23.12.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
A man has been charged with the rape and murder of a British teacher who was found buried in a sand-filled bath in Japan.
Japanese student Tatsuya Ichihashi, 30, is accused of killing Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22, who lived in Brandon, near Coventry.
Her body was found at Mr Ichihashi’s Tokyo flat in March 2007.
Miss Hawker’s parents spoke of their relief that the main suspect in their daughter’s death was facing trial.
Miss Hawker, a Leeds University graduate, was teaching English at Koiwa school in Tokyo when she went missing.
She was last seen alive after giving Mr Ichihashi an English lesson in a coffee shop on 25 March.
On the run
Her battered and bound naked body was found in a bath filled with sand at Mr Ichihashi’s home.
Mr Ichihashi was arrested at a ferry port in Osaka, southern Japan, after he went on the run for more than two-and-a-half years.
He was caught after a surgeon came forward with information about him. He was believed to have had surgery to change his appearance.
Tatsuya Ichihashi has been charged with rape and murder
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In November police in Japan released a picture of Mr Ichihashi showing how he was thought to look.
In a statement Miss Hawker’s parents, Bill and Julia, said they were pleased Mr Ichihashi had been charged.
They said: “The Hawker family are relieved that Ichihashi was captured on November 10.
“Our fight for justice for our daughter Lindsay was directed at the capture of Tatsuya Ichihashi. It was a long two years and seven months battle.
“The Japanese police and justice system will now deal with him, in line with Japanese law.
“Bill has just returned from Japan, heartened by the fact that the authorities are doing all they can to bring these charges and make him stand trial.
“We have supported the Japanese police investigation throughout and are relieved that Tatsuya Ichihashi has now been charged.”
23.12.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Mexico’s leaders have expressed outrage at the apparent reprisal killing of the family of an elite Mexican solider who died in a high-profile drugs raid.
Four members of marine Melquisedet Angulo Cordova’s family were killed at their home in the south-eastern state of Tabasco within hours of his funeral.
He died during an operation targeting one of Mexico’s biggest drugs lords.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon called the murders “a cowardly and contemptible act of violence”.
“These outrageous actions show the lack of scruples of organised crime in mowing down innocent lives,” he said of the attack during which the marine’s mother, brother, sister and aunt were killed.
Senate spokesman Sebastian Calderon described the situation as disastrous but vowed that the government would continue its fight against the drugs barons.
“We mustn’t let our guard down, the government must continue and complete its duty,” he said.
Crackdown
Gunmen targeted the family just a few hours after they had buried his body.
A local police official described how the gunmen had broken down the door of the family home, in Quintin Arauz, with a sledgehammer.
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ARTURO BELTRAN LEYVA
One of Mexico’s most-wanted drug traffickers
Had $2.3m bounty on his head
One of five brothers
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“They [...] sprayed them with bullets in the living room and bedrooms,” deputy police commander Saturnino Dominguez said.
As well as the four victims, another relative was seriously injured during the attack.
Reporter Franc Contreras, in Mexico City, said the multiple murders were being considered a revenge killing in Mexico, raising fears that the government is not able to protect those who battle the cartels on behalf of the state.
Cordova was the only solider killed during the raid on the property of Arturo Beltran Leyva, who was the third most-wanted man in Mexico.
Beltran Leyva and four alleged members of his cartel died during a shoot-out involving some 200 officers at a flat in Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City, last Thursday.
Based on the Pacific coast, his cartel was one of Mexico’s most powerful and violent drug gangs.
Known as the “boss of bosses”, Arturo Beltran Leyva was one of five brothers who split from the Sinaloa cartel and aligned themselves with Los Zetas, a group of former soldiers hired by the Gulf Cartel as hit men.
The split is believed to have fuelled much of the bloodshed across Mexico, where more than 14,000 people have died in drugs-related violence since 2006.
Mexico’s authorities are battling a wave of violence by drug gangs fighting over smuggling routes to the US.
Washington says the rising death toll is a sign the drug gangs are weakening under President Calderon’s military crackdown, which has seen some 49,000 extra troops deploy across Mexico.
23.12.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Guinea could face a civil war if the country’s military leader returns home, France’s foreign minister has said.
Bernard Kouchner told French MPs that Moussa Dadis Camara should remain in Morocco where he is in hospital after an assassination attempt.
Earlier, the European Union toughened its sanctions against Guinea.
It froze the assets of members of the military government and banned European companies from exporting equipment that could be used for state repression.
The number of Guineans covered by a travel ban imposed in October, when the EU also brought in an arms embargo, has also nearly doubled.
The move followed a leaked UN report on Monday which said that Capt Camara should be charged with crimes against humanity over the killing of more than 150 opposition protesters at a stadium in September.
It said the coup leader bears “direct criminal responsibility” for the killings.
‘Getting better’
Earlier this month Capt Camara, who came to power a year ago after the death of long-time leader Lansana Conte, was shot and wounded by one of his own soldiers on 3 December.
He was flown to Morocco for treatment and has not yet returned to Guinea – fuelling rumours that he was seriously injured.
“I hope that Mr Dadis Camara stays in his bed in Morocco and does not return home as his return would be capable of triggering a civil war that we really don’t need,” Mr Kouchner told the French parliament.
But a senior Guinean diplomat told the AFP news agency that the junta hoped Capt Camara would be back soon.
“He is doing better and intends to return to Conakry as quickly as possible,” said Mamadouba Diabate, Guinea’s ambassador to Morocco.
23.12.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
The governor of the southern Colombian province of Caqueta has been found dead less than a day after he was kidnapped by suspected rebels, authorities say.
President Alvaro Uribe said the kidnappers had cut Luis Francisco Cuellar’s throat as they were being chased by security forces.
Mr Cuellar was seized from his house on Monday in the provincial capital.
Officials are blaming the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) guerrillas for his killing.
Mr Cuellar was the most high-profile politician abducted since Mr Uribe came to power in 2002.
Luis Francisco Cuellar had been kidnapped several times before
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“The terrorists burned the vehicle in which they kidnapped the governor, further ahead they killed him, they slit his throat, they killed him miserably,” said President Uribe, in a nationally televised address.
“They slit his throat to avoid making noise because they knew that the armed forces were in the surrounding area.
“In the midst of pain we reiterate today all our determination to defeat these terrorists.”
Earlier, Mr Uribe, whose father was killed in 1983 during a botched kidnapping by rebels, had said Colombia could not be “held captive by the whim of terrorists, terrorists who bathe the country in blood and who trick us every day”.
Ransom offered
Mr Cuellar was taken from his home by about 10 gunmen, who lobbed grenades at the building. One policeman was killed in the attack and two more were wounded.
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FROM BBC WORLD SERVICE
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More than 2,000 military personnel had been deployed in the search for the kidnappers.
The authorities had also offered 1bn pesos ($500,000; £312,000) to anyone giving information leading to Mr Cuellar’s safe return.
But his body was found hours later, close to a burnt-out vehicle on a road about 15km (9 miles) outside Florencia.
He had been bound and gagged and had several bullet wounds in his body. Explosives had been placed around him.
It remains unclear whether the kidnappers initially intended to kill Mr Cuellar, says the BBC’s Jeremy McDermott in Colombia.
In the past, high-profile figures have been kidnapped to try to force the government to make prisoner exchanges.
Mr Cuellar had previously been kidnapped four times in the past 23 years, but for ransom, his wife told the Associated Press news agency.
New leadership
Caqueta has been a stronghold of the Farc – Colombia’s oldest and largest left-wing rebel group – for many years.
It was where French-Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt was kidnapped in 2002.
The Farc has not claimed responsibility for the attack on Mr Cuellar, but is widely thought to have been behind it.
The acting governor of Caqueta, Patricia Vega, told local media she had no doubt that the Farc was responsible.
The guerrillas, who finance their operations through drugs trafficking, were thought to number some 16,000 fighters, but analysts suggest their ranks have fallen to about 9,000.
They suffered a series of defeats at the hands of the security forces in 2008, but the rebels appear to have rallied under new leadership and to be seeking to regain the initiative in the country’s 45-year civil conflict, our correspondent says.
Attacks and kidnappings have lessened, but the guerrillas are still holding more than 20 police officers and soldiers, often referred to as high-profile hostages, who were seized more than a decade ago.
It is also believed to have kidnapped hundreds of other people, mainly for ransom, over the years.
23.12.09 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
US actor Arnold Stang, who voiced the lead character in 1960s television cartoon Top Cat, has died aged 91.
Stang died of pneumonia at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Massachusetts on Sunday, JoAnne Stang, his wife of 60 years, said.
Known for his distinctive nasal voice and nerdy looks, the actor also starred alongside Frank Sinatra in 1955 film The Man with the Golden Arm.
He was also appeared in 1963 comedy It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
‘Really unique’
Mrs Stang attributed her husband’s career longevity to his willingness to tackle any professional challenge.
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A clip from the first episode of Hanna-Barbera’s Top Cat
“He was really unique, because he could perform in any role, comedy or drama, he just loved it all,” she said.
“He always thought of himself just as an actor, not any particular kind of actor, but just an actor who would play whatever he was asked to play.”
Stang started his career on the radio as a teenager and played alongside Milton Berle on radio and TV in the 1950s.
He spent a lot of his career voicing cartoons and dozens of advertisements, and also made appearances on US TV shows including The Cosby Show and Batman.
His last big screen role was in 1993 movie Dennis the Menace.
