NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Delaware judge on Friday ordered a man who twice exposed himself to a 10-year-old girl at his workplace to wear a T-shirt with the words: "I am a registered sex offender" in bold letters, a prosecutor said.
Russell Teeter, 69, who pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent exposure, also was sentenced to 60 days in jail by Superior Court Judge Jan Jurden in Wilmington.
Deputy Attorney General Donald Roberts said he requested the unusual T-shirt punishment because he was concerned about Teeter exposing himself to children at the gardening business he runs with his wife.
"This is a unique way to let his customers know that he is a sex offender," Roberts told Reuters.
Roberts said Teeter had at least 10 prior convictions dating back to 1976 for exposing himself to children and had been diagnosed as a compulsive exhibitionist.
Teeter, who has 30 days to appeal the sentence, will have to wear the T-shirt at work for 22 months after he gets out of jail.
Teeter's attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Showing posts with label Reuters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reuters. Show all posts
Monday, November 06, 2006
Sunday, November 05, 2006
High noon in Baghdad as Saddam gets death
By Ibon Villelabeitia
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - In the end, when the hour finally came, Saddam Hussein stood up on shaky legs to hear his verdict.
But once the judge sentenced him to hang, the old defiant Saddam was back, shouting "Down with the invaders! Allahu Akbar!" (God is Greatest), before he was led away by guards.
Broadcast around the world, Sunday's courtroom drama was the highlight of Saddam's sometimes shambolic, often theatrical appearances since he was dragged, bearded and dishevelled, by American soldiers from a hole in the ground three years ago.
"The court has decided to sentence Saddam Hussein al-Majid to be hanged until he is dead for crimes against humanity," chief judge Abdul Rahman said in a historic judgement, capping a process that adds a new chapter to the development of war crimes law since Nazi leaders were tried at Nuremberg 60 years ago.
Locked down by curfew to avert attacks from vengeful Saddam loyalists, Iraqis held their breath ahead of the verdict read at midday -- high noon for Saddam as he was brought in, alone and subdued, to face judgement for this three decades in power.
Once the sentence was announced in the heavily fortified courtroom, a palatial former office of Saddam's Baath party, it sparked joy among the Shi'ites he oppressed and resentment among Sunnis -- an ominous sign of sectarian passions gripping Iraq.
Celebratory gunfire rang out in Baghdad's eastern Shi'ite areas. Clashes broke out in Sunni neighbourhoods on the western side of the Tigris, rapidly becoming a de facto frontier between the two communities. Mortars later hit the Green Zone, the fortified government compound where the trial has taken place.
Saddam, whose name means "one who confronts" in Arabic, was sentenced to death before, in absentia as an underground militant in 1959, 10 years before he used his street fighter skills to get his Baath party into power in a 1968 coup.
Toppled by America's military might in 2003, the former strongman who liked to project bravado images of himself swimming rivers and firing a shotgun into the air during military parades, might not escape his fate this time.
Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki welcomed the verdict as the "the punishment he deserves". America's envoy in Baghdad, whose troops are holding Saddam in a high-security cell, said it "closed the book on Saddam and his regime".
"SHOOT ME"
In characteristic grandstanding, Saddam, who has compared himself to Iraq's Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar who conquered Jerusalem, has told his lawyers he does not fear death.
He told the court this year he should face a firing squad, not the hangman, as a military man -- though his military career began only when he appointed himself commander on taking power.
That request seems unlikely to be granted. Iraq's penal code, written under Saddam himself, specifies hanging "in prison or elsewhere". An execution could come next year if an automatic appeal, which has no set time limit, fails.
As president, he wore in public traditional Iraqi peasant robes, an olive-green military uniform or Western suits, appealing variously to Arab nationalism, Islam and patriotism.
On Sunday, he was bearded and tieless in a black suit and clutching a Koran, a pious image he has favoured in court.
Saddam rose from impoverished beginnings in Tikrit through native wit, tribal connections and a willingness to use violence. His downfall had its roots in his invasions of Iran in 1980, which ravaged a previously oil-rich economy, and Kuwait in 1990, which made him a crippled pariah for the West.
Having held on to power with much bloodshed when U.S.-led forces did not follow through on their victory in the 1991 Gulf War, he was eventually toppled in a lightning three-week war and captured eight months later, giving up without firing a shot.
Humiliated by U.S. troops who filmed their captive looking dishevelled and being probed by a medic, he has restored a measure of dignity, neatly bearded and besuited throughout a trial in which he has insisted he is still president of Iraq.
But when the end came, for all his effort to stand and face his judgement, indignity was again close at hand -- a court guard chewed gum and stood laughing, mocking Iraq's fallen leader.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - In the end, when the hour finally came, Saddam Hussein stood up on shaky legs to hear his verdict.
But once the judge sentenced him to hang, the old defiant Saddam was back, shouting "Down with the invaders! Allahu Akbar!" (God is Greatest), before he was led away by guards.
Broadcast around the world, Sunday's courtroom drama was the highlight of Saddam's sometimes shambolic, often theatrical appearances since he was dragged, bearded and dishevelled, by American soldiers from a hole in the ground three years ago.
"The court has decided to sentence Saddam Hussein al-Majid to be hanged until he is dead for crimes against humanity," chief judge Abdul Rahman said in a historic judgement, capping a process that adds a new chapter to the development of war crimes law since Nazi leaders were tried at Nuremberg 60 years ago.
Locked down by curfew to avert attacks from vengeful Saddam loyalists, Iraqis held their breath ahead of the verdict read at midday -- high noon for Saddam as he was brought in, alone and subdued, to face judgement for this three decades in power.
Once the sentence was announced in the heavily fortified courtroom, a palatial former office of Saddam's Baath party, it sparked joy among the Shi'ites he oppressed and resentment among Sunnis -- an ominous sign of sectarian passions gripping Iraq.
Celebratory gunfire rang out in Baghdad's eastern Shi'ite areas. Clashes broke out in Sunni neighbourhoods on the western side of the Tigris, rapidly becoming a de facto frontier between the two communities. Mortars later hit the Green Zone, the fortified government compound where the trial has taken place.
Saddam, whose name means "one who confronts" in Arabic, was sentenced to death before, in absentia as an underground militant in 1959, 10 years before he used his street fighter skills to get his Baath party into power in a 1968 coup.
Toppled by America's military might in 2003, the former strongman who liked to project bravado images of himself swimming rivers and firing a shotgun into the air during military parades, might not escape his fate this time.
Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki welcomed the verdict as the "the punishment he deserves". America's envoy in Baghdad, whose troops are holding Saddam in a high-security cell, said it "closed the book on Saddam and his regime".
"SHOOT ME"
In characteristic grandstanding, Saddam, who has compared himself to Iraq's Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar who conquered Jerusalem, has told his lawyers he does not fear death.
He told the court this year he should face a firing squad, not the hangman, as a military man -- though his military career began only when he appointed himself commander on taking power.
That request seems unlikely to be granted. Iraq's penal code, written under Saddam himself, specifies hanging "in prison or elsewhere". An execution could come next year if an automatic appeal, which has no set time limit, fails.
As president, he wore in public traditional Iraqi peasant robes, an olive-green military uniform or Western suits, appealing variously to Arab nationalism, Islam and patriotism.
On Sunday, he was bearded and tieless in a black suit and clutching a Koran, a pious image he has favoured in court.
Saddam rose from impoverished beginnings in Tikrit through native wit, tribal connections and a willingness to use violence. His downfall had its roots in his invasions of Iran in 1980, which ravaged a previously oil-rich economy, and Kuwait in 1990, which made him a crippled pariah for the West.
Having held on to power with much bloodshed when U.S.-led forces did not follow through on their victory in the 1991 Gulf War, he was eventually toppled in a lightning three-week war and captured eight months later, giving up without firing a shot.
Humiliated by U.S. troops who filmed their captive looking dishevelled and being probed by a medic, he has restored a measure of dignity, neatly bearded and besuited throughout a trial in which he has insisted he is still president of Iraq.
But when the end came, for all his effort to stand and face his judgement, indignity was again close at hand -- a court guard chewed gum and stood laughing, mocking Iraq's fallen leader.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Darfur's silent killer
I have not eaten now for over 48 hours due to sickness and diarrhoea. It has left me feeling exhausted and extremely grumpy - those around me would confirm this in an instant. I have been taking antibiotics and drinking plenty of water and flat cola, none of which seems to be having any positive effect with my stomach still feeling like it holds bubbling toxic lava.
It has been a more than unpleasant past two days, yet as much as I have complained, I feel I am in no position to do so.
Chronic sickness and diarrhoea is a common problem in Darfur, especially in the camps for IDPs (internally displaced people).
Aid workers here speculate that in some camps as many as one in five children suffer from sickness and diarrhoea at any one time. They focus on the children because for them diarrhoea in these conditions can be a very serious problem.
It means children are left even more weak and vulnerable than they would be usually - what little nutrition they are getting, their meagre bodies are not absorbing.
In Camp Al-Salaam, just outside Nyala, South Darfur, eight children were reported to have died from chronic diarrhoea within the last month.
On a recent visit to Camp Otash, also on the outskirts of Nyala, the dangers of diarrhoea became only too apparent.
I came across a little boy named Hawa Abdullah. Hawa (pictured here) is six years old but could well pass for much younger. When I met him his wrists were, without exaggeration, as thin as my thumb. His skin hung off his arms, so flaccid it seemed as though he had no muscle at all.
The mass of flies swarming around his face didn't bother him. He barely moved, could barely breathe and was so exhausted he could hardly keep his eyes from shutting. His body just hung in his mother's arms.
His sickness meant he was severely malnourished. He had been eating - not much, but enough to keep a child of his age alive. The problem was that everything was going straight through him.
Had he not been found by aid workers, I have no doubt he would now be dead.
"I wonder how many other Hawas there are out there?" one aid worker remarked to me as the boy was taken off for further treatment.
Of the 2.5 million people uprooted by the conflict in Darfur around 700,000 are estimated to be children. But any speculation of the percentage with sickness and diarrhoea would be nothing but a wild guess.
Bugging me right now isn't just how many children are ill, but also how many will get the treatment they need to survive.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
2.6 billion people lack basic sanitation: U.N. report
Thu Sep 28, 2006 8:40am ET162
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Some 2.6 billion people in the world, mainly in Africa and Asia, lack access to basic sanitation, increasing the risk of diarrhea and other diseases fatal to children, said a U.N. report released on Thursday.
UNICEF, the U.N. children's fund, in a study on water and sanitation in developing nations, concluded that U.N. goals could be met on clean water, especially in urban areas, but the same was not true for access to the crudest of toilets.
The report, Progress for Children, surveyed available clean water and sanitation facilities from 1990 to 2004 and calculated which countries could meet goals set at a U.N. Millennium summit in 2000.
These include cutting in half by 2015 the proportion of people without safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
"Despite commendable progress, an estimated 425 million children under the age of 18 still do not have access to an improved water supply and over 980 million do not have access to adequate sanitation, said Anne Veneman, UNICEF's executive director and a former U.S. secretary of agriculture.
Overall, about 1.2 billion people, or an increase from 78 percent in 1990 to 83 percent in 2004, had access to drinking water, a figure that would meet the Millennium goals.
Still, more than 1 billion people were without clean water in 2004 from sources such as wells or springs, a number which may increase as the population grows, the report said.
The lack of access to water is especially acute in sub-Saharan Africa, which represents about 11 percent of the world's population but almost a third of all people without access to safe drinking water.
But even in North Africa and the Middle East, people living in arid rural areas suffer from lack of water. In Djibouti, Iraq and Morocco, for example, more than 40 percent of the rural population have no access to proper drinking water.
Among the worst-affected nations, where less than 50 percent of the population has can find proper water sources, are Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger, Equatorial Guinea and Chad, the report said.
Meanwhile, access to basic facilities such as flush toilets or cleanable latrines slabs rose to 59 percent from 49 percent in 1990 but remained short of U.N. targets.
Of the 2.6 billion people worldwide without access to proper sanitation, about 2 billion live in rural areas, some two-thirds in sub-Saharan Africa and 37 percent in South Asia.
At the same time, the largest gains were in Asia, especially in India and China. But the report said the majority of people in both countries still have no adequate sanitation.
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Some 2.6 billion people in the world, mainly in Africa and Asia, lack access to basic sanitation, increasing the risk of diarrhea and other diseases fatal to children, said a U.N. report released on Thursday.
UNICEF, the U.N. children's fund, in a study on water and sanitation in developing nations, concluded that U.N. goals could be met on clean water, especially in urban areas, but the same was not true for access to the crudest of toilets.
The report, Progress for Children, surveyed available clean water and sanitation facilities from 1990 to 2004 and calculated which countries could meet goals set at a U.N. Millennium summit in 2000.
These include cutting in half by 2015 the proportion of people without safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
"Despite commendable progress, an estimated 425 million children under the age of 18 still do not have access to an improved water supply and over 980 million do not have access to adequate sanitation, said Anne Veneman, UNICEF's executive director and a former U.S. secretary of agriculture.
Overall, about 1.2 billion people, or an increase from 78 percent in 1990 to 83 percent in 2004, had access to drinking water, a figure that would meet the Millennium goals.
Still, more than 1 billion people were without clean water in 2004 from sources such as wells or springs, a number which may increase as the population grows, the report said.
The lack of access to water is especially acute in sub-Saharan Africa, which represents about 11 percent of the world's population but almost a third of all people without access to safe drinking water.
But even in North Africa and the Middle East, people living in arid rural areas suffer from lack of water. In Djibouti, Iraq and Morocco, for example, more than 40 percent of the rural population have no access to proper drinking water.
Among the worst-affected nations, where less than 50 percent of the population has can find proper water sources, are Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger, Equatorial Guinea and Chad, the report said.
Meanwhile, access to basic facilities such as flush toilets or cleanable latrines slabs rose to 59 percent from 49 percent in 1990 but remained short of U.N. targets.
Of the 2.6 billion people worldwide without access to proper sanitation, about 2 billion live in rural areas, some two-thirds in sub-Saharan Africa and 37 percent in South Asia.
At the same time, the largest gains were in Asia, especially in India and China. But the report said the majority of people in both countries still have no adequate sanitation.
Friday, September 01, 2006
Austrian girl's lawyer "devastated" by cell
By Angelika Gruber
Reuters
STRASSHOF, Austria (Reuters) - Natascha Kampusch's lawyer visited the windowless basement cell where she was held captive for eight years from the age of 10 on Friday and said he was devastated by the "unimaginable" conditions.
"The reality is harsher than anything you can imagine," Gerald Ganzger told reporters after examining the 6 square meter (65 sq ft) cell near Vienna that she was kept in by an Austrian man after he abducted her on the way to school.
"I am devastated -- this is unimaginable," he said. "It makes such a big difference to see this in real life rather than just in newspaper pictures."
Ganzger and police officers said it would help investigations into one of Austria's most notorious crimes that has made headlines across the world if Kampusch, now 18, returned to the house with them.
"One needs to revisit the crime scene to retrace all the steps and to clear up potential misunderstandings," said Armin Halm from the Federal Crime Office.
Kampusch escaped from the house in the sedate commuter town of Strasshof 25 km (15 miles) outside Vienna on August 23.
Her captor, 44-year-old communications technician Wolfgang Priklopil, killed himself shortly after she fled when he was distracted by a phone call while she was vacuuming his car.
Kampusch, now staying at an undisclosed location with counsellors, has said in a statement she was mourning Priklopil's death. Police say she had "sexual contact" with her captor but have not elaborated.
Experts say Kampusch is suffering from "Stockholm Syndrome" -- a psychological condition in which prisoners begin to identify with their captors.
Her psychiatrist said the ordeal had left Kampusch with deep psychological scars but that she was also a mature woman.
Kampusch, reported to be in good physical health, was expected to give her first public interview sometime next week, said her adviser Dietmar Ecker.
In her statement issued earlier this week, she described how she and her captor furnished the cell hidden beneath a garage, had breakfast with him, helped him cook and chatted with him.
She said Priklopil had told her to address him as "master" but that she refused.
Police said they had completed a search for DNA traces in the house but were still hunting for other clues to confirm whether Priklopil had acted on his own or had a helper.
Divers were called in to search an old well in the garden.
Police said they were investigating whether Priklopil knew about John Fowles' novel "The Collector", which tells the story of a man who kidnapped a girl and hid her in a secret basement cell in the hope one day she might fall in love and marry him.
"We have received several tips about the book," said Gerhard Lang, a senior police officer. He said no copy of the novel had been found at the house.
Reuters
STRASSHOF, Austria (Reuters) - Natascha Kampusch's lawyer visited the windowless basement cell where she was held captive for eight years from the age of 10 on Friday and said he was devastated by the "unimaginable" conditions.
"The reality is harsher than anything you can imagine," Gerald Ganzger told reporters after examining the 6 square meter (65 sq ft) cell near Vienna that she was kept in by an Austrian man after he abducted her on the way to school.
"I am devastated -- this is unimaginable," he said. "It makes such a big difference to see this in real life rather than just in newspaper pictures."
Ganzger and police officers said it would help investigations into one of Austria's most notorious crimes that has made headlines across the world if Kampusch, now 18, returned to the house with them.
"One needs to revisit the crime scene to retrace all the steps and to clear up potential misunderstandings," said Armin Halm from the Federal Crime Office.
Kampusch escaped from the house in the sedate commuter town of Strasshof 25 km (15 miles) outside Vienna on August 23.
Her captor, 44-year-old communications technician Wolfgang Priklopil, killed himself shortly after she fled when he was distracted by a phone call while she was vacuuming his car.
Kampusch, now staying at an undisclosed location with counsellors, has said in a statement she was mourning Priklopil's death. Police say she had "sexual contact" with her captor but have not elaborated.
Experts say Kampusch is suffering from "Stockholm Syndrome" -- a psychological condition in which prisoners begin to identify with their captors.
Her psychiatrist said the ordeal had left Kampusch with deep psychological scars but that she was also a mature woman.
Kampusch, reported to be in good physical health, was expected to give her first public interview sometime next week, said her adviser Dietmar Ecker.
In her statement issued earlier this week, she described how she and her captor furnished the cell hidden beneath a garage, had breakfast with him, helped him cook and chatted with him.
She said Priklopil had told her to address him as "master" but that she refused.
Police said they had completed a search for DNA traces in the house but were still hunting for other clues to confirm whether Priklopil had acted on his own or had a helper.
Divers were called in to search an old well in the garden.
Police said they were investigating whether Priklopil knew about John Fowles' novel "The Collector", which tells the story of a man who kidnapped a girl and hid her in a secret basement cell in the hope one day she might fall in love and marry him.
"We have received several tips about the book," said Gerhard Lang, a senior police officer. He said no copy of the novel had been found at the house.
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