Global Oddities

An Ethiopian immigrant with a history of mental health problems is in custody after being accused of mailing a letter with HIV-tainted blood to Barack Obama when he was president-elect, according to court records.
Saad Bedrie Hussein told investigators that he is an admirer of Obama and that the letter — containing his photo, an admission ticket to Obama’s election night victory party in Chicago’s Grant Park and six index cards containing writing and reddish stains — was his way of seeking government help and tickets to Obama’s inauguration.
Hussein, who has HIV, said he “purposely cut one of his fingers with a razor so he could bleed on the letter,” according to an affidavit by Terry L. Cullivan, an investigator with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
The letter, postmarked December 27 and written in an Ethiopian language, was addressed to Obama at the Illinois Department on Aging in Springfield, Illinois. When the letter was opened two days later, it was found to contain an orange powder, Cullivan said. A state employee then took the letter to another state office, resulting in a two-hour lockdown of the building, affecting more than 300 people, the affidavit says.
During an interview, Hussein was unable to remember what the orange powder was, but tests revealed it to be a drink-mix powder, the affidavit says.
According to the affidavit, during a December 29 interview, Hussein denied mailing any additional letters.
But, the affidavit said, two days later, the Illinois Department of Revenue notified him it had received two similar letters, both with Hussein’s return address. One was addressed to the Illinois Department on Aging, and the second to “Emanuel,” which investigators believe was intended for Obama aide Rahm Emanuel. Both letters contained what appeared to be dried blood and an orange powder.
The criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Illinois alleges that Hussein “knowingly mailed” the letters containing HIV-infected blood “with the intent to kill or injure another.”
Source: CNN.com, February 27, 2009

A bungling Australian car thief was nabbed after accidentally locking himself in the vehicle he was trying to steal, police said on Wednesday.

Police were called to a house in Adelaide after two thieves were heard trying to steal a car. On arrival they were surprised to find a 53-year old man hiding inside the vehicle.

“The man, while breaking into the car, had locked himself in the car and couldn’t get out,” South Australian police said, adding a second thief was found hiding in nearby bushes
Source: Reuters, February 24, 2009

A jobless Taiwan man released from prison two years ago asked police to send him back so he could eat, police and local media said Tuesday, a grim sign of hard economic times on the island.

When police found the 45-year-old convicted arsonist lying on a street in a popular Taipei shopping district, he requested a return to life behind bars, nostalgic for the 10 years he had already served, the China Post newspaper reported.
Wang had also contacted police separately with his request, a spokesman said. Officers who found him bought him a boxed lunch but declined to send him back to prison, the police spokesman said.
“We advised him to keep looking for work,” he said. “I don’t know why he can’t find a job. Maybe employers think he’s not suitable or that he’s too old.”
Taiwan is in recession, with a slump in exports leading a record economic contraction in the fourth quarter of last year. Economists see more weakness through most of 2009, given falling demand for Taiwan’s electronics goods in overseas markets.
Source: Reuters, February 24, 2009

An 11-year-old boy is facing adult charges in the shooting death of his father’s pregnant girlfriend, authorities said Saturday.
Police say the boy shot Kenzie Marie Houk, who was eight months pregnant, once at point-blank range in her farmhouse in western Pennsylvania.
The boy, whose name was withheld by CNN because he is a juvenile, was charged with one count each of criminal homicide and homicide of an unborn child in the death of Houk, 26, Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo told CNN.
Houk’s 4-year-old daughter found her in her bed Friday, according to police. The child alerted landscapers working near the home, who then called authorities.
“This is something that you wouldn’t even think of in your worst nightmare, that you’d have to charge an 11-year-old with homicide,” Bongivengo said, according to CNN affiliate WTAE. “It’s heinous, the whole situation.”
Under Pennsylvania law, anyone over the age of 10 accused of murder or homicide is charged as an adult. If convicted, the boy faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, Bongivengo said.
Authorities said the boy is the son of the victim’s live-in boyfriend at the home in Wampum, about 35 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.
“At this point, we don’t believe it’s accidental,” Bongivengo said.
The weapon was a youth model 20-gauge shotgun, designed for use by children, that belonged to the boy, according to investigators.
Bongivengo told reporters the household has no history of child abuse, but that an investigation is ongoing.
Calls to the boy’s public defender, Dennis Elisco, went unanswered Saturday.
Source: CNN, February 23, 2009

Greece’s most notorious prisoner escaped from an Athens jail on Sunday in a Hollywood-style helicopter getaway — for a second time.

Vassilis Palaiokostas, 44, had escaped from the maximum security prison in 2006 in an operation involving helicopters and fast cars.

He was arrested again last summer for allegedly organising the kidnap of an industrialist and was awaiting trial.

“Palaiokostas and his Albanian accomplice escaped from Korydallos prison by helicopter,” a police official who declined to be named told Reuters.

“The helicopter was then found in the northern Athens suburb of Kapandriti but there was no trace of the fugitives.”

Palaiokostas was serving a prison sentence for multiple robberies and kidnapping when accomplices whisked him out of the prison courtyard three years ago. Police found him in August by tracing the marked ransom money.

Source: Reuters, February 22, 2009

A South Korean woman who has failed the driver’s exam 775 times is not about give up on her hope of buying a truck one day to go into her own business, whether other drivers want her on the road or not.

Cha Sa-soon, 68, has been trying since 2005 to pass the written portion of the test to get a licence, but she has so far failed to get the 60 percent required to clear it.

“I’ve looked up some guidebooks to get a driver’s licence, and they were saying it takes at most five years to get this,” Cha said in North Jeolla province, where farmers on tractors or cows can be just as common on country roads as motor vehicles.

“It’s already been four years, so I might pass the test next time. That’s what I hope for.”

Driving schools in South Korea offer courses to enable applicants to walk away with a licence in a week. Cha has not been fortunate enough to set foot in such a class, which tends to congregate more in busy metropolitan areas, but she remains unfazed, even after having spent more than 10 million won ($6,800) on test applications.

“I believe you can achieve your goal if you persistently pursue it,” she says. “So don’t give up your dream, like me. Be strong and do your best.”

Source: Reuters, February 21, 2009

An undergraduate of Novena University, Ogume, in Delta State, Nigeria, has allegedly hacked his mother to death over money and buried her in a shallow grave.

Vanguard gathered that the mother of the student, a known business woman, was reportedly murdered in cold blood few days ago following her alleged refusal to release money demanded by the son.
Details of the quarrel over the money issue was still sketchy but informed sources said that the boy in connivance with some accomplices after killing the mother buried her in a shallow grave at a dump site on Asaba-Benin highway, in the Midwestern part of the country. The boy has since been arrested.
State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Charles Muka, confirmed the story, saying “I can confirm that the corpse of the woman was exhumed from a shallow grave yesterday (Wednesday)”.
Source: Vanguard newspaper (Nigeria), February 20, 2009

Uganda’s President Museveni on Monday reshuffled his cabinet. For Ugandans, the big surprise was the president dropping his brother, Gen Salim Saleh, and appointing his wife Janet as a cabinet minister. Gen. Saleh has been a very powerful figure in his brother’s cabinet.

First Lady Janet, also first-term Member of Parliament for Ruhaama County in Ntungamo District, was appointed minister of state for Karamoja Affairs. With this appointment, Janet now plays the role of first lady, legislator and wife of the president.
Gen Salim Saleh, also known as Caleb Akandwanaho, was dropped as state minister for Finance in charge of Microfinance after less than three years on the job. He has, however, been retained as a senior presidential adviser.
President Museveni announced the changes while in Arua, West Nile where he was on a working visit.
The biggest casualty was Finance Minister Dr Ezra Suruma whose sacking follows several scandals under his watch, most notably those in the Uganda’s National Social Security Fund which he supervises. Like Saleh, he was retained as a senior presidential adviser.
President Museveni has been in power since 1986.
Source: Daily Nation, Kenya. February 20, 2009.

A woman who was beheaded near Buffalo, New York — allegedly by her husband — may have been on the phone with her sister when she was killed.
Asma Firfirey of suburban Cape Town, South Africa, told the Afrikaans newspaper Die Burger that she was on the phone with her sister, Aasiya Zubair Hassan, last week when she heard Hassan tell her husband to calm down. She said she heard Hassan say the two could talk about their impending divorce the following day.
Then she heard something that sounded like her sister struggling to breathe, she said.
“I can only imagine how scared and emotional she must have been before she died,” Firfirey said in the interview, reported in English by South Africa’s News 24.
Police have charged Hassan’s husband, Muzzammil Hassan, with second-degree, or intentional, murder in the death of his wife, according to the Erie County District Attorney’s Office.
Her decapitated body was found at the offices of Bridges TV, the television network where Muzzammil Hassan was chief executive officer and Aasiya Hassan was general manager.
Hassan told Orchard Park police his wife was dead, led officers to her body and was arrested Thursday, said Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita III. He is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday.
Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz on Tuesday contradicted a CNN report that quoted him as saying Hassan confessed to the crime.
A Buffalo attorney told CNN on Tuesday that he expects to represent Hassan but declined further comment, saying details had not yet been worked out.
Hassan came to America from Pakistan 25 years ago and became a successful banker, but he and his wife were troubled by the negative perception of Muslims, Voice of America reported in 2004.

Source: CNN, February 17, 2009

A Connecticut woman pleaded for police to “please hurry” to save a friend from an attack by a pet chimpanzee, according to emotional 911 recordings released Tuesday by Stamford police.
“He’s ripping her apart,” Sandra Herold, 70, tells dispatchers about her pet, Travis.
With the chimp squealing in the background, Herold cries out, “He’s killed my friend!”
The victim, Charla Nash, 55, remains hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after the chimp, once featured in television commercials for Coca-Cola and Old Navy, attacked her Monday afternoon, police said.
Nash had just arrived at Herold’s house when Travis jumped on her and began biting and mauling her, causing serious injuries to her face, neck and hands, according to Stamford Police Capt. Rich Conklin. Conklin said the attack was unprovoked, but he described it as “brutal and lengthy.”
Herold had called Nash to her house to help get 14-year-old Travis back inside after he used a key to escape.
While her friend was being attacked, Herold was unable to pull the primate off. She then called 911 before stabbing the chimp with a butcher knife and hitting him with a shovel. Neither fazed Travis, who police said had been like a child to Herold.
A Stamford police officer later shot the chimp multiple times after the primate went after him inside a police cruiser, Conklin said. Travis returned to the house, where police found him dead. Conklin estimated that Travis weighed close to 200 pounds.
Conklin couldn’t confirm media reports that the chimp had Lyme disease, though he did say investigators were taking their time with the case to determine what may have provoked Travis to attack Nash. Animals often do not exhibit symptoms of Lyme disease, caused by the bite of certain types of ticks, although aggression is a possible symptom, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Conklin said Nash had recently gotten a haircut that changed her appearance significantly. Conklin said the chimp had been acting “rambunctious” earlier, prompting Herold to put Xanax in a cup of tea for him to drink. He did not know if the animal had been prescribed the medicine or if Herold had ever given her pet such a mixture before.
Conklin added that his department is not used to dealing with cases such as this, and they were trying to familiarize themselves with laws and regulations before deciding if charges will be filed.
Conklin said this isn’t the first interaction his officers have had with Travis. The chimp, who was well known and liked in the community, escaped in 2003 and “wreaked havoc” on the streets of Stamford for a couple of hours, Conklin said.
Source: CNN, February 18, 2009