Thursday, April 27, 2006
ABCnews/Reuters: German woman accused of killing her babies goes on trial
"FRANKFURT AN DER ODER, Germany (Reuters) - A German mother accused of killing nine newborn babies over the course of a decade and burying them in flower pots went on trial on Thursday in a case that has shocked the nation.
Lawyers for the 40-year old woman, identified as Sabine H. from the eastern city of Frankfurt an der Oder, said at the start of the trial that their client would not take the stand to defend herself.
The unemployed dental assistant is charged with eight counts of manslaughter as the statute of limitations on the first of the nine deaths has expired. She faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Police in the eastern state of Brandenburg discovered the bones of nine newborns buried in flower pots, buckets and a fish tank after a neighbor of the woman's parents stumbled upon the remains of some of the babies while clearing out their garage last July.
The woman has told investigators that she was alone when she gave birth to the babies and in most of the cases under the influence of large amounts of alcohol.
She admits to having left the first two to die, but denies intentionally killing them and says she cannot remember the circumstances of the last seven deaths because she was in a drunken stupor.
"I did not kill them deliberately. I just left them alone and didn't take care of them," she said of the first two babies in a pre-trial deposition that was read out in court by chief judge Matthias Fuchs.
WORST CHILD KILLINGS
The deaths of the babies, which occurred between 1988 and 1998, has been described as postwar Germany's worst series of child killings and sparked shock that the crime went undetected for so long.
The woman has said that her former husband, who fathered the seven girls and two boys that died, spent long periods away from home because of their marital problems and was not aware of her pregnancies.
The couple had three children that are now grown before the deaths took place and the woman has one two-year old child by another man.
A day after her arrest last year, Sabine H. spoke of a "vicious circle" that began with her fourth pregnancy in 1988.
Her husband had been against having more children, she said, and she had kept the pregnancy secret from him, eventually giving birth over the toilet where the baby allegedly drowned.
The woman said she then began drinking heavily to banish the vision of her "blue faced" baby from her mind. She did not consider getting abortions over the years because of fears that a doctor would discover her prior births.
In preliminary proceedings, she described putting the dead babies in plastic bags and then burying them in flower pots, some of which she kept on her balcony to be near her children.
Prosecutors had initially wanted Sabine H. to face murder charges but the court ordered the charges reduced to manslaughter because the crimes occurred against a backdrop of alcohol abuse and family problems."
Lawyers for the 40-year old woman, identified as Sabine H. from the eastern city of Frankfurt an der Oder, said at the start of the trial that their client would not take the stand to defend herself.
The unemployed dental assistant is charged with eight counts of manslaughter as the statute of limitations on the first of the nine deaths has expired. She faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Police in the eastern state of Brandenburg discovered the bones of nine newborns buried in flower pots, buckets and a fish tank after a neighbor of the woman's parents stumbled upon the remains of some of the babies while clearing out their garage last July.
The woman has told investigators that she was alone when she gave birth to the babies and in most of the cases under the influence of large amounts of alcohol.
She admits to having left the first two to die, but denies intentionally killing them and says she cannot remember the circumstances of the last seven deaths because she was in a drunken stupor.
"I did not kill them deliberately. I just left them alone and didn't take care of them," she said of the first two babies in a pre-trial deposition that was read out in court by chief judge Matthias Fuchs.
WORST CHILD KILLINGS
The deaths of the babies, which occurred between 1988 and 1998, has been described as postwar Germany's worst series of child killings and sparked shock that the crime went undetected for so long.
The woman has said that her former husband, who fathered the seven girls and two boys that died, spent long periods away from home because of their marital problems and was not aware of her pregnancies.
The couple had three children that are now grown before the deaths took place and the woman has one two-year old child by another man.
A day after her arrest last year, Sabine H. spoke of a "vicious circle" that began with her fourth pregnancy in 1988.
Her husband had been against having more children, she said, and she had kept the pregnancy secret from him, eventually giving birth over the toilet where the baby allegedly drowned.
The woman said she then began drinking heavily to banish the vision of her "blue faced" baby from her mind. She did not consider getting abortions over the years because of fears that a doctor would discover her prior births.
In preliminary proceedings, she described putting the dead babies in plastic bags and then burying them in flower pots, some of which she kept on her balcony to be near her children.
Prosecutors had initially wanted Sabine H. to face murder charges but the court ordered the charges reduced to manslaughter because the crimes occurred against a backdrop of alcohol abuse and family problems."
Friday, April 21, 2006
CNN: That headache is caused by the nails in your head
"PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) -- An Oregon man who went to a hospital complaining of a headache was found to have 12 nails embedded in his skull from a suicide attempt with a nail gun, doctors say.
Surgeons removed the nails with needle-nosed pliers and a drill, and the man survived with no serious lasting effects, according to a report on the medical oddity in the current issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery.
The unidentified 33-year-old man was suicidal and high on methamphetamine last year when he fired the nails -- up to 2 inches in length -- into his head one by one.
The nails were not visible when doctors first examined the man in the emergency room of an unidentified Oregon hospital a day later. Doctors were surprised when X-rays revealed six nails clustered between his right eye and ear, two below his right ear and four on the left side of his head.
The study did not say how long the nails were, and a hospital spokeswoman refused to release that information. A photo published in the study suggests the nails range from 1 1/2 to 2 inches long.
No one before is known to have survived after intentionally firing so many foreign objects into the head, according to the report, written by Dr. G. Alexander West, the neurosurgeon who oversaw the treatment of the patient.
The man at first told doctors he had had a nail gun accident, but later admitted it was a suicide attempt.
The nails came close to major blood vessels and the brain stem but did not pierce them. The patient was in remarkably good condition when he was transferred to Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, where the nails were removed.
The patient was later transferred to psychiatric care and stayed under court order for nearly a month before leaving against doctors' orders.
"
Surgeons removed the nails with needle-nosed pliers and a drill, and the man survived with no serious lasting effects, according to a report on the medical oddity in the current issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery.
The unidentified 33-year-old man was suicidal and high on methamphetamine last year when he fired the nails -- up to 2 inches in length -- into his head one by one.
The nails were not visible when doctors first examined the man in the emergency room of an unidentified Oregon hospital a day later. Doctors were surprised when X-rays revealed six nails clustered between his right eye and ear, two below his right ear and four on the left side of his head.
The study did not say how long the nails were, and a hospital spokeswoman refused to release that information. A photo published in the study suggests the nails range from 1 1/2 to 2 inches long.
No one before is known to have survived after intentionally firing so many foreign objects into the head, according to the report, written by Dr. G. Alexander West, the neurosurgeon who oversaw the treatment of the patient.
The man at first told doctors he had had a nail gun accident, but later admitted it was a suicide attempt.
The nails came close to major blood vessels and the brain stem but did not pierce them. The patient was in remarkably good condition when he was transferred to Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, where the nails were removed.
The patient was later transferred to psychiatric care and stayed under court order for nearly a month before leaving against doctors' orders.
"
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
NYtimes: the castrati and opera
"LONDON, April 13 — More than most art forms, opera demands a suspension of disbelief. For a long time this included accepting that a man could sing with the voice of a woman. It was not a natural gift, but the results often drove audiences wild: castrati, as they were known, were among the rulers of the 18th-century opera stage.
True, most of the Italian boys who were castrated to preserve their unbroken voices never achieved fame . Yet enough did to encourage some impoverished parents to allow one or two of their sons to undergo this pre-pubescent mutilation. In the 1730's, it has been estimated, as many as 4,000 boys were so altered each year.
Intense musical training followed, so that, by their midteens, the youths were ready to sing in church choirs. Then, with opera all the rage from Naples to Venice, the best voices were selected by theater managers for the stage. A few became stars across Europe. Those seeking the highest fees headed for London, where Handel was presiding over a boom in Italian opera.
"Handel and the Castrati," a revealing small show at the Handel House Museum here through Oct. 1, tells their stories. On display are a few objects, including an 18th-century iron "castratori" instrument, as well as paintings, engravings, music scores and recorded excerpts from Handel operas and oratorios, with castrato roles now sung by counter-tenors and mezzo-sopranos.
The museum is housed in what was Handel's Mayfair home from 1723 until his death in 1759, so it is likely that some castrati also sang here. And to hear how they might have sounded, there is a rare castrato recording from 1902. In a soprano voice a tad thicker than that of a woman, Alessandro Moreschi can be heard singing Gounod's arrangement of Bach's "Ave Maria."
By all accounts, what distinguished the castrato's voice was that it combined a woman's range with a man's lung capacity and muscular strength. In fact, many castrati were unusually tall. And, having undergone musical training at a time that their rib cages were expanding, they were particularly adept at coloratura and other ornamentation typical of Baroque opera.
They became necessary, however, only after the Vatican banned women from church choirs in the mid-16th century. Thus, if Monteverdi wrote four castrato roles for "Orfeo" in 1607, it was also because no women could sing them. A Vatican decree prohibiting castration was evidently ignored: Moreschi, nicknamed the Angel of Rome, joined the Sistine Chapel Choir in 1883.
Still, by the 18th century, women were also singing onstage, with Faustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni among the stars of Handel operas after that German-born composer moved to London in 1711. Yet such was the aura surrounding Italian castrati that Handel created several operas around their crowd appeal, starting with his London debut opera, "Rinaldo," and the alto Nicola Grimaldi.
The castrato most associated with Handel, however, was Francesco Bernardi, better known as Senesino, who was born in Siena in 1686 and was already a legend by the time he reached London and sang Handel's "Radamisto" in 1720. He also sang in the premieres of "Giulio Cesare," "Orlando" and "Rodelinda." By the time he returned to Italy for good in 1736, he was immensely wealthy.
If Senesino was often moody, Handel had more trouble with Giovanni Carestini, who had a two-octave mezzo-soprano range and was described by one contemporary as "tall, beautiful and majestic." Legend has it that Carestini rejected the score of "Alcina" as insufficiently brilliant. This show records Handel's furious response: "You dog! You think you know better than I do what is best for you to sing? If you don't sing, I won't pay you."
But Handel needed Carestini because he alone could rival Carlo Broschi, known as Farinelli, who was arguably the most popular castrato ever and who, to Handel's intense displeasure, refused to sing for him. Worse, Farinelli performed for Handel's competition at the Opera of the Nobility.
Evidently, star castrati could afford to be capricious. One, Luigi Marchesi, refused to appear in any opera unless he made his first entry on horseback, singing his favorite aria. Two of Handel's castrati, Gioacchino Conti, known as Gizziello, and Gaetano Majorano, known as Caffarelli, reportedly carried their rivalry back to Naples with them.
What mattered was that they could fill a theater. And in this, their mysterious sex appeal, to both men and women, was a factor. No greater expert than Casanova wrote of one castrato: "To resist the temptation, or not to feel it, one would have had to be cold and earthbound as a German." Further, many castrati were said to be virile sexual partners for women, not least Caffarelli, who was famously chased by his mistress's husband.
Indeed, some English satirists took delight in suggesting that the expensive presents given to castrati stars were tributes to their talent in bed, not onstage. Or as one 1735 ditty put it: "Think'st thou for empty Sounds they thus present;/ Thus they give out, but other Things are meant."
Another 1735 pamphlet, inspired by Hogarth's "Rake's Progress," even suggested some envy:
Who would not be unmann'd to gain
What they with so much Ease obtain?
For tho' they lose the Pow'r of Harm,
The Women know they yet can charm.
The castrati era lasted through Mozart into the 19th century. Meyerbeer's opera "Il Crociato in Egitto," performed at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice in 1824, is said to be the last work written for a castrato, while in 1844 Paolo Pergetti became the last castrato to appear on a London stage. In 1870, Italy finally banned castration, and in 1903 the Vatican excluded castrati from church choirs.
By then, of course, sopranos and tenors were the opera superstars. Yet, in a sense, they benefited from the castrati legacy: the tradition of adulating opera singers was not only well entrenched, but the difficult and temperamental personalities of divas — and divos — were also somehow expected. Still, even the most adoring fan today is likely to emulate a woman's heartfelt cry in 1735: "One God, one Farinelli."
strange and barbaric don't you think?
True, most of the Italian boys who were castrated to preserve their unbroken voices never achieved fame . Yet enough did to encourage some impoverished parents to allow one or two of their sons to undergo this pre-pubescent mutilation. In the 1730's, it has been estimated, as many as 4,000 boys were so altered each year.
Intense musical training followed, so that, by their midteens, the youths were ready to sing in church choirs. Then, with opera all the rage from Naples to Venice, the best voices were selected by theater managers for the stage. A few became stars across Europe. Those seeking the highest fees headed for London, where Handel was presiding over a boom in Italian opera.
"Handel and the Castrati," a revealing small show at the Handel House Museum here through Oct. 1, tells their stories. On display are a few objects, including an 18th-century iron "castratori" instrument, as well as paintings, engravings, music scores and recorded excerpts from Handel operas and oratorios, with castrato roles now sung by counter-tenors and mezzo-sopranos.
The museum is housed in what was Handel's Mayfair home from 1723 until his death in 1759, so it is likely that some castrati also sang here. And to hear how they might have sounded, there is a rare castrato recording from 1902. In a soprano voice a tad thicker than that of a woman, Alessandro Moreschi can be heard singing Gounod's arrangement of Bach's "Ave Maria."
By all accounts, what distinguished the castrato's voice was that it combined a woman's range with a man's lung capacity and muscular strength. In fact, many castrati were unusually tall. And, having undergone musical training at a time that their rib cages were expanding, they were particularly adept at coloratura and other ornamentation typical of Baroque opera.
They became necessary, however, only after the Vatican banned women from church choirs in the mid-16th century. Thus, if Monteverdi wrote four castrato roles for "Orfeo" in 1607, it was also because no women could sing them. A Vatican decree prohibiting castration was evidently ignored: Moreschi, nicknamed the Angel of Rome, joined the Sistine Chapel Choir in 1883.
Still, by the 18th century, women were also singing onstage, with Faustina Bordoni and Francesca Cuzzoni among the stars of Handel operas after that German-born composer moved to London in 1711. Yet such was the aura surrounding Italian castrati that Handel created several operas around their crowd appeal, starting with his London debut opera, "Rinaldo," and the alto Nicola Grimaldi.
The castrato most associated with Handel, however, was Francesco Bernardi, better known as Senesino, who was born in Siena in 1686 and was already a legend by the time he reached London and sang Handel's "Radamisto" in 1720. He also sang in the premieres of "Giulio Cesare," "Orlando" and "Rodelinda." By the time he returned to Italy for good in 1736, he was immensely wealthy.
If Senesino was often moody, Handel had more trouble with Giovanni Carestini, who had a two-octave mezzo-soprano range and was described by one contemporary as "tall, beautiful and majestic." Legend has it that Carestini rejected the score of "Alcina" as insufficiently brilliant. This show records Handel's furious response: "You dog! You think you know better than I do what is best for you to sing? If you don't sing, I won't pay you."
But Handel needed Carestini because he alone could rival Carlo Broschi, known as Farinelli, who was arguably the most popular castrato ever and who, to Handel's intense displeasure, refused to sing for him. Worse, Farinelli performed for Handel's competition at the Opera of the Nobility.
Evidently, star castrati could afford to be capricious. One, Luigi Marchesi, refused to appear in any opera unless he made his first entry on horseback, singing his favorite aria. Two of Handel's castrati, Gioacchino Conti, known as Gizziello, and Gaetano Majorano, known as Caffarelli, reportedly carried their rivalry back to Naples with them.
What mattered was that they could fill a theater. And in this, their mysterious sex appeal, to both men and women, was a factor. No greater expert than Casanova wrote of one castrato: "To resist the temptation, or not to feel it, one would have had to be cold and earthbound as a German." Further, many castrati were said to be virile sexual partners for women, not least Caffarelli, who was famously chased by his mistress's husband.
Indeed, some English satirists took delight in suggesting that the expensive presents given to castrati stars were tributes to their talent in bed, not onstage. Or as one 1735 ditty put it: "Think'st thou for empty Sounds they thus present;/ Thus they give out, but other Things are meant."
Another 1735 pamphlet, inspired by Hogarth's "Rake's Progress," even suggested some envy:
Who would not be unmann'd to gain
What they with so much Ease obtain?
For tho' they lose the Pow'r of Harm,
The Women know they yet can charm.
The castrati era lasted through Mozart into the 19th century. Meyerbeer's opera "Il Crociato in Egitto," performed at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice in 1824, is said to be the last work written for a castrato, while in 1844 Paolo Pergetti became the last castrato to appear on a London stage. In 1870, Italy finally banned castration, and in 1903 the Vatican excluded castrati from church choirs.
By then, of course, sopranos and tenors were the opera superstars. Yet, in a sense, they benefited from the castrati legacy: the tradition of adulating opera singers was not only well entrenched, but the difficult and temperamental personalities of divas — and divos — were also somehow expected. Still, even the most adoring fan today is likely to emulate a woman's heartfelt cry in 1735: "One God, one Farinelli."
strange and barbaric don't you think?
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Yahoo!News/AP: Homeland Security Official Arrested
"By MICHELLE SPITZER, Associated Press Writer
4 minutes ago
MIAMI - The deputy press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was arrested Tuesday for using the Internet to seduce what he thought was a teenage girl, authorities said.
Brian J. Doyle, 55, was arrested at his residence in Maryland on charges of use of a computer to seduce a child and transmission of harmful material to a minor. The charges were issued out of Polk County, Fla.
Doyle, of Silver Spring, Md., had a sexually explicit conversation with what he believed was a 14-year-old girl whose profile he saw on the Internet on March 14, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
The girl was an undercover Polk County Sheriff's Computer Crimes detective, the sheriff's office said.
Doyle sent the girl pornographic movie clips and had sexually explicit conversations via the Internet, the statement said.
During other online conversations, Doyle revealed his name, that he worked for the Homeland Security Department and offered his office and government issued cell phone numbers, the sheriff's office said.
Doyle also sent photos of himself to the girl, but authorities said they were not sexually explicit.
On several occasions, Doyle instructed her to perform a sexual act while thinking of him and described explicit activities he wanted to have with her, investigators said.
Doyle later had a telephone conversation with an undercover deputy posing as the teenager and encouraged her to purchase a web camera to send graphic images of herself to him, the sheriff's office said.
He was booked into Maryland's Montgomery County jail where he was waiting to be extradited to Florida, the sheriff's office said.
There was no immediate response to messages left on Doyle's government-issued cell phone and his e-mail, and he could not be reached by phone at the jail for comment.
Homeland Security press secretary Russ Knocke in Washington said he could not comment on the details of the investigation. "We take these allegations very seriously, and we will cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation," Knocke said.
Doyle, who is the fourth-ranking official in the department's public affairs office, was expected to be placed on administrative leave Wednesday morning."
4 minutes ago
MIAMI - The deputy press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was arrested Tuesday for using the Internet to seduce what he thought was a teenage girl, authorities said.
Brian J. Doyle, 55, was arrested at his residence in Maryland on charges of use of a computer to seduce a child and transmission of harmful material to a minor. The charges were issued out of Polk County, Fla.
Doyle, of Silver Spring, Md., had a sexually explicit conversation with what he believed was a 14-year-old girl whose profile he saw on the Internet on March 14, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
The girl was an undercover Polk County Sheriff's Computer Crimes detective, the sheriff's office said.
Doyle sent the girl pornographic movie clips and had sexually explicit conversations via the Internet, the statement said.
During other online conversations, Doyle revealed his name, that he worked for the Homeland Security Department and offered his office and government issued cell phone numbers, the sheriff's office said.
Doyle also sent photos of himself to the girl, but authorities said they were not sexually explicit.
On several occasions, Doyle instructed her to perform a sexual act while thinking of him and described explicit activities he wanted to have with her, investigators said.
Doyle later had a telephone conversation with an undercover deputy posing as the teenager and encouraged her to purchase a web camera to send graphic images of herself to him, the sheriff's office said.
He was booked into Maryland's Montgomery County jail where he was waiting to be extradited to Florida, the sheriff's office said.
There was no immediate response to messages left on Doyle's government-issued cell phone and his e-mail, and he could not be reached by phone at the jail for comment.
Homeland Security press secretary Russ Knocke in Washington said he could not comment on the details of the investigation. "We take these allegations very seriously, and we will cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation," Knocke said.
Doyle, who is the fourth-ranking official in the department's public affairs office, was expected to be placed on administrative leave Wednesday morning."
CNN: Jerry Garcia's toilet stolen
"SONOMA, California (AP) -- The long, strange trip continues for Jerry Garcia's toilet.
Police say the Grateful Dead leader's commode was stolen recently from a driveway along with three other toilets and a bidet.
Garcia's salmon-colored toilet was the subject of a legal battle before it was finally moved to Sonoma, to await shipment to a Canadian casino.
It's unclear if the toilet was swiped by a wayward Deadhead or a thief remodeling a bathroom. Police said they have no suspects or leads.
Henry Koltys bought Garcia's Marin County home for $1.39 million in 1997 and removed the toilet and other items he planned to sell to raise money for a charity. Garcia died in 1995 at age 53.
After Koltys sold the house to a friend of the band, he sued the new owner to retrieve items he was storing at the house. The dispute was resolved last year, and Koltys moved the items to his home in Sonoma, about 40 miles north of San Francisco.
Last month, Koltys sold Garcia's toilet for $2,550 to online casino Goldenpalace.com, which planned to use it as part of a traveling marketing exhibit. The casino is offering a $250 reward for its return.
Koltys said Friday the toilet once stood in Garcia's master bathroom. "It would have been his personal head," he said.
The casino also paid $25,000 for William Shatner's kidney stone and $28,000 for a grilled-cheese sandwich that purportedly had the image of the Virgin Mary on it.
Jonathon Lipsin, who worked for Garcia as a gardener and now owns a Northern California record store, said the toilet might appeal to dedicated Deadheads.
"It's a little gross," Lipsin said. "But I could see it at a rock 'n' roll museum, too."
I never was a Grateful Dead fan.
Police say the Grateful Dead leader's commode was stolen recently from a driveway along with three other toilets and a bidet.
Garcia's salmon-colored toilet was the subject of a legal battle before it was finally moved to Sonoma, to await shipment to a Canadian casino.
It's unclear if the toilet was swiped by a wayward Deadhead or a thief remodeling a bathroom. Police said they have no suspects or leads.
Henry Koltys bought Garcia's Marin County home for $1.39 million in 1997 and removed the toilet and other items he planned to sell to raise money for a charity. Garcia died in 1995 at age 53.
After Koltys sold the house to a friend of the band, he sued the new owner to retrieve items he was storing at the house. The dispute was resolved last year, and Koltys moved the items to his home in Sonoma, about 40 miles north of San Francisco.
Last month, Koltys sold Garcia's toilet for $2,550 to online casino Goldenpalace.com, which planned to use it as part of a traveling marketing exhibit. The casino is offering a $250 reward for its return.
Koltys said Friday the toilet once stood in Garcia's master bathroom. "It would have been his personal head," he said.
The casino also paid $25,000 for William Shatner's kidney stone and $28,000 for a grilled-cheese sandwich that purportedly had the image of the Virgin Mary on it.
Jonathon Lipsin, who worked for Garcia as a gardener and now owns a Northern California record store, said the toilet might appeal to dedicated Deadheads.
"It's a little gross," Lipsin said. "But I could see it at a rock 'n' roll museum, too."
I never was a Grateful Dead fan.
