Miss Universe’s pepper spray sabotage
November 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment
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Organisers of a beauty pageant in Puerto Rico are investigating a case of sabotage after a contestant’s evening gowns and makeup were doused with pepper spray, causing her to break out in hives.
Ingrid Marie Rivera beat 29 pageant rivals to become the 2008 Miss Universe contestant – despite the hives.
Ms Rivera was composed while onstage before the cameras and judges, but once backstage, she needed ice packs on her face and body.
“We thought at first it was an allergic reaction, or maybe nerves,” said pageant spokesman Harold Rosario.
“But the second time, we knew it couldn’t have been a coincidence.”
Later tests revealed the presence of pepper spray.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Ms Rivera’s bag containing her gowns, makeup and credit cards was also stolen.
And the last day of competition was postponed due to a bomb threat.
Unsurprisingly, Ms Rivera said she had considered quitting the contest.
“At one point I said, ‘Am I a masochist?”‘ she said.
“But I said, ‘I am with God and this is my goal, regardless of the results.”‘
Dying Meredith Kercher whispered killer’s name: accused
November 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
One of the prime suspects in the murder of British student Meredith Kercher claims that she whispered the name of her killer as she lay dying.
Rudy Guede, the Ivory Coast basketball player who was arrested on a German train almost three weeks after fleeing the murder scene, claims he was in the bathroom when the killing took place.
The Daily Mail reports that Guede claims to have scuffled with the killer, before trying to help Kercher, who was dying from a throat wound.
Guede then says Kercher whispered the name of her killer in her final moments. He then panicked and fled the country.
The 20-year-old’s legal team told the Mail that the stunning revelation would be “at the heart of the defence case”.
Guede says he could identify the killer if he saw him again.
The suspect, who described himself as a “vampire” in a crazed internet video, has admitted to having sex with Kercher but claimed it was consensual.
Kercher’s American housemate, Amanda Knox, and Knox’s Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, are also being held in connection with the killing.
Congolese bar owner Diya Patrick Lumumba, 38, was released from prison after Guede’s arrest.
Lumumba told the Mail Knox was bitterly jealousy of her housemate.
He also said Knox had framed him for the murder after he sacked her from his bar for flirting with customers.
“She was angry I was firing her and wanted revenge,” Lumumba said.
“By the end, she hated me.
“But I don’t even think she’s evil. To be evil you have to have a soul.”
“Everything that comes out of her mouth is a lie. But those lies have stained me forever.”
15 year old girl jailed with 34 men raped from day one
November 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment
“She was raped from day one” at the jail in Para state, a Children and Adolescent Defence Centre (Cedeca) spokeswoman said.
The number of men in the cell varied from 20 to 34 while the girl, a robbery suspect, was there.
“She was raped innumerable times and forced to exchange sexual relations for food,” said Miere Cohen, the president of the Order of Brazilian Lawyers Human Rights Commission.
Media reports of the case have sparked outrage across Brazil, especially since it closely followed an earlier incident of a 23-year-old woman who was also jailed in Para state for one month together with 70 men.
The teenager, whose identity was not disclosed, was arrested in Para state capital Abaetetuba on October 21 on suspicion of robbery and put behind bars at a local police station jailhouse until an anonymous caller tipped off the media.
“Nobody really knows what she was charged with. She was a suspect in a robbery but police were unable to tell us which robbery. There was no formal charge,” Ms Cohen said.
The girl’s lawyers said police at one point said they believed the suspect was not under-age.
“Whether she was 15, 20, 50, 80 or 100 doesn’t matter. A woman should not have been kept in a jail cell with men,” Para Governor Ana Julia Carepa said.
She said she would mete out “exemplary punishment” in the case.
The girl, whose family is very poor, “is distraught and very afraid, but said she’s able to recognise the police officers who locked her up and the detainees who raped her. She’s ready to talk”, the Cedeca spokeswoman said.
Murder mysteries of the Facebook generation
November 25, 2007 | Leave a Comment
HIV Positive man raped college sleepwalker
November 24, 2007 | Leave a Comment
A homeless man has been indicted on charges of raping a college student while she was sleepwalking along a highway near her home in the US state of Cincinnati.The woman, a 23-year-old University of Cincinnati student, woke up during the attack and fought back but could not get away, said Hamilton County prosecutor Seth Tieger.
Dexter Ford, 52, was also charged Tuesday with felonious assault because he knew he was HIV-positive, Tieger told The Cincinnati Enquirer. Police said Ford told them that he is HIV positive, and Hamilton County Municipal Judge Fanon Rucker ordered Ford to be tested for venereal diseases. It was not clear if the woman has been tested.
Ford was indicted by a grand jury on two charges of rape, attempted rape, kidnapping and felonious assault. He faces as many as 46 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
Ford’s attorney, Jeff Adams, said the case will centre on the woman’s state.
“How is he to know she is sleepwalking, if it’s a dream ‘yes’ or a real ‘yes?”‘ Adams said.
The prosecutor said the woman did not consent to sex, and anyone seeing her in her sleepwalking state would have known that something was wrong. “It’s not like she was carrying on a normal conversation,” Tieger said.
The woman was walking near Interstate 71 at about 3:30am November 8, police said. Two passing motorists phoned police to report that a man was on top of a woman.
It was not the first time the woman, who has epilepsy, has wandered outside her home while sleepwalking, Tieger said.
