World News joined 0012

[Black Widow]

A Brazilian man accused of murdering and chopping up a British teenage girl after a four-day cocaine binge tried to bribe officers to let him go, police said.

Mohamed D'Ali Carvalho Santos, 20, was recorded by police offering to bribe them with £22,000 to let him off the charge of killing 17-year-old Cara Burke.

However, instead of taking the bribe, detectives broadcast the attempt on national television - with one saying: "The biggest reward we could receive is to see a psychopath like yourself behind bars."

Police also said Santos bragged about the murder in a text message to his brother, Bruce Lee, who lives with their mother in London.

The message, accompanied by a smiling face, read in English: "The bitch is in the bag."

The mobile phone was also used to photograph Miss Burke's severed head after he allegedly placed it on top of her torso along with a bloody butcher's knife.

Miss Burke's torso was discovered stuffed in a suitcase and dumped on a riverbank in the central Brazilian city of Goiania on Monday.

Police believe Santos killed Miss Burke on Saturday after she threatened to tell his parents he was a cocaine-addicted drug dealer.

He told reporters an argument started after Miss Burke threw a plate of cocaine on the floor.

Police said after the murder he went out to a funk concert before returning to cut up the body.

Lawyer Odair de Meneses said his client had confessed, but could not be held fully responsible because he had been taking drugs "non-stop" for four days before her death.

Santos has reportedly said he cut up the body because he was desperate to remove it from the apartment.

He is quoted as saying the dismembering process was "just like cutting beef, except for the bleeding".

Firefighters are continuing the search for Miss Burke's head and limbs, which Santos reportedly said he put into bin bags and threw them from a bridge in a remote area.


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[bad_meetz_evil]

I saw this maniac on the news.

Lol, I actually laughed at the message.

But yeah if you're in a room with a drug addict, yet drug dealer, you should have just run, not argue with the person.

[JohnCenaFan28]

That's just disgusting...

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[JohnCenaFan28]

This sounds like an interesting story... I'll have to check back on the info on it later on.

[JohnCenaFan28]

That's terrible news.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[JohnCenaFan28]

A US military jury has retired to consider its verdict after the two-week trial of Osama Bin Laden's former driver at Guantanamo Bay.



Yemeni Salim Hamdan faces life in prison if convicted of conspiracy and supporting terrorism.

In closing arguments, the prosecution said he played a "vital role" in the conspiracy behind the 9/11 attacks.

But defence lawyers said he was a low-level employee, who was "not even an al-Qaeda member".

Mr Hamdan, who was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001, has pleaded not guilty and his defence team say he worked for wages, not to wage war on America.

Mr Hamdan has acknowledged working for Bin Laden in Afghanistan from 1997 to 2001 for $200 (£99) a month, but denies being part of al-Qaeda or taking part in any attacks.

He is the first prisoner to be tried by the US for war crimes since World War II.

The jury ended its initial deliberations after 45 minutes on Monday, and will resume on Tuesday morning.

'Guilt by association'

In its closing argument, the prosecution described Mr Hamdan as a loyal supporter of Osama Bin Laden, who protected the al-Qaeda leader knowing his goals included killing Americans.

"Al-Qaeda aimed to literally take down the West, to kill thousands, and they have; to create economic havoc, and they have.

"They needed enthusiastic, uncontrollably enthusiastic warriors, like that accused, right there, Salim Hamdan," said justice department prosecutor John Murphy.

Lawyers for Mr Hamdan said not one witness had testified that Mr Hamdan played any part in terrorist attacks. They questioned the fairness of the trial, which began on 21 July.

"This is a classic case of guilt by association," said Lieutenant Commander Brian Mizer, a military defence lawyer appointed by the Pentagon.

"Mr Hamdan is not an al-Qaeda warrior, he is not al-Qaeda's last line of defence - he's not even an al-Qaeda member," said Mr Mizer.

Black hole

About 270 suspects remain in detention in Guantanamo Bay.

Among the dozens of other inmates due to be tried there in the coming months are men accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks.

Human rights campaigners have accused the court of operating in a legal black hole.

They and the other accused will be watching the out come of the Hamdan trial closely, correspondents say.

BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

The US and Britain have threatened Iran with new economic sanctions if it does not respond positively to incentives for Tehran to halt uranium enrichment.



The US said the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany had agreed they would have no choice but to take further punitive measures.

Britain said it would back sanctions if Iran failed to give what it called an unambiguous response by Tuesday.

The move follows "inconclusive" talks between the EU and Tehran.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, spoke by phone to European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana earlier on Monday.

Mr Solana had given Iran until last Saturday to respond to an offer not to impose further sanctions against Iran in return for a freeze on its uranium enrichment programme.

A spokesman for Mr Solana described the talks as "inconclusive". Mr Jalili said Iran would issue a formal written response to the offer on Tuesday.

Iran says its nuclear programme is for entirely peaceful purposes, while the US and its allies believe it could be used to develop a nuclear weapon.

No imminent crisis

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council - China, France, Russia, the UK and the US - along with Germany set the offer in June in an effort to persuade Iran to halt its uranium enrichment programme.

Last month, the Bush administration's third most senior state department official travelled to Switzerland to participate in a meeting between European and Iranian officials.

The BBC's diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says all the signs were of one last diplomatic push to try to win over the Iranians before a significant toughening of sanctions.

That may be the game-plan in London and Washington, and doubtless in Paris and Berlin, but it may not be the way things are seen in Beijing and Moscow, our correspondent says.

What Iran says in its written response matters because this will determine how far Russia and China are willing to go to bring in additional UN Security Council measures, he adds.

The Americans and the Europeans could choose to reinforce sanctions of their own.

But our correspondent says the Iranians have clearly made a judgement that despite all the talk of potential air strikes against its nuclear facilities, the US presidential campaign, Israel's political uncertainty and high oil prices mean that a crisis is not imminent.

BBC News

[Black Widow]

A man accused of beheading another passenger on a Greyhound bus in Canada has pleaded in court for someone to "please kill me".

Vince Weiguang Li is accused of stabbing 22-year-old carnival worker Tim McLean to death in front of terrified fellow passengers.

He is then said to have cut his head off and eating some of his flesh. The attack appears to have been completely unprovoked.

At the Provincial Court of Manitoba prosecutors asked the judge for a mental evaluation on Li, who emigrated to Canada from China in 2004.

Prosecutor Joyce Dalmyn revealed new details about the attack, which occurred last Wednesday night.

She said Li had a plastic bag containing his victim's ear, nose and part of a mouth in his pocket when officers arrested him.

The only response officers received from him was: "'I have to stay on the bus forever."

Li is charged with second-degree murder and is yet to enter a plea. Since his arrest he has refused to speak to prosecutors or to his court-appointed lawyer.

When asked by Provincial Court of Manitoba Judge Michel Chartier if he wanted a lawyer, Li shook his head and then quietly said: "Please kill me."

Ms Dalmyn said many heard the plea, adding: "There were some people in the courtroom that were taken aback by it.

"Those were the only words I heard him utter in the courtroom."

Li is due back in court on September 8 when a new lawyer could be appointed for him.

Thirty-seven passengers were aboard the Greyhound from Edmonton, Alberta, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, as it travelled at night along a desolate stretch of the TransCanada Highway about 12 miles from Portage La Prairie.

Some were napping and others watching the movie The Legend of Zorro on bus television screens when Li attacked McLean, allegedly stabbing him dozens of times.

As horrified passengers fled the bus, Li severed McLean's head, displaying it to some of the passengers outside the bus, witnesses said. He then began hacking at the body.

A police officer at the scene reported seeing the attacker hacking off pieces of the victim's body and eating them, according to a police tape leaked on the internet.

A church pastor, Tom Castor, who helped hire Li soon after he immigrated in 2004 with his wife, Anna, said the man never showed any sign of anger or emotional problems when he worked there as a custodian.

In the wake of the attack, Greyhound scrapped a billboard ad campaign that extolled the relaxing side of bus travel.

The ad said: "There's a reason you've never heard of 'bus rage'."


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