US Stock Indexes Little Changed After Opening Bell
September 29, 2009 by warrior · Leave a Comment
U.S. stocks rose in opening trading Tuesday, benefitting from data showing stabilization in home prices, after a sharp merger-fueled rally in the previous session.
Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was higher by about 19 points, moving above 9800. The S&P 500-stock index and the Nasdaq Composite Index also posted slight early gains.
A fresh round of corporate dealmaking Monday helped spur broad-based gains for stocks. The Dow industrials rose 124 points. The index is up 16% since the beginning of July, on pace for the best quarterly gain since 1998.
Mergers and acquisitions this month have helped underpin the market’s rally as investors interpreted the deal making as a sign of confidence among executives. Almost $30.7 billion of deals were announced on Sunday and Monday, and the moves followed other big recent moves by Walt Disney, Kraft Foods and Dell.
In economic data Tuesday, home prices climbed in July from a month earlier, according to the S&P Case-Shiller home-price indexes, with just two of 20 metropolitan areas – Las Vegas and Seattle – showing declines. Every region posted year-over-year declines.
David M. Blitzer, chairman of S&P’s index committee, said the rate of annual decline in home price values continues to decelerate, “and we now seem to be witnessing some sustained monthly increases across many of the markets.”
The report helped lift the shares of home builders like D.R. Horton, which were up about 1.6%, and Lennar, up about 2%.
The Conference Board’s consumer confidence gauge for September is due at 10 a.m.
Among stocks to watch, Walgreen shares rose 11% after the drugstore chain reported a 2% decline in its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings, but beat Wall Street expectations.
MBIA shares declined 6% after Standard & Poor’s downgraded its main bond insurance unit to non-investment grade status. Shares of rival Ambac Financial Group were down 1.7%.
Front-month crude-oil futures fell 90 cents to $65.94 a barrel, while Comex gold futures were down slightly, sliding about $5 to $990 an ounce. Treasury prices were lower and the dollar was stronger against the yen and the euro.
Overseas, Asian stocks followed Wall Street’s Monday rise, with the Nikkei 225 climbing 0.9% in Tokyo. In Europe, stock indexes were mixed.
Killer driver hiding in India: report
September 29, 2009 by warrior · Leave a Comment
Fugitive killer driver Puneet Puneet is reportedly hiding out in the Indian city of Chandigarh and it could be years before he is extradited back to Australia.
Puneet, 19, who police believe fled Australia using a friend’s passport, is living in a small community on the outskirts of his home town with relatives, the Nine Network reported on Tuesday.
And the fear is that if authorities move on him he could flee to Pakistan, about 200km away.
The family of Puneet’s victim, university student Dean Hofstee, may not see justice meted out to his killer for years, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland admitted.
Victorian Premier John Brumby is under fire for not raising the issue of the fugitive culpable driver with officials during his trip to India.
Puneet, a hospitality student from India, skipped bail and fled to New Delhi on June 12 after pleading guilty to culpable driving.
He killed Mr Hofstee, 19, and seriously injured Clancy Coker, 20, when his car hit the Gold Coast students as they walked to their hotel in central Melbourne in October, 2008.
The Victorian government waited until Tuesday – more than three months after Puneet is believed to have fled – to contact Mr Hofstee’s family about his extradition.
Mr Overland backed Mr Brumby saying extraditions were a matter for the commonwealth, not the state government.
“These matters can take years, okay? They can take years to resolve, so I’m not going to put any timelines about this,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
“I’m not going to give a running commentary about where the process is up to.”
Mr Brumby’s eight-day mission to India wraps up on Thursday. He then jets off to Scotland to meet the Queen.
Mr Hofstee’s mother, Fran, received a phone call from Acting Premier and Attorney-General Rob Hulls on Tuesday to assure her authorities were working on Puneet’s extradition.
“We haven’t had any information coming through to us (before Tuesday) to say that they are pursuing it,” she told AAP.
Ms Hofstee questioned whether Mr Brumby decided not to raise the issue because he was putting it in the “too-hard basket”.
“We would like to be able to get on with our lives.
“I don’t want to have to worry every six months or so, once again, we’ve got to make all the noises and make people uncomfortable because they are or they aren’t doing their jobs correctly.”
After the matter received widespread media coverage on Tuesday, Mr Brumby issued a statement explaining authorities had advised him it may damage the extradition process if he raised Puneet’s case with Indian officials.
“I have not raised the matter in India and do not intend to, as the strong advice from agencies is that doing so could make an extradition even more difficult,” he said.
“My public comments in relation to this matter have been consistent. Any change in my public comments risked being counter-productive.
“I stand ready to raise this matter at a political level should enforcement agencies advise that this would help secure an extradition.”
Extraditions are complex matters that take time and involve international law, he said.
Victorian Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said the premier had embarrassed himself by not raising the Puneet issue during his trip and he must do so immediately.
“It’s unbelievable, absolutely extraordinary, that John Brumby would view this as not a priority and did not have it on the agenda,” he told reporters.
US teen ‘held in closet for years’
September 29, 2009 by warrior · Leave a Comment
A woman has been arrested after her 14-year-son told authorities he escaped from a home where he had been kept for four-and-a-half years, spending most of his time locked in a bedroom closet, police say.
A security guard at a National Guard facility in Oklahoma City called police on Friday after the teen showed up malnourished and with numerous scars and other signs of abuse, police Sergeant Gary Knight said on Monday.
“He was hungry. He was dirty. He had numerous scars on his body,” Knight said. “It was very sad.”
The boy was taken to a hospital to be examined and then turned over to the custody of the Department of Human Services, Knight said.
After police interviews, officers on Saturday arrested the boy’s mother, 37-year-old LaRhonda Marie McCall, and a friend, 38-year-old Steve Vern Hamilton, on 20 complaints each of child abuse and child neglect. Formal charges have not been filed, and both were being held on $US400,000 ($A461,787) bond, according to jail records.
Jail officials were not sure if either had retained a lawyer, and no one answered the phone at McCall’s home.
The teen, wearing only a pair of oversized shorts held up by a belt, walked up to a security guard on Friday afternoon and asked where a police station was located so he could report being abused, according to a police report.
He told police scars on his stomach and torso were from where alcohol had been poured on him and set on fire. Other scars were from being tied up, hit with an extension cord and choked, the boy told police.
“He had scars covering most of his body,” Knight said. “They were basically from head to foot.”
The teen told police he moved to the Oklahoma City area from New Jersey about four-and-a-half years ago after his mother was released from jail. Since arriving in Oklahoma, he said, he had never been to school and spent most of his time locked in a bedroom closet.
He told police the closet door was mostly blocked with a stepladder or a bed and he managed to push the door open enough to escape and leave the house.
Knight said six other children living at the home were taken into DHS custody, but none showed signs of abuse.
A DHS spokeswoman said she could not discuss specific cases but generally an investigation would be conducted before any of the children are returned to the home or placed with other family members.
“There may be family members, but we do a diligent search, and we’re very careful about placing kids in a safe environment,” DHS spokeswoman Beth Scott said.
Sonia Rykiel to design for H and M
September 29, 2009 by warrior · Leave a Comment
Sweden fashion clothing group H&M announced on Monday that French fashion designer Sonia Rykiel will design clothing and lingerie for the store’s northern winter and spring collections.
“Sonia Rykiel will be the next designer invited for winter 2009 and spring 2010,” Hennes & Mauritz said in a statement.
A collection of lingerie will be launched on December 5 in 1,500 H&M stores, representing the vast majority of its stores worldwide, said the Swedish group. The collection will also be sold in the French designer’s shops, it added.
A second spring collection of knitwear for women and children will appear in 250 H&M stores on February 20, the group said.
“Sonia Rykiel is a true fashion icon who invented a signature style combining femininity, Parisian chic and modernity, as well as clothing that is practical, comfortable and wearable,” said Margareta van den Bosch, responsible for design at H&M, in the statement.
The Swedish inexpensive clothing chain has for several years teamed up with renowned fashion designers such as Karl Lagerfeld and Stella McCartney or popular artists like Madonna and Kylie Minogue who design or give their names to collections.
Founded in 1947 in Sweden, H&M ranks third in the world in clothing store sales behind America’s Gap and Spain’s Inditex group, which owns Zara.
French designer Sonia Rykiel, who opened her first store in 1968 in Paris, has become known especially for her line of tight-fitting knitwear.
Aussie porn star ‘was tortured, killed’
September 29, 2009 by warrior · Leave a Comment
Felicia Tang Lee was a Perth Catholic schoolgirl with big dreams but instead of making a name in mainstream Hollywood she drifted into the world of adult film.
The final chapter of her life was a gruesome one.
The 31-year-old, who also worked as a bikini model and had uncredited parts in The Fast and the Furious, Rush Hour 2 and Cradle 2 The Grave, was found dead earlier this month in a Los Angeles home she shared with her accused killer and boyfriend, Brian Lee Randone.
US authorities allege she suffered a slow, painful death at the hands of Randone, a former pastor and reality TV show contestant.
It was so severe that Randone was charged with a count of torture as well as murder.
Autopsy results are pending but investigators believe she was beaten and suffocated.
The killing shocked her close-knit family and friends.
“Felicia loved life and lived it to its fullest,” Lee’s traumatised family, who have declined interview requests, said in a statement.
“However, she was more than just a public figure.
“Felicia was above all a human being, a daughter, a sister, a friend to many who continue to love and honour her, as much in life and in her passing.”
Lee was born in Singapore and moved to Perth with her family when she was 11 years old, enrolling in an all-girl private Catholic school.
Two years later her family moved to Los Angeles.
At the age of 19, she began modelling for fashion catalogues and bikini calendars. and later moved into adult films, starring in titles including Asian Fever, Hotel Decadence and Sugar Daddy Wanted. Lee also made numerous appearances on Playboy TV and was a competitor on a pay-per-view strip poker TV tournament hosted by Carmen Electra.
Lee and Randone met poolside at the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas in April and the couple lived together in a house in the LA suburb of Monrovia.
Just after noon on September 11, Randone made an emergency call to authorities, telling them Lee was not breathing.
Paramedics could not revive Lee and authorities said evidence obtained from the home did not match up with Randone’s version of events.
Randone was charged four days later and is being held in an LA County jail in lieu of $US2 million bail.
Randone, originally from Omaha, Nebraska, obtained a bachelor’s degree from the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and a master’s of divinity degree from Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
He became a D-Grade reality TV star when, in 2000, he appeared as a contestant on The Sexiest Bachelor in America.
Gliding with ‘a tsunami in the sky’
September 29, 2009 by warrior · Leave a Comment
An Australian man has become the world’s first hang-glider to perform aerobatics through dangerous “Morning Glory” clouds above the Gulf of Carpentaria.
“It was the best moment of my life — but it could have been the scariest as well … it’s like a tsunami in the sky,” said 28-year-old Jon Durand.
The formation of the “Morning Glory” clouds, which can stretch up to 1km-long, has continued to baffle scientists.
The cloud blasts air upwards at its face, generating extreme lift, while the wind at the middle and end shudders downwards at 457m a minute
Woman ‘lied about radio host’s death’
September 29, 2009 by warrior · Leave a Comment
A woman lied to police about the brutal death of a Brisbane radio announcer in an attempt to protect her fiance, a court has been told.
Brian Heathcote died from asphyxiation caused by serious head injuries after he was severely beaten when he walking home from a pub at Nundah on January 21, 2007, the Queensland Supreme Court in Brisbane was told on Tuesday.
Prosecutor Brendan Campbell SC said Mr Heathcote, 40, had been repeatedly punched and kicked, and left to choke on his own blood by the side of the road.
Mr Campbell said the death was allegedly caused by a man who had been drinking at the same pub as Mr Heathcote, who had followed him and beat him before stealing his phone and watch.
Mr Campbell said the man then returned to the pub where he told his fiancee, Alexis Kathryn Jarvis, about the incident.
The court was told the pair returned to the scene of the attack, where Mr Heathcote was still struggling to breathe.
Questioned by police, Jarvis had lied for three hours about her fiance’s involvement, the court was told.
Mr Campbell said she gave the police four different stories before eventually breaking down and recounting what her fiance had told her about the attack.
She said she had felt sick when she saw Mr Heathcote, and she regretted not having helped him.
“I had a chance to save his life and I didn’t take it,” she told police.
Jarvis on Tuesday pleaded guilty to a charge of being an accessary after the fact.
She was sentenced to 18 months’ jail with immediate release on parole.
Her fiance is yet to face court. He is charged with Mr Heathcote’s murder.
Slaying of ex-MOVEr still roils feelings 7 years later
September 28, 2009 by warrior · Leave a Comment
Slaying of ex-MOVEr still roils feelings 7 years later
THE execution-style murder of former MOVE member John Gilbride Jr. in Maple Shade, N.J., has resulted in seven years of theories, accusations and harsh words between his father and his former wife.
The two have never seen eye-to-eye, even before John was shot to death in his car on Sept. 27, 2002.
The murder remains unsolved, but Gilbride’s father, Jack, believes that MOVE, the organization his son followed and later fled, has blood on its hands.
Faced with those accusations, MOVE matriarch Alberta Africa, now known as Alberta Wonderlin, continues to claim that her former husband is alive, forgoing any contact with the son he was fighting for in court for a life of seclusion, courtesy of the U.S. government.
“Maybe he went off the deep end or something and is hiding somewhere. He seemed like he was deeply involved in the government,” she said recently, standing behind the door of the Cherry Hill home she once shared with Gilbride and their son, Zackary.
Jack Gilbride, 70, said it’s hard to believe that Alberta still makes that claim to reporters, particularly since he identified his son’s body, attended his funeral, and buried his cremated remains.
“I could only wish,” he said during a recent phone conversation from his home in Virginia. “She knows more than anyone else that it isn’t true.”
Investigators at the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office have made no arrests in the case and the office declined to be interviewed for this story.
“It is still an open investigation and we continue to put forth our best effort toward solving Mr. Gilbride’s murder,” spokesman Joel Bewley said in a statement.
When asked to comment on Alberta Africa’s theory, Bewley said, “John Gilbride was found shot inside his car. He was pronounced dead at the scene.”
Gilbride, a baggage supervisor for U.S. Airways, was found dead inside his Ford Crown Victoria at 12:08 a.m. outside the Ryan’s Run apartment complex in Maple Shade, authorities said.
The killer, they said, fired multiple bullets into Gilbride’s head and chest at close range from an automatic weapon, then disappeared into the tangle of highways adjacent to the complex, leaving Gilbride’s personal belongings.
“He’s coming home from work late at night, going to his apartment, and they were there at that perfect time. Somebody had to know his schedule,” Jack Gilbride said. “The purpose was to take his life, nothing else.”
Later that afternoon, John Gilbride was scheduled to have his first unsupervised visit with his son, an action Alberta and other MOVE members had threatened to stop, Jack Gilbride claims.
“John told me he felt his life was at risk. He knew he was taking a big gamble,” he said.
Before she married John Gilbride, Alberta Africa was the widow of John Africa, founder and leader of the controversial radical group MOVE. John Africa and 10 other MOVE members died in May 1985, when Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on their Osage Avenue home after a standoff and shoot-out.
Given the group’s turbulent history, Alberta said police would have arrested MOVE members by now for John Gilbride’s death if they had evidence.
“We are not murderers,” she said.
John Gilbride first mingled with MOVE as a student at Temple University in the late 1980s, his father said, and later joined the organization and married Alberta against his family’s wishes.
John Gilbride filed for divorce in 1999 and engaged in years of heated court battles over custody of their son.
The timing of the murder and the custody dispute is more than a coincidence, Jack Gilbride says, and he claims investigators have searched into his son’s background for other motives and found nothing.
The theories presented by MOVE members themselves, namely that John’s death was part of a murky government plot, have been easy for him to dismiss.
“That stuff is so far-stretched,” he said.
In past interviews with newspapers, however, Philadelphia Police Capt. William Fisher, commander of the Civil Affairs Unit, has stated that John Gilbride’s murder seemed like a textbook mob hit.
Jack Gilbride said Fisher, who suggested that his son had a gambling problem and other enemies, did a disservice to the investigation and was simply trying to ease the department’s relationship with MOVE.
“He’s just doing his job to protect the city of Philadelphia,” he said.
Fisher, reached by the Daily News, said he could understand Jack Gilbride’s pain, but still doubts that MOVE was involved.
“He wants to think that MOVE did it because that solves his problem,” Fisher said. “I’m a parent too, and it’s an emotional thing.”
A gunman, particularly a professional one, could have known of John Gilbride’s problems with MOVE, and could have timed the murder to cast blame on the group, Fisher said.
If MOVE was involved, Fisher said, they would not have outsourced the job to someone outside their organization.
But former MOVE supporter Tony Allen, who runs an anti-MOVE blog, said MOVE would never have put someone in their closest family circles at risk by killing Gilbride.
He believes that MOVE would have given that task to a supporter.
“My hope is that there’s people in and about MOVE whose consciences will eat away at them,” Allen said.
Burlington County Prosecutor Robert Bernardi, in a past interview with the Inquirer, mentioned that MOVE members had been questioned in the investigation, but he did not comment on motives.
Jack Gilbride said he speaks with investigators there about every three weeks but acknowledged “they get tired of telling me there’s nothing new.
“They have looked at everything, and the one thing that hasn’t been dismissed, the only thing that hasn’t been resolved, is the custody issue,” he said.
The hard truth, Jack Gilbride claims, is that his son’s death resolved the custody issue for MOVE.
Zackary Gilbride, the little fair-haired boy at the center of the custody issue in 2002, is now a “big boy” of 13, his mother said.
Alberta Wonderlin said the former child model is a happy home-schooled teen, active in swimming and fencing.
“He has a life,” she said. “I don’t keep him locked up in here.”
But Wonderlin admitted that her son has unresolved feelings about his father, and they resurface occasionally.
“We were looking at some baby pictures and we found a picture of his dad, and he just fell into me,” she said. “He’s a big boy, but he was in tears.”
Alberta says the tears she cried for John were real in 2002 and she still feels his absence today.
“I’m still hurt about this. I do what I have to do to get by, but don’t think we aren’t hurt,” she said.”
Wonderlin said she remarried after John’s death, not out of love, but to give her son a stable home.
Jack Gilbride said his life has been anything but stable since his son’s death. His wife, Fran, died of cancer two years after his son was killed, and he speaks to Zack only once every three to six months.
Wishing his son were still alive is pointless, Gilbride said, so he focuses on resolving the case and hoping that the truth and time will someday bring Zack back into his life.
“That’s really my last hope,” he said. “He’s been raised by MOVE his whole life. I hope when he gets older, he’ll ask questions. I want him to know that his father fought for him.”
Anyone with information about the death of John Gilbride can contact the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office at 609-265- 7113.
