the arrests.

(Reporting by Aydar Buribayev, writing by Dmitry Solovyov, editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

LiLo makes bail for missed court hearing, avoids jail

New York, May 21 (ANI): Lindsay Lohan, who was issued a warrant for missing a mandatory court hearing, escaped an arrest by making bail.

Los Angeles Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini said a bond was posted for the 23-year-old but her lawyers preemptively handled the troubled starlet’s bail.

The “Mean Girls” actress had made an excuse of not being able to attend the court hearing because she had lost her passport in France at the Cannes Festival.

Earlier, Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel had lashed out at Lohan — ordering her to cough up 100,000 dollars to stay out of jail and submit to stringent drug and booze testing, reports the New York Post.

“If she wanted to be here, she could have been here,’’ said Revel, who ordered Lohan to steer clear of all alcohol and booze once she touches down on US soil. ‘‘She was ordered to be here — and she”s not here.’’

The judge has issued an order that Lohan will have to wear a booze-sensing ankle bracelet and submit to weekly, random drug tests, as soon as she makes bail.

‘‘If they can do it more often [than once a week] fine,’’ Revel said.

Although Lilo’s lawyer stuck by her, she admitted she wasn’t aware of her travel plans.

“She has a life as an actress,”” Shawn Chapman Holley said. “She doesn’t consult with me with what she has to do with her business.”

LA County Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said bench warrants like the one handed down by Revel are typically enforced when the fugitive is busted for another crime such as a traffic stop.

‘‘She will be treated just like everyone else who is entered into the system for a warrant, a bail of 100,000 dollars,’’ he said.

But the lawman wouldn”t rule out the chance that Lohan could be arrested.

‘‘As soon as the person is notified or recognized by law enforcement, that person is subject to immediate arrest,’’ Whitmore said. “That is potentially a possibility.” (ANI)

LiLo may land in jail if she misses mandatory court hearing

New York, May 20 (ANI): Lindsay Lohan is expected to miss a mandatory court date this week because the actress is stuck in Cannes.

According to TMZ.com, if the actress misses court hearing this time, she may be sent to jail, reports New York Post.

Sources said that that Lohan claims her passport was stolen this week while she partied at the Cannes Film Festival.

The “Mean Girls” actress, 23, is on a three years” probation completing an alcohol rehabilitation program after pleading guilty to cocaine use and driving under the influence in August 2007.

She attends the rehab course once every 21 days, TMZ reported – enough for her not to be reported, but in direct violation of court orders.

“I was on the phone with Lindsay”s assistant the entire night and we”re doing everything we can to resolve this issue and get her back to L.A,” The New York Post quoted Lohan’s lawyer, Shawn Chapman Holley, as telling TMZ.

“Lindsay is distraught because it was her intention to get back to L.A. today to do more alcohol education classes and appear in court tomorrow,” Holley added. (ANI)

Ivanka Trump’s accused stalker jokes he’s got his eye on her mom

New York, May 19 (ANI): Businesswoman Ivanka Trump’s accused stalker has revealed that he is over her and that he is now moving on to his next target – her mother Ivana Trump.

Justin Massler, 27, joked about his plan in a rambling, tongue-in-cheek chat outside a Manhattan courthouse on May 18.

“You know who I don’t have an order of protection against? Ivana Trump,” the New York Daily News quoted him as saying.

“Maybe I’ll start stalking her,” he stated.

Massler, who flew in from Reno, Nev., for a five-minute court hearing, insisted he now has zero interest in the 27-year-old daughter of developer Donald Trump.

“Ivanka? That was months ago. I’m not even stalking anymore,” he said before going on to explain his fascination with her.

“She’s just like a princess. I’ve got to marry the most beautiful princess in the land,” he added. (ANI)

Sobbing Osama ex-aide demands end to police cavity search

New York, May 6 (ANI): A sobbing ex-bodyguard of Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has threatened to boycott his own trial if he has to undergo a cavity search every time he comes to court.

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani”s lawyers say he has post-traumatic stress disorder because of how he was treated while in CIA custody.

According to the New York Daily News, Ghailani – charged with two East African embassy bombings in 1998 – freaked out last November when he was forced to get naked before a court hearing so officers at the Manhattan federal lockup could visually inspect his rear end.

He told his lawyers he would “no longer voluntarily appear in court” unless the feds promise he won”t be “humiliated” again, they wrote.

Ghailani was caught in Pakistan six years after the bombings that killed 200 people, and was held for almost five years in secret CIA prisons before being moved to Guantanamo Bay.

He was transferred to Manhattan last year to stand trial in civilian court.

Described as a master bomb-maker and one-time Bin Laden guard, he has pleaded not guilty.

Manhattan Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan scheduled a hearing to review Ghailani”s request that the searches stop. He wants Ghailani to be there. (ANI)

Federal Court hears arguments over NAPLAN dispute

The Federal Court has heard the Australian Education Union (AEU) is not acting in the broad educational interest by threatening to boycott national literacy and numeracy tests.

More than 1.1 million year three, five, seven and nine students are scheduled to sit the NAPLAN test next week.

The AEU argues the test results data will be used to unfairly rank schools.

It is pressing ahead with plans for a test boycott despite a Fair Work Australia ruling yesterday finding that the proposed industrial action is unlawful.

Lawyers for the Government’s Fair Work ombudsman have told a Federal Court hearing in Melbourne that the union is acting only in the interests of teachers, rather than in broad educational interests.

The court has heard massive logistical preparations have been made to deliver the test and the matter is urgent.

The union’s lawyers told the court the data would be false and inaccurate and would lead to teachers being badgered by parents.

The hearing continues.

Any Federal Court ruling on Naplan test boycotts will only affect Victoria, the Northern Territory and the ACT, where teachers come under the federal award system.

Doubt lingers over Penola bypass

Penola residents are still unsure if a bypass will be built on community land south of the township despite a supreme court hearing on Friday.

Justice Kevin Duggan decided to reserve his judgement after hearing from lawyers for the Penola Ratepayers and Residents Association and the Wattle Range Council.

The resident’s association says pastoral pioneer Alexander Cameron and his forebears left the land, south of Penola for the community to use.

It claims locals do not want it converted to a heavy vehicle bypass, and that Wattle Range Council is trying to push ahead with its plans regardless.

The Association resorted to court action in a bid to reverse the decision.

Residents may have to wait more than a month for the outcome.

No commissioner seen for Fastweb, T.Italia unit

MILAN, April 2 (Reuters) – Telecoms operators Fastweb (FWB.MI) and Telecom Italia Sparkle (TLIT.MI) will not be put under special administration over the fraud allegations which have ensnared the companies, judicial sources told Reuters.

A court hearing due to decide whether to appoint a special commissioner to run the companies, set for April 7, has been cancelled, the sources said.

Among the conditions agreed for avoiding the appointment of a special commissioner are the suspension from Fastweb of Chief Executive Stefano Parisi and Chief Operating Officer Alberto Calcagno, they said.

Christian militia members charged in Michigan – U.S.

Nine members of a Christian militia group were indicted on charges of conspiring to wage war against the U.S. government, federal prosecutors said on Monday.

According to the grand jury indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the eight men and one woman were members of a group called the Hutaree that planned to kill a police officer in Michigan and then ambush the law enforcement officers who attended his funeral.

The indictment said the group believed the attacks would “serve as a catalyst for a more widespread uprising” against the government.

Eight people were arrested by the FBI over the weekend in raids in Michigan, Ohio and Illinois. One of the accused, Joshua Stone, 21, is still at large.

The arrests followed a federal grand jury indictment handed down in Detroit charging them with seditious conspiracy, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence.

The weapons of mass destruction charge referred to improvised explosive devices with projectiles, the indictment said.

Seven of the eight in custody were arraigned on Monday. On Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Donald Scheer will consider the prosecutor’s request that the defendants be held without bail. The status of the eighth person was not immediately clear.

The group’s website, http://hutaree.com, says the term Hutaree means “Christian warrior” and characterizes the group as “preparing for the end time battles to keep the testimony of Jesus Christ alive.” It also features a Bible quotation from John 15:13: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

The indictment said the leader of the group is David Brian Stone Sr., 45, of Clayton, Michigan, who was among those arrested.

A woman identifying herself as Donna Stone, who said she was David Brian Stone Sr.’s ex-wife, appeared at Monday’s court hearing. She told reporters that her ex-husband’s increasing obsession with firearms had been the cause of the divorce.

She said: “When he got carried away from handguns to big guns, I said, ‘I’m done.’”

(Reporting by James B. Kelleher; Editing by Eric Beech)

Gallagher describes stage attack

Former Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher said it felt like he had been “hit by a bus” when he was pushed from behind at the Virgin Music Festival in 2008.

Gallagher’s victim impact statement was read at a court hearing for David Sullivan, 48, who has pleaded guilty to causing bodily harm when he sneaked backstage at the Toronto music festival and pushed Gallagher into monitors while the band was performing.

Gallagher suffered three broken and dislodged ribs which were apparently the result of the push and not the fall.

Oasis was forced to cancel numerous shows while Gallagher recovered.

“It was as if I had been hit by a bus,” Gallagher said in his statement.

Gallagher added that he had had several months of “extreme pain” and still has lingering effects from the assault.

Sullivan faces up to eight months in jail and a reported $US1.94 million civil suit.

His lawyer has argued for a conditional sentence on the charge.

The crown attorney in Toronto has said Sullivan’s drunkenness was not an excuse for his actions.

- Reuters

Fire hearing enters fourth week

The ACT Supreme Court hearing into the 2003 Canberra bushfires has entered its fourth week.

The hearing involves around 22 insured and 105 uninsured plaintiffs who are expected to seek about $75 million in property losses and insurance from the ACT and New South Wales governments.

The litigation, before Chief Justice Terrence Higgins, will determine whether the ACT or NSW authorities are liable for damages.

Fire victims, including plaintiff Wayne West of Wyora Station, 90 kilometres west of Canberra, have begun giving evidence.

Before the fire Mr West grew investment pine trees and lucerne hay and fattened cattle in the protected and isolated valley that is watered by the Goodradigbee River.

But it was destroyed in a blaze that began in NSW, and Mr West claims the NSW Government was negligent in its response to the fires.

Today Mr West’s barrister Bernard Collaery is expected to continue questioning Doctor Katja Mikhailovich, who owned Ulmara, neighbouring Wyora Station.

Up to 100 fire victims and 12 expert witnesses are preparing to give evidence to the hearing, which is scheduled to conclude on May 28.

Protracted hearing

There may also be some fiery debate over procedural issues in court today.

Mr Collaery is expected to warn the Chief Justice that the hearing risks running beyond six months at the current rate.

Mr Collaery is frustrated over the number of objections by senior counsel defending the NSW Government during oral evidence.

Late last year Chief Justice Higgins made specific orders to expedite these proceedings.

In a directions hearing he ordered the parties to reduce evidence in chief.

This means the evidence of witnesses was to be submitted in writing, prior to oral cross-examination in court.

Last week the Chief Justice stood down Dr Mikhailovich because much of her evidence had not been formally tendered in writing.

Man charged over Easternats riot

Victorian Police have charged a man over Friday night’s riot at Oakleigh in south-east Melbourne.

Maxwell Brett Lawson, 21, faced an out-of-sessions court hearing at Narre Warren, charged with riotous behaviour, affray and criminal damage.

The charges relate to the protest outside a tyre dealership after the cancellation of the Easternats car-racing event.

Lawson has been remanded in custody to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates Court tomorrow.

26/11 accused Headley to plead guilty in US court

New York, Mar 17 (ANI): Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative David Coleman Headley, who has been charged by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with conspiring in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks will plead guilty before a US court on Thursday.

Headley is expected to plead guilty at the court hearing in Chicago on Thursday. Earlier, he had pleaded not guilty when the FBI formally charged him.

His lawyer John Thief said that a plea agreement is being worked out but refused to specify the charges his client Headley would admit to inside the court.

Thief, however, said that discussions were going on with the government for plea bargaining.

Forty-nine-year-old Headley is accused of being a scout for the deadly 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in which at least 166 people including six Americans were killed and a plot to kill a Danish cartoonist. (ANI)

Boy arrested over attempted armed robbery

A 12-year-old boy has been remanded in custody over an alleged attempted armed robbery at the Roxburgh Park Railway station in Melbourne’s north.

Police say he was arrested last night and faced an out-of-sessions court hearing.

He is due to face the Children’s Court today.

Bingle, Clarke to meet in court over ‘stolen’ Aston Martin

Melbourne, March 16 (ANI): Michael Clarke and his ex, Lara Bingle, have both been called to testify at a Children”s Court hearing over the alleged theft of the model’s 200,000-dollar Aston Martin, according to reports.

A 14-year-old boy had allegedly stolen the car from the car park of the Bondi apartment shared by Bingle and Clarke, reports The Age.

The Aston Martin was later recovered on Iluka Street, South Coogee, on New Year”s Eve.

The boy, who cannot be identified, appeared at Bidura Children”s Court earlier this month where a list of witnesses was confirmed for hearing.

Court papers list both Bingle and Clarke as being required for cross-examination, according to a News Ltd report. (ANI)

Doherty banned from driving

Singer Pete Doherty has been handed a 12-month driving ban and fined 500 pounds ($825) after admitting he allowed his manager to use his car without insurance.

A lawyer entered a guilty plea on Doherty’s behalf during a hearing before a magistrate in Lowestoft, Suffolk.

In February, Doherty’s manager Andrew Boyd was given a 12-month jail term after a court heard he ran into a pedestrian delivering local newsletters and then sped off in the car.

Boyd, 42, admitted to a string of motoring offences including dangerous driving, failing to stop at the scene of an accident and driving without a licence or insurance during a hearing at Ipswich Crown Court on February 24.

The pedestrian suffered “catastrophic” brain injuries and was left in a coma, the court heard.

Today’s ruling is the latest setback for Doherty, 30, who once dated supermodel Kate Moss.

In January, he was fined after being caught with heroin in his pocket at a December court hearing for a case related to careless driving.

- Reuters

Adelaide Indian-origin woman who set husband’s penis on fire to be tried for murder

Adelaide, Mar. 13 (ANI): An Indian-origin woman, who allegedly set fire to her husband”s penis, will stand trial for the man”s murder.

Rajini Narayan, 44, has been committed to stand trial in the South Australian Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to murder, arson and three counts of endangering life in an Adelaide court, the Herald Sun reports.

The mother of three allegedly set fire to her husband”s genitals in December 2008.

After suffering major burns, her husband Satish Narayan died in hospital several weeks later.

The fire also gutted the family”s Adelaide home, leaving a damage bill of about 1 million dollars, the paper said.

According to a previous court hearing, Rajni had reportedly told neighbours: “I”m a jealous wife, his penis should belong to me. I just wanted to burn his penis so it belongs to me and no one else. I didn”t mean this to happen.”

In the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday, defence counsel Lindy Powell QC said it was conceded Narayan had a case to answer. (ANI)

Parents anxious to fly toddler’s body home

The parents of a three-year-old boy found dead near Melbourne Airport last week are still unsure when they will be allowed to take his body home to India.

Gurshan Singh died in suspicious circumstances in Melbourne’s north on Thursday.

Late Sunday family acquaintance Gursewak Dhillon, 23, was charged with manslaughter by criminal negligence.

Police told an out-of-sessions court hearing Sunday night that Dhillon admitted putting the unconscious three-year-old into the boot of his car and driving around with him for three hours before dumping him without checking whether he was alive.

The toddler’s body was found by a council worker.

The hearing was told Dhillon is not related to the boy but was living in the same house as the boy and his parents.

The court did not hear evidence of how the boy came to be unconscious, and the cause of his death has yet to be determined.

Family friend Tim Singh Laurence says the boy’s parents are anxiously awaiting the release of his body.

“That is their main focus for the next few days, but they are grateful for the work that Victorian police are doing,” he said.

Well-wishers have been arriving at the couple’s Lalor home throughout the day.

[We] wanted to ask the parents if they needed any, like financial support so we can help them,” well-wisher Joshan Singh said.

Dhillon will face the Melbourne Magistrates Court tomorrow.

Melbourne, Mar 8 (ANI): Lara Bingle has confessed that she felt ”exploited” after ex-flame AFL star Brendan Fevola released her nude photo.

Melbourne, Mar.8 (ANI): The Indian Australian community has praised Victorian Police for their investigation of the death of three-year-old toddler Gurshan Singh, and the arrest of prime suspect Gursewak Dhillon.

Victoria Police denied Indian media reports that claimed that Dhillon’s wife had also been arrested.

“Definitely not. The wife has not been arrested or charged,”” the Herald Sun quoted a police spokeswoman, as saying.

She added that no further arrests or charges over the three-year-old boy”s death are expected at this time.

Dhillon appeared in an out-of-sessions court hearing last night charged with manslaughter by criminal negligence.

Raman Deep Singh, a cousin of Gurshan”s father Harjit Singh Channa, said they were all shocked that Dhillon was charged.

“This is our friend, not a close friend, but we know the person, it is a shock, (we are) shocked man,” he said. (ANI)

Gurshan”s parents thank police, Victorians for response to their tragedy

Melbourne, Mar.8 (ANI): The parents of three-year-old Gurshan Singh, whose body was found in grassland behind Melbourne airport, have thanked the Victorian people and police for their response to the tragedy.

An Indian national, who shared a house in Lalor with the victim and his family, was arrested on Sunday night and charged over the boy”s death.

Gursewak Dhillon, 23, faced an out-of-sessions court hearing before a bail justice on Sunday evening charged with manslaughter by criminal negligence.

Police denied reports that Dhillon”s wife has also been arrested. An autopsy has so far not determined the cause of death.

The boy”s body was found on Thursday.

He will appear in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

Darebin councillor Tim Singh Laurence, speaking on behalf of Gurshan”s parents, Harjit Singh and his wife Harpreet Kaur, said they were grateful for the efforts of the Victorian community and the police in “progressing the case very quickly”.

He said they wanted to take possession of their son”s body as soon as possible and return to India for a funeral.

“We are anticipating that Gurshan”s body will be available on Tuesday,” news.com.au quoted Laurence, as saying. (ANI)