Belgium says 31 detained in $50m diamond heist

A Frenchman who is believed to have been one of the actual robbers at the airport was arrested inFrance, while six to eight people were detained in Geneva, and 24 in and around Brussels. Police did not indicate what the other suspects' roles might have been.

What's more, police say they have proof that diamonds found in Switzerland were part of the cache that was spirited away in the brazen Feb. 18 robbery that ranks among the biggest diamond heists of recent times.

After two months of investigation on some of the suspects, police moved in. Suspects in France and Switzerland were detained on Tuesday, and the following day Belgian police carried out a massive operation, with 250 police involved in 40 house searches.

"In Switzerland, we have found diamonds that we can already say are coming from the heist, and in Belgium large amounts of money have been found. And the investigation is still ongoing," said Jean-Marc Meilleur, a spokesman for the Brussels prosecutor's office. He said police had also found luxury cars.

Meilleur was scant on detail, yielding no clues how police got on the trail of the suspects. Authorities were expected to announce later Wednesday how many of the detainees would be charged and arrested.

In Geneva, a police statement said that "a very important quantity of diamonds was seized" during the sweep "coming from the spectacular heist at Brussels airport." While Belgian authorities spoke of six detentions in Switzerland, Geneva police put it at eight, including a businessman and a lawyer. Authorities were alerted when suddenly a member of a major criminal organization appeared in their city. The value of the diamonds was still being estimated.

It was the first breakthrough in a robbery that many had started comparing to an "Ocean's Eleven"-type Hollywood script for its clinically clean execution during which no one was injured.

On a cold winter evening, the diamonds had been loaded on a plane bound for Zurich when robbers, dressed in dark police clothing and hoods, drove through a hole they had cut in the airport fence in two black cars with blue police lights flashing. They drove onto the tarmac, approached the plane, brandished machine guns, offloaded the diamonds, then made their getaway in an operation that barely took five minutes. Later that night, investigators found the charred remains of a van most likely used in the heist, but little else.

The stolen parcels contained both rough and polished stones. The trail ran dry until the surprise announcement on Wednesday.

Meilleur said that the man held in France is suspected to be one of the robbers. "This person has a very heavy judicial background in France and his extradition to Belgium has been requested."

Belgian authorities said that about 10 of the 24 people detained in Belgium were known criminals. The suspects ranged in age from 30 to 50, they said.

The diamond industry, too, was totally caught by surprise by Wednesday's developments. "But we can only be happy," said Caroline De Wolf, spokeswoman for the Antwerp World Diamond Center.

___

Associated Press writer Frank Jordans contributed from Berlin.

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus Return Home to Cheers

Jurors reach verdict in Jodi Arias trial in Ariz.

PHOENIX (AP) — Jurors reached a verdict Wednesday in the trial of Jodi Arias, who is accused of murdering her one-time boyfriend in Arizona.

Arias is charged with first-degree murder in the June 2008 death of Travis Alexander, a motivational speaker and salesman, at his suburban Phoenix home. Authorities said she planned the attack in a jealous rage after being rejected by the victim while he pursued other women.

Arias initially denied involvement and later blamed the killing on masked intruders. Two years after her arrest, she said she killed Alexander in self-defense.

Jurors got the case Friday afternoon. They reached a decision late Wednesday morning. It was scheduled to be announced at 1:30 p.m.

Testimony in the trial began in early January, with Arias later spending 18 days on the witness stand. The trial quickly snowballed into a made-for-the-tabloids drama, garnering daily coverage from cable news networks, and spawning a virtual cottage industry for talk shows, legal experts and even Arias, who used her notoriety to sell artwork she made in jail.

Alexander suffered nearly 30 knife wounds, was shot in the forehead and had his throat slit before Arias dragged his body into his shower. He was found by friends about five days later.

Arias said she recalled Alexander attacking her in a fury after a day of sex. She said Alexander came at her "like a linebacker," body-slamming her to the tile floor. She managed to wriggle free and ran into his closet to retrieve a gun he kept on a shelf. She said she fired in self-defense but had no memory of stabbing him.

Arias acknowledged trying to clean the scene of the killing, dumping the gun in the desert and working on an alibi to avoid suspicion. She said she was too scared and ashamed to tell the truth.

As deliberations drag on, dozens of people gather daily on the courthouse steps waiting for a verdict.

If Arias is convicted of first-degree murder, she faces either life in prison or a death sentence. Jurors also have the option of convicting Arias of second-degree murder if they believe she didn't premeditate the killing but still intentionally caused Alexander's death. If convicted of that charge, she could be sentenced to 10 to 22 years in prison.

Manslaughter is an option if the panel believes Arias didn't plan the killing in advance and the attack occurred in the heat of passion after "adequate" provocation from Alexander. A conviction on this charge carries a sentence of seven to 21 years in prison.

If they believe she killed Alexander in self-defense, Arias would be acquitted and would walk out jail after being incarcerated for more than four years.

Charges filed against one of Cleveland suspects

Ariel Castro faces rape, kidnapping charges while two women return home to raucous crowds

By Jeff Stacklin | The Lookout – 3 hrs ago

Video: The Double Life of Alleged Kidnapper Ariel Castro

CLEVELAND— A man accused of holding three young women captive for the past decade at his home has been charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape. The charges came the same day two of the three women were reunited at home with their families.

Ariel Castro, 52, is expected to appear Thursday in Cleveland Municipal Court on the charges. He, along with his brothers, Pedro, 54, and Onil, 50, were arrested Monday after victim Amanda Berry, 27, escaped from Ariel Castro’s home on the city’s west side.

After Berry called police, victims Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32, were able to escape, as well.

Ariel Castro faces four kidnapping charges because Berry's daughter, now 6, was held captive in the house as well. According to court documents, Castro repeatedly raped the women while he held them in captivity.

Court documents also show that authorities will ask the judge to set a high bond to ensure the safety of the victims and other citizens in the community, and ensure he doesn't skip out on court proceedings.

Ariel Castro's brothers have not been charged, but remain in police custody.

Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba told reporters the women had been let outside twice in 10 years to walk from the Castro's house to the garage in the rear of the home. The women were forced to wear disguises on those occasions, he said.

City Councilman Brian Cummins, who told the Associated Press he was briefed by police on the case, said the three women were subjected to prolong sexual and psychological abuse. He said the women suffered multiple miscarriages while kidnapped.

The councilman also told the AP that the women were kept in a basement and were apparently bound with ropes and chains.

While Knight remains in a local hospital, both Berry and DeJesus went home to raucous crowds.

New details emerge on the brutal treatment they reportedly endured for 10 years

Video: Emotional Homecomings for Kidnapped Cleveland Women

Berry and her daughter, Jocelyn, were taken by police escort to Berry's sister’s home, while DeJesus returned to her parents' tan bungalow. Both families live in the city's west side neighborhood, just a few miles from the ramshackle row house where they were were apparently held as prisoners.

Berry had been expected to address the crush of press awaiting her arrival after she and her daughter were taken home. But her sister, Beth Serrano, spoke briefly instead, saying Berry needed time to recover first.

“I want to thank the public and the media for their support,” Serrano said. “At this time our family would request privacy so my sister, niece and I have time to recover. We appreciate all you have done for us for the past 10 years. Please respect our privacy until we are ready to make our statement."

DeJesus, wearing a bright yellow hoodie was quickly taken inside without speaking or showing her face. She was seen giving a thumbs up to the crowd of reporters and onlookers assembled outside.

Her parents, Felix DeJesus and Nancy Ruiz, and aunt Sandra Ruiz thanked the police and FBI for their assistance in the investigation. They asked for patience and promised to take reporter questions soon.

"The three of them are doing great. Those were miracles," Nancy Ruiz said of her daughter, Berry and Knight.

Editor's note: Stacklin reported from Cleveland and Fouhy from New York.

Private First Class Kimberly Rivera, mother of four children and pregnant with a fifth, was sentenced on April 29 to 14 months imprisonment, which was lowered to 10 months based on a plea agreement.

Her crime?

After serving a tour of duty in Iraq in 2006, she found herself unable to return.

She tells Amy Goodman in the Guardian why:

“I had a huge awakening seeing the war as it truly is: people losing their lives for greed of a nation, and the effects on the soldiers who come back with new problems such as nightmares, anxieties, depression, anger, alcohol abuse, missing limbs and scars from burns. Some don’t come back at all.”

Her attorney, James Branum, who defends soldiers who resist deployment, told me:

“She felt that she morally could not do what she was asked to do; at the same time, she realized that she would put other soldiers in danger if she didn’t pull the trigger when the time came. She talked to a chaplain about it. The chaplain largely pushed her aside, did not give her the counsel that she really needed.”

Never Advised Of Her Rights As A Conscientious Objector

This so-called Christian chaplain could have advised her that there was a regulation, AR 600-43, that gave her the right to petition to be classified a conscientious objector. He chose not to do the Christian thing.

Since she was never advised of her rights as a conscientious objector, she believed that she had no options but to return to Iraq or to emigrate to Canada. Rivera and her husband and two children fled to Canada in February, 2007, settling in Toronto.

Amnesty International identifies Rivera as a prisoner of conscience, the first American female conscientious objector to flee to Canada; she has the support of many Canadian members of Parliament, as well as that of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Yet the Canadian government denied her refugee application, and she turned herself in to US authorities at the border on September 20, 2012.

Now the United States Army has sentenced Rivera to 10 months behind bars, where she will give birth to her fifth child.

Kimberly Rivera had the courage to refuse to shoot at children in Iraq; she had the courage to dissent, to resist. As a reward for this act of bravery, she will now sit in prison, away from her husband Mario, and their four young children: Christian, 11; Rebeca, eight; Katie, five, and Gabriel, two.

Who Is The Real Hero: George W. Bush Or Kimberly Rivera?

Just two days after Rivera was sentenced to sit behind bars for 10 months for courageously giving voice to her conscience, George W. Bush was proudly holding forth at the dedication of his Presidential Library in Texas.

“Ultimately, the success of the nation depends on the character of its citizens,” declared the former president.

Rivera stopped believing she was doing the right thing in Iraq, and she stopped believing the United States was doing the right thing in Iraq. Americans were getting wounded and killed, but she saw more of Iraqi suffering.

As iPolitics.ca reported in 2012:

Rivera was troubled by a two-year-old Iraqi girl who came to the base with her family to claim compensation after a bombing by US forces.

“She was just petrified,” Rivera explained. “She was crying, but there was no sound, just tears flowing out of her eyes. She was shaking. I have no idea what had happened in her little life. All I know is I wasn’t seeing her: I was seeing my own little girl. I could imagine my daughter being one of those kids throwing rocks at soldiers, because maybe someone she loved had been killed. That Iraqi girl haunts my soul.”

George W. Bush, by contrast, refused to admit that he might have made a mistake, refused to listen to the thousands of protestors who demanded an end to the war in Iraq, a war which killed over 114, 000 people, including over 4,500 US soldiers. He never apologized, never admitted that he had any regrets at all about this mass slaughter.

He gets a Presidential Library, while Kimberly Rivera, who dared to speak her mind, gets to sit in prison.

And do you remember hearing too that Bush also went AWOL? But of course he was not punished. Unlike Ms. Rivera.

If you believe this sentence is outrageous, and that Kimberly Rivera is being punished for acting honorably and courageously, please sign the petition, demanding that she be released from prison and reunited with her husband and children.

Related Care2 Coverage

A Decade Of Mistakes: A Timeline Of The Iraq War

With One War Ending, The Military Community Remembers

WiKiLeaks Puts Secret Documents On Iraq War In Spotlight

Read more: awol, canada, childrens rights, conscientious objector, george-w-bush, iraq, iraw, kimberly rivera, military prison, pregnant

Photo Credit: Pan-African News Wire File Photos