Blasts throw life out of gear in Pune
It was panic all around on the busy Jungli Maharaj (JM) Road on Wednesday evening, as the news of explosions in the busy Deccan area went around like wild fire. Four low intensity blasts within 45 minutes rocked the city throwing life and traffic off gear for major part of the evening.
The first explosion was recorded around 8 pm, near the rear entrance of the Balgandharva Rangamandir. The blast took place in the bag of Dayanand Patil (30), a tailor who was on his way home after finishing his work. According to commissioner of police Gulabrao Pol, the low intensity explosives were put in Patil’s bag when he had stopped at the protest organised by the India Against Corruption (IAC) in support of similar activities carried out by Team Anna in New Delhi. Pol has ruled out any terrorist angle in the explosions and had claimed that it was an instance of mischief mongering to create an atmosphere of panic in the city.
According to witness accounts, the intensity of the explosions was quite low and many of them thought it was an instance of car back firing or some fire crackers being let loose. The second and third blasts took place in quick successions within 500 m of the first explosion site on the JM Road. While the second explosion took place in the garbage bin of the fast food joint of McDonalds, the third explosion took place opposite the Dena Bank on a mountain terrain bike. The third explosive was fitted on a new mountain terrain bike (MTB), bicycle and was kept hidden in a cake box.
The fourth explosion happened near the Garware underpass, and the explosive was kept in a similar MTB. Another explosive was defused in front of the Kalmadi petrol pump at around 9.45 pm. The gathered crowd burst into impromptu applause once the explosive was defused.
Within seconds of the explosions, there were many rumours going around. Traffic on the busy road was thrown out of gear. There were traffic snarls all over the place with many getting caught in jams. Pol, along with the top echelon of the police force, was on the street in order to keep the situation under control. Also, the bomb detection squad of the Indian Army was called in to conduct extensive combing operation on JM Road. Following the blast near McDonalds, two film screenings were stoped at the R Deccan multiplex. Yogesh Shimte, the mall manager said that post hearing the news about the blasts, they stopped the shows and vacated the mall immediately.
Nisarg Vyas, a motorcyclist, who had come for an outing, took a turn from Omkareshwar towards JM Road and heard a blast. “I felt it was an accident near the petrol pump – but it turned out to be a blast.”
District collector Vikas Deshmukh, mayor Vaishali Bankar and other officials were at the scene of the explosion. While Deshmukh, had returned from his inspection of the dams, Bankar and other political leaders had rushed to the scene after hearing about the blast. Former corporator Sunil Bankar opined that it might be a ploy to foment communal tension in the city during Ramzan and Shravan.
2012年8月2日星期四
2012年8月1日星期三
Life prison term upheld for Ind. teen who killed 10-year-old brother, wanted to be like Dexter
Life prison term upheld for Ind. teen who killed 10-year-old brother, wanted to be like Dexter
The Indiana Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a sentence of life without parole for a teenager who said he wanted to be like the fictional television serial killer Dexter a few weeks before strangling his 10-year-old brother.
Andrew Conley was 17 in November 2009 when he killed his brother, Conner, while wrestling in their home near Rising Sun and dumped the boy’s body in a park. He unexpectedly pleaded guilty in September 2010, averting a murder trial.
In the 3-2 ruling, the justices said Conley acted “as if nothing was out of the ordinary” after the killing. According to testimony during the five-day sentencing hearing, Conley joked with his mother and watched football the day after he killed Conner.
Conley told police he fantasized about killing people since he was in eighth grade. A few weeks before the killing, Conley told his girlfriend that he wanted to be just like the TV serial killer as they walked on the trail where he later disposed of his brother’s body.
Three different psychological experts who interviewed Conley all said he was seriously mentally ill, but his appellate lawyer, Leanna Weissmann, said the judge gave too much credence to a psychologist’s testimony that the teen could be a psychopath.
Weissmann did not return a phone call Tuesday seeking comment about the ruling.
The U.S. Supreme Court in June threw out mandatory sentences of life in prison without parole for juveniles, but left open the possibility that individual judges could sentence juveniles to life without parole in individual cases of murder.
The Indiana justices noted that the high court’s decision dealt only with mandatory sentences, not those issued at a judge’s discretion. They found “no abuse of discretion” in Ohio County Circuit Court Judge James Humphrey decision.
“The heinous facts of this crime are difficult to comprehend,” they said.
Conley told police he held his brother in a choke hold while wrestling at their rural home and dragged him into the kitchen after he passed out, where he strangled him for 20 minutes. He then wrapped the boy’s head in two plastic bags.
A coroner testified that Conner may have still been alive for minutes or hours after that point, but the bags helped suffocate him, and Conley repeatedly banged the boy’s head on the ground before loading him in the trunk of his car to make sure he was dead. He then drove to his girlfriend’s home and gave her a promise ring, while Conner’s body was still in the trunk of his car.
The two justices who dissented in Tuesday’s ruling, Robert Rucker and Frank Sullivan, cited the teen’s age when arguing that he shouldn’t have been sentenced to die in prison.
“There is no question that juveniles have developmental issues that reduce their culpability for crimes,” Rucker wrote.
Dearborn-Ohio County Prosecutor Aaron Negangard, who handled the case, said the high court made the right decision.
“It is the just result given the nature of the crime that he committed,” Negangard said.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Indiana Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a sentence of life without parole for a teenager who said he wanted to be like the fictional television serial killer Dexter a few weeks before strangling his 10-year-old brother.
Andrew Conley was 17 in November 2009 when he killed his brother, Conner, while wrestling in their home near Rising Sun and dumped the boy’s body in a park. He unexpectedly pleaded guilty in September 2010, averting a murder trial.
In the 3-2 ruling, the justices said Conley acted “as if nothing was out of the ordinary” after the killing. According to testimony during the five-day sentencing hearing, Conley joked with his mother and watched football the day after he killed Conner.
Conley told police he fantasized about killing people since he was in eighth grade. A few weeks before the killing, Conley told his girlfriend that he wanted to be just like the TV serial killer as they walked on the trail where he later disposed of his brother’s body.
Three different psychological experts who interviewed Conley all said he was seriously mentally ill, but his appellate lawyer, Leanna Weissmann, said the judge gave too much credence to a psychologist’s testimony that the teen could be a psychopath.
Weissmann did not return a phone call Tuesday seeking comment about the ruling.
The U.S. Supreme Court in June threw out mandatory sentences of life in prison without parole for juveniles, but left open the possibility that individual judges could sentence juveniles to life without parole in individual cases of murder.
The Indiana justices noted that the high court’s decision dealt only with mandatory sentences, not those issued at a judge’s discretion. They found “no abuse of discretion” in Ohio County Circuit Court Judge James Humphrey decision.
“The heinous facts of this crime are difficult to comprehend,” they said.
Conley told police he held his brother in a choke hold while wrestling at their rural home and dragged him into the kitchen after he passed out, where he strangled him for 20 minutes. He then wrapped the boy’s head in two plastic bags.
A coroner testified that Conner may have still been alive for minutes or hours after that point, but the bags helped suffocate him, and Conley repeatedly banged the boy’s head on the ground before loading him in the trunk of his car to make sure he was dead. He then drove to his girlfriend’s home and gave her a promise ring, while Conner’s body was still in the trunk of his car.
The two justices who dissented in Tuesday’s ruling, Robert Rucker and Frank Sullivan, cited the teen’s age when arguing that he shouldn’t have been sentenced to die in prison.
“There is no question that juveniles have developmental issues that reduce their culpability for crimes,” Rucker wrote.
Dearborn-Ohio County Prosecutor Aaron Negangard, who handled the case, said the high court made the right decision.
“It is the just result given the nature of the crime that he committed,” Negangard said.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
2012年7月31日星期二
Dark Age: Life thrown out of gear in ‘powerless’ Raj
Dark Age: Life thrown out of gear in ‘powerless’ Raj
Much like other states in North India, life in the desert state too was thrown out of gear due to the power failure following a breakdown in the Northern Grid in the wee hours of Monday.
By evening, power was restored in most parts of the state. However, a few rural areas still remained in darkness till late evening.
The production came to a standstill as the supply from the Northern Grid collapsed, following which the entire state was plunged into darkness at 2.35 am, except the areas covered under the Jhalore-Sirohi line.
By early morning, the supply was restored in the western region by drawing power from the Western Grid. The production at the six power generating units in Kota, four at Suratgarh and one at Chhabra was restored later in the day.
The power failure affected the routine of the common man who had to brave long queues at the railway station, airport and bus counters, besides the hot and humid conditions.
The water supply was also disrupted at most places, including hospitals where patients and staff had a harrowing time.
At the Jaipur railway station, long queues were seen outside the ticket counters as the computer systems worked slow due to power failure, said a railway official. However, power supply was not snapped at the platforms.
Passengers had a trying time at bus depots where ticket counters were almost 'non-operational' as computers did not work.
The power failure also exposed the poor back-up at government hospitals in the city. Kanwatia Hospital was plunged into darkness for an hour before a generator was pressed into service.
To meet the demand, the state government also purchased 600MW wind power. Attempts were made to ensure that remaining power generating units in the state, which were closed either for maintenance or technical faults, could become operational by late Monday.
As the Northern region suffered one of the worst power failures ever, indiscipline of a few states that were frequently overdrawing power from the Northern Grid, was seen as one of the reasons for the crisis.
On Monday, Rajasthan along with states like Haryana and Uttar Pradesh continued to overdraw power from the grid. While the state's share is 4837 MW, on Monday evening it was drawing 5162 MW power from the grid.
"There was a fault in the 400 KV power line on the Agra-Gwalior line and overdrawing of power should not be considered the reason for the grid failure. All power generating units in the state, except for two which are closed for annual maintenance, have been restored or would be soon,'' said C S Chandeliya, director, Power Trading.
Much like other states in North India, life in the desert state too was thrown out of gear due to the power failure following a breakdown in the Northern Grid in the wee hours of Monday.
By evening, power was restored in most parts of the state. However, a few rural areas still remained in darkness till late evening.
The production came to a standstill as the supply from the Northern Grid collapsed, following which the entire state was plunged into darkness at 2.35 am, except the areas covered under the Jhalore-Sirohi line.
By early morning, the supply was restored in the western region by drawing power from the Western Grid. The production at the six power generating units in Kota, four at Suratgarh and one at Chhabra was restored later in the day.
The power failure affected the routine of the common man who had to brave long queues at the railway station, airport and bus counters, besides the hot and humid conditions.
The water supply was also disrupted at most places, including hospitals where patients and staff had a harrowing time.
At the Jaipur railway station, long queues were seen outside the ticket counters as the computer systems worked slow due to power failure, said a railway official. However, power supply was not snapped at the platforms.
Passengers had a trying time at bus depots where ticket counters were almost 'non-operational' as computers did not work.
The power failure also exposed the poor back-up at government hospitals in the city. Kanwatia Hospital was plunged into darkness for an hour before a generator was pressed into service.
To meet the demand, the state government also purchased 600MW wind power. Attempts were made to ensure that remaining power generating units in the state, which were closed either for maintenance or technical faults, could become operational by late Monday.
As the Northern region suffered one of the worst power failures ever, indiscipline of a few states that were frequently overdrawing power from the Northern Grid, was seen as one of the reasons for the crisis.
On Monday, Rajasthan along with states like Haryana and Uttar Pradesh continued to overdraw power from the grid. While the state's share is 4837 MW, on Monday evening it was drawing 5162 MW power from the grid.
"There was a fault in the 400 KV power line on the Agra-Gwalior line and overdrawing of power should not be considered the reason for the grid failure. All power generating units in the state, except for two which are closed for annual maintenance, have been restored or would be soon,'' said C S Chandeliya, director, Power Trading.
2012年7月30日星期一
Planet of the Apes: Will the Mars mission find evidence of life, past or present?
Planet of the Apes: Will the Mars mission find evidence of life, past or present?
If we found life on another planet, the discovery would go a long way toward answering the deepest open questions in biology: How did life originate, how widespread is life in the universe, and are there alternative recipes for life?
There's no obvious sign of life on any of our neighbors in the solar system. But desolate, frozen Mars keeps calling scientists back. In the Martian landscape, geologists see dry riverbeds and floodplains that hint at a warmer past that just might have allowed life to originate.
All life on Earth appears to be related, using DNA and RNA molecules to pass down assembly instructions and other information. We share stretches of this genetic code with bacteria, yeast, and amoebas.
But if life originated independently on Mars, it might use a completely different way of storing and transmitting information. And so, if the Mars Science Laboratory lands safely next week, instruments will begin to analyze the soil, air, and rocks for life, past or present.
The warm period was early in the history of the solar system - it looks to have begun freezing up by 3 billion years ago. The Martian atmosphere today is too thin to hold in much heat, but perhaps greenhouse gases once blanketed the planet and were later lost.
Experts say the nice period happened early - around 4 billion years ago. By 3 billion years ago Mars was already starting to dry up. But that somewhat balmier time corresponds to when life was getting started on our planet. According to chemical analyses in ancient rocks, life had already taken hold here 3.8 billion years back - not too long after the planet cooled off enough to have a solid surface.
The Mars Science Laboratory will release an SUV-sized rover called Curiosity into a crater where water might have once pooled. Andrew Knoll, a professor of Earth and planetary science at Harvard University, says he's excited about some of the novel science the rover is equipped to do.
Some of its instruments will look for signs of methane and other organic compounds in the atmosphere. Others will seek them in the soil. Finding them wouldn't necessarily mean that Mars once had living matter, but the Curiosity rover could turn up new clues in the search for life there. The fact that life started so early on Earth gives scientists hope that it might have sprung up elsewhere in the universe. Life has also been found in some seemingly hostile environments - in Antarctic ice, boiling hot springs, and buried a mile underground living on geothermal energy and minerals.
One of the big challenges is being able to recognize signs of past life and not overreact to false alarms. In 1996, NASA made the explosive announcement that a team of researchers had found signs of fossil bacteria in a meteorite that fell to Earth from Mars. Organic compounds called polycyclic hydrocarbons resembled similar compounds made in living things here.
Soon after the announcement, though, biologists pointed out that the shapes NASA thought were bacteria and the compounds could be explained by processes that involved no life. And so it all hangs in doubt.
One of those skeptical voices was paleontologist John Grotzinger, then at MIT and now at Caltech. NASA apparently doesn't hold a grudge against naysayers, since he's now chief scientist on the coming mission.
There is little doubt, at least, that this rock, called ALH84001, and others like it did come from Mars. Tiny bubbles of trapped gas match the composition of samples studied by the Viking mission back in the 1970s.
The discovery that the rock and others originated on Mars opens up the possibility that life crossed the divide between the two planets. It's slightly more likely that life would go from Mars to Earth, since Mars cooled off sooner and Earth is larger and therefore a bigger target.
Whatever Curiosity turns up, Mars does have a story to tell. The Mars Pathfinder mission in 1997 found evidence of massive past floods, during which water threw rocks and even boulders around the landing site. Still, scientists aren't sure how much water flowed over Mars, how warm it got, or what kind of an atmosphere it had.
And nobody is quite sure what changed to make Mars the dry, frozen wasteland it is today. "We don't know what happened but we know it was something big," said Grotzinger. "Even if life never evolved on Mars, we would want to know what happened."
If we found life on another planet, the discovery would go a long way toward answering the deepest open questions in biology: How did life originate, how widespread is life in the universe, and are there alternative recipes for life?
There's no obvious sign of life on any of our neighbors in the solar system. But desolate, frozen Mars keeps calling scientists back. In the Martian landscape, geologists see dry riverbeds and floodplains that hint at a warmer past that just might have allowed life to originate.
All life on Earth appears to be related, using DNA and RNA molecules to pass down assembly instructions and other information. We share stretches of this genetic code with bacteria, yeast, and amoebas.
But if life originated independently on Mars, it might use a completely different way of storing and transmitting information. And so, if the Mars Science Laboratory lands safely next week, instruments will begin to analyze the soil, air, and rocks for life, past or present.
The warm period was early in the history of the solar system - it looks to have begun freezing up by 3 billion years ago. The Martian atmosphere today is too thin to hold in much heat, but perhaps greenhouse gases once blanketed the planet and were later lost.
Experts say the nice period happened early - around 4 billion years ago. By 3 billion years ago Mars was already starting to dry up. But that somewhat balmier time corresponds to when life was getting started on our planet. According to chemical analyses in ancient rocks, life had already taken hold here 3.8 billion years back - not too long after the planet cooled off enough to have a solid surface.
The Mars Science Laboratory will release an SUV-sized rover called Curiosity into a crater where water might have once pooled. Andrew Knoll, a professor of Earth and planetary science at Harvard University, says he's excited about some of the novel science the rover is equipped to do.
Some of its instruments will look for signs of methane and other organic compounds in the atmosphere. Others will seek them in the soil. Finding them wouldn't necessarily mean that Mars once had living matter, but the Curiosity rover could turn up new clues in the search for life there. The fact that life started so early on Earth gives scientists hope that it might have sprung up elsewhere in the universe. Life has also been found in some seemingly hostile environments - in Antarctic ice, boiling hot springs, and buried a mile underground living on geothermal energy and minerals.
One of the big challenges is being able to recognize signs of past life and not overreact to false alarms. In 1996, NASA made the explosive announcement that a team of researchers had found signs of fossil bacteria in a meteorite that fell to Earth from Mars. Organic compounds called polycyclic hydrocarbons resembled similar compounds made in living things here.
Soon after the announcement, though, biologists pointed out that the shapes NASA thought were bacteria and the compounds could be explained by processes that involved no life. And so it all hangs in doubt.
One of those skeptical voices was paleontologist John Grotzinger, then at MIT and now at Caltech. NASA apparently doesn't hold a grudge against naysayers, since he's now chief scientist on the coming mission.
There is little doubt, at least, that this rock, called ALH84001, and others like it did come from Mars. Tiny bubbles of trapped gas match the composition of samples studied by the Viking mission back in the 1970s.
The discovery that the rock and others originated on Mars opens up the possibility that life crossed the divide between the two planets. It's slightly more likely that life would go from Mars to Earth, since Mars cooled off sooner and Earth is larger and therefore a bigger target.
Whatever Curiosity turns up, Mars does have a story to tell. The Mars Pathfinder mission in 1997 found evidence of massive past floods, during which water threw rocks and even boulders around the landing site. Still, scientists aren't sure how much water flowed over Mars, how warm it got, or what kind of an atmosphere it had.
And nobody is quite sure what changed to make Mars the dry, frozen wasteland it is today. "We don't know what happened but we know it was something big," said Grotzinger. "Even if life never evolved on Mars, we would want to know what happened."
2012年7月27日星期五
Smirking killer Kiaran Stapleton told he faces life in prison for murder of Indian student Anuj Bidve
Smirking killer Kiaran Stapleton told he faces life in prison for murder of Indian student Anuj Bidve
A man who shot dead an Indian student at point-blank range in a random and motiveless attack was warned he faces the rest of his life in jail after being found guilty of murder.
Kiaran Stapleton, 21, who boasted his nickname was "Psycho", blasted Anuj Bidve, 23, in the head last year in the early hours in Salford, Greater Manchester, as the talented post-graduate student made his way with friends to the Boxing Day sales.
Stapleton had not taken drink or drugs and his victim was entirely unknown to him. There was no racial dimension to the killing and the only possible factor that might have provoked him was a remark made earlier in the evening by an acquaintance that his ex-girlfriend was sleeping with another man. When asked how he selected his victim Stapleton said it was because he had "the biggest head".
The jury at Manchester Crown Court rejected Stapleton's claim of diminished responsibility after he earlier admitted manslaughter in a crime that sent shockwaves of horror through Britain and India.
Mr Bidve's devastated parents, Subhash and Yogini, who travelled from their home in Pune to attend the month-long trial, paid tribute to their son as "the kindest and most genuine person on this earth". But they said: "Stapleton, in the blink of an eye, and the time it took a bullet to leave the gun he was holding, turned Anuj's hopes and dreams into our living and continuous nightmare."
Detective Chief Superintendent Mary Doyle, who led the investigation, said: "There was absolutely nothing remarkable about Stapleton's history and nothing that would ever have suggested he could commit such a cold-blooded, random killing."
Stapleton, who continually smirked during proceedings, smiled as he was taken away.
Mr Justice King will pass sentence today but warned he would only be released if he was considered to no longer pose a danger to the public. "That may not ever happen," he added.
Stapleton could have been seeking status within his community although he was not known as part of a gang.
He appeared to revel in the notoriety of his new role as killer – immediately searching the internet for details of the crime and even checking into a hotel overlooking the shooting scene and photographing himself observing the investigation unfold.
He surrounded himself with friends who watched him have a teardrop tattoo on his face – a symbol for murder – just hours after the shooting. In one outburst he said of the prospect of a long sentence: "To be honest I'm not bothered. I love prison, I watch Coronation Street, I have got a fat canteen. Lock me up for 65 years. Does this face look bothered? I've even got a new rug and bedding coming for my cell."
Victim and killer were of strikingly different characters. Whereas Mr Bidve was brought up to know the difference between right and wrong, his assailant was the "complete opposite", the Bidve family said. Anuj was a widely-admired son of an middle-class family who studied hard and whose parents borrowed money to send him to Britain to complete his education.
At Lancaster University, which has established an annual exchange scholarship in his name, he studied postgraduate electronics and planned to return to Pune and use his skills to build a successful career.
Stapleton by contrast grew up in a family of nine on the tough Ordsall estate in Salford and was distantly related to some of Greater Manchester's most notorious criminals. But, despite scarcely attending school from the age of 11, he held down a factory job and stayed loyal to his partner and child until his mood swings led to the end of the relationship.
Yet while police were astonished that he had committed such a serious crime, he had a history of low level criminality including violence and carried out a road rage attack shortly before he killed Mr Bidve.
Much of the evidence focused on Stapleton's mental condition. Both sides agreed he had an anti-social personality disorder and psychopathic traits which meant he was unable to feel remorse and demonstrated extreme callousness– although this fell short of being a psychopath.
He was arrested after his friend Ryan Holden told police he had witnessed the shooting.
A man who shot dead an Indian student at point-blank range in a random and motiveless attack was warned he faces the rest of his life in jail after being found guilty of murder.
Kiaran Stapleton, 21, who boasted his nickname was "Psycho", blasted Anuj Bidve, 23, in the head last year in the early hours in Salford, Greater Manchester, as the talented post-graduate student made his way with friends to the Boxing Day sales.
Stapleton had not taken drink or drugs and his victim was entirely unknown to him. There was no racial dimension to the killing and the only possible factor that might have provoked him was a remark made earlier in the evening by an acquaintance that his ex-girlfriend was sleeping with another man. When asked how he selected his victim Stapleton said it was because he had "the biggest head".
The jury at Manchester Crown Court rejected Stapleton's claim of diminished responsibility after he earlier admitted manslaughter in a crime that sent shockwaves of horror through Britain and India.
Mr Bidve's devastated parents, Subhash and Yogini, who travelled from their home in Pune to attend the month-long trial, paid tribute to their son as "the kindest and most genuine person on this earth". But they said: "Stapleton, in the blink of an eye, and the time it took a bullet to leave the gun he was holding, turned Anuj's hopes and dreams into our living and continuous nightmare."
Detective Chief Superintendent Mary Doyle, who led the investigation, said: "There was absolutely nothing remarkable about Stapleton's history and nothing that would ever have suggested he could commit such a cold-blooded, random killing."
Stapleton, who continually smirked during proceedings, smiled as he was taken away.
Mr Justice King will pass sentence today but warned he would only be released if he was considered to no longer pose a danger to the public. "That may not ever happen," he added.
Stapleton could have been seeking status within his community although he was not known as part of a gang.
He appeared to revel in the notoriety of his new role as killer – immediately searching the internet for details of the crime and even checking into a hotel overlooking the shooting scene and photographing himself observing the investigation unfold.
He surrounded himself with friends who watched him have a teardrop tattoo on his face – a symbol for murder – just hours after the shooting. In one outburst he said of the prospect of a long sentence: "To be honest I'm not bothered. I love prison, I watch Coronation Street, I have got a fat canteen. Lock me up for 65 years. Does this face look bothered? I've even got a new rug and bedding coming for my cell."
Victim and killer were of strikingly different characters. Whereas Mr Bidve was brought up to know the difference between right and wrong, his assailant was the "complete opposite", the Bidve family said. Anuj was a widely-admired son of an middle-class family who studied hard and whose parents borrowed money to send him to Britain to complete his education.
At Lancaster University, which has established an annual exchange scholarship in his name, he studied postgraduate electronics and planned to return to Pune and use his skills to build a successful career.
Stapleton by contrast grew up in a family of nine on the tough Ordsall estate in Salford and was distantly related to some of Greater Manchester's most notorious criminals. But, despite scarcely attending school from the age of 11, he held down a factory job and stayed loyal to his partner and child until his mood swings led to the end of the relationship.
Yet while police were astonished that he had committed such a serious crime, he had a history of low level criminality including violence and carried out a road rage attack shortly before he killed Mr Bidve.
Much of the evidence focused on Stapleton's mental condition. Both sides agreed he had an anti-social personality disorder and psychopathic traits which meant he was unable to feel remorse and demonstrated extreme callousness– although this fell short of being a psychopath.
He was arrested after his friend Ryan Holden told police he had witnessed the shooting.
2012年7月26日星期四
Ray Rice closer to his goal of being Raven for life
Ray Rice closer to his goal of being Raven for life
The drive from Baltimore to his hometown of New Rochelle, N.Y., typically takes three hours, but on this night, Ray Rice felt like he was in his car for all of 45 minutes.
As he headed north on I-95, there were phone calls to return, plans to make and so many life-altering thoughts to ponder. Above all, there was the realization that the five-year, $40 million contract that he just signed would set him and his family up for life and get him closer to one of his professional goals: spending his entire career as a Baltimore Raven.
“The first person I went to see was my mom. She knows what we’ve all been through in our life,” said Rice who acknowledged that the first big purchase he made after his new deal, which included $24 million in guaranteed money, was a home for his mother, Janet. “As long as I know where I’m going to be for the next five years, as long as I take care of my business, I feel good.
“Hopefully, I want to retire a Raven. That’s what it boils down to. You get your second contract, you think about long term. That would be nine years of my life that I’ve been in Baltimore so needless to say, Baltimore has become home for me. My license says Baltimore. I’m no longer a New Yorker. I just visit there now.”
In his first public comments since getting his new deal July 16 just minutes before the deadline to sign designated franchise players, Rice talked about his motivation to defy the shrinking shelf-life of an NFL running back and the importance of the Ravens putting the AFC championship loss to the New England Patriots behind them, and expressed confidence that quarterback Joe Flacco will be next to get a lucrative contract extension.
Flacco, who was taken in the first round of the 2008 draft with Rice being selected by the Ravens in the second round, enters the final season of his rookie deal.
“One thing I know about Joe — and me and Joe came in together — is he’s going to be a Raven for a long time. He’s already said that,” said Rice, 25. “Just putting all that aside, Joe Flacco played a heck of a season last year, Joe Flacco has been a great quarterback for us. I know at the end of the day, it’s going to get taken care of … Quite frankly, they can take care of him now or they can take care of him later, and they do have the option of the franchise tag which gives them more time. When you bridge the gap, he’s going to get taken care of. It just might not happen when he wants it do but I’m sure it’s going to get done.”
A deal with Flacco would secure the Ravens’ top two offensive building blocks going forward. Rice, a two-time Pro Bowl selection, led the NFL last season with 2,068 yards from scrimmage, was second in the league with 1,364 rushing yards and set a franchise record with 15 touchdowns.
“Anybody who knows Ray knows that he is just one of those special kids that comes to work and does the right things, and for this organization to go ahead and do that in the early stages of his career, I think that's awesome,” said Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, one of Rice’s closest friends on the team. “Me and Ray talked about it, not to get frustrated, not to worry about other people signing deals or any of that. Just do what you need to do and focus what you need to focus on. And have fun in the game. That contract side of it getting done is a big relief for Ray, though.”
If Rice hadn’t gotten a new deal by July 16, he would have been in line to play the season under the $7.7 million franchise tag. But that wasn’t what worried him most as the deadline drew near, and he fought to keep his emotions out of the negotiations.
“I already knew that I put myself in a position. Even with $7.7, I was never denying the franchise tag. You take $7.7 wherever you want to cut it, still, my family is going to be fine,” Rice said. “When I signed, it was more like relief. ‘OK, that’s over with, the business side is done.’ Playing under the franchise tag, for me mentally, would have said, ‘I wouldn’t have known if I would be a Raven next year.’ That’s where it scares you. It doesn’t scare you in terms of financial stability because you are going to get that. But it scares you in terms of where am I going to be next year. That feeling, I don’t have to worry about.”
Now, Rice can focus on helping the Ravens avenge last year’s AFC championship loss to the New England Patriots and taking the final step to the Super Bowl. Rice, who has been to the playoffs in each of his first four seasons, says that will be on everybody’s minds when the Ravens have their first full-team practice of training camp Thursday.
“When you look at the Ravens, we’ve been close every year. I think it’s time for us to get over that hump and we have the pieces to do it,” Rice said. “You look at our schedule, we have our work cut out for us, we really do. One thing I know about our team is when there’s a challenge, we accept it. We go ahead and we accept the challenge … I don’t want to say Super Bowl or bust because that’s like the motto every year. But I would love to feel that confetti drop as big Ray [Lewis] would say.”
The drive from Baltimore to his hometown of New Rochelle, N.Y., typically takes three hours, but on this night, Ray Rice felt like he was in his car for all of 45 minutes.
As he headed north on I-95, there were phone calls to return, plans to make and so many life-altering thoughts to ponder. Above all, there was the realization that the five-year, $40 million contract that he just signed would set him and his family up for life and get him closer to one of his professional goals: spending his entire career as a Baltimore Raven.
“The first person I went to see was my mom. She knows what we’ve all been through in our life,” said Rice who acknowledged that the first big purchase he made after his new deal, which included $24 million in guaranteed money, was a home for his mother, Janet. “As long as I know where I’m going to be for the next five years, as long as I take care of my business, I feel good.
“Hopefully, I want to retire a Raven. That’s what it boils down to. You get your second contract, you think about long term. That would be nine years of my life that I’ve been in Baltimore so needless to say, Baltimore has become home for me. My license says Baltimore. I’m no longer a New Yorker. I just visit there now.”
In his first public comments since getting his new deal July 16 just minutes before the deadline to sign designated franchise players, Rice talked about his motivation to defy the shrinking shelf-life of an NFL running back and the importance of the Ravens putting the AFC championship loss to the New England Patriots behind them, and expressed confidence that quarterback Joe Flacco will be next to get a lucrative contract extension.
Flacco, who was taken in the first round of the 2008 draft with Rice being selected by the Ravens in the second round, enters the final season of his rookie deal.
“One thing I know about Joe — and me and Joe came in together — is he’s going to be a Raven for a long time. He’s already said that,” said Rice, 25. “Just putting all that aside, Joe Flacco played a heck of a season last year, Joe Flacco has been a great quarterback for us. I know at the end of the day, it’s going to get taken care of … Quite frankly, they can take care of him now or they can take care of him later, and they do have the option of the franchise tag which gives them more time. When you bridge the gap, he’s going to get taken care of. It just might not happen when he wants it do but I’m sure it’s going to get done.”
A deal with Flacco would secure the Ravens’ top two offensive building blocks going forward. Rice, a two-time Pro Bowl selection, led the NFL last season with 2,068 yards from scrimmage, was second in the league with 1,364 rushing yards and set a franchise record with 15 touchdowns.
“Anybody who knows Ray knows that he is just one of those special kids that comes to work and does the right things, and for this organization to go ahead and do that in the early stages of his career, I think that's awesome,” said Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, one of Rice’s closest friends on the team. “Me and Ray talked about it, not to get frustrated, not to worry about other people signing deals or any of that. Just do what you need to do and focus what you need to focus on. And have fun in the game. That contract side of it getting done is a big relief for Ray, though.”
If Rice hadn’t gotten a new deal by July 16, he would have been in line to play the season under the $7.7 million franchise tag. But that wasn’t what worried him most as the deadline drew near, and he fought to keep his emotions out of the negotiations.
“I already knew that I put myself in a position. Even with $7.7, I was never denying the franchise tag. You take $7.7 wherever you want to cut it, still, my family is going to be fine,” Rice said. “When I signed, it was more like relief. ‘OK, that’s over with, the business side is done.’ Playing under the franchise tag, for me mentally, would have said, ‘I wouldn’t have known if I would be a Raven next year.’ That’s where it scares you. It doesn’t scare you in terms of financial stability because you are going to get that. But it scares you in terms of where am I going to be next year. That feeling, I don’t have to worry about.”
Now, Rice can focus on helping the Ravens avenge last year’s AFC championship loss to the New England Patriots and taking the final step to the Super Bowl. Rice, who has been to the playoffs in each of his first four seasons, says that will be on everybody’s minds when the Ravens have their first full-team practice of training camp Thursday.
“When you look at the Ravens, we’ve been close every year. I think it’s time for us to get over that hump and we have the pieces to do it,” Rice said. “You look at our schedule, we have our work cut out for us, we really do. One thing I know about our team is when there’s a challenge, we accept it. We go ahead and we accept the challenge … I don’t want to say Super Bowl or bust because that’s like the motto every year. But I would love to feel that confetti drop as big Ray [Lewis] would say.”
2012年7月25日星期三
Chicagoland Life sentence for Hudson murderer
Chicagoland Life sentence for Hudson murderer
For the first time since his arrest almost four years ago, William Balfour spoke out briefly in court as he was about to be sentenced Tuesday for the murders of three of singer Jennifer Hudson's family members, offering condolences for the youngest victim.
"My deepest sympathies go to Julian King," he said of Hudson's 7-year-old nephew, the boy with the big smile who looked up to Balfour, his stepfather. "I loved him. I still love him," Balfour said as he looked across the packed courtroom toward his own family, not at the Chicago superstar or her relatives seated across the aisle.
For a moment, the courtroom froze. Balfour's sister, Sensuous, burst into tears and ran out a side door. Across the aisle, Jennifer Hudson and her sister, Julia, Balfour's ex-wife, sat side by side, clutching tissues and dabbing at their eyes.
It was an odd moment in a court hearing that had little suspense. Under Illinois law, Judge Charles Burns had no choice but to impose a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole because Balfour had been convicted of more than one murder.
Many in the courtroom were anticipating either testimony or written statements from Jennifer Hudson and her sister about the horrific impact the crimes have had on their lives. But with the sentence predetermined, the sisters chose to keep their grief private.
The same security detail that had protected the Oscar-winning star and her family throughout the trial whisked them in and out of the courthouse Tuesday through the basement. After the hearing, none of the lawyers involved in the case addressed the throng of news media waiting in the lobby of the Leighton Criminal Court Building. Soon after word got out that Jennifer Hudson was gone, the bank of microphones came down and TV crews left.
Even though the outcome was foregone, the judge grew emotional as he imposed the sentence, lashing out at Balfour as he called his claims that he loved Julian "an insult to all of us."
"Your heart is an arctic night, and your soul is as barren as dark space," Burns said to Balfour in a shaky voice.
In the end, the judge imposed a consecutive life sentence for each of the murders as well as 120 years for Balfour's additional convictions for home invasion, possession of a stolen motor vehicle and aggravated kidnapping.
Burns said he was certain Balfour killed Julian because he was in the way and could have been a witness against him. Hudson's mother, Darnell Donerson, 57, and brother, Jason Hudson, 29, already had been slain in the family's Englewood neighborhood house, prosecutors said.
Julian "shared his life with you. For sure he looked up to you," Burns said. "There is no doubt in my mind he looked up to you as you were putting bullets into his head. I just hope his terror was short-lived."
A Cook County jury convicted Balfour in May of the triple murder. Prosecutors alleged that Balfour was upset over his crumbling marriage to Julia Hudson and jealous that she was seeing another man.
In court Tuesday, Julian's father, Gregory King, sat hunched over on the witness stand and appeared to fight back tears as he recalled the desperate three-day search for the missing boy that ended when his body was found inside Jason Hudson's stolen SUV on the West Side. Like the other two victims, he had been shot to death.
"Instantly it was like a chunk of my heart was ripped out," he said. "I felt hopeless. I was filled with rage for William Balfour, the man who murdered my son."
King also spoke achingly of missing the little things about his son — picking him up from school and going on field trips with him.
"I even miss his bugging me aboutSpongeBob SquarePants,a cartoon character he was kind of afraid of," King said.
During the two-hour hearing, prosecutors called several victims from Balfour's past crimes, painting a picture of a man who joined a gang at 15, sold crack cocaine and engaged in other wrongdoing.
Charles Gardner, 48, testified that he caught Balfour stealing his SUV in November 1998 and jumped onto the luggage rack, touching off a wild police chase through several South Side neighborhoods and along the Dan Ryan Expressway at speeds nearing 100 mph as Balfour tried to shake him off the roof.
Jennifer Hudson glanced at her sister as Gardner testified, at one point putting her hand to her temple and shaking her head with a smile of disbelief.
Balfour was captured and eventually pleaded guilty to attempted murder and vehicular hijacking. He spent seven years in prison and was still on parole at the time of the triple murder in October 2008.
Balfour intends to file an appeal. In one issue he raised in seeking a new trial — denied Tuesday by the judge — the defense argued that Jennifer Hudson should not have been allowed to testify at trial because she had no direct knowledge of the murders and her celebrity unfairly influenced the jury.
For the first time since his arrest almost four years ago, William Balfour spoke out briefly in court as he was about to be sentenced Tuesday for the murders of three of singer Jennifer Hudson's family members, offering condolences for the youngest victim.
"My deepest sympathies go to Julian King," he said of Hudson's 7-year-old nephew, the boy with the big smile who looked up to Balfour, his stepfather. "I loved him. I still love him," Balfour said as he looked across the packed courtroom toward his own family, not at the Chicago superstar or her relatives seated across the aisle.
For a moment, the courtroom froze. Balfour's sister, Sensuous, burst into tears and ran out a side door. Across the aisle, Jennifer Hudson and her sister, Julia, Balfour's ex-wife, sat side by side, clutching tissues and dabbing at their eyes.
It was an odd moment in a court hearing that had little suspense. Under Illinois law, Judge Charles Burns had no choice but to impose a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole because Balfour had been convicted of more than one murder.
Many in the courtroom were anticipating either testimony or written statements from Jennifer Hudson and her sister about the horrific impact the crimes have had on their lives. But with the sentence predetermined, the sisters chose to keep their grief private.
The same security detail that had protected the Oscar-winning star and her family throughout the trial whisked them in and out of the courthouse Tuesday through the basement. After the hearing, none of the lawyers involved in the case addressed the throng of news media waiting in the lobby of the Leighton Criminal Court Building. Soon after word got out that Jennifer Hudson was gone, the bank of microphones came down and TV crews left.
Even though the outcome was foregone, the judge grew emotional as he imposed the sentence, lashing out at Balfour as he called his claims that he loved Julian "an insult to all of us."
"Your heart is an arctic night, and your soul is as barren as dark space," Burns said to Balfour in a shaky voice.
In the end, the judge imposed a consecutive life sentence for each of the murders as well as 120 years for Balfour's additional convictions for home invasion, possession of a stolen motor vehicle and aggravated kidnapping.
Burns said he was certain Balfour killed Julian because he was in the way and could have been a witness against him. Hudson's mother, Darnell Donerson, 57, and brother, Jason Hudson, 29, already had been slain in the family's Englewood neighborhood house, prosecutors said.
Julian "shared his life with you. For sure he looked up to you," Burns said. "There is no doubt in my mind he looked up to you as you were putting bullets into his head. I just hope his terror was short-lived."
A Cook County jury convicted Balfour in May of the triple murder. Prosecutors alleged that Balfour was upset over his crumbling marriage to Julia Hudson and jealous that she was seeing another man.
In court Tuesday, Julian's father, Gregory King, sat hunched over on the witness stand and appeared to fight back tears as he recalled the desperate three-day search for the missing boy that ended when his body was found inside Jason Hudson's stolen SUV on the West Side. Like the other two victims, he had been shot to death.
"Instantly it was like a chunk of my heart was ripped out," he said. "I felt hopeless. I was filled with rage for William Balfour, the man who murdered my son."
King also spoke achingly of missing the little things about his son — picking him up from school and going on field trips with him.
"I even miss his bugging me aboutSpongeBob SquarePants,a cartoon character he was kind of afraid of," King said.
During the two-hour hearing, prosecutors called several victims from Balfour's past crimes, painting a picture of a man who joined a gang at 15, sold crack cocaine and engaged in other wrongdoing.
Charles Gardner, 48, testified that he caught Balfour stealing his SUV in November 1998 and jumped onto the luggage rack, touching off a wild police chase through several South Side neighborhoods and along the Dan Ryan Expressway at speeds nearing 100 mph as Balfour tried to shake him off the roof.
Jennifer Hudson glanced at her sister as Gardner testified, at one point putting her hand to her temple and shaking her head with a smile of disbelief.
Balfour was captured and eventually pleaded guilty to attempted murder and vehicular hijacking. He spent seven years in prison and was still on parole at the time of the triple murder in October 2008.
Balfour intends to file an appeal. In one issue he raised in seeking a new trial — denied Tuesday by the judge — the defense argued that Jennifer Hudson should not have been allowed to testify at trial because she had no direct knowledge of the murders and her celebrity unfairly influenced the jury.
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