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Times (UK)
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Jun 19, 09 12:57 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Amanda Knox’s mother testified today that her daughter and Meredith Kercher, the British student she is accused of killing, were on good terms before the murder, the Times of London reports. Contrary to earlier testimony about tensions, the roommates “got along great,” Edda Mellas said at the trial in Italy. “She told me about the fun things she and Meredith did.”
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Washington Post
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Jun 18, 09 3:44 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Police discovered child pornography on a computer during a search of the home of suspected Holocaust Museum gunman James von Brunn, the Washington Post reports. FBI agents would not detail the amount or type of material discovered in the 88-year-old's Annapolis apartment. They also found a rifle, a handwritten will, and what seems to be a painting of Hitler and Jesus.
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Chicago Sun-Times
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Jun 18, 09 12:59 PM CDT
(Newser) -
The Colt revolver that killed John Dillinger is being auctioned next month in Chicago, reports the Sun-Times . Gangster aficionados should be ready to fork over between $8,000 and $12,000 for the gun fired by Indiana cop Timothy A. O'Neil in front of a Chicago theater 75 years ago. Meanwhile, the new Johnny Depp flick about the outlaw, Public Enemies , premieres tonight in Chicago ahead of its wider opening on July 1.
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New York Daily News
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Jun 17, 09 5:14 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Shades of Norman Bates in Psycho : A Brooklyn man accused of dressing up as his dead mom to collect Social Security checks and rent subsidies worth $115,000 has been indicted on 47 counts of grand larceny, forgery, and conspiracy, the New York Daily News reports. Thomas Prusik-Parkin, 49, and his accomplice, who posed as the frail woman's nephew, face 25 years in prison and have pleaded not guilty.
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New York Post
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Jun 17, 09 11:56 AM CDT
(Newser) -
She’s been linked to numerous men in the wake of her alleged assault by Chris Brown, but Rihanna seems to have settled on hip-hop artist Drake. “She and Drake were attached at the hip” at a recent party, a source tells the New York Post . “They are definitely together, but really trying to be discreet.” More from the world of Rihanna and Chris:
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BBC
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Jun 17, 09 3:54 AM CDT
(Newser) -
The Mexican Navy seized more than a ton of cocaine packed inside the bodies of frozen sharks on a freighter off the Yucatan coast headed for America, reports the BBC. The booty was pinpointed using dogs and x-ray machines, officials said. Drug fighters warned that powerful cartels are using increasingly innovative methods to disguise operations as they dodge a military crackdown to smuggle drugs into the US.
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Jezebel
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Jun 16, 09 2:06 PM CDT
(Newser) -
In a somewhat baffling move, Mary J. Blige has recorded a duet with alleged Rihanna-beater Chris Brown, Jezebel reports. Blige has been outspoken about her suffering at the hands of a former boyfriend and the terrors of growing up around domestic violence. To make matters more uncomfortable, it appears that the Blige/Brown song, leaked on the Internet, was originally intended for Brown and Rihanna.
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Associated Press
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Jun 16, 09 1:12 PM CDT
(AP) -
A South Korean man allegedly shot and killed a 10-year-old boy after hitting him with his car, apparently to hide the fact that he was driving drunk, police said today. The man, whose family name is Lee, struck the boy June 4 in Gwangju and took him to a hospital, said the officer who handled the case. The hospital told him to take the boy to a larger medical facility, but instead he drove the boy to a reservoir and allegedly shot him with an air rifle.
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Associated Press
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Jun 16, 09 9:06 AM CDT
(Newser) -
The Oregon woman accused of cutting the fetus out of another woman has been indicted on aggravated murder charges, but she won’t be charged for the fetus’ death, the AP reports. Under Oregon law, it must be shown that a baby drew at least one breath outside the womb before any separate charge can be considered.
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USA Today
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Jun 15, 09 8:19 PM CDT
(Newser) -
With Congress set to pass strengthened hate crime legislation this summer, Conservative Christian leaders are ratcheting up their opposition to a bill that would extend those protections to gays and lesbians, USA Today reports. Conservative leaders say they’re worried that clergy who preach against homosexuality could end up liable for inciting hate crimes, and have called for the repeal of all hate-crime laws as “extraneous and obsolete.”
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Associated Press
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Jun 15, 09 7:27 PM CDT
(AP) -
A white supremacist accused of fatally shooting a security guard at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum is in no condition to appear in court, a federal judge ruled today. James von Brunn, 88, was shot in the face by guards who returned his fire last week and is still hospitalized. FBI officials have said he is likely to survive.
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Associated Press
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Jun 15, 09 5:04 PM CDT
(Newser) -
AIG 's longtime CEO sold crucial assets in 2005 out of spite, the company's lawyers charged as they opened their civil suit against the ousted exec today in New York. “Hank Greenberg was mad. He was angry,” said a lawyer for the bailed-out mega-insurer. Greenberg was weeks away from being ousted as CEO when he authorized the sale of shares from a trust fund meant to provide for AIG execs.
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Associated Press
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Jun 15, 09 3:39 AM CDT
(Newser) -
A rare Sumatran elephant died after eating pineapples spiked with poison by poachers in northwestern Indonesia, officials report. The giant 30-year-old male, its tusks ripped out for the ivory, was the ninth Sumatran elephant found dead in the region in the last three months. At least seven of them were poisoned in some manner. Only 3000 of the animals exist in nature.
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Miami Herald
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Jun 14, 09 5:00 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Miami police arrested a teenager today in connection with a high-profile series of cat-killings, the Miami Herald reports. Accused of mutilating and killing more than a dozen cats, Tyler Hayes Weinman, 18, was charged with animal cruelty, improperly disposing of an animal body, and burglary. Residents alerted police to Weinman, whose divorced parents live in the two areas where cat murders occurred.
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Charlotte Observer
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Jun 14, 09 3:13 PM CDT
(AP) -
North Carolina cops have charged a second man in the rape of a woman that authorities say was arranged by her husband on Craigslist, reports the Charlotte Observer. Rodney Liverman, 39, faces a first-degree rape charge, along with three other sex offenses, and was jailed on $250,000 bond. Craigslist helped authorities locate Liverman, reports the AP; the victim's husband has already been charged.
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Associated Press
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Jun 14, 09 10:40 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Two of three people arrested in the Arizona murder of a 9-year-old and her father were involved with a small anti-illegal immigrant group, the AP reports. Shawna Forde, the founder of Minutemen American Defense, and Jason Bush, its operations director, were charged with murder, assault, and burglary in the home invasion last month, reports the Arizona Daily Star . The three had aimed to steal money and drugs, and leave “no witnesses,” police said.
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Times (UK)
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Jun 14, 09 8:28 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Amanda Knox said in continuing testimony yesterday that she imagined her housemate’s murder as “shocking, yucky, disgusting,” the Times of London reports. Asked why she said Meredith Kercher must have died slowly, Knox said: “I heard that she had her throat slit, and from what I saw in CSI, these things are not quick or pleasant so I said, 'Gosh...bleargh...this brutality, this death.'”
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New York Times
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Jun 14, 09 7:14 AM CDT
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The war on drugs has been waged for 40 years, but despite spending $44 billion annually, “the drugs have won,” writes Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times . A former police chief notes that “drugs are more readily available, at lower prices and higher levels of potency—the drug war is a dismal failure." It’s time to rethink our approach. “We need to be less ideological and more empirical,” Kristof urges.
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Washington Post
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Jun 13, 09 3:26 PM CDT
(Newser) -
The son of alleged Holocaust Museum killer James von Brunn wishes his father, rather than a "brave" security guard, had died this week, the Washington Post reports. "I cannot express enough how deeply sorry I am" that museum guard Stephen Johns died "and not my father," Erik von Brunn said in a statement. His father, a white supremacist, allegedly gunned down Johns at the museum Wednesday.
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