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Alex W., the man who stabbed pregnant Egyptian pharmacist Marwa al-Sherbini to death in a courtroom in Dresden in July, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday. The judge imposed the harshest possible sentence under the German system by ruling that W. will not be eligible for parole after 15 years. A court in Dresden sentenced Alex W., a German man of Russian origin, to life in prison on Wednesday for murdering Marwa al-Sherbini, a pregnant Egyptian woman, by stabbing her 16 times in a courtroom in a case that caused outrage across the Arab world. The judge, Birgit...

Detectives are hunting a convicted murderer who absconded while out on an escorted shopping trip. Patricia Gillette, 41, escaped at around 3pm on Friday while visiting shops in West Wickham High Street, near Bromley, south east London. Gillette, of Streatham, south London, was being held at the nearby Bethlem Royal Hospital. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1227788/Dangerous-murderer-escapes-shopping-trip-prison.html#comments#ixzz0WvpECzWW

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The mastermind of the 2002 Washington, DC-area sniper attacks will die by lethal injection next month, Virginia officials said Tuesday. John Allen Muhammad declined to choose between lethal injection and electrocution, so under state law the method defaults to lethal injection, Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said. Muhammad is scheduled to be executed Nov. 10 for the October 2002 slaying of Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas gas station during a string of shootings. The three-week killing spree in October 2002 left 10 dead in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

What does it say about Barack Obama and his devout supporters that his White House communications director is a big fan of Mao Zedong? I know. I know. She said her two favorite philosophers were Mao and Mother Teresa. How's that for moral and intellectual disconnect? Did you ever think you would hear those two names mentioned in the same breath? Were there two people in the history of the world more opposite that Mother Teresa and Mao? One devoted herself to saving lives. The other devoted himself to taking them. One's worldview was shaped for her reverence for God....

It looks like CNN has been so busy the past 24 hours running news stories on its website and on air about Meghan McCain's existential Twitter crisis, that Rick Sanchez's own Twitter page was only place where he could find the space to issue a mealy-mouthed apology for falsely attributing a racist quote to Rush Limbaugh. Sanchez Tweets this evening: i've know rush. in person,i like him. his rhetoric,however is inexcusably divisive. he's right tho. we didn't confirm quote. our bad. What courage. It only took three days following his initial report and the Huffington Post to retract the quote...

Belkis Gonzalez, an unlicensed abortion worker, was on duty when a 19-year old woman arrived at the abortion clinic to complete an abortion started by Pierre Renelique the previous day. When Renelique failed to show up to finish the abortion, the woman gave birth to a little girl, Shanice Osbourne, who was moving and breathing at the time of the delivery. Gonzalez then cut her umbilical cord, shoved her in a biohazard bag with caustic chemicals, and tossed her up on the abortion clinic roof to hide her body from the authorities. Three years later, after substantial public pressure from...

With the death of Manson follower Susan Atkins, the man who prosecuted her for first-degree murder said Friday that one of his lasting images was that of a "heartless, bloodthirsty robot." Vincent Bugliosi, however, said that image has become more ambiguous with the passage of time. Atkins, who died Friday, played a central role in the 1969 slayings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and others in a two-night rampage in the Los Angeles area. She later said she killed Tate even as the woman pleaded for mercy. It's possible it will never be known exactly what happened inside the home...

"You Don't Know Jack" is the perfect title for the upcoming HBO biopic starring Al Pacino as Death Doc Jack Kevorkian - because it is clear that many of Kevorkian's fawning interviewers don't know much about Jack. Fox News' Neil Cavuto, for example, last week introduced Kevorkian as a "Michigan physician who claims to have assisted in the suicides of at least 130 terminally ill people from 1990 to 1998." Physician? Not the kind who treats patients. Kevorkian was a pathologist until his medical license was yanked in 1991. In 1999, a Michigan jury convicted him of second-degree murder after...

Thousands of people have signed an online petition hosted by the British Government to remove the late Ted Kennedy's knighthood. The petition's creator Stephen Clements says he started the petition because he claims that Kennedy supported the IRA. "Ted Kennedy throughout the 70's and 80's actively supported groups whose sole purpose was to financially support IRA families," he said. "This support enabled the IRA to continue its muder (sic) campaign against UK citizens for a longer period than would otherwise have happened and contributed to the number of deaths on both sides. "It is highly unlikely that the US Government...

Teddy Kennedy was memorialized at a solemn funeral Mass on Saturday in Boston in a service reminiscent of the way Kennedy spent his days on Earth: bringing together disparate elements of the America's political and social worlds, flummoxing his foes and inspiring his more numerous admirers – and, albeit through surrogates this time, tirelessly working the room on behalf of his latest legislative project. This was a "Catholic" event in both the uppercase and lowercase sense of the word--a grand religious ritual that matched or exceeded anything even in the storied history of the Boston church, and a "catholic,"...

BOSTON – President Barack Obama led the nation Saturday in mourning and remembering "the greatest legislator of our time," celebrating the indelible impact of Edward M. Kennedy as a senator for nearly a half-century and leader of America's most famous family during tragedy and triumph. Delivering an emotional, simple eulogy for Kennedy that capped a two-hour Roman Catholic funeral Mass, Obama employed humor, his own experiences and timeless anecdotes to memorialize the senator, who died Tuesday at 77 after battling brain cancer for more than a year. The country may have viewed him as "heir to a weighty legacy," Obama...

The father of a Calgary man suspected of killing his ex-wife in California said his son is innocent and he plans to offer a reward for the capture of her killer. In a written statement provided to the Calgary Herald on Friday, prominent Calgary architect Dan Jenkins said his son Ryan did not kill Jasmine Fiore, 28, whose mutilated body was found in a Los Angeles suburb on Aug. 15."I understand that the police department is making progress in the case and once I am in better shape I intend to offer a reward for the capture of her killer,"...

Senator Ted Kennedy has died.

BOSTON - Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the liberal lion of the Senate and haunted bearer of the Camelot torch after two of his brothers fell to assassins' bullets, has died at his home in Hyannis Port after battling a brain tumor. He was 77. For nearly a half-century in the Senate, Kennedy was a steadfast champion of the working class and the poor, a powerful voice on health care, civil rights, and war and peace. To the American public, though, he was best known as the last surviving son of America's most glamorous political family, the eulogist of a clan...

Today is the 146th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Gettysburg. A few months later, as the National Cemetery there was being organized, an invitation was extended to President Lincoln to give "a few appropriate remarks" for the dedication in November, 1863. Lincoln would not be the main speaker, that honor would go to Edward Everett, one of the foremost orators of the day. Everett spoke for almost two hours and, for the most part, his remarks are lost to the ages. Lincoln's "few appropriate remarks" however, are some of the most familiar wods in American History. To...

ROME — A Palestinian man who helped plan the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship during which an American passenger was killed has died in an Italian jail. Lawyer Sandro Clementi said Khaled Hussein died of a heart attack early Monday in a jail in Benevento, near Naples. He was 73.

Hours after detectives arrested Vincent Smothers in a suburban Detroit alley in the spring of 2008, they say, he came out with a stunning confession: "I don't have a profession," he allegedly told an investigator. "I kill people for money." Then, police say, he laid out details of how each of eight hired hits happened. He stalked his victims before shooting them at close range. He killed some while talking on his cell phone and fired on others even when they appeared to lay lifeless on the ground. Even in Detroit, which had more than 300 slayings last year, Smothers'...

Tuesday June 2, 2009 A Portrait of a Murderer: The Life of Suspected Tiller Killer Scott Roeder By Peter J. SmithWICHITA, Kansas, June 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A clearer portrait has now emerged of the man who took it into his hands to play judge, jury, and executioner of George Tiller, the foremost provider of late-term abortions in the United States. The portrait reveals a mentally disturbed, long-time anarchist and convicted felon, who succumbed to the influence of an anti-abortion domestic terrorist group and believed that he had to commit murder in order to stave off the wrath of...

A cell phone dropped during a Pinole house burglary led authorities to a man wanted on suspicion of three East Bay killings — after he dialed his own number to find it, police said. "One of the officers hears a phone ringing over by the broken window. He finds it, and answers it," Pinole police Chief Paul Clancy said. "The voice says, 'Hey, did you find my phone?'"‰" The officers had been summoned to the scene after an Alice Way resident interrupted a burglary at the home about 9:30 p.m. May 23. The burglar apparently entered by breaking a window...

FROM L.A. SLIMES: But Warren Hern, a Colorado physician and close friend of Tiller's who said he is now "the only doctor in the world" who performs very late-term abortions, said Tiller's death was predictable. Dr. Warren Hern's websiteFrom this article: Did I Violate the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban? (warning: contains graphic description) The following is an except from an article in Slate by Dr. Warren Hern, M.D. Earlier this year, I began an abortion on a young woman who was 17 weeks pregnant. Because of the two days of prior treatment, the amniotic membranes were visible and bulging. I...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A mother playing with her children at a park spotted a little black sneaker sticking out of the sand underneath the playground equipment. Figuring a youngster had lost his shoe, she bent down to pick it up. It was strangely heavy. She had made a ghastly discovery: a dead little boy, buried in the sand.

Kennedy's cancer in remission By Alexander Bolton and Michael Sandler Posted: 05/19/09 02:44 PM [ET] Sen. Edward Kennedy’s brain cancer is in remission and the Massachusetts Democrat is expected back in the Senate after the Memorial Day recess, according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Sen. Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that he spoke with Kennedy’s wife and was told the 77-year-old lawmaker will return to work full time during the first week of June.

Even when Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals does the right thing - as it did Monday in denying convicted killer Kevin Cooper a hearing on yet another of his dubious appeals - there is always a judge, or in this case five, on the court with an overly active imagination. And those judges don't help the court's results-oriented reputation. On June 2, 1983, Kevin Cooper escaped from the California Institution for Men at Chino where he was serving time under a phony name for burglary. He hid out at a Chino Hills home until June 4, when he broke into...

SHERMAN, Texas -- The father of a U.S. soldier accused of killing five fellow troops in Iraq said his son "forfeited his life" but the military bears some responsibility for the rampage. Wilburn Russell said Tuesday that 44-year-old Army Sgt. John M. Russell wasn't typically a violent person, but counselors "broke" him before gunfire erupted in a military stress center Monday in Baghdad. "John has forfeited his life. Apparently, he said (to his wife), 'My life is over. To hell with it. I'm going to get even with 'em,'" said the elder Russell, 73. His father said the younger Russell,...

James William Kilgore, the last captured member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, was released on parole Sunday morning from a Northern California prison. Kilgore, 61, was arrested in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2002 after almost three decades on the run. He was one of five SLA members who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 1975 death of Myrna Opsahl, a 42-year-old mother of four who was killed by a shotgun blast after she arrived at a suburban Sacramento bank. Kilgore apologized to Opsahl's family at his sentencing, saying he wished he could live that day over. He served...

Long before he became one of the most liberal Republicans in the Senate — and the target of Congressman Pat Toomey's GOP primary challenge — Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania demonstrated a knack for notoriety. In 1964, as a member of the Warren Commission, he invented the "single-bullet theory" to explain how Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President Kennedy. Conspiracy junkies have obsessed over him ever since. (In Oliver Stone's movie JFK, Kevin Costner's character labels Specter "an ambitious junior counselor" behind "one of the grossest lies ever forced on the American people.") Between serving on the Warren Commission and becoming a...

A manhunt is on in Athens for a University of Georgia professor accused of shooting and killing three people. Police are looking for George M. Zinkhan III, a professor in the Department of Marketing and Distribution. George M. Zinkhan Two blocks were secured in Athens after the shootings.He is a 57-year-old white male, last seen wearing a polo shirt and blue shorts, according to the UGA web site. He may be traveling in a red car. The shooting happened late this morning at or near the Athens Community Theatre off Prince Avenue near downtown. Clarke County coroner Sonny Wilson confirmed...

Hundreds mourn man who killed police officers Leslie Fulbright, Chronicle Staff Writer Nearly 500 people gathered at an East Oakland church Tuesday to say goodbye to Lovelle Mixon, the 26-year-old parolee who was killed by police after he went on a shooting rampage that left four Oakland officers dead. The open-casket service, held at Fuller Funerals on International Boulevard, was about an hour long and had such a large turnout that a number of guests were forced to stand. Singers sang. Poets read, and speakers remembered Mixon as an intense and animated storyteller, for his big smile, love of boxing...

Naperville School District 203 has canceled an April 8 appearance at Naperville North High School by 1960s radical William Ayers, saying any value the visit could have offered students would have been lost in the controversy surrounding the event. "I simply wasn't comfortable that this was in our students' and our school's best interest," Supt. Alan Leis said Monday. "We tried to put some procedures in place, but clearly our community has let us know that they just don't think that's appropriate."

<p>SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) - Jimmy Carter came to Notre Dame in 1977. So did Ronald Reagan in 1981 and George W. Bush in 2001.</p> <p>The University of Notre Dame has a tradition of inviting new presidents to speak at graduation. But this year's selection of President Barack Obama has been met by a barrage of criticism that has left some students fearing their commencement ceremony will turn into a circus.</p>

Jon Opsahl said he doesn't think domestic terrorist-turned-housewife Sara Jane Olson served nearly enough time for his mother's murder, but he's relieved the saga ended with Olson's Tuesday release from prison. Sara Jane Olson was released from a California prison Tuesday after serving seven years. Sara Jane Olson was released from a California prison Olson, a member of the self-styled revolutionary Symbionese Liberation Army -- perhaps best known for kidnapping Patricia Hearst -- was released from a California prison after serving seven years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. She was released to her husband just after midnight...

Olson took part in two bank robberies to help fund the SLA, according to court documents. During the Carmichael robbery, Olson "entered the bank with a firearm and kicked a nonresisting pregnant teller in the stomach. The teller miscarried after the robbery," the documents said. In August 1975, Los Angeles police found homemade bombs under two squad cars. They were designed to explode when the car moved, but neither device detonated. Authorities cast the attempted bombings as payback for the bloody shootout that left Atwood and other SLA members dead. A probe into the gunbattle helped police arrest Hearst, the...

MSNBC's Chris Matthews thinks Gov. Kathleen Sebilius will encounter the "terrorism of the, of the anti-abortion people" during her nomination process. Matthews later clarified he meant "verbal terrorism." MATTHEWS: Who becomes the governor, the woman governor. She looks like her, in fact. Is she gonna get through the, the terrorism of the, of the anti-abortion people?

Author's note: A version of the following column first appeared in the Christian Coalition magazine. It also was posted on the Illinois Leader and, most recently, appeared on the Illinois Family Institute's web site. To see a video of Dan and his wife Julie discussing the pain of their long past, but haunting decision to abort, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nuEU3YLlvg Nearly thirty years ago, my wife and I aborted a child. That decision will haunt us for the rest of our lives. Since that time, I've developed deep feelings on the subject of abortion. There are two primary reasons why I'm...

A seven-year-old boy who died defending his older sister from a potential rapist has been honoured posthumously. Zhenya Tabakov's mother received the order of courage medal on behalf of her son. Just over two months ago Galina lost her son and she's still struggling to get over the shock. Zhenya was brutally murdered by a robber, as the boy was trying to save his 12-year-old sister from being raped. It all happened in late November, in the small military town of Noginsk-9 - a place where even small crimes are rare. Around midday, a man rang the bell of...

ARLINGTON – Police Detective Tommy Le Noir remembers the alarm that gripped this city in 1996 after two young women were found strangled in the bathtubs of their east Arlington apartment complex. "There was a lot of fear in the community and in the Police Department," Le Noir said. "The fear is that you don't want this to happen again. At that time there was some incredible panic in those apartment complexes. People moved out in masses. It was just an incredible time." Tuesday night, almost 13 years after the crimes, the state plans to execute 35-year-old Dale Devon Scheanette...

Ted Kennedy was taken out of the Statuary Hall luncheon after suffering an apparent seizure -- a few minutes after Sen. Robert Byrd was removed in his wheelchair under the supervision of medical personnel. Byrd was conscious and had been having trouble eating, according to a witness. Kennedy, who underwent brain cancer surgery last year, was taken to the Rayburn room. A police radio picked up a call for paramedics to help someone stricken with a seizure, according to Politico's Patrick Kennedy.

HUNTSVILLE, TX ― A Grayson County man sentenced to die for killing his wife, her daughter and their son, gouged out his other eye in prison last month. According to the warden at the state prison in Huntsville, death row inmate Andre Thomas gouged out his left eye in early December and then ate it. Five days after the murders in March 2004, Thomas gouged out his right eye inside a Grayson County jail cell after reading a Bible verse. The state's top Criminal Appeals Court upheld Thomas' conviction and death sentence back in October of 2008. Thomas is now...

An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” These are the words of Mahatma Gandhi. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” These are the words of Martin Luther King Jr. Their names alone conjure up the images of leaders of history that invoked change through what they called “Peaceful Militancy.” However their words define what was on their hearts; words that moved others to action with a desired peaceful result. History attests to the fruitful results of such civilized methods of protesting injustice and...

Looks like it’s bride number 5 for Drew Peterson. “Yeah, he proposed and she accepted,” Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky... But Brodsky added, “I guess he's got to get divorced.” Peterson said he does not believe his marital status should prevent him from becoming engaged. “I was married to Kathleen when I was engaged to Stacy," ... Kathleen — Kathleen Savio, wife number 3 — was the victim of an unsolved March 2004 homicide. Stacy — wife number 4 — vanished in October 2007. “Last time I had a relationship, you guys screwed it all up," he said of 22-year-old tanning...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- An attorney who won an award for representing Terri Schiavo’s husband Michael in his efforts to kill his disabled wife is now an advisor to the transition team of incoming president Barack Obama.Thomas Perrelli, who raised over $500,000 for the pro-abortion presidential candidate and is the managing partner of a Washington law firm, Jenner & Block LLP, is helping advise Obama on putting together a Justice Department team.However, Perrelli provided Michael Schiavo with legal advice during his response to the Congressional bill that President Bush signed allowing the Schindler fail to take their lawsuit seeking...

Harvard University will bestow an honorary degree today on Senator Edward M. Kennedy at a special convocation. The ceremony will feature Harvard President Drew Faust and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer as speakers, and musical performances by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Harvard students. Kennedy will join an elite group who has received honorary degrees at special Harvard convocations, including George Washington, Andrew Jackson, James Monroe, Winston Churchill, and Nelson Mandela. In today's Globe, columnist James Carroll described, "why this honor is fitting, and why he belongs in such historic company." Kennedy had been scheduled to receive the degree at Harvard's...

I read in AT that a statue of bloodthirsty revolutionary Che Guevara has appearedChe in Central Park in Central Park, so I went to 5th Ave. & 60th street to see it for myself. The statue is supposed to be on display until, significantly enough, May 1, 2009. It is definitely not a permanent location. This Doris Freedman Plaza is a concrete cobblestone area located just outside the southeast entrance walkway to the park. A mounted poster states the exhibit of three statues, Julius Ceasar, the "Anthropomorphic cabinet woman" (from a Dali painting) and Che Guevera were all inspired by...

Christian Klar, now 56, will walk out of jail after 26 years on January 3 after a court ruling. The decision comes despite earlier demands that he make an apology for his murderous crimes still not being met. Klar is portrayed in 'The Baader-Meinhof Complex' which is currently playing in British cinemas. The movie documents the crimes of the urban terrorists before they took the name RAF and it has been heavily criticised in Germany, particularly by the families of victims, for portraying him and his cohorts as 'cool' and their methods justified. Klar has shown no repentance for...

In an error-ridden op-ed in Friday's Los Angeles Times (10/17/08), Pepperdine law professor Douglas Kmiec makes the outrageous claim that Barack Obama "has held himself out as a bridge builder" on the issue of abortion. Kmiec then advances a fallacious case that a faithful Catholic can vote in clear conscience for Barack Obama. A "bridge builder" on abortion? Is Kmiec kidding?? Consider: Obama has forcefully vowed that his very first act as President would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). FOCA claims a "fundamental right" to abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy, and no government body...

Madison County Coroner Ned Dunnichay said late Saturday morning he ruled the death of convicted killer Simon Rios as a suicide by asphyxiation due to hanging. Rios, convicted by an Allen County jury last year in the deaths of his wife and three daughters after he pleaded guilty in Delaware County to killing a 10-year-old Fort Wayne girl, was found hanging in his cell Thursday morning at Pendleton Correctional Facility. He was serving five consecutive life sentences. Rios, 37, was convicted of strangling his wife, Ana Casas, and their daughters, 4-year-old Katherinne Rios, 20-month-old Thannya Rios and 10-month-old Liliana Rios...

Jurors were supposed to begin hearing arguments this morning on why they should save convicted killer Rejon Taylor’s life, but a series of “inflammatory” phones calls Mr. Taylor made to his family within the last two weeks prompted the judge to continue the case until next Monday. “We’re going to be asking the jury to sentence (Mr. Taylor) to death, and this is one of the reasons why,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Neff told U.S. District Judge Curtis L. Collier Tuesday, trying to persuade him to let the jurors hear the contents of the phone conversations. According to some of...

I just recieved my required reading list for some of my teaching courses, and i have since picked up all of my books. Upon opening the first book, i was shocked to see the name William Ayers. Apparently he is the series editor for a series called teaching for social justice. I dont object to him editing a book, however, i have some reservations about paying for a book, where the money is going to a known terrorist. Though he didnt author the book, he did act as editor and he is acknowledged as an inspiration for the author as...

<p>DALLAS - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama side-stepped a pointed query about abortion on Saturday by “mega-pastor” Rick Warren during a televised forum.</p> <p>Asked at what point a baby gets “human rights,” Obama, who strongly supports abortion rights, said: “… whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity … is above my pay grade.”</p>

TRANSCRIPT By Keith Morrison Correspondent NBC News updated 9:09 p.m. CT, Mon., June. 11, 2007 This report aired on Dateline Monday, June 11 HOMER, ALASKA - It was the question that wouldn’t go away. The question that haunts many people even now. Lary Kuhns: People would ask, ‘Hey, whatever happened to that case with the lady on the cliff?’ Her name was Wanda — “the lady on the cliff.” Jay Darling: Everybody asked what happened. And everybody seemed to scratch their head when I said, ‘I don’t know’. Farrah Tittle: I dreamed about Wanda every single night. And in several...