Tuesday, August 01, 2006
'Hit-and-run grannies' charged with murder
Two women in their 70s were charged Monday with having homeless men killed in hit-and-run car crashes to collect more than $2 million in life insurance.
Olga Rutterschmidt, 73, and Helen Golay, 75, were each charged with two counts of murder and two counts of conspiracy to commit murder for financial gain.
The charges make the women eligible for the death penalty. Prosecutors will wait until the case moves closer to trial before deciding whether to seek executions, Deputy District Attorney Shellie Samuels said.
The women are accused of arranging hit-and-run killings in alleys using drivers whose identities are unknown. Paul Vados, 73, was killed in November 1999 and Kenneth McDavid, 51, was killed in June 2005.
The women were arrested in May and initially charged with federal mail fraud.
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Child stabbed for his soccer ball
Carl Forbay is too scared to go back to school. On Thursday, the 10-year-old was attacked and stabbed three times in the boys' toilets. It all started during break at Sir Edmund Hillary School in Kensington, Johannesburg, when Carl refused to give his attackers - both 13-year-olds - his ball. He was followed to the toilets, where one of the boys stabbed him in the buttocks. Carl said the Grade 5 pupils had followed him, asking to borrow his soccer ball. He refused and one boy pulled out the knife from his bag and began stabbing him. "He kept saying he wants the ball. He pushed me around and then stabbed me," Carl said from his Troyeville home. While trying to defend Carl, his friend, who had gone into the toilets with him, got into a fight with one of the attackers. "There was just the four of us inside (the toilets). I was scared. My body was sore. The boy that stabbed me said they would kill me if I opened my mouth," Carl said. After the break, Carl had gone back to class, but his teacher was not there.
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"Killing people is like squashing an ant:" former US soldier
A former US soldier accused of raping and murdering an Iraqi girl compared killing people in Iraq to "squashing an ant," in an interview with a reporter about a month before the attack. Steven Green, 21, a former private with the 101st Airborne Division, is under arrest in Kentucky and could face the death penalty if convicted of the March 12 murders of the Iraqi girl and three of her relatives. Writing in Sunday's editions of The Washington Post, Andrew Tilghman, a former correspondent for the US military newspaper Stars and Stripes, said he interviewed Green several times in February at his unit south of Baghdad. "I came over here because I wanted to kill people," he quoted Green as saying. "The truth is, it wasn't all I thought it was cracked up to be. "I mean, I thought killing somebody would be this life-changing experience," Green was quoted as saying. "And then I did it, and I was like, 'All right, whatever.' "I shot a guy who wouldn't stop when we were out at a traffic checkpoint and it was like nothing," Green was quoted as saying. "Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant. "I mean, you kill somebody and it's like, 'All right, let's go get some pizza.'"
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Killed for saving girl from molester!
A shopkeeper was murdered when he tried to save a young girl who was teased and molested by some local goons. The rogues also tried to strip the girl publicly. The incident occurred in the Cantonment area of Lucknow. Four goons who saw a girl passing by first taunted her and then made vulgar signs. Not realizing, the girl slapped one of them. Thereafter, the goons tore her blouse and publicly pumped her bare breast. They troubled her till she started crying loudly. The goons then tried to strip her. Unable to control himself, a shopkeeper named Shalik Yadav told the goons to stop troubling the girl or else he would call the police. He pounced upon one of them and bashed them. The youths vanished at that time but came again with reinforcement of a gang of more than a dozen armed persons. They destroyed Yadav's shop and bashed him with iron chain and rods. Shalik's head was smashed badly.
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Wife Pulls Gun on Pastor in Church
A preacher's wife was arrested after police say she pulled a gun on her husband because she allegedly was upset over text messages he had sent to a member of a church youth group. Tammy Estes surrendered to law officers at the Pentecostal Church of God in Newport after a brief standoff at the church Sunday evening. No one was injured. She was taken to the Jackson County Detention Center. She was expected to be arraigned Monday. Police say a church service had just begun when Estes pulled a gun on her husband, preacher Larry Estes, about 7 p.m. According to congregation members, she was upset over messages Larry Estes allegedly exchanged with a youth group member and she demanded he admit infidelity. Most church members left the building, but several stayed behind to try to convince Tammy Estes to surrender. Police arrived, and other members of the congregation left the church. About 9 p.m., Tammy Estes' parents went into the church. About 10 minutes later, she surrendered to police. Larry Estes was hired as the church's minister more than a year ago. He also is the owner of DaBoyz Plumbing.
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Police hunt cigarette attacker
A MAN who put a lit cigarette in the eye of a toddler remains on the run from New South Wales police. The man approached a 51-year-old woman who was with two children and began a brief conversation on Marrickville Road in Dulwich Hill in Sydney's inner west at about 11.30am last Friday, police said today. He then removed a cigarette from his mouth, putting it in the eye of an 18-month-old boy before running away. The child was treated at the Sydney Children's Hospital at Randwick and is not expected to have any long-term damage to his sight. Detective Inspector Jodi Radmore said while the man remains at large, police do not believe he is a risk of attacking again. "Our investigations have revealed this was an isolated incident, and there is no suggestion that there will be similar assaults on other young children," Insp Radmore said. The man is described as being white, 40 to 50 years of age, 175cm tall, with a thin build and blonde shoulder-length hair and sandy coloured facial hair. He walks with a limp and has a blue marking, possibly a tattoo, on his left wrist. Anyone with information is urged to contact authorities.
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Hi-tech ink perfects egg boiling
The age-old argument over the best way to cook the perfect boiled egg could be a thing of the past thanks to a new hi-tech ink logo going on shells. After cooking begins, an invisible, temperature-sensitive thermochromic print appears in black to indicate when an egg is soft, medium or hard-boiled. The eggs, developed by UK assurance scheme Lion Quality, will be sold in three different types of cartons. The new logos will start to appear on eggs in the next few months. 'Big issue' "We had a lot of inquiries from people which sparked an interest in the industry," said a spokeswoman for Lion Quality. "We said OK, this is a big issue - people can't even boil an egg." The best technique has taxed some of the greatest culinary experts in the past. In a 2005 survey conducted by the magazine Waitrose Food Illustrated, five leading chefs all came up with different solutions. And in 1998, a TV series presented by Delia Smith included one show concentrating on the finer points of boiling an egg. Smith said her How To Cook programme on the BBC intended to re-introduce people to the pleasures of cooking and herald a return to basic skills.