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Indianapolis Colts Fans Take Off With Hopes Of Victory

Packing predictions of warmer weather and a Colts blowout, a group of 250 Indianapolis Colts fans flying with the Ambassadair travel club left chilly Indianapolis International Airport early today for a long Super Bowl weekend in Florida.
Dave Cwi and his wife, Cindy, Indianapolis, prepare to board a charter flight for Florida and the Super Bowl. - CHARLIE NYE / The Star

Departing at 8:30 a.m., they were among the first of many Colts fans decked out in the team's blue colors to head south today. Most hotels in the Miami area and many of the Super Bowl packages offered to fans required three-night minimum stays, Friday through Sunday.

"We were able to come up with about 82 tickets from brokers we've worked with through the year and put together some packages for our members," said Mike Grueninger, president of Grueninger Tours, which operates Ambassadair

Ambassadair had offered two packages on a first-come, first-served basis for its members: $5,599 (per person, double occupancy) with ticket and $1,699 without.

Sophia Casey, Indianapolis, bought the game ticket package, and said "It's all worth it. It's the chance of a lifetime"

The longtime Colts fan predicted a 27-3 Colts victory. "We want a blowout!"

Dave and Cindy Cwi, Indianapolis, are Colts season ticket holders, but were not fortunate enough to be drawn in the team's lottery for Super Bowl tickets.

Cindy Cwi said they would be "taking advantage of the package and visiting some friends in Fort Myers"

Aussie Mick Peppard came all the way from Melbourne to take his fiancée Joan Slusser of Columbus, Ind. to the game. Peppard had been in the states over the holidays when the Colts were "kind of falling apart" said Slusser. "He told me if the Colts made it to the Super Bowl, he would take me. Be careful of what you wish for."

When asked if the wedding date had been set joked that halftime entertainer Prince would conduct the rites.

Slusser predicted a 31-13 Colts win, while Preppard kept it closer at 17-10.

It appeared that 9-year-old Duncan Bjerke, Indianapolis, was the youngest on the trip,

"Nobody believed he was going," said his mother Janet Bjerke, who predicted at 35-14 victory for the Colts.

"His (school) bus driver asked him to bring back a photo of himself with Peyton Manning to prove it," Janet Bjerke said.

"I get goose bumps just thinking about it. That may be just the cold."

Each Ambassadair package included roundtrip airfare from Indy to Fort Myers, three nights lodging at the Naples Grande Resort /&/amp; Club, a pre-game party cruising coastal Miami on the Sir Winston Luxury Yacht (with open bar and lunch) and transportation to the game. Miami, on Florida's east coast, is approximately a 2-hour drive from Naples, on the west coast.

Source: indystar.com

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Paris Hilton exchanged sexual favours for drugs!

Paris Hilton must be rueing the day she decided not to pay rent on the of a storage vault, for among her things that the owners put on the internet and auctioned off, is a tape in which she says she exchanged sexual favours for drugs.he Hliton hotel heiress taped herself, and her voice can be heard saying that she had some pretty dark drug habits.

"I get ****ed in the **** for coke," the News of the World quoted her, as saying on the tape.

The tape also includes footage which shows Paris approaching pals at a part and offering them cannabis.

"Hi bitches...I have the best pot...Let's smoke some ****ing herb right here," she says on the tape.

In another tape, Hilton, while alone in a hotel room with only her dog Prince for company also confesses to smoking pot.

"I'm smoking pot and eating burgers that are old and I'm chilling with the Prince," she says on the tape.

On a yacht in Ibiza she laughingly films a pal, snorting cocaine from a huge pile spread across his naked chest. (ANI)

Source: dailyindia.com

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'Hilton is the best for romps'

PARIS HILTON is better in bed than KIMBERLY STEWART and LINDSAY LOHAN – with TARA REID way behind in last place.
So says Joe Francis – the owner of American adult website and DVD company Girls Gone Wild – who has dated all four Hollywood babes.

Joe revealed: “Paris is better in the sack than anyone else. She is amazing in bed.

“Paris also gives the best oral sex. Yes, she's better at it than Lindsay Lohan!”

The multi-millionaire, who claims to have slept with hundreds of women, appears in raunchy scenes with the Simple Life star on an X-rated video on website Parisexposed.com, which she is currently trying to shut down.

But while Joe also dislikes the site, he claims the videos are something she should be proud of, adding: "Paris was at her best at oral sex when she was 22-years-old. If you look at the tapes on that site, that's when she was the greatest."

Sadly while Paris and “awesome” Kimberly get a big thumbs up from Joe, he wasn’t so kind about Tara.

In the printable extracts from his chat with US shock radio jock Howard Stern, Joe claims: "Tara is the worst in bed. I love Tara, but, honestly, she pretty much lays there.

"And I had sex with her a lot.”

Source: thesun.co.uk

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Guns N, Roses in SA as First-ever African Show

Guns N' Roses will play their first-ever African shows when they headline My Coke Fest 2007. The rock group tops a bill that so far includes Evanescence and Hoobastank at Johannesburg's New Market Racecourse on April 27 and Cape Town's Kenilworth Racecourse on May 1.
My Coke Fest 2007 follows on the heels of 2006's Coca-Cola Collab Massive Mix, which saw Metallica play in the country for the first time, along with Simple Plan, Collective Soul, Seether and others.

Seether's Sean Morgan has frequently visited the country with ex-girlfriend Amy Lee, but the Evanescence frontwoman will be performing with her band for the first time at the events.

As previously reported, Guns N' Roses' new album, "Chinese Democracy," is tentatively due March 6 via Interscope, but no news has been heard about the project since Axl Rose's lengthy Internet posting announcing the date in December.

Source: sohood.com

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Injury News Not Good For Colts

The health report was not good for the Indianapolis Colts 48 hours before Super Bowl kickoff.
Both starting cornerbacks missed practice today, right corner Jason David with an abdomen injury and left corner Nick Harper with a sprained ankle. Harper missed practice for a third straight day.

“We decided it didn’t make any sense for him to go out and try to practice today,” Colts coach Tony Dungy said. “We’ll wait to see how Nick feels on Sunday at the stadium.”

In addition, defensive end Robert Mathis, the Colts’ sack leader, left today’s workout with back spasms. Dungy also gave safety Bob Sanders and guard Ryan Lilja the day off because of minor ailments.

Harper’s injury is by far the most serious. If he can’t go he would be replaced by second-year player Kelvin Hayden, a former second-round draft pick out of Illinois.

The Colts play the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI Sunday at Dolphin Stadium. Kickoff is set for 5:25 p.m. CST, with CBS-TV carrying the game.

Source: clarionledger.com

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U.S. intensifies fight against human trafficking

Terry Frieden
CNN

The United States has launched hundreds of new investigations to combat human trafficking for prostitution and labor exploitation inside its borders, U.S. authorities have announced.

Calling human trafficking "the equivalent of modern day slavery," U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales vowed on Wednesday to keep the issue a top priority for federal law enforcement agencies.

The Justice Department also has created a unit designed to pursue human trafficking cases, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Wan Kim.

Justice authorities said it would be the first time the Civil Rights Division would have a team of lawyers working exclusively on human trafficking cases.

The unit initially will have four attorneys experienced in prosecuting human trafficking cases, Kim said.

Justice Department and FBI officials said they are using more attorneys and investigators to find and prosecute international human trafficking rings, which lure primarily young women from Asian, Eastern European and Latin American countries to the United States with false promises of jobs and husbands.

"This is a perversion of the American dream. The American dream is used as a lure to attract victims," Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim said.

Kim said the degree of coercion may vary, "But nobody signs up for involuntary servitude."

A senior U.S. Justice Department official estimated about 15,000 victims of human trafficking arrive in the United States annually, some as young as 9 years old, destined for jobs in brothels, as unpaid domestic servants, or in other jobs as virtual slaves.

The victims represent a source of continuing income for the rings that provide them, making human trafficking more attractive than drug smuggling to some criminal syndicates, authorities said.

The FBI said it currently has 212 ongoing human trafficking investigations, and the Justice Department said it had initiated 60 investigations in the past four months.

Authorities cite a sixfold increase in the number of cases filed compared with the level of five years ago, and say that reflects both a growing problem and an increased federal law enforcement emphasis. Last year, federal prosecutors charged 222 defendants and won 98 convictions.

Kim disputed critics who have contended human trafficking has been pursued at the expense of traditional civil rights cases.

"Most of the victims are women and minorities. I'd quarrel with anyone who says this is not a core civil rights mission," Kim said. "And we've not fallen short on pursuing traditional civil rights cases."

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Sex appeal sells private tutors in Hong Kong

Angela Yiu and Stella Cheng spent weeks meeting with fashion stylists and photographers before deciding on the miniskirts and high heels to wear in their promotion campaign.

They're not models peddling perfume or sports cars. They're English tutors who earn good money helping secondary school students pass Hong Kong's grueling exams to get into college.

"Their long legs are the most beautiful ones in the tutorial industry," said Ken Ng, head of Modern Education, one of the city's biggest tutoring businesses. "This is our selling point."

Sex appeal has become a hot selling point, just as important as teaching ability and knowledge, in Hong Kong's hypercompetitive world of cram schools - or bou zap se in the local Cantonese dialect.

Attractive teachers are marketed like movie stars. Their schools show them off on billboards, full-page newspaper ads and TV screens in railway stations and on buses.

Some tutors have their own teams of stylists, fashion designers and photographers, Ng said. They also have personal Web sites, where potential students can see their photos, read their online journals and download video clips of "gag moments" in class.

It's just the latest twist in the competition to grab the business of students caught up in Hong Kong's make-or-break exam culture. Youngsters take two college exams during their seven years in secondary school, and they have to pass both to get into a university.

So hordes of students trek to after-school lectures at tutoring centers.

The Census and Statistics Department says one-third of the students in secondary schools sought private tutoring in the 2004-2005 school year, spending a total of $18.9 million a month - 25 percent more than five years earlier.

Industry pioneers such as Modern Education and King's Glory each have about 10 centers around the city, each offering around 200 lessons a week.

All the companies boast of their ability to give youngsters an edge by predicting what questions will be asked in the exams, employing teams of full-time analysts who study patterns from previous exam papers.

With competition growing fierce on that front, the tutorial centers in recent years have increasingly focused on promoting their teachers as trendy icons consumable by students.

"When our rivals are equally good at predicting the exam questions, we need a new ground to outrun them," Ng said. "And that is the tutor's appearance."

Last summer, Ng hired Yiu, who once won a modeling contest, to teach English along with Cheng, described by Ng as "a gorgeous former lawyer."

Yiu, who has a business degree, said: "Being a model is not a long-term career. I should plan for the future. I know my good appearance has a market."

Indeed, tutoring is one of the more profitable jobs in this Asian city. Top tutors who have more than 4,000 students can earn high salaries.

Elaine Chow, an advertising executive, said tutoring businesses are applying a "star-making" promotion technique in which tutors dress fashionably and are given nicknames like "the Godfather of Science," "Brand-A tutor" or the "Queen of English."

"In the advertisements, going to tutorial centers is portrayed as a trendy after-school activity more than a chance to acquire knowledge," she said. "This is a twisted tutoring market."

Percy Kwok, a former education researcher of the Chinese University of Hong Kong who studied the private tutoring phenomenon in 2003, said tutorial centers closely follow the consumption culture of youths to catch their attention.

"They may even expose tutors' private life if necessary," he said.

But he added that while tutorial centers have become highly commercial, they provide useful techniques in tackling exams, such as predicting question types. Daytime teachers don't have comparable resources or the time to do that, he said.

Tutorial centers will continue, he said, "as long as university certificates and exam results are the best evidence to prove one's competence and guarantee a stable income."

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Sinking starlets see nothing wrong in stripping to save career

Ryann Connell

Those seeking happiness in life could do worse than take a leaf from the book of fallen actresses who pose nude for photo collections, Motoji Takasu -- a man who's arranged about 500 such publications - tells Shukan Asahi.

Takasu says that many actresses who agree to bare all for the cameras are often in careers taking a downward turn.

But he says that most of the actresses are hardly bothered by their dwindling fortunes, writing their fall off as part of a life filled with ups and downs, with some of them not even regarding stripping as one of the lower points.

Takasu says Yoko Shimada, who co-starred in the movie version of James Clavell's "Shogun," was the most relaxed of all the actresses who have posed nude for him. Despite having made a name for herself outside of Japan, Shimada never was stuck up and was perfectly happy to chow down on a bowl of noodles at a neighborhood ramen restaurant. And even though she'd done some time in Hollywood, she had no qualms about posing nude for Asahi Geino, arguably the lowest of Japan's lowbrow men's weeklies.

"When I asked her why, she simply said because the magazine had asked her to do it," Takasu tells Shukan Asahi. "She didn't care about her past glories. She was simply living the moment to its fullest."

The nude photo collection producer says that apart from only a few very lucky actresses, most thespians have to spend some of their career struggling, which makes the times when they do have work all the more delightful. He adds that when these women act like stars, it's nothing more than a drama set where everything is for external appearances. Takasu says that the majority of actresses who pose nude normally live very quite private lives and that the majority who've undressed for him have been polite and humble even if their public persona has not always been like that.

Takasu says ordinary women are usually much more interested in fashion than actresses who undress for the cameras, caring little for their fashions.

"Ordinary women probably wear pricier undies than the big name actresses," he says.

Takasu says that actresses who pose nude generally know when they need to perform.

"Top actresses know when to turn it on and off. They know when they need to look good. They know the times they need to perform," he says.

Takasu says nude model actresses are usually so relaxed, they're unlikely to be the types to take their own lives. He urges people considering ending it all not to do so, no matter how down they feel.

"Nothing is ever so bad that you have to take your own life," Takasu tells Shukan Asahi. "I can't understand why these people don't just strip down to their last thread and bare everything to the world before starting all over again."

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Serial sexual offenders on the loose across Taiwan, the Police Reporrts

Police and a women's group are warning the public on up to five serial rapists who are on the loose in northern Taiwan and Kaohsiung city.

Among the criminals, the most active has committed sixteen offenses since October of 1997 in Taipei City, Taipei County, Taoyuan County, and Hsinchu County.

Targeting women who live in old apartments with no security guards, the "Apartment Wolf" most recently went on the prowl in 2003 when he used handcuffs and a knife to subdue two separate victims in Taipei City.

The rapist is described as between the age of 30-40 years old, 170 to 175 centimeters tall, with short, curly hair and dark skin.

Modern Women's Foundation also warned of another rapist who has committed more than ten rapes inside apartments of greater Taipei.

The foundation's chief executive Chang Chin-li said that a third rapist who is believed to have committed more than seven rapes in Taipei City and Kaohsiung City has the habit of wearing gloves.

The women's group reported that two serial sex offenders were recently arrested by police, including Wei Yung-ching, who targeted children, and another who victimized betel nut beauties.

Wei had served time for sexually abusing children before being caught in the act on January 9, assaulting a six-year old girl.

Following Wei's case, Chang pointed the finger at the Ministry of Justice, saying that not more than ten sexual offenders currently on parole are under electronic surveillance.

According to statistics released by the Ministry of Interior, a total of 6601 cases of sexual abuse have been reported last year with an average of 18.1 cases taking place every day.

That figure does not include sexual abuses which was not reported, which the MOI puts at around 60,000 cases a year.

Modern Women's Foundation said that only a tenth of those charged with sexual offenses actually go to jail resulting in a large number of sexual offenders on the loose.

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China will step up enforcement of laws against sex-selection abortion

Steven Ertelt,
LifeNews.com Editor

On a day when hundreds of thousands of Americans are lining the streets of Washington to protest 34 years of legalized abortion, China's political leaders say they will do more to stop sex-selection abortions there and to correct a growing gender imbalance that its one-child family planning program has yielded.

The official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported on Monday that the government will increase enforcement of laws designed to prohibit the use of ultrasounds to determine the sex of an unborn child.

Xinhua says the Central Committee of the ruling Communist Party and the State Council, or cabinet, has issued a new document saying anyone running afoul of the gender identification laws should face "serious punishment."

"The document said the gender-ratio imbalance, which has been developing for some time, amounts to 'a hidden danger' for society that will 'affect social stability,'" the government news service reported.

Authorities will also step up monitoring hospitals and other medical facilities to ensure ultrasound isn't improperly used or that the abortion pill is given out only for purposes of a sex-selection abortion.

Last year China scrapped plans to prohibit sex-selection abortions altogether but has put forward educational campaigns telling Chinese of the virtue of girl babies.

China currently has a male-female ratio of 119-100 while the number is closer to 103-100 in most industrialized nations.

As a result, large numbers of Chinese man are finding it difficult to get married. The general imbalanced has also caused an increase in crime, selling of girl babies, prostitution and forcing women into sexual slavery or domestic positions.

Because Chinese couples are limited to one child, abortion and infanticide are frequently used to ensure that child is a boy. That is especially the case in rural areas where boys are preferred because of their ability to carry on the family name or run the family farm.

Some girls are even sold or given away in order for Chinese families to have one son to comply with the family planning rules.

Chinese couples determined to have a son easily get around the new laws as a black market has sprung up of people with ultrasound machines in the trunks of cars or house closets are willing to divulge the sex of an unborn baby for a price.

As a result, the skewed male-female ratio is growing worse as there are 130 boys to 100 girls in the provinces of Guangdong and Hainan.

China instituted the coercive family planning policy in 1979 and Chinese women and families have been the victims of an intense campaign ever since that has involved forced abortions and sterilizations, and the arrest and harassment of those who resist it.

But the policy has caused the gender imbalance to explode.

Ironically, China distributed ultrasound machines to local clinics on a wide scale after the coercive family planning policy was instituted to ensure women were not pregnant and violating the one-child program.

Despite the problems, Xinhua reported Monday that the new document says the one-child policy and reducing the number of people in China is still a priority.

"Maintaining a low birth rate is the priority of family planning during the next phase," it said.

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Counterterrorism police arrested nine men in U.K. terror raids

Counterterrorism police arrested nine men in an alleged kidnapping plot today — a plan that reportedly involved torturing and beheading a British Muslim soldier and broadcasting the killing on the Internet.

The kidnapping plot was the first of its kind to be uncovered in Britain, according to counterterrorism officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.

Police would not confirm the potential victim’s occupation or details of the plot that was unravelled in the predominantly Pakistani neighbourhood in central England. A dozen houses and two Islamic bookshops were cordoned off and being searched.

Since suicide bombers killed 52 people in London on July 7, 2005 — killings carried out by Muslim extremists who grew up in Britain — counterterrorism units have conducted several raids across Britain. Several sweeps have been conducted in Birmingham, including a raid in August when suspects were arrested in an alleged plot to use liquid explosives to blow up at least 10 planes between flying between Britain and the United States.

The potential victim of the latest plot — a British Muslim soldier — was under police protection, Sky News reported, adding that the kidnapping was going to end in an “Iraq-style” execution. The British Broadcasting Corp. also reported that the plan was to kidnap a soldier.

“The threat of terrorism has been growing over the years,” said David Shaw, a police spokesman in Birmingham, adding that the current investigation had been in the works for months before today’s raid.

Birmingham is the hometown of Britain’s first Muslim soldier to be killed in Afghanistan last year — a death that prompted militant Islamist websites to denounce Cpl. Jabron Hashmi, 24, as a traitor. One site — that of the British sect al-Ghurabaa — posted an image of the soldier surrounded by flames.

Last year, a London street vendor was sentenced to six years in prison in a plot to kill a decorated British soldier. Abu Baker Mansha was accused of targeting Cpl. Mark Byles, whose address and other materials, were found in Mansha’s apartment.

Byles was awarded a military cross for bravery following an attack in which several Iraqi insurgents were killed — exploits covered by British newspapers. One of the articles with Byles’ name was circled and found in Mansha’s apartment.

The Defence Ministry said 330 Muslims are serving in the British armed forces. It would not comment on reports that the intended victim was a soldier.

Dozens of people have been kidnapped in Iraq, and captors have often broadcast their pictures on the Internet.

One widely publicized kidnap-slaying was that of 62-year-old Kenneth Bigley from Liverpool. He was abducted from a Baghdad suburb where he was working in September 2004 and beheaded three weeks later. His death was captured on video.

“People don’t trust their own children any more,” said Shabir Hussain, chairman of the Ludlow Road Mosque in Birmingham. “You feel like you should challenge your son or daughter: `Where are you going at night? What are you watching on TV? What are you doing on the Internet?’

In a raid last year in London, a man was shot by police, sparking complaints from Muslim communities across the country.

“The police and government seem to be against Muslims and are trying to turn us against one another,” said Kadir Mohammad, 18, who lives in one of the raided neighbourhoods.

Britain’s MI-5 has said it set up a network of eight new regional offices across the country in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, including a centre in the West Midlands.

The service had previously had regional branches in Northern Ireland, but uses the new offices to liaise with police in counterterrorism work.

Sky TV reported that British investigators contacted Pakistani intelligence agents four days ago about the plot. The Foreign Office would not confirm there were such discussions.

In Islamabad, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said, “The British authorities have confirmed to us that there is no Pakistan connection.”

She gave no other details on the contact between authorities in the two countries.

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Ultra-Tough Nanotech Materials

Researchers have used clay nanoparticles to modify a polymer material, making it 20 times stiffer, 4 times tougher, and able to withstand temperatures that are more than twice as hot. The new materials could eventually be used in rugged lightweight fabrics, less-bulky packing materials, and much lighter car parts.
The work is part of a growing effort to design materials with nanoscale structures that mimic those found in nature, such as those in ultra-strong seashells. (See "Silicon and Sun.") In the current work, researchers at MIT's program in polymer science and technology greatly improved the properties of an elastic polyurethane used in biomedical applications by dispersing tiny clay particles throughout it.

Source: money-making-machines.blogspot.com

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Pole Dancing Around Lisa Ann Taylor's Arrest

JIM STINGL

Having your arrest show up on the news normally is poison for your career.

Unless you're an exotic dancer. It just makes the bad girl badder.

"A $10,000 a nite callgirl? That's what I was arrested for. You've seen me on the news, now have your picture taken with me," says the ad for Melissa Wolf at On the Border, the "gentlemen's club" where she'll be posing and performing all this week starting Monday.

The half-page ad ran last week in the Shepherd Express, and the pitch also appears on the club's Web site.

Wolf, whose off-stage name is Lisa Ann Taylor, has found a way to squeeze lemonade from the lemons tossed at her by police and the Gwinnett County district attorney in Georgia, where her million-dollar mansion in a gated community outside Atlanta was raided this month.

The former Penthouse centerfold and another woman were arrested on charges of prostitution, racketeering and procuring drugs for clients. Authorities are claiming the mansion was rocking till all hours of the night.

The ad capitalizes on that, too. Come see the performer that police called the "mansion madam."

Taylor has performed in Milwaukee many times over the years, which has fueled another little nugget of the investigation into her case. The police are poring over customer lists said to possibly include men from suburban Milwaukee.

"I'm booking her because she needs a shot," said Danny Hay, co-owner of On the Border, 10741 S. 27th St., Franklin. "I'm almost positive we'll do really well. I'm hoping you guys blow it way out of proportion."

Done.

He said Taylor has performed as Melissa Wolf at his clubs many times, going back to the 1980s at Hoops, the rock club turned strip joint that used to be on 26th and State.

If you're doing the math in your head, yes, that makes Taylor a non-traditional pole dancer. At age 42, she told me she had been planning to retire, but the arrest has sidetracked her real estate sales career and pushed her back on stage.

"I haven't been given much of a choice," Taylor said when I reached her Saturday on her cell phone as she shopped for earrings in Allentown, Pa., where her not-guilty tour stopped last week.

"Would you buy real estate from me?" she said. "Probably not."

Publicity from the arrest and sensational accusations has given her take-it-off dancing career a jolt. She says she needs the money to pay her mortgage and lawyer bills.

"And I can still do the splits, believe it or not," she said. "The fans have been coming out in droves, and they think it's BS what's been going on."

Taylor professes her innocence but doesn't want to talk in detail about the allegations for fear she'll make it worse. Her bondsman has given her permission to travel.

Hay said all he knows is that Melissa Wolf is his friend and she's always been able to fill his club with customers. If she's done anything illegal, he's not aware of it, he said.

"We live in America where we are innocent until proven guilty - or we used to be," Hay said.

In this instance, though, that whiff of guilt is Melissa Wolf's biggest draw.

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Icy Roads - Treacherous?

Alwynne Gwilt and Josh Wingrove
staff reporter

A major accident on Highway 401 near Port Hope was just one of hundreds of crashes in Southern Ontario after a heavy blast of winter made for slick driving.

The highway east of Port Hope was still closed late in the afternoon as the OPP investigated a crash between a small car and a transport truck.

The victims in that accident had to be pulled out from the vehicle and were sent to hospital with serious injuries.

There were more than 500 collisions Saturday along the major Greater Toronto highways, OPP Staff Sgt. Bruce Pritchard said.

Freezing drizzle made the drive into the city treacherous in stretches, although most of the accidents were minor.

The majority of the crashes were along the 401 and the 404, with cars sliding into the ditch or guard rails. Around 10 a.m. a tractor-trailer jack-knifed across the 401 westbound at Whites Rd. and caused two lanes of the highway to close.

At Pearson International Airport, about 10 flights were cancelled and more than three dozen delayed as crews worked to de-ice each plane leaving the busy hub, creating a backlog of flights waiting to leave.

"It was widespread. You're seeing a bit of a snowball effect," said Greater Toronto Airport Authority spokeperson Scott Armstrong, who added that the cancellations are still just "a bit higher than usual."

According to Environment Canada, that wintry weather is here to stay with light snow continuing today and lows near -16C Monday.

The collisions weren't the only surprise on the roads. Const. Angela Diase might have expected a typical call when she stopped to investigate a van pulled over on Hwy. 407 at Markham Rd. Instead, Diase found a woman in labour and, before an ambulance could arrive, had a healthy baby boy wrapped in her jacket, OPP said.

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Dead woman served jail time

Luke E. Saladin
Post staff reporter

A Northern Kentucky woman whose partially clothed body was found in the Ohio River Thursday in Ludlow had had extensive run-ins with police and been convicted of prostitution.

A man walking his dog spotted the body of Krystal Michelle Coy, 23, a few feet from the shore at the foot of Butler Street.

The death is being investigated as a homicide by the Kenton County Police Department, which is typical until a cause of death is determined.

According to records at the Kenton County Detention Center, Coy, whose last know arrest was Latonia, has faced at least 22 charges in Kenton County since March 2004, and been convicted of prostitution and loitering for prostitution purposes.

Among the other charges: giving an officer a false name, alcohol intoxication in a public place, disorderly conduct, operating on a suspended license, failure to appear in court and contempt of court. Her last visit to the jail was Dec. 21, when she was sentenced to serve 10 days in jail for probation violation. There was also an active bench warrant issued in October for Coy's arrest in Boone County, on a charge of theft of services for under $300.

Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders said because an initial medical examination found that there was no severe trauma to the body, authorities would check for drug use.

"We're awaiting the police report to see what they find, then we'll try to locate the last people who saw her alive and try to piece the puzzle together," Sanders said.

"The bottom line is a partially clothed body doesn't just appear along the river. Somebody knows what happened."

Kenton County Deputy Coroner Ron Cook said results of an autopsy should be known early next week.

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Navy Searches For 3 From Copter Crash

ALLISON HOFFMAN,
Associated Press Writer

Navy vessels about 50 miles off the California coast searched Saturday for three crew members of a Navy helicopter that crashed during a training operation.

The Friday crash killed one crew member and left the remaining three missing as darkness fell over the Pacific.

The sailor died after being pulled alive from the water, said Navy spokesman Cmdr. Jack Hanzlik.

"It's a sad time whenever we lose shipmates like this, so our hearts and prayers go out to the families," Hanzlik said.

The helicopter, based at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado, was on a training mission when it crashed at about 5:30 p.m. EST. The MH-60S, commonly known as a Seahawk, was on a mission off the USS Bonhomme Richard, near San Clemente Island, directly west of the Camp Pendleton Marine base.

Hanzlik said the helicopter crew put out a mayday call before the crash. Navy sailors and Marines who were training with them aboard ship arrived at the crash site in inflatable boats within minutes.

The sailor pulled alive from the water died aboard the Bonhomme Richard while receiving medical attention, the Navy said.

His name was being withheld pending family notification. The names and rank of the others aboard also had not been released.

It was not clear whether mechanical malfunction or pilot error might have contributed to the crash, the Navy said. An investigation was under way.

Hanzlik said he did not know what type of maneuver the helicopter was performing when it crashed.

The USS Bonhomme Richard is an amphibious assault craft that took Marines to Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami.

The ship was training with two other Navy ships, the destroyer USS Chung-Hoon and the cruiser USS Chosin. Both of those ships were also participating in the rescue mission, Hanzlik said.

Two additional vessels, the destroyer USS Milius and the amphibious craft USS Rushmore, were deployed to assist with the search.

The MH-60 Sierra is a twin-turbine craft based on the UH-60L Black Hawk and the Navy's SH-60B Seahawk, according to the manufacturer, United Technologies Corp.'s Sikorsky Aircraft. It is designed to operate off aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers and frigates, ranging up to 100 nautical miles from the ship.

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Singapore Snubs Nigeria, Others; Executes Tochi Iwuchukwu

SINGAPORE yesterday snubbed Nigeria, the United Nations, Amnesty International, and a host of other anti-death penalty activists when it hanged convicted Nigerian, Tochi Amara Iwuchukwu (21), and one Nelson Malachy Okeke (35), said to be stateless. Both were hanged at dawn yesterday.

Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau confirmed the executions in a statement.

"The appeals of both Tochi and Malachy to the Court of Appeal and to the President (S.R. Nathan) for clemency have been turned down. Their sentences were carried out this morning at Changi Prison," it said.

Last Tuesday President Olusegun Obasanjo in a letter appealed to Singapore for clemency on behalf of Tochi. A statement from his office said that "President Olusegun Obasanjo has sought the personal intervention of the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, in the imminent execution of a Nigerian, Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, in Singapore," adding that the President "had asked that the death sentence be commuted to imprisonment."

In reply, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wrote to President Obasanjo to explain why his government was rejecting his appeal for clemency.

"Mr. Tochi has committed a serious offence under Singapore law," Lee said, adding that the amount of drugs he carried amounted to more than 48,000 doses of heroin on the streets.

Lee said that his government "takes a firm stance against drugs to deter Singaporeans and others from importing drugs into Singapore or using the country as a transit hub for narcotics," and had made its position publicly known."

And in Lagos, Tochi's lawyer accused the government doing too little, too late to help his client. The lawyer, Princewill Akpakpa who is also head of litigation at the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) said "the Nigerian government just woke up at the eleventh hour... belatedly writing letters to authorities in Singapore" to grant him clemency, said in a televised interview after the execution.

Akpakpa said that several letters he wrote last year to authorities in Nigeria, including the parliament, after Tochi was convicted, were neither acknowledged nor acted upon.

"The Nigerian governnment failed woefully. It did not look at the merit of Tochi's case," he said.

"Tochi did not know the content of the parcel that was given to him," at the airport in Dubai for delivery in Singapore, said the lawyer, who said he visited Singapore several times and led several campaigns in favour of Tochi after his conviction.

A Nigerian embassy spokeswoman told AFP they had informed Tochi's family about the execution and are waiting for instruction on what to do with the body.

In Geneva, Philip Alston, the UN Human Rights Council's special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said Tochi's trial did not respect legal safeguards around the presumption of innocence.

Singapore law provides that a person caught in possession of illegal substances is assumed to be trafficking, thus putting the burden of proof on the accused.

"It is a fundamental human right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty," Alston said.

Tochi was arrested trying to smuggle 727.02 grammes (more than 25 ounces) of heroin through Changi Airport in November 2004. He said he came to Singapore to try his luck at football clubs.

About 10 activists and sympathisers held a sombre overnight vigil outside the suburban prison compound, hanging Tochi's football kit on the wall above photographs of him surrounded by candles.

Shortly after 6:00 am (2200 GMT), the time when prisoners are normally hanged, each protester laid a bunch of red roses in front of the photographs.

Malachy was charged as an accomplice.

Under Singapore's tough anti-drug laws, the death penalty is mandatory for anyone caught trafficking more than 15 grammes of heroin, 30 grammes of cocaine or 500 grammes of cannabis.

Tochi said he was given a bag containing the substance at Dubai airport to pass on to a man in Singapore but was unaware it contained heroin.

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Lugovoi denies role in Alexander Litvinenko's death

HENRY MEYER,
Associated Press Writer

The man reported by British media to be a suspect in the murder of a former Russian agent in London hit out Saturday at "lies, provocation and government propaganda," denying any role in the radiation poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko.

Andrei Lugovoi told The Associated Press that he viewed the reports in Britain's Guardian newspaper and Sky News that he is a suspect in the murder as an attempt by the British authorities to make up for the lack of evidence against him.

"This is all lies, provocation and government propaganda by the United Kingdom," he said. "They are trying to make up for their weak hand."

Sky News reported Friday that British prosecutors believe they have enough evidence to charge Lugovoi.

Investigators have identified the teapot believed to have contained the radioactive tea, which eventually killed Litvinenko in November, Sky News said, citing unnamed Scotland Yard officials. ABC News had a similar report, citing an unidentified official.

The reports cap a week of media speculation on the direction of the British investigation into the death. The Guardian newspaper also reported Friday that police were focusing on Lugovoi and had sufficient evidence for prosecutors to decide whether to file charges against him, citing unnamed government officials.

Scotland Yard's investigation has centered on Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, two Russian ex-KGB officers who were present at the Millennium Hotel in central London when Litvinenko fell ill on Nov. 1 after contamination from a rare, radioactive substance.

ABC News said the teapot, found at the Millennium Hotel, remained in use for several weeks after the poisoning, adding that its radiation readings were extremely high.

Of the 13 people who tested positive for contamination with Polonium-210 since Litvinenko was poisoned, eight worked at the hotel. Two others who tested positive for the rare radioactive material also visited the hotel's bar.

Litvinenko, 43, died on Nov. 23. The former KGB agent fled to Britain after leaving Russia and was granted asylum. In exile, he became a vocal opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him in a deathbed statement of masterminding his death.

Russian officials have denied any involvement in his murder. The politically-charged case has driven relations between London and Moscow to post-Cold War lows.

In a reminder of the tensions, the Russian Prosecutor General's office on Saturday reaffirmed that Russia would not extradite Lugovoi to Britain.

"A Russian citizen cannot be extradited to another country under the Russian Constitution," Natalia Fyodorova, a spokeswoman for Prosecutor-General's office, told the AP.

She added that Russia would not put him on trial itself if Britain filed charges against Lugovoi, only if the Russian investigators looking into Litvinenko's murder decided to prosecute him.

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Korean hookers busted in US visa scam

Police have busted 42 prostitutes for using forged documents to get a US visa. Police in Seoul also detained a broker identified as Kim (47) on charges of faking a variety of documents to help them get the visas.

According to police, Kim and his Korean-American accomplice had been mocking up bank account records, job certificates and Family Register documents for their clients and training them for the visa interviews since September 2004, charging KRW 4 million (approximately USD $4,363.20) per person.

The two made profits of W1 billion in all by doing so. Half of their 500 clients succeeded in getting a US visa. Their clients included mostly 20-something women who wanted the visa to work in the sex trade in large US cities.

Kim, one of the women, told police the number of customers here dropped after new anti-prostitution laws were introduced two years ago, and word is that prostitutes can earn at least USD $10,000 a month in the US.

"As far as we know, some 200 Korean women were caught for prostitution in the US this year alone and 100 of them were deported," a police officer said. "The number of cases where the US Embassy seizes forged visa application documents rose to 200 a month. This is a serious stumbling block to Koreans being included in the US visa waiver program."

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Bahrain denies Thai investigators are in Manama to probe prostitution ring

Habib Toumi

Manama - Bahraini officials yesterday denied recent media reports that a police unit from Thailand was conducting investigations in Manama into an alleged prostitution ring involving Thai women.

The report, first published in a Thai newspaper, said that the newly-formed police Transnational Sex Trafficking Unit was coordinating with Bahraini police in preparation for a crackdown on a highly-organised prostitution ring supplying Thai women.

Senseless

The Thai chief of the Crimes Against Children, Juveniles and Women Suppression Division, which oversees the unit, was quoted as saying that "although most Thai prostitutes in Bahrain are working there of their own volition, this is still regarded as transnational human trafficking."

But Bahraini officials denied the presence of the Thai unit in the country. "The thought that there is a Thai investigation unit operating in Bahrain without the knowledge or cooperation of the Bahraini authorities is senseless," interior ministry media head Mohammad Bin Daina said.

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