Actress Natasha Richardson dies in New York hospital after skiing fall

By Calvin Palmer

Award winning British actress Natasha Richardson, wife of Liam Neeson, died tonight in a New York hospital with her family at her bedside.

A spokesman for her husband confirmed that the actress had died in Lenox Hill Hospital after her family had taken the decision to take her off life support.

Alan Nierob of Rogers & Cowan said in a statement: “Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha.

“They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time.”

Richardson, 45, who suffered serious head injuries during a skiing accident in Canada, had been reported to have been “brain dead”.

She was flown to New York from Montreal yesterday, wrapped in blankets with tubes covering her face, and taken to Lenox Hill Hospital, a clinic on the Upper East Side of the city. Neeson accompanied her on the private jet.

Her mother, actress Vanessa Redgrave, flew to New York from London to be at her bedside. Other members of the family followed — Richardson’s younger sister Joely, who stars in the U.S. drama Nip/Tuck and her aunt, Lynn Redgrave.

Richardson’s sons, Michael, 13, and Daniel, 12, were also seen at the hospital, along with a niece, Daisy Bevan.

Michael had been with his mother when she suffered the skiing accident on Monday at the exclusive Mont Tremblant resort in Quebec, Canada.

Neeson, 56, had been working on his latest film, Chloe, in Toronto and rushed to the hospital in Montreal.

Richardson, whose father film director Tony Richardson died in 1991, fell during a skiing lesson on the beginner’s slopes. She had not been wearing a helmet.

She laughed the fall off and appeared to be all right but an hour later complained of a headache and was taken to a hospital in Ste Agathe. She was transferred to the the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal later in the afternoon.

Richardson  worked extensively both on stage and screen. She won a Tony award for best actress for her role as Sally Bowles in Cabaret on Broadway in 1998 and her film credits include The Parent Trap and The Handmaid’s Tale.

She married Irish film star Neeson in 1994 after they appeared together in the film Nell.

[Based on reports by The Times, Melbourne Herald Sun and Associated Press.]

School officials investigate ‘lunch out of a garbage can’ incident

By Calvin Palmer

A kindergarten teacher in Connecticut arrested for allegedly making a five-year-old eat his lunch out of a garbage can has been placed on medical leave for the rest of the week while school officials conduct an investigation.

Superintendent of Bridgeport Schools John Ramos today said: “The teacher went into the garbage can and took the banana out of garbage can and requested that the student eat it. That’s the extent of it.

“Not to make light of it, but I think the story has taken on other ramifications.”

Anne O’Donnell, 67, of Fairfield, a teacher at Park City Magnet School, was arrested yesterday on a charge of risk of injury to a minor, according to police Capt. Lynn Kerwin.

Released on a promise to appear in Superior Court, she is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday.

Police said the charges were filed after an incident last Thursday when the five-year-old boy apparently tossed out his lunch of chicken nuggets and a banana from the school cafeteria. The teacher then allegedly went over to the garbage can, pulled out the food and forced the boy to eat it in front of her.

But Ramos said the teacher explained she was concerned the student had not eaten his lunch and asked that he eat the banana. Officials would not explain why the five-year-old was eating lunch in the classroom instead of the cafeteria.

The boy was transferred to another class at the request of the parent, who reported the incident to school authorities.

The state Department of Child and Family Services was informed of the incident, but its officials did not pursue the case.

Ramos said: “The appropriate actions will be taken. The incident was handled with the needs of the child first.

 “We want to be clear about it. We are all concerned about what happened at Park City Magnet and are pursing it accordingly.”

O’Donnell has been a teacher with the district since 1972.

Strikes me that what we have here is a case of old-fashioned values coming up against the enlightened rules that now govern children and their behavior.

Why not charge the parent with the risk of turning a minor into a spoilt brat? The parent’s actions are just as injurious to the child’s social development as the alleged actions of the teacher.  The boy will quickly learn, if he has not learned it already, he can do whatever he wants and his parents will always save him from the consequences of his actions.

In O’Donnell’s childhood, I will wager such behavior would have resulted in her legs being rattled by a teacher and she would not have gone home and told her parents about it. And more to the point, she would have never thrown her lunch in the garbage can again.

[Based on a report by the Connecticut Post.]

School shooting teenager told hostage driver he killed “for fun”

By Calvin Palmer

The German teenager who killed 12 people at his former school last week described it as fun and wanted to attack a second school, according to the man he held hostage as he fled the scene.

Igor Wolf, 41, told Stern magazine that Tim Kretschmer jumped into the back seat of his car, put a gun to his head and forced him to drive away at high speed.

Wolf said he asked the 17-year-old why he had killed people at the school.

“He answered very loudly: ‘For fun — because it’s fun,'” Wolf told the magazine.

He said the teenager asked: “Do you think we can find another school?” Not knowing the exact death toll at Albertville, Kretschmer added: “I have already killed 15 people in my old school and I’m not done yet today.”

Mr Wolf said that he distracted him by changing the subject. He also recalled that the killer pointed a 9mm Beretta pistol at him with his right hand and used his left hand to reload.

“He was preparing himself for the next shooting — that’s what went through my mind,” he said.

At one point he considered attempting to escape. “We stopped at traffic lights. I thought about just tearing the door open and running away. But there were other people going about their business. A woman with a pram, other children. What do you think he would have done if I had run away?”

Wolf said he was waiting for his wife on the street when the gunman yanked open the back door of his VW Sharan, jumped into the back, shoved his 9mm Beretta in his face and said: “Drive. Quickly.”

After driving 25 miles to Wendlingen, with the gun pointed at him, he deliberately veered the car off the road and ran off with the keys, forcing Kretschmer to continue on foot.

The teenager  went on to kill another two adults before killing himself after a shoot-out with police.

Prosecutors in Stuttgart said preliminary results of an autopsy confirmed that Kretschmer died from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. He had also been struck by two police bullets — one to the ankle, the other to his knee.

Extracts from the interview with Mr Wolf were released today ahead of Stern’s publication tomorrow. Hans-Peter Junker, Stern news editor, declined to comment when asked whether the magazine had paid Mr Wolf for the interview.

Kretschmer killed nine students and three teachers at Albertville technical school in Winnenden and a bystander on March 11 before taking Wolf captive.

[Based on reports by The Times and Associated Press.]

AIG boss fears for employees if list of bonus recipients made public

By Calvin Palmer

Head of insurance giant AIG Edward Liddy told Congress today that he had appealed to employees to voluntarily return at least half of the money they have received in bonuses.

He said that some workers had already stepped forward to give the money back.

At the weekend it was disclosed that AIG had paid $165 million in “retention bonuses” to its employees at the same time it was accepting bailout funds from taxpayers.  Some of the payments were made to the same traders and executives whose reckless financial behavior caused the company’s near collapse.

Liddy told a House Financial Services subcommittee that, while the bonuses were a legal obligation of the company that is now 80 percent owned by the federal government, he had “asked those who have received retention payments in excess of $100,000 or more to return at least half of those payments”.

Some had already stepped up and returned 100 percent, although he provided no details.

In a name and shame move, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, demanded that the company submit to Congress a list “of people who received the bonuses, whether they paid them back or not”.

Frank warned that if the names were not provided “without restriction”, he would ask the committee to vote to subpoena them.

Liddy said that he would obviously comply with the law but said he was “concerned about the safety of our people”.

He read out threats AIG employees had received, including a suggestion they be garroted with piano wire.

Another read: “If the government can’t do this properly, we the people will take it in our own hands and see that justice is done. I’m looking for all the CEOs names, kids, where they live, etc.”

Liddy said he would only give the names of bonus recipients on the basis of confidentiality.

Frank said he would consult with security officials, but that his request for the names stands.

[Based on a report by the Associated Press.]

Texas appeals court rules eye-eating death row inmate sane under the law

By Calvin Palmer

A Texas death row inmate who three months ago removed his only eye and ate it may well be crazy but not in the opinion of the law.

The nine-member Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today unanimously upheld the conviction and punishment of Andre Thomas, 26, for the murder of his estranged wife’s 13-month-old daughter, Leyha Marie Hughes, five years ago in Grayson County in North Texas.

His wife, Laura Christine Boren, 20, and their four-year-old son, Andre Lee, were also killed in the same attack. The victims were stabbed and their hearts were ripped out. Thomas, of Texoma, walked into the Sherman Police Department, admitted to the killings and said God told him to commit them.

Thomas “is clearly ‘crazy,’ but he is also ‘sane’ under Texas law,” Judge Cathy Cochran wrote in a 14-page statement accompanying the court’s brief order.

Attorneys for Thomas argued that instructions to his trial jury were incorrect regarding the law on voluntary intoxication, that the instruction should not have been given because it suggested his drug and alcohol use and not insanity were responsible for his actions, and that his trial attorneys were ineffective because they should have known the instructions were improper.

At his trial in Sherman in 2005, defense lawyers said the killings were the result of insane delusions caused solely by Thomas’ mental disease. Jurors agreed with prosecutors, who argued his psychosis was caused or aggravated by his voluntary use of alcohol, drugs and prescription drugs.

“There was ample evidence to reject an insanity defense and support a jury finding that Thomas knew that his conduct was wrong at the time he murdered his wife and the children,” Cochran wrote. “There was also evidence that Thomas did not know his conduct was wrong at the time. This was a quintessential fact issue for the jury to decide, and it did so.”

Cochran wrote that although “reasonable people might well differ on the questions of whether Thomas was sane at the time he committed these murders or competent at the time he was tried, those issues were appropriately addressed by the defense, the prosecution, trial judge, and the jury during the trial.”

While in the Grayson County Jail five days after his arrest, Thomas plucked out his right eye. A judge subsequently ruled he was competent to stand trial.

Last December, a death row officer at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice found Thomas in his cell with blood on his face and had him taken to the unit infirmary. Thomas told officials he had pulled out his remaining eye and ate it.

He was taken to a hospital for treatment and later transferred to a prison psychiatric unit.

There was no reference to the second eye removal in the court opinion.

“This is an extraordinarily tragic case,” Cochran wrote, saying the deaths could have been avoided because Thomas twice went to hospitals for help but left voluntarily and could not be held without legal authority.

[Based on a report by the Associated Press.]

“Too fat to work” family cannot live on £22,000 in benefits

By Calvin Palmer

A family of four with a combined weight of  1162 pounds say they are “too fat to work” and that the £22,000 ($30,750) they receive in government handouts is insufficient to live on.

Philip Chawner, 53, and his 57-year-old wife Audrey each weigh 336 pounds. Their daughter Emma, 19, weighs 238 pounds, while her older sister Samantha, 21, weighs 252 pounds.

The Chawners have not worked for 11 years and claim their weight is a hereditary condition.

The family from Blackburn, in northwest England, claim £22,508 ($31,464) a year in benefits, equivalent to the take-home pay from a £30,000 ($42,000) salary.

Philip Chawner said: “What we get barely covers the bills and puts food on the table. It’s not our fault we can’t work. We deserve more.”

The family claims to spend £50 ($70) a week on food and consume 3,000 calories each a day. The recommended maximum intake is 2,000 for women and 2,500 for men.

“We have cereal for breakfast, bacon butties for lunch and microwave pies with mashed potato or chips for dinner,” Audrey Chawner told Closer magazine.

“All that healthy food, like fruit and vegetables, is too expensive. We’re fat because it’s in our genes. Our whole family is overweight,” she added.
 
Each week, Philip and Audrey Chawner, who have been married for 23 years, receive £177 ($247) in income support and incapacity benefit. Audrey is paid an extra £330 ($461) a month  in disability allowance for epilepsy and asthma, both a result of being overweight.

Philip Chawner gets £71 ($99) a month  after developing Type 2 diabetes because of his size. He was on a waiting list for a gastric band last year, but a heart condition made the operation unsuitable. Their daughter Samantha receives £84 ($117) in Jobseekers’ Allowance very 14 days, while Emma, who is training to be a hairdresser, gets £58 ($81) every two weeks under a hardship fund for low-income students.
 
Emma, who has appeared as a singer in the British TV talent show The X Factor, said: “I’m a student and don’t have time to exercise. We all want to lose weight to stop the abuse we get in the street, but we don’t know how.”

How about eating less?

Mark Wallace of campaign group TaxPayers’ Alliance has criticised the family. I expect he had to join a long line to do that.

“Frankly, this family must realize that we’re in a recession and there simply isn’t any more money to go around,” Wallace said. “Most people realize this and are working all the hours God sends to make ends meet.”

Emma, and Samantha said that they had applied for hundreds of jobs but with no luck. They are both apparently looking for work in hairdressing.

The final word came from Audrey. “The disability benefits in this country are not right,” she said “We have hardly any money to get by. We can’t eat properly and never have days out.

“There should be more support for people like us.”

For once the phrase “only in America” does not apply.  And the sighs of incredulity will come from this side of the Atlantic. I wonder if Rush Limbaugh would pillory these fellow fatties.  Now, that is a tough call.

[Based on reports by The Daily Telegraph and Lancashire Telegraph.]

Second earthquake in 12 days rocks Melbourne

By Calvin Palmer

An earthquake rocked Melbourne today, the second one to hit the city in the past 12 days.

The  4.5 magnitude earthquake  shook Australia’s second largest city  and eastern Victoria at 4:28 p.m. local time.

The epicenter was 62 miles southeast of the city and in the same area of the 4.6 magnitude earthquake that occurred on March 6.

Geosciences Australia duty seismologist Steve Tathum said the event was one of five significant tremors centered on the same area near Korumburra in the past 12 days.

“Because this event has an equal magnitude to the March 6 quake it’s not correct to say it is an aftershock. It’s a significant event and you could say the earlier tremors were foreshocks,” he said.

The second quake was one of the largest felt in the Melbourne area for 30 to 40 years, Tathum said.

“We’ve had hundreds of reports, with people reporting rattling, vibrations, hearing earth noises or a rumble like a strong wind hitting their roof,” he said.

“It’s certainly significant but it’s not uncommon so people should not worry that this is anything out of the ordinary.”

State Emergency Service (SES) spokesman Alan Briggs said while there had been no reports of any damage, anyone facing any problems should turn off all gas, electricity and water and call emergency services.

Andrew Harris was in his 26th floor city center apartment when he felt the building sway, describing the tremor as much stronger than the one earlier this month.

“This was much longer and much more severe, the pot plants and the furniture actually rocked,” he told a TV channel.

“It was a little bit unsettling to feel the building rock, it did actually move the building. In the last one, it just felt a little bit unstable.”

Associate Professor Malcolm Wallace from Melbourne University’s School of Earth Sciences said the quake was probably an aftershock from the March 6 event.

He said it was normal for smaller tremors to be felt after an earthquake as stress on fault lines was dispersed from the epicenter.

“If it was from the same area it probably is related to that fairly large one a while ago,” Wallace said.

He said Victorians could expect more aftershocks but it was unlikely the tremor was a sign of a bigger earthquake to come.

“I don’t think it’s the prelude to a big earthquake,”Wallace said. “We probably have the same probability now of having a big earthquake as there always has been.”

[Based on reports by the Melbourne Herald Sun and AFP news agency.]

Texas woman found insane over stabbing of two sons

By Calvin Palmer

A Texas woman who said she was possessed by demons has been found not guilty over the stabbing of her two sons on the grounds of insanity.

Maria Alsareinye, 50, of San Antonio, was yesterday ordered to undergo observation at a state mental facility. After 30 days a judge will decide if she should be held at a mental facility for the rest of her life.

A psychologist determined she was unaware of her conduct because of mental illness.

Alsareinye was arrested in January 2007 after her 10-year-old son flagged down a motorist.

The boy was bleeding from stab wounds to his chest, neck and back, and he led the motorist to his house where Alsareinye was stabbing his 12-year-old brother in the back.

Both boys survived the attack.

[Based on a report by the Associated Press.]

Police divers recover bodies of missing florist and daughter

By Calvin Palmer

Police divers searching for a missing florist and her disabled nine-year-old daughter have recovered their bodies in a lake behind their home in the Cotswolds Water Park, South Cerney, Gloucestershire.

Jude Richmond, 41, and Millie Whitehead-Richmond, who has cerebral palsy and is unable to walk, were last seen on Sunday evening.

Divers from Avon and Somerset Police began a search of the lake immediately behind their home on Wednesday morning.

Police said the bodies of a young girl and an adult female had been found.

Inspector Owen Hughes said the first body, a young girl, had been found at 10:20 a.m. The second body, an adult female, was found at 11:30 a.m.

Formal identification of the two bodies is expected to take place tomorrow at the post-mortem examination.

Hughes said: “There are numerous lines to this investigation. We are not ruling anything out at this stage.

“We have officers dedicated to looking after loved ones. Our sympathies are with the family at this time.”

The pair had recently returned early from an extended holiday in New Zealand and friends said Mrs Richmond had been “upset” after separating from her husband during the trip.

Mrs Richmond owns a chain of five florists in London as well as another in her home village of South Cerney near Cirencester. Past clients have included the late Queen Mother, rock stars and film and operatic productions.

Her estranged husband Nick Richmond, a stockbroker, was greeted with the news of his wife and step-daughter’s deaths when he flew back to Heathrow at lunchtime. He was said to be “devastated” by the news.

The Rev David Bowers, vicar of All Hallows Church, in South Cerney, said the discovery of the bodies would shock the small community.

He said: “Both Jude and Millie were lovely people. The whole village are absolutely devastated. We were hoping and praying that they would be okay.

“We have been praying for them since they went missing. This is very sad news for the whole village.

“Both Millie and Jude sometimes came to church and Millie was baptised here. Millie was a very special little girl. She was very lively and full of joy and life. Jude was a very kind person, very caring and sensitive.

“I hadn’t seen them for quite a while because they’ve been in New Zealand. This will affect a lot of people in the village and we will pray for the rest of family.”

Police have renewed an appeal for a man in his 40s seen with Mrs Richmond and Millie to come forward. He would have been one of the last people to see the pair alive.

Kate Nelmes, spokeswoman for Gloucestershire Police, said: “Finding these bodies makes it even more important that we speak to the mystery man seen before Jude and Millie disappeared.”

Police were alerted to Jude and Millie’s disappearance at 10:00 a.m. on Monday by the family cleaner.

They had last been seen by a neighbor leaving their home, which backs on to one of 140 lakes in the area, between 6:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Police and dog handlers began combing the area and a helicopter was also used in the search.

A  specialist team of divers from neighbouring Avon and Somerset Police was drafted in to search the lake this morning.

[Based on reports by The Times and BBC News.]

Daughter’s video testimony causes Fritzl to plead guilty on all charges

By Calvin Palmer

In a dramatic turn of events today, Josef Fritzl changed his plea to guilty on all counts, including murder and enslavement.

The 73-year-old retired electrical engineer admitted enslaving his teenage daughter Elisabeth from 1984 to 2008 in a soundproofed dungeon under his house, and in 1996 murdering one of the seven children he fathered by her by failing to take the newborn twin boy to a doctor when it developed breathing difficulties.

Fritzl cited his daughter’s testimony as the reason for his change of mind and for the first time since his arrest last April he said he was sorry for what he had done.

He had already pleaded guilty to rape, incest, coercion and false imprisonment.

It has been reported that Elisabeth was present in the courtroom at St Pölten yesterday, sitting in disguise, as the jury watched the video tapes of her testimony.

Opening proceedings, the judge, Andrea Humer, said she wanted to return to Elisabeth’s testimony from yesterday.

“Do you have anything to say to me?” Humer asked Fritzl. “I recognise that I am guilty,” he responded, adding, “I regret it.”

“Why are you saying that now?” asked Humer. “Because of the videotape testimony of my daughter,” said Fritzl.

Referring to the murder charge, Humer asked why Fritzl hadn’t done more to help his newborn baby boy, Michael, who died from breathing difficulties shortly after being born in the cellar in 1996.

“Did you not realise he was gravely ill?”

Fritzl responded: “I just overlooked it. I thought the baby was going to survive. I should have realised. It was only yesterday I realised for the first time how cruel I was to Elisabeth. I had never realised it before.”

Fritzl had previously admitted burning the child’s body in an incinerator in his back yard, but had denied he was responsible for his death.

The surviving twin, Alexander, was one of three of Elisabeth’s seven children who “appeared” above ground at the Fritzl’s house in Amstetten, west of Vienna. Alexander was the last of the three children to be raised by Fritzl and his wife, Rosemarie.

Fritzl also changed his plea from partial to full guilt on the rape charge and admitted the slavery charge.

For the first two days of his trial, Fritzl had also denied that he enslaved Elisabeth in the purpose-built, windowless cellar he constructed under his own home.

The jury has been told that Elisabeth was imprisoned under Ybbsstrasse 40 at the age of 18. Her father lured her into the cellar on 29 August 1984 by putting a cloth over her nose and mouth and dragging her into the cellar. He then secured a chain around her stomach so she could not escape. The next day he raped her. As she bore his children over the next 24 years, he repeatedly raped her in front of them, the court heard.

After Fritzl’s dramatic plea change, the court heard testimony from Dr Adelheid Kastner, a psychiatrist who interviewed him at length after his arrest.

“On the surface, everything functions smoothly. But deep down, his unfulfilled needs are simmering,” Kastner said.

“He is aware — he says so himself — that he has an evil side. He is aware that he was born to rape. He has that partly under control. But as soon as he loosens his grip, everything erupts out.”

Kastner said that Fritzl’s overwhelming need to dominate and control stemmed from his upbringing as the unwanted, unloved but intelligent child of a single mother. He had grown up determined to have somebody who belonged to him alone, she said. He was emotionally deficient but that he knew what he was doing what wrong.

“The danger is still very much there that he will reoffend if he is not treated,” Kastner told the court.

“It is necessary that he continue being treated until he can no longer be classified as dangerous. Thus, the conditions are in place for him to be put in a psychiatric institute.”

After the psychiatrist’s testimony, the judges adjourned the trial until tomorrow morning when closing statements from the prosecution and the defense will be heard. The verdicts are expected in the afternoon.

[Based on reports by The Times, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph.]