Santa Claus Takes Down Mafia Suspect in Sicily

Santa Claus can do it all: deliver presents, climb down chimneys, fly through the Christmas sky in his sleigh. And, as it happens, he can also make arrests. On Thursday, he busted a suspected member of the Sicilian mafia. Santa Claus, as every child is aware, knows if you've been naughty or nice. In Italy, apparently, Santa also knows if you are a member of the mafia. And he might arrest you if you're not careful. That, at least, would appear to be the lesson of a rather unusual arrest in the Sicilian town of Catania. A policeman dressed in a Santa Claus outfit was part of a Thursday sting operation to apprehend a suspected member of the appropriately named Santapaola mafia clan.

The 37-year-old suspect was nabbed as he came out of a store where he was thought to have collected monthly protection money. The store's owner had allegedly been forced to pay €260 per month for the past 10 years. The suspected mafioso had been under observation for several weeks. The undercover Santa was waiting in the parking lot carrying a basket full of sweets -- which he carefully placed on the roof of the suspect's car as he made the arrest. According to media accounts of the arrest, the shopkeeper gave Santa a big hug following the arrest.

Good on you for giving back

Another 17 of America's richest people, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, junk bond pioneer Michael Milken and AOL co-founder Steve Case, have promised to give away most of their wealth. At 26, Zuckerberg has put himself on the map not only as one of the world's youngest billionaires, but also as a prominent newcomer to the world of philanthropy. Earlier this year, he pledged $100 million over five years to the Newark, N.J. school system.I wish there were more like him.

Different continent, same cop, same ticket

Man caught speeding by same policeman at opposite ends of the globe. A man living in New Zealand has been caught speeding by the same policeman who booked him when he was living in England. The speeding driver was nabbed in London two years ago, then moved to New Zealand only to be caught by the same police officer for the same offence. The New Zealand Herald reports the unidentified man was caught speeding near Leithfield in New Zealand’s South Island in September by Constable Andy Flitton – but it wasn’t the first time the two had met under such circumstances. The former London policeman had booked the man two years earlier before migrating to New Zealand – only to repeat the process. The NZ Herald reports that Flitton was writing out the speeding ticket when the man started asking him questions. "He asked if I had worked in London, I said 'yes'. He asked if I used to operate the laser gun on the A5 in North London, I said 'yes'," Flitton was quoted as telling the newspaper. "And he said 'I thought it was you, you gave me my last speeding ticket there two years ago'." The speeding driver had apparently only been living in New Zealand for two weeks before he was booked.

Julian Assange feels abandoned by Australia

Seriously Julian... what did you expect? A welcome home party and a couple of fat shrimp on the barby? The WikiLeaks founder says he's been all but "abandoned" by his home country. Assange spoke out during an online Q&A with the Guardian, the British newspaper, this weekend. "I am an Australian citizen and I miss my country a great deal," he wrote. Comparing his plight to that of David Hicks, a fellow Australian who was detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on terror charges, Assange accused Aussie officials of pandering to the United States. "Are we all to be treated like David Hicks at the first possible opportunity merely so that Australian politicians and diplomats can be invited to the best US embassy cocktail parties," he wrote. The government hit back saying Assange is entitled to return home whenever he pleases. If he doesn't, he will be offered the same consular support available to all Australian citizens abroad, they said. But that's hardly a welcome mat. Australia's prime minister, Julia Gillard, has called WikiLeaks' latest document dump "an illegal thing to do" and vowed to cooperate with America's investigation. Don't snivel man, you released the stuff, so now pay the piper.

Man Kills Girlfriend and Hides the Body, All While Still in Prison

This is one of the most bizarre stories from crime news in a while. Jackson Conquet was serving time in a Peruvian prison when his 22-year-old girlfriend, Leslie Paredes, came to visit him. While in his cell, Paredes tried to end their relationship and then an enraged Conquet grabbed her and strangled her. He then hid her body beneath a cement bench he'd fashioned. What's so utterly bizarre about the crime (apart from the fact that it took place from one of the last places you'd think a woman would be hurt by her partner) is that her body remained undiscovered for months. It wasn't until guards noticed a "strong smell" coming from Conquet's cell that they investigated and discovered Paredes' remains. Police have no explanation for how no one could have noticed that Paredes did not emerge from Conquet's room after their visit. Things that make you go... hmmmmmm!

Gordon Gee, Ohio State, and the BCS Joke

Even if TCU and Boise State run the table, they still don't deserve to be in the Bowl Championship Series title game, Ohio State president E. Gordon Gee said Wednesday. In an interview with The Associated Press, the president at the university with the largest athletic program in the country said that TCU and Boise State do not face a difficult enough schedule to play in the national championship game.

Mr. Gee, you are simply another (education-based) politician, with an agenda, whohas no credibility to say anything on the BCS. You have a vested interest in keeping things the way they are, not because they are right or moral, but because they benefit YOU and your SCHOOL. The BCS system is reprehensible and morally bankrupt. It is not fair, and favors, the rich established, so-called elite universities. Please zip it, you have nothing meaningful to add to the debate. You are simply afraid of Boise States and TCU, because they would kick your butts!

The only way to make the national championship for real, is to have it open to everyone. Period. This can only be accomplished by doing away with the Bowl Championship Series, which is a joke, and replace it with a zone based championship such as NCAA basketball has with the Sweet 16, Top 8 and Final 4 series. Until this is done, BCS remains a biased and unfair system.

Unearthing the Past

If I was in my current occupation, one which I truly enjoy, I would have been an archaeologist. Nothing to do with Indiana Jones because I was interested in the subject from High School, almost a decade before the fedora-wearing and whip-toting, Jones was around. Archaeology or paleontology, I probably couldn't make up my mind, and similar. They go with my love of history but seem more hands-on and 'in the field' types of studies.

For example, I was totally mesmerized by the finds of Dr. Louis Leakey in Kenya and Tanzania. I could imagine myself out on the African grasslands or mountains digging into my own history. I thought it was cool. Two days ago British archaeologists announced they had uncovered an ancient Roman landscape beneath a park in west London, with a Roman road evidence of a settlement, and unusual burials among the finds. My family comes from England, so this too fires my imagination. I wonder how good I might have been with a trowel and a little whisk broom in the trenches, if I had chosen a different path.

'American empire' will disappear, infamous British double agent forecasts

George Blake, a British double agent, has forecast that the "American empire" will crumble, and predicted that every country in the world will one day embrace communism. In a rare interview given on his 88th birthday, the former Soviet agent said he had no regrets and expressed no remorse for betraying Britain or its intelligence service. Blake, who calls himself Georgy Ivanovich in Moscow, said he still had no time for American foreign policy. "The American empire will disappear because everyone who lives by the sword dies from the sword," he told the daily Izvestia newspaper.

Blake was a member of MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service, from 1944. In 1951, he became an agent for the Soviet Union -- and in the following decade is thought to have betrayed up to 400 of his colleagues. He was arrested in 1960 and jailed for 42 years -- only to escape from Wormwood Scrubs in 1966 before fleeing to Russia. In the interview, Blake admitted that the Soviet Union in which he arrived in the 1960s did not live up to his high-minded communist ideals. But he made it clear he had not lost the faith.

"I understand now that the Soviet project was doomed. The problem was not the Russians but human nature. Humankind was not sufficiently moral to build such a society," he said. He was confident that time was on communism's side. "One day, I believe that the majority of governments will voluntarily choose the communist model. Without violence, revolution or terror. Maybe it sounds like a Utopia, but I believe in it." Sounds like Utopia does it George... it sounds like a traitors' pipedream and maybe that you need to say something nice so the Russians keep paying your pension.

No attempt at rescue for trapped NZ miners tonight

There will be no attempt to rescue 29 miners trapped in the West Coast's Pike River Coal Mine tonight. Tasman District police area commander Superintendent Gary Knowles told One News the last sampling of mine quality air was taken at 4pm, with no further samplings until tomorrow morning. It means a second night underground for the miners. Mr Knowles said the mine air quality was still unsuitable for a rescue attempt.

Meanwhile, police have confirmed the nationalities of the 29 trapped workers. There are 24 New Zealanders, two Australians, two British citizens and one South African. The identities of three of the New Zealanders are known - Greymouth District councillor Milton Osborne, promising rugby league player Blair Sims and Ben Rockhouse, whose brother, Daniel, escaped after the blast. No word has been heard from the miners since the blast so our thoughts and prayers are for their safety, families and rescuers.

How Bizarre, How Bizarre!

Now this is what I call community policing. A man foiled his own kidnapping by crashing his pickup truck into a Unified Police Department precinct building in Salt Lake City Tuesday night, and officers soon after rescued his hostage wife at their home. The woman, who had been bound, was shaken but otherwise unharmed, UPD Lt. Don Hutson said Wednesday. Two suspects — one in the crashed truck and another arrested after he fled the victim’s home and allegedly hit in a car — were being held in Salt Lake County Jail on multiple felony counts. “This was just downright bizarre,” Hutson said. “It really was like something out of a movie.”

The drama began when two men, armed with handguns, burst into the Millcreek home of the owner of Monarch Coin in South Salt Lake and took the couple captive. One man, identified as Dashawn Hinton, 19, of Salt Lake City, allegedly took the husband at gunpoint in his truck and ordered him to drive west on 3900 South. Hutson said Wednesday that the husband allegedly was believed to have been ordered to drive first to an ATM and then to his shop at 211 E. 3900 South. However, as the victim drove near the UPD precinct at 1580 E. 3900 South, he veered the truck toward the building and rammed into it to get the officers’ attention.