Swiss businessman Goeldi flies out of Libya -lawyer

June 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

June 13 (Reuters) – An aircraft carrying Max Goeldi, the Swiss businessman at the centre of a diplomatic row between Libya and Switzerland, has taken off from Tripoli airport, Goeldi’s lawyer said on Sunday.

“My client has left Libya,” Salah Zahaf told Reuters. Goeldi was earlier given clearance to return home, ending a row during which Libya barred him from leaving the country for nearly two years and sentenced him to four months in prison. (Reporting by Salah Sarrar; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Turkey Bishop’s driver charged with murder

June 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A Turkish man was charged on Friday with murder in the stabbing death of a Roman Catholic bishop, the Vatican’s apostolic vicar in Anatolia, for whom he worked as a driver, a court said.

Monsignor Luigi Padovese was killed a day before he was due to leave for Cyprus to meet Pope Benedict XVI. The killing in the Mediterranean port of Iskenderun on Thursday was the latest in a string of attacks in recent years on Christians in predominantly Muslim Turkey.

The 26-year-old driver, Murat Altun, confessed to the killing, his lawyer Cihan Onal said.

“The murder is not politically motivated,” Onal told the state-run Anatolia news agency. “My client is suffering from mental problems. He confessed to all the details of the killing.”

Turkish authorities also said the murder did not appear to be politically motivated. The court ordered Altun jailed pending trial. No trial date has been set.

“In his statement, at one point he said he killed him after receiving a message from God,” Onal said. “He can’t explain why he committed the murder. In fact, he is giving conflicting accounts.”

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Egypt to strip citizenship of men marrying Israeli women

June 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Cairo, June 6 (IANS) An Egyptian court has ruled that men who marry Israeli women will be stripped of their citizenship, a media report said.

The State Council’s Supreme Administrative Court Saturday upheld a ruling issued by a first instance administrative court on dropping the Egyptian nationality from men who are married to Israeli women, Xinhua reported citing a statement from Egypt’s official MENA news agency.

There cannot be any appeal against the ruling, the court said.

The court asked the interior ministry to send the files of Egyptians married to Arab Israelis and Jewish Israelis to the cabinet.

It said the cabinet would have to see whether to strip the men of their Egyptian citizenship or not and that each case should be debated separately.

This ruling is meant to protect Egypt’s youths and its national security, lawyer Nabil al-Wahsh, who took the case to the court in the first place, was quoted as saying.

‘The ruling is so important as it comes at a time Israel is carrying on with its attacks against peace lovers, the latest of which was its raid on the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla,’ Wahsh said.

Over 30,000 Egyptian men are married to Israeli women, Wahsh claimed

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Day after arrest, actor sent to judicial custody

June 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Mumbai, June 6 — The Bandra family court on Saturday remanded actor Raghuvir Yadav into judicial custody till June 7. He was arrested on Friday in connection with an alimony case lodged against him by his estranged wife, Purnima.

Yadav is best known for his role in the television serial Mungeri Lal ke Haseen Sapne. Raghuvir and Purnima married in 1988 but were separated in 1996.

The court directed him to pay alimony of Rs 20,000, which was later brought down to Rs 10,000 by the high court. Purnima later approached the court in 2002 alleging that Raghuvir had failed to pay maintenance.

Purnima’s lawyer Sumangala Biradar said there are arrears amounting to Rs 4.5 lakh. The family court in September issued an arrest warrant against Raghuvir after he failed to appear before the court despite repeated summons.

Raghuvir, on Saturday, told the court that since he is facing a financial crunch he can pay only Rs 20,000 of the arrears. The court remanded him to judicial custody.

“Now Raghuvir will have to pay at least 50 per cent of the arrears to be released from jail,” said Biradar. On Friday, Raghuvir and his friend Roshini Achreja boarded the Rajdhani Express from Mumbai Central station.

Purnima, who was also on the same train, spotted Raghuvir and informed the Mumbai Central GRP who detained him and handed him to the Dindoshi police.

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Tax woes turned friendly cabbie Derrick Bird into mass murderer

June 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, June 4 (ANI): Cumbria gunman Derrick Bird”s spiralling debts turned him into a mass murderer from a friendly cabbie, it has emerged.

Bird, 52, had outstanding income tax dues of more than 100,000pounds.

He wanted to settle it with a large share of his mum Mary”s will when she died.

But he soon found his twin David was to be the main beneficiary.

Bird now felt he had been “stitched up” by David and his lawyer handling the will, Kevin Commons, his brother”s pal.

When a taxman discovered Bird had 60,000pounds in a bank account, he was convinced David has given up on him.

Bird anger was further fuelled by grudges against his previous bosses at the Sellafield nuclear power plant and fellow Lake District taxi drivers.

David and Commons were Bird”s first victims before he murdered 10 and wounded 11 others in the recent gun rampage across Cumbria.

“Derrick believed David had been sucking up to their mum to engineer a huge share of the cash. He became obsessed and finally unhinged, fearing he had been cheated by his family,” the Sun quoted an insider, as saying.

Another source said: “It”s all to do with income tax. David had been trying to help Derrick with his financial problems. But we think Derrick got it into his head that his brother was ripping him off.”

A friend said: “It has been said there was some family problem over the will and how it would affect Derrick”s tax affairs.

“The feeling was that if his mother”s will was divided equally then a lot of it would be swallowed up by the taxman. I think the family thought it better Derrick”s share should be as low as possible so the money didn”t simply go to the Government.” (ANI)

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Erin Andrews” stalker ‘virtually penniless’: Report

June 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

New York, June 4 (ANI): ESPN reporter Erin Andrews’ convicted stalker has claimed that he is ‘virtually penniless’ and cannot pay the more than 300,000 dollars in restitution that was part of his sentence, according to reports.

Michael David Barrett, a 48-year-old insurance executive from Chicago, pleaded guilty to an ‘interstate stalking’ charge after he spied on Andrews at three different hotels as she showered and dressed for work.

He was sentenced in March to serve 27 months at a Los Angeles prison, according to a sentencing document.

As part of his sentence, Barrett was ordered to pay the out-of-pocket costs, Andrews, 31, had to accrue because of the violation.

According to TMZ, Barrett”s lawyer filed legal papers contesting the 327,442.27 dollars that ESPN claimed it had to spend in relation to the matter, reports the New York Post.

His lawyer said that ESPN is just a third party that has nothing to do with the prosecution and is just trying to cash in. (ANI)

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No relief for Rathore, case deferred till Tuesday

May 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Disgraced former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore, sentenced to 18-month prison term by a court in Chandigarh in Ruchika molestation case, on Monday failed to get any relief as the Punjab and Haryana High Court deferred the hearing on his revision petition seeking bail till Tuesday.

68-year-old Rathore’s lawyer wife Abha Rathore had filed the review petition on his behalf in the High Court on May 26 seeking bail, a day after he was sentenced and lodged in the high-security Burail jail here.

The single vacation bench of Justice Ajay Tewari deferred the case till tomorrow.

On May 28, High Court Judge, Justice Gurdev Singh had posted the matter for today on the plea of the CBI counsel that the investigating agency had not received copy of the review petition.

In her petition, Abha Rathore had alleged that the appellate court had on May 25 passed the order “under media pressure”.

She had pleaded that the former DGP was facing “severe health problems”.

Rathore was jailed after a sessions court had enhanced his prison term to 18 months for molesting teenager Ruchika Girhotra–who later committed suicide, 20 years back.

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Trinamool MP hits on WB police over train tragedy

May 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Trinamool Congress hit out at the West Bengal police over the Gyaneswari Express derailment, which claimed 148 lives, with a party MP saying he did not believe in the DGP’s statement holding the Maoists responsible for the train tragedy.

Asked to comment on the DGP Bhupinder Singh’s statement that Maoists were behind the mishap, party MP Kalyan Banerjee told a TV channel “the DGP is a very foolish person. I don’t believe in his statement at all.”

Banerjee claimed the CBI was being asked to inquire into the disaster. “Unless and until the probe is complete any comment on it would be premature and a foolish opinion,” Banerjee, also a senior lawyer, he said.

The DGP could not be contacted for his comments.

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Ex-Colombian beauty queen arrested on drug charges

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A former Colombian beauty queen suspected of leading a band of young women who smuggled cocaine from Argentina to Europe was arrested on Wednesday in Argentina, a judicial source said.

Police arrested Angie Sanclemente Valencia, 31, at a youth hostel in Buenos Aires, the source told Reuters, asking not to be named because the investigation is ongoing.

The ex-model and actress won one of Colombia’s top beauty pageants in 2000 but was later dethroned after it was revealed she had lied about being single.

She vanished several months ago amid an investigation by Argentine authorities into accusations she headed up a group of women who transported cocaine on flights from Buenos Aires to Europe via Mexico.

Colombia is the world’s No. 1 cocaine producer.

Authorities say Valencia employed young, attractive women who reportedly often traveled first class to smuggle the drugs.

She has repeatedly denied the charges. Her lawyer has said Valencia refused to turn herself in out of fear she could be abused in jail.

(Reporting by Karina Grazina; Writing by Kevin Gray; Editing by Xavier Briand)

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Rathore files review petition before Punjab and Haryana High Court

May 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Chandigarh, May 26 (ANI):Haryana’s former Director General of Police (DGP) SPS Rathore, who was sentenced to a 18-month prison term in connection with the Ruchika Girhotra molestation case on Tuesday, on Wednesday filed a petition before the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking review of the District Sessions Court verdict.

Rathore”s lawyer-wife Abha Rathore filed the review petition on his behalf in the court of Justice S S Saron. She also requested bail for Rathore.

In the petition, Abha Rathore alleged that the Sessions Court had passed the order under media pressure.

Rathore was jailed on Tuesday after the Chandigarh District Sessions Court enhanced his jail term to 18 months.

In the petition, Abha Rathore also sought to appraise the court about her husband’s heart ailment. (ANI)

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Man linked to Times Square bomb plot had Shahzad’s phone number

May 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

New York, May 21 (ANI): A Pakistani man suspected of helping the failed bombing attempt in Times Square had bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad”s phone number on his cell phone, a federal immigration attorney revealed at a hearing Thursday.

The New York Post and the FOX News Channel reported that investigators also found an envelope with the name “Faisal” written on it in Aftab Ali Khan”s apartment.

The possible link between Khan, 27, and Shahzad was revealed at a hearing Thursday where Khan faced charges of violating immigration law by staying in the country on an expired visa.

Sources told FOX News that Khan admitted to the immigration judge that he was inside the United States illegally and offered to leave the country voluntarily.

Khan”s lawyer denied his client had any connection with Faisal Shahzad or had ever heard his name.

Khan is one of three Pakistanis believed to have helped Shahzad by providing money. The three men were arrested May 13 after a series of FBI raids across the northeastern U.S. (ANI)

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PETA pays octomom Nadya Suleman $5K to promote pet family planning

May 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 20 (ANI): PETA is paying octomom Nadya Suleman 5,000 dollars to put a 3-foot-by-4-foot plastic sign on her front door that reads— “Don”t Let Your Dog or Cat Become an Octomom. Always Spay or Neuter.”

The sign will adorn Suleman’s door until June 9, the deadline when city officials say it must be removed.

The organisation is also throwing in a month”s supply of veggie hot dogs and burgers for her and her 14 children.

Suleman, 34, acknowledged she put the sign on her door partly for the money but added that her support of PETA is genuine.

“I love animals and I do believe they should be spayed or neutered. Humans of course are much different,” the Telegraph quoted her as saying.

Suleman said that her children, the oldest of whom is nine, want a dog and she has told they can have one when they are old enough to care for it.

Suleman already had six children when she gave birth 16 months ago to octuplets conceived by in vitro fertilization.

And since then she has been trying hard to pay her bills and was in danger of losing her home earlier this year.

Her lawyer has since negotiated an extension on a 450,000 dollars mortgage payment that had been due in March.

“It”s really a win-win situation for everyone,” PETA campaign coordinator Amanda Fortino said of the sign.

Fortino said the agreement allowed PETA to do its part to help Suleman financially and at the same time they could spread the word that more than 7 million cats and dogs enter shelters every year, where more than half are put to death. (ANI)

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Malaysian MP gets a month”s jail for polygamy

May 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Kuala Lumpur, May 20 (ANI): Kinabatangan member of parliament Bung Mokhtar Radin was sentenced to a month”s jail by the Gombak Timur Syariah Lower Court yesterday for committing polygamy without the court”s consent.

He will, however, appeal within 14 days to the Syariah High Court against the sentence, The Star reports.

His lawyer, Amli Embong, said both Bung Mokhtar, 51, and his second wife, Zizie Ezette Abd Samad, 32, an actress, would file an application to validate their marriage soon.

Zizie, who was charged with abetment, was fined RM1,000 or six months” jail. She was also charged with getting married without the consent of the registrar of marriages while Bung Mokhtar was charged with abetting her.

For these offences, both were fined RM1,000 or a month”s jail.

Judge Wan Mahyuddin Wan Muhammad, in passing the sentence, said that as an MP, he should set a good example to the people.

In his judgment, Wan Mahyuddin said Bung Moktar and Zizie were icons and the people would emulate their actions.

“If they don”t follow the rules, it would appear that rules can be belittled by influential people,” he said, adding that the court needed to pass a severe penalty for society”s sake.

Bung Mokhtar later said: “The court has made its decision. I was not expecting anything in particular.” (ANI)

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Younis’ appeal against indefinite ban deferred, CRI

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

ISLAMABAD (AP) Pakistan batsman Younis Khan’s appeal against indefinite suspension from the national team has been deferred until May 29. Younis’ lawyer Mohammad Ahmed Qayyum said Saturday that arbitrator Irfan Qadir has adjourned his client’s appeal.

Younis is among six Pakistan cricketers appealing against punishments imposed for indiscipline or poor performance during a tour to Australia earlier this year. Only former captain Mohammad Yousuf, who has retired from international cricket, has not filed an appeal.

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My team preparing to add more to my reply: Modi

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, May 15 (IANS) After handing over his reply to the Indian cricket board’s chargesheet, suspended Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi said Saturday his team is readying to add more to the already voluminous response.

Modi said that he will soon hold a press conference on the issue.

‘I will do a press conference at an appropriate time. Its best to allow my colleagues time to go thru my reply. We spent weeks putting it,’ Modi tweeted hours after his lawyer Mehmood M. Abdi submitted six cartons of documents to BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty at the Board headquarters in Mumbai.

‘When anyone is falsely accused – it is their duty to respond and not react. So one responds by making all that. The reply is by my last count around 15000 pages. The Team may have added more. Or getting ready to add more as we print thousands of mails.’

‘Now that the reply is done. 2nd reply still to be worked on. I plan to reply to that shortly. Just got into Monaco to enjoy the F1 tomorrow. Will spend it with friends and family,’ Modi said.

Abdi submitted a voluminous reply to the chargesheet slapped on Modi by BCCI over alleged irregularities in the functioning of the cash-rich IPL.

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Modi files voluminous reply to BCCI chargesheet

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Mumbai, May 15 (IANS) Lalit Modi, the suspended Indian Premier League (IPL) Commissioner, Saturday submitted a voluminous reply to the chargesheet slapped on him by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over alleged irregularities in the functioning of the cash-rich league.

Modi’s lawyer Mehmood M. Abdi submitted six cartons of documents, with over 9,000 pages, to BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty at the Board headquarters here.

Abdi said a team of eminent lawyers, including Ram Jethmalani and Harish Salve, prepared the reply.

‘It has been a teamwork and we are confident that we have been successful in preparing the reply.

‘The charges were based on allegations and gossip. The BCCI can never prove it. We are confident that all the charges against Modi will be dropped. In fact, BCCI president Shashank Manohar is a well-known lawyer and it will take him only a few hours to go through the reply. It can be done even today,’ Abdi added.

Asked about the contents of the reply, Abdi said: ‘We cannot reveal anything about the documents. It is for you to impress upon the authorities (BCCI) and ask them to share the reply with you. But there are some interesting perspectives of the issues and controversies.’

‘The showcause was of 35 pages. Our report (reply) is of 159 pages and there are around 8,500-9,000 pages of written documents along with it. Two sets have been prepared, one has been sent to Mr. Manohar and one to BCCI secretary Mr. N.Srinivisan. Professor (Ratnakar) Shetty has received the documents.’

‘We have addressed all the charges. There is nothing left to be answered from our side. We want all the charges against Mr. Modi to be dropped and he should be reinstated as IPL chairman and commissioner.’

Abdi said that Modi had asked for more documents to formulate his reply but BCCI could not provide them.

‘Mr. Modi has been writing to BCCI to supply the documents that they (BCCI) will rely on. In response, BCCI provided some documents and we came back to BCCI for more documents because there was nothing new in it. Two days back BCCI wrote back to rely on documents supplied.’

‘Charges were made on Mr Modi’s behavioural conduct based on hearsay and gossip. BCCI has not been able to substantiate it. Mr Modi told BCCI: ‘I reserve the right cross examine about the allegations.”

‘He has even tried to explain the oral allegations,’ said Abdi, who flashed a victory sign before leaving the BCCI headquarters.

Shetty said he has received the documents.

‘We have not gone through the number and pages and BCCI will follow the procedures and duly respond.’

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Modi’s lawyer to submit show-cause reply

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Mumbai, May 15 (IANS) Lalit Modi, suspended chairman and commissioner of the Indian Premier League (IPL), will not personally submit his reply to the chargesheet slapped on him by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

In an e-mail to BCCI secretary N. Srinivasan, Modi said his lawyer Mehmood M. Abdi would deliver the reply to the show-cause notice with relevant documents at the BCCI headquarters at Wankhede Stadium here Saturday between 2.30 and 3.30 p.m.

Modi requested Srinivasan to depute some authorised person to ‘receive and acknowledge the documents by providing adequate receipt.’

Modi was earlier considering handing over the reply personally if the Board chief or the secretary were there to receive it.

The chargesheet, giving him 15 days to reply, was served on Modi April 26 after he was suspended at midnight soon after the IPL final. The BCCI later agreed to give Modi time to reply till Saturday.

The showcause lists charges of financial irregularity, but Modi has maintained that all decisions were taken collectively by the IPL Governing Council.

The five main charges against Modi include receiving kickbacks for allotting TV broadcast rights and manipulating bids.

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MJ’s doc unlikely to face trial for two years

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 16 (ANI): Michael Jackson”s doctor is unlikely to go before a jury over the singer’s death until 2012, it has been revealed.

Huge delays in preparing the case against Conrad Murray mean he probably will not face trial over the singer’s death for two years.

Ed Chernoff, Murray”s lawyer, is fuming ‘many pages’ of documents collected by Los Angeles police have not been handed to the defence even though Murray was charged in February.

Proceedings could be drawn out even longer over problems with choosing a jury.

Chernoff fears his client will not get a fair hearing in LA.

The doctor is next due in court on June 14, but his lawyer says he will push that hearing back to September.

“We are looking at the trial starting in about two years in September. We”ve got a huge load-3,500 pages-of evidence to go through. And we have witnesses to speak to all over the world who have had contact with Jackson over the years. To properly defend Conrad it”s gonna take time to get all of our stuff together,” News of the World quoted Murray”s spokesman as saying. (ANI)

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French woman flying home after Iran trial – France

May 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

French teaching assistant Clotilde Reiss is being flown back to France on Sunday after the end of her trial in Iran on spying charges, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office said in a statement.

In Tehran on Saturday, Reiss’s lawyer said she would be allowed to leave Iran after her jail sentence was commuted to a fine of $285,000.

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US forced American Muslim into ‘exile’: Rights group

May 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A Muslim civil rights group today accused the US government of forcing an American citizen into “exile” because he was an Islamic convert.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said Raymond Earl Knaeble IV, 29, had been placed on a no-fly list and had been unable to return home from Colombia since March.

The group’s claim could not be independently confirmed and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to CAIR, Knaeble this week flew to Mexico in hope of travelling to the Mexican-US border, but he instead faced lengthy interrogation by Mexican officials before being sent back to Colombia.

“He was stopped by Mexican authorities as he got off the plane and asked, ‘Are you Muslim?’ He was then detained for 15 hours and asked many questions relating to his faith,” according to CAIR.

“It is un-American and illegal for a citizen who has not been accused of, let alone charged with, any crime to be denied entry to his own country without adequate explanation,” said CAIR lawyer Nadhira Al-Khalili, who is representing Knaeble.

“We call on the Department of Justice to end Mr Knaeble’s forced exile and to address the disturbing issue of the other Americans who are similarly being denied re-entry to their own country,” she said.

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