Hostess Brands faces penalty over worker’s amputation injury -US Labor Dept
WASHINGTON The U.S. Labor Department said on Friday that Hostess Brands is facing a $298,000 penalty after federal
2023-06-16 23:55
Read: Justice Department investigation of Minneapolis Police Department
DOJ's report found that "systemic problems" at the city's police department led to George Floyd's murder in May 2020.
2023-06-16 23:50
Japan raises the age of sexual consent to 16 from 13, which was among the world's lowest
Japan’s parliament has raised the age of sexual consent to 16 from 13, a limit which had remained unchanged for more than a century and was among the world’s lowest, amid calls for greater protection of children and women
2023-06-16 23:50
US consumers' near-term inflation expectations hit two-year low; sentiment rises
By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. consumers' near-term inflation expectations dropped to more than a two-year low in June and
2023-06-16 23:50
US finds Minneapolis police had pattern of using excessive force
By Jonathan Allen (Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Justice released findings from its two-year investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department
2023-06-16 23:28
Nathan Carman, 28, accused of killing mother on fishing trip in murky family murder saga dies awaiting trial
A Vermont man has died in custody while awaiting trial on charges of killing his mother at sea, federal authorities said on Thursday. Nathan Carman, 29, was accused of the first-degree murder of his mother Linda Carman during a 2016 boating trip in what prosecutors alleged was a plot to inherit millions of dollars. Carman pleaded not guilty last year to fraud and first-degree murder and had been due to go on trial in October. The cause of his death was not immediately known. In September 2016, Carman arranged a fishing trip from a Rhode Island marina with his mother, during which his boat reportedly sank and his mother disappeared. Carman was found floating in an inflatable raft eight days later, while his mother has never been found. Prosecutors allege that Carman made alterations to the boat to make it more likely to sink. He was also accused of killing his grandfather, John Chakalos, who was shot dead in his home in Windsor, Connecticut, in 2013. Chakalos’s killing was part of a scheme by Carman to obtain millions of dollars from his grandfather’s estate, according to an eight-count indictment. He had not been charged in that case. Chakalos had made a fortune of tens of millions of dollars by building and renting nursing homes. Last May, Carman was arrested and charged with his mother’s murder. Prosecutors urged him to be held in custody pending trial as he was a flight risk. Carman was being held by US Marshalls at the time of his death. His attorney Martin Minnella told the Associated Press that he had been in good spirits when they spoke on Wednesday, and they had been due to meet again on Thursday. “We were meeting with some experts today over Zoom at 12 o’clock. We were prepared to start picking a jury on October 10 and we were confident we were going to win,” he said. “It’s just a tragedy, a tragedy.” According to prosecutors, Carman’s inheritance scheme began nearly a decade ago when he purchased a rifle in New Hampshire and used it to shoot Chakalos while he was asleep in his Connecticut home on 20 December 2013. Carman then discarded his own computer hard drive and the GPS unit that had been in his truck, according to the indictment. After his grandfather’s death, Carman received $550,000. He moved from Bloomfield, Connecticut, to Vernon, Vermont, in 2014, was unemployed, and by 2016 had squandered most of his inheritance, they alleged. He then organised the fatal boating trip with his mother Linda, of Middletown, Connecticut. In 2019, Chakalos’ three surviving daughters filed a lawsuit in New Hampshire seeking to block Carman from receiving any more of his grandfather’s inheritance. The case was dismissed after a judge ruled that Chakalos was not a New Hampshire resident. It was later refiled in Connecticut and was still pending. The three sisters issued a statement to the AP saying they were “deeply saddened” by Carman’s death. “While we process this shocking news and its impact on the tragic events surrounding the last several years we ask for your understanding and respect relative to our privacy,” they said through a lawyer. Read More Man charged with murdering mother on fishing boat to inherit grandfather’s riches Man found on raft after mother's mystery death at sea was suspect in grandfather's killing Treat Williams death: Everwood and Hair star dies aged 71 following motorcycle accident
2023-06-16 23:25
Woman whose father’s remains were trafficked by Harvard morgue staff says she was ‘going to throw up’ - latest
A Harvard Medical School morgue manager and his wife are among five people who have been charged with stealing and selling human remains. Cedric Lodge, who was fired on 6 May, allegedly stole “heads, brains, skin and bones” from cadavers that were donated to the school, federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania said on Wednesday. He and his wife Denise sold the body parts to buyers in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, sending them in the post, according to the indictment. In one case, the buyer allegedly intended to tan skin into leather. The scheme, which is part of a larger black market, is alleged to have gone on from 2018 to 2022. Mr Lodge, who was hired by Harvard in Boston, Massachusetts in 1995, allegedly sometimes allowed potential buyers into the morgue to choose which body parts they wanted. After the horrifying allegations emerged, family members who donated their loved ones’ bodies to medical research spoke of their horror. “We were just disgusted,” Paula Peltonovich, whose father’s remains were donated to the school, told the Boston Globe on Thursday. “Sick, like we were going to throw up.” Read More ‘Disgusted’: Woman speaks out after father’s remains trafficked by Harvard morgue manager ‘Heads, brains, skin and bones’: Everything we know about the Harvard morgue body parts case Niece says she feels ‘sick’ after learning Harvard morgue worker accused of selling human remains Harvard morgue manager ‘sold body parts and human skin that was made into leather’ Harvard Medical School morgue manager, 4 others indicted in theft, sale of human remains
2023-06-16 23:25
Blinken heads to Beijing hoping to calm fears of a US-China break
By Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken goes to Beijing this weekend with expectations low
2023-06-16 23:22
'Systemic problems' at Minneapolis Police Dept. led to George Floyd's murder, Justice Department says
Three years after George Floyd was murdered by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the Justice Department issued a blistering report Friday of the city's police department, detailing racial discrimination, excessive and unlawful use of force, First Amendment violations and a lack of accountability for officers.
2023-06-16 23:17
Canada Supreme Court upholds asylum-seeker pact
By Anna Mehler Paperny TORONTO (Reuters) -Canada's Supreme Court on Friday upheld an asylum-seeker pact between Canada and the United
2023-06-16 22:49
‘Suitcase killer’ Heather Mack pleads guilty to conspiracy to murder – facing up to 28 years in US prison
“Suitcase killer” Heather Mack is facing up to 28 years in US prison after she pleaded guilty to conspiring to murder her socialite mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack at a luxury 5-star resort in Bali back in 2014. Mack, now 27, reached a plea deal with prosecutors in federal court in Illinois on Friday morning, pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to kill a US national and finally bringing some sort of conclusion to a horror case that has rumbled on for almost eight years. “I plead guilty, your honor,” she told US District Judge Matthew Kelley during the short hearing. Under the terms of the agreement, prosecutors recommend that she faces a maximum sentence of 28 years in prison, with consideration given to the seven years that she’s already served in Indonesian jail. If she is sentenced to 28 years, she could be eligible for release in 2042 – taking into account the time served in Indonesia and behind bars in the US. She would be 46 years old. The daughter – Stella – that she gave birth to in Bali prison would be an adult. However, Judge Kelley warned that he could ignore the sentencing guidelines, with the charge carrying a maximum penalty of life in prison. “I have to make up my own mind,” he said. A sentencing date was set for 18 December. Under the deal, Mack is unable to file any appeals in her case. Earlier in the hearing, Mack told the judge that she had been hospitalised “a few times” with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder while growing up. Mack has spend almost every day of her life behind bars since she was arrested in August 2014 in Bali. On 12 August 2014, Mack, then 18, and her then-boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, 21, bludgeoned von Wiese-Mack to death with the metal handle of a fruit stand at the luxury 5-star St. Regis resort in Bali. They then stuffed her body into a suitcase, hailed down a taxi and loaded it into the trunk of the car. When they were unable to check out of the luxury resort – using her mother’s credit card – the couple fled the scene, leaving the bloodstained suitcase behind. They were soon tracked down to a budget motel and arrested on suspicion of murder. At the time of the murder, Mack – the daughter of socialite von Wiese-Mack and famed musician James L Mack – was pregnant with Schaefer’s child. Prosecutors revealed that she had flown her lover out on a $12,000 business-class ticket just hours earlier charged to her mother’s credit card. Surveillance footage later captured the trio arguing in the hotel lobby after he arrived. Less than 12 hours after Schaefer flew in, Mack was dead. Chilling text messages later surfaced showing how the couple likened themselves to the notorious duo Bonnie & Clyde and plotted methods of murder. They were both convicted of premeditated murder in Indonesia and narrowly avoided facing the firing squad. Mack was released from prison in Bali in October 2021 after serving seven years – three years early due to good behaviour – and was briefly reunited with her daughter Stella, then six, who she planned to begin a new life with. But her newfound freedom was short-lived. Five days later, the then 26-year-old was deported from the Indonesian island back to the US and was arrested by FBI agents as soon as she touched down on American soil at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. She was indicted on two counts of conspiring to commit murder in a foreign country and one count of obstruction of justice. The indictment, which was filed in 2017 but remained sealed while she remained in Indonesian prison, also charged Schaefer with the same counts. Since then, she has been behind bars in Illinois awaiting trial and had been fighting against the charges, insisting that she had served her time for her crime in Indonesia. The case was set to go to trial on 1 August in Chicago before Mack revealed her intentions to change her plea earlier this month. Speaking to The New York Post last week, Mack said: “I have served nearly 10 years in prison. I felt that I had done my time, so I was gung-ho for trial,” she said. “Now, after sitting for so long, I know what I have to do. I’m going to be a felon in America, and that is fine. I understand from [the US government’s] perspective that, if I don’t plead guilty and they didn’t indict me, I wouldn’t be a felon.” She added: “I could become a police officer and work for the government… I could carry a firearm on the street.” Schaefer is still serving his 18-year sentence in Indonesia before he too will face charges on US soil. Read More Heather Mack plea hearing – live: ‘Suitcase killer’ to plead guilty in US over Bali murder of socialite mom A body in a suitcase, Bonnie and Clyde fantasy and baby born in Bali prison: The chilling case of Heather Mack Heather Mack, convicted in Bali of killing mother, set to plead guilty in US
2023-06-16 22:47
Millions of Americans' personal data exposed in global hack
Millions of people in Louisiana and Oregon have had their data compromised in the sprawling cyberattack that has also hit the US federal government, state agencies said late Thursday.
2023-06-16 22:23
