The owner of an American apartment house had his maintenance man set fire to the building, killing seven people including a newborn, because he wanted to cash in on a US$250,000 insurance policy, prosecutors said.

The Chicago landlord told police he wanted the house burned when the children living there were at school. Instead, authorities allege, the maintenance man started the fire on a Sunday morning when residents were sleeping inside.

Landlord, Lawrence Myers and maintenance man Marion Comier face seven counts of first degree murder and two counts of aggravated arson.

Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said the charges were based on secret recordings of the two men discussing how Comier had set the fire and arguing over how much he would be paid.

The fire gutted the two-story building, which had been converted into separate living units. Alvarez said residents in an attic apartment had no chance to escape.

"This fire was set at a particularly chilling time of the day, on a Sunday morning at about 6:30 when it would be pretty safe to assume that most residents in that building were there and were sleeping" she said.

On the day of his arrest Myers told a police detective he had wanted the house burned when the children were at school and the women were at work, according to prosecutors. He also told the detective he was having financial difficulties.

Fire officials have said as many as 40 people may have been in the house. Some who escaped awoke to the sound of screaming and banging coming from the attic.

The fire killed Byron Reed and Sallie Gist, their sons, 3-year-old Rayshawn Reed and 3-day-old Brian Reed, Sallie Gist's 16-year-old brother and sister Elijah and Elisha Gist, and 18-year-old family friend Tiera Davidson.

Three Cicero firefighters were also injured fighting the blaze.

(Source: The Guardian [UK])

 

More than 1,000 Medicare employees have been investigated for spying on customers' personal information over the past three years.

Since Medicare ramped up its monitoring of unauthorised access in November 2006, 1,058 employees have been investigated.

Just over half were found to have been spying on people's personal information, although 30 per cent of those were caught for inappropriately accessing their own files.

The Australian Privacy Foundation's Roger Clarke says Medicare has "responsibilities at law, and they have responsibilities ethically to us, to take that care and to put those technical measures in place."

(Source: ABC News website)

 

President Barack Obama has signed a one-year extension of several provisions in the Patriot Act.

Provisions in the measure would have expired this week without the American leader's signature.

The act, which was adopted in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, expands the government's ability to monitor Americans in the name of national security.

The extension includes provisions related to 'roving wiretaps' on multiple phones, and seizure of records and property.

The US Senate also approved the measure, and rejected restrictions and greater scrutiny on the government's authority to spy on Americans and seize their records.

(Source: Washington Post [US])

 

The gap between men's and women's full-time pay is worse than in 1985, according to unions.

An ACTU report says that last year women in full-time jobs were paid an average of 82.5% of the average man in full-time work, a bigger gap than in 1985.

The report says that, although women are now more likely than men to be university graduates, they earn $2000 a year less when they start work and continue to fall behind in wages and superannuation.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)

 

The death toll from violence in Iraq was almost twice as high in February as in January, and was 40% higher than last February, according to government figures.

Iraqi government figures show that 352 Iraqis died as a result of attacks during the month.

This is an 80% increase from January's death toll of 196, and a 40% increase from February 2009.

(Source: MX)

 

Quote of the Moment:

"I took more hell for being fat than I took for being an absolute raging drug addict."

Kelly Osbourne.

 

Quote of the Moment:

"The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children. In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There's a special punishment Christians would suggest."

American politician Bob Marshall.

 

A leading business magazine has recommended that marketers learn from cults.

The article 'In Building Communities, Marketers Can Learn From Cults', on the website of 'Forbes' magazine, promises to give "tips for attracting ecstatic followers who will spread your brand gospel".

Author Douglas Atkin gives "a list of the key 'ingredients' of a real cult--or community".

Examples of products that the article praises include a car whose transmission was criticised by a journalists. Customers of the car formed "a militant force of opposition" and "bombarded the journalist's inbox with mail and his phone with messages defending the transmission..."

(Source: Forbes)

The original article is here.

 

An American section of the Catholic Church has ended a foster-care program rather than recognise gay couples.

Catholic Charities, which runs social service programs in the District of Columbia, transferred its entire foster-care program to another charity in anticipation of a local law legalising gay marriage.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington has run foster programs in the area for 80 years. However it refuses to pay benefits to same-sex partners or recognise same-sex couples as married.

(Source: Washington Post)

 

An American school has been accused of spying on students through webcams installed in computers.

Lower Merion school district in Philadelphia provided roughly 2,300 high school students with Mac laptops last autumn in what its superintendent, Christopher McGinley, described as an effort to establish a "mobile, 21st-century learning environment."

But unbeknown to the students, the district retained remote control of the built-in webcams installed on the computers - and used them to capture images of the students, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court.

The monitoring was revealed when student Blake Robbins was sent to the office of assistant principal Lindy Matsko, shown a photograph taken by a webcam on the laptop in his home and disciplined for "improper behaviour".

According to Robbins, Matsko said the school had retained the ability to activate the laptop webcams remotely at any time.

Backed by his parents, Robbins filed a lawsuit on behalf of all students provided with laptops by the school.

The suit claims that since the laptops were used by the students, friends and family members at home, the captured webcam images consist of the teens and their parents in "compromising or embarrassing positions, including...in various states of undress."

(Source: The Guardian [UK])

 

Mid-ranking staff at the Australia Post logistics business had their bonuses capped at 5 per cent even as senior decision-makers received bonuses of more than 15 times that amount.

Last financial year Post Logistics Australasia, which operates the postal service's supply chain business for corporate customers, recorded a loss of about $50 million.

The result prompted the business's general manager, Brendan Boyd, to inform staff that performance pay "will be capped at 5 per cent".

But senior Australia Post executives who served on the board of the logistics business had bonuses of more than 75 per cent in addition to their base salary, according to figures in the Australia Post annual report.

Australia Post chief executive Graeme John, who left the company at the end of last year, was given a 75.8 per cent bonus as part of a $2.5 million salary, while the organisation's chief financial officer picked up a 56.7 per cent bonus to bring his salary to $766,264.

Alec Caselli, who resigned as general manager of Australia Post's logistics business last April, still managed to pick up a 10.4 per cent bonus that took his salary to $469,963.

Post Logistics staff were further outraged by the 5 per cent cap because of a clause in their contract explaining they would be entitled to a "performance bonus up to a maximum of 15 per cent of base salary". Several employees are understood to have received legal advice that Australia Post had breached the terms of the employment contract, but the costs of taking legal action make it too big a risk.

(Source: The Age)

 

A convicted conman who operated one of Australia's biggest podiatry services and who has been investigated twice for suspected fraudulent Medicare billing is free to continue profiting from it.

In a three-year period in which he has been investigated twice by Medicare, and remains under investigation by Victoria Police, Marcus Doille's podiatry business interests have billed Medicare for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Medicare investigators suspect some of the billing is fraudulent or improperly claimed.

Mr Doille received reduced jail sentences on fraud charges in the 1990s after telling a NSW court he was dying of AIDS.

For several years, Mr Doille has helped manage podiatry businesses in Melbourne and in scores of aged-care homes.

The extent of his current involvement in the industry is unclear since his business, CarePro Allied Health, went into liquidation in December owing more than $2 million.

A Health Department source said the Doille investigation was one of several Medicare had struggled with due to weak powers and regulations. Medicare investigators privately concede many investigations only skim the surface.

Of the 30 investigations into serious Medicare fraud last year, only four resulted in successful prosecutions.

Those facing a Medicare audit have no obligation to give information to investigators. Attempts by the federal government to close the loophole stalled in Parliament last year.

(Source: The Age)

 

Pauline Hanson has announced her intention to become an immigrant.

Ms Hanson told Woman's Day that she will sell her Queensland property and resettle in Britain.

Ms Hanson's father was English and her mother was Irish, which means she can hold dual citizenship.

(Source: The Age)

 

Young people and families are seeking help from welfare and crisis organisations, and being turned away, in increasing numbers.

An Australian Council of Social Service survey found requests for accommodation continuing to rise as people were forced to drop out of the private rental market.

ACOSS chief executive Clare Martin said that "this is the coalface of general economic trends, things like high youth unemployment, long public housing waiting lists, and a lack of affordable health services such as dental care."

Organisations received 4.3 million requests for assistance, an increase of 4 per cent on the previous year. Nearly 60 per cent of the organisations said they were unable to help everyone who asked for assistance.

Employment and training assistance and youth welfare services were the most in demand, with 520,198 requests for help. Organisations had to turn away 115,685 people seeking assistance.

Singles and families needing emergency cash, and vouchers for food, clothing and transport were the next highest area of need, with 92,862 people turned away.

(Source: The Age)

 

The 100th Australian has been wounded in Afghanistan.

A soldier suffered minor wounds on Friday when an improvised explosive device exploded in the Mirabad Valley, in Oruzgan province.

Later in the day another Australian soldier suffered serious wounds from another IED.

(Source: The Age)

 

Quote of the Moment:

"They'll have to let them go to the ladies toilet won't they."

Queensland Liberal National Party politician Ray Hopper reveals his killer argument against allowing same-sex couples to access surrogacy, questioning what a lesbian couple with a five-year-old boy would do if the child had to use the toilet during an outing.