NATO said on Wednesday it had extended its Libyan mission for a further 90 days, after Muammar Gaddafi made it clear he would not step down, dashing hopes of a negotiated end to the uprising against his rule.
The 28-member alliance originally took over a campaign of air strikes, the enforcement of a no-fly zone and an arms embargo on Libya to protect rebellious civilians from attack by Gaddafi's forces in late March for 90 days.
"NATO and partners have just decided to extend our mission for Libya for another 90 days," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement.
"This decision sends a clear message to the Gaddafi regime: We are determined to continue our operation to protect the people of Libya."
South African President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday after talks with the leader that Gaddafi had stated emphatically he would not leave Libya -- making a negotiated end to the conflict impossible given rebel demands for his departure.
Zuma was in Tripoli on Monday to try to revive an African "roadmap" for ending the conflict, which started in February with an uprising against Gaddafi and has since turned into a war in which thousands of people have been killed.
Libyan rebels and NATO have set Gaddafi's departure as the main condition for any ceasefire.
New questions arose over how long Gaddafi could hold on after a senior United Nations aid official said food and medicine shortages in Gaddafi-controlled areas amounted to a "time bomb."
Panos Moumtzis, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Libya, told Reuters in Tripoli on Tuesday that some food stocks in areas under Gaddafi's control were likely to last only weeks.
GADDAFI FORCES "ARMING CRIMIMALS" IN ZLITAN
Now in its fourth month, the Libyan conflict is deadlocked, with rebels unable to break out of their strongholds and advance toward Tripoli, where Gaddafi appears to be firmly entrenched.
Rebels control the east of Libya around the city of Benghazi, the third-biggest city Misrata, and a mountain range stretching from the town of Zintan, 150 km (95 miles) south of Tripoli, toward the border with Tunisia.
A source in Misrata said the city was calmer early on Wednesday after a Reuters photographer reported heavy fighting in the suburb of Dafniyah, in the west of Misrata, on Tuesday.
A rebel spokesman in Zlitan, one of only three towns separating Misrata from Tripoli, said Gaddafi was arming criminals to crush a rebellion against his rule there.
The spokesman, Mohammed, said forces loyal to the Libyan leader were recruiting criminals whose task was to arrest anyone suspected of being a rebel and to intimidate residents.
"They filled it with drug dealers, criminals and other crooks," Mohammed said by telephone. "They gave them automatic weapons and hand grenades to oppress the residents of Zlitan. Besides arrests and intimidations, we hear accounts of rape."
In response to the allegations, an official for the Gaddafi government told Reuters: "These reports are completely false. There is nothing happening to that effect in Zlitan .... We are surprised by the lack of verification in such reports."
Speaking from Nalut in the Western Mountains, rebel spokesman Kalefa said by telephone that revolutionary forces there had taken over the Shakshok area near the city of Jado after fighting in the early hours of Wednesday.
"The area is now under their control," he said. "This victory will enable us to restore electricity in the next days after being cut by the (pro-Gaddafi) brigades."
Parts of the Western Mountains have been without electricity this week, and it is believe that the electricity station in Shakshok supplies power to many of these areas.
ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS
Casting doubt on Gaddafi's assertions that he is in control, witnesses said on Tuesday a large anti-government protest had taken place on Monday in the Souq al-Juma suburb of Tripoli.
The protest, apparently the biggest confirmed in Tripoli since Western forces began bombing the country in March, was broken up by security forces firing weapons, residents said.
Asked about the incident at a news conference on Tuesday, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said: "I have heard of the event. I did not have enough time to get information."
There have been no large-scale demonstrations in Tripoli since protests were crushed by the security forces in February.
Gaddafi, in power for 41 years, says his forces are fighting armed criminal gangs and al Qaeda militants and portrays the NATO intervention as an act of colonial aggression aimed at grabbing Libya's oil reserves.
His government says NATO's bombing campaign has killed 718 Libyan civilians and wounded 4,067, 433 of them seriously.
Libya's state news agency Jana reported on Wednesday that NATO airstrikes hit the town of Al Jufra, about 460 km (290 miles) southwest of Tripoli, early in the morning.
NATO has denied killing large numbers of civilians, and foreign reporters in Tripoli have not been shown evidence of large numbers of civilian casualties.
Western powers have said they expect Gaddafi will be forced out by a process of attrition as air strikes, defections from his entourage and shortages take their toll.
By Peter Graff and David Brunnstrom taken from http://ca.news.yahoo.com/nato-formally-extends-libya-mission-90-days-100141091.html
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Researchers Transform Skin Cells Into Working Neurons for the First Time
In a critical first step toward treating nervous system disorders and other degenerative conditions, researchers at Stanford have for the first time transformed human skin cells into functioning neurons. This isn’t stem cell technology--using tissue derived from aborted fetuses and the foreskins of newborns, the researchers were able to create working nerve cells that went on to form synapses with other nerve cells.
This doesn’t mark the first time skin cells have been transformed into other kinds of tissue--in fact, they’ve proven to be particularly good candidates for this kind of science in the past, having been turned into blood cells, liver cells, and heart cells previously. But the breakthrough is significant because skin cells are so plentiful, and the ability to turn them into neurons could create a deep well of tissue for regenerative therapies.
The method relies on a process called transdifferentiation, in which, with a little biological prodding, a cell transforms into a different kind of cell. The team had previously worked out the method by turning cells from a mouse’s tail into mouse neurons, but their attempts at transdifferentiation in human cells hit some initial obstacles. The conversion would take place, but the human nerve cells wouldn’t fire the electrical stimuli needed for cell communication.
The answer was a single gene, delivered via a virus into the cells. The neurons then began firing the necessary electrical signals, and in time began to form synapses with other newly created neurons. While the science is preliminary and the technique still years away from any clinical application, it marks a big step forward for regenerative medicine. Via such a method researchers could eventually treat degenerative conditions like Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s, as well as brain injuries and other ailments of the nervous system.
This doesn’t mark the first time skin cells have been transformed into other kinds of tissue--in fact, they’ve proven to be particularly good candidates for this kind of science in the past, having been turned into blood cells, liver cells, and heart cells previously. But the breakthrough is significant because skin cells are so plentiful, and the ability to turn them into neurons could create a deep well of tissue for regenerative therapies.
The method relies on a process called transdifferentiation, in which, with a little biological prodding, a cell transforms into a different kind of cell. The team had previously worked out the method by turning cells from a mouse’s tail into mouse neurons, but their attempts at transdifferentiation in human cells hit some initial obstacles. The conversion would take place, but the human nerve cells wouldn’t fire the electrical stimuli needed for cell communication.
The answer was a single gene, delivered via a virus into the cells. The neurons then began firing the necessary electrical signals, and in time began to form synapses with other newly created neurons. While the science is preliminary and the technique still years away from any clinical application, it marks a big step forward for regenerative medicine. Via such a method researchers could eventually treat degenerative conditions like Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s, as well as brain injuries and other ailments of the nervous system.
Spanish town claims: We invented Coca Cola
Official records say that Coca Cola was invented in Atlanta, but a small town in Spain claim that the soft drink was actually invented there.
This story was originally covered by PRI's The World. For more, listen to the audio above.
Coca Cola celebrates its 125th anniversary this year. The soft drink giant has much to celebrate. In 1886 it was serving nine cokes a day, out of a single soda shop in Atlanta.
Today the world consumes more than a billion cokes a day, according to a Coca Cola spokesman. Credit for coke's secret recipe goes to a pharmacist named John Pemberton. But if you ask around a certain tiny village in southeast Spain, people tell a different story. The folks in Ayelo say they invented coke first.
Take Pablo, for example, one of Ayelo's two policemen. "Thanks to our town, he said on a recent day, "you Americans were able to market Coca Cola all around the world."
Pablo's -- and Ayelo's -- extraordinary claim is a mix of legend and circumstantial evidence, and requires some explaining. It starts where Pablo the policeman was standing: inside the 126 year old Fabrica de Liquores, or the Liquor Factory.
It's a family run distillery that makes liquors with anis, strawberry, raspberry, as well as a sweet, dark syrup with a slight vanilla finish. The name: Cola Coca.
The year it was first concocted, according to company records, was 1884. That's two years before Coca Cola.
JuanJo Mica runs the family distillery now. He's fourth generation, 72 years old, nearly retired himself. On a recent afternoon he was sitting behind his desk in his dark office.
Philadelphia Prize
'My great great uncle took his cola coca syrup to America that same year -1884 -- And won a prize at a fair in Philadelphia," he said. "Supposedly, the Americans tried it, liked it and two years later their soft drink, Coca Cola, was born."
The unspoken assumption is that coke's founder, the American John Pemberton, must have somehow gotten his hands on some Cola Coca, copied it, flipped the name, added carbonated water and, well, the rest is history.
But Coca Cola's in-house archivist in Atlanta, Phil Mooney, said he doubted the veracity of the Ayelo legend, but that it didn't surprise him either.
"We have had at various points in time claims from places like Scotland and India that the formula originated there," he said in a phone interview. "One of the great things about having a secret recipe is that these sorts of stories pop up periodically."
Despite Coke's denial, Ayelo residents insist the coincidences are just too uncanny: at nearly the same moment in history, an ocean apart, nearly identical syrups appear and with practically the same name.
And the story doesn't end there. According to Ayelo lore, Cola Coca and Coke crossed paths again, in the 1940's. Coke was trying to enter the Spanish market, but couldn't because of trademark laws, said JuanJo Mica. He said Coke had to buy his Cola Coca name first because of the similarity.
He said Coke paid his family about $1,700 -- which at the time seemed like lot of money.
"My ancestors probably thought coke was just another soft drink that would disappear after a year or two," he said. "And we'd get the name back. Coke still wasn't famous and we didn't know how popular it would become. If you know that a drink is going to sell by the millions then you ask for, say, .005 percent of sales, for example. Instead of settling for $1,700."
Cola Nut Coca
Mica had no paperwork to prove the sale ever happened. The Coca Cola Co. says it has no record of the deal either. But the Liquor Factory did change the name of its award-winning drink from Cola Coca to Cola Nut Coca around that time. And they added a bit of alcohol.
Around town, Cola Nut Coca still sells well. At a local café one morning a waitress recommended sprucing up one's coffee with the liquor.
"The people love it," she said. "And the smell? I get drunk just inhaling it. And I don't even drink."
Taste aside, Cola Nut Coca's ingredients are secret, just as are those used to make the, well, "real thing."
At the Liquor Factory, JuanJo Mica obliged a reporter's request and opened an old steel safe from which he pulled out a recipe book.
The recipe book -- dated 1881 -- to 1951.
It looked like something your grandmother might have kept. The yellow pages were stained and dog-eared. Everything was handwritten. Mica said he was training his oldest son to take over this business.
"If my boy has questions about a certain mix of ingredients," he said, "I'll just taste it and tell him to add this or that. I know all the recipes by heart. My son still has to consult this recipe book."
Mica leafed through the book, unworried about outside eyes. The writing was barely legible anyway, and in a local dialect called Valenciano. The Coca Cola Co. takes decidedly stricter security measures with its formula, according to Coke's Phil Mooney.
"The only thing we'll say, we will confirm that it is in a vault in downtown Atlanta."
The recipes for both colas remain under lock and key, each as mysterious as the other. No wonder the legend of Ayelo survives, 126 years on.
taken from http://www.pri.org/business/spanish-town-claims-we-invented-coca-cola4161.html
Mexico arrests police chief, soldiers for gang ties
Mexican authorities said that they had arrested a group of 25 people, including a local police chief and nine soldiers, for suspected ties to the notorious Zetas drug cartel. The members of the Mexican security forces, detained over two days in the central Hidalgo state, were allegedly protecting Zetas members, said Damian Canales, the state's top public safety official.
The arrests were made near the northern state of Tamaulipas, where 183 bodies were found in mass graves in April and where 72 Central and South American migrants were massacred last year, both incidents blamed on the Zetas.
Mexico has seen an explosion in drug-related violence which has left some 37,000 dead, according to media reports, since the government launched a military crackdown on organized crime in 2006.
taken from http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.9e4977e7a1dedbfd01785d2d4b7cb668.831&show_article=1
The arrests were made near the northern state of Tamaulipas, where 183 bodies were found in mass graves in April and where 72 Central and South American migrants were massacred last year, both incidents blamed on the Zetas.
Mexico has seen an explosion in drug-related violence which has left some 37,000 dead, according to media reports, since the government launched a military crackdown on organized crime in 2006.
taken from http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.9e4977e7a1dedbfd01785d2d4b7cb668.831&show_article=1
Russian mob eclipses Italian Mafia in South Florida
When the feds busted a syndicate of Russian-speaking nightclub owners and their so-called Bar Girls, it seemed like just another titillating tale from South Beach.
But the April bust showed that the FBI is taking the Eastern European mob a lot more seriously these days than the Italian Mafia. La Cosa Nostra is no longer the bureau’s Public Enemy No. 1 when it comes to organized crime in South Florida.
“Eurasian organized crime is our No. 1 priority,” said FBI supervisory special agent Rick Brodsky of the Miami office.
In April, six reputed members of an Eastern European network — along with a Sunny Isles investor and 10 Bar Girls imported mostly from Latvia and Estonia — were charged with conspiring to seduce and fleece unsuspecting South Beach tourists by running up their credit card bills for booze at private clubs on Washington Avenue. The prosecution’s case has moved so quickly that two of the “B-Girls’’ girls plan to plead guilty on Thursday in Miami federal court.
One defense lawyer quipped that they’re about to become “G-Girls,” as in guilty.
Sunny Isles Beach, where some of the reputed mobsters live, has so many immigrants from the former Soviet Union that it has earned the nickname “Little Moscow.’’ The high-rise coastal cities of Hollywood and Hallandale Beach also are home to many Russian-speaking nationals.
The alleged B-Girl scam was hardly the first time the Eastern European mob struck South Florida. In February, 13 South Florida members and associates of an alleged Armenian crime organization were charged with extortion and other offenses as part of a series of indictments against more than 100 suspects from Miami to Los Angeles.
The main extortion charge accused ringleader Aram Khranyan, 41, of Sunny Isles Beach, and others of threatening “physical violence” against a man if he did not pay a $12,000 debt to a member of Khranyan’s organization.
Despite the nationwide publicity, it didn’t quite measure up to the B-Girl scam for sheer amusement.
Consider this tale:
Brett Daniels, a professional magician, had just finished his February show at the Gulfstream Casino when he and a few colleagues headed down to South Beach.
At Mango’s, a lively tourist spot on Ocean Drive, he met an attractive woman clad in a short leopard-skin dress and her sidekick, who wasn’t as pretty. After showing them a few magic tricks, one of the girls told Daniels it was her birthday and proposed taking him to a private club a few blocks away to drink Russian vodka.
Four or five shots later -- he can’t remember exactly -- Daniels found himself fighting over an incomprehensible $1,368 credit card tab with the owner of the Tangia club on Washington Avenue. “Pay your bill or you’re going to jail,” the bouncer told him.
What Daniels didn’t know at the time was that he had been scammed by the Eastern European mob, according to the FBI.
At the helm of the alleged South Beach club racket: Alec Simchuk, 44, of Hallandale, who is now a fugitive. Simchuck and others in his network -- including Albert Takhalov, 29, of Aventura -- brought in longtime Sunny Isles real estate broker Isaac Feldman as an investor in Stars Lounge on Washington Avenue.
Feldman, who lost his bid for a city commission seat last year, plans to fight the charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud. His attorney, Myles Malman, said his client was a “minority investor” in the Stars Lounge, which was controlled by Simchuk and Takhalov.
“He was hardly ever there and he didn’t supervise or control the women,” said Malman, a former federal prosecutor. “He did not operate or run this club. The notion that the Russian mob is involved in this club is far fetched and the ultimate stretch.”
Malman then added: “My client lost everything.”
That may be so, but for a while, Simchuk’s organization ran up hundreds of thousands of dollars in bogus bills for booze, wine and champagne on the credit cards of bedazzled male tourists, prosecutors charge. All together, the B-Girls, who received 20 percent commissions for bringing in customers, ripped off about 90 patrons, mostly tourists or businessmen with telltale signs of wealth, such as expensive watches or shoes, authorities say.
One victim from Philadelphia, who was approached by two B-Girls at the swank Delano Hotel, complained he was taken for $43,000 at Caviar Beach on Washington Avenue. His American Express bill included dozens of charges for booze. Another victim was charged $5,000 for a bottle of champagne.
Authorities say the case is a sign of the mob from the former Soviet Union reaching deeper into South Florida to commit “any type of fraud you can think of,” said Brodsky, in charge of the Miami FBI’s organized crime squad. Their stocks in trade: credit card fraud, cybercrime, human trafficking, prostitution, drugs, extortion and arms smuggling.
Brodsky said the Eastern European mob is very different from La Cosa Nostra, known for its “made men,” “wise guys,” and “good fellas.”
He held up Simchuk, the alleged leader in the B-Girl case, as a classic example. Simchuk, 44, is accused of smuggling sexy B-Girls from his Baltic State clubs back home to work in private, leased venues along Washington Avenue. Brodsky said Simchuk works for a “thief in law” in his homeland who acts like a “general,” controls underworld enterprises, and resolves disputes, including using threats and violence.
A thief-in-law, known as a “Vor" in Russian, arose in Stalin’s forced labor camps of political prisoners and criminals. The term now refers to a high-ranking member of a criminal syndicate from Russia or the former Soviet Union.
“The challenge [to law enforcement] is the hierarchy is overseas and has greater access to political protection,” Brodsky said.
According to court records, Simchuk and five other Eastern European men operated the alleged racket for a year at Caviar Bar, 643 Washington Ave.; Stars Lounge, 643 Washington Ave.; Nowhere Bar, 653 Washington Ave.; Steel Toast, 758 Washington Ave.; Tangia Club, 841 Washington Ave.; and Club Moreno, 1341 Washington Ave.
Today, Caviar, Stars and Tangia are not open for business. Steele Toast plans to reopen as an actual nightclub, Havana Nights, this weekend. Club Moreno is a scooter shop.
As for Nowhere Bar, it is still operating. General manager Vladislav Salaridze said his business never conducted illegal activity. “No, no, no, we are a legitimate business. We do bar mitzvahs, weddings, parties for celebrities and comedy shows," he said. “But we always were getting mixed up with Caviar [Bar] because we both have Russian owners."
According to court records, Simchuk and the others leased the private clubs, obtained credit-card merchant accounts, flew in B-Girls from Eastern Europe or the Baltic States with 90-day visas, rented apartments for them, and sent them out to hotels like the Delano, Clevelander and others along Ocean Drive to seduce male visitors into coming to their private clubs.
An FBI agent who led the investigation said they went “hunting” in pairs, worked between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., lured “wealthy males” back to the clubs and ordered multiple bottles of booze without telling the victims the price.
“The clubs are not open to the public, and operate solely as a front for fraud,” FBI agent Alexander V. Tiguy wrote in an April affidavit.
The goal was to jack up the bills, and squeeze the customers to sign off on their credit card slips -- no easy task.
“Some victims are so intoxicated by the drinks forced upon them by the B-Girls that they cannot stand and are not competent enough to sign credit card receipts,” Tiguy wrote in the affidavit. “Those victims are propped up by the B-Girls long enough to obtain signatures.”
In most instances, the bartender or manager explained to the victims that they agreed to purchase the alcohol, that the bar had surveillance video of them, and demanded that they pay or the police would be called to arrest them.
On several occasions, the bouncer or Miami Beach police officers would inform the victim about the state’s Innkeeper Law, which requires patrons disputing a charge to challenge the bill with their credit card company -- or risk getting arrested.
At several of the clubs, an undercover Miami Beach police officer was working as the bouncer to obtain evidence for the investigation.
Daniels, the magician, said he felt like he had no choice but to pay his bill after he called police and club Tangia’s bouncer told him he would be going to jail. The bouncer was an undercover cop, but he did not know that at the time.
“They had my driver’s license and credit card,” recalled Daniels, 50, who turned to the FBI. “I couldn’t do anything.”
BY JAY WEAVER taken from http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/31/v-fullstory/2244321/russian-mob-eclipses-italian-mafia.html#ixzz1O2DJXMsV
But the April bust showed that the FBI is taking the Eastern European mob a lot more seriously these days than the Italian Mafia. La Cosa Nostra is no longer the bureau’s Public Enemy No. 1 when it comes to organized crime in South Florida.
“Eurasian organized crime is our No. 1 priority,” said FBI supervisory special agent Rick Brodsky of the Miami office.
In April, six reputed members of an Eastern European network — along with a Sunny Isles investor and 10 Bar Girls imported mostly from Latvia and Estonia — were charged with conspiring to seduce and fleece unsuspecting South Beach tourists by running up their credit card bills for booze at private clubs on Washington Avenue. The prosecution’s case has moved so quickly that two of the “B-Girls’’ girls plan to plead guilty on Thursday in Miami federal court.
One defense lawyer quipped that they’re about to become “G-Girls,” as in guilty.
Sunny Isles Beach, where some of the reputed mobsters live, has so many immigrants from the former Soviet Union that it has earned the nickname “Little Moscow.’’ The high-rise coastal cities of Hollywood and Hallandale Beach also are home to many Russian-speaking nationals.
The alleged B-Girl scam was hardly the first time the Eastern European mob struck South Florida. In February, 13 South Florida members and associates of an alleged Armenian crime organization were charged with extortion and other offenses as part of a series of indictments against more than 100 suspects from Miami to Los Angeles.
The main extortion charge accused ringleader Aram Khranyan, 41, of Sunny Isles Beach, and others of threatening “physical violence” against a man if he did not pay a $12,000 debt to a member of Khranyan’s organization.
Despite the nationwide publicity, it didn’t quite measure up to the B-Girl scam for sheer amusement.
Consider this tale:
Brett Daniels, a professional magician, had just finished his February show at the Gulfstream Casino when he and a few colleagues headed down to South Beach.
At Mango’s, a lively tourist spot on Ocean Drive, he met an attractive woman clad in a short leopard-skin dress and her sidekick, who wasn’t as pretty. After showing them a few magic tricks, one of the girls told Daniels it was her birthday and proposed taking him to a private club a few blocks away to drink Russian vodka.
Four or five shots later -- he can’t remember exactly -- Daniels found himself fighting over an incomprehensible $1,368 credit card tab with the owner of the Tangia club on Washington Avenue. “Pay your bill or you’re going to jail,” the bouncer told him.
What Daniels didn’t know at the time was that he had been scammed by the Eastern European mob, according to the FBI.
At the helm of the alleged South Beach club racket: Alec Simchuk, 44, of Hallandale, who is now a fugitive. Simchuck and others in his network -- including Albert Takhalov, 29, of Aventura -- brought in longtime Sunny Isles real estate broker Isaac Feldman as an investor in Stars Lounge on Washington Avenue.
Feldman, who lost his bid for a city commission seat last year, plans to fight the charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud. His attorney, Myles Malman, said his client was a “minority investor” in the Stars Lounge, which was controlled by Simchuk and Takhalov.
“He was hardly ever there and he didn’t supervise or control the women,” said Malman, a former federal prosecutor. “He did not operate or run this club. The notion that the Russian mob is involved in this club is far fetched and the ultimate stretch.”
Malman then added: “My client lost everything.”
That may be so, but for a while, Simchuk’s organization ran up hundreds of thousands of dollars in bogus bills for booze, wine and champagne on the credit cards of bedazzled male tourists, prosecutors charge. All together, the B-Girls, who received 20 percent commissions for bringing in customers, ripped off about 90 patrons, mostly tourists or businessmen with telltale signs of wealth, such as expensive watches or shoes, authorities say.
One victim from Philadelphia, who was approached by two B-Girls at the swank Delano Hotel, complained he was taken for $43,000 at Caviar Beach on Washington Avenue. His American Express bill included dozens of charges for booze. Another victim was charged $5,000 for a bottle of champagne.
Authorities say the case is a sign of the mob from the former Soviet Union reaching deeper into South Florida to commit “any type of fraud you can think of,” said Brodsky, in charge of the Miami FBI’s organized crime squad. Their stocks in trade: credit card fraud, cybercrime, human trafficking, prostitution, drugs, extortion and arms smuggling.
Brodsky said the Eastern European mob is very different from La Cosa Nostra, known for its “made men,” “wise guys,” and “good fellas.”
He held up Simchuk, the alleged leader in the B-Girl case, as a classic example. Simchuk, 44, is accused of smuggling sexy B-Girls from his Baltic State clubs back home to work in private, leased venues along Washington Avenue. Brodsky said Simchuk works for a “thief in law” in his homeland who acts like a “general,” controls underworld enterprises, and resolves disputes, including using threats and violence.
A thief-in-law, known as a “Vor" in Russian, arose in Stalin’s forced labor camps of political prisoners and criminals. The term now refers to a high-ranking member of a criminal syndicate from Russia or the former Soviet Union.
“The challenge [to law enforcement] is the hierarchy is overseas and has greater access to political protection,” Brodsky said.
According to court records, Simchuk and five other Eastern European men operated the alleged racket for a year at Caviar Bar, 643 Washington Ave.; Stars Lounge, 643 Washington Ave.; Nowhere Bar, 653 Washington Ave.; Steel Toast, 758 Washington Ave.; Tangia Club, 841 Washington Ave.; and Club Moreno, 1341 Washington Ave.
Today, Caviar, Stars and Tangia are not open for business. Steele Toast plans to reopen as an actual nightclub, Havana Nights, this weekend. Club Moreno is a scooter shop.
As for Nowhere Bar, it is still operating. General manager Vladislav Salaridze said his business never conducted illegal activity. “No, no, no, we are a legitimate business. We do bar mitzvahs, weddings, parties for celebrities and comedy shows," he said. “But we always were getting mixed up with Caviar [Bar] because we both have Russian owners."
According to court records, Simchuk and the others leased the private clubs, obtained credit-card merchant accounts, flew in B-Girls from Eastern Europe or the Baltic States with 90-day visas, rented apartments for them, and sent them out to hotels like the Delano, Clevelander and others along Ocean Drive to seduce male visitors into coming to their private clubs.
An FBI agent who led the investigation said they went “hunting” in pairs, worked between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., lured “wealthy males” back to the clubs and ordered multiple bottles of booze without telling the victims the price.
“The clubs are not open to the public, and operate solely as a front for fraud,” FBI agent Alexander V. Tiguy wrote in an April affidavit.
The goal was to jack up the bills, and squeeze the customers to sign off on their credit card slips -- no easy task.
“Some victims are so intoxicated by the drinks forced upon them by the B-Girls that they cannot stand and are not competent enough to sign credit card receipts,” Tiguy wrote in the affidavit. “Those victims are propped up by the B-Girls long enough to obtain signatures.”
In most instances, the bartender or manager explained to the victims that they agreed to purchase the alcohol, that the bar had surveillance video of them, and demanded that they pay or the police would be called to arrest them.
On several occasions, the bouncer or Miami Beach police officers would inform the victim about the state’s Innkeeper Law, which requires patrons disputing a charge to challenge the bill with their credit card company -- or risk getting arrested.
At several of the clubs, an undercover Miami Beach police officer was working as the bouncer to obtain evidence for the investigation.
Daniels, the magician, said he felt like he had no choice but to pay his bill after he called police and club Tangia’s bouncer told him he would be going to jail. The bouncer was an undercover cop, but he did not know that at the time.
“They had my driver’s license and credit card,” recalled Daniels, 50, who turned to the FBI. “I couldn’t do anything.”
BY JAY WEAVER taken from http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/31/v-fullstory/2244321/russian-mob-eclipses-italian-mafia.html#ixzz1O2DJXMsV
Florida governor signs welfare drug-screen measure
Saying it is "unfair for Florida taxpayers to subsidize drug addiction," Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday signed legislation requiring adults applying for welfare assistance to undergo drug screening.
"It's the right thing for taxpayers," Scott said after signing the measure. "It's the right thing for citizens of this state that need public assistance. We don't want to waste tax dollars. And also, we want to give people an incentive to not use drugs."
Under the law, which takes effect on July 1, the Florida Department of Children and Family Services will be required to conduct the drug tests on adults applying to the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. The aid recipients would be responsible for the cost of the screening, which they would recoup in their assistance if they qualify. Those who fail the required drug testing may designate another individual to receive the benefits on behalf of their children.
Shortly after the bill was signed, five Democrats from the state's congressional delegation issued a joint statement attacking the legislation, one calling it "downright unconstitutional."
"Governor Scott's new drug testing law is not only an affront to families in need and detrimental to our nation's ongoing economic recovery, it is downright unconstitutional," said Rep. Alcee Hastings. "If Governor Scott wants to drug test recipients of TANF benefits, where does he draw the line? Are families receiving Medicaid, state emergency relief, or educational grants and loans next?"
Rep. Corrine Brown said the tests "represent an extreme and illegal invasion of personal privacy."
"Indeed, investigating people when there is probable cause to suspect they are abusing drugs is one thing," Brown said in the joint statement. "But these tests amount to strip searching our state's most vulnerable residents merely because they rely on the government for financial support during these difficult economic times."
Joining in the statement denouncing the measure were Democratic Reps. Kathy Castor, Ted Deutch and Frederica Wilson.
Controversy over the measure was heightened by Scott's past association with a company he co-founded that operates walk-in urgent care clinics in Florida and counts drug screening among the services it provides.
In April, Scott, who had transferred his ownership interest in Solantic Corp. to a trust in his wife's name, said the company would not contract for state business, according to local media reports. He subsequently sold his majority stake in the company, local media reported.
On May 18, the Florida Ethics Commission ruled that two conflict-of-interest complaints against Scott were legally insufficient to warrant investigation, and adopted an opinion that no "prohibited conflict of interest" existed.
Also on Tuesday, Scott also signed a measure outlawing hallucinogenic designer drugs known as "bath salts."
"The chemical substances found in 'bath salts' constitute a significant threat to health and public safety," the governor's office said in a statement. "Poison control centers in Florida have reported 61 calls of 'bath salts' abuse, making Florida the state with the second-highest volume of calls."
"It's the right thing for taxpayers," Scott said after signing the measure. "It's the right thing for citizens of this state that need public assistance. We don't want to waste tax dollars. And also, we want to give people an incentive to not use drugs."
Under the law, which takes effect on July 1, the Florida Department of Children and Family Services will be required to conduct the drug tests on adults applying to the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. The aid recipients would be responsible for the cost of the screening, which they would recoup in their assistance if they qualify. Those who fail the required drug testing may designate another individual to receive the benefits on behalf of their children.
Shortly after the bill was signed, five Democrats from the state's congressional delegation issued a joint statement attacking the legislation, one calling it "downright unconstitutional."
"Governor Scott's new drug testing law is not only an affront to families in need and detrimental to our nation's ongoing economic recovery, it is downright unconstitutional," said Rep. Alcee Hastings. "If Governor Scott wants to drug test recipients of TANF benefits, where does he draw the line? Are families receiving Medicaid, state emergency relief, or educational grants and loans next?"
Rep. Corrine Brown said the tests "represent an extreme and illegal invasion of personal privacy."
"Indeed, investigating people when there is probable cause to suspect they are abusing drugs is one thing," Brown said in the joint statement. "But these tests amount to strip searching our state's most vulnerable residents merely because they rely on the government for financial support during these difficult economic times."
Joining in the statement denouncing the measure were Democratic Reps. Kathy Castor, Ted Deutch and Frederica Wilson.
Controversy over the measure was heightened by Scott's past association with a company he co-founded that operates walk-in urgent care clinics in Florida and counts drug screening among the services it provides.
In April, Scott, who had transferred his ownership interest in Solantic Corp. to a trust in his wife's name, said the company would not contract for state business, according to local media reports. He subsequently sold his majority stake in the company, local media reported.
On May 18, the Florida Ethics Commission ruled that two conflict-of-interest complaints against Scott were legally insufficient to warrant investigation, and adopted an opinion that no "prohibited conflict of interest" existed.
Also on Tuesday, Scott also signed a measure outlawing hallucinogenic designer drugs known as "bath salts."
"The chemical substances found in 'bath salts' constitute a significant threat to health and public safety," the governor's office said in a statement. "Poison control centers in Florida have reported 61 calls of 'bath salts' abuse, making Florida the state with the second-highest volume of calls."
The drugs "are readily available at convenience stores, discount tobacco outlets, gas stations, pawnshops, tattoo parlors, and truck stops, among other locations," the governor's office said.
taken from http://edition.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/06/01/florida.welfare.drug.testing/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Spain threatens to sue Hamburg over cucumber slur
Spain threatened Wednesday to sue Hamburg for damages after the German city pointed to Spanish cucumbers as the source of a fatal outbreak of E.coli. Hamburg health authorities admitted Tuesday that tests on two suspect Spanish cucumbers showed they did not carry the bacteria strain that has killed 15 people in Germany and one in Sweden.
"We do not rule out taking action against the authorities who called into question the quality of our products," Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told Spanish radio Cadena Ser.
"We may take action against the authorities, in this case Hamburg," the minister said.
Spain's vegetable exporters estimate damages of more than 200 million euros ($290 million) a week as 150,000 tonnes of produce go unsold in a Europe-wide reaction to the crisis.
Madrid has demanded European Union compensation for Spain and other producer countries hit by the crisis.
"The bacteria is not in Spain," Rubalcaba said.
"Once the truth is re-established, what we need to do is repair the damages, which are not small: we have lost a lot of money and a lot of our image," the minister said.
Authorities in the northern German city of Hamburg say they are still searching for the source of the outbreak.
In tests so far, two cucumbers from the southern Spanish region of Andalucia came up positive for enterohamorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) but not the strain responsible for the huge outbreak, they said.
Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli can result in full-blown haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a disease that causes bloody diarrhoea and serious liver damage and which can result in death.
Of 9.4 million tonnes of Spanish fruit and vegetables exported in 2010, the biggest share, 24 percent, went to Germany, according to the Spanish producers' federation FEPEX.
The Andalucian region says cucumber batches from the two suspect distributors in Almeria and Malaga have been withdrawn pending soil, water and produce tests.
Samples from suspect batches were sent to a laboratory in the northwest province of Galicia for testing. Results were expected some time this week but there is no set date for their release.
The Spanish government says there have been no infections in Spain and it argues that there is no evidence the bacteria come from the cucumbers' origin in Spain rather than in later handling elsewhere.
A 40-year-old man who recently returned from Germany was in intensive care in northern San Sebastian with a possible E.coli infection, the Donostia hospital said this week. Tests so far have been inconclusive.
taken from http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.5d549c333d4735278292b7398273a031.1e1&show_article=1
"We do not rule out taking action against the authorities who called into question the quality of our products," Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told Spanish radio Cadena Ser.
"We may take action against the authorities, in this case Hamburg," the minister said.
Spain's vegetable exporters estimate damages of more than 200 million euros ($290 million) a week as 150,000 tonnes of produce go unsold in a Europe-wide reaction to the crisis.
Madrid has demanded European Union compensation for Spain and other producer countries hit by the crisis.
"The bacteria is not in Spain," Rubalcaba said.
"Once the truth is re-established, what we need to do is repair the damages, which are not small: we have lost a lot of money and a lot of our image," the minister said.
Authorities in the northern German city of Hamburg say they are still searching for the source of the outbreak.
In tests so far, two cucumbers from the southern Spanish region of Andalucia came up positive for enterohamorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) but not the strain responsible for the huge outbreak, they said.
Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli can result in full-blown haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a disease that causes bloody diarrhoea and serious liver damage and which can result in death.
Of 9.4 million tonnes of Spanish fruit and vegetables exported in 2010, the biggest share, 24 percent, went to Germany, according to the Spanish producers' federation FEPEX.
The Andalucian region says cucumber batches from the two suspect distributors in Almeria and Malaga have been withdrawn pending soil, water and produce tests.
Samples from suspect batches were sent to a laboratory in the northwest province of Galicia for testing. Results were expected some time this week but there is no set date for their release.
The Spanish government says there have been no infections in Spain and it argues that there is no evidence the bacteria come from the cucumbers' origin in Spain rather than in later handling elsewhere.
A 40-year-old man who recently returned from Germany was in intensive care in northern San Sebastian with a possible E.coli infection, the Donostia hospital said this week. Tests so far have been inconclusive.
taken from http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.5d549c333d4735278292b7398273a031.1e1&show_article=1
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