Boston crimelord and FBI informant was inspiration for Jack Nicholson character Frank Costello in Scorcese’s The Departed James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, a notorious Boston gangster on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list for his alleged role in 19 murders, has been captured near Los Angeles after living on the run for 16 years. Bulger, 81, was the leader of the Winter Hill Gang and a top-level FBI informant when he fled in January 1995 after being tipped off by a former Boston FBI agent that he was about to be indicted. He was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday evening at an apartment complex in Santa Monica after a period of surveillance, according to a local policeman. Bulger will appear at a federal court in LA facing a series of federal charges including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, narcotics distribution, extortion and money laundering. The FBI has endured a public perception that it had not tried very hard to find Bulger, who became a huge source of embarrassment for the agency after the extent of his crimes and the FBI’s role in overlooking them became public. Prosecutors said he went on the run after being warned by John Connolly Jr, an FBI agent who had made Bulger an FBI informant 20 years earlier. Connolly was convicted of racketeering in May 2002 for protecting Bulger and his cohort, Stephen ‘The Rifleman’ Flemmi, also an FBI informant. Bulger, who was the inspiration for Jack Nicholson’s character Frank Costello in Martin Scorcese’s 2006 crime thriller The Departed, provided the Boston FBI with information on his gang’s main rival, the New England Mob, in an era when bringing down the Mafia was one of the FBI’s top priorities. But the Boston FBI office was sharply criticised when the extent of Bulger’s alleged crimes and his cosy relationship with the FBI became public in the late 1990s. During his years on the run, the FBI received reported sightings of Bulger and his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig, from all over the US and parts of Europe. In many of those sightings, investigators could not confirm whether it was actually Bulger who was spotted or simply a lookalike. FBI Massachusetts United States Mark Smith guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …President Obama outlined his Afghanistan strategy in a prime-time address tonight, with no late surprises on the numbers: As expected , the US will bring home 10,000 troops by the end of 2011 and rest of the “surge” force (about 23,000 troops) by the end of next summer, reports…
Continue reading …A self-help author has been convicted of negligent homicide in the deaths of three people who attended one of his sweat lodge seminars . Jurors, however, acquitted James Arthur Ray of more serious manslaughter charges in the 2009 deaths in Arizona, reports CNN . The victims died in what Ray characterized as…
Continue reading …A magnitude-6.7 earthquake rattled northeast Japan Thursday morning. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning for Iwate Prefecture, but the US Pacific Tsunami warning center said it did not expect a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries in the quake that hit…
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‘The world needs our leadership and support,’ Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies tells Conservative counterparts Tory MEPs who are threatening to undermine David Cameron over tougher European climate change targets have been warned that their behaviour risks ruining Britain’s reputation as a leading voice in the fight against global warming. Hours before a European Parliament vote in Brussels, Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies said the rebels risked not just damaging the prime minister but also the UK’s green credentials. Aid agencies and green groups have urged Cameron to take on his MEPs before the crucial vote on whether to increase a current EU emissions cuts target of 20% to 30% by 2020. A letter signed by Christian Aid, Oxfam, Greenpeace, WWF and Green Alliance urged the PM to bring Martin Callanan, the Conservatives’ European leader, and fellow MEPs into line with coalition policy. The coalition deal explicitly calls on the EU to aim for a 30% reduction compared with 1990 levels, but Callanan warned that a unilateral EU increase to 30% without Europe’s key global partners also committing to the figure would put European companies at a competitive disadvantage. A Tory No vote would infuriate the energy secretary, Chris Huhne, who has backed the European commission in its efforts to persuade EU ministers to endorse a 30% target. Davies, the Liberal Democrat environment spokesman in the European Parliament, said: “This vote will be a crucial test of Conservative MEPs’ commitment to combat global warming, and the signs are that it is one they will fail. Raising the target to 30% is crucial if low carbon investment is to be stimulated, and the policy of the coalition Government could not be more clear.” “It’s well known that there are climate change deniers in the Conservative ranks in Brussels and it seems now that they have gained the upper hand. “Tory MEPs need to think long and hard about whether they will vote against government policy and undermine David Cameron. The world needs our leadership and support if attempts to secure an international agreement to combat climate change are to have any chance of success.” Recently, 70 leading businesses backed the 30% cuts target, which supporters say will be a more cost-effective way of tackling climate change, stimulating green growth and jobs. The low carbon industry is said already to have provided one million jobs in the UK. Oxfam’s head of UK government relations, Kathleen Spencer Chapman said: “Millions of poor people are already suffering from the impacts of climate change and need Conservative MEPs to fall in behind their own prime minister’s policy on tougher EU emissions cut targets. The prime minister should use his personal influence to get his party’s MEPs behind his government’s welcome support for more ambitious EU climate targets.” Friends of the Earth’s executive director Andy Atkins said: “David Cameron’s pledge to lead the greenest government ever will be seriously undermined if he can’t even get his party’s elected representatives to back official policy on climate change.” Earlier this week, Poland refused to back the commission’s “road map” which sets out long-term moves to a low carbon economy and the case for more stringent emissions cuts. Green politics Climate change European commission European Union David Cameron Conservatives Conservative and Liberal Democrat cabinet Liberal-Conservative coalition Carbon emissions guardian.co.uk
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Ministers to bring forward announcement about cost in attempt to counter Labour over military bill The government is expected to tell MPs on Thursday that the operation in Libya has cost about £200m in an attempt to head off growing concerns that the military bill is spiralling. Ministers will put down a written ministerial statement to the house, bringing forward the announcement from next week. However, some defence economists have warned the cost could reach £1bn if the campaign lasts into the autumn. Details had been expected in a few days, but the government appears to want to close down the issue as an avenue of attack for the opposition. After a grilling from the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, in the Commons on Tuesday, George Osborne and chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, refused to be drawn on the precise amount. At the weekend Alexander said in an interview with Sky News that it could be “hundreds of millions”. Balls pointed out this was markedly different from the line in March that the operation would cost “tens of millions not hundreds of millions”. On Sunday Alexander told Sky News: “The campaign is costing tens of millions, potentially into the hundreds of millions as it goes on, but that money is coming from the reserve that we have set aside, precisely for contingencies such as this.” When the military campaign started, the chancellor said the cost would be “in the order of tens of millions of pounds, not hundreds of millions”. The news came as a minister in Libya’s opposition force, the National Transition Council, wrote an open letter challenging the decision by the UK attorney general, Dominic Grieve, not to release funds to the rebels. Dr Ali Tarhuni, minister for finance and oil in the NTC, said the body would run out of funds in less than a week, according to journalists in Benghazi. Grieve has said Britain cannot release the 1.4bn dinars (approximately £700m) printed by De La Rue – Britain’s banknote printer – which have been impounded in the UK as the revolution has unfolded. Defence policy Libya Middle East Africa Arab and Middle East unrest Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The Winklevoss twins are finally packing it in. Cameron and Tyler have dropped plans to appeal their Facebook settlement to the Supreme Court, reports Reuters . The twins say Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook and owes them more than the $65 million cash-and-stock settlement they agreed to in 2008….
Continue reading …Blame Desperate Housewives . Women cheat in their relationships about as much as men, but for different reasons, according to a new study. Researchers at Indiana University polled more than 900 participants and found that 23% of men and 19% of women reported being unfaithful. Only 10% to 15% of women…
Continue reading …There’s no candy-coating the story of Jelly Belly creator David Klein. After coming up with the idea for the high-end jelly bean company, he took a modest buy-out in 1980 and has regretted it ever since, reports the Los Angeles Times in a profile. Klein, an eccentric 64-year-old, now gives…
Continue reading …Bethanie Mattek-Sands promised Wimbledon had never seen anything like it, and she wasn’t kidding. The 26-year-old American, famous for her unusual fashion taste, arrived on court today for her first-round match wearing a white fringed jacket with 12 tennis balls cut in half stitched down each silver-studded sleeve. She didn’t…
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