Global Oddities

A Los Angeles-area man has been charged with murder in the death of his wife while on a cruise along the Mexican coast, an FBI spokesman told CNN sister network HLN.
Shirley McGill, 55, was found dead in her cabin on the Carnival Elation on Tuesday as the ship, after a five-day cruise to Cabo San Lucas, was heading back to its origination point of San Diego, California, authorities said.
Robert McGill, who is in his mid-50s, is charged with murder on the high seas, FBI Special Agent in Charge Keith Slotter told HLN.
The FBI and the Carnival cruise line said that a domestic dispute Tuesday night resulted in the woman’s death, but did not elaborate on how she was killed. The FBI said the cause of death would be determined through autopsy.
Another passenger became suspicious that foul play had taken place “for a variety of possible reasons,” Slotter said, and notified ship security. When security checked the couple’s room, Shirley McGill was found dead inside, he said. Authorities believe she had been dead for no more than a couple of hours.
Robert McGill was arrested on board the ship and was kept in its brig for the remainder of the cruise, the FBI said. After the ship docked, he was taken into federal custody, as crimes on the high seas fall under federal jurisdiction. FBI agents boarded the ship to start the investigation as the vessel neared San Diego, with the Coast Guard transporting the agents about 10 miles offshore.
Agents were completing their work on the ship Thursday, having interviewed about 50 passengers and processed the crime scene, Slotter said.
He would not elaborate on the domestic dispute, saying authorities are still trying to piece together what happened.
The 2,052-passenger Carnival Elation had departed on the cruise July
Source: CNN news online, July 17, 2009

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Washington County’s “Bunny Lady” is back in the hutch after violating a court order not to own or control animals for five years. Miriam Sakewitz, 47, was arrested again Tuesday at a Tigard hotel after an employee reported finding rabbits hopping around in her room.

Problems for Sakewitz started in October 2006 when Hillsboro police found and confiscated nearly 250 rabbits in her home, including about 100 dead ones in freezers and refrigerators.

Police said she broke into the facility where the survivors were being cared for in January 2007 and stole most of them back. Authorities found her a few days later in Chehalis, Wash., with eight live rabbits and two dead ones in her car. Another 130 were recovered at a nearby horse farm.

She was placed on five years probation, banned from owning or controlling animals and was told not to go within 100 yards of a rabbit.

Tigard Police spokesman Jim Wolf said Washington County animal control officers removed eight adult rabbits, five young ones and a dead one from her hotel room Tuesday.

Washington County probation officer Bob Severe said Sakewitz had undergone a court-ordered mental evaluation but that no treatment was recommended. He said she was thought to be living in Clackamas County.

“We hadn’t heard much further from her, she had been pretty quiet,” he said.

Authorities checked her residence occasionally and found it rabbit-free.

Then county probation officer Susan Ranger testified in August of 2007 that Sakewitz had a rabbit in her home in June, had canceled counseling sessions and refused to open the door for unannounced visits.

Ranger said she found no rabbits when she finally got inside but did find a half-empty 10-pound bag of carrots. Sakewitz was sentenced to three days in jail.

She was to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon on animal neglect charges.

Source: AFP, June 17, 2009

No one is quite sure why the couple wore a mast at their wedding. But that is the story of Ilana Jackson and Jeremy Fierstien as they wear surgical masks during their wedding in Highland Park, Ill.

source: Canadian Press/AP

A Canadian mother has fought off a cougar with her bare hands after it pinned down her three-year old daughter in a forest.
The child, named Maya, escaped with only superficial wounds after the attack near the town of Brackendale, 40 miles north of the western city of Vancouver.
But the cougar, an adult male, was tracked down and killed by conservation officers on Wednesday, reports said.
The girl’s father Pablo Espinosa told public broadcaster CBC that his daughter thought the wild cat wanted to play.
Maya asked: “Why didn’t the kitty play nice?” Mr Espinosa said.
The girl and her mother Maureen Lee were walking on a wooded trail with their dog when the cougar pounced.
“All of a sudden it just flew on her, rolled her a couple of times and grabbed her,” Ms Lee told CBC.
“She was on her back and (the cougar) had his paws on her head, and I just knew I had to react quick.
“So I just jumped in there and wedged myself between the cougar and her on the ground.”
Maureen said she then threw the big cat off her back, grabbed her daughter and ran.
Maya suffered puncture wounds to her left arm and head, but was reportedly recovering well.
Conservation officers used dogs to track down several cougars in the area after more than 30 encounters with the big cats were reported in the past 10 days, CBC said.
Source: Sky News online, June 19, 2009

A Long Island convenience store owner confronted by a bat-wielding would-be robber said Tuesday he decided to show mercy on the man after he collapsed in tears claiming he was only committing the crime to support his starving family.
Instead of getting loot from a stickup, the store owner provided the man with $40 and a loaf of bread, but only if he promised never to rob again.

“This was a grown man, crying like a baby,” Mohammad Sohail, owner of the Shirley Express convenience store about 65 miles east of New York City, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

The man dropped the bread, picked up the bat and tucked the $40 into his waistband before fleeing, said Suffolk County police Sgt. John Best.

Sohail, who moved to the United States from Pakistan about 20 years ago, said he was getting ready to close his store shortly after midnight on May 21 when the man in his 40s entered with a bat in his hand. Sohail said he tried to stall for a moment and then grabbed a rifle he keeps behind the counter and ordered the assailant to drop the bat.

The would-be thief dropped to his knees and begged for forgiveness, Sohail said.

“He started crying that he was out of work and was trying to feed his hungry family,” he said. “I felt bad for him. I mean, this wasn’t some kid.”

He said he tossed $40 to the man, who then stood up and told Sohail he wanted to become a fellow Muslim. Sohail said he then pretended to swear the man into the Muslim faith and two ended up shaking hands.

Sohail said he went to the back of the store to get some milk to give to the man, but when he returned the man had fled. He said he called police and reported the attempted robbery, but he doesn’t want to press charges if the man is ever caught.

Best said detectives have reviewed a store surveillance video of the attempted holdup, but said it would be difficult for anyone to identify the suspect because he was wearing a mask.

Sohail, who said he had never been the victim of a robbery attempt, said he didn’t expect any accolades for what he had done.

“I’m a very little man. I just did a good job,” said the married father of one. “I have a good feeling in my heart. I feel very good.”

Source: AP, June 3, 2009

A Kentucky pastor is inviting his flock to bring guns to church to celebrate the Fourth of July and the Second Amendment.

New Bethel Church is welcoming “responsible handgun owners” to wear their firearms inside the church June 27, a Saturday. An ad says there will be a handgun raffle, patriotic music and information on gun safety.

“We’re just going to celebrate the upcoming theme of the birth of our nation,” said pastor Ken Pagano. “And we’re not ashamed to say that there was a strong belief in God and firearms — without that this country wouldn’t be here.”

The guns must be unloaded and private security will check visitors at the door, Pagano said.

He said recent church shootings, including the killing Sunday of a late-term abortion provider in Kansas, which he condemned, highlight the need to promote safe gun ownership. The New Bethel Church event was planned months before Dr. George Tiller was shot to death in a Wichita church.

Kentucky allows residents to openly carry guns in public with some restrictions. Gun owners carrying concealed weapons must have state-issued permits and can’t take them to schools, jails or bars, among other exceptions.

Pagano’s Protestant church, which attracts up to 150 people to Sunday services, is a member of the Assemblies of God. The former Marine and handgun instructor said he expected some backlash, but has heard only a “little bit” of criticism of the gun event.

John Phillips, an Arkansas pastor who was shot twice while leading a service at his former church in 1986, said a house of worship is no place for firearms.

Source: AP, June 4, 2009

A New Hampshire man has been arrested for the 153rd time, this time after he was accused of punching someone in the face over the weekend.

Forty-nine-year-old Portsmouth resident Paul Baldwin told a judge Monday he plans to plead guilty to the assault, along with trespassing and alcohol charges.

He says he’s had a long battle with alcohol and was trying to correct the problem during his most recent one-year jail term, which ended last week.

The Foster’s Daily Democrat newspaper says Baldwin’s record dates to 1984 and includes 152 other arrests, eight trespass orders, 75 citations, four Social Security aliases and 17 name aliases.

Source: AP, June 3, 2009

Two convicted murderers put on corrections-officer uniforms and walked out of an Arkansas prison during a shift change, officials said Saturday as they searched for the men.
Jeffrey Grinder, 32, and Calvin Adams, 39, escaped Friday evening from the Cummins Unit prison in Grady more than three hours before officials realized they were missing, corrections department spokeswoman Dina Tyler said.

Both men were serving life sentences without the possibility of parole at the prison about 60 miles southeast of Little Rock.
The guard uniforms the inmates put on are made in the prison. Video surveillance shows the men put them on in the prison library after the 6 p.m. headcount and walked out of the prison during a shift change less than 20 minutes later, Tyler said.
Prison officials are investigating whether all policies and procedures were followed.

“Someone should have laid eyes on them. That’s one of the things we’re looking at: How exactly did they get out without someone challenging them?” Tyler said.
Grinder and Adams drove away in a maroon or burgundy colored, 4-door sedan that had been left for them. Officials realized the men were missing after coming up short during the 10 p.m. inmate headcount, Tyler said.
Grinder was convicted of capital murder in 2004, and Adams was convicted of capital murder in 1995. Both men have family in Arkansas and out of state.
“We think there’s probably a pretty good chance that they are not in Arkansas,” she said.
Corrections officials are trying to develop leads on where the men are and hoping someone will spot them. Anyone who sees the men should call the Arkansas state police or their local law enforcement, Tyler said.
Source: AP, May 30, 2009

Bubba Ludwig may only be 10 months old, but he has already successfully obtained a gun licence in the US state of Illinois.
Bubba’s father, Howard Ludwig, applied on his behalf after his grandfather gave him a shotgun as an heirloom.
Mr Ludwig said he had not expected to succeed, but he filled in the online form, paid $5 and the licence was his.
US gun laws are regularly the subject of fierce debate, renewed recently after April’s Virginia Tech killings.
Gunman Cho Seung-hui was able to exploit a loophole in Virginia state law and obtain weapons despite having a history of mental illness. The loophole was later closed.
The licence includes a picture of a toothless Bubba and a squiggle that represents his best attempt at a signature.

Illinois gun laws are said to be among the strictest in the US.
But Illinois State Police, who oversee the application process, said that they had followed the law in this case.
“Does a 10-month-old need a FOID card? No, but there are no restrictions under the act regarding age of applicants,” the Associated Press news agency quoted Lt Scott Compton as saying.
Mr Ludwig said Bubba’s gun would likely remain at his grandfather’s house until he was 14.
“I’m not about to approve any unsupervised hunting or trap shooting for Bubba,” he wrote in the Chicago daily.
“Still, I’m glad he was able to get his FOID card. It makes an adorable addition to his baby book.”

Source: BBC news online, May 29, 2009

A teenage member of a violent street gang in Guatemala killed his younger brother for belonging to a rival group, police said on Friday, as the two criminal groups battle for dominance across Central America.

Hector Mazariegos, 18, who belongs to the Mara 18 gang, shot dead his 13-year-old brother Cesar, a member of the rival Mara Salvatrucha, outside the house they shared in a dangerous run-down district of Guatemala City. The younger brother wounded his sibling.

“They had been arguing for a few days when it built up to a fire-fight in the street,” police spokesman Marco Trejo told Reuters.

Hector Mazariegos was captured a few blocks from the scene. He was treated for bullet wounds in hospital while under police guard.

Trejo said both brothers had tattoos showing their allegiance to the rival gangs.

Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras are overrun with violent youth gangs known as ‘maras’ that trace their roots to Salvadoran immigrants on the streets of Los Angeles in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Mara Salvatrucha and the Mara 18 are the two largest gangs, with members often tattooing their faces with gang signs and killing rivals with gruesome beheadings or execution-style shootings.

Authorities in Guatemala say gang members are responsible for extortions, assaults and murders, which make the country one of the most violent in Latin America with more than 6,000 homicides last year in a population of just 13 million people.

Guatemala is still scarred by a 1960-1996 civil war between leftist guerrillas and the government that killed nearly a quarter of a million people. Families were sometimes caught on both sides of the violent struggle.

Source: Reuters, May 12, 2009