Prosecutors to seek death penalty for Casey Anthony

By Calvin Palmer
Prosecutors in Florida plan to seek the death penalty against Casey Anthony who is charged with murdering her two-year-old daughter, Caylee.
Papers of intent to have Anthony executed if she is convicted of first-degree murder were filed today, said Danielle Tavernier, a spokeswoman for the State Attorney’s Office in Orlando.
Prosecutors stated that additional information [...]

Huckaby may face rape and lascivious conduct allegations

By Calvin Palmer
The woman suspected of killing an eight-year-old Californian girl may also face rape and molestation allegations, prosecutors said today.
Sunday school teacher Melissa Huckaby, 28, was arrested on Friday on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering Sandra Cantu.
Cantu’s body was found last Monday in a suitcase that had been dumped in an irrigation pond two [...]

Jury finds Phil Spector guilty of murder

By Calvin Palmer
Record producer Phil Spector famed for creating the ‘Wall of Sound’ in the 1960s will soon face having to get used to walls of a different kind after a jury returned a guilty verdict today in his trial for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson.
A Superior Court jury in Los Angeles returned the [...]

Big-rig driver in fatal crash pleads not guilty

By Calvin Palmer
The Brazilian driver whose big-rig car transporter went out of control in La Canada Flintridge, California, leaving a young girl and her father dead, pleaded not guilty to vehicular manslaughter charges today.
Marcos Costa, 43, appeared before Superior Court Judge Terry Smerling in Pasadena, California, and was released on $200,000 bail after entering his [...]

Passenger lands aircraft safely after pilot dies

By Calvin Palmer
A passenger took over the controls of a twin-engine plane in mid-air when the pilot died and landed the other passengers safely at a Florida airport yesterday.
The passenger was licensed for single-engine planes and was talked down by three air traffic controllers and a pilot relaying cockpit instructions from Connecticut, said Federal Aviation Administration [...]

Police arrest 114 to foil “serious threat” to power station’s safety

By Calvin Palmer
More than 100 people were arrested in the early hours of today in connection with an alleged attack on a coal-fired power station.
Environmental protesters are thought to have been planning to move on Ratcliffe-on-Soar power-station, Nottinghamshire.
Score of officers from Nottinghamshire police swooped on the independent Iona School in Sneinton, Nottinghamshire.
Officers from the neighboring [...]

Somali mortars target plane carrying U.S. politician

By Calvin Palmer
Mortar shells fired at a plane carrying a U.S. congressman landed in residential areas of Somalia’s capital city today, injuring 19 civilians.
The plane carrying New Jersey Democrat Donald Payne took off safely from Mogadishu airport, said Col Mohamed Idi, a police officer at the airport. None of the six mortar shells fired landed [...]

Mel Gibson’s wife files for divorce

By Calvin Palmer
Mel Gibson’s wife has filed a petition for divorce in Los Angeles, according to court records.
Robyn Gibson, who has been married to the movie star for 28 years, cited irreconcilable differences.
The petition contains scant details about the split. Robyn is seeking jewelry and some other property. She has suggested joint custody for the [...]

Couple caught having sex while driving speeding car

By Calvin Palmer
A Norwegian man faces a driving ban and fine after police caught him having sex with his girlfriend while speeding on a freeway.
Traffic police clocked a silver Mazda 323 doing 133kph (83 mph) in a 100 kph (60 mph) zone on E18 some 25 miles west of Oslo late yesterday.
Officers soon realized the [...]

Daughter’s mini-skirts drove Muslim father to hire her killers

By Calvin Palmer
An Azerbaijani immigrant in St Petersburg, Russia, hired three men to kill his daughter because she wore mini-skirts, police reported today.
Police detained Gafar Kerimov, 46, after he reported that his daughter went missing and then confessed that she was already dead.
His arrest followed the detention of two of the hired killers last week.
“They [...]