-A former beauty salon owner known within the Mafia as Vinny Gorgeous has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the 2001 killing of one of his gangland rivals, federal prosecutors said.
A Brooklyn jury convicted Vincent Basciano in 2006 of racketeering, attempted murder and gambling, but deadlocked over a murder charge in the slaying of Frank Santoro.
After a retrial, Basciano was convicted of the murder charge in July 2007.
Basciano, who once owned the Hello Gorgeous salon, used a 12-gauge shotgun to kill Santoro because he believed Santoro wanted to kidnap one of his sons, prosecutors said.
One of Basciano's lawyers, Ephraim Savitt, did not return a telephone message seeking comment Monday evening. However, the lawyers have said prosecutors built the case on untruthful testimony by mob turncoats.
Basciano became the acting boss of the Bonanno organized crime family after the arrest of Joseph Massino.
Massino was sentenced in 2005 to life in prison for orchestrating murders, racketeering and other crimes over a 25-year period. He avoided a possible death sentence by providing to the government evidence against Basciano and other mobsters.
While imprisoned together, Massino secretly recorded Basciano discussing a plot to kill a prosecutor, resulting in new charges against Basciano, authorities said. If convicted in that upcoming trial, Basciano could face the death penalty
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- The sad story of Sufiah Yusof, the child prodigy who had reportedly become an adult hooker, has elicited many sympathetic responses from bloggers and Netizens.
British tabloid News of the World had published a report that the Math genius, who had entered Oxford University at the age of 12, was now charging £130 (RM829) for sex through a Manchester-based hookers’ website for “Asian escorts”.
One blogger wrote after reading the story: “You may come to the conclusion that this is a classic example of a child being pushed too hard.
“A child who was forced into ‘education slavery’ far too young without being able to enjoy her childhood.
“I believe that most of what she had done in the past was an act of defiance; a mutinous act against her father to state, ‘Hey, stop pushing me around. I need a life too!’”
An old friend of Sufiah’s responded: “As a human and woman I do really care about her and am also worried about her religion.
“I know it must be some secret of her life that made her lost. How can I contact or e-mail her?”
A blogger from Malaysia wrote: “I am sad with what had happened. Come back to Malaysia, you have many friends here.”
Some said she should be forgiven and guided back to the right path through religious teachings.
News of the World had reported, “Calling herself Shilpa Lee, the former child prodigy still juggles with figures on a hookers’ website, describing herself as a ‘very pretty size 8, 32D bust and 5’5” tall - available for booking every day from 11am to 8pm’.”
The newspaper’s reporter had posed as a potential client and “she laughed and joked as she led him to her small apartment where a bed was already set out in the lounge.”
Several grainy pictures of her in the nude were also published in the tabloid.
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The Muslim Consumers Association of Malaysia has called on Muslims to boycott Dutch-made products to protest against the screening of anti-Islam film Fitna by Dutch legislator Geert Wilders.
The association, together with the NGO Consultative Council and the Muslim Restaurants Association of Malaysia, said in a statement that the video “openly insulted the Quran.”
Such an irresponsible act could affect world peace and relations between religious groups and Muslim consumers should object to the act, it said.
“We believe the boycott will send a clear message to people not to play with the sensitivities of Muslims,” it said.
The PAS Central Youth Council also called for a boycott of Dutch products, saying that it condemned the screening of the film and demanded immediate action by the producer to retrieve it.
In Malacca, Malay Islamic World Secretariat chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam described the filmmaker as “uncivilised” and “insane” as his actions may result in losses and harm to innocent people affected by the film.
He said the secretariat was expected to send a protest note to the Dutch Embassy over the film.
He supported moves by companies here to initiate legal action against Wilders if they suffered losses following a call to boycott Dutch products by Muslim consumers.
In Nilai, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi urged Muslim intellectuals and youths who have been campaigning for the Opposition through the Internet to show their indignation against the film through the medium.
“They should take advantage of their resourcefulness and skills which they had used against the establishment, this time to defend Islam,” he told reporters after opening the National Fatwa Council meeting.
Wilders had launched the film on the Internet after Dutch distributors refused to release it on Thursday.
The Malaysian National Islamic Students Association has sent a protest note to the Dtuch government, expressing its disappointment over the film.
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Mobile phone users are not allowed to buy or have more than 10 SIM cards from one telecommunication company effective Tuesday.
Dealers registering details of prepaid card buyers must also transmit the information directly to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) via a GPRS MyKad reader.
Commission chairman Datuk Dr Halim Shafie said these measures were necessary to prevent abuses and enhance the security of data provided by consumers.
"At present, many of the dealers input the details of buyers of prepaid cards manually either via forms or online. This information is then stored with the dealers before it is eventually sent to us.
"This allows more opportunities for the sensitive information of consumers to be compromised. Using the reader, which costs some RM2,000 apiece, the information will be channelled directly to us," he said, adding that guidelines on the matter had already been issued to both telecommunications companies and dealers earlier this year.
Dr Halim was speaking to reporters Tuesday at a conference on the local communications and multimedia market, which was launched by Deputy Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Joseph Salang here.
He said the guidelines would also require service providers to keep better records of their dealers as well as to ensure registration of prepaid card buyers was done properly.
Failure to adhere to the guidelines can result in the telecommunications firms penalising their dealers, including suspending or even terminating their contract.
Asked on the grace period for the dealers to obtain the GPRS MyKad reader, Dr Halim said the MCMC would continue to monitor the progress of the implementation of the guidelines.
"The reader should be regarded as a tool of trade by the dealers for their businesses," he said.
On the restriction for sale of not more than 10 SIM cards to a customer, he said the MCMC had traced one man who had more than 400 SIM cards.
"When we asked him, he said people have been registering as mobile phone users under his name so this was clearly a case of fraud. To prevent such abuse in the future, we will restrict the sale for the purpose of security. Why does a person need 400 SIM cards in the first place?
"In this case, we compounded the service provider," he said.
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