Federal authorities have joined the search for a teenager who was serving probation for killing four people in a 2013 drunken-driving wreck after invoking a defense that he suffered from "affluenza." Too affluent to appreciate the gravity of his crime, doncha know.
The Tarrant County district attorney's spokeswoman confirmed to The Dallas Morning News Thursday the U.S. Marshals Service is involved in the search for Ethan Couch, 18. The FBI says arrangements are being made for the bureau to join the search as well.
Couch is wanted on suspicion of violating his probation by failing to check in with his assigned officer. Suspicion? He failed to report and his probation officer went to his home address and found it vacant. He's gone. On Tuesday, lawyers for Couch confirmed that authorities had issued the juvenile equivalent of an arrest warrant. Investigators are also seeking the boy's mother, Tonya Couch, with whom he had been living. On Wednesday, Anderson expressed concern that Couch and his mother had fled the country. Ya think?
On the night of June 15, 2013, Couch drove his Ford pickup into a crowd of people who were attempting to assist a stranded motorist . Two passengers in the pickup suffered serious injuries when they were thrown from the vehicle, including one who can no longer move or talk.
Couch's attorneys claimed at trial that his irresponsible lifestyle was due to wealthy parents who coddled him. The teen was sentenced to 10 years of probation and ordered to attend a rehab facility.
It's one of those times when you hate to say 'I told you so,' but I told you so," Anderson said. "I knew he was going to end up in more trouble." Nah, he ain't in trouble no more. Mommy is protecting him in some tropical paradise that has no extradition treaty with the U.S. Maybe Libya.
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12/18/2015 13:43 ||
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[REUTERS] A French court has ordered Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to face trial over her role in a payout of some 400 million euros ($434 million) to businessman Bernard Tapie, her lawyer said on Thursday.
The case, which has roots dating back more than 20 years, will be heard by magistrates at the Cour de Justice de la Republique, which judges ministers for crimes in office, La Belle France's prosecutor general said.
Lagarde, who is accused of alleged negligence over the Tapie affair while serving as La Belle France's finance minister, said she would appeal against the decision, adding that she shared the prosecutors' view there was no basis for any charge against her.
"Ms. Lagarde would like to reaffirm that she acted in the best interest of the French state and in full compliance with the law," said a statement issued by her office.
Thursday's court decision came as a surprise as La Belle France's top prosecutor had recommended in September that investigations against Lagarde in the case be dropped.
"A decision like this is incomprehensible," her lawyer Yves Repiquet told Rooters.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2015 00:00 ||
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[UPI] An Air India technician died after he got sucked into the live engine of an airplane as it was being pushed back for takeoff at the Mumbai Airport.
The incident at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on Wednesday traumatized many of the 100 or so passengers who were on the flight, The Times of India reported. The technician was identified as Ravi Subramanium.
The incident may have occurred due to a miscommunication between the aircraft's co-pilot, who was in training, and Subramanium. The co-pilot and pilot, a senior captain, have been indefinitely grounded as investigations continue, NDTV reported.
The A-319 aircraft was en route to Hyderabad when it was being pushed back with the help of technicians from the parking bay toward the runway. Most planes can only move forward so a tow van helps push planes back.
"No one knew what happened. All of a sudden we hear that we heard that the technician has been sucked into the engine," an airline official said, as quoted by The Times of India. Another official said "the body has been badly mutilated."
Edna: It will be bold! Dramatic!
Bob: Yeah!
Edna: Heroic!
Bob: Yeah. Something classic, like, like Dynaguy. Oh, he had a great look! Oh, the cape and the boots...
Edna: [throws a wadded ball of paper at Bob's head] No capes!
Bob: Isn't that my decision?
Edna: Do you remember Thunderhead? Tall, storm powers? Nice man, good with kids.
Bob: Listen, E...
Edna: November 15th of '58! All was well, another day saved, when... his cape snagged on a missile fin!
Bob: Thunderhead was not the brightest bulb...
Edna: Stratogal! April 23rd, '57! Cape caught in a jet turbine!
Bob: E, you can't generalize about these things...
Edna: Metaman, express elevator! Dynaguy, snagged on takeoff! Splashdown, sucked into a vortex!
[shouts]
Edna: No capes!
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2015 00:00 ||
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday described US Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump as "talented" and "outstanding," welcoming his stance on Russia.
"He is a very outstanding man, unquestionably talented," Putin told journalists after his annual press conference in Moscow.
"It's not up to us to judge his virtue, that is up to US voters, but he is the absolute leader of the presidential race," Putin added.
Asked about the prospect of a new US president during the three-hour news conference, Putin, whose relationship with Barack Obama is strained at best, said "we first have to understand who it is going to be."
"Whoever it is, we are ready and want to develop our relations with the United States," he said, adding that unlike the US, which "always tries to tell us... who to elect and who not to elect," Russia doesn't do any such thing.
"That would be dangerous," Putin said. "They say the prosecutor there threatens to put you in jail if a foreign monitor approaches the voting queue closer than five metres (yards) away."
Trump, a tycoon and one-time reality television star who has unexpectedly become leader of the Republican presidential candidates' race, has gained both fans and enemies recently for inflammatory remarks against Muslims.
Speaking after a mass shooting in California by a Muslim couple believed to have been radicalised, Trump called for a temporary ban on all Muslims from entering the United States "until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on."
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday called Trump's comments "divisive, stupid and wrong."
Putin said that Trump's comments to his domestic audience while on the campaign trail were not Russia's concern, but added that he likes the Republican hopeful's statements on Russia.
"On domestic politics, his manner of speaking, what he employs to raise his popularity" -- that is none of Russia's business, Putin said. "It's not our concern to evaluate his work."
- 'I would talk to him' -
Some of Trump's statements on Putin were apparently music to the Russian president's ear.
"He says that he wants a different level of relations, tighter and deeper relations with Russia, how can we not welcome that? Of course we welcome it," Putin said.
Trump was asked during one of the debates in September what he would do to get Russia's military presence out of Syria, and answered that he would first get Putin's respect.
"I will get along -- I think -- with Putin, and I will get along with others, and we will have a much more stable -- stable world," Trump said in September. "I would talk to him. I would get along with him."
But Trump also said in October he would like to "sit back" and watch as Russia continues air strikes in Syria, suggesting it could be a "trap" that could bog down Moscow.
[FORTUNE] For nearly a week, the media and political worlds have been wondering who paid $140 million to purchase Nevada’s largest daily newspaper, The Las Vegas Review-Journal. The primary buyer had taken great pains to remain anonymous, but Fortune has learned from multiple sources familiar with the situation that it is Sheldon Adelson, chairman and CEO of casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp.
Adelson, a major Republican Party donor who hosted Tuesday night’s debate at his Venetian property, had been widely rumored to be the buyer—including by employees at the Review-Journal itself, which this morning ran a front-page story that detailed Adelson’s ties to Michael Schroeder, a regional Connecticut newspaper publisher who was the only person listed on regulatory filings related to the sale. LVRJ, if you remember, was the home of Righthaven, which screwed the 'Burg and something like 90 other websites with the threat of copyright lawsuits. I hope its new owner vetoes any future brilliant ideas coming out of it.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
A fitting end to a nasty interlude. May it prove profitable for him.
[DENVERPOST] Spain's next prime minister could be a young pony-tailed university professor, or perhaps a leather-jacketed lawyer who once posed nude in campaign posters. Sounds like they're really well-qualified.
They demonstrate just how much Spanish politics has changed in the four years since the last general election. I mean, look at all Cicciolina accomplished.
A severe economic crisis, crushing unemployment and incessant corruption cases have turned many Spaniards away from the staid, career politicians who head the mainstream right and left parties that have alternated in office for decades. Three words: Otho, Vitellius, and Galba. And the same applies to us.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2015 00:00 ||
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BADIN: Hundreds of angry protesters took to the streets in Luari Sharif town of Badin District, following the killing of a school teacher and set more than 50 shops and some houses on fire in the area.
School teacher Mohammad Aslam Keerio was shot dead on Thursday, allegedly by members of a rival group, local residents said.
Luari Sharif town, located some 13 kilometeres off Badin city, is home to many shrines. The town has seen many clashes on the issue of management of shrines as both rival groups in the area claim ownership of the shrines.
Tension gripped the area after Keerio was killed. An infuriated mob took to the streets and set shops and houses on fire to express their anger against the incident.
The eye witnesses told Dawn that around 50 shops were ransacked and set on the fire.
Following the incident, heavy contingents of police under the supervision of SSP Badin Ibrar Hussain Nekokar reached the spot and tried to control the tense situation.
So far the bloody tussle between two groups, who both claim to be real custodian of the shrines, has claimed dozens of lives during past three decades.
SSP Badin, while talking to the local journalists, said that police was trying its best to calm down the situation.
“We have arrested a number of miscreants involved in the riots and arson,” he added.
People of both the groups are accusing each other for the tense situation in the town and have demanded to carry out a judicial inquiry into the incident. However, no case was registered till the filing of this report.
Later in the day, a large number of relatives of the victim staged a sit-in outside Badin Press Club to protest against the killing of Keerio, and the reluctance of the police to register an FIR against the people involved. They demanded an independent probe into the incident.
Meanwhile, the people of Gopang community told Dawn that their women and other innocent people were arrested by police without any justification.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
On Tuesday, lawyers for Couch confirmed that authorities had issued the juvenile equivalent of an arrest warrant. Investigators are also seeking the boy's mother, Tonya Couch, with whom he had been living. On Wednesday, Anderson expressed concern that Couch and his mother had fled the country. 
[REUTERS] A French court has ordered Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to face trial over her role in a payout of some 400 million euros ($434 million) to businessman Bernard Tapie, her lawyer said on Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday described US Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump as "talented" and "outstanding," welcoming his stance on Russia.
[DENVERPOST] Spain's next prime minister could be a young pony-tailed university professor, or perhaps a leather-jacketed lawyer who once posed nude in campaign posters.
