According to the latest news reports Brett Adam Crowley was found guilty of murdering his 81-year-old grandmother Violet and sentenced to life in prison..

Crowley was 17 when he stabbed his grandmother in the head and neck during an argument and his defense lawyer Catherine Cuthbert said he was provoked by his grandmother and had lost control during the incident. She said he was under a lot of stress and suffering depression over car and job loss.

Crowley was living with his grandmother because he was estranged from his family.
According to the local news agency the argument started when he arrived home on June 29th and his grandmother started criticizing him about not spending enough time at home and how he did not wash his clothes or make his bed.

She also accused him of siphoning petrol from other people’s cars and that’s when the argument became more aggressive. Crowley said to the police he swore at his grandmother and raised his arm to warn her away, but she slapped him and told him to show her more respect. News report say Crowley than pushed his grandmother backwards and forced her into a bedroom before punching her.

He went to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee, but, apparently his grandmother attacked him from behind. In his own words he then “flipped out completely” and grabbed a knife before again forcing his grandmother into the bedroom. Holding a pillow over her head he stabbed her twice and held her until she stopped moving.
When he realized what he had done, he tried to hang himself, unsuccessfully. He went to a party at his friend’s house before contacting police about his what he had done.

The jurors needed to decide whether Crowley had been provoked, whether he had intended to kill his grandmother and whether he was in control of his actions. It took them less than five hours to find him guilty. With time already served, Crowley will be eligible for parole in 2021.

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According to the police spokesman London police issued a warning after two men were seen trying to cut live wires carrying 13,000 volts, reports The Sun.

“This could have easily killed or seriously injured anyone that touched the exposed wire,” said Constable Amy Phillipo.

Base metal prices have jumped in last couple of years. The new prices gave the thieves the motiv to strip live wires for copper. Some of them were caught stealing statues and tombstone fixtures.

“Copper and aluminum prices are now at all time highs,” said Wayne Kummer, co-owner of London Salvage on Egerton Street.

Business news reports say that copper is about $4 a pound, but you can get as much as $3.60 at scrap yards. Also aluminum is going for $1.40 a pound. Dealers will pay about $1 a pound.

Kummer’s company has policies to discourage or catch thieves trying to sell stolen metals or steal from his yard.

“We can usually tell if someone’s stolen it and our people are told to watch for anything new. We don’t let anyone in our yard unless they have a vehicle and we record the licence plate and make of vehicle.” said Kummer to The Sun.

“Stealing copper from an energized electric grid is extremely dangerous, putting the lives of the public, employees and the suspects themselves at serious risk of injury or death from electrocution,” said Constable Amy Phillipo in her interview for the local news.
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The death of Dennis Lewis was shocking enough: The National Honor Society student and marching band member was shot in his bedroom while masked robbers held a gun on his mother in another room.

Then police arrested his identical twin, an advanced placement student also active in their high school band. Authorities are accusing Derris Lewis of taking part in the attack and being an accomplice in his brother’s death, saying his bloody palm print was found in the bedroom where Dennis was killed.

The family, crushed by the death of one twin, is adamant the other is innocent.

“There’s no way, shape or form that my brother was even in that house,” said the boys’ older sister, Diane Lewis, who lives two doors from where the shooting happened. “He would never put my mom in harm’s way whatsoever - she didn’t raise killers or criminals.”

Derris is charged in juvenile court with being an accomplice to aggravated murder, aggravated robbery and kidnapping. Because he turned 18 two weeks after the shooting, prosecutors are seeking to have him charged as an adult.

Authorities won’t say what Derris Lewis is accused of doing. They say the motive that night was robbery but won’t elaborate.

“There were multiple people that entered and anyone who entered the premise is an accomplice,” said Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien.

Derris Lewis’ public defender, Libby Hall, declined to comment.

The attack happened just after midnight on Jan. 18 in a tough neighborhood of small homes on the city’s north side.

The twins’ mother, April Agee, was asleep on a couch in the front room of her house, the only place she could lie comfortably because of her multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy.

Dennis was asleep in the next room with the door shut. Derris had moved out a few weeks earlier and was staying with his girlfriend elsewhere in the city.

Agee says several men wearing black masks, white shirts and white sneakers entered the house, put a gun to her head, demanded money and asked who else was in the house.

“They kept saying ‘Where’s the money, where’s the money,’ with a .45 up to my head,” Agee recalled at her daughter’s home. She doesn’t know who the men were.

“I couldn’t do nothing but be still. God say ‘Be still,’ and I was, but my son started fighting them,” she said.

Agee, 47, said one of the men kicked Dennis’ bedroom door in and struggled with him. She heard someone yell “He’s too strong,” then the sound of a gun shot.

The family says there was no forced entry. They don’t know if the front door was locked before Dennis and his mother went to bed that night.

The robbers did not take $235 in cash in an envelope in Dennis’ room, money he was saving to visit Florida State University, which he planned to attend.

The family believes police made a mistake with the palm print.

Derris’ prints were in the room because he had lived there until recently, Diane Lewis said.
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A local school was sent up in panic when an 8-year old student brought a genuine World War II hand grenade for the class’s show and tell.

The weapon, an Mk2 grenade, was found in the backpack of a third-grade student, who admitted bringing the item to show the entire class of the Ezra Baker School.

Upon learning of the grenade, the student’ teacher immediately notified the principal Kevin Depin.

The event caused authorities to call for an immediate evacuation of the entire school, sending its 400 students out onto the lawn.

According to Cape Cod Today, the device was eventually identified as inert, as the explosive charge and the detonator had been removed. Also, a hole had been cut in the bottom, rendering it safe for officials to apprehend and dispose.

The student’s mother was notified of the incident, and after being interviewed the family’s residence was searched for other potential weapons. No others were found.

Officers reportedly decided to not press charges against the student, and that any other administrative decisions would be left to the school.

The UPI reported that letters were sent to the parents of students, reminding them to do a check of their children’s bags every morning.

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A Dutch student has provoked an international incident by posting on YouTube a clip of him flashing his penis at the Taj Mahal.

The director of his school, the Euro College in Rotterdam, has formally apologised to the Indian Ambassador to Holland.

And the school is also considering legal action against the student for damaging their proud reputation, reports GVA.

The young man is seen on the clip giggling as he takes his penis out of his trousers. The camera then pans around to show the famous backdrop.

The student was suspended immediately when teachers found out about the incident which happened during a school trip to India.

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A Chinese couple are distraught after their three year old daughter threw their life savings out of the window of their 17th floor flat.

The little girl threw the equivalent of £700 out of the window of their rented apartment in Shenzen while her parents were asleep.

“When I woke up, she wasn’t beside me, and my purse was on the bed, open, and with a thick wad of money missing,” said the mother, Mrs. Huang.

Mrs Huang says she immediately asked her daughter what had happened, but the girl said she didn’t know.

“I looked everywhere, then I noticed there were two notes on the windowsill, and another two on the window sill one floor down,” she added.

The owner of a restaurant on the first floor of the building told her that money had been raining down on to the street, and that passers-by had gone crazy trying to catch it.

Mrs Huang said she spent the whole day in tears as £400 of the money had belonged to other people.

“We’re now hoping for magic, and that the people with our money will bring it back,” she said.

The parents have now installed wire mesh on all of their windows, reports Southern Metropolis News.

What could be one of the world’s oldest trees may have been found in the northern Swedish province of Dalecarlia.

According to scientists, who sent samples of the tree to a laboratory in Miami, Florida, the Norwegian spruce dates back to nearly 8,000 years. It grows at a height of 950 meters above sea level, is more than two meters (6.5 feet) tall and about 20 centimeters (8 inches) in width.

Lars Hedlund, a local councilor from Dalecarlia where the tree was found, told Swedish Radio that the tree was one of the first to grow following the end of the ice age.

The Norway spruce is one of the most common spruces, often used as Christmas trees.

Based on the Guinness Book of Records, the oldest living tree is 4,768 years old and is a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine, ‘Methuselah,’ located in the White Mountains of California.

According to Associated Press New York Police Department will soon begin random testing of its officers for steroid abuse. Allegations about criminal ring supplying the drug to police officers is what started the investigation within the department.

The New York Post reported that the decision to test for anabolic steroids doesn’t reflect a concern about widespread abuse at the nation’s largest police department. They are only trying to point out that using steroids without a prescription is illegal. Last week, the NYPD issued a lengthy memo reminding officers that anabolic steroids are a controlled substance that can cause “aggressive, anti-social or inappropriate behavior,” and that bodybuilding “is not a legitimate medical use.”

“Since the NYPD already tests for narcotics, it “only makes sense to include steroids,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in his statement for one of the local News agencies.

The urine testing should start in July and according to news reports it’s expected to cost about $1 million a year. At the moment officers are being tested randomly for heroin, cocaine, marijuana and other illegal drugs using hair samples.

Departments drug testing policy has been re-examined last year after several police officers were linked to the investigation of a Brooklyn pharmacy suspected of peddling millions of dollars of steroids and human growth hormone.

In their seized records police found that their clientele included 27 NYPD officers who worked out at the same gym.
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Rather than rain or snow, or even dogs, postal workers in a West Side neighborhood near Owen Conservation Park are being pestered by wild turkeys this spring. Mara Wilhite, manager of the Hilldale Station Post Office, said she expected to deal with all manner of issues when she went to work for the U.S. Post Office. But that was not one of them.”Just when you thought you’d heard it all,” she said.

About five to 10 of the birds have been pecking at the postal workers as they make their rounds, and some of the birds have attacked the letter carriers with the sharp spurs on their legs. One of the birds went through the open door of a mail truck and scratched the driver.

Wilhite sought help in the matter from Eric Lobner, regional wildlife program supervisor for the state Department of Natural Resources.

Lobner said the behavior is clearly tied to the breeding season, which started recently and runs through about mid-May.

Color plays an important role in turkey breeding, he said, with the color of the male’s head during mating season changes from gaudy blue to white to red. Lobner speculated that perhaps the turkeys are attracted to the red, white and blue postal trucks.

Postal workers were armed with water pistols. But Lober said that, while the squirts of water worked for a while, the turkeys now seem accustomed to it.

Some workers have been using long sticks to fend off the birds, he said, adding that he will meet with Wilhite next week to discuss other possible solutions.

Part of the problem, Lobner said, is that residents around Owen Conservation Park around the Parkwood Hills neighborhood may be feeding the turkeys, which makes the birds less afraid of humans. He said pamphlets have been circulated in the neighborhood to discourage people from feeding the birds.

The 11-year-old boy who steered a runaway school bus to safety said Wednesday he did it because he saw a truck coming at them and because his brother also was on the bus.

David Murphy said he worried afterward that he might get in trouble for jumping into the driver’s seat, but he said police and fire officials reassured him that he did the right thing, and so did his classmates.

“Some of them said I saved their life,” David said in a phone interview.

David was among 27 students headed to a charter school on Monday when the driver stopped at a service station, pumped about $40 of fuel and went into the rest room while the bus engine idled. In his absence, the bus began rolling down a side street that swoops through an industrial area and was on a collision course with an oncoming tractor-trailer rig.

David said he looked up and saw the truck approaching.

“I hurried up and turned the wheel so I could get out of the truck’s way,” David said.

After dodging the truck he aimed the bus for the last pillar on a bridge to avoid going farther down the steep hill. “There was nothing good down there,” he said.

David said one of the reasons he jumped into the driver’s seat was because his 12-year-old brother Patrick was on board.

Patrick said he was about to jump off the bus but stayed because he saw his brother steering.

“Yeah, he’s a hero,” Patrick said.
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The Brazilian government has inaugurated on Monday a condom factory that is aimed at providing livelihood to hundreds of Brazilian rubber tappers and at the same time help preserve the Amazon rain forest.

In a statement, Brazil’s Health Ministry said the factory in Xapuri, in the northwestern part of the capital Sao Paulo, has the capacity to produce 100 million condoms a year.

The ministry adds that small time rubber tappers would provide the rubber requirement to the plant. By giving them livelihood, these poor rubber tappers were expected to protect the towering jungle trees in the Chico Mendes forest reserve which would eventually preserve the country’s rain forest.

The condom factory is projected to provide livelihood to 500 families of rubber tappers in the region and provide at least 150 jobs.

Its paint may be chipping off, but the famous London Tower Bridge is not falling down - it’s merely getting an $8 million facelift. The British landmark, made famous by the nursery rhyme, “London Bridge Is Falling Down,” will be stripped of its old paint and repainted in its traditional blue and white.

The facelift will take over four years, according to the plan. Work on the landmark bridge will begin in June and will be completed in the winter of 2010. However, the bridge will remain open to traffic during the renovation.

The City Bridge Trust charity will fund the work on the landmark that was opened in 1894 by future King Edward VII and has become one of England’s most recognizable sites.

A Reading man whose minivan crashed after he climbed on its roof while driving about 55 miles per hour is in fair condition this weekend.

Police in West Reading say the 38-year-old man later stripped naked and led them on a chase along the highway.

Authorities are not identifying the man, who is not charged.

He remains in a Reading hospital recovering from what witnesses call a deep gash in his side.

Police say they used Taser jolts and pepper spray during the chase Friday but only subdued the man when they tackled him.

A man who had just received a 10-year prison term exchanged marriage vows with a woman in the courthouse before being led away in shackles.

Forrest Lynn Foreman, 49, was sentenced to 10 years jail on Friday after pleading no contest to making methamphetamine, but he wanted to marry 30-year-old Amie Gayleene Lang before beginning his sentence.

In a third-floor courtroom of the Bryan County courthouse, Calera Police Chief Don Hyde Jr, who is an ordained minister, performed the marriage ceremony after being asked to do so by a court clerk deputy.

“It was an emotional moment because the two had professed to love each other and do what was right and unite as a family,” Hyde said.

“It was a situation, that from talking to the two of them, he was going away a long time and they wanted to become legal as a couple.”
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Amy Rice feared for her dog’s life when a pit bull jumped over a fence into her yard and attacked her pooch. So she took matters into her own mouth.

Rice says she bit the pit bull on the nose Friday after trying to pull the dog’s jaws off her Labrador retriever, Ella. The dog had jumped a fence to get into Rice’s northeast Minneapolis yard, and Rice says she feared the pit bull would kill Ella.

Rice says she drew blood when she bit the dog, and her doctor will have to determine whether she should get shots for rabies.

The pit bull was quarantined. Ella is recovering with staples and stitches to her head and a crushed ear canal.