Q Branch of the state police on Friday arrested four persons, including two Sri Lankans for attempting to smuggle communication equipment and medicine to Sri Lanka. The officials suspect that the consignment was meant for LTTE.Based on intelligence input, the Q Branch team intercepted Sayanthan, a native of Sri Lanka, Jayanathan, a Sri Lankan with British citizenship, Babu, a native of Ramanathapuram, and Guhan, a native of Cuddalore, from Thiruvanmiyur. Q Branch officials also recovered 25 satellite phones, one GPS equipment, one night vision equipment and one walkie-talkie from the gang.Q Branch sources told The Times Of India that the consignment was kept ready to be smuggled to Sri Lanka. However, the route and the details of the procurement are still under investigation.None of the arrested persons have a known record of LTTE activism, sources said. The LTTE procurement modules have been lying low for the last few months, following regular interception by the Q Branch. Except for stray attempts, there were no big scale organised smuggling happening between Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu during these months.However, of late there were signs of these modules becoming active again as smuggling cases of narcotics, communication equipment and essential materials were detected off the Tamil Nadu coast. Most of these smuggling activities were restricted to areas in and around Ramanathapuram, where the procurement modules have a well-knit system in place. Chennai remained largely out of the picture in the later part of 2008, except for the arrest of the smuggling kingpin Thambi Anna alias Daniel, who controlled and co-ordinated most of the consignments for LTTE, from the city in July last year.However, the procurement agents resurfaced in the city this year. On January 1, the Q Branch arrested a Sri Lankan national and recovered two Switzerland made satellite phones from him. The phones were meant to be smuggled to Sri Lanka. On January 24, Chennai customs officials arrested another Sri Lankan with heroin at Chennai airport.In 2008, there were around 50 smuggling cases busted by the Q Branch and nearly as many Sri Lankans were arrested. The LTTE procurement modules had tried to smuggle everything from army fatigues, raw materials to explosives and provisions. The Q Branch had managed to break into the network of these procurement modules and with a better intelligence network in place, could intercept most of the smuggling consignments. The arrest of key figures like Thambi Anna was seen a significant event in controlling the smuggling between Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu.

Government lawyers have ordered police to abandon an investigation into alleged corruption involving senior Customs officials.
The inquiry – which has cost the taxpayer at least £5.5million – examined Customs officers’ handling of a fraud probe in which millions of pounds worth of alcohol was smuggled into Britain without duty being paid.The fraud is estimated to have cost the taxman £1.25billion.However, the cases fell apart when it was revealed that the officers had encouraged the offences in a sting operation. A subsequent review by a senior High Court judge found major failings in the handling of the cases and a police investigation was launched. At one stage, Customs’ then director of law enforcement, Terry Byrne, and the organisation’s solicitor, David Pickup, were told not to come into work while police examined allegations against them.Both were cleared and the Metropolitan Police instead focused on allegations against 20 serving or former Customs officials.Last week, the six-year inquiry was dropped after the Crown Prosecution Service said it was not in the public interest to continue, and that there was no realistic chance of a conviction.Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat MP who has been heavily involved in pursuing Government action over the case, said last night: ‘There has been gross criminality which has resulted in the Government losing an astronomical amount of money and lots of evidence of horrific failure by the authorities. ‘It is utterly disgraceful that this has all now been dropped. No one at a senior level has ever been held to account for this. ‘The truth is, those responsible have got away with it; both the criminals and the officers who failed in their responsibilities to pursue it effectively.’Detective Chief Superintendent Nigel Mawer of the Met said: ‘As our investigation is concluded, the matters will be referred to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to consider whether any action is required.’

Marcelle Kearney, 18, of Pine Bluff faces charges of furnishing a prohibited article into a correctional facility and possession of marijuana with intent to deliver. Prosecutors say Kearney was searched by guards after they received information that he was bringing contraband into the prison.Prosecutors say Kearney removed a sock containing five packages of tobacco and two bags of marijuana that had been concealed near his groin.Jefferson County Circuit Judge Rob Wyatt Jr. set Kearney’s bond at $2,500 during a hearing Friday. Kearney later bonded out of jail.

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"My husband and I will never have another happy day for the rest of our lives. Life has lost its meaning for us," said the victim's mother, who sobbed as Ouslander recapped the night her 38-year-old daughter was killed. Lane confessed to detectives that he parked his rig at a truck stop off Route 78 in Bloomsbury and went into town checking for unlocked doors. He said he found the entrance to Massaro's home wide open, entered, and murdered the woman after they scuffled in her bedroom. State Police discovered Massaro's body after troopers were asked to go to her home to check on her well-being. Mahon said he didn't understand how Lane, a father of two young girls, could inflict such "evil." Lane's public defender, Peter Abatemarco, said there was no explanation, noting his client had no previous record. Lane is to return to Massachusetts next week, where he is serving 25 years for attacking a 15-year-old girl in her home in suburban Boston, just hours after Massaro was killed.
Hunterdon County Prosecutor J. Patrick Barnes was the first to spot similarities between the attack on the teenager and Massaro's murder. Detective Jeffrey Farneski from the prosecutor's office and State Police Detective Geoffrey Noble later convinced Lane to give a video-recorded confession. Massaro's mother credited the law enforcement officers who finally stopped Lane, using a cryptic reference to a DVD movie, "Hunting Humans," that was found in his truck. "Without them," she said of the officers, "he might still be hunting humans."
admitted killer never turned to face his victim's family yesterday when he was sentenced to 50 years in state prison for the murder of a woman in her Hunterdon County home. Trucker Adam Leroy Lane also didn't look at the investigators who caught him and were present in a Flemington courtroom to see him convicted in the July 29, 2007, slaying of Monica Massaro. State Superior Court Judge Roger Mahon received no final statement from Lane, and noted he saw no remorse from the man, except over the fact that he was captured for the grisly crime. "Putting him to death would be too good for him. I hope that he will suffer every day for what he has done and never taste freedom again," Massaro's mother, Fay, said in a prepared statement that was read for her in court by a victims' advocate.
Lane, 44, of North Carolina admitted he parked his rig at a truck stop in Bloomsbury sometime during the night Massaro was killed, entered her home, slit her throat and watched her die. He also confessed that he butchered her body to make it look like a more maniacal person attacked the woman. First Assistant Prosecutor Charles Ouslander insisted Lane intended to kill, and showed no mercy. "I ask that the court show no mercy toward the defendant now," Ouslander told the judge. The state successfully sought to keep Lane in jail for the rest of his life, by tacking on the conviction to a 25-year sentence he already is serving in Massachusetts for a similar but unrelated attack on a 15-year-old girl. Massaro's murder, according to authorities, capped off a July 2007 string of slayings along his truck route from Virginia to New England. Investigators have labeled Lane a serial killer, and charged him with a second killing near Harrisburg, Pa., a little more than two weeks before Massaro was murdered. Darlene Ewalt was stabbed to death from behind as she sat on the rear patio of her home in West Hanover on July 13, 2007, according to police.

Nancy Kissel lost an appeal against a conviction for murdering her investment banker husband in 2003 for which she was imprisoned for life in Hong Kong.Justice Michael Stuart-Moore announced the decision by the three judges who heard the case in the Court of Appeal today after almost five months of deliberation. Nancy, 44, plans to take the case to the city's Court of Final Appeal, her lawyers and family said.
Nancy Kissel was sentenced to life in 2005 for killing millionaire Merrill Lynch & Co. banker Robert Kissel, and hiding his body in a carpet in a storeroom. The prosecution said she drugged his milkshake then battered him with an ornament.She admitted to killing him, saying he was abusive. Her lawyers appealed on grounds that she had been improperly cross- examined in the trial regarding statements made on her behalf for her bail application; the trial judge erred in allowing ``hearsay'' evidence based on conversations between Robert Kissel and various witnesses; the trial judge misdirected the jury on whether she acted in response to provocation.
``This was as cogent a case of murder as might be imagined,'' Stuart-Moore and fellow justices Frank Stock and A. R. Wright wrote in a 271-page judgment. ``In the welter of arguments and details that have been churned in the course of this case, both at first instance and upon appeal, the wood is in danger of being obscured by the trees.''The Court of Appeal justices found no merit in those grounds and others raised by Kissel, the judgment said. There was ``no material misdirection or irregularity'' in the trial, and ``none would have affected the inevitability of a conviction,'' they wrote.Nancy Kissel's mother, Jean McGlothlin, described herself as ``disappointed'' that her daughter didn't ``get more support from these three justices.'' Speaking outside the court building in a trembling voice, she added that her daughter hadn't received ``a completely fair hearing'' from the very beginning.
``We just do what we need to do next,'' she said. ``We know this case has merit in the Court of Final Appeal.''Simon Clarke, a defense lawyer for Nancy Kissel, said the case might be heard in the Court of Final Appeal in six to nine months.
In the original murder trial, the prosecution pointed to the value of Robert Kissel's $18 million estate, made up of stocks, life insurance polices, cash and real estate. Nancy Kissel was the beneficiary of her husband's will and life insurance policies, prosecution evidence showed.The Kissels were married in 1989 in the U.S. and later moved to Hong Kong. Nancy Kissel is serving her sentence at the Tai Lam Women's Prison in Hong Kong's New Territories, close to the Chinese border.
The Court of Appeal justices said there are no reasonable arguments against key ``central and clear'' facts, including that Robert Kissel consumed a milkshake before his death prepared by Nancy Kissel. Five drugs, including four prescribed for Nancy in the 10 days before the killing, were found in her husband's stomach.
Nancy Kissel obtained the drugs from two doctors without divulging to either she had consulted the other. She had searched Web sites for side-effects of drugs.
Nancy Kissel would be well provided for in the event of her husband's death and was having an affair with a man in the U.S. around the time of the killing, they added.
Nancy Kissel claimed she acted in self-defense against her husband who attacked her with a baseball bat. Yet she didn't mention the baseball bat to the police when she made a report and upon her arrest. Neither did she mention the baseball bat to her family, domestic helpers, a family friend, a doctor and a colleague of her husband's.
Instead, she told ``a variety of lies to all who enquired'' to explain Robert Kissel's absence, the judgment said.
Forensic evidence suggested Robert Kissel was lying on his bed when the fatal blows were dealt to his head. His body bore no sign of defensive wounds, the justices said.
Neither work colleagues, family friends and relatives on either side, nor domestic helpers were aware of Robert Kissel's alleged drinking, drug problems or past abuse of Nancy Kissel, they said. There was no mention of violence or sexual abuse in Nancy Kissel's diaries.Nancy appeared in court today pale and clad in black. At the end of the session, she had to be helped out of the court room by two female officers.Her mother described Kissel as ``very fragile'' and often transported in a wheelchair because of a knee problem. ``But her spirit is strong, her will is strong,'' she added.The family and Kissel aren't allowed to communicate through phone calls though often write, she said.

Armed men stole five small planes from a private airstrip in the north-western Mexican state of Sinaloa on Tuesday by overpowering a police officer and flying away, security forces said. The group of around 20 men stormed the small airstrip at dawn, seized the officer's gun, tied him up, filled the planes with fuel and flew off, said Emma Quiroz, spokeswoman for the government's anti-organized crime operations in Sinaloa.It was not clear if there was a link to drug gangs who use small aircraft to spirit cocaine through northern Mexico towards the United States. Quiroz's office said it was investigating whether any authorities had been complicit in the theft.The office said in a statement that it was "taking the necessary actions to determine the whereabouts of these airplanes and the criminals who took part in the robbery."The five planes were taken from a hangar at an unpaved airstrip belonging to a fumigation company in the town of Navolato. They had been taken out of service earlier this year by the army on the grounds they presented irregularities that violated civil aviation and airport laws.The army, which is battling drug cartels up and down Mexico and especially in northern states with smuggling routes north, has confiscated 245 small planes and helicopters since November 2007, Mexican media reported.Sinaloa is one of the most violent states in a nearly two-year-old war between rival drug gangs and security forces which has killed some 3,000 people so far this year.Small planes are used legitimately in the state to spray farm crops with pesticides and to eradicate marijuana fields with chemicals from the air.

OJ Simpson has been found guilty on 12 charges of armed robbery, conspiracy to kidnap and assault with a deadly weapon by a court in the US city of Las Vegas.
The former US football star and actor was accused of robbing two sports memorabilia dealers a year ago.
The armed robbery charges carry a mandatory jail sentence, and kidnapping carries a possible life term.

Gary Glitter has a million pounds bounty on his head if he ever leaves the UK for Spain.Glitter had made plans to start a new life on the Costa Del Sol, but when gangland bosses heard of it, they vowed that they would kill him if he ever set foot in Spain.If Gary Glitter sets foot in Spain, hes dead. One of the biggest British gangsters in Spain is so concerned about him trying to start a new life over here he has offered 1million pounds to anyone who takes him out, Daily Star quoted a gangland source as saying.
What he has done to all those kids is just disgusting and he should be locked up for life. But as the courts have decided to set him free, people over here have decided to take the law into their own hands…and there are plenty of people who would be happy to kill him.The money is just a bonus. Most of the gangsters would be happy to bump him off for nothing, the source stated.Glitter, 64, was planning to buy a posh pad in Puerto Banus in Marbella, but was stopped by police from going to Spain via France last week, and a Foreign Travel Order was granted banning him from leaving the country.The area is a popular celebrity spot, and Glitter, real name Paul Gadd, had been hoping to lose himself among them, but the area also happens to house a number of families with young children, making drug barons and gangsters, who run the resort, want him out.There are a lot of guys out here who are violent men on the run from the police in the UK. They have nothing to lose by wiping out Glitter, the source revealed.No one wants him here and even though these are bad guys, they care about kids and they dont want him preying on the youngsters who come here for a nice holiday, the source added.Glitter has been banned from travelling to France or Spain by Ashford magistrates.

O.J. Simpson is being isolated from other prisoners for his own safety but he continues to hope for a new trial after his conviction for kidnapping and robbery, his attorney said Sunday.Simpson will be held in the Clark County Detention Center until his Dec. 5 sentencing, and then is expected to be moved to state prison. Galanter said he will pursue a request for Simpson to be released on bond during the appeals process. But because of the seriousness of the charges, Simpson would probably remain in jail during an appeal. Galanter said an appeal cannot be filed until after sentencingAttorney Yale Galanter said Simpson will be living a lonely life, advised by his lawyers to do no media interviews and allowed to see only family members and a few friends placed on a special list at the jail.
"He's disappointed and a bit melancholy," he said.If he doesn't win a new trial or an appeal, at the very least he's looking at six years in a state prison facility, and at worst, life behind bars.