Alex "Reds" Rivera, a suspected drug kingpin who once kept a petting zoo of farm animals in his Kensington neighborhood, has been convicted of heading a narcotics network

<p> </p><p>Alex "Reds" Rivera, a suspected drug kingpin who once kept a petting zoo of farm animals in his Kensington neighborhood, has been convicted of heading a narcotics network that for years distributed heroin and cocaine along North Lawrence Street and West Indiana Avenue. A federal jury handed up its verdict Monday night, capping a two-week trial that included testimony from several of Rivera's top associates, dozens of secretly recorded conversations, and surveillance and law enforcement reports of controlled drug buys from Rivera and others. In his closing argument to the jury, Assistant U.S. Attorney David L. Axelrod, one of the prosecutors in the case, described the businesslike nature of the Rivera operation, which he said was selling about $18,000 worth of crack cocaine a week for a four-year period beginning in 2006. Rivera, 29, whom Axelrod described as the "boss" of the operation, faces a mandatory life sentence. He was convicted on charges of drug dealing and conspiracy tied to a narcotics network that prosecutors alleged "owned" several blocks of an open-air drug market in North Philadelphia. His wife, Ileana Vidal, 25, was convicted of related drug offenses and faces 10 years in prison. U.S. District Court Judge Juan R. Sanchez has scheduled Rivera's sentencing for Feb. 29. Vidal is scheduled to be sentenced March 2. The jury deliberated for about five hours before announcing its verdict, which came less than two weeks after the trial began Nov. 18. Testimony included accounts of how Rivera would order associates to beat and assault anyone who tried to sell drugs within his Kensington territory. Daniel Cortez, a top Rivera lieutenant who pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with authorities, testified about how, on Rivera's orders, he had kidnapped and tortured a man who owed money to the drug organization. Cortez was one of 15 codefendants in the case who pleaded guilty before trial. The case was developed through a joint investigation by the FBI and the Philadelphia Police Department through the Violent Gangs Safe Street Task Force. Rivera, short and stocky with tattooed arms and bushy red hair and a beard, was well-known in the neighborhood and in law enforcement circles as a major player in the drug underworld. He was featured in a 2008 BBC documentary called Law and Disorder in Philadelphia. In the documentary, he denied he was involved in drugs, but told a BBC reporter, "Sometimes you do what you got to do to survive." </p>

Alex "Reds" Rivera, a suspected drug kingpin who once kept a petting zoo of farm animals in his Kensington neighborhood, has been convicted of heading a narcotics network

  Alex "Reds" Rivera, a suspected drug kingpin who once kept a petting zoo of farm animals in his Kensington neighborhood, has bee...

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Danilo "Triste" Velasquez and two fellow MS-13 gang members blocked the way of a car carrying four people near the Daly City BART station before opening fire with semi-automatic handguns

<p> </p><p>The leader of a street gang was convicted by a federal jury Tuesday in connection with the shooting death of a college student, who the killers mistakenly believed was a rival, officials said. Danilo "Triste" Velasquez and two fellow MS-13 gang members blocked the way of a car carrying four people near the Daly City BART station before opening fire with semi-automatic handguns, officials said. When the shooting ended on Feb. 19, 2009, Moises Frias, 21, was dead and two others were wounded. Velasquez was convicted of three counts of conspiracy and a gun charge in San Francisco federal court, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag. When he is sentenced Feb. 14, Velasquez faces a mandatory term of 10 years behind bars. Velasquez and his associates targeted the car because one of Frias' companions wore a red sweater and another a red-and-white San Francisco 49ers hat. Red is the color claimed by the shooters' rivals, officials said. None of the victims had any ties to street gangs. "In a hail of gunfire, Mr. Velasquez and his co-conspirators killed and wounded four unarmed individuals -- all in the name of MS-13," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer. Co-defendant and fellow MS-13 member, Luis "Killer" Herrera already has pleaded guilty to related charges. He faces a 35-year mandatory term Advertisement when sentenced Jan. 24. Jaime Balam, the other shooting suspect, remains at-large. Federal prosecutors say the killing was part of a string of shootings carried out by or at the order of Velasquez. He assumed leadership after a number of gang leaders were indicted in 2008. The victims in the other shootings survived their wounds. Prosecutors say the only reason more people didn't die in the attack that left Frias dead was because Velasquez's gun repeatedly jammed. Witnesses testified at the four-week trial that Frias begged for his life before he was shot nine times by Balam, including a wound to the head.</p>

Danilo "Triste" Velasquez and two fellow MS-13 gang members blocked the way of a car carrying four people near the Daly City BART station before opening fire with semi-automatic handguns

  The leader of a street gang was convicted by a federal jury Tuesday in connection with the shooting death of a college student, who the ki...

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The top five members of a violent criminal street gang centered around West 137th Street in Central Harlem, are heading to prison.

<p> </p><p> Leader Jaquan Layne, 21, was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison; his brother, Jahlyl Layne, 18, who oversaw sales of crack cocaine, was sentenced to 7½ to 23½ years in prison; Jonathan Hernandez, 19, convicted of a gang-related shooting, was sentenced to 15 years and 2 months to 17 years and 4 months in prison; Habiyb Mohammed, 31, who packaged the crack cocaine, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison; and Jeffrey Brown, 20, who sold the crack cocaine, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. “The defendants derailed their lives and the lives of the teens they recruited to join their criminal operation, but the damage they inflicted upon these young people and their surrounding community does not have to be permanent,” said District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.. “The sentences imposed were fair and thoughtful. For some of the 14 defendants in this case, the sentences are not merely punitive – they also make use of alternatives to incarceration and set achievable benchmarks for particular defendants, such as graduating from high school and staying off drugs and out of trouble. On October 20, 2011, a jury in State Supreme Court convicted the defendants – members of crews known as “2 Mafia Family” (2MF or 2DEEP) and “Goons on Deck” (G.O.D) – on charges related to the running of a profitable crack cocaine operation between June 2008 and February 2011. In addition to the possession and sale of crack cocaine, the defendants conspired to possess semiautomatic handguns, revolvers and ammunition in order to maintain their dominance of the geographic area centered on West 137th Street between Lenox and Seventh Avenues, and to discourage incursions by rival street gangs. With this verdict, all 14 defendants who were indicted on related charges have been convicted.</p>

The top five members of a violent criminal street gang centered around West 137th Street in Central Harlem, are heading to prison.

   Leader Jaquan Layne, 21, was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison; his brother, Jahlyl Layne, 18, who oversaw sales of crack cocaine, ...

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Wife found Gary Speed's body, inquest hears

<p> </p><p>Wales football manager Gary Speed was found hanged at his home by his wife, an inquest was told today. The 42-year-old father-of-two was found dead at his Cheshire home on Sunday morning. Detective Inspector Peter Lawless, of Cheshire Police, told Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg that Speed's body was found by his wife Louise just before 7am. He said there appeared to be no suspicious circumstances and a post mortem examination found Speed's death was caused by hanging. Mr Rheinberg said: "I adjourn this inquest until January 30, 2012. The inquest will be heard in Warrington and will commence at 2pm." There was a huge media presence at the inquest in Warrington but members of Speed's family did not attend. The coroner asked the media to "respect the privacy" of Speed's family. Earlier today Welsh Assembly Members observed a minute's silence in the Senedd, Cardiff Bay, while flags continue to fly at half mast outside the Welsh Assembly buildings Ty Hywel and the Senedd. Speaking on behalf of the footballer's widow, Louise, and the family, Speed's agent and best man at his wedding Hayden Evans said last night they had been "overwhelmed" with messages of support and condolence. Tributes to the former Leeds United, Everton and Newcastle United midfielder, also poured in from a host of public and sporting figures, led by Prime Minister David Cameron. Mr Cameron said: "I know he meant an enormous amount to people and people feel very, very sad on his behalf and on his family's behalf." The Football Association of Wales chief executive Jonathan Ford said the organisation had received messages from UEFA and FIFA, with the Welsh flag at FIFA House in Zurich flying at half-mast. Mr Ford said: "He was such a great person and he is such a loss." Tottenham winger Gareth Bale, one of the brightest talents in Speed's Wales side, said it was a "massive shock". "It is a tragedy, everyone still can't get their head around it and all our condolences go out to his family and his kids. It is a hard time," Bale told tottenhamhotspur.com. Supporters have left scarves, football shirts and flowers across several football stadiums - including Everton's Goodison Park, Leeds United's Elland Road, Newcastle United's St James' Park and The Millennium Stadium and Cardiff City Stadium, where Wales played their home games. The FAW has opened a book of condolences at its offices in Cardiff allowing fans to express their feelings about Speed's death.</p>

Wife found Gary Speed's body, inquest hears

  Wales football manager Gary Speed was found hanged at his home by his wife, an inquest was told today. The 42-year-old father-of-two was ...

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TWO families are rejoicing after two men held in a Spanish prison were set free after four-and-a-half months

<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6em; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"> </p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6em; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Kyle Thain, 24, and James Harris, 29, have been released on bail from Font Calent jail in Alicante.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6em; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">This has left family members and friends overwhelmed – and they haven’t given up hope of getting them back to Britain for Christmas.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6em; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Kyle’s brother Jay, 29, said: “This is the best I have felt in a long while. It’'s amazing news.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6em; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Sharon Harris, 56, Kyle’s mother, and husband Dave, 58, sold their Southend home to help fund the legal fight.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6em; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Yesterday, £8,000 was transferred to Spain for each of the lads’ bail.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6em; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Kyle of Sandringham Road, Southend, and James, of Pelham Road, Southend, have been held without charge since July 8. They are accused of attempted murder after two men were stabbed during a bar brawl near Alicante, close to where they were staying on a lads’ weekend away. They were arrested as they went to board the flight home.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6em; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The two pals have always maintained their innocence and insist they did not even set foot in the bar where the violence took place. Their families are convinced there has been a terrible case of mistaken identity.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6em; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Kyle and James are now due to leave prison today once funds have cleared. Jay and Sharon will fly out tomorrow where they will be reunited with Kyle and James who will stay with James’s mother Kate Burgess who has been in Spain since their arrest.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6em; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The decision on bail was finally made after a judge was presented with evidence that has been available all along.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6em; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Jay said a previous solicitor had told a judge that Kyle and James had pictures of them at their apartment around the time of the bar fight.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6em; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The new solicitor apparently put the time and date stamped pictures in front of the judge and said they convinced him it was sufficient evidence to at least release Kyle and James from jail.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6em; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">A previous bail application in September was denied earlier this month and Kyle’s mum Sharon said she was beginning to prepare for Christmas being a “non-event”.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6em; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">But now the two families are looking forward to trying to clear the names of Kyle and James once and for all.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6em; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Jay, also of Sandringham Road, added: “This is a really positive step in the right direction.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6em; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">“The aim is to try and get them bail to the UK and to continue fighting for the case to be dropped completely.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6em; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Since Kyle and James were arrested family and friends in south Essex have rallied in support with fundraising events netting thousands of pounds for the legal fight.</p>

TWO families are rejoicing after two men held in a Spanish prison were set free after four-and-a-half months

  Kyle Thain, 24, and James Harris, 29, have been released on bail from Font Calent jail in Alicante. This has left family members and frien...

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Spanish savings bank directors suspected of fraud

<p> </p><p>Spanish savings bank has fired two directors and is investigating two former executives for allegedly syphoning off €20 million ($26.5 million) into secret pension funds, the bank said Saturday. The board of directors of Caixa Penedes bank had "required the departure" of its president, Ricard Pages, and director general Manuel Troyano. It said both men had agreed to leave, the bank said in a statement. The decision comes after state prosecutor for the northeastern region of Catalonia, Teresa Compte, said her office was investigating all four on suspicion of involvement in illegal activity. Regional newspaper La Vanguardia said the case was the first time prosecutors had investigated senior executives for "criminal responsibility" in their handling of a savings bank. The prosecutor named the other two former executives as Joan Caellas and Jaume Jorba. Caixa Penedes along with partners Cajamurcia, CajaGRANADA and SA NOSTRA owns Banco Mare Nostrum, S.A. (BMN). The group received €916 million ($1.21 billion) in restructuring aid from the Bank of Spain's Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB). The fund was set up to aid institutions meet higher reserve requirements and is aimed at strengthening their finances and quelling fears that Spain might be Europe's next country to need a bailout. Caixa Penedes said its board "disapproved of the content, method, lack of transparency, unusual nature and disproportionate size" of the remuneration package the four directors had helped themselves to. The pension funds were set up in another institution without the knowledge of Caixa Penedes's board. Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, spokesman for trade union Comisiones Obreras said that if the money could be recovered it could help offset the €45 million ($59.53 million) in wage bill savings BMN had recently said it would seek from its work force. He said many BMN employees are members of Comisiones Obreras. The investigation comes as Spain is burdened with an unemployment rate of 21.5 percent — nearly 5 million people out of work — the eurozone's highest. The country's borrowing costs have also risen to an almost unsustainable level of 7 percent interest rate on 10-year bonds. An auction of 12- and 18-month bonds last week also went badly, with Spain forced to offer very high interest rates to investors.</p>

Spanish savings bank directors suspected of fraud

  Spanish savings bank has fired two directors and is investigating two former executives for allegedly syphoning off €20 million ($26.5 mil...

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A woman claiming to be the ex-wife of Colonel Gaddafi's captured son Saif al-Islam has emerged in Ukraine with extraordinary stories alleging domestic violence and womanising.

<p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Nadia, a blue-eyed brunette claims to have met him when she worked as a stripper in a top Moscow nightclub, and says she is currently in hiding, fearing for her life.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>She claimed that as she prepared for marriage to Saif, she had to fly to Paris to have an operation to 'restore' her virginity. '</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>'The doctor proved my innocence in the presence of Saif's aunt. Then I embraced Islam,' she added.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>'I tried to have a normal family, but Saif wanted to live as a single man with lovers and orgies,' she said in a Ukrainian newspaper interview.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>While there is no proof of her claim of have married and divorced Saif after two years, her claim appears to be taken seriously in Russia and Ukraine.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>If she is who she says, she could be a key witness at his trial whether it is in Libya or under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>One aspect of his trial is likely to be his alleged friendship with a number of prominent British figures, including Prince Andrew, Tony Blair and Lord Mandelson.</span></p><div class="artSplitter" style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><img alt="High life: Nadia claims playboy Saif loved luxury and money and was a womaniser. He is pictured here at the Viennese Opera Ball in 2006" class="blkBorder" height="404" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/11/21/article-2064403-0EDD536500000578-50_634x404.jpg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid black;" width="634" /><p class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">High life: Nadia claims playboy Saif loved luxury and money and was a womaniser. He is pictured here at the Viennese Opera Ball in 2006</p></div><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>'Our house looked like more as bordello: a lot of his friends and a lot of women,' she said.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>'We got married under religious traditions, I embraced Islam for that, but nobody treated me as the mistress of the house.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>'There was no respect at all. My husband tried to make me a submissive Eastern woman, and I couldn't stand that attitude.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> </p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> </p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>'That broke me, ate me from inside. And what's more important, Saif took drugs and he couldn't control himself when he was under narcotics.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> </p><div class="relatedItemsTopBorder" style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> </div><div class="relatedItems" style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><h4 style="min-height: 1px; font-size: 1em; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"></h4></div><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> </p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>'He had certain sexual perversions in sex, for example, he liked to do it in public. I understood that we couldn't live together.'</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Nadia, who is believed to be 29, claimed that their relationship ended after a furious row in a restaurant which culminated with him beating her and throwing her out of a window but she miraculously survived.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>She claimed she was in a coma for 47 days, and that Gaddafi - who acknowledged her but never started a conversation with her - was outraged by his son's behaviour.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Gaddafi was known to have employed Ukrainian nurses in his medical team, but until now it was not known his second son has a wife from the former Soviet country.</span></p><div class="artSplitter" style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><img alt="Arrested: Sair al-Islam Gaddafi sitting with his captors in Obari airport on Saturday" class="blkBorder" height="503" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/11/21/article-2064403-0EE0584400000578-373_634x503.jpg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid black;" width="634" /><p class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Arrested: Sair al-Islam Gaddafi sitting with his captors in Obari airport on Saturday</p></div><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Of Gaddafi himself she said: 'About me being in hospital, he was in a fury. He kicked Saif away to the desert. It could spoil the reputation of the family that was already not so clean.'</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>She left Libya and returned to Moscow. 'The last time he came was in 2008, and he suggested that we lived together again ~ but I was cold to him by that time.'</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Nadia said she was working in Moscow until 2010 but a mutual friend then told her to disappear or she could face danger.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>She claimed that Saif could not have replaced his father. 'He was afraid of his father, as of fire. And Gaddafi, I think, despised him for internal weaknesses.'</span></p><div class="artSplitter" style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div class="artSplitter" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><img alt="The fall: Saif al-Islam sits after his capture, with his fingers wrapped in bandages and his legs covered with a blanket, at an undisclosed location" class="blkBorder" height="395" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/11/21/article-2064403-0EDCAB4900000578-610_634x395.jpg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid black;" width="634" /><p class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">The fall: Saif al-Islam sits after his capture, with his fingers wrapped in bandages and his legs covered with a blanket, at an undisclosed location</p></div></div><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Playboy Saif loved luxury and money. She said: 'He was cheating on me all the time.'</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Nadia - it is not known if this is her real name - is apparently in hiding in the Crimea where she says she is fearful of his enemies. 'I don't know any secrets, but still I'm scared,' she said.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>She claims not to be rich but for Saif 'it was all in a day's work to spend $20,000 (USD) at a restaurant.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>'When we separated I had only luxurious earrings which I managed to sell for $1million. I lived in Moscow on this money. Now almost nothing is left.'</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Her most recent interview was with Ukrainian paper Respubika. It was made shortly before his capture.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>'I thought Saif would turn my life into an Eastern fairytale,' she said. 'It didn't work.'</span></p><div class="artSplitter" style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><img alt="Saif panel" class="blkBorder" height="957" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/11/22/article-2064403-0EE501BC00000578-593_634x957.jpg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid black;" width="634" /></div><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> </p><p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff;"><br /><br /></span></p>

A woman claiming to be the ex-wife of Colonel Gaddafi's captured son Saif al-Islam has emerged in Ukraine with extraordinary stories alleging domestic violence and womanising.

Nadia, a blue-eyed brunette claims to have met him when she worked as a stripper in a top Moscow nightclub, and says she is currently in hid...

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Mexico army seizes Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman drug lord's $15 million

<p> </p><p>Mexico's army seized nearly $15.4 million from the organization of the country's most powerful drug lord, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, officials said Tuesday, marking a rare financial blow to cartels. The seizure was revealed the same day U.S. border police revealed the third discovery in a week of drug-smuggling tunnel under the border with Mexico. In Mexico, the military said it found the cash was found in a vehicle on Nov. 18 in the northern border city of Tijuana and that it was linked to Guzman's operations. The haul marked the second-largest cash seizure by the military since President Felipe Calderon sent the country's armed forces out to battle drug cartels in 2006, the statement said. Some $26 million was captured in September 2008 in Culiacan, the capital of Guzman's home state of Sinaloa. Only on msnbc.com 'Grateful to be alive': Teen rescues woman from fire Mexicans cross US border to sell their plasma Chinese consumers say: Fix this fridge or sledgehammers coming Black Friday 'flash mobs,' sit-ins urged Look out kids, here comes the 'Wolf Daddy' Move to ban alleged insider trading faces pitfalls Will Gingrich's comments haunt him? About 45,000 people have died in the conflict in the last five years and the government has captured or killed dozens of top level drug smugglers.</p>

Mexico army seizes Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman drug lord's $15 million

  Mexico's army seized nearly $15.4 million from the organization of the country's most powerful drug lord, Joaquin "Shorty&quo...

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Inquest told how householder stabbed intruder as he waved knife

<p> </p><p>householder, who stabbed to death a burglar trying to break into his cannabis factory, told an inquest he did not mean to harm anybody. Barry Day said he remembered grabbing a kitchen knife as the door to his house, in Beckside Road, Lidget Green, Bradford, was being kicked in, sticking the knife through a hole in the door and waving it. Shazad Habib-Ur Rehman, 32, suffered a stab wound to the chest and died in Bradford Royal Infirmary five days after the incident, in October last year. Mr Day, giving evidence yesterday at the inquest into Mr Rehman’s death, said he was not aware he had stabbed someone and did not intend to harm anyone. He said he was in fear. Detective Chief Inspector Simon Atkinson, of West Yorkshire Police’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, told the Bradford hearing consideration was given to prosecuting Mr Day, 62, for murder and a file was submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service, but the CPS decided there was insufficient evidence. He was prosecuted for cultivating cannabis, after 75 plants and a hydroponic cannabis factory were found upstairs at his house, and given a suspended prison sentence. The dead man’s three accomplices, who have all served prison sentences for attempted burglary in connection with the incident, told the inquest they had decided to burgle the house after hearing about the cannabis factory. Gareth Dobson, 23, of Windhill, said he kicked in the bottom panel of the door. He said Mr Rehman said to Mr Day: “We don’t want no trouble, we just want the weed. That’s when Mr Day lashed out and stabbed him with a knife.” The friends drove Mr Rehman to hospital. Mohammed Waqas Khan told the inquest: “We just wanted to take what there was and go. There was no intention to go in there to endanger anyone’s life.”</p>

Inquest told how householder stabbed intruder as he waved knife

  householder, who stabbed to death a burglar trying to break into his cannabis factory, told an inquest he did not mean to harm anybody. B...

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Gaddafi spymaster ‘must face trial over IRA crimes

<p> </p><p>VICTIMS of Libyan-sponsored IRA terrorism in the UK have called for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s former spy chief to be tried in the International Criminal Court for his part in republican atrocities. Libya’s interim government reported on Sunday that Abdullah al-Senoussi had been captured. The interim government is keen to try him in Libya but international concerns have been raised about the possibility that he may not receive a fair trial. Representatives from the International Criminal Court are visiting Libya in order to make representations. Former intelligence minister Senoussi was seen as the right-hand man of dictator Gaddafi, who was killed shortly after his capture by rebel forces last month. IRA victims campaigners Willie Frazer and London-based Jonathan Ganesh believe Senoussi was the key link between the Libyan regime and the Provisional IRA in Northern Ireland. Libya sent numerous shipments of arms and Semtex to the IRA throughout the Troubles, several of which were intercepted. In a joint statement, they said: “Colonel Abdullah al-Senoussi has been involved in the murder of countless people within Libya and has also been involved in the murder of Irish and UK citizens due to his unprecedented work with the IRA and other international terrorist organisations. “We are now drafting a detailed petition to the International Criminal Court to ensure that Colonel Senoussi will be held accountable for all his crimes against humanity. “Senoussi must be held accountable due to his involvement in the murder of all the innocent people who lost their lives due to the Semtex he supplied to the IRA.” Senoussi was one of the last senior figures from the Gaddafi regime still on the run. Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, was seized on Saturday and both he and Senoussi are wanted for alleged war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Senoussi, a brother-in-law of Col Gaddafi, is said to have been arrested at his sister’s home in the southern town of Sabha on Sunday. He has been accused of human rights abuses, including his implication in the 1996 massacre of more than 1,000 inmates at the Abu Salim prison in Tripoli. Mr Frazer and Mr Ganesh added: “We are now calling on the international community to ensure that he must stand trial for his international crimes against humanity within the ICC. “Due to his involvement with IRA terrorism he became a defendant within our civil legal action within the USA judiciary during April 2006 as we desperately tried to bring him to justice. “This is an evil man who we will not allow to escape international justice. He must be immediately handed to the ICC for all his international crimes against humanity.”</p>

Gaddafi spymaster ‘must face trial over IRA crimes

  VICTIMS of Libyan-sponsored IRA terrorism in the UK have called for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s former spy chief to be tried in the Internat...

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Murder trial begins for two Hells Angels, five others

<p> </p><p>two full-patch Hells Angels, made their first appearance in a Vancouver courtroom Monday for the June beating death of Kelowna resident Dain Phillips. The men - Hells Angels members Robert Thomas and Norm Cocks - as well as Cocks' father Robert, Anson Schell, Thomas Vaughan and brothers Daniel and Matthew McRae were charged with second-degree murder two weeks after the fatal assault on Phillips on June 12. They made their initial appearances in Kelowna Provincial Court, where five of the accused were released on bail. But Crown prosecutors have decided to proceed by way of direct indictment, meaning the case goes straight to B.C. Supreme Court without a preliminary hearing at the Provincial Court level. And prosecutors have moved the case to Vancouver, where the accused appeared Monday in a new high-security courtroom built for an unrelated gang murder case. Crown spokesman Neil MacKenzie said the decision to move the case to the Lower Mainland was made "given the number of the accused, the number of counsel involved and the demands the case would place on court resources in Kelowna." There is a ban on publication of evidence and submissions in the case. Justice Arne Silverman put the matter over until Dec. 19, with a tentative start date for the eight-month trial sometime in January 2013. Thomas, 46, and Norm Cocks, 31, appeared wearing red prison garb from the North Fraser Pretrial Centre, where they remain in custody. The others - Dan McRae, 21, Matt McRae, 19, Schell, 19, Vaughan, 22 and Robert Cocks, 53 - arrived with relatives and supporters, each being directed to seats behind bulletproof Plexiglas. No one from Phillips's family attended Monday. The Vancouver Sun earlier reported that Phillips, a married father of three, tried to intervene peacefully in a dispute two of his sons were having with a pair of brothers with whom they had attended Rutland secondary. When Phillips drove to a meeting place on McCurdy Road in the early evening of June 12, he was attacked by a group of men who had arrived in two separate vehicles. He died later in hospital. Insp. Pat Fogarty, of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said after the arrests that Phillips was trying to resolve the problem when he was savagely attacked. The elder Cocks is president of a Hells Angels puppet club called the Throttle Lockers, while the four youngest accused were described by police as gang associates. The case is believed to be the first in the 28-year-history of the Hells Angels in B.C. where a club member has been charged with murder.</p>

Murder trial begins for two Hells Angels, five others

  two full-patch Hells Angels, made their first appearance in a Vancouver courtroom Monday for the June beating death of Kelowna resident Da...

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Latin Kings charged in Texas slaying

<p> </p><p>Fifteen members of the Almighty Latin Kings have been indicted for alleged roles in 19 murders, including slayings of juveniles and a pregnant woman. One of the murders was in Big Spring, Texas, according to the indictment, made public Friday. The murders were done to control gang territory and further their illegal activities, according to the U.S. Justice Department. The indictment also alleges that two Chicago police officers robbed people for the gang, sometimes while in uniform, the Sun-Times reported. Several Latin King members already had been convicted in connection with a 2008 drive-by shooting in Big Spring where six people were shot with an AK-47.  The victims included a woman who was 26 weeks pregnant at the time. She and another victim died of their wounds, the department reported.</p>

Latin Kings charged in Texas slaying

  Fifteen members of the Almighty Latin Kings have been indicted for alleged roles in 19 murders, including slayings of juveniles and a preg...

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Devastating report into the failures of police and care agencies to protect teenage girls who have been groomed, raped and sold by male gangs, most of whom are Asian.

<p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span><br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>The mother of one teenager from Leeds, who attempted suicide after a gang rape, said her daughter was the victim of a 'broken system.'</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>'Everyone failed her,' she told The Times. 'There was no sharing of information. <br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>'They (police) had the names and knew where they (abusers) worked yet the men who did this have never once been arrested or spoken to by the police.'</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>West Yorkshire Police vowed to look again at the case to see if 'there is evidence that can help bring evil men to book'.</span></p><div class="thinCenter" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; min-height: 1px; width: 470px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Growing worry: CCTV footage shows now jailed gang members Mohammed Romaan Liaqat and Abid Mohammed Saddique meeting girls as they cruise the streets of Derby in a BMW" class="blkBorder" height="286" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/11/21/article-2064220-0C395D90000005DC-295_468x286.jpg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid black;" width="468" /><p class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Growing worry: CCTV footage shows now jailed gang members Mohammed Romaan Liaqat and Abid Mohammed Saddique meeting girls as they cruise the streets of Derby in a BMW</p></div><div class="thinCenter" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; min-height: 1px; width: 470px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px;"><div class="thinArtSplitter" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div class="splitLeft" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><img alt="Jailed: Saddique, left, and Liaqat, right, were leaders of the paedophile ring in Derby and committed a catalogue of offences against vulnerable young girls" class="blkBorder" height="423" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/11/21/article-2064220-0CAC4A9E000005DC-391_224x423.jpg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid black;" width="224" /></div><div class="splitRight" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><img alt="Jailed: Saddique, left, and Liaqat, right, were leaders of the paedophile ring in Derby and committed a catalogue of offences against vulnerable young girls" class="blkBorder" height="423" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/11/21/article-2064220-0CAC4A9E000005DC-193_224x423.jpg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid black;" width="224" /></div></div><p class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Jailed: Saddique, left, and Liaqat, right, were leaders of the paedophile ring in Derby and committed a catalogue of offences against vulnerable young girls</p></div><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Children's charity Barnardos has been calling on the Government to take action on child exploitation since January with its Cut Them Free campaign.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> </p><div class="relatedItemsTopBorder" style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> </div><div class="relatedItems" style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><h4 style="min-height: 1px; font-size: 1em; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"></h4></div><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> </p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Other caregivers have also suggested that political sensitivities are to blame for a near paralysis of the systems designed to keep children safe.</span></p><div class="thinCenter" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; min-height: 1px; width: 470px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px;"><div class="thinArtSplitter art-ins news" style="min-height: 50px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><div class="splitLeft" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><h3 class="wocc" style="min-height: 1px; font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: normal; color: #ffffff; background-color: #00aad2; padding: 5px; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">JOSIE'S STORY</span></h3><div class="ins cleared xolcc bdrcc" style="min-height: 1px; background-color: #e8fbff; padding: 4px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid #00aad2;"><img alt="A silhouette of a teenage girl on white background with a mobile phone" class="blkBorder" height="165" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/11/21/article-2064220-0B5650EE00000578-364_214x165.jpg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid black;" width="214" /><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span><br />Like most little girls, Josie lived for horses. She had an exemplary school record with 100 per cent attendance rate.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>But at 13, the teen from Keighley, West Yorkshire, was given a laptop and quickly became addicted to Facebook.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Her father was then warned his daughter was spending a lot of time with older Asian men.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>One even told the father he would 'slit his throat' when he answered the phone to him.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>From there it got worse. Josie started disappearing overnight and began drinking. <br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Yet, when her father locked his daughter in her room to protect her, it was he who got into trouble with the police for false imprisonment.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>He told The Times he has since collected every scrap of evidence to prove his daughter is being sexually exploited by gangs.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>'The police kept saying that they're waiting until Josie realises it's wrong,' he said.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>'Is that really the best they can do?<br /></span></p></div></div><div class="splitRight art-ins" style="min-height: 50px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><h3 class="wocc" style="min-height: 1px; font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: normal; color: #ffffff; background-color: #00aad2; padding: 5px; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CHARLOTTE'S STORY</span></h3><div class="ins cleared xolcc bdrcc" style="min-height: 1px; background-color: #e8fbff; padding: 4px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid #00aad2;"><img alt="Rear view of a woman silhouetted against window light." class="blkBorder" height="165" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/11/21/article-2064220-0E1CC75300000578-205_214x165.jpg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid black;" width="214" /><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span><br />When the father of 14-year-old Charlotte looked at his daughter's Facebook profile, he discovered 'loads of male, Asian friends.'</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Concerned, he started to restrict his daughter's activities. The teen from </span><span>Keighley, West Yorkshire,</span><span> then went to live with her mother.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>He tracked down all the names and addresses of her friends he believed were involved and passed them on to police.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Meanwhile her school was reporting Charlotte had begun arriving looking 'dirty and extremely thin'. <br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>She was going missing for days at a time, according to agency notes.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>By October last year she 'admitted she has slept with different Asian males.'</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>The police told Charlotte's father they hoped to take action against the men.<br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>That was 17 months ago and he is still waiting.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>'There's no will to deal with this issue in Keighley' he said.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>'What chance have these kids got if that's the attitude of the police?'</span></p></div></div></div></div><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>There is a culture 'which assumes that once a girl gets to 14 she's beyond hope of intervention - it's too late,' a source told The Times.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Police and care agencies often say that they cannot take action against suspects without the victim's co-operation. <br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>However, a 2008 protocol established by the force and West Yorkshire's five local authorities states: 'Adults involved in child sexual exploitation... should be treated as child sex abusers and subjected to the full rigour of the criminal law.'</span></p><div class="art-insert news" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; min-height: 50px; width: 235px; float: right; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px;"><h3 class="wocc" style="min-height: 1px; font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: normal; color: #ffffff; background-color: #00aad2; padding: 5px; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">NICOLA'S STORY</span></h3><div class="ins cleared xolcc bdrcc" style="min-height: 1px; background-color: #e8fbff; padding: 4px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid #00aad2;"><img alt="A pregnant woman silhouetted against a set of blinds." class="blkBorder" height="144" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/11/21/article-2064220-06D65696000005DC-784_223x144.jpg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid black;" width="223" /><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span><br />Nicola is the only case in six who was groomed by a gang of white men. <br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>The abuse began when she was 12 after a visit to Leeds from her family home in Bradford.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Nicola had thought they were 'really nice people' but by 13 she was doing drugs - 'everything but heroin'.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>She was raped twice. The first time she was 'drugged up to the eyeballs' and remembers being dragged into a bedroom and gang raped.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Afterwards her mother took Nicola to the police station, only to be told that 'we don't deal with that here'.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>In desperation Nicola's mother took her daughter to New Zealand and away from the gang.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>She let her return four months later. <br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Nicola did return to her old haunts but discovered it wasn't really what she wanted.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>'I used to think it was so exciting,' she told The Times. 'But after New Zealand, it was like seeing them with another pair of eyes.'</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>She hasn't been back since.</span></p></div></div><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Children's minister, Tim Loughton, suggested two weeks ago that the plan will call on councils to act with a 'much greater urgency' to identify victims of sexual exploitation while taking 'robust action against those who commit these appalling crimes.'</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>As well as the gang rape case of the girl in Leeds, five new cases have been highlighted by The Times' investigation.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>No one has been prosecuted for sex exploitation in any of them. Only one of the girls in the six cases had been in care. <br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>One was groomed by white students, but in all the other cases, the perpetrators were Asian, mostly of Pakistani origin.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>This pattern of abuse at the hands of male Asian gangs in the West Yorkshire area has been highlighted before, but never formally acknowledged.  <br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>In January the Asian ringleaders of a gang in Derby, who brought a ‘reign of terror’ to a city’s streets, targeting and grooming young girls for horrific sexual abuse, were jailed.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Abid Saddique and Mohammed Liaqat were told they would serve a minimum of 11 years and eight years respectively before they could be considered for release.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>A DfE spokesman refused to reveal the contents of the National Action Plan but said: 'We are publishing an action plan this week and that will draw on work around the country to prevent sexual exploitation, identify those at risk and support victims.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>'It will address the challenge of securing prosecutions and the need for robust action against perpetrators.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff;"><br /><br /></span></p>

Devastating report into the failures of police and care agencies to protect teenage girls who have been groomed, raped and sold by male gangs, most of whom are Asian.

The mother of one teenager from Leeds, who attempted suicide after a gang rape, said her daughter was the victim of a 'broken system....

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Don't just book it, Thomas Cook it. So runs the slogan. Would you

<p><a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/markets/article-24012743-can-we-trust-cook-not-to-make-a-dogs-dinner-of-our-holidays.do"> </a></p><p>Don't just book it, Thomas Cook it. So runs the slogan. Would you? Here's interim (that's reassuring) chief executive Sam Weihagen doing his safe-as-houses routine: "It's business as usual. We are trading within all our covenants. We have all the protection in place like any other travel company, and customers should not worry at all." Well, not quite like any other travel company. Thomas Cook of course holds an Air Travel Organisers' Licence from the Civil Aviation Authority which means customers should get their money back in the event of calamity. But the simple fear of being stranded a week after passengers of Austria's Comtel Air had to bribe pilots with £20,000 just to return to Birmingham is bound to unsettle would-be customers. There's a circle at work here and it is vicious. Given the choice between a similarly priced holiday with Thomas Cook or, say, Thomson, why would you risk the former? To counteract this, Thomas Cook might have to slash prices. That will eat into margins, cut profits and put banking covenants at risk. It might very quickly find it needs to borrow even more money. The company insists: "This is a robust business that has a strong future". We'll see.</p>

Don't just book it, Thomas Cook it. So runs the slogan. Would you

  Don't just book it, Thomas Cook it. So runs the slogan. Would you? Here's interim (that's reassuring) chief executive Sam Wei...

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Police were in dark over foreign axe killer living in UK

<p> </p><p>COPS did not know an East European axe murderer was living in the UK until he caused a killer car crash, a court heard yesterday. Intars Pless, 34, hacked through a friend's throat in his native Latvia, then moved to Britain after he got out of jail. But Lincoln Crown Court heard police can only check a foreign national's record if they break the law here. So Pless's horrific crime came to light only after he drove into moped rider Valentina Planciunene, 37, while over twice the limit. Stuart Lody, prosecuting, told the court: "On the night of Valentine's Day he decided it would be a perfectly good idea to drink a very large quantity of whisky. Surprised "He and a friend spent a considerable period of time drinking whisky and driving around. "During the driving he was possibly drinking whisky as well. An empty whisky bottle was found in the boot of the car. "At the time of the collision he was heavily under the influence of alcohol. His ability to drive would have been severely impaired." Pless was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving after the jury heard he left her dead in the road in Wyberton Fen, Lincs. He was told he faces a long jail term. The judge also called for his deportation.</p>

Police were in dark over foreign axe killer living in UK

  COPS did not know an East European axe murderer was living in the UK until he caused a killer car crash, a court heard yesterday. Intars P...

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Thomas Cook is running low on cash and has begun talks with its banks

<p><div id="main-content-picture" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; background-color: #ffffff; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Thomas Cook" height="276" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Business/Business_competitions/pictures/2011/11/22/1321951660467/Thomas-Cook-007.jpg" style="border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" width="460" /><div class="caption" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #666666; font-size: 12px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Thomas Cook planes parked at Munich airport last year. Photograph: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images</div></div><div id="article-body-blocks" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; background-color: #ffffff; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;"><a style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Thomas Cook" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/thomascookgroup">Thomas Cook</a> is running low on cash and has begun talks with its banks, in an effort to increase its borrowings to tide it over the slow Christmas season.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">Shares in the tour operator fell by more than three quarters on Tuesday morning after it admitted that trading has "deteriorated" in recent months. It is now seeking to borrow more in the short term, and has postponed the publication of its financial results until the talks are concluded.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">Shares in the company, which <a style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/aug/03/thomas-cook-chief-ousted">abruptly lost its chief executive three months ago</a>, tumbled by more than 75% to 9.3p at one stage.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">Tour operators tend to run low on cash in the slower winter months, but even so, the news stunned the City. Only last month, Thomas Cook said it had agreed a further £100m in short-term funding from its banks explicitly for the winter lull.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">A spokeswoman said that discussions with banks were merely a "prudent" and "pro-active" move. Thomas Cook still has cash in the bank, she said, but wants to be prepared for any unexpected shocks over Christmas. All customer orders are protected by the ATOL protection scheme and equivalent programmes, she added. "Thomas Cook still has cash on the balance sheet, but because conditions have deteriorated further [since October], particularly around trading, some of that extra funding has been used up. Thomas Cook feels it needs more headroom to be prudent," she said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">Interim CEO Sam Weihagen added: "It's business as usual. We are trading within all out business, and financial, covenants, we have all the protection in place like any other travel company, and customers should not worry at all."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">The company is seeking roughly £100m more in its latest talks. It made the decision to renew talks with banks on financing after realising the scale of the recent downturn in an internal trading update meeting yesterday.</p></div></p>

Thomas Cook is running low on cash and has begun talks with its banks

Thomas Cook planes parked at Munich airport last year. Photograph: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images Thomas Cook  is running low on cash an...

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Chicago cops accused of working for Latin Kings held without bond

<p> </p><p>Two Chicago police officers accused of committing armed robberies at the will of alleged Latin King members were ordered held without bond Monday. Alex Guerrero, 41, and Antonio C. Martinez Jr., 40, were the ones in handcuffs Monday afternoon, appearing before a federal judge in orange Porter County jumpsuits. The duo were named in a 46-page indictment unsealed Friday that alleges a racketeering conspiracy among fifteen Latin King gang members or associates. Guerrero's attorney, Kevin Milner, fought for his client to be on home detention. He said his clients' parents offered to put up their $175,000 Chicago home for their son's pretrial release. "For Mr. Guerrero to violate his bond, his parents would be on the street homeless," Milner said. "I've known Mr. Guerrero for 15 years. He would rather slit his wrists than do that to his parents." Milner claimed there was no evidence against Guerrero, and that the father of six had no criminal record. According to the indictment, Guerrero and Martinez Jr., committed armed robberies of drug dealers in Illinois and Indiana while in uniform and under the guise of performing legitimate police operations. They allegedly turned over the drugs and money to the Latin Kings in exchange for about $10,000 in kickbacks. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Nozick argued that Guerrero and Martinez were dangers to the community after using Chicago police vehicles, service weapons and uniforms to rob people at gunpoint. Nozick also said Guerrero was a flight risk, as his wife has family in Mexico and he faces up to life in prison.  Magistrate Judge Andrew Rodovich ordered Guerrero held without bond. Milner said they were disappointed with the decision, and that his client would be sitting in jail for at least a year pending trial for a crime he did not commit.  "I don't know who will give him that year back," Milner said. Martinez Jr., did not contest being held pending trial.</p>

Chicago cops accused of working for Latin Kings held without bond

  Two Chicago police officers accused of committing armed robberies at the will of alleged Latin King members were ordered held without bond...

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Police on the Costa del Sol were yesterday hunting a gang who stole £1million of cocaine from a warehouse where authorities held seized drugs before destroying them.

<p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Police on the Costa del Sol were yesterday hunting a gang who stole £1million of cocaine from a warehouse where authorities held seized drugs before destroying them.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>The thieves used laser equipment to cut through the metal doors of the store in the docks at Malaga, the capital of the southern Spanish holiday coast. <br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>They struck when there were no security guards on duty and  it had been left to the paramilitary Civil Guard to watch the building.</span></p><div class="thinCenter" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; min-height: 1px; width: 470px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px;"><img alt="The drugs were being stored in a warehouse in Malaga when the thieves struck" class="blkBorder" height="304" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/11/20/article-0-0994593A000005DC-613_468x304.jpg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid black;" width="468" /><p class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">The drugs were being stored in a warehouse in Malaga when the thieves struck</p></div><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> </p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Drugs seized by police and customs are stored there for tests to be carried-out before the courts issue orders to destroy them.</span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div></p>

Police on the Costa del Sol were yesterday hunting a gang who stole £1million of cocaine from a warehouse where authorities held seized drugs before destroying them.

Police on the Costa del Sol were yesterday hunting a gang who stole £1million of cocaine from a warehouse where authorities held seized drug...

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Prison for man who left €5,000 bill at Marbella hotel

<blockquote><br /><br /></blockquote><p> </p><p>A MAN has been sentenced to a year in prison for failing to pay a bill of more than €5,438 at a luxury Marbella hotel. He had been staying at the Marbella Club on the Golden Mile for a week in September 2003 and during the stay, used different services which amounted to €5,438, which he left without paying. The hotel made a formal complaint but the trial wasn’t held until this year mainly due to difficulties locating the man. He admitted that he has stayed at the hotel but had refused to pay the bill because he thought it excessive for the services he had received. His lawyer maintained that he attempted to reach an agreement with the hotel, which the manager claims that he had shown no intention of paying, and that until the day of the trial, when he handed in €3,349, he hadn’t received any money from him. The judge considered that the man had intended to commit fraud and he was sentenced to two years in prison and the payment of the bill plus interests. He appealed, and Malaga Provincial Court, although maintaining that he intended to commit fraud, reduced the sentence by one year because he had attempted to repair some of the damage by bringing a large part of the money he owed to the trial to give to the hotel.</p>

Prison for man who left €5,000 bill at Marbella hotel

  A MAN has been sentenced to a year in prison for failing to pay a bill of more than €5,438 at a luxury Marbella hotel. He had been stayin...

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Gang targets wealthy diners

<p> </p><p>Diners at some of the city's most popular restaurants had their credit card details stolen by waiters working for gangs, who targeted customers with American Express black cards, then spent millions of dollars on expensive clothes and vintage wine, it is alleged. The cards of wealthy customers at Smith & Wollensky, the Capital Grille and Wolfgang's Steakhouse restaurants were allegedly "skimmed" and used to buy Rolex watches, Jimmy Choo shoes and Chanel handbags. Almost 30 people have been charged with crimes, including racketeering, conspiracy and grand larceny, after the alleged fraud ring was broken by police in Manhattan. Seven waiters at the restaurants are alleged by prosecutors to have been recruited by Luis Damian "D.J." Jacas, the 41-year-old alleged ringleader, and equipped with card-copying devices. They were instructed to focus on customers with premium credit cards, including the American Express black card, so that expensive purchases would not trigger alerts to customers. "The thieves were very selective, waiting until they were handed cards with extremely high or unlimited credit," said Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance.</p>

Gang targets wealthy diners

  Diners at some of the city's most popular restaurants had their credit card details stolen by waiters working for gangs, who targeted ...

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Alice Walton, heiress to the Walmart supermarket fortune and the the 10th richest woman in the United States, opened a spectacular fine art museum in her home town

<div></div><div><div id="main-content-picture" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; background-color: #ffffff; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Moshe Safdie" height="276" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Admin/BkFill/Default_image_group/2011/11/19/1321714678805/Moshe-Safdie-007.jpg" style="border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" width="460" /><div class="caption" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #666666; font-size: 12px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">Architect Moshe Safdie looks out of a window next to a large red untitled magnifying disk sculpture by artist Fred Eversley at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Photograph: Danny Johnston/AP</div></div><div id="article-body-blocks" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; background-color: #ffffff; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">When Alice Walton, heiress to the <a style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Walmart" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/wal-mart">Walmart</a> supermarket fortune and the the 10th richest woman in the <a style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on United States" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa">United States</a>, opened a spectacular fine art museum in her home town, she might have expected plaudits and gratitude. It hasn't quite worked out that way.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">The long-awaited opening of the Crystal Bridges Museum for American Art in Walton's home town of Bentonville, Arkansas, has provoked mixed reactions. Some have celebrated the unveiling of a significant new private art institution, but many have criticised the decision to spend $1.4bn of company and family foundation money as the retail colossus cuts back its workers' benefits.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">Protesters at the museum have informally joined forces with the Occupy Wall Street camps across the US and point to growing ties between the Occupy movement and established trade unions.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">The museum, which opened last weekend and features a survey of American art from Benjamin West to Georgia O'Keefe, from Norman Rockwell to Andy Warhol, and from Joan Mitchell to Walton Ford, has also come under criticism from within the art establishment for both inflating values and buying masterpieces from impoverished art institutions without giving local institutions a chance to match Walton's offer.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">While historians point out that this is little different from 19th-century robber barons such as Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Carnegie amassing vast collections of European art and bringing it to America, the prospect of hundreds of masterpieces in rural Bentonville, two hours' drive from Tulsa, is still controversial.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">Walton, at 62 the youngest of Walmart founder Sam Walton's four children, started buying specifically for the project in 2005. The Moshe Safdie-designed institution, which sits in 120 acres of dogwood trees and trails minutes from downtown Bentonville, already has 440 works on display and 800 in storage.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">"We set market records for very few pieces that we purchased," says curator, David Houston. "But there is latent criticism from an east coast elite that bringing a famous painting like Thomas Eakins's [$68m] Gross Clinic to Arkansas is itself an act of cultural vandalism. We're bringing art to the public, but it's a different kind of public, and there are social and political connotations to that."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">In the week since Crystal Bridges opened, it has already seen 5,000 registered visitors. "Sheer curiosity and hunger for an institution like this bears out Alice Walton's vision," Houston says.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">Ben Waxman, spokesman for the union-affiliated Making Change@Walmart, said: "Opening a huge, opulent museum in the middle of nowhere while the company is cutting health insurance for its employees is troubling. It sends the message Wal-Mart doesn't care about them."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">The issues of wealth distribution that have brought art into conflict with the labour movement at Crystal Bridges have also been on display at Sotheby's during the billion-dollar modern, impressionist and contemporary sales earlier this month in New York.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">Since August, when Sotheby's dismissed 43 unionised art handlers, its salesrooms have been besieged by Teamsters union members, bearing an inflatable rat and a fat cat banker with a cigar in one hand and throttled worker in the other. "The company is having its most profitable year in 267 years and they locked us out in the middle of our contract," said Teamsters member Phil Cortero. "Sotheby's represents the richest people in the world. When you lose your shirt down on Wall Street you come and hock your stuff here."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">Increasingly, the Teamsters are joined by Occupy Museum activists, chanting "We are the 99%!" They <a style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Protest" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/protest">protest</a> that the multimillion dollar art handled by auction houses is used to maintain and transfer the wealth of the 1%.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">Outside Christie's, which is not involved in the dispute, Los Angeles property developer Eli Broad, one of America's wealthiest men, confirmed as much to the <em style="border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;">New York Times</em>. "People would rather have art than gold or paper," he said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">OWS Labor Outreach member Mike Friedman said that Occupy had no problem with the art itself. "But at a time when we're seeing cutbacks in health and education spending, we're seeing the transfer of wealth by way of tax cuts and subsidies to an elite who use excesses of that transfer to buy these magnificent works of art."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">With the end of the Zuccotti Park sit-in, Occupy says it plans to initiate focused protests against cultural institutions associated with big Wall Street donors. It has singled out Lincoln Center, home to the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera and New York fashion week, which is financially supported by Tea Party funder David Koch.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; padding: 0px;">Back at Crystal Bridges, Houston argues that it will take years to see the full effect of how the Walton family has used its wealth. The family foundation is active in a whole variety of charitable activities, many of them educational, he says. "Their intent is not to create a shrine to an individual or even a family. Their goal is to create a tremendous cultural resource in this part of the world."</p></div></div>

Alice Walton, heiress to the Walmart supermarket fortune and the the 10th richest woman in the United States, opened a spectacular fine art museum in her home town

Architect Moshe Safdie looks out of a window next to a large red untitled magnifying disk sculpture by artist Fred Eversley at Crystal Bridg...

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British bonds win 'safe haven' tag in eurozone debt storm

<p> </p><p>British government bonds are attracting strong support, in sharp contrast to their troubled eurozone peers as investors seek a safehaven from a debt crisis now spreading to Italy, Spain and even France. British government bonds, or gilts as they are known, are in huge demand largely because the Bank of England is buying them up with newly-created money that it hopes can in turn be used to stimulate an anaemic economic recovery, analysts say. But investors are also reassured by the British coalition government's determined efforts to slash state debt and avoid the severe troubles that have snared the crisis-hit eurozone trio of Greece, Ireland and Portugal.</p>

British bonds win 'safe haven' tag in eurozone debt storm

  British government bonds are attracting strong support, in sharp contrast to their troubled eurozone peers as investors seek a safehaven f...

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TWO MILLION EUROS CLAIMED AFTER CANCELLED STONES CONCERT

<p class="imgart" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; line-height: 1.3em; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><img alt="The council are seeking to claim a total of 2,251,000€" border="0" src="http://www.theleader.info/media/images/articles/thumbnails/23623_320x0.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 1.5em; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; float: right; display: inline; border-top-left-radius: 6px 6px; border-top-right-radius: 6px 6px; border-bottom-right-radius: 6px 6px; border-bottom-left-radius: 6px 6px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 5px; border: 1px solid #cccccc;" title="The council are seeking to claim a total of 2,251,000€" /></p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; line-height: 1.3em; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;"><strong style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The PP mayor of El Ejido in Almería, Francisco Góngora, has criticized the "negligence" of the former government team and announced that the city council are to begin legal proceedings against the promotions company who were to stage a concert by the Rolling Stones in 2006.</strong></p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; line-height: 1.3em; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Following the findings of "many irregularities" in the case, the council are now seeking to claim a total of 2,251,000€, which they feel they are owed, in view of the cancellation.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; line-height: 1.3em; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The announcement was made at a press conference in which Francisco Góngora claimed that there was a “contractual obligation” by the promoter to ensure that the concert went ahead and that even if the company were insolvent, then they would seek recompense from the individuals responsible for the incomplete commitment made to the previous government team.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; line-height: 1.3em; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Information indicates that there was a contractual clause that stipulated that insurance must be provided that should the concert be cancelled, then the promoter would be able to repay any money owed, in full, through an insurance claim. It is believed that this insurance was never provided.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; line-height: 1.3em; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Although some money is said to have been returned, it was only about half of the 4.176 million euro that the city had paid for the organisation of the concert.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; line-height: 1.3em; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">There also appears to be a lack of information as to where the money actually went and who might be accountable for the cash given to the company by the council. There have also been allegations made that this whole case could be part of a much wider campaign of both political and corporate corruption.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; line-height: 1.3em; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Now, reviewing the clauses of the original contract, it has been found that the rights to claim the money back would expire after 15 years.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; line-height: 1.3em; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Góngora, also stated that there were economic losses of 2.6 million euro recorded after the second concert by the Rolling Stones in El Ejido held in 2007, which were due to "mismanagement" whereas the projected ticket sales were calculated at 60,000 attendees, but only 20,000 tickets were actually sold.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; line-height: 1.3em; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">Referring to the award of the second contract by the previous council, Góngora  stated that "despite the failed previous contract they rehired the same company for four million euro of which they did not deduct anything owed," continuing that he considered the failings to be down to the complacency of the previous PSOE government.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; line-height: 1.3em; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; margin: 0px; border: 0px initial initial;">The Ministry of Interior for Andalusia had already imposed a 60,150 euro fine on the organisers for breaching the rules on show cancellations in failing to return ticket money within the maximum four days which is set out by the governing body. In actual fact, it took several weeks for the organisers to return the money raised on the 50,500 tickets sold for the cancelled concert.</p>

TWO MILLION EUROS CLAIMED AFTER CANCELLED STONES CONCERT

The PP mayor of El Ejido in Almería, Francisco Góngora, has criticized the "negligence" of the former government team and announce...

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Hunted down: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi looks dejected and withdrawn following his capture

<p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Looking haggard and fearful, Saif Al Islam Gaddafi cowers in terror after his capture by Libyan fighters yesterday.<br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>His old swagger gone, the British-educated son of Colonel Gaddafi was clearly terrified that he might encounter the same fate as his father, who was killed a month ago.<br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Saif could yet face the death penalty for his crimes, but Libyan officials promised he would, at least, receive a fair trial. That trial could prove highly embarrassing for influential British figures – including Prince Andrew and Tony Blair – if Saif reveals details of the close links he enjoyed with them.</span></p><h2 style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"><br /></span></h2><div class="artSplitter" style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><img alt="Hunted down: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi looks dejected and withdrawn following his capture" class="blkBorder" height="477" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/11/19/article-2063561-0EDD0EFE00000578-722_634x477.jpg" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid black;" width="634" /><p class="imageCaption" style="min-height: 1px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> </p></div><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>The 39-year-old former playboy and womaniser was captured trying to flee across the border into Niger. A mob of angry protesters tried to storm the plane but were beaten back by soldiers under orders to keep their prisoner alive so he could face justice.<br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Only three weeks ago Saif had vowed to avenge his father’s death, declaring defiantly: ‘I am alive and free and willing to fight to the end.’</span></p><div class="relatedItemsTopBorder" style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> </div><div class="relatedItems" style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><h4 style="min-height: 1px; font-size: 1em; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"></h4></div><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"> </p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>But last night he was facing the likelihood of trial in his own country –  or extradition to the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges of crimes against humanity. <br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Thousands of Libyans celebrated in the streets after hearing that the fugitive, who remained loyal to his father’s murderous regime to the end, had been captured without a struggle.<br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>The dictator’s heir was intercepted near the oil town of Obari as he tried to reach the frontier in a 4x4 vehicle, accompanied by three bodyguards. <br /></span></p><p style="min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span>Desert fighters acting on a tip-off fired into the air and ground to bring the car to a halt.<br />As they checked the identity of those inside, Saif told them his name was Abdelsalam – which means ‘servant of peace’ – but he was immediately recognised and taken away by the fighters.</span></p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left; background-color: #ffffff;"><br /><br /></span></p>

Hunted down: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi looks dejected and withdrawn following his capture

Looking haggard and fearful, Saif Al Islam Gaddafi cowers in terror after his capture by Libyan fighters yesterday. His old swagger gone, th...

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Four police officers stabbed in north London

<p> </p><p>Four police officers were stabbed as they tried to detain a man after a disturbance in north London, Scotland Yard said on Saturday. Police said officers were called to an incident shortly before 9 a.m. on the main road in Kingsbury where they had tried to speak to a man before he ran into a butcher's shop and grabbed a knife. "Officers followed the man in an attempt to detain him and were subsequently assaulted," Chief Superintendent Dal Babu told reporters. "Four male police constables suffered stab injuries during the incident and have been taken by the London Ambulance Service to hospital." One was stabbed in the stomach, a second suffered head injuries and stab wound to his arm, the third was stabbed in the leg, and the last sustained stab wounds to a hand and also suffered a broken hand. Witnesses told media the suspect had been shouting at police beforehand and up to 10 officers had tried to calm him down. A 32-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and is being quizzed at a police station in the area.</p>

Four police officers stabbed in north London

  Four police officers were stabbed as they tried to detain a man after a disturbance in north London, Scotland Yard said on Saturday. Poli...

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