Formally arrested
Phan-Gillis is formally arrested, after being held for six months accused of stealing state secrets. He husband said he decided to go public about her circumstances ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the U.S. Her family deny the allegations. The US government has not commented. China’s Foreign Ministry confirms Phan-Gillis is under investigation.
Mrs Phan-Gillis is suspected of carrying out activities endangering national security, and is currently being investigated by relevant departments. We hope that the outside world will respect China’s handling of this case according to law.
Hanging delayed
Basit’s execution is postponed after a magistrate says he cannot be hanged in compliance with the jail manual, which says that a prisoner must stand on the gallows. Rights groups have said that hanging a handicapped person would constitute cruel and degrading treatment. he remains on death row. Justice Project Pakistan:
[The] jail manual only provides for hanging as a method of execution, and lays down methods to calculate the right length of rope to ensure that hanging does not lead to protracted strangulation. The rules presume that the convict [can] walk up to the gallows, which is not possible in Basit’s case.
Not guilty plea
Gonzalez pleads not guilty in the kidnapping and killing of Middleton. Police say Gonzalez lured Middleton into his family’s apartment, sexually assaulted her and strangled and stabbed her in the neck. Her body was discovered inside a recycling bin. If found guilty of all counts, Gonzalez faces a maximum of life in prison.
Arraignment
McCarthy and Bond appear in Boston court. McCarthy is charged with killing Bella, after going to her room to console her. When Rachelle went to the bedroom, she allegedly found McCarthy standing over Bella’s mattress on the floor. Bella’s head appeared to be swollen and gray. McCarthy:
She was a demon anyway. It was her time to die.
Prosecutors say the couple put Bella’s body in a refrigerator and later weighed it down and put it in Boston Harbor. Bond is charged as an accessory after the fact and held on $1 million dollar cash bail, McCarthy is denied bail.
Attempted murder charges
Lassiter is charged with trying to drown his two young daughters. Lassiter had flagged down passers-by at the Audubon Lake apartments saying his seven-year-old son had been kidnapped and needed help finding him. Later Lassiter tells a 911 operator and the apartments manager, that he had drowned his three and five year old daughters. However, he is mistaken — the girls survive after being pulled from the water by Durham County Sheriff’s Deputy Earp, who lives nearby. Police say the boy had escaped and run for help. Police:
As the deputy retrieved the girls, Lassiter was standing nearby smoking a cigarette. He became distraught, wailed ‘What have I done?’ and started to cry.
Lassiter says he tried to drown the children because officials had wanted to take away his children as he dealt with a personal problem. He is charged with three counts of attempted murder and is jailed, with bond set at two million dollars.
Case closed
Pao’s gender-bias case against Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers closes as the venture capital firm says in a court filing that its award for court costs against her is resolved. The company says it has accepted a payment or performance other than the amount ordered by the judge.
Abandons appeal
0 0 Mark Devlin Mark Devlin2015-09-24 01:57:392015-09-24 01:57:39Abandons appealRicin plot man jailed
A man is jailed for eight years for trying to buy deadly ricin poison from a website after being inspired by the TV series, Breaking Bad. 31-year-old, Mohammed Ali struck a deal with a supplier in to buy 500 mg of powder, a quantity enough to kill 1,400 people. He was unaware that his source was in fact an FBI agent. The trial heard the father-of-two was sent harmless powder hidden inside a toy car. After opening the package, which had been treated with a marker substance, he was arrested at his home the following morning.
Arrested
Mexico’s authorities arrest Astudillo, a gang leader who they say is the leader of a drug cartel and who is a key figure in the disappearance of 43 students last year in a town in one of the country’s states. He is alleged to have given the orders to abduct and kill the students because he thought they were members of a rival gang. After having the students murdered, Astudillo then had the bodies disposed of by burning them at a rubbish dump outside the city. There have so far been 111 arrests over the disappearances. International experts have disputed the government’s accounts of what happened and have said its investigation was deeply flawed.
Corruption charges
Prime Minister Ponta is to be tried by the country’s top court after he is indicted on several counts of corruption. He faces charges of fraud, tax evasion and money laundering dating back to when he was a lawyer, before he was elected prime minister. Ponta denies the claims and has denounced the prosecution as “totally unprofessional”. He says the charges against him have been fabricated and contrived. He has refused to resign, and will be the first prime minister in the country to stand trial while in office.
[Romania’s only problem is] the obsession of a totally unprofessional prosecutor to assert himself in his career by inventing and imagining untrue deeds and situations from 10 years ago.
President Iohannis, who has previously called on Ponta to resign, said the country’s image would suffer because of the case.
In my view, the situation is more and more problematic for the prime minister, for the government and for the Social Democratic Party.
Four other people have also been indicted in the case.
$900m faulty ignition settlement
General Motors reaches a settlement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, with the company agreeing to pay $900 million to end a criminal inquiry into its failure to recall vehicles with faulty ignitions. The fault, which could shut down engines, disable power-assisted steering and brakes and prevent airbags working, has been linked to more than 100 confirmed deaths. An independent monitor will also be appointed at the company. The car maker admitted it did not alert regulators and the public, and did not begin recalling cars worldwide until early 2014, after years of avoiding any acknowledgement of the problem. The number of recalled cars rose to nearly 30 million by the end of 2014. US Attorney’s Office:
[GM] admits that it failed to disclose a safety defect to NHTSA and misled US consumers about that same defect.
CEO Barra says that the company’s engineers, managers and workers who identify a problem must come forward or they will be held responsible.:
Reaching an agreement with the Justice Department does not mean we are putting the issue behind us. Our mission has been to take the difficult lessons from this experience and use them to improve our company. We’ve come a long way and we will continue to build on our progress.
No charges
0 0 Mark Devlin Mark Devlin2015-09-16 16:15:242015-09-16 16:15:24No chargesLoses KitKat trademark fight
Nestle fails to convince judges that it has the right to trademark the shape of its KitKat four-finger chocolate bar. The judges say that the company must demonstrate that the public relies on the shape alone to identify the snack. However, this was difficult to prove since the chocolate bar also shows the brand name. Cadbury has fought to prevent Nestle from obtaining the ruling, as it would stop other confectionery producers making chocolate bars of the same shape or size. Both companies said they are “pleased” with the ruling, and the case will now return to the UK’s High Court for a final decision.
Arrested
Mohamed is arrested after taking a homemade clock to school. The clock — a circuit board with a power supply wired to a digital display — is confiscated during English class because the alarm kept beeping.
She was like, it looks like a bomb. It doesn’t look like a bomb to me.
He is taken out of class by the principal and questioned by five police officers who demand to know his intentions and why he brought the device into school.
They were like, ‘So you tried to make a bomb? I told them no, I was trying to make a clock. He said, ‘It looks like a movie bomb to me’.
They take him to a juvenile detention center. He is suspended from school and may still face charges of making a hoax bomb. Mohamed’s father, who emigrated from Sudan:
He just wants to invent good things for mankind. But because his name is Mohamed and because of Sept. 11, I think my son got mistreated.
I expect they will have more to say tomorrow, but Ahmed's sister asked me to share this photo. A NASA shirt! pic.twitter.com/nR4gt992gB
— anildash.com (@anildash) September 16, 2015
Direct Message class action suit
A proposed class action lawsuit claims that Twitter surreptitiously eavesdrops on its users’ private Direct Message communications. For example, if a user privately tells a follower through the service to check out a story on nytimes.com, providing a full URL, Twitter will modify this into a custom link such as “http:/t.co/CL2SKBxr1s” (while still displaying the text “www.nytimes.com” to its users). The lawsuit says that by sending users to Twitter’s analytics servers before passing them on to the linked-to website, Twitter is benefiting by demonstrating to The New York Times and others where the source of the traffic is.
The end result is that Twitter can negotiate better advertising rates.
The claimed damages are as high as $100 per day for each Twitter user whose privacy was violated
Dancing Baby case will go to trial
A three-judge panel in The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, clears the way for the “Dancing Baby case” to go to trial. The court rules that fair use is “uniquely situated in copyright law so as to be treated differently than traditional affirmative defenses,” and copyright holders like Universal must consider fair use before issuing takedown notices asking services like YouTube to remove videos that include material they control. EFF:
Today’s ruling sends a strong message that copyright law does not authorize thoughtless censorship of lawful speech.
RIAA:
We respectfully disagree with the court’s conclusion about the D.M.C.A. and the burden the court places upon copyright holders before sending takedown notices.
Embezzlement charge
Japanese prosecutors charge Karpeles with embezzling 321 million yen ($2.66 million) by transferring clients’ funds deposited at Mt.Gox’s bank account to other accounts. Sources say the money was spent on buying computer software development rights and an expensive custom-built bed. Karpeles is suspected of falsifying data on the outstanding balance of the exchange. Karpeles has denied the charges, telling investigators the data falsification was done for the company and he had intended to pay back the money. He has been held without formal charge for six weeks, as allowed under Japanese law.
Drops appeal
Pao drops her appeal against Kleiner Perkins, saying she cannot afford the risk of incurring additional costs to fight the company. Pao says she has not reached a settlement with the firm and will pay some of its $275,000 legal fees.
This battle has been painful for me personally and professionally, and also for my family. It is time to move on. I look forward to continuing the conversation about workplace equality and to building great companies in the technology industry.
Kleiner Perkins said in a statement that it was glad to put the case behind it.
There is no question diversity in the workplace is an important issue. KPCB remains committed to supporting women and minorities in venture capital and technology both inside our firm and within our industry.
Released
Judge Bunning releases Davis, saying he is satisfied that her deputies fulfilled their obligations to give marriage licenses to same-sex couples in her absence. Bunning’s new order says Davis, once free, still cannot interfere with her deputies issuing marriage licenses to all legally eligible couples. Davis is released from jail, and says she plans to return to work this week. When a reporter asks if her stay in jail was worth it, she smiles and nods. Attorney:
I can guarantee you, knowing Kim, she loves God, she loves people, she loves her work, and she will not betray any of those three. She’ll do her job good. She’ll serve the people…and she’ll also be loyal to God, and she’s not going to violate her conscience.
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$6.4 million wrongful death settlement
Baltimore officials reach a $6.4 million wrongful death settlement with Gray’s family. The deal still must be approved on Wed 9 September by the city’s Board of Estimates, the governing body that oversees the city’s spending. $2.8 million will be paid to Gray’s family this fiscal year, and $3.6 million in the fiscal year beginning next July. The settlement also calls for the Baltimore police department to begin requiring its officers to wear body cameras. The mayor’s office says the settlement will resolve any civil claims against the city, the police department and the individual officers, but is not an admission of liability and would not impact the criminal cases.
The proposed settlement agreement going before the Board of Estimates should not be interpreted as a judgment on the guilt or innocence of the officers facing trial. This settlement is being proposed solely because it is in the best interest of the city, and avoids costly and protracted litigation that would only make it more difficult for our city to heal and potentially cost taxpayers many millions more in damages.