PJ Esperti

Untitled

wakeboard4343 — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 21:54:37 +0000

   HOUSTON — A Houston man pleaded guilty after he and a Pakistani living illegally in the United States were charged with conspiring to join the Taliban and fight against U.S. forces, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.
    U.S. Attorney Donald J. DeGabrielle Jr. said a four-count indictment charges Kobie Diallo Williams, also known as Abdul Kabir, and Adnan Babar Mirza with conspiracy. Mirza, a 29-year-old Pakistani who overstayed a student visa, also is charged with three counts of violating federal firearms laws.
    Williams, 33, a U.S. citizen living in Houston and attending the University of Houston-Downtown, surrendered Tuesday to members of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to the conspiracy charge. Mirza was already in custody on immigration violations.
    “While these subjects did not operate at a high level of sophistication in comparison with the 9-11 hijackers, the expressed goal was to aid the Taliban by training to carry out jihad against coalition troops in the Middle East,” said Roderick Beverly, the head of the FBI’s local office
    Federal prosecutors also allege that Williams had provided approximately $350 to Taliban members or their families.
    DeGabrielle said Williams was not charged with treason because he had not traveled outside the United States or taken any other overt actions to justify such a charge. He believed the money he had donated was going to families of the Taliban. He said neither man had any real contact with terrorist groups. He would not confirm whether the two had met with undercover agents posing as members of the Taliban.
    DeGabrielle and Beverly said the investigation was nearly two years old and began with a referral from the U.S. Border Patrol, although they would not discuss further details.
Williams’ attorney, Alamdar S. Hamdani, said Williams chose not to fight the charges.
    “He made a grave mistake,” said Hamdani. “And he has come forward to own up to that.”
    Williams and Mirza are being held without bond. Williams faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. Mirza’s maximum sentence would be 35 years in prison.
    The indictment says Williams and Mirza viewed U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq as “invaders” and agreed in April 2005 that they should travel to the Middle East to fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan. The two then underwent at least eight sessions of firearms and/or reconnaissance training around Harris County, which surrounds Houston, and other area counties.

Militants arrested in Egypt for Terror Plots

wakeboard4343 — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 21:46:18 +0000

The Egyptian Interior Ministry said two
Belgians, nine French and several others from Egypt and other Arab
countries were arrested along with the American.
    “Investigations
have confirmed that those elements are related to some terrorist
organizations abroad,” the ministry said in a statement. “They were
seeking to recruit others, teach them destructive beliefs, urging them
for jihad, traveling to Iraq to carry out operations via other
countries in the region.”
    A U.S. official said an investigation is underway to determine how significant this group may have been.
    The
ministry said that members of the group were living in Egypt under the
guise of studying Arabic and Islamic studies. It did not provide names
or say how many Egyptians and Arabs were arrested.
    They were arrested about a week ago, and some had been studying at Al-Al,
Sunni Islam’s most important seat of learning, police officials said.
They spoke on condition on anonymity because they were not authorized
to speak to the media. It was not immediately clear if all the arrests
took place in Cairo or elsewhere in Egypt.
   All of the arrested were in jail pending further investigation, the ministry said.
    Egypt witnessed a string of homicide terror attacks in recent years at Sinai Peninsula tourist resorts.
    Last
week, an Egyptian state security court condemned to death three Islamic
militants convicted of taking part in homicide attacks that killed 34
people in 2004 on the Sinai resort of town of Taba.
    The three belonged to the militant group “Tawhid andJihad,”
which Egyptian security officials and prosecutors accuse of carrying
out two other bombings against Sinai resorts that killed another 87
people — Sharm el-Sheik in July 2005 and Dahab in April.
    In
February, three British Muslims were released from an Egyptian prison
after spending nearly three years in custody for allegedly belonging to
a banned Islamic group. The three accused Egyptian authorities of
torturing them during their captivity, but the government denied the
allegations.
    Egypt operates under emergency
laws, which gives the government wide powers to detain suspects without
charging them. The laws have been in place since the assassination of
President Anwar Sadat in 1981 despite a growing chorus of opposition from both inside and outside the country.

Newborn tossed from Apartment Window

wakeboard4343 — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 21:36:16 +0000

The death of a newborn whose body was found outside a Bronx apartment building has been ruled a homicide Wednesday.
The New York Medical Examiner’s
office says the baby girl was thrown from a fifth-floor apartment
window and died from blunt impact injuries to her head and torso.

The autopsy performed today shows the infant suffered fractures and hemorrhage.
    Police
questioned a 14-year-old girl believed to be the child’s mother. The
teen was questioned by police at Jacobi Hospital, where the baby girl
was pronounced dead on arrival, said police spokesman, Sgt. Carlos
Nieves.
    Police were dispatched to the Eastchester Gardens
Apartments at 1166 Burke Avenue at about 8 a.m. Tuesday after a man
called 911 and reported that someone had thrown a baby out the window.
When officers arrived, the infant was lying unclothed on a patch of
grass near the building with the umbilical cord still attached, police
said.
    The teen, whose name was not released, had not been charged. Police said she lived on the fifth floor of building.
    Resident
Maxine Thomas, 40, said she was sleeping before going to her afternoon
job when her neighbor knocked on the door and told her police were at
the building.
    “She told me there was some baby
thrown through a window,” said Thomas, who has a 2-year-old daughter.
“I don’t know from which floor or who it was.”
    Thomas said police posted fliers in her building asking residents with information to come forward.

Untitled

wakeboard4343 — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 21:31:19 +0000

The practice of safe sex can be a very controversial subject.Some
suggest that handing out free condoms is the answer, but when it comes
to men behind bars, the answers are not always so simple.Sex
between inmates is illegal, but that hasn’t stopped the city of
Philadelphia from giving out free condoms. The cost is minimal and some
argue that ensuring safe sex, even for inmates, will eventually save in
medical expenses and possibly lives. Studies show that prisoners are three times more likely to be infected with HIV than the general population. Leon King, the commissioner of prisons in Philadelphia, said that by paying for condoms taxpayers are actually saving money.

“I don’t even know how much they cost, but I’m sure it’s pennies compared to HIV treatment,” said King.King
said Philadelphia prison officials have given out thousands of condoms
to close to 9,000 inmates. According to the health department, those
condoms cost taxpayers $360 a year.
    They argue that you can buy more than a million condoms for the amount
of money that it would cost to treat one AIDS patient for the rest of
their life.Richard Liu, from the National Minority AIDS Council,
said, “prisoners who are unable to abstain from sex should be given an
opportunity to protect themselves from HIV.”A recent report
released by his organization notes the correlation between higher
incarceration rates among African Americans and the increased HIV
infection within their community.Although condoms are allowed in
Philadelphia prisons, they are forbidden in state prisons in
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.Officials from the state
prison system said they don’t allow condoms because sex between inmates
is illegal. Some also said they worry that condoms can be used to
smuggle contraband.AIDS activists tell the NBC 10 Investigators
that they’ve asked Gov. Ed Rendell to take another look at
Pennsylvania’s policy, because they’re convinced condom use can save
lives.

Untitled

wakeboard4343 — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 21:28:09 +0000

    The three now former lacrosse players — Dave Evans, 23, of Bethesda, Md.; Collin Finnertly, 20, of Garden City, N.Y.; and Redea Seligmann,
20, of Essex Fells, N.J. — are facing charges of rape, kidnapping and
sexual offense. All three have not only proclaimed their innocence, but
the innocence of their teammates as well. Their trial is not expected to begin until the spring.
    The
accuser, who is an exotic dancer, was one of two women hired to dance
at an off-campus lacrosse party in March. She claims she was gang-raped
by three men in a bathroom over a 30-minute period. She told hospital
officials that not only was she raped, but that one or more of the men
ejaculated, and that her assailants did not wear condoms.
    All
but one lacrosse player submitted to DNA tests back when the charges
first surfaced earlier this year. The sole black player on the team did
not get tested because the accuser, who is black, said her attackers
were white. Tests failed to conclusively show any lacrosse players’ DNA
in or on the accuser.

The news reporter observed that the private laboratory hired by the prosecution, DNA Security of
Burlington, found that the DNA did not match the three defendants being
charged in the case, their lacrosse teammates or anyone else who
submitted their DNA to police, including the accuser’s boyfriend.

“This
is strong evidence of innocence in a case in which the accuser denied
engaging in any sexual activity in the days before the alleged assault,
told police she last had consensual sexual intercourse a week before
the assault, and claimed that her attackers did not use condoms and
ejaculated,” lawyers for the three players being charged said the
motion they filed Wednesday.

Deadly Tropical Storms

wakeboard4343 — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 16:26:16 +0000

47 die as tropical storm hits Vietnam – Yahoo! News

    Tropical Storm Durian, believed to have claimed the lives of more
than 1,000 people in the Philippines, blew tin sheets off houses in
Vietnam and caused the collapse of homes in Ba Ria Vung Tau province,
some 78 miles southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, that left 23 dead, said
Pham Nhat Quang, an official from the provincial military command.
    “The areas where the eye of the storm passed through looked like
they were just bombarded,” said Nguyen Van Tu, a local official in
another province where more than 4,000 homes were destroyed.

Philippines president Gloria
ordered stepped-up recovery efforts as she consoled the families of
those killed in mudslides set loose by the powerful typhoon.
    One woman hugged the president, telling her how she saw one of her
children and her husband swept away after they fell from a roof.
    Arroyo also visited Guinobatan, one of the worst-hit areas of Albay
province, where entire villages disappeared under tons of mud and
volcanic debris that cascaded down the slopes of the Mayon volcano last
Thursday.
    “The search for victims must continue as we tend to the sick and
hungry in the evacuation centers, but we must now also push on the
search for permanent solutions bearing upon the root cause of these
grave calamities,” Arroyo said.
    At its height, with 165 mph winds and a five-hour deluge, the storm
dislodged tons of debris from the slopes of the Mayon volcano. Walls of
mud and boulders destroyed nearly every standing structure in their
path.
    Official figures showed 526 dead, 1,000 injured and 740 missing.
Sen. Richard Gordon, head of the Philippines national Red Cross, said
he believed more than 1,000 died in the thousands of homes buried under
volcanic debris, mud and floodwaters.
    In Vietnam, where the storm had winds of 73 mph on Tuesday, at least
50 people have died, including three fisherman who drowned Monday when
their boat capsized as the storm approached.
    Seventeen people were killed in Ben Tre province, where more than
4,000 houses were destroyed and 26,000 others damaged, provincial
governor Cao Tan Khong said.
    Weather forecasters said the storm was expected to continue
weakening as it moved into the Gulf of Thailand on Wednesday morning.

Snipers Were Caught

wakeboard4343 — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 00:01:35 +0000

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17441097&BRD=1817&PAG=461&dept_id=68561&rfi=6



ROCKVILLE, Md. – Convicted sniper Lee Boyd Malvo was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for six murders in Maryland that were part of a three-week shooting spree that terrorized the
Washington area in 2002. The
Maryland trial in Montgomery County Circuit Court included Malvo’s chilling insider account of his trip across the country with accomplice and mentor John Allen Muhammad. In a brief statement in court Wednesday, Malvo apologized for his role in the killings. “I’m truly sorry, grieved and ashamed for what I’ve done,” said Malvo, his voice breaking. Malvo, 21, pleaded guilty in October to the murders in

Montgomery
County, where the series of 13 shootings began and ended in October 2002. It is unlikely, however, that Malvo will ever serve time in a
Maryland prison. He has already been sentenced to life in prison in Virginia for sniper shootings there and was sent to
Maryland last year for a new trial on the condition he be returned after his case ended. That could happen within the next several days, said Darren Popkin,

Montgomery
County’s chief deputy sheriff

Malvo testified in May against Muhammad, who was convicted of the same six
Maryland murders and sentenced to life in prison. Muhammad was previously sentenced to death in
Virginia.

          Malvo detailed the genesis of the sniper shootings, their killing methods and Muhammad’s grandiose plans for more carnage. He also confronted Muhammad, his one-time father figure, saying Muhammad had manipulated him, turning the then 17-year-old into a “monster.” Along with the Washington-area shootings, Malvo and Muhammad are either suspects in or charged in shootings in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and
Washington state. They are also linked to unsolved murders in Florida and
Texas. Last month, Malvo told investigators in Arizona that he and Muhammad were responsible for the unsolved 2002 shooting of a man on a golf course in
Tucson. Malvo’s lawyers said they hoped to craft a broader agreement that would allow him to plead guilty to some of the other outstanding cases, but it was unclear if they had made any progress on such a deal.

Another Man Killed by Stingray

wakeboard4343 — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 00:59:22 +0000

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15321718/

An 81 year old boater was sent to the hospital today in critical condition because he was stabbed in the heart by a spotted eagle stingray. The stingray left a foot long barb in his chest, just like the one that killed Steve Irwin. James Bertakis was on the water in his boat with his family when the stingray jumped into the boat. Bertakis was trying to lift the stingray back into the water when it stabbed him in the wall of his heart. The women that he was with steered the boat back to the shore and called 911. Bertakis had also suffered a collapsed lung, underwent surgery overnight and surgeons were able to remove the 2.5 inch barb, which had penetrated the wall of his heart. This incident was different from Irwin’s because the barb was left in his heart, instead of pulling it out like Irwin had. Doctors were able to remove the barb by eventually pulling it through his heart and closing the wound.

DUI kills Pedestrian

wakeboard4343 — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 00:40:48 +0000

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15335684/

This article from CSNBS talks about a woman Taliyah Taylor at the age of 24 was high on drugs when she struck a pedestrian and sent him flying. The man Larry Simon, at the age of 24 was and had no relations with the person that hit him. Simon was a lawyer who had previously worked as a prosecutor in the Staten Island District Attorney’s office from 1997 to 2000, was waiting in the median to cross the street and never saw the car, Smith said. Reporters do not know for sure because he was killed on impact. After being hit by the car he was sent into some above ground wires which severing his legs.
Taylor’s car was flipped upside down and slid into a nearby parking lot. She was pulled from the car not wearing any close and not hurt that bad. She was pulled out by a nearby employee working at a hardware store. Before she flipped over she had hit a car that wasn’t to far up the road, not severely hurting the two occupants.
Taylor was charged with Driving Under the Influence and second degree man-slaughter. Other sources say that
Taylor had no idea that she was not wearing any clothes and when she was able to think straight she did not remember anything that happened. She does not even remember smoking or flipping over in her car. They said that she was completely unaware of hitting a pedestrian or the car with the two civilians.

My College Experience

wakeboard4343 — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 13:50:04 +0000

    My college experience so far has been pretty memorable.
There are many things that have happened so far that i won’t forget,
but there are also many things that i would like to forget. College is
definitely more fun and exciting than high school, the only bad things
is that there is a bit more work. The work amount that you get also
depends on your major. For example a few of my friends are majoring in
childhood education, and had so much work i barely ever get to see
them, and most of their work is reading and writing. Business is the
major here that doesn’t really get that much work. I am a business
major and so far in all of my business classes I’ve gotten about 3
hours of homework the whole semester so far, and i have talked to older
students that are business majors and they said that it doesn’t get
much worse than 5 hours of homework per class for the semester.


Off the work topic my college experience has been pretty good when it
comes to social life and going out and having fun with some friends.
There has never been a night that we haven’t found something to do,
whether it be just hangout and watch a movie, go play some basketball,
lifting at the gym, or going out around Albany. I don’t think that
there has been a night that i have gone to bed before 12, and there
certainly hasn’t been a day where i couldn’t find anything to do. I
never really believed anyone when they used to tell me that college
would be the time of my life, because all I could think of is how much
work that I am going to have to do. But now I see how much fun it
really is and that i am having the time of my life.