|
Level -> And now.... the news. (8/19/2007 8:03:36 AM)
|
(AP) Two men who allegedly tried to use rattlesnakes as deadly weapons to collect on a debt have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder, authorities said.
The Lakewood men were allegedly trying to kill Matthew Sowash, owner of Amateur Poker Tour in Wheat Ridge, because he owed them $60,000, Jim Shires of the Jefferson County Sheriff's office said. Arrest affidavits say Sowash's company stages Texas Hold'em-style poker games in Denver area bars.
Herbert Paul Beck, 56, was arrested Thursday in Raton, N.M., and Christopher Lee Steelman, 34, was arrested Wednesday in Lakewood.
Bail for each suspect was set at $500,000 on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and extortion.
Investigators said Steelman told them the two men discussed ways to kill Sowash and Beck suggested rattlesnakes. Beck allegedly told investigators he invested $36,000 in the company last December, and with interest was due $60,000.
The plan was to build a wooden box to hold the snakes and "the lid was to be built to allow Sowash's legs to be put inside but not pulled out."
"The final and most disturbing method to Steelman was Beck wanting to kidnap Sowash's children and use them as leverage to get the money from Sowash," according to the affidavits.
Sowash contacted the Colorado Bureau of Investigation after getting threatening e-mails.
Both defendants have extensive arrest records. Shires didn't know if they had lawyers to speak for them.
~~ from the AP ~~
(AP) An Australian woman was killed by a pet camel given to her as a 60th birthday present after the animal apparently tried to have sex, police said Sunday.
The woman, whose name was not released, was killed Saturday at her family's sheep and cattle ranch near Mitchell, 350 miles west of the Queensland state capital Brisbane, state police Detective Senior Constable Craig Gregory said.
The 10-month-old male camel — weighing about 330 pounds — knocked the woman to the ground, lay on top of her, then exhibited what police suspect was mating behavior, Gregory said.
"I'd say it's probably been playing, or it may be even a sexual sort of thing," Gregory said, adding the camel almost suffocated the family's pet goat by straddling it on several occasions.
Camel expert Chris Hill said he had no doubt the camel's behavior was sexual.
Hill, who has offered camel rides to tourists for 20 years, said young camels are not aggressive, but can be dangerous if treated as pets without discipline.
The fate of the camel was not known.
The woman was given the camel in March as a birthday present from her husband and daughter. "She had a love of exotic pets," Gregory said.
~~ from the AP ~~
(Christian Science Monitor) This article was written by Fred Weir.
After a newly self-confident, oil-rich Russia teamed up with China in joint military exercises Friday, it is moving to reclaim the former Soviet Union's status as a global military power.
A seven-year, $200-billion rearmament plan signed by President Vladimir Putin earlier this year will purchase new generations of missiles, planes, and perhaps aircraft carriers to rebuild Russia's arsenal. Already, the new military posture is on display: This summer, Russian bombers have extended their patrol ranges far into the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, forcing U.S. and NATO interceptors to scramble for the first time since the cold war's end.
"Diplomacy between Russia and the West is increasingly being overshadowed by military gestures," says Sergei Strokan, a foreign-policy expert with the independent daily Kommersant. "It's clear that the Kremlin is listening more and more to the generals and giving them more of what they want."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/17/world/main3178499.shtml
The Defense Intelligence Agency is preparing to pay private contractors up to $1 billion to conduct core intelligence tasks of analysis and collection over the next five years, an amount that would set a record in the outsourcing of such functions by the Pentagon's top spying agency.
The proposed contracts, outlined in a recent early notice of the DIA's plans, reflect a continuing expansion of the Defense Department's intelligence-related work and fit a well-established pattern of Bush administration transfers of government work to private contractors.
Since 2000, the value of federal contracts signed by all agencies each year has more than doubled to reach $412 billion, with the largest growth at the Defense Department, according to a congressional tally in June. Outsourcing particularly accelerated among intelligence agencies after the 2001 terrorist attacks caught many of them unprepared to meet new demands with their existing workforce.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20339771
"Anna," who has asked that we disguise her identity, was trafficked to Malaysia from her home in the Philippines in early 2007.
Promised a job as a waitress, she arrived to find her traffickers had something very different in mind.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20182993
U.S. forces tracking Iranians in Iraq
By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer 23 minutes ago
American forces are tracking about 50 members of an elite Iranian force who have crossed the border into southern Iraq to train Shiite militia fighters, a top U.S. general said Sunday. The French foreign minister, meanwhile, arrived in Baghdad on a groundbreaking visit after years of icy relations with the United States over Iraq.
In Paris, the foreign ministry said Bernard Kouchner was in "Iraq to express a message of solidarity from France to the Iraqi people and to listen to representatives from all communities."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070819/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
US debt jolts world markets
By Ron SchererFri Aug 17, 4:00 AM ET
Over the past six years, Chinese central bankers, French pension-fund managers, and staid German bankers have been the piggy bank for America's housing boom.
In that time, foreign loans to help Americans get mortgages have quadrupled to nearly $1 trillion.
That's one reason soaring foreclosure rates in the US and a sharp slump in the housing market have rattled traders from Frankfurt au Main in Germany to Pitt Street in Sydney, Australia. The prospect of large losses has caused stock markets to tumble worldwide. And central banks have injected billions of dollars to prevent a credit crunch from becoming a financial rout.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070817/ts_csm/aloansabroad
Migrant cash is world economic giant
By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press WriterSun Aug 19, 12:13 AM ET
Josif Poro pats his new sofa, points with pride to his carpets and runs a wrinkled hand over a gleaming white refrigerator. He and his wife barely scrape by on their $220 monthly pension. They'd have to do without many of the items in their cramped apartment if their son, a factory worker in Greece, didn't faithfully send home part of his earnings.
"We call him our golden boy," said Poro, 83, a retired textile mill worker.
Around the world, millions of immigrants are sending billions of dollars back home.
One sweaty wad of bills or $200 Western Union moneygram at a time, they form what could be called Immigration, Inc. — one of the biggest businesses on the planet.
Experts tracking the phenomenon told The Associated Press they have gotten a much clearer picture since the 9/11 attacks, when authorities trying to cut the flow of cash to jihadists began taking a harder look at how immigrants move their money around.
Mass migration, they say, has spawned an underground economy of staggering proportions.
Globally, remittances — the cash that immigrants send home — totaled nearly $276 billion in 2006, the World Bank says. Remittances have more than doubled since 2000, and with globalization increasing the numbers of people on the move, there's no end in sight.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070819/ap_on_bi_ge/immigration;_ylt=Aux4rICqnjQ9VIiJfTOk6MWs0NUE
|
|
|
|
