Saturday, 29 September 2012

Kate Middleton 'bottomless' photos published in Danish magazine

Kate Middleton most likely hoped that her topless photo scandal is a thing of the past, but now a Danish magazine has published "bottomless" photos of the royal.

The new photos, published in the Danish magazine Se og Hor and leaked to the web this week, show the Duchess of Cambridge trying to put on a pair of bikini bottoms with a towel wrapped around her shoulders. The photos are from the same set of topless photos first published two weeks ago in the French magazine, Closer and later re-printed in Italy, Ireland and widely across the internet.

"It's a set of unique photos from an A-class celebrity. We are a leading gossip magazine in Denmark, and it is my job to publish them," Se og Hor's editor told the Belfast Telegraph before the issue came out. "If the British royal family want to sue us, then it will happen then and we'll deal with it."

Middleton won an injunction against Closer, halting distribution of the photos which were taken while she and Prince William were on a balcony in Southern France, during a private vacation earlier in the month.

Per the ruling, Closer had to hand over digital copies of the unauthorized photos within 24 hours. The court also stopped the magazine from republishing the pictures - including on its website and its tablet app - as well as re-selling them. The court also imposed a $2,500 fine and blocked further publication of the photos. The ruling only affects the French magazine branch of Mondadori, Closer's publisher. Mondadori faces a daily fine of euro10,000 ($13,100) if it fails to do so.

"These snapshots which showed the intimacy of a couple, partially naked on the terrace of a private home, surrounded by a park several hundred meters from a public road, and being able to legitimately assume that they are protected from passers-by, are by nature particularly intrusive," the French ruling said, according to the Associated Press. "(They) were thus subjected to this brutal display the moment the cover appeared."

"The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge welcome the judge's ruling," a spokesperson for the royal couple said in a statement obtained by OTRC.com.

The royal couple is also filing a criminal complaint against 'X' - the unnamed photographer who took the picture in hopes to get the identity of the mystery photographer and prevent him or her from selling the photos to new outlets. The photographer could face a significant fine and a year in prison if the case goes forward.

Joe Little, the managing editor of Majesty magazine told The Associated Press that the royal family swiftly enforced legal again in the case because "they wanted to set a benchmark for the future."

Little speculated that the quick legal action also reflected Prince William's desire to not let the press to harass Kate Middleton in the same manor that they harassed his late mother Princess Diana. Princess Diana was killed in 1997, when she was fatally injured in a car crash after being chased by paparazzi in Paris.

In 1994, Britain newspaper editors refused to publish topless photos of Princess Diana that were offered by a Spanish press agency, saying they wanted to respect. They were taken while she was sunbathing in a hotel in Malaga, Spain.

Last year, Middleton's younger sister Pippa also faced a topless photo scandal.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry and the Palace ended their complaint against British tabloid The Sun, which printed naked photos of the royal in Las Vegas.

(Copyright ©2012 OnTheRedCarpet.com. All Rights Reserved.)

View the original article here

Woman's throat slashed in Bronx push-in robbery

  Eyewitness NewsNEW YORK (WABC) -- Police in the Bronx are hunting for two robbers who slashed a 75-year old woman in the throat during a brutal push-in robbery.

Investigators say the suspects followed her from the elevator to her 16th floor apartment in the St. Mary's Park Houses on Westchester Avenue Friday night.

They pushed their way in and hit her several times before slashing her throat.

The victim is expected to survive.

---
Get Eyewitness News Delivered

Facebook | Twitter | Newsletters | Text Alerts

(Copyright ©2012 WABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more New York News »


new york city, bronx, robbery, new york news

View the original article here

Chemistry lab scandal could affect thousands of cases

AP  By DENISE LAVOIEBOSTON -- A chemist accused of lying about drug samples she tested at a state lab could face additional charges as prosecutors and defense attorneys sift through thousands of criminal cases that could be upended by her actions.

Annie Dookhan, 34, of Franklin, was arrested Friday in a burgeoning investigation that has already led to the shutdown of the lab, the resignation of the state's public health commissioner and the release of more than a dozen drug defendants.

Many more defendants are expected to be released. Authorities say more than 1,100 inmates are serving time in cases in which Dookhan was the primary or secondary chemist.

"Annie Dookhan's alleged actions corrupted the integrity of the entire criminal justice system," state Attorney General Martha Coakley said during a news conference after Dookhan's arrest. "There are many victims as a result of this."

Dookhan faces more than 20 years in prison on charges of obstruction of justice and falsely pretending to hold a degree from a college or university. She testified under oath that she holds a master's degree in chemistry from the University of Massachusetts, but school officials say they have no record of her receiving an advanced degree or taking graduate courses there.

State police say Dookhan tested more than 60,000 drug samples involving 34,000 defendants during her nine years at the Hinton State Laboratory Institute in Boston. Defense lawyers and prosecutors are scrambling to figure out how to deal with the fallout.

Assistant Attorney General John Verner called the charges against Dookhan "preliminary" and said a "much broader" investigation is being conducted.

Verner said state police learned of Dookhan's alleged actions in July after they interviewed a chemist at the lab who said he had observed "many irregularities" in Dookhan's work.

Verner said Dookhan later acknowledged to state police that she sometimes would take 15 to 25 samples and instead of testing them all, she would test only five of them, then list them all as positive. She said that sometimes, if a sample tested negative, she would take known cocaine from another sample and add it to the negative sample to make it test positive for cocaine, Verner said.

Dookhan pleaded not guilty and was later released on $10,000 bail. She was ordered to turn over her passport, submit to GPS monitoring, and not have contact with any former or current employees of the lab.

Dookhan's relatives and attorney declined to comment after the brief hearing in Boston Municipal Court. Her next court date is Dec. 3.

The obstruction charges accuse Dookhan of lying about drug samples she analyzed at the lab in March 2011 for a Suffolk County case, and for testifying under oath in August 2010 that she had an advanced degree from the University of Massachusetts, Attorney General Martha Coakley said at a news conference.

In one of the cases, Boston police had tested a substance as negative for cocaine, but when Dookhan tested it, she reported it as positive. Investigators later retested the cample and it came back negative, Verner said.

The only motive authorities have found so far is that Dookhan wanted to be seen as a good worker, Coakley said.

According to a state police report in August, Dookhan said she just wanted to get the work done and never meant to hurt anyone.

"I screwed up big-time," she is quoted as saying. "I messed up bad; it's my fault. I don't want the lab to get in trouble."

Dookhan's supervisors have faced harsh criticism for not removing her from lab duties after suspicions about her were first raised by her co-workers and for not alerting prosecutors and police. However, Coakley said, there is no indication so far of criminal activity by anyone else at the lab.

Co-workers began expressing concern about Dookhan's work habits several years ago, but her supervisors allowed her to continue working. Dookhan was the most productive chemist in the lab, routinely testing more than 500 samples a month, while others tested 50 to 150.

One co-worker told state police he never saw Dookhan in front of a microscope. A lab employee saw Dookhan weighing drug samples without doing a balance check on her scale.

In an interview with state police late last month, Dookhan acknowledged faking test results for two to three years. She told police she identified some drug samples as narcotics simply by looking at them instead of testing them, a process known as dry labbing. She also said she forged the initials of colleagues and deliberately turned a negative sample into a positive for narcotics a few times.

"I hope the system isn't treating the evidence against her the way she treated the evidence against several thousand defendants," said defense attorney John T. Martin, who has a client who was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea based on concerns over Dookhan's work.

Dookhan was suspended from lab duties after getting caught forging a colleague's initials on paperwork in June 2011. She resigned in March as the Department of Public Health investigated. The lab was run by the department until July 1, when state police took over as part of a state budget directive.

---
GET THE LATEST NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS FROM ABCNEWS.COM ---
Get Eyewitness News Delivered

Facebook | Twitter | Newsletters | Text Alerts

(Copyright ©2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) Get more U.S. & World News »


u.s. & world news

View the original article here

A New York Personal Injury Lawyer Gives Wise Counsel

Hit and run driver kills elderly pedestrian in Harlem

  Eyewitness NewsNEW YORK (WABC) -- Police are looking for the driver who hit and killed an elderly man in Harlem.

It happened late Friday night at the intersection of Broadway and 114th Street.

Police say the 75-year old pedestrian was crossing 114th Street when he was struck by a black Honda Civic traveling north on Broadway.

The suspect fled the scene before police arrived.

The victim was taken to St. Luke's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

---
Get Eyewitness News Delivered

Facebook | Twitter | Newsletters | Text Alerts

(Copyright ©2012 WABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more New York News »


new york city, harlem, hit and run accident, new york news

View the original article here

Hypodermic needle armed robbery suspect identified

  Eyewitness NewsNEW YORK (WABC) -- Police released a photo of a suspect who threatens his victims with a hypodermic needle.

Police say 39-year-old Angel Cintron is wanted for a string of violent muggings in the Bronx.

He confronted at least three of the victims with a needle.

None of the victims were stabbed during the muggings.

Angel Anthony Cintron is described as being 5'8", 145 lbs., brown eyes and black hair.

He has a scar underneath his left eye and the bridge of his nose. He has written tattoos on both sides of his neck.

Anyone with information in regards to these incidents is asked to call Crime stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).

---
Get Eyewitness News Delivered

Facebook | Twitter | Newsletters | Text Alerts

(Copyright ©2012 WABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more New York News »


new york city, bronx, robbery, new york news

View the original article here

It's official: NFL refs approve deal with league

AP  By SCHUYLER DIXONIRVING, Texas -- NFL referees voted and approved a new eight-year deal with the league on Saturday. Now they all can get back to the business of calling games.

Referees approved the contract by a 112-5 vote, officially ending a lockout that led to a rising chorus of complaints from players, coaches, fans and politicians. The next stop for the refs who gathered in Irving, Texas, was the airport, where most were to hop on planes taking them straight to their Sunday game sites.

The deal came quickly after three weeks of escalating difficulties for league-hired replacement refs, culminating in a disputed touchdown call that decided Monday night's Packers-Seahawks game. With a tentative deal in place, league referees returned to cheers at Thursday night's game between Cleveland and Baltimore.

The tentative contract called for refs' salaries to increase from an average of $149,000 a year in 2011 to $173,000 in 2013, rising to $205,000 by 2019. The current defined benefit pension plan will remain in place for current officials through the 2016 season or until the official earns 20 years' service.

The defined benefit plan will then be frozen. Retirement benefits will be provided for new hires, and for all officials beginning in 2017, through a defined contribution arrangement.

Beginning with the 2013 season, the NFL will have the option to hire a number of officials to work year-round. The NFL also will be able to retain additional officials for training and development and can assign those officials to work games. The number of additional officials will be determined by the league.

Monday night's game ended in chaos after replacement refs called a touchdown catch for the Seahawks instead of a Packers interception. Many fans and commentators - and players in the league - thought the call was botched. Criticism of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the league kept escalating, and the labor dispute drew public comments from both President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney. By late Wednesday, both sides had a deal.

"It's all history now," head linesman Tom Stabile said Friday. "For us, it was a benefit. It may have been the straw that broke the camel's back."

Line judge Jeff Bergman said he could see Monday night's play coming as he watched at home. He noticed that players were starting to take advantage of replacement officials struggling to keep control of the game.

"The last play of the game was something that was going to happen sooner or later," Bergman said. "It gave us and the league an opportunity to get together and hammer out a deal that was going to get hammered out anyway."

Referee Ed Hochuli, who led weekly tests and conference calls for officials to stay sharp during the lockout, declined to say whether the replacements made the right call.

"You really don't want to see that," Hochuli said. "You don't want to see the controversy. You don't want to see teams lose games that they shouldn't have lost, if indeed that's what happened. We're not making a judgment on that."

Now, the refs have to get used to being fan favorites.

The officials that worked Thursday night's Ravens-Browns game were cheered from the moment they walked onto the field. The difference between the regular crew and replacements was clear. The officials kept the game in control, curtailing the chippy play and choppy pace that had marred the first three weeks of the regular season.

Officials on Friday said they were ready for applause - and ready for when it inevitably disappears.

"After the euphoria of the moment wears off, probably sometime early in the second quarter, it'll be back to regular NFL football mode," said referee Gene Steratore, who will head to Green Bay for Sunday's game, one week after Packers players ripped the replacements over Monday's disputed touchdown. "Players will be questioning our judgment, our ancestry. Coaches will be screaming at us. And it'll be life as back to normal on Sundays."

___

---
FOR MORE NEW YORK SPORTS CLICK HERE TO VISIT ESPN NEW YORK

---
Get Eyewitness News Delivered

Facebook | Twitter | Newsletters | Text Alerts

(Copyright ©2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) Get more Sports »


nfl, sports

View the original article here