Crime
Rhinos have extended sexual intercourse. This gave some people the idea that their horns have Viagra-like powers and in East Asia ground Rhinoceros horn is $40,000 a kilo. Never mind the fact that rhino horns are just hair. All five species are in imminent danger of extinction because of this mindless traffic and in response September 22 is World Rhino Day (Click here for info).
Meanwhile in Europe, the natural history museums are being burgled and the rhino horns on display are being stolen. Here in Belgium the horns at the Royal Natural History Museum in Brussels and at the African Museum in Namur have been stolen. Attempts were made at the Royal Central African Museum in Tervuren and at the Zoological Institute in Liège. In Liège the thief was caught in the act and said he was working on a commission and was to be paid 3,000 Euros when he delivered in The Netherlands. In response the rhinoceros exhibit at
the Tournai Natural History Museum have been hidden.
Meanwhile in Europe, the natural history museums are being burgled and the rhino horns on display are being stolen. Here in Belgium the horns at the Royal Natural History Museum in Brussels and at the African Museum in Namur have been stolen. Attempts were made at the Royal Central African Museum in Tervuren and at the Zoological Institute in Liège. In Liège the thief was caught in the act and said he was working on a commission and was to be paid 3,000 Euros when he delivered in The Netherlands. In response the rhinoceros exhibit at
the Tournai Natural History Museum have been hidden.
All I can say is Ho'omaika'i!
From AOLtravel:
"A crafty thief on a Caribbean flight walked away with almost a quarter-million dollars after sneaking into a cargo hold loaded with cash through an airplane bathroom.
A Brink's security employee placed three sacks of cash containing a total of 1.2 million euros (1.68 million U.S. dollars) in the cargo hold of the Air Antilles plane before it headed from the French island of Guadeloupe to the Franco-Dutch island of Saint Martin, police told the Agence France-Presse yesterday.
When the flight landed 40 minutes later, the security guard discovered that 172,000 euros (238,000 dollars) was missing from the sacks.
Police are now searching for a man who complained he felt ill and spent most of the journey on the ATR-42 turboprop plane in the bathroom. It appears he must have been removing panels to gain access to the cargo hold in the rear of the plane.
The unnamed man was traveling with a woman who appeared concerned about his health.
Witnesses say that shortly before landing the man asked a flight attendant for an ambulance to meet him on the tarmac.
But according to police, when the ambulance arrived the man said he felt better and walked out of the airport, bypassing normal security checks.
The man's traveling companion was questioned in the baggage arrival hall, but did not have any of the missing money."
For everything about the ATR-42, click here.
From AOLtravel:
"A crafty thief on a Caribbean flight walked away with almost a quarter-million dollars after sneaking into a cargo hold loaded with cash through an airplane bathroom.
A Brink's security employee placed three sacks of cash containing a total of 1.2 million euros (1.68 million U.S. dollars) in the cargo hold of the Air Antilles plane before it headed from the French island of Guadeloupe to the Franco-Dutch island of Saint Martin, police told the Agence France-Presse yesterday.
When the flight landed 40 minutes later, the security guard discovered that 172,000 euros (238,000 dollars) was missing from the sacks.
Police are now searching for a man who complained he felt ill and spent most of the journey on the ATR-42 turboprop plane in the bathroom. It appears he must have been removing panels to gain access to the cargo hold in the rear of the plane.
The unnamed man was traveling with a woman who appeared concerned about his health.
Witnesses say that shortly before landing the man asked a flight attendant for an ambulance to meet him on the tarmac.
But according to police, when the ambulance arrived the man said he felt better and walked out of the airport, bypassing normal security checks.
The man's traveling companion was questioned in the baggage arrival hall, but did not have any of the missing money."
For everything about the ATR-42, click here.
A year-long search by a young mother has revealed a filthy bit of black market business in Mexico City. A private clinic in a blue-collar neighborhood was stealing newborns from their mothers by telling them that the babies had died, and then selling them.
Vanessa Castillo gave birth in October 2008. She saw the baby and heard her cry before she was whisked away for "tests." She was then told that the baby had died and had been cremated. After many attempts to get the death certificate and the ashes from the clinic, she received an e-mail from the clinic owner's son informing her that the baby was alive and had been sold for $1,000. The resulting police investigation led to the arrest of the owner, 2 doctors, a nurse, a receptionist, and the psychologist who admitted having bought the baby.
After conclusive tests, the mother and child were reunited yesterday at an emotion-filled press conference. (of course)
It turns out that in 2005 the staff at the same clinic had been arrested in a very similar case. At the time they were immediately released which suggests complicity from within the prosecutor's office.
Vanessa Castillo gave birth in October 2008. She saw the baby and heard her cry before she was whisked away for "tests." She was then told that the baby had died and had been cremated. After many attempts to get the death certificate and the ashes from the clinic, she received an e-mail from the clinic owner's son informing her that the baby was alive and had been sold for $1,000. The resulting police investigation led to the arrest of the owner, 2 doctors, a nurse, a receptionist, and the psychologist who admitted having bought the baby.
After conclusive tests, the mother and child were reunited yesterday at an emotion-filled press conference. (of course)
It turns out that in 2005 the staff at the same clinic had been arrested in a very similar case. At the time they were immediately released which suggests complicity from within the prosecutor's office.
September 25 2009 | Crime - Art | 0 comments
This is not the Magritte Museum, it's the Magritte Museum
This is not the Magritte Museum, it's the Magritte Museum
Yesterday a painting was stolen in broad daylight from the Magritte Museum. In a surreal twist, stolen not from the Magritte Museum that opened with great fanfare this past June, but the other Magritte Museum, the one that's been around for years and is located in a house Magritte lived in for 24 years in Jette, one of Brussels' more obscure boroughs. The museum is low key and relatively unknown. Despite the fact that Magritte painted over 800 of his paintings here, the museum doesn't have many examples on display. At ten yesterday morning, a man rang the bell and asked if he couldn't please visit even though the museum is open by invitation only. After being allowed in, he brandished a gun, let in an accomplice and went straight for a nude of Magritte's wife Georgette, entitled L' Olympia, took it off the wall, and left. The painting is valued at around 3 million euros, but is not sellable, so this is probably a theft for hire.
September 23 2009 | Crime | 0 comments
O! beware my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-ey'd monster which does mock the meat it feeds on.
O! beware my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-ey'd monster which does mock the meat it feeds on.
Yesterday a 18 year old strangled his 17 year old girlfriend, their 17 month old daughter and her 76 year old great-grandmother. The girlfriend, left for dead, survived. He was an inmate in a closed youth center having been implicated in the murder/carjacking of a piantist at the Brussels Conservatory. He had benefitted from a number of chaperoned visits to see his girlfriend and daughter. This was his first solo visit.
Today his girlfriend’s mother (the daughter-in-law, mother, and grandmother of the victims) spoke about the events. “ He was an angel, sir. A tender boy, affectionate, calm, zen, helpful, who took excellent care of his daughter; who cooked for us on the weekends…my daughter met him 4 years ago. We didn’t know about the case (the murder/carjacking) until he was arrested three days before his daughter was born. We weren’t convinced of his guilt in the case and we gave him the benefit of the doubt. What he did this weekend was 100% unforeseeable. There had never been any problems.”
A remarkable speech from someone who has just lost most of her family. The solo visit had been approved by the shrinks, the councilors and the judge, so this wasn’t a question of a blind bureaucracy letting someone slip through.
The young man was arrested in Ostende after he went there to see his girlfriend’s maternal grandparents.
Such support from his mother-in-law and his unblemished record at the closed center certainly raises the question of why? It seems that he had decided that she was being unfaithful.
Yesterday’s paper had the first report of the event but it was incomplete and it was easy to come to clichéd and probably erroneous conclusions. But when I read today’s report with the mother’s account and the photograph of the young man and his daughter I was struck:
This is Othello! A young black man alone in a white family, very much in love but an outsider nonetheless. It’s not hard to imagine that among his fellow inmates at the closed center, there could have been an Iago lurking, someone jealous of his happiness with his new family, who would play on his outsider status to drive him to doubt and jealousy.
Update: A new disturbing fact: the great-grandmother was raped after being killed.
Today his girlfriend’s mother (the daughter-in-law, mother, and grandmother of the victims) spoke about the events. “ He was an angel, sir. A tender boy, affectionate, calm, zen, helpful, who took excellent care of his daughter; who cooked for us on the weekends…my daughter met him 4 years ago. We didn’t know about the case (the murder/carjacking) until he was arrested three days before his daughter was born. We weren’t convinced of his guilt in the case and we gave him the benefit of the doubt. What he did this weekend was 100% unforeseeable. There had never been any problems.”
A remarkable speech from someone who has just lost most of her family. The solo visit had been approved by the shrinks, the councilors and the judge, so this wasn’t a question of a blind bureaucracy letting someone slip through.
The young man was arrested in Ostende after he went there to see his girlfriend’s maternal grandparents.
Such support from his mother-in-law and his unblemished record at the closed center certainly raises the question of why? It seems that he had decided that she was being unfaithful.
Yesterday’s paper had the first report of the event but it was incomplete and it was easy to come to clichéd and probably erroneous conclusions. But when I read today’s report with the mother’s account and the photograph of the young man and his daughter I was struck:
This is Othello! A young black man alone in a white family, very much in love but an outsider nonetheless. It’s not hard to imagine that among his fellow inmates at the closed center, there could have been an Iago lurking, someone jealous of his happiness with his new family, who would play on his outsider status to drive him to doubt and jealousy.
Update: A new disturbing fact: the great-grandmother was raped after being killed.