Straw bends with the wind to relax curfew for Goody’s soon-to-be husband

By Calvin Palmer

Jade Goody will not be spending her wedding night alone. Justice Secretary Jack Straw today intervened to relax the bail conditions of her soon-to-be husband Jack Tweed.

Tweed was released early last month from an 18-month prison sentence for assault.  Under the terms of his bail, he has to be at his mother’s home by 7:00 p.m. each night.

Yesterday, he applied for special dispensation to allow him to stay with his bride after Sunday’s ceremony at Down Hall in Hatfield Heath, Hertfordshire, but the head of HMP Wayland in Norfolk refused to lift the curfew.

The Ministry of Justice reviewed that decision this morning and announced Tweed would be allowed to stay at the reception venue until 3:00 p.m. on Monday.

Straw said: “It is crucial that offenders are treated equally within the rules regardless of the publicity surrounding their case but I was satisfied that it was reasonable to allow this.”

A Ministry of Justice spokesman added: “Jack has enormous sympathy for Jade Goody and her family at this time. She is showing extraordinary courage and his thoughts are with her and her family.”

The decision was also backed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who said during a constituency visit in Fife: “I think everybody is sad at the tragedy that’s befallen Jade Goody. Everyone who suffers cancer has the thoughts of me and I think the whole country over what they’ve got to go through.”

Tweed was jailed for 18 months last September after assaulting a teenager with a golf club, but was released early on the Home Detention Curfew Scheme, which means that he has to wear an electronic tag and return to his mother’s home in Essex every evening.

Terminally-ill Goody, who has been given weeks to live, was said to be “heartbroken” at the prospect of parting from her new husband on Sunday night.

Preparations for the wedding — which is fetching an estimated £1 million in broadcast and magazine rights — are gathering pace.

Goody and Tweed received a visit yesterday from Bishop Jonathan Blake, of the independent London-based Open Episcopal Church.

He refused to be drawn on whether he would be conducting the wedding ceremony, but a source close to the planning said it was thought this would be the case.

Meanwhile, Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty urged people to pray for the mother-of-two as she prepared for her wedding.

Shetty and Goody were at the center of the Celebrity Big Brother race row two years ago, which sparked thousands of complaints. Viewers were outraged about the treatment of Shetty by Goody and other housemates on the Channel 4 reality TV show.

But Shetty, 33, spoke of her wish for everyone to forget the past and support Goody, who found out she was terminally ill with cervical cancer last week.

In a TV interview, she said: “I buried the hatchet a very long time ago, not because I’d heard about her being diagnosed with cancer.

“I’d repeatedly told people my feelings and I really didn’t want to have any ill feelings against her.

“It’s really sad to know that her health is deteriorating and I really want people to forget the past and I really want them to pray and send her good wishes because that’s something that will give her energy.

“I really want all the positive things to be affecting her at this point.”

Shetty said she had been invited to Goody’s wedding but was filming in Bombay — “but if I was in London I would definitely have been there to show her my solidarity”.

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

Jealous man dragged his girlfriend behind a car in ‘barbaric act of murder’

By Calvin Palmer

An illegal immigrant accused of dragging his girlfriend to death behind a car because he was jealous yesterday pleaded guilty to a ‘barbaric act of murder’ in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Jose Rubi-Nava, 38, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder at Douglas County District Court, regarding the death of Luz Maria Franco Fierros, 49.

The mangled body of Franco Fierros was found in September 2006 near Castle Rock, about 20 miles south of Denver. She had a nylon strap around her neck, and her body was found at the end of a 1.3-mile trail of blood.

The coroner said she died from strangulation and massive head wounds after she was dragged behind the vehicle. Police say that after his arrest, Rubi-Nava confessed to killing the woman.

Under terms of the deal, four other related charges were dropped. He is also required to pay $9,276 in restitution as well as $91,000 for costs to prosecute the case.

Rubi-Nava, who is in the United States illegally, declined to address the court when given the chance.

During the hearing, lead prosecutor Leslie Hansen noted how Rubi-Nava became jealous because he thought his girlfriend was interested in another man. So he made a noose and wrapped it around her neck, then dragged her behind the vehicle.

“This was a barbaric act of murder,” Hansen said.

[Based on a report by The Denver Post.]

Victim of chimpanzee attack transfers to face transplant clinic

By Calvin Palmer

The Connecticut woman who suffered horrific injuries when she was attacked by a 200-pound chimpanzee on Monday was today transferred to the clinic that performed the first face transplant in the United States last year.

Charla Nash, 55, of Stamford arrived at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio at about 4:00 p.m. She was accompanied by the clinic’s critical care team, spokeswoman Heather Phillips said.

Phillips was unable to say whether Nash, who suffered extensive injuries to her face and hands in the attack, would receive a face transplant.

Nash was attacked in Sandra Herold’s North Stamford driveway after she came to help Herold try to get the pet chimp inside. Police do not know what angered the 14-year-old chimp, named Travis, who was shot and killed by a police officer.

Nash underwent nearly eight hours of surgery by four teams of surgeons at Stamford Hospital.

Lead trauma surgeon Dr Kevin Miller said that, in his 10 years as a trauma surgeon, he had never seen facial injuries so severe.

Capt. Bill Ackley, one of the paramedics who attended to Nash, said her hands were horribly disfigured, but still attached to her wrists.

“I would liken it to a machine-type accident,” Ackley said. “She had some crushing injuries to her hands and some tearing injuries to her hands.”

Her head injuries “involved her entire face and scalp,” Ackley said. Nash’s eyes were injured, but Ackley would not say how extensively. Her hair had been ripped out.

“She just had disfiguring injuries,” he said. “Her nose was still there. There was some disfigurement. She did have injuries to her mouth that caused quite a bit of bleeding. It was very difficult to determine where everything was because of the blood.”

Nash did not talk, but was conscious. She was able to respond to requests to move her foot.

Nash was taken to Stamford Hospital, where the four teams of surgeons operated for more than seven hours to stabilize her.

[Based on reports by The Advocate and newsday.com.]

GPS device leads to conviction for murder of 12-year-old baby-sitter

By Calvin Palmer

A GPS device placed on her husband’s truck, by a wife who was suspicious he was having an affair, turned a first-degree reckless endangerment charge into second-degree murder.

George Ford of Piscataway, New Jersey, was today convicted of murder for intentionally running over a 12-year-old baby-sitter to keep her from talking about their time spent together.

Broome County Judge Joseph Cawley Jr. announced the guilty verdict after the non-jury trial.

The 44-year-old construction worker was charged with second-degree murder for killing Shyanne Somers of South Otselic in 2007.

Ford says the girl’s death was an accident.

Prosecutors says Ford was high on cocaine when he ran over Shyanne on an upstate New York road.

Before police knew about the GPS device, Ford was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison.

But after police downloaded data from the Tracking Key device that Ford’s wife had placed, he was charged with second-degree murder. Ford faces up to 25 years in prison.

[Based on reports by the Associated Press and The Daily Star.]

FBI finds Stanford in Virginia

By Calvin Palmer

R. Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire at the center of an alleged $8 billion investment fraud, was today found by the FBI in Virginia.

FBI agents served papers from the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Stanford in Fredericksburg, it was confirmed.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said they had acted at the request of the SEC and that Stanford had not been arrested.

The complaint was served on Stanford by agents from the FBI’s office in Richmond, Virginia, Kolko said.

“The agents served Mr. Stanford with court orders related to the SEC civil filing against the Stanford Financial Group,” Kolko said.

Stanford, 58, and three of his companies were charged with fraud in a civil complaint filed in federal court in Dallas, Texas.

Stanford and two other executives were accused of fraudulently selling $8 billion in high-yield certificates of deposit in a scheme that stretched around the world.

While Stanford faces civil proceedings, it is understood that the FBI is also building a separate, parallel criminal case against him.

The scam is the second major fraud to hit America in three months after Bernard Madoff confessed that his $50 billion investment firm was “just one big lie”.

The FBI is convinced that the two huge frauds are just the tip of the iceberg. John Pistole, the Deputy Director of the FBI, told politicians on Capitol Hill last week that the agency was investigating 530 corporate fraud cases, including 38 directly related to the current economic crisis.

[Based on reports by The Times and Reuters.]

Man put on probation for cell phone photos under woman’s skirt

By Calvin Palmer

Noberto Branco kind of lived up to his name when a Connecticut bookstore’s video surveillance cameras apparently caught him taking photographs under a woman’s skirt with his cell phone.

Yesterday, Branco, 38, of Trumbull, was granted accelerated rehabilitation by Superior Court Judge Bruce Levin. He was charged with three counts of breach of peace and two counts of impairing the morals of a minor.

Accelerated rehabilitation means Branco did not admit his guilt but was placed on one year of probation by the judge.  If he commits no other crime during that period, the original charges against him will be dismissed.

Branco was also ordered to do 35 hours of community service and to have no further contact with the victim.

Branco’s arrest followed a complaint on August 22 last year by Borders bookstore on the Post Road, Fairfield. The store reported that a man had fled after taking photos from beneath a woman’s skirt. Two employees chased the man, but he eluded them, police said.

Officers later reviewed a surveillance video from the store and it allegedly shows the defendant approach the woman from behind, hold a camera phone beneath her skirt and take a picture while the woman’s attention was focused on her young daughter.

Police said seconds later the tape shows Branco again cautiously approached the woman from behind and placed the phone camera under her skirt. Branco allegedly followed the woman, who remained unaware of his proximity, as she looked at books in the children’s section of the store. He allegedly held the camera phone beneath her skirt at least one more time, police said.

Branco was eventually identified and charged last November.

Police say Branco told them his wife had recently given birth and he was not able to have sex with her for several months and his actions were “somewhat of a turn-on”.

His attorney and a psychological report said the incident was a one-off and out of character.

[Based on a report by the Connecticut Post.]

Nuclear testing site submits bid for world heritage status

By Calvin Palmer

Bikini Atoll, the site of the first hydrogen bomb test by the United States and the place that gave its name to the two-piece swimsuit, is seeking recognition as a world heritage site.

A proposal released today states: “Nuclear bomb tests at Bikini Atoll shaped the history of the people of Bikini, the history of the Marshall Islands and the history of the entire world.”

The 86-page document, which will be submitted to UNESCO’s World Heritage program, is the work of Bikini liaison official Jack Niedenthal and Australian-based consultant Nicole Baker.

A decision on whether the submission has been successful is unlikely to be made before June next year, Baker said.

To be successful, a world heritage nomination must demonstrate that the site has values that transcend national boundaries. Because of its role in the nuclear arms race during the Cold War, Bikini clearly passes that test, she said.

The atoll was the site of the first U.S. post-World War Two nucelar tests in 1946. Twenty-three nuclear devices were tested on the atoll between 1946 and 1958.

The detonation, codenamed Castle Bravo on March 1st, 1954, was the first test of a practical hydrogen bomb. It was the largest nuclear explosion ever set off by the United States and much more powerful than predicted, creating widespread radioactive contamination.

“Bikini is the only world famous, world class place out here,” Niedenthal said. “It’s got nuclear test buildings, craters and a bathing suit.”

French designer Louis Reard reportedly named his “bikini” swimsuit creation, introduced within days of the the first nuclear test on the atoll, because he believed it would also explode upon the world.

It was introduced just weeks after the one-piece “Atome” was widely advertised as the “smallest bathing suit in the world”, and it was said that the bikini “split the atome”.

[Based on a report by the Melbourne Herald Sun.]

Anti-gay U.S. preachers banned from entering Britain

By Calvin Palmer

Britain today banned two U.S. extremist anti-gay preachers from entering the country.

Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church, based in Kansas, had planned to fly to Britain to stage a protest against a play being put on by a gay youth group.

Phelps, 79, and Phelps-Roper, 51, had targeted a performance of The Laramie Project, about the death of an American man killed for being homosexual, being staged tomorrow at Queen Mary’s College in Basingstoke, Hampshire.

The pair have been known to picket US soldiers’ funerals, holding up banners with phrases such as “God Hates Fags” because they believe that their deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are punishment for America’s tolerance of gays.

Confirming the pair’s ban, a UK Border Agency spokesman said: “The Home Secretary has excluded both Fred Phelps and his daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper from the UK. Both these individuals have engaged in unacceptable behaviour by inciting hatred against a number of communities.

“The Government has made it clear it opposes extremism in all its forms. We will continue to stop those who want to spread extremism, hatred and violent messages in our communities from coming to our country.

“That was the driving force behind the tighter rules on exclusion for unacceptable behaviour that the Home Secretary announced on October 28 last year.

“The exclusions policy is targeted at all those who seek to stir up tension and provoke others to violence regardless of their origins and beliefs.”

Any other church members who try to enter Britain are also likely to be stopped, the agency said.

It emerged that the pair were due to enter the UK to launch their demonstration when they made an announcement on their Web site.

“God hates the Queen Mary’s College, and the fag-infested UK, England, and all having to do with spreading sodomite lies via The Laramie Project, this tacky bit of cheap fag propaganda masquerading as legitimate theater,” it said.

Learning of the British ban, the group responded in the true Christian spirit: “God Hates the UK — Land of the Sodomite Damned.”

It is no wonder that Westboro Baptist Church has been described as “the most evil religious sect in the world”.

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

Father-at-13 Alfie a victim of a scam claims friend of girlfriend’s family

By Calvin Palmer

A High Court judge in London yesterday imposed reporting restrictions on the story of “father at 13” Alfie Patten.

Australia’s The Sydney Morning Herald is not subject to those restrictions so it was able to reveal today that 13-year-old Alfie Patten is the victim of a scam, his girlfriend having been told to pretend he was the father of her baby so their families could strike lucrative deals with the media.

That claim comes from a close friend of Chantelle’s parents, Clive Sim and was reported by the Daily Mail in London.

Both Alfie and Chantelle’s parents are believed to have netted thousands of pounds in media deals, the Daily Mail said.

But a number of other older teens have since claimed to be Maisie’s father.

Sim, 39, said Chantelle was told by her mother to say Alfie was the father so they could cash in on the story. 

The schoolgirl was ordered to keep quiet about sleeping with other boys so the story could be sold to newspapers for thousands of pounds, the DailyMail reported.

“Penny told Chantelle to keep quiet about other boys because they wouldn’t get any money,” said Sim, who has reportedly known Chantelle’s parents for years. “They know that Alfie being the dad makes a better story. I think there’s a big scam going on here.”

Sim claimed Alfie was being “exploited” by the families to make as much money as possible, the Daily Mail said.

“It’s all pretty sordid … Alfie may not be an angel and nor is Chantelle.

“But at the end of the day they are only children and it is the adults around them making bad decisions based on money, not their welfare.”

The reporting restrictions order in the UK was made by Mrs Justice Baron in the Family Division. It does not prevent publication of details already in the public domain, but bans the revelation of any new information.

That probably explains why the Daily Mail’s story cited by The Sydney Morning Herald does not appear in its online edition and Google links to the story result in “Sorry, the page you have requested does not exist or is no longer available.”

The “father at 13” story broke on Friday when The Sun published a front-page splash following the birth of a baby girl to 15-year-old Chantelle Stedman in Eastbourne, East Sussex.

It has been reported that 13-year-old Alfie Patten is to undergo a DNA test to determine whether he is the father of baby Maisie.

A statement by the court said the ban had arisen “as a result of press intrusion” and also “because of allegations made by at least two others that they may be the putative fathers of Maisie”.

“The court received information that the private and family life of the mother and baby had been disrupted to such an extent that the court was concerned about the mother and baby being unable to lead a normal family life,” the statement said.

“It was equally important to the court that the young putative father should be able to live his life and return to school.”

The restrictions remain in place until 6:00 p.m. on 10 March, when a further hearing is scheduled.

[Based on reports by the Press Gazette and The Sydney Morning Herald.]

Five held in custody over beating to death of Baytown teenager

By Calvin Palmer

Five teenagers, four of them high school students, accused of beating a Baytown teenager to death because they believed he had damaged a car were remanded in custody by a Houston judge this morning.

State District Judge Herb Ritchie also ordered that, if any of the five are able to post their $100,000 bail, they are not to have any contact with each other or anyone else involved in the case.

Kevin Jerome Powell, 18, was attacked in the early hours of Monday morning.  His attackers used a pistol and the lid of a barbecue grill, said Baytown police spokesman Lt. Eric Freed.

Investigators have not found any evidence that Powell vandalized the damaged car, a 1995 Buick Roadmaster, said Freed.

Arrested later that day and charged with murder were La Porte residents Marcus Jason, 18, a student at Dewalt Alternative School; Joshua Rider, 19; Joshua Ashford, 17, an 11th-grader at La Porte High School who owned the Buick; Charles Merritt, 18, who also attends La Porte High; and Cedrick Fears, 17, a Baytown resident who attends High Point High School.

Powell was visiting a friend at the Autumn Ridge apartment, 501 Massey Tompkins, late Sunday, the same time the five were visiting a friend at that complex, Freed said.

Powell’s body was found about 7 a.m. Monday at a neighboring complex — Tompkins Green Apartments at 605 Massey Tompkins. A resident saw the body between a hedge and a parked truck. Police said they believe Powell was killed hours earlier.

Officers had been dispatched around midnight Sunday to investigate a reported disturbance at the Autumn Ridge complex, where they found the severely damaged Buick.

Police were dispatched again at 12:45 a.m. after shots were fired. One minute later, another call was reported — an assault in progress.

Residents of the Tompkins Green Apartments said they reported hearing a commotion and saw a man being chased by a group of men, one of whom was carrying a pistol.

When police arrived, Freed said, they detained a group of young men running from the complex. One of those detained, Freed said, owned the Buick and told authorities that the group had heard a commotion and found the vehicle damaged. The teens were subsequently released.

After Powell’s body was discovered, the teens were brought in for questioning. Freed said each of the five gave statements to police, saying they took turns assaulting Powell.

If convicted, each faces five years to life in prison for the first-degree felony.

[Based on a report by the Houston Chronicle.]