Malaysia frees woman scheduled for caning

A Malaysian model, who was set to become the first woman to be caned in the southeast Asian country for drinking beer in public, was inexplicably spared her sentence Monday, her father said. Authorities had picked up Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, from her father’s house Monday morning and were taking her to a prison in the eastern state of Pahang when the car turned around and brought her back. “They sent her back to the house.

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Man obsessed with Columbine convicted of murder

A man who was obsessed with the Columbine High School massacre was found guilty of murder Friday and sentenced to life without parole for gunning down his father before opening fire at a North Carolina high school three years ago. Alvaro Castillo, 21, has been medicated during the trial and showed little reaction as the first verdict was read — guilty of the first-degree murder of his father.

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Autistic boy saw Florida couple slain, documents say

The son of a Florida couple known for adopting special-needs children was in his parents’ room when they were slain in a home invasion last month, according to documents released by prosecutors. A nurse who works with special-needs children interviewed the boy, who has autism and speech issues, regarding the deaths of Byrd and Melanie Billings.

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‘Great Train Robber’ Ronnie Biggs released to die

Ailing "Great Train Robber" Ronnie Biggs — one of the most notorious British criminals of recent decades — was due to be formally released from prison to his death bed Friday after being granted his freedom on compassionate grounds. Biggs, who is gravely ill with severe pneumonia, is already being treated at a hospital in Norwich, eastern England, where he was moved on Tuesday

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Griffin O’Neal: Dad cheated on Farrah, did drugs with Redmond

Griffin O’Neal, the son of Ryan O’Neal, paints a vivid picture of violence, drugs and sexual infidelity surrounding the actor. In an emotionally explosive interview with CNN’s Larry King that aired Monday night, Griffin O’Neal claimed that: • His father attempted to shoot him and injured Griffin’s wife and him with a fireplace poker. • Ryan was habitually unfaithful to his partner Farrah Fawcett, who died of cancer June 25

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Nazi concentration camp survivor, 90, found strangled

A 90-year-old Holocaust survivor was found strangled Thursday in his Upper East Side apartment, a spokeswoman for the New York City medical examiner said Friday. Felix Brinkmann, a native of Latvia, escaped death for a year while he was in the Nazis’ Mauthausen, Ebensee and Auschwitz concentration camps

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Rights groups decry Gaza ‘honor killing’

A 27-year-old mother of five was bludgeoned to death with an iron chain by her father last week in Gaza in what human rights groups report was an honor killing. According to police in Gaza, the father, Jawdat al-Najar, heard his daughter Fadia, who had divorced in 2005, speaking on the phone with a man. He believed she was having a relationship with him.

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Backpacker rescued in Australia after 12 days

A British backpacker has been rescued after spending nearly two weeks missing in the mountains of eastern Australia, authorities said Wednesday. Jamie Neale, 19, was last seen July 3 after leaving his youth hostel in Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney

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