• Two British men arrested in New York 'cannibal cop' case

    A schoolteacher allegedly targeted by New York police Officer Gilberto Valle took the stand in his trial Thursday. Brynn Gingras of NBC New York reports. View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.

    By M. Alex Johnson, staff writer, NBC News

    Two British men are free on bail after they were arrested in connection with the trial of a New York cop accused of plotting to kill and eat dozens of women, police said.


    One of the men was identified Friday as Dale Bolinger, 57, of Canterbury, is alleged to be the man known as "Moody Blues," who prosecutors in New York say was an online "mentor" to former New York police Officer Gilberto Valle.

    Valle, 28, is on trial on charges of conspiring to kidnap women and illegally accessing a government database to research potential victims. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

    Bolinger acknowledged that he had been suspended from his job as a nurse at East Kent Hospital after he was detained by Kent police last week on suspicion of conspiracy, child grooming and possession of child abuse images.

    An unidentified 30-year-old man was also arrested in the Canterbury area as part of the investigation, Kent police said Thursday in a statement. They are free on bail "while inquiries continue," it said.

    Bolinger denied the allegations, telling reporters outside his home, "I have to leave it to the police," the Kentish Gazette reported Friday.

    Prosecutors have introduced extensive, highly gruesome material from Valle's computer to convince a jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that Valle planned to kidnap, torture, kill and eat dozens of women, at least four of whom he had attended high school or college with. Valle's wife turned over the computer to police and fled to Nevada after discovering the materials.

    One of the women allegedly targeted in the plans was a woman named Kimberly, who was a frequent topic of discussion between Valle and the British man calling himself Moody Blues, who prosecutors said also used the email address "MeatMarketMan."

    Jane Rosenberg / REUTERS

    Gilberto Valle III, 28, is seen in this courtroom sketch with his attorney Julia Gatto in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Oct. 25.

    Among the less sickening exchanges prosecutors have introduced was titled "Abducting and Cooking Kimberly: A Blueprint." It included a photo of Kimberly Sauer, a former classmate of Valle's at the University of Maryland, prosecutors said. 

    "I can knock her out, wait until dark and kidnap her right out of her house," Valle wrote, according to prosecutors. 

    FBI Agent Corey Walsh testified that Moody Blues advised Valle to try eating his victims alive, but Valle responded: "I'm not really into raw meat."

    In another email message, Valle allegedly told Moody Blues about a softball player he knew who was "the most desirable piece of meat I've ever met." Moody Blues suggested knocking her out with a baseball bat, saying it would be "poetic justice," the jury was told.

    Valle has pleaded not guilty. On the opening day of his trial, his attorney told jurors Monday that Valle had been having disturbing fantasies since he was a teenager but never had any intention of acting on them.

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  • Court won't ban tell-all by Dominique Strauss-Kahn lover who called him 'half-man, half-pig'

    Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP – Getty Images

    Dominique Strauss-Kahn leaves Paris' courthouse after a hearing Tuesday on a tell-all penned by an ex-lover.

    By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

    French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn lost his bid to have a court ban a kiss-and-tell book by an ex-lover who has described him as a sex-obsessed "half-man, half-pig" -- but he will collect damages.

    In a ruling late Tuesday, a judge green-lighted publication of "Beauty and Beast" by Marcelle Iacub, a lawyer and columnist who had a seven-month affair with the former head of the International Monetary Fund, Le Monde reported.

    The court agreed to Strauss-Kahn's demand that a disclaimer declaring his privacy had been invaded be included in every copy. It also ordered the author, the publisher and a magazine that printed excerpts to pay him $98,000, the newspaper said.

    Hours before his partial victory, Strauss-Kahn appeared in a Paris courtroom to complain of the "horror" of having his love life exposed, The Guardian reported.

    Christian Hartmann / Reuters

    "Belle et Bete" ("Beauty and Beast") by Marcela Iacub details her seven-month affair with Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

    "Is anything allowed in order to make money?" he asked, branding the book a cheap shot against "a man already down on the ground."

    The affair chronicled in the book unfolded while Strauss-Kahn was embroiled in scandal over allegations he sexually assaulted a hotel maid in New York. Criminal charges were dropped by prosecutors who questioned the woman's credibility; Strauss-Kahn later settled a civil claim out of court.

    Iacub's book, which is due to go on sale Wednesday, doesn't name Strauss-Kahn, but she has said it's about him. Excerpts published in Le Nouvel Observateur -- accompanied by an interview in which she referred to him as "half-man, half-pig" -- are decidedly unflattering.

    "You were old, you were fat, you were short and you were ugly," the 48-year-old former mistress wrote, according to the Guardian. "You were macho, you were vulgar, you were insensitive and you were stingy. You were selfish, you were brutal and you had no culture. And I was mad about you."


    Strauss-Kahn's lawyers contend he was seduced into a money-making trap and they tried to persuade the court with an email in which Iacub purportedly confessed the romance was a plot cooked up by her co-workers.

    Iacub said she didn't remember the email, disavowed its contents and issued a warning to the Socialist leader once touted as presidential material before scandal doomed his career.

    "I don't think it's in [Strauss-Kahn's] best interest for me to start searching through my emails," she said, according to London's Daily Telegraph.

    Strauss-Kahn, who is under investigation in connection with a French sex ring, had asked for a disclaimer to be printed in every copy of "Beauty and Beast" already distributed, a ban on more copies being printed, and $130,000 in damages. 

    As he left the courthouse, he said there was one more thing on his wish-list: "To be left alone."

     

  • Cops: Driver plows into tourists, goes on deadly stabbing spree in upscale Guam shopping area

    By Audrey McAvoy, The Associated Press

    A man accused of killing two Japanese visitors and injuring a dozen others after crashing his car and stabbing people in a major tourist district in Guam has been arrested and faces multiple charges, police said Wednesday.

    Chad Ryan DeSoto, 21, of Tamuning is accused of driving a Toyota Yaris onto a sidewalk and striking seven tourists Tuesday night at an upscale shopping area fronting the Outrigger Guam Resort in Tumon Bay, Guam police spokesman A.J. Balajadia said. DeSoto continued driving on the sidewalk, crashing into the wall of a convenience store. He then left his car and started stabbing people, police said.

    DeSoto is charged with two counts of murder, 13 counts of attempted murder and 13 counts of aggravated assault, Balajadia said. No motive or other details on the investigation were released.

    DeSoto was scheduled due to appear before a magistrate judge at the Superior Court of Guam on Wednesday to be formally charged.

    Japan Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said 14 Japanese tourists were attacked, including two who died. Two of the injured have been released from the hospital after being treated, Suga said.

    Japanese media reported the dead were two women aged 28 and 82 and the survivors included an 8-month-old baby.

    An official with Japanese travel operator H.I.S. Co. said eight of its customers were injured in the attack -- including some with broken bones -- but none was killed.

    The wreck and alleged knife attack among high-end boutiques and hotels in Tumon Bay's Pleasure Island district sent frightened hotel guests and others fleeing for safety.

    A woman at a nearby café with friends told the Pacific Daily News she saw the car plow through the driveway and into a convenience store at the resort. Ashley Quichocho, 18, of Dededo said the driver got out, ran up to bystanders and began stabbing them.

    "He started stabbing someone, and I started freaking out," Quichocho said. "He was just running back and forth stabbing people."

    Quichocho said she ran to the second floor of the hotel with other guests to escape.

    Guam Gov. Eddie Calvo issued a statement addressed to "the people of Japan" saying the perpetrator would be prosecuted "to the fullest extent of the law." Calvo said he would increase the police presence in the visitor district.

    "This was an isolated incident -- something that just doesn't happen in our community," Calvo said. "We are shocked, we are grieving with the families, and we extend our deepest condolences to those hurt."

    Guam, a U.S. territory and tropical island 1,500 miles south of Tokyo, is heavily dependent on tourism -- particularly from Japan -- for its economy.

    The island has a population of about 180,000 and is home to major U.S. naval and air bases. The U.S. has plans to move several thousand Marines to Guam from the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Radical cleric linked to al-Qaida set free after UK court ruling

    Extremist cleric Abu Qatada was freed from jail after a UK court ruled that he couldn't be deported to Jordan, to the fury of many government ministers. ITV's Juliet Bremner reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    A radical Islamist cleric described by prosecutors as a key al-Qaida operative in Europe was freed from prison Tuesday after a court ruled he cannot be deported from Britain to Jordan to face terrorism charges.

    The preacher was seen smiling as he was driven away from Long Lartin maximum security jail in Worcestershire, central England, in a black MPV.

    Britain's government has attempted since 2001 to expel Abu Qatada, a Palestinian-born Jordanian cleric convicted in Jordan over terror plots in 1999 and 2000, but has been repeatedly thwarted by European and British courts. He has been in and out of British jails for years without charge since his arrest in 2002.

    Abu Qatada won bail at a hearing Monday, when the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, which handles major terrorism and deportation cases, upheld his challenge to the decision to send him to Jordan.

    Britain says will deport radical cleric Abu Qatada

    Judge John Mitting said he was not convinced the cleric would receive a fair trial, despite the government's insistence that it has won assurances from Jordan over how Abu Qatada's case would be handled — including from Jordan's King Abdullah II.


    Mitting said there remained a real risk that evidence obtained through torture would be used against Abu Qatada, which would be a breach of his human rights.

    Under the terms of his bail, Mitting said, the cleric must observe a 16-hour curfew, wear an electronic anklet, cannot use the Internet and is barred from contacting certain people.

    ‘He does not belong here’
    Britain's government has said it will appeal against Mitting's ruling, arguing that he applied the wrong criteria in making his decision.

    "We are going to challenge it, we are going to take it to appeal. We are absolutely determined to see this man get on a plane and go back to Jordan. He does not belong here," Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg told ITV television Tuesday.

    Andy Rain / EPA

    Radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada arrives at his home in London after being freed by a British court. The judge ruled on Monday that he might not get a fair trial if deported to Jordan as the government plans.

    Jordan’s acting information minister Nayef al-Fayez told the BBC that his government shares the disappointment at the ruling, but it respects the decision of the court.

    Al-Qaida's top man in Europe freed from British jail

    Abu Qatada has previously been described in courts in Britain and Spain as a senior al-Qaida figure in Europe who had close ties to the late Osama bin Laden.

    He is accused by Britain of links with Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in the United States over the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and with shoe bomber Richard Reid. Audio recordings of some of the cleric's sermons were found in an apartment in Hamburg, Germany, used by some of the Sept. 11 hijackers.

    Human rights lawyer Julian Knowles told the BBC that the case could drag on for years to come.

    Britain's failure to deport Abu Qatada contrasts with its success last month in extraditing to the U.S. another radical cleric, Abu Hamza, who fought deportation for eight years.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Three UK men charged with terrorism

    By Isolde Raftery, msnbc.com

    Three of the seven men arrested last week in the UK were charged with terrorism offenses, a statement by the West Midlands Police said. West Midlands is more than two hours from London.


    Police arrested the seven men over three days after impounding a car they believed was uninsured, the BBC reported. In the car were firearms and other weapons.  

    Those charged were Jewel Uddin, 26, Omar Mohammed Khan, 27, and Mohammed Hasseen, 23. The three men were expected to appear in London’s Westminster Magistrates Court on Tuesday. Prosecutors say the suspects bought cars and intended to commit acts of terrorism. They also allege that the men had manufactured an improvised explosive device.

    The four other men remain in custody, according to the West Midlands news release. Police normally have 48 hours to detain suspects but were given extensions in these cases. Prosecutors now have until Wednesday evening to charge three of the remaining men, although they could also apply for a warrant of further detention. They have until Thursday evening to charge the fourth man.

    The BBC reported that the arrests were not connected to the 2012 London Games. Nor were they connected to arrests of six other terror suspects – five men and one woman – on Thursday in London.  

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  • Canadian guard sought in fatal armored-car robbery caught at US crossing

    Edmonton Police / AFP - Getty Images

    A photo from the Edmonton Police Service in Canada shows Travis Brandon Baumgartner, 21.

    By Gil Aegerter, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A man sought in a fatal armored-car robbery at the University of Alberta was arrested Saturday at a U.S. border crossing, police told Canadian media.


    Edmonton police Sgt. Dave Reitzel said Travis Baumgartner, 21, was stopped at the crossing in Lynden, Wash., the CBC reported. The crossing is southeast of Vancouver, British Columbia, and north of Seattle.

    Baumgartner had been sought since the four armored-car guards he was working with were shot at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, early Friday. Three of the guards were killed, one critically wounded. No students were involved, police said.  

    Police said that Baumgartner was alone in a Ford F-150 pickup when he was stopped and that they found money in the truck. Reuters reported that Mike Milne, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman in Seattle, said Baumgartner had a backpack with $334,000 in Canadian currency.

    Reuter reported that Scott Pattison, a spokesman for the Edmonton Police Service, said no extradition proceedings were necessary because Baumgartner had been caught at the border. Customs officials said Baumgartner would be transferred to Canadian custody Saturday night.

    Baumgartner has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. He and four other guards with G4S Cash Solutions were loading money into bank machines on the campus when the shooting occurred, police said. Michelle Shegelski , 26; Eddie Rejano, 39; and Brian Ilesic, 35, were killed, The Associated Press reported. Another guard was critically injured. 

    Baumgartner lived with his mother and step-sister in Sherwood Park, just east of Edmonton, the AP said.

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  • Millionaire's daughter convicted after driving London looters around during riots

    Dan Kitwood / Getty Images

    Laura Johnson, right, leaves Inner London Crown Court with her mother, Lindsay Johnson, Thursday in London, England, after she was convicted of burglary and handling stolen goods during the 2011 London Riots.

    By msnbc.com staff

    A millionaire’s daughter who drove London looters around during last summer’s riots was convicted Thursday of burglary and handling stolen goods, British media reported.

    Laura Johnson, 20, of Orpington, had denied the charges, claiming she was acting under duress, the BBC reported.

    However, prosecutors claimed Johnson was a “willing participant” in an Aug. 7-10 crime spree with a group that included her crack cocaine dealer boyfriend, the Daily Mail said.

    The Inner London Crown Court jury saw pictures of Johnson laughing and joking behind the wheel of her car before finding her guilty of two charges but clearing Johnson of stealing and handling cigarettes and drinks from a BP gas station.

    A 17-year-old codefendant, who was not publicly identified because of his age, also was convicted of one burglary and cleared of another.

    Judge Patricia Lees said Johnson faces a likely jail term when she is sentenced May 3.

    The offenses were “aggravated by the fact that they were conducted in the time frame of serious civil unrest in London last summer,” Lees said.

    Riots flared in London following the police-shooting death of suspected gangster Mark Duggan on Aug. 4 and spread to Birmingham, Manchester and other cities. Police arrested 4,130 people during the civil unrest, which left five dead.

    Johnson, a University of Exeter student, chauffeured looters wearing hoodies, bandanas and balaclavas, prosecutors said. The group loaded stolen electronic equipment into her car, they said.

    Johnson set out early in the evening Aug. 7 to deliver a phone charger to her boyfriend, Emmanuel Okubote, 20, known as T-Man, prosecutors said. She was convicted of handling a TV looted from a branch of Currys at Stonelake Retail Park and stealing electronics from a Comet store in the Greenwich Retail Park, where she was arrested, the Telegraph of London reported.

    Johnson began a close friendship with Okubote during the summer after being introduced to him by a friend she met while a mental health unit outpatient. Okubote is in Feltham Young Offenders Institution from an earlier a 30-month conviction for drug dealing, the Daily Mail said. He had been out on parole during the riots.

    Police said Johnson told them that she had not refused to drive the looters because, "I didn't get the impression they were the sort of people you say no to."

    Johnson’s parents, Lindsay and Robert, attended their daughter’s trial each day, the Daily Mail reported. They run the marketing firm Avongate, the Daily Mail said. Robert Johnson also is a director of several companies and was a director in a company that took over the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport newspapers in 2007, the newspaper said.

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  • US fears UK will reveal American state secrets, top British official says

    By msnbc.com staff

    U.S. authorities fear that American secrets will be revealed by British courts and have cut back on intelligence-sharing, a top U.K. official said Wednesday.

    Kenneth Clarke, the justice secretary in the U.K. cabinet, has been criticized over proposals to hold some court hearings in secret to prevent sensitive information being disclosed.

    The BBC said the plans were drawn up after a number of cases involving detainees at Guantanamo Bay, particularly that of British man Binyam Mohamed. The government has said it was forced to reveal U.S. intelligence information and this had caused friction.


    'Americans have got nervous'
    Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Clarke said "the Americans have got nervous that we are going to start revealing some of the information and they have started cutting back, I’m sure, on what they disclose."

    “I’m not told exactly, but I’m told that in fact the Americans have been extremely cautious since the Binyam Mohamed case and it’s getting in the way of cooperation," he said. “I can’t force Americans to give our intelligence people full cooperation... If they fear our courts they won’t give us the material.”

    Online graphic warns of al-Qaida's return to NYC

    “It’s easy to say ‘Oh the Americans have got to take their chances, if British courts want to reveal American intelligence, that’s fine,’” Clarke added. “I’m afraid the Americans are not accountable to me; I cannot make the Americans put up with that and sometimes national security requires that we have to give a guarantee of complete confidentiality to third-party countries, not just the Americans.”

    'Not winning' war on hackers: FBI cyber chief

    The government's proposals are outlined in a "Justice and Security Green Paper," which is designed to seek views of politicians and other interested parties. Assuming it didn't abandon the proposals, it would then draw up a "white paper" of potential legislation, which must be put to a series of votes by lawmakers in parliament.

    In a statement Wednesday, lawmaker Hywel Francis, chair of the U.K. parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights, said he was "troubled" that Clarke did seem to think that the proposals were "as radical a departure from our longstanding traditions of open justice and fairness as I, the Committee and many others believe them to be."

    Expert: Al-Qaida eyes Africa in terror war

    "Closed material procedures [court hearings] are inherently unfair and the Government has failed to show that extending their use might in some instances contribute to greater fairness.  All other means should be pursued to allow proceedings to take place without resort to them," Francis said.

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