Free Republic

BRENTWOOD – Kristin Ruggiero will spend 7 to 14 years in state prison for what police say was part of a years-long ploy to use the criminal justice system against her ex-husband, who was thrown in jail and nearly lost his career during a bitter divorce. (snip) A jury found that Kristin Ruggiero registered a disposable cell phone under her ex-husband's name and sent herself a dozen threatening and suicidal text messages. She then reported to East Kingston police in May 2008 that her ex-husband had violated bail conditions tied to a criminal threatening case, which police learned was also...

Prince Charles yesterday urged the world to follow Islamic 'spiritual principles' in order to save the environment. In a high-profile speech, the heir to the throne argued that man's destruction of the world was contrary to the scriptures of all religions - but particularly that of the Islamic faith. (snip) 'From what I know of the Qu’ran, again and again it describes the natural world as the handiwork of a unitary benevolent power,' he said. 'It very explicitly describes Nature as possessing an “intelligibility” and that there is no separation between Man and Nature, precisely because there is no separation...

My DBF's nephew is living with us as he's accepted a job in this area. He may be living with us for some weeks/months/who knows. Last night he found an abandoned or lost cat/half grown kitten and brought it home (after asking us if that's OK.) It's a sweet lady cat and I'm delighted she's here, BUT we have two elderly dogs, both teenagers : A miniature spayed female long haired dachshund and an unneutered male smooth chihuahua. (Combined tonnage=about 15-16 lbs.) We tried to introduce them this AM with DBF holding cat and letting the dogs sniff her. The...

A judge vaulted his bench and rugby tackled a defendant who began attacking a woman who had just finished testifying against him in a domestic violence case. Judge Ian Richards, 33, showed no hesitation in jumping on top of John Charles Reasee who had chased Nicole Ward across the court room. The incident took place yesterday morning in the normally sedate surroundings of the courtroom at Broward County, Florida, and was recorded on video. (snip) Later in the day he was modest about his role. 'That was unfortunate, something I hope never happens again,' Judge Richards said. He added: 'It's...

HANCOCK COUNTY — Wanted for more than a week, Edna Mae Sanders, 45, turned herself in to authorities here this morning facing a murder charge for her alleged involvement in the cooking-oil killing of her husband. Police believe Sanders poured a pot of hot grease on her husband, Sherman, while he was sleeping at their Diamondhead home July 28, just seven days after their one-year wedding anniversary. Sanders’ older brother, Lawrence Miller, told police she knocked on his door last night in Gonzales, La., carrying a suitcase and crying. After a few hours of talking, Miller told investigators, he convinced...

A MUSLIMS-only day at Britain’s biggest theme park has been axed after a huge bookings flop. Organisers Islamic Leisure had hoped to attract 28,000 people to the event at Alton Towers, Staffs, on September 17 — but less than 1,000 tickets were sold. The fun day — exclusively revealed by The Sun — caused a race row after plans to ban mixed-sex rides, smoking, alcohol and gambling. Non-Muslims were angered by the plans. An Alton Towers spokesman said last night: “At least the park will be open to the general public.”

Standing along the bank of a rain-swollen creek, Susan Newkirk watched as the 2-year-old boy tumbled in and was swept away. She couldn't swim. Instead of diving into the raging waters after her friend's son, she yelled to his father for help. (So it's not like she just stood there and watched.) The little boy died. Certainly, her defense attorney argued during her trial for endangering the welfare of a child, his client had a moral obligation to try to save the boy. But, he continued, she did not have a legal one. The jurors judging Ms. Newkirk's case obviously...

Freedoms are never absolute least of all in multicultural, multiracial societies where responsibilities to co-exist must limit them. Most British people recognise this, which is why the career of the football commentator Ron Atkinson was ended when he made a racist remark. Britain's Asian communities are generally less fazed by colour prejudice, but are sensitive to offence of the sacred: culture and the sacred defines Asians. The Sikh community's reaction to Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's play Behzti illustrate this. In her statement - published on these pages last week - Bhatti, now self- declared "Sikh warrior", missed the point. It was...

Demonic nonsense The European left should join hands with millions of Democratic voters, not scorn them Henry Porter Wednesday November 3, 2004 The Guardian The US electorate gets a universally bad press around the world. When it does make what we define as the right decision it is deemed more accident than wisdom. Americans are seen as unsophisticated, wilfully ignorant, obsessed with such issues as abortion, guns and gay marriage, and wedded to a device which seems calculated to impede the wishes of the majority - the electoral college. Mixed in with this are the demands of the American commonwealth,...

WINNIPEG -- Most of David Reimer's tragedies have been well-documented: how his penis was burned off during a botched circumcision, how doctors tried surgery and hormones to make him a girl and how the experiment went horribly wrong. But only his friends knew the 38-year-old Winnipegger was agonizing over yet another personal catastrophe in the months before he committed suicide last week. Mr. Reimer was distraught after losing at least $65,000 in an investment scheme last year, friends say. "He was crying on my shoulder, because he said they're not worth the paper they're written on," one said. The Manitoba...

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) A recent decision by the New Mexico Supreme Court may boost the cause for concealed guns in Missouri. The Missouri Supreme Court is to hear arguments next week on whether a state law allowing most adults to carry hidden guns violates the state constitution. In a similar challenge to a similar law, New Mwxico's highest court decided last week that the law did not violate that state's constitution.

Father, son planned to kill rape victim: police December 30, 2003 - 1:12PM A 48-year-old man paid $3000 to an undercover hit man to murder a 16-year-old girl allegedly raped by his son, a Sydney court heard today. Chouaki Bou-Anton, a plumber, was today arrested at his Merrylands home in Sydney's south-west and charged with soliciting to murder. His 19-year-old son Khater Bou-Anton, also known as Kevin, was also charged with soliciting to murder - police said he was already in custody at Silverwater Correctional Centre, on remand for charges of aggravated sexual assault. The assault charge relates to an...

WAL, hush ma mouth! The rumours of Dubya’s political death turn out to have been greatly exaggerated. Last Tuesday’s elections saw the conservative South ride to Dubya’s rescue with a verve that would not have disgraced Robert E Lee. To understand the cultural, as well as political, revolution that phenomenon represents, the closest parallel would be Lanarkshire going Tory by a landslide. The gubernatorial mansions of Kentucky and Mississippi are now in the hands of the Republicans. A run-off in Louisiana, where the Republicans are in the lead, will decide the outcome there next week. Otherwise, the Deep South is...

Michael Moore sued over anti-gun movie Detroit — James Nichols, the brother of Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, says he was tricked into appearing in the anti-gun documentary Bowling for Columbine, according to a federal lawsuit filed against filmmaker Michael Moore. Nichols also alleges in the lawsuit, filed in Detroit, that Moore libelled him by linking him to the terrorist act. Nichols accuses Moore of libel, defamation of character, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. His lawyer is asking for a jury trial and damages ranging from $10-million to $20-million (U.S.) on each of nine counts,...

Sun 19 Oct 2003 Not such a funny girl THE most horrifying sentences in the English language (in ascending order of terror) run as follows. Your bank card has been withheld. This figure is only an estimate. I have written a novel, would you give it a look? The boss wants to see you. This is going to hurt a bit, I’m afraid. Come and see Barbra Streisand sing a song to her dead dog on television. With huge pictures of her ex-poodle Sammy projected behind her, Barbra Streisand last week launched her 60th album, a collection of film tunes,...

Death of a saleswoman Fraser Nelson BY NOON yesterday the flowers laid outside the department store where Anna Lindh was murdered had grown into a mound four feet high - a mosaic of colour and handwritten notes ringed by candles. Two days after her death, the people there were still crying. Traffic that normally rushes past NK, Stockholm’s famous fashion arcade, slowed to a crawl as motorists, bus drivers and their passengers stared at the shrine beside the brass doors where Sweden’s foreign minister was rushed out by paramedics. Today, churches across Sweden will hold services in Lindh’s honour....

I was wrong about trade Our aim should not be to abolish the World Trade Organisation, but to transform it George Monbiot Tuesday June 24, 2003 The Guardian A few years ago I would have raised at least two cheers. The US government, to judge by the aggressive noises now being made by its trade negotiators, seems determined to wreck one of the most intrusive and destructive of the instruments of global governance: the World Trade Organisation. A few years ago, I would have been wrong. The only thing worse than a world with the wrong international trade rules is...

A secretary at a Brooklyn legal services office was brutally slashed and burned with a caustic liquid yesterday in a vicious, unexplained attack, police said. Agata Karsnicka, 22, had propped open the door to her office on Driggs Ave. in Greenpoint to take the sunshine about 10:20 a.m. when two men burst in and attacked her without uttering a word. One man grabbed her long, curly brown hair, yanked her head back and slashed her from the corner of her right eye to her upper lip. The other attacker squirted her with an acidlike substance that he squeezed out of...

THE sound of chickens coming home to roost fills the air, as the government seeks to counter accusations that the failure thus far to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq negates the legitimacy of the war it has just fought there. Despite the fact that many of those making the loudest noises in this regard would not have supported war on any grounds short of Saddam Hussein setting off a nuke in central London, and could probably have been sidelined by a government still basking in the warm glow of victory, senior ministers went on the propaganda offensive last...

<p>HONOLULU, Hawaii (AP) -- A woman accused of planting threatening notes aboard a cruise ship to cut short a family vacation and return to her boyfriend pleaded guilty Thursday.</p> <p>In exchange for the plea to the single federal charge, prosecutors dropped a second count against Kelley Marie Ferguson.</p>