Thursday, 29 March 2012
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Julianna Margulies Calls Her TV Oral Sex Scene 'Brave'
Julianna Margulies
Courtesy of More Magazine
But for award-winning actress Julianna Margulies, the oral sex scene written for her and Chris Noth on The Good Wife elicited a much more dramatic (and, um, believable) response.
"The first thing that went through my mind is, 'Oh dear God, how are we going to film this?' Then, 'Oh God, my father's going to watch the show,' " the actress, 45, tells More magazine in its April cover story.
"But I love it," adds Margulies. "I truly believe [Good Wife co-creator Michelle King] is instigating a sexual revolt for network television. I think it's brave, and I love to try things people haven't tried before."
Obviously, filming such a groundbreaking scene on network television takes a strong, secure actress. And Margulies tells the magazine she's thrilled to have overcome the insecurities that used to hold her back
"I'm such a different person now than I was in my twenties,” says the actress. "I had all these insecurities – about doing the right thing, about how people would perceive me. It stopped me from having fun, where now I feel comfortable with who I am, no matter who's in the room."
"Now this is me, take it or leave it. ... That's the beauty of growing up."
Via - http://feeds.people.com/~r/people/headlines/~3/ITC9Oi7NTaA/0,,20582471,00.htmlTuesday, 27 March 2012
To and 'fro court battle over schoolboy's hairstyle
Call that a 'fro? Billal Zraika whose lawyers are arguing in court his hairstyle had cultural significance. Picture: David Marshall Source: The Daily Telegraph
No mo fro ... Billal after his haircut. Picture: David Marshall Source: The Daily Telegraph
- Boy allowed to stay in school after parties settle
- Lawyers argued the hairstyle has cultural significance
- Boy must trim afro to "satisfactory" length and keep it that way
IT was the haircut that made waves in the playground but has now gone all the way to a courtroom.
But lawyers for Mazin Zraika, the father of teenager Bilal Zraika, and the Australian Islamic College in Rooty Hill in Sydney's west have settled out of court after being urged by Justice Elizabeth Fullerton to resolve the issue and avoid a drawn-out legal battle.
Mr Zraika sued the school after it expelled his son for his afro hairstyle - a look the college say isn't in accordance with its uniform policy.
There was an injunction granted on the expulsion and Bilal continued to attend the school as a year nine student, pending the outcome of the court case.
But today the two parties reached an out-of-court settlement in which Billal will cut his 'fro "to a length that is satisfactory to the principal" and will be allowed to continue at the school, Fairfax reports.
Mr Zraika's statement of claim to the court said the school breached its contract to provide "religious and secular education."
The family say the boy's hairstyle was a result of his Ethiopian and Lebanese heritage.
But they say that even after he changed it to a "crew cut" style, he was still forced into isolation and kept away from classmates while being told to catch up on work he'd missed- but was still then slapped with an expulsion order.
Mr Zraika wanted the order to be set aside but barrister Anthony Cheshire, acting for the school, said the "principal or the school can simply expel a child."
The court heard the expulsion came because of a continued "non compliance" with school policy.
Justice Fullerton asked whether his hair had been cut "in a short, back and sides" style but his father, who is in court for the hearing, indicated the boy's hair is once again long.
Justice Fullerton urged lawyers to "resolve" the matter so that the "young gentleman is able to stay at school, mix with his peers and receive a round education" with this issue "put behind him."
Al Jazeera considered showing gunman's films
French police set a perimeter during a stand-off in Toulouse with the gunman involved in a series of shootings in the city. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
AL Jazeera says it will not air a video that appears to show the attacks on soldiers and a Jewish school in southwestern France earlier this month from the killer's point of view, including the cries of his victims.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, other French officials and family members of the victims had asked that it not be broadcast.
The footage was contained on a USB key sent with a letter to the Paris office of the Qatar-based television company, Zied Tarrouche, the station's Paris bureau chief, said today on the French TV station BFM.
The letter, written in poor French with spelling and grammar errors, claimed the shootings were carried out in the name of al-Qaeda.
Police traced the attacks to Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman, who was killed last week after a more than 30-hour standoff with police at his apartment building. Merah had claimed to police that he had links to al-Qaeda, travelled to Afghanistan, and received weapons training in the militant-riddled Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan. But authorities have questioned some of Merah's claims.
Prosecutors have said that Merah filmed all of his attacks, which began March 11 with the murder of a French soldier. Before the spree ended, two more soldiers and three Jewish children and a rabbi were killed.
"In accordance with Al Jazeera's Code of Ethics, given the video does not add any information that is not already in the public domain, its news channels will not be broadcasting any of its contents," the broadcaster said in a statement.
The channel said the video was received from an anonymous source on Monday and that Al Jazeera immediately gave it to French police.
A French official close to the investigation said it was not sent by Merah. Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case, he said that technical experts have concluded that the video was sent on Wednesday from near southern Toulouse, the same day that Merah was trapped in his apartment by the predawn police raid.
Credit - http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/com/newscomautopstoriesndm/~3/aBfE_m-FOkY/stor...Syria bloodshed continues, but UN has success
Kofi Annan, right, with Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad, left behind glass, in Damascus on March 10. Picture: Louai Beshara / AFP. Source: AdelaideNow
SYRIA has accepted a peace plan by UN envoy Kofi Annan, which includes a ceasefire by Syrian forces and a daily two-hour halt to fighting to evacuate the injured, Annan's spokesman says.
But there was no immediate end to the bloodshed as intense clashes between Syrian troops and rebel fighters spilled across the border into Lebanon today and heavy gunfire slammed into the rural, sparsely populated frontier area, officials said.
Syrian troops did not physically cross the border, however, according to two Lebanese security officials, one from the police and another from the military. The fighting erupted in the Mashareaa al-Qaa area, on the Syrian side.
The UN says more than 8000 people have been killed in Syria's yearlong uprising. There are concerns that the conflict could cause a regional conflagration that sucks in neighbouring countries.
A diplomatic push to end the crisis has largely failed, but Ahmad Fawzi, a spokesman for Annan, said today that the Syrian government has accepted Annan's six-point plan to end the bloodshed.
Also today, President Bashar Assad visited Baba Amr, a former rebel stronghold in the key city of Homs that became a symbol of the uprising after a monthlong siege by government forces killed hundreds of people - many of them civilians - as troops pushed out rebel fighters.
Homs has been one of the cities hardest hit by the government crackdown on the uprising that began last March.
Assad's forces overran the rebel-held Baba Amr on March 1 but faced resistance from other districts.
Assa's visit was reported on Syria's state-run news agency, SANA. There were no further details.
The violent conflict in Syria has posed a serious challenge to Assad, but neither side has shown any sign of giving in. The opposition, riven by differences, has failed to present a united front against Assad, which has added to the chaos.
Syrian opposition leaders were meeting in Istanbul today in an attempt to resolve their differences and reassure international backers who are frustrated by the lack of cohesion.
The meeting comes ahead of an April 1 conference in Istanbul at which Turkey, the United States and their European and Arab partners will discuss ways to further isolate and pressure Assad, as well as measures to support the Syrian opposition.
Some reports indicate that the debate among dozens of countries will include whether the opposition Syrian National Council and affiliated groups should be declared as the sole, legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
A Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that "if the majority of participants choose that, we'll do that."
Via - http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/com/newscomautopstoriesndm/~3/fzNPVaLyBRU/stor...Monday, 26 March 2012
Dear TRAFFIC - watch out, we're coming for you
- Cyclist claims battery thrown at him
- Internet mobilises in support
- Wants to lend drivers bikes for a week
A CYCLIST who claims he was the innocent victim of a vicious road rage incident said he posted the picture of the distinctive car online in the hope of finding the culprit.
Chris Moore posted a picture (see below) on online forum Sydney Cyclist to warn other bike riders about the dark Mitsubishi carrying the number plate "TRAFFIC".
"Cyclists beware - there are two crazy people driving around Sydney, who do NOT like cyclists," Mr Moore posted on Sydney Cyclist.
"It's a dark red Mitsubishi sedan, their number plates are covered with cardboard with "TRAFFIC" written on in texta.
"Yesterday afternoon the guy on the right threw a battery at me, and then got out of the car and punched me. I suppose that's assault and battery?"
The avid cyclist said he was at sitting at traffic lights waiting to turn right when the occupants of the car began abusing him and threw the battery.
He says the car then turned right with him and stopped before a man got out and punched him.
“I didn’t do anything to provoke him,” Mr Moore told news.com.au
“I maybe held them up for 15-20 seconds and wasn’t riding that slowly.”
The post sparked a raft of comments and debate about road safety with cyclists and motorists pitted against each other.
Mr Moore, who lives in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Newtown, said he reported the incident to police who told him they weren’t optimistic about the chances of finding the car.
“It had a cardboard number plate so it was probably unlicenced I guess,” he said.
“I’ve posted the picture in case someone identifies the car and before they do something like this again.”
He added the reaction from the cycling community had been quite supportive, with internet vigilantes now trying to track down the driver who allegedly assaulted him.
While he appreciated the support he'd been shown, Mr Moore said the conversation between cyclists and drivers was too antagonistic.
Even if police do find the driver, he's not interested in pressing charges. In fact, as the owner of a bike shop, he has an offer for the occupants of the red Mitsubishi.
"I just want to sit down and have a beer with them," he told news.com.au.
"I assume they live in Newtown or somewhere nearby. I'd like to lend them bikes for a week so they could give cycling a go.
"I think they'd come to appreciate the joy of cycling."
Were you in the red Mitsubishi? Email us at news@news.com.au if you want to take up Mr Moore's offer
Mr Moore said while said most cars were happy to share the road, incidents like this would turn more cyclists off the habit.
The Mitsubishi sedan driven by people allegedly attacking Sydney cyclists. Picture: Courtesy of Sydney Cyclist
His post also made it onto popular global forum Reddit, drawing comments from cyclists worldwide.
As one Redditor put it, "Internet Vigilante is go!"
According to his fellow cyclists, it shouldn't take long to track down the alleged attacker.
"We can easily identify it if left on road," wrote another forum user.
"It has distinctive blemishes/damage visible in this picture. The power of 4000 Sydney Cyclist members will quite likely find it."
Redditor Andrenid claimed they'd seen the car plenty of times, "usually around Union Lane off King St".
They said they'd "always laughed" at the cardboard number plate, which they'd seen "a few times over the last few months".
A "friend of a friend" told Mr Moore the car was "sometimes parked in Petersham".
Mr Moore said the COPS number for the reported incident was E47648731. The internets responded with a hearty "let's get them!"
NSW police confirmed they received a rport of a common assault on Abercrombie Street in Darlington on the weekend.
They confirmed the victim was a cyclist who alleged had a battery thrown at him and was then punched on the shoulder.
"Investigators have received a description of a vehicle seen in the vicinity at the time of the alleged incident and investigations are continuing," the statement said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000."
Credit - http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/com/newscomautopstoriesndm/~3/X3wIUTFO-yw/stor...Bobby Brown Arrested on DUI Charge
Bobby Brown
Erik Jordan/Retna
Brown, 43, was pulled over at 12:20 p.m. Monday in the San Fernando Valley for talking on his cell phone, and then failed a field sobriety test, says California Highway Patrol Officer Mike Harris.
The R&B singer was released on his own recognizance about two hours later from the Van Nuys police station jail, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson says.
Brown, who was divorced from Houston in 2007 after a tumultuous 14-year marriage, has acknowledged a long history of drug and alcohol abuse and related troubles with the law.
Houston, 48, who was found unresponsive in the bathtub of her Beverly Hilton suite on Feb. 11, died of accidental drowning with contributing factors of heart disease and cocaine abuse, the coroner announced last week.
Via - http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20395222_20582043,00.html?xid...Activist to sue Clive Palmer over CIA claims
Clive Palmer facing defamation action. Picture: PerthNow Source: AFP
- Activist to sue mining boss for accusing him of treason
- Clive Palmer has backed away from his CIA claims
- Doesn't regret them because they helped LNP win poll
AN anti-coal seam gas activist says he intends to sue mining billionaire Clive Palmer for accusing him of treason.
Lock the Gate Alliance president Drew Hutton says a notice of intention to pursue a defamation matter has been drafted and will be sent to Mr Palmer tomorrow.
Mr Palmer last week said the CIA was funding Greenpeace, the Australian Greens and Mr Hutton in an attempt to undermine Australia's coal industry.
Mr Hutton said he had dropped the idea of pursuing Mr Palmer in court, but changed his mind after Mr Palmer made fresh comments.
The mining magnate today backed away from his CIA claims but says he doesn't regret them because they distracted people from a negative campaign against the Liberal National Party in the Queensland election.
"This guy has accused me of treason," Mr Hutton said.
"I love my country, and I fight for the future of this country and our planet every single day.
"Clive Palmer effectively admitted that he made these statements about myself and Greenpeace simply to help Campbell Newman win an election.
"I'm sorry, but after some consideration, I have decided I can't take that lying down."
Mr Hutton says he made the decision after discussions with a legal team assembled by political action group GetUp.
GetUp has previously indicated it would support Mr Hutton against the mining magnate.
National director Simon Sheikh said the defamation action would be significantly helped by Mr Palmer's latest statements.
"Clive Palmer is the respondent and incredibly also the star witness for the plaintiff," Mr Sheikh said.
"We don't need to prove false statements were made.
"Mr Palmer appears to have done that for us today."
Mr Sheikh says Mr Palmer had once listed litigation as one of his hobbies.
"It may be his hobby but right now he needs to call in the professionals because he is out of his depth," he said.
Mr Sheikh questioned whether journalists would be able to trust anything Mr Palmer said again.
Via - http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/com/newscomautopstoriesndm/~3/6y7TqbFaFU4/stor...Sunday, 25 March 2012
Police involved in deadly Westfield shooting
A man has been shot dead at the Westfield Food Court on Church St, Parramatta. Source: Supplied
A man was shot dead at the busy Westfield shopping centre in Parramatta this afternoon. Picture: Simon Chillingworth Source: News Limited
- Man shot at Westfield shopping centre in Parramatta
- Parts of the centre have been locked down
- Police asking motorists and pedestrians to avoid area
A MAN shot dead by police in a busy shopping centre was being pursued after an armed robbery and a carjacking in western Sydney, police say.
An experienced male officer shot and fatally wounded the 34-year-old in a service corridor at Parramatta's Westfield mall just before 4pm (AEDT) today.
The corridor is in a private area, near a food court and a JB Hi-Fi shop, on level five of the shopping centre.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Denis Clifford said the man was being pursued after a robbery at knife-point in Penrith this afternoon.
Police cars began chasing a suspect from that robbery along Sydney's M4 motorway before the police helicopter, PolAir, took over the pursuit.
The suspect's car crashed a short time later while still on the M4.
"It is alleged the driver of that vehicle was then involved in a violent carjacking of a second vehicle, which then sped away and was continually followed by PolAir," Mr Clifford said.
The driver was followed by a police officer into the Westfield shopping centre and into the level five service corridor.
"It appears that there was a violent struggle, a confrontation there," Mr Clifford said.
"And during that struggle the officer discharged his weapon, fatally wounding the 34-year-old."
It was unclear if the dead man was armed when he was shot, police said.
A critical incident investigation will examine the circumstances leading to the shooting and look at why a Taser stun gun was not used to subdue the man.
JB Hi-Fi employee Nikita King told AAP she heard about five gunshots.
One couple told The Daily Telegraph that they heard four gunshots – a first shot, quickly followed by three further shots.
The woman said she had been buying her lunch at the food court when she heard the shots.
But when the couple didn't hear any screams to follow, they thought they were mistaken until officers swarmed to the food court.
"I heard a bang and then three big bangs," the woman said.
"It was loud but it happened away from everyone in the food court.
"There were no screams after so we didn't think it was anything and then we saw police officers running in.
"Then it all started to happen. It was so quick, the police were quick to respond," she said.
Several retailers neighbouring the centre’s food court told The Telegraph they didn’t hear any shots at the time of the incident.
Police moved all people in the food court to one side and then told them to move on as the entire food court was blocked off.
Staff at the food outlets were allowed to stay on to pack up.
The rest of the centre remained open and shoppers were still walking around, many oblivious to the shooting.
Police have begun a critical incident investigation and are asking motorists and pedestrians to avoid the Church St area.
The investigations follow fatal incidents where police are involved.
- with AAP
Original - http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/com/newscomautopstoriesndm/~3/zqqzkldynWM/stor...Saturday, 24 March 2012
Inside J.R. Martinez's Baby Shower
TO A 'TEA'
With a daughter on the way in mere weeks, Dancing with the Stars champ J.R. Martinez, 28, and girlfriend Diana Gonzalez-Jones, 29, are getting ready for the pitter-patter of little feet. Forty of their close friends and family helped them prep for parenthood with an English-tea-themed baby shower in the Hollywood Hills on March 17.
Via - http://feeds.people.com/~r/people/headlines/~3/U5hV9c1T0Mo/0,,20581331,00.htmlSandusky labeled 'likely pedophile' in 1998 report
updated 45 minutes ago 2012-03-24T14:15:43
More than a decade before former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky was charged with more than 50 counts of child sex abuse, a psychologist warned university police that his actions fit that of a “likely pedophile’s pattern.”
-
- Trayvon Martin's Parents Recall His Last Night
- Teresa Giudice Dishes on 'Hurtful and Shocking' Housewives Season
- Erika Van Pelt Hits Back at Jennifer Lopez's Idol Critique
- Kris Jenner Speaks Out About Kim Kardashian's Flour Bombing
- Kevin Federline Looks Significantly Slimmer
The finding by State College, Pa., psychologist Dr. Alycia A. Chambers, the therapist for one of Sandusky’s alleged victims, was contained in the internal Penn State files of a 1998 police investigation of the former coach for showering and bear hugging her client and another young boy in the school’s athletic locker room.
NBC News has obtained the complete file on the investigation – the police report and assessments by two psychologists who interviewed the boys -- which provides new details about Sandusky’s behavior. It also could raise fresh questions about how school and local authorities handled his case.
“There was very little doubt in my mind (Sandusky) … was a male predator, someone that was in the process of grooming a young man for abuse ,” said Chambers, speaking publicly for the first time, with the permission of her client’s family, in an interview with NBC News. “I thought…my report was strong enough to suggest that this was somebody who should be watched.”
Chambers’ detailed report is potentially significant because it was the first clear warning about the former Penn State coach’s actions – nearly four years before a then-graduate assistant, Mike McQueary, reported to the late Coach Joe Paterno and other top school officials that he had found Sandusky in the Penn State showers one evening with another young boy, engaged in what he viewed as sexual contact. (Paterno testified last year he was unaware of the 1998 investigation and Gary Schultz, the former Penn State vice president who oversaw the school police, testified that he never reviewed the details of the case. A Penn State spokesman declined comment, citing pending investigations.)
In her interview with NBC News, Chambers described her anguish when she was contacted by police last year and learned that authorities were again investigating Sandusky for allegedly molesting multiple other boys, 13 years after she first raised her concerns.
“I was horrified to know that there were so many other innocent boys who had their hearts and minds confused, their bodies violated,” said Chambers. “It’s unspeakable.”
Joe Amendola, Sandusky’s lawyer, said he hasn’t seen Chambers’ report, but that her conclusions will be disputed by other psychologists who will be called by the defense. “I understand that there are some people who could look at this behavior and say it’s a pedophile problem. But there are others who will say, ‘This is somebody who loves kids and loves to be around them’ … It’s the old story, you get your expert and I’ll get my expert.” Sandusky has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
But one of the investigators on the 1998 case, Jerry Lauro, then with the state Department of Public Welfare and now retired, told NBC News he was never shown a copy of Chambers’ report and was stunned to learn of its conclusions.
“Wow!” he said when he was read Chambers’ conclusions by a NBC News correspondent. “This is the first I’ve heard of this. I had no idea . If I would have seen the report, I would certainly have done some things differently. Boy, this is a shock. “
Story: Lawyer seeks dismissal of charges against Sandusky
Chambers was the psychologist for a then-11- year-old boy, who had met Sandusky through his Second Mile charity for troubled children and was later invited by the defensive coordinator to several Penn State football games. The boy is now known as Victim 6—one of 10 allegedly molested by Sandusky and one of the key figures in the criminal case against him slated to go to trial this spring. Amendola this week asked a judge to drop Victim 6 from the case on the grounds that his anticipated testimony “will not establish that any sexual contact took place.”
The police file provides a fuller picture than has been previously made public about Sandusky’s interactions with the boy as well as the transcripts of two tense confrontations between Sandusky and the boy’s mother.
Chambers was called by the boy’s mother at 7:43 a.m. on May 4, 1998. The boy had returned home the night before, his hair wet, after spending two hours with Sandusky at the Penn State athletic room.
After meeting with her client in her office and talking to his mother, Chambers described in her written report how Sandusky had coaxed the boy into the shower after a workout, telling him, “All the guys do.” He then moved closer to him, squeezing him tightly from behind while they were both naked. The boy also told Chambers how, during their workout, Sandusky had kissed him on the forehead and told him, ‘I love you.” He also invited the boy back to his house to “sit on his lap” and go “online” on his “cool computer,” the boy’s mother told Chambers, recounting her conversation with her son the previous night.
Story: Penn State offers therapy to alleged abuse victims
“My consultants agree that the incidents meet all of our definitions, based on experience and education, of a likely pedophile’s pattern of building trust and gradual introduction of physical touch, within a context of a ‘loving,’ ‘special’ relationship,” Chambers wrote in her report.
“One colleague, who has contact with the Second Mile, confirms that Mr. Sandusky is reasonably intelligent and thus, could hardly have failed to understand the way his behavior would be interpreted, if known,” Chambers continued. “His position at the Second Mile and his interest in abused boys would suggest that he was likely to have had knowledge with regard to child abuse and might even recognize this behavior as a typical pedophile ‘overture.’”
Chambers gave her report to Penn State police Officer Ronald Schreffler on May 7, 1998, along with a cover letter that highlighted “the gravity of the incidents.” Chambers had also reported the incident to the Pennsylvania “suspected child abuse” hotline, where officials wrote up their own report identifying Sandusky as the “AP” or “Alleged Perpetrator.” Lauro, an investigator who specialized in abuse cases, was assigned to work the case with Schreffler.
Investigators brought in a second psychologist, John Seasock, who had worked with the local Centre County Child and Youth Services, a local agency that had licensed Sandusky as a foster parent. After meeting with the boy for an hour, Seasock concluded that no sexual offense had taken place nor was there “grooming” or “inappropriate sexual behavior” by Sandusky.
”All the interactions reported by (the boy) can be typically defined as normal between a healthy adult and a young adolescent male,” Seasock wrote in his report.
Lawyer: Report helps defense
Amendola, Sandusky’s lawyer, has said that he hopes to use Seasock’s report in his client’s defense. But the police files show that Seasock conducted his interview of the boy “cold,” without reviewing Chambers’ report or prior transcripts of interviews with the boy and that he failed to elicit some key details, such as Sandusky kissing the boy and telling him, “I love you.”
Seasock acknowledged to police there were some “gray areas” and that investigators “can’t walk away from the investigation.” But he also appeared to dismiss most of the concerns that had been raised about Sandusky in an interview with investigators.
“SEASOCK said that he hasn’t heard of a 52-year-old becoming a pedophile,” the police report states. “SEASOCK said that SANDUSKY didn’t fit the profile of a pedophile.” (Asked by police if it was "possible" that a man that age could become a pedophile, he replied it was "possible.”)
Seasock did not return phone calls from NBC News seeking comment. Schreffler also declined comment, saying only, “The report speaks for itself.”
The Penn State police file shows that investigators continued to pursue the case under the supervision of the late Ray Gricar, then the local district attorney. According to the police report, they interviewed a second boy – a friend of Victim 6 — who also described being “uncomfortable” when Sandusky hugged him in the Penn State showers.
In the days following Chambers’ interview with the boy, the mother became concerned because Sandusky was continuing to call her son at his apartment, coming by the back of the family’s apartment with rear sliding doors and even showing up at a ball field where her son had Little League practice.
As Sandusky continued to try to contact the boy, the police hid in the bedroom of the family’s apartment and monitored two confrontations between the mother and Sandusky.
On the afternoon of May 13, 1998, Sandusky knocked on the door of the family home, looking for the boy. The mother greeted him instead, telling him ever since her son had seen him the previous week, “he’s been acting different. He won’t talk and he’s been having nightmares.”
When Sandusky asked to talk to her son, the mother replied: “I don’t want you calling here for (her son.) I need to think about this. Let me call you if it’s OK to pick (her son) up.
“Maybe I worked him too hard,” Sandusky replied.
“Did something happen?” the boy’s mother asked.
“I don’t think so,” replied Sandusky.
On May 19, police arranged to monitor a second meeting that turned even more tense and resulted in Sandusky having “tears in his eyes,” according to the mother’s account to investigators.
The mother: “Did your private parts touch (the boy) when you bear hugged him?
Sandusky: “I don’t think so. … Maybe.”
The mother: “Have you ever done this with other boys?”
Sandusky: “Yes.”
The mother recounted how “you told him you loved him and kissed him on the head.” Sandusky replied that the boy “told me he loved me, so I told him the same thing.”
The mother said her son had looked at Sandusky “as a hero, a father figure, he is really confused.”
Sandusky then pressed to talk to the boy again, but the mother told him that would not be a “good idea.”
“I don’t want you going to (his) ball games.”
“I understand,” Sandusky replied. “I was wrong. I wish I could get forgiveness. I know I won’t get it from you. I wish I were dead.”
Just a week and a half later, the two lead investigators —Schreffler and Lauro—interviewed Sandusky at his office at the Penn State athletic building. He acknowledged that he hugged the boy in the shower “but that there wasn’t anything sexual about it.” He also said that he had showered with other boys and “realized he used poor judgment in what he did.”
“As a result of the investigation, it could not be determined that a sexual assault occurred and Sandusky was advised of such, “the police report reads. One of the investigators then “advised SANDUSKY not to shower with any child. SANDUSKY stated that he wouldn’t.”
“CASE CLOSED,” the file reads.
There are no reasons given in the report for why Gricar ultimately chose not to prosecute Sandusky based on the 1998 investigation. (In a case that remains open, Gricar disappeared in 2005 and is now presumed dead. Investigators say there is no indication his disappearance relates to Sandusky.)
In an in an interview with NBC News, the boy’s mother described telling her son that night that no charges would be brought against Sandusky.
Her son, she said, was “confused.”
“I don’t understand, Mommy,” she said he replied. “I’m just a little kid. I knew what he did was wrong. Why didn’t he (know it was wrong)?”
Sandusky retired from Penn State the following year — to spend more time working with Second Mile, he said. But he was made a “professor emeritus” and maintained keys to the Penn State locker room, where he continued to take young boys to the showers. In a telephone interview Friday, Amendola was asked why Sandusky still showered with young boys after 1998 when police had told him not to —and he told them he wouldn’t.
“He viewed that more as an admonition, not an order,” Amendola said. “He didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.” Amendola added that Sandusky “never thought that the situation in ‘98 was a big deal. He never looked at as that serious.”
“It’s very disturbing,” said Walter Cohen, a former Pennsylvania attorney general in the mid-1990’s, who reviewed parts of the Penn State police file, including Chambers’ report, at NBC News request. “It never should have been ignored. Never.”
As a former secretary of public welfare in the 1980s, Cohen had set up a statewide “child-line” registry of suspected child abusers that could serve as a central data base for school officials and others working with children to conduct background checks on prospective employees. Even if there were no criminal charges brought, Cohen said, there was more than enough evidence to have placed Sandusky on the statewide registry.
“Jerry Sandusky should have been on the watch list,” he said. “But instead, the case was closed.”
© 2012 msnbc.com Reprints
Debris forces astronauts to take shelter
[unable to retrieve full-text content]A piece of a debris from a Russian Cosmos satellite passed close enough to the International Space Station on Saturday that its crew was ordered into escape capsules as a precaution, NASA said. Source - http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/qXzBp1qq62E/index.html
US soldier charged over Afghan massacre
Staff Sgt Robert Bales, has beencharged with the murders of 17 Afghan villagers. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied
- Staff Sergeant Robert Bales charged with 17 murders
- Massacre believed to be deadliest war crime of conflict
- Trial likely to not be held for at least 18 months
THE US soldier accused of an Afghan village massacre that further strained already-frayed Afghan-US ties has been charged with 17 premeditated murders, although he may not be tried for two years.
Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, was also accused of six counts of assault and attempted murder in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province earlier this month.
The killings - mostly of women and children - are believed to be the deadliest war crime by a NATO soldier during the decade-long conflict and have tested Washington and Kabul's already tense relationship to the limit.
Responding to the charges, a spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said: "We want justice and we want it as soon as possible," while a spokesman for Bales's home base said it will likely be 18-24 months until any trial.
In a statement, the US military said the maximum punishment for premeditated murder is "a dishonourable discharge from the armed forces, reduction to the lowest enlisted grade, total forfeiture of pay and allowances, and death."
The mandatory minimum sentence for the killings of nine children, four women and four men, and attacks on four children, one man and one woman is life imprisonment with the possibility of parole, it added.
Bales, 38, is currently being held at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, and a US forces spokesman said it was "more than likely" the trial would be held in the United States, although the decision would be made later in the process.
But furious relatives of the victims have demanded proceedings take place in Afghanistan.
Haji Samad, an elder who lost 11 members of his family, said: "He committed the crime in Afghanistan. Why he is going to be prosecuted in the US?"
Bales allegedly walked off his base in the southern province of Kandahar under cover of darkness March 11 and killed 17 people in two nearby villages, burning some of their bodies before returning to his base and surrendering.
The massacre has deepened a sense of crisis in the NATO mission and renewed questions about the effect of protracted ground wars on America's stretched force, becoming just the latest in a series of damaging setbacks since January.
The burning of Korans in mid-February triggered deadly anti-US protests, there has been a surge in "insider" attacks on NATO troops by Afghan forces and a video emerged of US Marines urinating on bloodied Taliban corpses.
The next stage in the Bales case will see him appear before a so-called Article 32 hearing, which will decide whether to proceed with a court-martial - but the military has almost four months in which to hold it.
His lawyer John Henry Browne, who visited his client for the first time this week, has said Bales suffered from amnesia, and that he could pursue the case on the grounds of "diminished capacity" due to an emotional breakdown.
But Haji Noor Mohammad, who lost his grandfather, grandmother, a sister and a cousin told AFP: "If he is truly crazy and had lost his memory then why he is appointed as a US soldier? Why is he not admitted to the hospital instead?"
A decorated veteran who served three times in Iraq before deploying to Afghanistan in December, Bales suffered a traumatic brain injury during a road accident in Iraq.
But reports have surfaced in the US media of past brushes with law, notably involving alcohol.
Court records show a 1998 citation in Florida for having alcohol on a beach, a 2002 charge involving a drunken assault at a casino, a drunk driving arrest in 2005 and an alcohol-infused brawl in 2008, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Questions have been raised over whether Bales was drinking before the massacre - Browne has admitted that, despite a military alcohol ban, his client "had a couple sips of something but he didn't have a full drink."
Bales and his wife were reportedly also facing financial problems, with news reports saying he owes $1.5 million from a 2003 arbitration ruling in which he was found guilty of securities fraud.
The sergeant's monthly pay is listed as $3,243.30 on the charge sheet released by Joint Base Lewis-McChord, south of Seattle, where he was based and where his family was moved to after the incident, for their protection.
The charge sheet had the names of the victims blanked out, and listed the injuries sustained by the survivors, including gunshots to the neck, head, chest, thigh and groin, according to the charge sheet.
A Fort Lewis-McChord spokesman said the trial was likely to be either there or at the Kansas base, and would likely not be held for at least 18 months.
"It's going to be a long process - normally between 18 to 24 months before it actually would go to trial, if it goes to trial," spokesman Chris Ophardt told AFP.
Source - http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/com/newscomautopstoriesndm/~3/nC1TOYD46zc/stor...Friday, 23 March 2012
Geraldo Rivera blames hoodie for Trayvon's death
By James Eng, msnbc.com
Zip it up. That was a common reaction Friday on the Web and elsewhere to Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera’s comments that the hoodie was as much to blame for Trayvon Martin’s death as the shooter.
“Geraldo Rivera of Fox News has lost his mind. He's saying #Trayvon Martin wearing a hoodie helped cause his own death?” CNN commentator Roland Martin, who is black, tweeted.
“Hey Geraldo, Black kids have gotten shot not wearing hoodies. Dude, that's just dumb.”
Rivera stirred up a firestorm when he said on Friday’s “Fox & Friends” that the black Florida teen might not be dead had he not worn a hoodie the night he was shot by a community watch volunteer George Zimmerman.
“I believe that George Zimmerman, the overzealous neighborhood watch captain, should be investigated to the fullest extent of the law, and if he is criminally liable he should be prosecuted. But I am urging the parents of black and Latino youngsters particularly to not let their children go out wearing hoodies,” Rivera said.
“I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was.”
He added: "You have to recognize that this whole stylizing yourself as a gangsta, you’re going to be a gangsta-wannabe, well people are going to perceive you as a menace."
The outspoken “Geraldo at Large” host, who is Latino, expressed similar sentiments in a column Friday titled, “Trayvon Martin Would Be Alive but for His Hoodie.”
twitter.com
Geraldo Rivera's comments on hoodies and Trayvon Martin riled many Twitter users.
Reaction to his comments was fast and furious.
"i didn't even know geraldo still did stuff ppl listened to. damned if i listen to him now. but #BEATEMDOWNhoodies ARE on sale for $25," media personality Bomani Jones tweeted.
"Dear Geraldo Rivera: I'll use small words so you can follow me, okay? Hoodies don't kill people. Paranoid racists with guns kill people," tweeted Wil Wheatonof Los Angeles.
Obama: 'If Ihad a son, he'd look like Trayvon'
“That's like saying Martin should not have left the house while being Black. As the Million Hoodie marches emphasize, there is nothing inherently devious about hoodies. It's our culture's racist stereotype for "suspicion" that makes hoodies worn by people of color -- not soccer moms or Anderson Cooper -- an act that could be met with violence,” journalist Kristen Gwynne wrote on AlterNet.
On ThinkProgress.org, Alex Seitz-Wald posted a photo purportedly showing Rivera wearing a hooded jacket while covering a story during a storm.
“Rivera’s comments suggesting that Martin’s attire was responsible for his death are offensive and repugnant. One of the reasons Martin may have been wearing a hood is that it was raining on the day he was shot. As Rivera himself has experienced, a hood can be helpful in a rainstorm,” Seitz-Wald wrote.
American Apparel, the clothing manufacturer whose hoodies are popular with teens, said it was "appalled" by Rivera's comments. Marsha Brady, the company's creative director, said this in a statement provided to msnbc.com:
"To Geraldo Rivera we say this: American Apparel sells millions of hoodies each year in every color you can imagine, to every type of person you can imagine—pink hoodies to toddlers, black and navy hoodies to businessmen and successful entrepreneurs, as well as plenty of college students of all backgrounds and everyone else in between. We even sell hoodies for dogs. To say that this classic garment implies that its owner is a dangerous criminal to be 'feared' is absolutely ridiculous. We're incredibly sorry about the young man who was shot while wearing one, and feel very strongly that oversimplifying the discussion by criticizing the victim's clothing does the country, Trayvon Martin, and all those who support the end of crimes such as this one a massive and dangerous disservice."
Students walk out in Trayvon Martin protest
Msnbc.com examined the issue of black youth and hoodies in a story published Thursday. On msnbc.com’s US News Facebook page, the topic made for spirited, sometimes heated discussion.
Wrote one Facebook user, Scherika Foster:
Perceiving black teens who wear hoodies as dangerous is ignorant. Hoodies and/or baggy pants don't make young black males any more dangerous than heels and a fitting dress makes a woman a whore. This type of stereotyping is nonsense and keeps us divided. I've SEEN news clips where grown white men have committed bank robberies, bombings, rapes, and other such crimes wearing hoodies, but because of their skin tone no one perceived them as dangerous prior to their offense. It's not the clothes, it's the skin color...racism still exists.
You can read more comments here and here.
Geraldo Rivera says black and Latino kids shouldn't wear hoodies because they only invite trouble. Do you:
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook
Source - http://pheedo.msnbc.msn.com/click.phdo?i=14090df1e27e8dd9ebf68122535d441eFergie Thinks Josh Duhamel's New Mohawk Is a Turn On
Jen Lowery/Splash News Online; Inset: Jason Merrit/Getty
Josh Duhamel‘s new haircut earned mixed reviews from fans, but his most important admirer — wife Fergie — has a favorable opinion of the look. “I love Josh’s mohawk,” she told reporters Thursday during a launch event for Voli Light Vodkas in New York. “I’d love for him to keep it.”
In fact, the pop star thinks the cut gives her love a whole new edge. “He’s definitely my North Dakota husband,” she admitted, “but then he got that mohawk for [his role in the movie] Scenic Route — he got that rock ‘n’ roll look and I was very turned on.”
Fergie, who’s on a bit of a break from work right now as the Black Eyed Peas take a hiatus, said she’s enjoyed spending more time with Duhamel these past few months. “I’m nurturing my relationship with my family, getting to see them more,” she said. “Getting to work from home is great because I get more of a structure in my life. I get up, I work out, I go to bed at a certain time.”
It also allows time for the little things. As she joked — perhaps figuratively, “I feel like I have a lot of different plants that I’m watering.” Tell us: Is Duhamel’s do growing on you?
–Reporting by Carlos Greer
VOTE ON MORE GUYS’ COOL CUTS IN ‘WHAT’S HIS BEST HAIR?’
Original - http://feeds.people.com/~r/people/headlines/~3/m76hhTMsI3c/Principal's decree: This is a 'no hugging school'
By NBCNewYork.com
More than 900 students at a New Jersey middle school have been told no more hugging.
The district says Matawan-Aberdeen Middle School Principal Tyler Blackmore made an announcement that students were in a "no hugging school" following some "incidents of unsuitable, physical interactions."
More from NBCNewYork.com
School Superintendent David Healy says the district has the responsibility to teach children about appropriate interactions. The superintendent says despite the rule, students who hug will not be suspended. He says he believes the principal acted responsibly.
"It makes our school look bad, and it makes our school look like we do more than hug, but we do not," one student said.
Students range in ages from 11 to 14 in grades six to eight.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook
Credit - http://pheedo.msnbc.msn.com/click.phdo?i=98042d9a6baf68dc17a89acd9a08f845Sponsored By:
The likely cause for this is that your browser, feed reader, or email application is configured to not accept cookies, or your reader may launch an external browser to view links without sharing cookies.
- If you're using Internet Explorer, make sure your privacy setting is at medium or below.
- Select 'Internet Options' from the 'Tools' menu in your browser window
- Click the Privacy tab
- Adjust your privacy setting if necessary
- If you're using a reader that embeds Internet Explorer (examples: Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Feed Demon), you'll also need to select Internet Explorer as your default web browser.
- Open Internet Explorer
- Select 'Internet Options' from the 'Tools' menu in your browser window
- Click the 'Programs' tab and check the box for Internet Explorer to check if it is the default browser and save your change
- Close your browser, re-open it, and when prompted, select Internet Explorer as your default
- You can then click on an ad in your newsletter and visit the site you wish to view
© 2012 Pheedo, Inc. All rights reserved.
Original - http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=497bd13f0206faf8c77ba840d92c2821&p=4Thursday, 22 March 2012
REAL ESTATE WARS: Sydney one, Melbourne nil in property battle
Victoria had been harder hit by economic uncertainty and Melbourne homebuyers are struggling with affordability Picture: Aaron Francis Source: The Australian
THEY are our two largest cities with a long-standing rivalry to match. But when it comes to property in 2012 the result is Sydney one, Melbourne nil.
Auction clearance rates, property prices and industry forecasts show Sydney’s residential real estate gathering pace while Melbourne is firmly placed as the country’s "most at-risk" market.
Last weekend, Sydney enjoyed its best auction result since the start of the year with 58 per cent of the 448 properties on the market sold.
In Melbourne - which usually enjoys a higher clearance rate than the harbour city - just 56 per cent of auctioned homes sold, down from 65 per cent on the equivalent weekend last year.
Project manager for BIS Shrapnel Angie Zigomanis said Victoria had been harder hit by economic uncertainty and Melbourne homebuyers were struggling with affordability after a boom before the GFC.
“Sydney may have more expensive property but in Melbourne people are spending a higher proportion of their income on mortgages,” Mr Zigomanis said.
On the supply side, a saturated real estate market pushed Melbourne house values down 6 per cent last year - only Brisbane is worse off, down 7.5 per cent.
“Last year 60,00 dwelling constructions were commenced in Victoria while BIS Shrapnel estimated that there was only a requirement for about 47,000, so there was well above what was needed,” Mr Zigomanis said.
Most of that oversupply was in medium and high-density developments, and a significant proportion of that is in Melbourne, he said.
In contrast, building levels in New South Wales, particularly Sydney, have been trending downwards over the past decade, even as the local population has continued to climb.
Last year 31,000 dwellings were commenced in NSW, the lowest level in 50 years.
Meanwhile, vacancy rates for rental properties across Melbourne have surged to a six-year high in an ominous development for the property market.
“The situation could worsen as new apartment blocks are finished. We expect vacancy rates to continue to edge upwards this year,” Mr Zigomanis said.
The National Housing Council estimates an oversupply of almost 17,600 units in Victoria this year blowing out to 22,900 in 2015 before any signs of improvement.
But Rohan Ames marketing manager for Melbourne developer R Corporation says it’s not all doom and gloom for the city’s homeowners.
“There are a lot of apartments on the market but there’s continued interest in townhouses, mainly due to changing preferences in homebuyer attitudes looking for an alternative to units or dated homes,” Mr Ames said.
“It’s a trend across Melbourne, both in established suburbs and the inner city.”
Others point out that Melbourne’s property downturn presents an opportunity that’s absent from Sydney, property bargains and affordable rent in premier postcodes.
APM senior economist Dr Andrew Wilson believes Victorian’s fragile economy will keep buyers sidelined for months in Melbourne.
“Melbourne’s property market is likely to remain flat overall with the local economy set to struggle through 2012,” Dr Wilson said.
“It’s questionable whether any earlier positive trend this year can be sustained through the year while Sydney should provide its usual solid results over the year reflecting the chronic underlying shortage of accommodation.”
Victoria’s lack of direct exposure to the mining sector was being felt in the Melbourne property market, he said.
Biggest falls in median prices 2011
St Kilda West: (Houses) -41.8 per cent
Caulfield East (Units) -29.1 per cent
Burnley (Units) -35.5 per cent
South Yarra (Houses) -24.3 per cent
Windsor (Houses) -23.8 per cent
Essendon North (Units)-16.1 per cent
Source: RP Data
U.S. soldier to be charged with 17 murders, official says
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will be charged Friday in the deaths of civilians in two Afghan villages, a Pentagon official says.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Bales' lawyer has no comment on the report
- The March 11 shooting spree in Afghanistan left at least 16 dead
- The rampage has strained already-tense U.S.-Afghan relations
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will be charged with 17 counts of murder and six counts of assault and attempted murder related to a March 11 shooting spree in Afghanistan, a senior U.S. defense official said Thursday.
The charges are expected to be announced Friday. The official could not explain why the count is now 17, when 16 have been reported killed in the incident.
Bales' lawyer, John Henry Browne, told CNN that he did not respond to leaks and that he would not comment before seeing the charges against his client.
U.S. officials have alleged that Bales carried out the killings alone in two neighboring villages in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province, in southern Afghanistan. Bales was flown out of Afghanistan last week and is being held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
2 kids die in Kandahar suicide bombing
Afghans are insisting that the suspect be returned to Afghanistan to face trial, even as villagers and lawmakers question the U.S. military's account of what happened. But a military official said in Afghanistan on Sunday that Bales will be tried in the United States.
The rampage has strained already-tense U.S.-Afghan relations and intensified a debate about whether to pull American troops ahead of their planned 2014 withdrawal. Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded that troops withdraw from villages and return to their bases, and said relations between the two countries were "at the end of their rope."
Wednesday, Afghanistan's foreign minister called for a "swift and transparent investigation" into the killings of 16 men, women and children as the U.S. soldier arrested in the massacre awaited charges. But CNN legal contributor and defense attorney Paul Callan told CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" that the case against Bales may be largely circumstantial.
"There were admissions allegedly made by Sergeant Bales to some of his fellow soldiers in which he claimed at least that he wasn't shooting women and children, he was shooting men of military age," Callan said. "Now, that would be an admission by him that would link him to the crime scene. If they then link his gun to the specific victims, then they easily make a connection and they can prove their case."
Callan said he believed prosecutors would seek the death penalty against Bales,"because this is one of the biggest alleged massacres in memory."
"You have the diplomatic and political problems that are being caused by this crime," Callan said. "Afghan citizens will be looking, saying, 'Is the U.S. seeking justice in this case?' "
But he said that even if prosecutors won a death sentence, it was unlikely that Bales would face execution for years, perhaps decades.
Accounts from the military, Bales' family, friends and neighbors paint a portrait of a man who remained committed to serving his country despite wounds he received during three previous combat tours to Iraq -- including a traumatic brain injury suffered during a vehicle accident there. But Michael Breen, a former Army captain, told CNN that the speculation about whether his injuries or a possible, undiagnosed case of post-traumatic stress disorder contributed to Bales' actions was unfair to other veterans.
"Sergeant Bales has been through a lot as a soldier. Many of us have," Breen said. "That is certainly no explanation or excuse for the gross violation of his code of honor, to say the least, and the horrific crimes that he committed."
CNN's Miguel Marquez and Paul Vercammen contributed to this report.
Source - http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~3/pnA0Pw9udT8/index.htmlReese Witherspoon: How She's Preparing Her Kids for the New Baby
Reese Witherspoon, Jim Toth and kids Deacon and Ava
Flynet
"Reese still gets giddy when she talks about Jim," a source tells PEOPLE. "She says that she feels so happy that he came in to her life. They are a great couple and bring out the best in each other."
And the fact that the couple are expecting their first child together seems to be just the next natural step.
"Right after the wedding, Reese expressed a desire to have a baby with Jim," says the source. What's more, she included her other children in the decision.
"All along, Reese has been very open with her kids about her plans to expand the family," the source says about Ava, 12, and Deacon, 8. "Especially [because] Ava is at a sensitive age, Reese always makes sure to consult with her. She is very respectful of Ava's feelings."
With a baby on the way, Witherspoon, who turned 36 on Thursday, plans to spend less time working and more being with family, says the source.
"Reese has worked nonstop, but Jim takes great care of the kids in L.A. while she is out of town. Jim and Ryan [Phillippe] also get along fine and they have shared the responsibility while Reese is working.
"Reese gushes that Jim is great with her kids," the source adds. "And the kids seem to really like him."
But life with Witherspoon and Toth as parents isn't the typical Hollywood upbringing that fans might imagine. For one thing, home-cooked meals are a priority. The actress, says the source, "is big on the whole family eating together and talking about their day."
Credit - http://feeds.people.com/~r/people/headlines/~3/mT7il-Q5OUM/0,,20580976,00.htmlJewish school slayings suspect dead after raid
France 2 via Reuters
According to France 2 TV, this frame grab shows Mohamed Merah, the suspect in the killing of three paratroopers, three children and a rabbi in France.
By msnbc.com news services
Updated at 7:44 a.m. ET: TOULOUSE, France -- An Islamist extremist who is believed to have killed seven people in France died Thursday after a shootout with police, officials said.
Interior Minister Claude Gueant said that Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old French citizen of Algerian origin who had allegedly confessed to killing three Jewish children and four adults, was hiding in a bathroom when special forces officers raided his apartment.
Merah leapt out a window with a weapon in his hand after "shooting madly" at police who were attempting to end the 32-hour standoff, Gueant added.
Merah was found dead outside, Gueant said. Police union sources also confirmed Merah's death.
Gueant said that two officers were injured during the operation.
Earlier, assault rifle and other gunfire rang out for around four minutes, and explosions were also heard. An official told Reuters that gas was also used during the operation to try and paralyze him.
Merah told negotiators he killed three soldiers, three Jewish schoolchildren and a rabbi to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children and because of French army involvement in Afghanistan.
Authorities said Merah, who claimed to have received training from al-Qaida, was believed to have a weapons cache in the apartment including an Uzi and a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
A police source told Reuters that the blasts -- which occurred around 5:35 a.m. ET -- were from flash grenades fired to check for signs of life in the ground-floor apartment. Sustained gunfire was heard in the area around 6:30 a.m. ET.
'No movement during the night'
Before the raid, Gueant told reporters that there had been no sign of life from his apartment for 10 hours.
French police are demanding the surrender of Mohamed Merah, the suspect who allegedly shot seven people and then bragged of bringing France to its knees. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.
"There was no movement during the night. We hope he is still alive," Gueant said on RTL radio. He added that two shots had been heard during the night.
Merah boasted to police negotiators on Wednesday night that he had brought France to its knees and said his only regret was not having been able to carry out plans for more killings.
Merah filmed the shootings of the children and the rabbi on Monday using a camera strapped to him.
Email trail led cops to suspect in Jewish school slayings
President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose handling of the crisis may influence voters less than five weeks from an election in which he is running for a second term, promised on Wednesday that justice would be done and asked people not to take vengeance.
France's elite RAID commando unit detonated three explosions just before midnight on Wednesday, flattening the main door of the building and blowing a hole in the wall, after it became clear Merah did not mean to keep a promise to turn himself in.
An Interior Ministry official said that police blew up the shutters outside the apartment window to pressure him to surrender.
Sporadic blasts and bursts of gunfire rang out throughout the night.
In Israel, tears and defiance at French shooting victims' burial
"What we want is to capture him alive, so that we can bring him to justice, know his motivations and hopefully find out who were his accomplices, if there were any," Defense Minister Gerard Longuet told TF1 television before Thursday's raid.
Merah, who told police negotiators he had accepted a mission from al-Qaida after receiving training in the lawless border area of Pakistan, had identified another soldier and two police officers he wanted to kill, investigators said on Wednesday.
Schools throughout France held a moment of silence in memory of the four killed in the Toulouse school shooting. Meanwhile, French police have launched a massive manhunt for the killer. ITN's Martin Geissler reports.
"He has no regrets, except not having more time to kill more people and he boasts that he has brought France to its knees," Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins, part of the anti-terrorist unit leading the investigation, told a news conference .
The gunman negotiated with police all Wednesday, promising to give himself up and saying that he did not want to die.
"He's explained that he's not suicidal, he doesn't have the soul of a martyr and he prefers to kill but to stay alive himself," the prosecutor said.
Merah's lawyer Christian Etelin, who has defended him in several minor crimes, said that his client had a tendency towards violence that had worsened after a stay in prison and trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"There was his religious engagement, an increasing hatred against the values of a democratic society and a desire to impose what he believes is truth," Etelin told France 2 television.
Speaking to news channel i-Tele before Merah's death, Etelin said his client "wants to show he is exceptional, omnipotent, and this approach can only end up as something tragic."
He added that Merah had tried to join France's military but was rejected.
Reuters, The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
Credit - http://pheedo.msnbc.msn.com/click.phdo?i=af2c3ed978ab47b52e82561a6bebfa90Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Police charge Malcolm Naden with murder
Malcolm Naden is taken into custody at Taree police station. Picture: Nathan Edwards Source: The Daily Telegraph
AUSTRALIA'S most wanted fugitive has appeared in court charged with murdering a cousin and indecently assaulting a teenage girl.
Malcolm Naden, 38, appeared in Taree Local court this afternoon after his arrest last night in bushland in NSW.
Naden was refused bail by Magistrate Michael Morahan, who adjourned the matter until April 24.
Naden is accused of killing Kristy Scholes, 24, who was found strangled in her bedroom in Dubbo, western NSW, in June 2005.
The indecent assault charges relate to an incident involving a 15-year-old girl in Dubbo in 2004 and a shoot with intent to murder charge relates to an incident involving a police officer on December 7, 2011.
Naden was pictured earlier today with a hood over his head and bandages on his left leg.
He was bitten by a police dog during his arrest last night at a property west of Gloucester.
Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said the no shots were fired during the arrest. Assistant Commissioner Carleen York said Naden appeared to be "reasonably healthy" and had no major health difficulties despite living rough for the past six years.
She said there was a short scuffle before Naden was arrested and that officers had found a firearm in the property.
French turn up pressure on holed-up suspect
French police are demanding the surrender of Mohamed Merah, the suspect who allegedly shot seven people and then bragged of bringing France to its knees. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.
By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services
Updated at 7:35 p.m. ET: TOULOUSE, France – Three large explosions were heard late Wednesday at the siege of a suspect wanted in the killings of three Jewish children, a rabbi and three soldiers, but there were reports that the blasts were an attempt to pressure the man to surrender and did not signal the start of an assault.
Toulouse Deputy Mayor Jean-Pierre Havrin had said that negotiations with the suspect, identified as 24-year-old Mohammed Merah, had ended and an assault had begun.
But there were conflicting reports that authorities had blown open the apartment doors and windows in an attempt to pressure Merah to give up.
"They were moves to intimidate the gunman who seems to have changed his mind and does not want to surrender,'' Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told Reuters. "There is no assault.''
Orange flashes lit up the night sky near the suspect's building as the explosions were heard.
Police reinforcements had arrived at the scene at around 10 p.m. and authorities switched off street lights in the street, signaling that action would begin soon.
The suspect wounded three police officers when the standoff began at 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Interior Minister Claude Gueant said earlier that Merah had told police that he would surrender after dark. Gueant said Merah appeared to have acted alone in the killings -- but also claimed to authorities that he met al-Qaida "chiefs" while traveling in Pakistan last year.
Merah, under siege by hundreds of police officers, claimed to be a member of al-Qaida and that he had shot dead the four out of "revenge for Palestinian children." He is also suspected by authorities of having killed three French soldiers of North African origin last week.
French prosecutor Francois Molins said Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian descent, told police he had been to Afghanistan twice and had trained in the militant stronghold of Waziristan.
Molins also said Merah had planned to kill another soldier and two police officials imminently, and that his brother had been implicated in a network sending fighters to Iraq.
Police sources earlier told Reuters that another man had been arrested earlier Wednesday at a separate location in connection with the case.
Several hours after the initial raid, which took at about 3 a.m. local time Wednesday (10 p.m. ET Tuesday), the alleged gunman threw a pistol out the window in exchange for a "communication device." However, he was believed to have other weapons including an AK-47 assault rifle.
The suspect said he would surrender in the late evening "to be more discreet," although he had earlier promised to give himself up during the afternoon.
"He claims to be a mujahedeen and to belong to al-Qaida," Gueant told journalists in Toulouse. "He wanted revenge for the Palestinian children and he also wanted to attack the French army because of its foreign intervention."
Remy De La Mauvinere / AP
Police and firefighters stand near the building where a suspect in the shootings at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, was believed to be holed-up.
France 24 reported that Merah had been tracked by French intelligence services for several years.
An official in Afghanistan said Merah escaped in 2008 from Kandahar prison, where he had been serving a three-year sentence, Reuters reported. However, Kandahar governor's office said that account was "baseless", citing judicial records. "Security forces in Kandahar have never detained a French citizen named Mohammad Merah," the governor's spokesman, Ahmad Jawed Faisal, said.
Citing prison documents, Kandahar prison chief Ghulam Faruq had told Reuters that Afghan security forces detained Merah on December 19, 2007, and that he was sentenced to three years in jail for planting bombs in the southern province of Kandahar, the Taliban's birthplace.
'God is testing us'
As the siege continued, the Haaretz newspaper reported that thousands of people had gathered at the Har HaMenuchotcemetery in Jerusalem Wednesday for a joint funeral service for the victims, Rabbi Jonathan Sandler and his two sons, Gabriel, aged six, and Arieh, three, and Miriam Monsonego, aged eight.
"Our hearts are with the Jews of France and with the Ozar Hatorah institutions that took such a hard and painful blow. The pain is unimaginable, God is testing us," Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai said in his eulogy, according to the paper.
PhotoBlog: Funeral for school shooting victims held in Israel
President Nicolas Sarkozy, campaigning for re-election in a presidential poll in five weeks time, has blamed racism for Monday's school attack. His handling of the crisis could be a decisive factor in determining how the French people vote. France has troops in Afghanistan as part of NATO forces.
"Terrorism will not divide France," Sarkozy said. "We should not give way to discrimination or vengeance after shootings."
Gueant did not say how authorities had tracked Merah down.
However, a Le Figaro correspondent at the site of raid reported that police received key tip from a local motorcycle shop in Toulouse a few days ago, according to NBC News. A salesperson said a man came into the shop to ask how to neutralize the GPS system on his TMX scooter. The salesperson thought this was suspicious and reported incident to police, giving a description of the suspect.
Gueant said that when police arrived to raid the house "the wanted individual shot at the door." NBC News reported the officers were members of an elite team known as RAID.
All French shooting victims shot in the head at close range, prosecutor says
One officer was injured in the knee and another officer lightly injured in ensuing exchanges of gunfire, Gueant said. A third officer was later reported to have been hurt.
Heavily armed police in bullet-proof vests and helmets cordoned off the area where the raid was taking place, in a suburb only about 2 miles from the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school where Monday's shootings took place. NBC News reported that 300 officers were participating in the operation.
Suspect's mother called in
Merah's mother, elder brother and two sisters were detained by police on Tuesday and negotiators sought their help in trying to persuade him to turn himself in to the authorities.
"His mother said she did not wish to speak to him because she did not believe she could convince him and he would be deaf to her appeals," Gueant said.
The suspect inside the house said that he trained in the Pakistan and Afghanistan and is affiliated with Forca lesa, an Islamic group dismantled by the French government. The group, which recruits young French to join the jihad, is considered to be dangerous.
On Tuesday, hundreds of police officers had spread out across southern France in the hunt for the gunman suspected in three deadly attacks.
Authorities suspect the school killer was also behind two recent attacks in the same area on French paratroopers that left three soldiers dead and one seriously wounded. The victims were of North African and French Caribbean backgrounds.
A tense standoff unfolds in Toulouse, France, between police and the man suspected in a string of deadly shootings, including one at a Jewish school that killed three children and a rabbi.
Sarkozy described the killer as a "monster."
"There are beings who have no respect for life. When you grab a little girl to put a bullet in her head, without leaving her any chance, you are a monster. An anti-Semitic monster, but first of all a monster," he said.
Monday's incident was the deadliest school shooting in the country and the bloodiest attack on Jewish targets in decades. Schools across the country held a moment of silence Tuesday to honor the victims, who were heading to Israel for burial.
Gueant described the suspect as "someone very cold, very determined, very much a master of his movements, and by consequence, very cruel."
NBC News, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
Source - http://pheedo.msnbc.msn.com/click.phdo?i=ead72ccd02c5d1b9a601eb0b0f0e0943GOT HIM: Australia's most wanted man arrested
A police photo of Malcolm Naden, on the run for seven years.
- Malcolm Naden, on the run for seven years, captured
- Found at a property 30km west of Gloucester, NSW
- Rifle seized at property where fugitive was found
- Malcolm Naden - his story so far
AUSTRALIA'S most wanted man, Malcolm Naden, was captured by police west of Gloucester without any injuries to the arresting officers, ending a seven-year search.
The fugitive was found at a private property 30 kilometres west of Gloucester with police from the Tactical Operations Unit and Dog Unit making the arrest about 12.04am.
A rifle was seized at the scene, but police are yet to determine if this is the same weapon recently stolen from a Gloucester home.
In photos: The fugitive life of Malcolm Naden
Steve Hebblewhite, from Hebby’s Bakery, Gloucester said he was told by a local security guard that Naden had been taken to Gloucester Soliders Memorial Hospital.
“We just hear that he’s up at the hospital with lots of security around,” Mr Hebblewhite said. “They’ve got him.”
Specialist officers from the state protection group at the Nowendoc police command post for the Malcolm Naden search. Picture: Liam Driver
Source: No Source
A full scale search is being performed around the area to find any other items Naden may have used while in hiding.
The arrest ends a multi-million dollar search operation across the state's north.
Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione thanked local residents for their assistance and the efforts of the officers investigating.
"The arrest of this man this morning marks the end of a very difficult and lengthy investigation and search operation by NSW Police,'' Commissioner Scipione said.
"This result could not have been achieved without the cooperation of communities in northern NSW whose assistance and vital information has helped police over a long period of time. People in those communities deserve praise for their assistance and their perseverance.
Task Force officers raid a remote shed near Tuggolo State Forest on Christams Day 2011 in search of fugative Malcolm Naden. Picture by Peter Lorimer.
Source: No Source
"Today's arrest also is a tribute to the many different elements of the NSW Police Force who have come together and operated in a very tough environment,'' Commissioner Scipione said.
"I want to pay tribute to those people from the Tactical Operations Unit, the Dog Unit, the Air Wing, our general duties police and other specialist units whose work has been invaluable. Everyone who contributed can stand tall.''
The Commander of Strike Force Durkin, Assistant Commissioner Carlene York, said police never lost confidence in their operation.
"We never doubted that we could get to this point,'' Assistant Commissioner York said.
A police helicopter lands at the Nowendoc police command post for the Malcolm Naden search, January 2012. Picture: Liam Driver
Source: No Source
"Our people were operating in extremely difficult conditions and we had to adapt our strategies along the way.
"However, we always understood that every day brought us closer and that our tactics would prevail. This was a game of patience and I am very proud of everyone involved.
"The fact that we have made an arrest today without any harm to members of the public or police officers gives me a lot of comfort.''
Malcolm Naden - his story so far
Credit - http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/com/newscomautopstoriesndm/~3/6Y7xcUfoG30/stor...Elizabeth Banks's Hunger Games Costumes Were 'All Torture'
Murray Close
Elizabeth Banks isn’t dying her hair (or skin) anytime soon, but the actress is taking one simple fashion cue from her Hunger Games character, Effie Trinket.
“It’s very Effie-inspired today,” Banks told reporters of the colorful dress she wore to a recent Los Angeles junket for the film. “In all my press I’ve been wearing a lot of color and really loving color.”
But the actress admitted she hasn’t fully embraced the extravagant and detailed fashions beloved by her fictional alter ego. “In my real life, if I’m being honest, I still wear way more black than I should,” she said.
Her character, a publicist of sorts for the Capitol’s brutal, gladiator-style games, is known for her love of avant-garde fashion, colorful hair and over-the-top makeup. Because of that, the wardrobe was both thrilling — and painful — for the actress.
“Everything was made for me,” Banks said of her costumes, which she also helped design, considering various fabrics, colors and shapes alongside head costume designer Judianna Makovsky.
“We’ve worked together before, and she just really knew my body and knew how to hang clothes on it,” Banks added.
But despite her input — and familiarity with the designer — the actress admitted her costumes weren’t necessarily the most comfortable. “They are all torture,” she said bluntly. So it’s no surprise that when asked to choose a favorite look, Banks opted for comfort rather than aesthetics.
“My favorite costume is when we’re watching the result show, and I’m in the big green [dress with] poufy sleeves,” she said. “I love that outfit; it was the most comfortable.”
However, the actress (and new mom) will have to wait to see if any of Effie’s iconic wardrobe pieces make it into her own closet. Said Banks, “I’ve asked for some shoes now that the movie’s wrapped, but we’ll see what I get when we go back to set.” Tell us: Are you excited for The Hunger Games?
–Jessica Wedemeyer
SEE MORE ON-SET STYLE IN ‘LIGHTS! CAMERA! FASHION!’
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Romney wins the Illinois primary
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Mitt Romney and his wife Ann Romney celebrate their victory in the Illinois GOP primary at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel March 20, 2012 in Schaumburg, Illinois.
By Michael O'Brien, msnbc.com
Updated at 10:26 p.m. ET – Mitt Romney won the Illinois Republican primary with some ease on Tuesday evening, allowing him to grow his delegate advantage over his rivals in the fight for the party's presidential nomination.
The primary had offered Republicans maybe their best chance yet of a genuine one-on-one battle between the former Massachusetts governor and Santorum, his chief competitor for the nod.
"Elections are about choices. And today, hundreds of thousands of people in Illinois have joined millions of people across the country to join our cause," Romney told a throng of supporters in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg.
As a result of the Illinois vote, Romney's delegate tally rose, though though the state-wide popular vote had no technical bearing on the eventual allocation of delegates.
In Illinois, voters elect delegates separately on candidates' behalf.
A total of 54 delegates were at stake on Tuesday, and NBC News projected as of 10:25 p.m. ET that 19 went to Romney. This number will continue to be updated. (Click below for most updated count).
Check out NBC's Decision 2012 delegate tally here
Still, the primary, held in President Barack Obama's adopted home state (typically a Democratic stronghold in the general election), gave Romney a chance to further his campaign's case that he is the inevitable Republican nominee. He achieved his victory with a similar coalition of voters that had tended to support him in previous caucuses and primaries.
Romney show signs of strength as Republicans begin to coalesce
The ex-governor ran better with more affluent and educated voters, as well as moderates and voters who described themselves as "somewhat" conservative. Thirty-five percent of primary voters said in exit polls that a candidate's ability to beat Obama was most important to them; Romney won 71 percent of those voters to Santorum's 17 percent. Similarly, 58 percent of primary voters said the economy was their top issue, and Romney bested Santorum among those voters by a 17-point margin.
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney delivers remarks to his supporters following his win in the Illinois primary.
Santorum continued to outperform Romney among downscale and less educated voters, along with the most conservative Republicans and evangelical Christians.
He emphasized his ideological steadiness versus Romney in remarks on Tuesday evening, deriding Romney by implication as a timid manager of the status quo.
"This is an election about fundamental and foundational things," he said from Pennsylvania. "This is not about who's the best person to manage Washington. We don't need a manager."
The difference in Tuesday's primary was that these voters made up a smaller share of the electorate than in states like Mississippi and Alabama -- the conservative hotbeds Santorum won last week.
First Read: Illinois isn't Alabama or Mississippi
Despite Romney's victory, the Republican race appeared poised to stretch on at least weeks longer. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has shown no willingness to leave the race, and Santorum's campaign has circulated its delegate math, which focuses on halting Romney's march to gather the 1,144 delegates needed to secure the nomination.
This would spark a contested convention when Republicans meet to formally make their nomination in August.
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has focused almost exclusively on President Barack Obama in recent days instead of the other GOP candidates. NBC's Peter Alexander reports.
Romney had won 444 delegates heading into the Illinois primary, according to NBC News projections. Santorum had accrued 183 delegates, while Gingrich had won 137 and Paul had received 34.
The Santorum campaign made its case to reporters on Tuesday why 1,144 was still an attainable goal for the former senator, though he would have to perform especially well in future contests in order to best Romney.
For Santorum, the Illinois primary had meant an opportunity to again upset Romney in a Midwestern nominating contest the frontrunner had been expected to win. Santorum battled the former Massachusetts governor closely in both Ohio and Michigan, but Romney's superior campaign organization and finances -- combined with millions in ads bought by a supportive super PAC -- ultimately carried the day.
© Sarah Conard / Reuters / REUTERS
Mitt Romney holds a town hall meeting at Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville, Illinois March 17, 2012.
But Romney started to pivot toward his general election target -- President Obama -- in his victory remarks on Tuesday evening. He only referenced his Republican challengers so as to congratulate them on a hard-fought campaign. He used the rest of his speech to test themes of his argument against the president.
"This election will be about principle. Our economic freedom will be on the ballot," he said. "I'm running for president because I have the experience and vision to get us out of this mess."
Romney was able to carry momentum into Tuesday's contest resulting from a commanding victory in last Sunday's Puerto Rico primary, which not only won him 20 delegates, but also raised questions about the prudence of Santorum's decision to campaign in the territory -- an expensive commitment which won him no delegates, and only a small share of the popular vote.
Andrea Saul, press secretary for the Romney campaign, previews Tuesday's primary and talks about the delegate tally.
Organizational issues that had dogged Santorum in Ohio's primary also re-appeared in Illinois, where he failed to file the required delegate slates in four congressional districts, meaning he was ineligible to win 10 delegates.
The campaign turns next to Saturday's caucuses in Louisiana. Gingrich, who again vowed to fight onward to Republicans' convention in Tampa this August, spent the day in Louisiana. Santorum also heads next to Louisiana.
The next batch of contests are on April 3 in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
Credit - http://pheedo.msnbc.msn.com/click.phdo?i=63c92dad85aa9f5cec2d29e364542ddaMonday, 19 March 2012
Jessica Alba to Release Her First Book
Jessica Alba
Matt Sayles/AP
Alba, 30, will release The Honest Life, a how-to handbook based on her missing of creating a natural, non-toxic life for her family.
"It's totally crazy but amazing," Alba tells PEOPLE of her book news, adding of her lifestyle, "I'm not extreme. This book is for people who are in the middle but want to create a healthier life, like me."
The actress recently launched her first business, The Honest Company, with business partner and co-author Christopher Gavigan. And her book will detail her life as a mother and entrepreneur, seeking to give her children, Honor, 3 and Haven, 7 months, a better and safer start in life.
The Honest Life will offer tips on how to create a non-toxic home, from design tips to some of Alba's favorite family recipes. "Honor's favorite meatball recipe will be in there," says her mom.
"And I always hide flax seeds in everything," she explains, keeping it healthy but still tasty for her two girls. The book will also include beauty tips including "homemade" treatments to incorporate into your routine. Among them: simple, fun DIY family projects (Alba and husband Cash Warren refinished furniture for daughter Haven's room), tips on making sure your home is filled with only the purest of materials and inexpensive ways to find your own authentic style.
"It will be easy and fun and I want it to be really colorful," says Alba. "I'm a crazy foodie. I love doing projects with my kids. Everything in this book will be something meaningful that I've incorporated into our lives. I wanted some kind of handbook with all the information I was consuming so I could apply it in a practical way."
The Honest Life will be published in early 2013 by Rodale.
Original - http://feeds.people.com/~r/people/headlines/~3/IFfBdEEpBWQ/0,,20579896,00.htmlThursday, 15 March 2012
Greg Smith had 'high principles,' ex-teacher says
By Reuters
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Greg Smith was a principled and competitive student, the kind of person whose strong sense of right and wrong probably pushed him to resign from Goldman Sachs in a scathing letter to an international newspaper, his former teacher and coach said.
A quiet, unassuming child, the South African first attended the private Jewish King David's High School in suburban Johannesburg before winning a scholarship to Stanford University in the United States.
Smith then joined Goldman Sachs, a workplace he once loved but described in his resignation letter in The New York Times on Wednesday as having developed an environment "as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it".
Goldman Sachs exec Greg Smith quits, saying environment at firm is 'toxic'
"He was a remarkable young man, exceptionally intelligent with an integrity that is probably unequalled," Elliot Wolf, the school's retired headmaster, told Reuters in an interview.
"An absolutely remarkable man with high principles. He was an asset to the school in every possible way."
Wolf, who is now retired after 34 years at the school including 28 as headmaster, said he remembered Smith well from teaching him Latin and that he was loved by all because he was polite, unassuming and decent.
The Goldman Sachs banker sat a total of eight exams in his final year of secondary school in 1996, winning a distinction in every subject, Wolf said. According to school records, Smith's subjects included math, advanced math, Hebrew, English, Afrikaans and accounting.
"He was a wonderful young man with the highest principles. That was already part of his character when he was very, very young," Wolf said.
Goldman Sachs resignation letter an Internet sensation
He said he was amazed Smith would take such a stand, suggesting others would probably bend their ethics to suit a company that was rewarding them handsomely.
Smith, who worked in equity derivatives, said it had made him ill at Goldman to hear his colleagues joke about cheating clients.
"Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as 'muppets'," Smith said.
In Britain, "muppet" is slang for a stupid person.
'Always did what was right'
Wolf also recalled Smith as a skilled table tennis player. Smith, in his 30s, said in his letter one of the proudest moments of his life was winning the bronze medal at the Maccabiah Games in Israel for table tennis.
Rainer Sztab, chair of the Gauteng Maccabi Table Tennis Club, where Smith played in South Africa regularly in the 1990s when he was a teenager, remembered him as an "outstanding kid".
"He was a stand-up kid, he always did what was right," Sztab told Reuters, saying Smith twice played for the South African Maccabi team at the Maccabiah Games in Israel, as a junior in 1993 and as a senior in 1997.
But he said Smith was never a member of the South African national table tennis team, contrary to what was stated in his Goldman Sachs biography.
Sztab said Smith was "very bright and really well-liked and behaved".
Wall Street's toxic culture is alive and well, observers say
"He was very competitive. He was just starting to get the edge on the top players in Gauteng province," he added.
Sztab said he was not surprised by the manner of Smith's dramatic public resignation from Goldman Sachs. "He did well to come from South Africa to become a Wall Street banker."
He said Smith had called him two years ago to say hello while on a visit to South Africa.
"He said it was going great."
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)