Britons Held Over Heroin Hidden In Breadsticks

Two British lorry drivers have been arrested in southern Italy after police found 20 million euro (£16m) worth of heroin hidden in their vehicle among boxes of breadsticks.

The men were detained after their truck was stopped by customs officials after arriving at the port of Bari following a ferry crossing from Greece.

The drugs were discovered during a routine check by customs officials in the back of a lorry bound for Lancashire.

Footage released by officials showed officers unloading the white packages, wrapped in black plastic and stashed in between the breadsticks.

The drivers have been named as lorry owner Samuel Wilson, 42, from Scotland and 32-year-old Peter Cameron from Belfast.

They have been remanded in custody and the lorry and drugs seized by customs.

The Foreign Office has confirmed the men's detention.

A spokesman said: "We can confirm the arrest of two British nationals on Monday, 26 November in Bari, Italy."

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Jersey Bridgeman: Neighbour Arrested For Murder

Jersey Bridgeman - who was abused by her father and stepmother - was allegedly killed last week by a neighbour, investigators have said.

The six-year-old was reported missing from her home in Bentonville, 215 miles northwest of Little Rock, on the morning of November 20.

Her body was discovered minutes into a police search in an abandoned house just a few yards away.

Zachary Holly, 28, who lives next door to Jersey, is being held in the Benton County jail on charges of capital murder, kidnapping and residential burglary.

David Bridgeman is serving 18 years in jail for abusing Jersey

He is due to appear in court on Wednesday.

"Many questions related to this investigation and arrest will be answered by the affidavit of probable cause, which will be released on Wednesday," police chief John Simpson told reporters.

Police released no detail about how Jersey was killed, but police captain Justin Thompson said earlier there was "no reason ... for the community to be worried at this point".

Jersey's death came 18 months after abuse allegations were levelled against her father and stepmother.

David Bridgeman and Jana Bridgeman eventually both pleaded guilty in June 2011 to repeatedly chaining her to a dresser at their home in nearby Rogers.

The pair are serving 18 and 12 year prison sentences respectively.

Jersey's biological mother DesaRae Bridgeman has been informed of the arrest.

The child's funeral was due to take place on Tuesday afternoon.

 

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Arafat Poisoning Probe: Remains Tested

Timeline: Yasser Arafat

Updated: 9:52am UK, Tuesday 27 November 2012

Here are some of the key dates in Mr Arafat's life.

:: February 4, 1969 Mr Arafat, the fifth child of a Palestinian merchant, takes over the PLO chairmanship. He transforms it into a force that makes the Palestinian cause known worldwide.

:: June 6, 1982 Israel invades Lebanon to crush the PLO, forcing Mr Arafat and loyalists to flee Beirut.

:: October 1, 1985 Mr Arafat narrowly escapes death in an Israeli air raid on the PLO's Tunisian headquarters.

:: April 16, 1988 Khalil al Wazir, Mr Arafat's military commander, is assassinated in Tunis. Israel is blamed.

:: December 12, 1988 Mr Arafat accepts Israel's right to exist and renounces terrorism. Nearly two years later, Iraq invades Kuwait, Mr Arafat supports Saddam Hussein and the PLO is isolated.

:: November 1991 Mr Arafat marries his 28-year-old secretary, Suha Tawil. Their daughter Zahwa is born in 1995.

:: April 7, 1992 Mr Arafat is rescued after a plane crash lands in the Libyan desert during a sandstorm.

:: September 13, 1993 Israel and the PLO sign an accord on Palestinian autonomy in Oslo, Norway, giving Mr Arafat control of most of the Gaza Strip and about a quarter of the West Bank. He shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the White House lawn. The two later share the Nobel Peace Prize with Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres.

:: July 1, 1994 Returning from exile, Mr Arafat sets foot on Palestinian soil for the first time in 26 years.

:: September 28, 2000 Israel's then opposition leader Ariel Sharon visits a Jerusalem shrine holy to Jews and Muslims, leading to clashes that escalate into a Palestinian uprising.

:: December 3, 2001 After three suicide bombings, Israel destroys Mr Arafat's helicopters in Gaza City, confining him to the West Bank town of Ramallah.

:: March 2002 Israel declares Mr Arafat an "enemy" two days after a Palestinian suicide bomber kills 29 people at a Passover holiday meal, prompting an Israeli incursion into the West Bank.

:: June 24, 2002 President George W Bush calls on Palestinians to replace Mr Arafat as leader. A year later, his deputy Mahmoud Abbas becomes the first Palestinian prime minister in a move pushed for by the US and Israel to sideline Mr Arafat.

:: June 4, 2003 At the first major Israeli-Palestinian summit without Mr Arafat, Mr Sharon and Mr Bush launch "road map" peace plan, which aims to end fighting and create Palestinian state by 2005.

:: October 21, 2003 Mr Arafat is diagnosed with gallstones. Nearly a year to the day later, he collapses and is flown to hospital in France with a serious, undisclosed illness.

:: November 9, 2004 A French medical team acknowledges that Mr Arafat has been in a coma for a week. He dies two days later at the age of 75.

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Mexico: Beauty Queen Dies In Gang Gunfight

A Mexican beauty queen has been killed in a gunfight between soldiers and a suspected gang she was travelling with.

Authorities suspect that 22-year-old Maria Susana Flores Gamez, who was the Woman of Sinaloa 2012, was part of the gang and may have fired a gun in Saturday's violence.

An AK-47 assault rifle was found next to her body in the group's car.

"She was in the criminal group that clashed with army service members," Sinaloa state prosecutor Marco Antonio Higuera Gomez told a news conference.

He said a forensics test was positive for gunshot residue on her body, suggesting she fired a weapon.

Two men and two women, including Ms Gamez, and a soldier died in the gun battle in the municipality of Mocorito.

The army seized seven AK-47s, a grenade launcher, two grenades, a 40mm-calibre rifle, a handgun and around 1,000 cartridges.

Mexican media say the woman, who participated in the Miss Oriental Tourism pageant in China in May, was travelling with her boyfriend, a suspected hitman, when the shootout erupted. The boyfriend also died.

The armed group is linked to Orso Ivan Gastelum, the suspected leader of a group of hitmen working for the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel.

Families and friends held a funeral in the state capital of Culiacan on Sunday, covering Ms Gamez in a veil amid a heavy military presence.

On its Facebook page, the organisers of the Nuestra Belleza Sinaloa pageant voiced their "deepest condolences" for the death of Ms Gamez, who was a "charming and happy young woman with a great future".

Ms Gamez is not the first state beauty queen to be embroiled in a gang-related incident.

In December 2008, Laura Zuniga, the winner of the Nuestra Belleza Sinaloa pageant that year, was arrested in the western state of Jalisco along with seven suspected Juarez cartel members.

More than 60,000 people have died in drug-related violence across Mexico since President Felipe Calderon, whose six-year term ends on Saturday, launched a military offensive against cartels in 2006.

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Two And A Half Men Star Says Show Is 'Filth'

A teenage actor on Two And A Half Men has criticised the hit US television show, calling it "filth" and urging viewers not to watch it.

Angus T Jones, 19, made the comments in a recording in his production trailer.

He reportedly earns $350,000 (£218,000) an episode playing the character Jake in the show, which now stars Ashton Kutcher.

Charlie Sheen was fired last year after he criticised its producers in a series of bizarre media appearances.

Jones' video was posted by US Christian website Forerunner Chronicles on YouTube on Monday.

In it, the actor, who has been in the show since he was 10, said: "Jake from Two And A Half Men means nothing. He is a non-existent character.

"If you watch Two And A Half Men, please stop watching Two And A Half Men. I'm on Two And A Half Men, and I don't want to be on it.

"Please stop watching it. Stop filling your head with filth. Please. People say it's just entertainment.

"Do some research on the effects of television and your brain, and I promise you you'll have a decision to make when it comes to television, and especially with what you watch."

In an apparent reference to Satan, Jones said in the video: "A lot of people don't like to think about how deceptive the enemy is. He's been doing this for a lot longer than any of us have been around.

"There's no playing around when it comes to eternity."

Warner Bros, which produces the show along with CBS, has declined to comment.

Two And A Half Men is the third most popular comedy on US television with an average audience of 14.5 million per episode.

The Forerunner Chronicles' MySpace page says it is "dedicated to proclaiming the TRUTH that you need to know".

"Jesus Christ is our General," it goes on. "He gives the orders ... we put in the work! No questions asked."

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Crane Engulfed By Fire Collapses In Sydney

A construction crane has caught fire and collapsed at a building site at a university in Sydney, Australia.

The blaze started in the crane's cab almost 60ft above the city's University of Technology but the driver managed to escape before the arm fell.

The crane swayed dangerously and onlookers gasped as the boom section crashed down, damaging a nearby building.

The fire stopped traffic in surrounding streets and billowing black smoke could be seen across the central business district.

An evacuation of about 200 workers from the site and hundreds of people from nearby university and office buildings was carried out and one of the city's major roads closed.

The exact cause of the blaze has yet to be established but authorities believe that the diesel fuel tank on the crane cab was the main contributor.

The boom section of the crane lies fallen after crashing into a building

Local residents immediately took to social networking sites posting various pictures of the fallen crane.

Australian network ABC reported that the crane belonged to Lend Lease, the same construction company that owned the crane which collapsed in New York City during superstorm Sandy.

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Egypt Clashes: Morsi Protests Gather Pace

Fresh clashes have broken out in Egypt over President Mohamed Morsi's new 'pharaoh' powers.

Police fired tear gas and hundreds of protesters pelted them with rocks on a street between the US Embassy and Tahrir Square, the birthplace of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime nearly two years ago.

And in the Nile Delta city of Damanhoor a 15-year-old boy was reportedly killed and at least 40 people were wounded when a group of anti-Morsi protesters tried to storm the local offices of the political arm of the president's Muslim Brotherhood party.

People have been protesting since Friday night to demand Mr Morsi reverses a decree that made him immune to oversight of any kind, including that of the courts.

A huge rally was due to take place in Tahrir Square on Tuesday afternoon.

Protesters in Tahrir Square

Mr Morsi's declaration made all his decisions immune to judicial review and banned the courts from dissolving the upper house of parliament and an assembly writing the new constitution, both of which are dominated by Islamists.

The decree also gave him sweeping authority to stop any "threats" to the revolution.

The move led to him being referred to as the new pharaoh.

A new banner declaring: "The Brotherhood stole the country" has been erected in Tahrir Square, and opposition figures have vowed to continue the protests until Mr Morsi reverses the decree.

The president's supporters cancelled a massive rally they had planned for Tuesday, citing the need to "defuse tension".                 

But a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood said demonstrations supporting the president could go ahead outside the capital and that supporters would form human chains in some provinces to protect Brotherhood offices.

Mr Morsi's supporters say more than a dozen of their offices have been ransacked or set ablaze since Friday. 

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China: Scandal As Bribery Sex Tape Goes Viral

Chinese ministers are facing a new scandal with the release of a five-year-old sex tape involving an 18-year-old woman allegedly hired by developers to sleep with a city official.

Lei Zhengfu, who is in his 50s, was sacked as district party secretary of Chongqing - the city once led by fallen politician Bo Xilai - after the video, an apparent extortion attempt, went viral earlier this month.

He became the butt of numerous internet jokes and there are no signs yet of the scandal dying down, with whistle-blowing Beijing-based former journalist Zhu Ruifeng reportedly considering releasing similar tapes of more city officials soon.

The party is already reeling from the scandal that led to the political demise of Bo - his wife was convicted of murdering a British businessman, and Bo himself faces allegations of corruption and obstruction of justice in the murder case.

Disgraced politician Bo Xilai with his convicted wife, Gu Kailai

News of the sex tape, which was apparently shot in 2007 but only leaked this month, comes as China's newly installed leadership is increasing its anti-corruption efforts as it deals with a steady stream of corruption cases that it fears has undermined its authority.

The tape was uploaded to Mr Zhu's Hong Kong-registered website, an independent online clearing house for corruption allegations.

After the blackmail attempt, Lei reported the case to Chongqing officials in 2009, which led to the construction boss being jailed for a year on unrelated charges and the woman being detained for a month.

Neil Heywood was found dead in his hotel room in Chongqing last year

State news agency Xinhua revealed that Chongqing's corruption watchdog had pledged a thorough investigation of Lei, who was sacked on Friday, but added it had yet formally to receive a report about the allegations against Lei or the footage.

In an editorial, China Daily said the case showed that the "internet is worth being embraced by the country's corruption busters as a "close ally".

"Strangely, the mistress was once detained and the contractor jailed for blackmailing Lei," it said, as it called for greater transparency. "What had happened? ... These are crucial questions waiting to be answered."

While many Chinese remain cynical about recent assurances of China's newly installed leadership that the party is determined to tackle corruption, Zhu Ruifeng points out that his website has not been blocked despite its allegations.

"Possibly what we are seeing is that the new leaders are perhaps taking steps toward enforcing the constitution, a sliver of a new dawn," he said.

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Chicago: Woman Racks Up $105k In Parking Fines

A Chicago woman has racked up parking fines of more than $105,000 (£65,500) on a car that she says she does not even own.

Jennifer Fitzgerald's former boyfriend bought a used car from her uncle for $600 (£375) in 2008, but he registered it in her name without her knowledge.

When the couple broke up, Brandon Preveau abandoned the 1999 Chevy Monte Carlo at O'Hare Airport where he worked.

That was three years ago and since then the car has attracted 678 parking tickets.

The city council says Ms Fitzgerald must pay up and has suspended her driving licence.

She pleaded with Mr Preveau to move the car - and tried to move the vehicle herself - but claims she did not have keys nor access to the secure airport car park.

The saga was first highlighted by Mike Brockway from the Chicago motorists blog The Expired Meter.

He says the vehicle should have been towed away after just 30 days, but it was only moved to the airport pound a month ago.

"No one took it upon themselves, took the initiative and said 'hey, we got a problem here, this car has been here for months, and years, collecting all these tickets'," Mr Brockway told FOX32.

Ms Fitzgerald has now launched a lawsuit arguing that the city broke its own policy and attendants should not have continued ticketing the Chevy.

She is suing her ex-boyfriend, his employer United Airlines and the city of Chicago. The case comes to court next spring.

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Bondi Beach Closed By Red Algae Bloom

A rare phenomenon called red algae bloom has briefly closed Sydney's Bondi Beach to swimmers as the crimson tide came close to shore.

Also closed was the nearby Clovelly Beach while authorities conducted tests on the area in and around the Tasman Sea.

Swimmers were immediately advised to steer clear of the moving algae due to potentially harmful reactions.

Also known as noctiluca scintillans or sea sparkle, the algae has not been proven to have toxic effects for humans - but people have been advised to avoid contact as it is high in ammonia which can cause skin irritation.

"It has got quite a fishy smell to it," local lifeguard Bruce Hopkins told the Australian Associated Press. "It can irritate some people's skin but generally not much more than that."

The closure of the beach will be a disappointment for the locals, British tourists and expats who are basking in Australia's summer temperatures of up to 40C.

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