Despite pleas by Craigslist killer's mother, Ohio jury recommends death penalty

An Ohio jury convicts a man accused of luring job seekers to a remote farm where they were robbed and killed. WKYC's Sara Shookman reports.

By Thomas J. Sheeran, Associated Press

Begging to have jurors spare her son's life, the mother of a triple killer who lured his victims with Craigslist job offers testified Wednesday that he had a troubled childhood and suffered physical and sexual abuse.

"I love Richard with all my heart," a teary-eyed Carol Beasley testified during the sentencing phase of the trial of her son, 53-year-old Richard Beasley. He was convicted last week of killing three men and wounding a fourth, all lured with offers of farmhand jobs in southeast Ohio in 2011.

But despite the emotional plea, the jury on Wednesday evening recommended the death penalty for Beasely. Other options were life in prison without the chance of parole or life with a chance for parole after 25 or 30 years.

Judge Lynne Callahan, who has final say in Beasley's fate, said on Wednesday she will sentence him on March 26.

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Beasley's co-defendant, then 16 years old, is too young to face the death penalty. Brogan Rafferty was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole on his conviction last year.

In an opening statement at the sentencing part on Wednesday, prosecutor Jonathan Baumoel said the "enormous" weight of Beasley's crimes should be considered in deciding on life or death.

The defense responded by calling witnesses to portray Beasley sympathetically. As his mother testified, Beasley slumped forward, his chin on his chest and his right hand covering his eyes.

She described a difficult childhood for her son, with a verbally and physically abusive stepfather whom Carol Beasley characterized as a mean drunk.

She testified that she learned only within the past year that her son had been sexually abused by neighborhood youngsters when he was a boy. She had known that the boys had forced him to remove his pants in a large drainage pipe but hadn't known about the abuse at the time, she said.

Phil Masturzo / AP file

Carol Beasley, mother of convicted murderer Richard Beasley, leaves the Summit County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 12, 2013, in Akron, Ohio. Richard Beasley was found guilty with aggravated murder in the killing two men from Ohio and one from Norfolk, Va. by luring them with Craigslist job offers.

"I always felt there was much more than he told me," she testified. Her son apparently kept the abuse secret out of fear he would be held responsible for it, the mother said.

Her first husband neglected Richard and her, Carol Beasley testified, and her second husband broke dishes and a window while drinking and whipped Richard as a toddler.

"Richard was very mistreated by him," she testified.

Carol Beasley testified that Richard and the couple's own two daughters would be put to bed early and sometimes were sent to relatives for the weekend to avoid contact with the father.

"Everybody was afraid when he came home," she said.

The defense also called a psychologist, John Fabian, who testified that Beasley suffers from depression, alcohol abuse, low self-esteem and a feeling of isolation, all possible results of a troubled, abusive childhood.

"These are all potential mitigating factors" in favor of leniency, Fabian testified.

Fabian said Beasley's issues should be considered in multi-generational terms involving him and his family life. "This is all his personality development," he said.

One of Beasley's victims was killed near Akron, and the others were shot at a southeast Ohio farm during bogus job interviews.

The slain men were Ralph Geiger, 56, of Akron; David Pauley, 51, of Norfolk, Va.; and Timothy Kern, 47, of Massillon.

The survivor, Scott Davis, testified that he heard the click of a gun as he walked in front of Beasley at the reputed job site. Davis, who was shot in an arm, knocked the weapon aside, fled into the woods and tipped police.

Beasley, who returned to Ohio from Texas in 2004 after serving several years in prison on a burglary conviction, testified that he met with Davis and Davis had pulled a gun in retaliation for Beasley serving as a police informant.

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/29cd819c/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C20A0C173897360Edespite0Epleas0Eby0Ecraigslist0Ekillers0Emother0Eohio0Ejury0Erecommends0Edeath0Epenalty0Dlite/story01.htm

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Osborne raises some cheer with beer duty cuts

By Neil Maidment

LONDON (Reuters) - Chancellor George Osborne scrapped the country's above-inflation beer tax rises on Wednesday and cut 1 pence off a pint, cheering drinkers and providing some relief for a pub sector still enduring 18 closures a week.

The much criticized beer duty escalator, put in place to push the levy up 2 percent on top of inflation every year until 2015, has seen the tax on beer increase 42 percent since the previous Labour government introduced it in 2008.

It means that more than a third of every pint pulled in a pub is now paid in duty and value-added tax (VAT).

"We will now scrap the beer duty escalator altogether, and instead of the 3 pence rise in beer duty tax planned for this year, I am cancelling it altogether," Osborne announced to big cheers in parliament.

"That's the freeze people have been campaigning for but I am going to take it one step further and I am going to cut beer duty by one pence. We are taking a penny off the pint."

The cuts will spare squeezed consumers another hit at a time when austerity measures and low wage growth are reducing discretionary spend and forcing pub companies to compete hard among each other and with much cheaper supermarkets.

Shares in Wetherspoon rose 3.4 percent to 544.5 pence on the news, while Enterprise Inns was up 2.6 percent at 112.85 pence at midday.

The British Beer & Pub Association said it was great news: "In abolishing the beer tax escalator, the chancellor has ended a hugely damaging policy that would have made Britain's beer the most heavily taxed in Europe," BBPA Chief Executive Brigid Simmond said.

Since the duty escalator was introduced in 2008, 6,000 pubs have shut and an average of 18 are still closing every week.

Recent research has said scrapping the escalator will save over 5,000 jobs in an industry that employs almost 1 million people. A study by Oxford Economics has also suggested that, despite a slight drop in beer duty revenue, the move will raise an additional 5 million pounds in revenue through higher employment tax contributions and reduced unemployment payments.

Osborne said the 1p cut would take effect this Sunday night. Ted Tuppen, chief executive of Enterprise, welcomed the news and said the benefit would be passed onto its customers immediately.

Not everyone was happy, though.

Osborne maintained a planned rise for all other alcohol duties, meaning wines and spirits will see above-inflation tax rises for a fifth straight year. Diageo said the British spirits maker was being punished for its success in a harsh economic climate.

(Reporting by Neil Maidment; Editing by Kate Holton and Tom Pfeiffer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/osborne-raises-cheer-beer-duty-cuts-181652714--finance.html

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UFC 158?s Three Stars: Jake Ellenberger, Jordan Mein and Johny Hendricks shine

After months of build-up, UFC came and went and the welterweight belt stayed in the hands of Georges St-Pierre. But the fighters who stood out were not at the top of the card. Read on for the Three Stars of UFC 158, and yes, it's just a coincidence that their names all start with J.

No. 1 star ? Jake Ellenberger: He needed a big win to stay near the top of the UFC's packed welterweight division. His canvas-smelling knockout of Nate Marquardt certainly did the trick. It earned him a $50,000 Knockout of the Night bonus, and pushed him closer to an elusive title shot.

No. 2 star ? Jordan Mein: How do you make sure everyone remembers your UFC debut? Knocking out a fighter who has never been knocked out before is a good start. Mein's first round TKO of Dan Miller showed the amazing amounts of potential for this 23-year-old.

No. 3 star ? Johny Hendricks: When he beat Martin Kampmann, Hendricks was told he would get the next shot at GSP, but Diaz was given the fight instead. Instead of complaining, Hendricks came out on the winning end of a thrilling bout with Carlos Condit.

Who were your Three Stars? Speak up in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-158-three-stars-jake-ellenberger-jordan-mein-143958269--mma.html

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Russian Orthodox activists denounce evolution at Moscow Museum

By Gabriela Baczynska

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Orthodox religious activists festooned a Moscow museum named for Charles Darwin with banners and leaflets denouncing evolution theory in a display of disdain for secular education.

The incident on Sunday at the Darwin natural history museum named for the Victorian British naturalist who expounded the theory of natural selection was a non-violent but bold attack on secular traditions that remain strong despite a post-Soviet revival of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Footage released by Orthodox activist group Bozhaya Volya, or God's Will, showed activists unfurling a banner reading "God created the world" on the building's facade while others threw leaflets bearing creationist slogans into the lobby of a popular destination for school trips and family outings in the capital.

"God created kittens!" read one leaflet visible in the video, which also featured activists holding banners disparaging the theory of evolution as a "pseudo-scientific myth" and singing religious songs.

"Checkmate atheists! In the year 7522 since the creation of the world, creationists have seized the Darwin museum," a member of the group which advocates "the revival and development of Russia as an Orthodox Empire" said on Twitter.

Moscow police said they had not received any complaints from the museum about the incident. The museum, which is closed on Mondays, could not immediately be reached for comment, and the Russian Orthodox Church could also not immediately be reached.

About two-thirds of Russians consider themselves Russian Orthodox and the church has gained influence since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, drawing concern from critics who say it is too powerful in a secular state.

Tension between Russian Orthodox activists and secular liberals has increased in recent years.

Activists have occasionally vandalized art exhibits they have denounced as blasphemous, while two women from the band Pussy Riot were convicted of a religious hate crime for a "punk protest" in Moscow's main cathedral in February 2012.

The women, who urged the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, are now serving two-year prison terms.

The singers said they had not meant to offend the faithful, only to lampoon the church's ties to Putin, who was praised by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill during his successful campaign to win a third presidential term weeks later.

(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Steve Gutterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russian-orthodox-activists-denounce-evolution-moscow-museum-232950873.html

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Getting past America's retirement blues

Mark Miller , Reuters ? ? ? 6 hrs.

CHICAGO - The economic recovery is not helping Americans shake a bad case of retirement anxiety.

Workers and current retirees are less confident than ever in their ability to live comfortably in the post-employment world, according to the 2013 Retirement Confidence Survey published Tuesday by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Employee Benefits Research Institute.

But the survey also shows that the retirement blues may be due not only to the Great Recession's aftermath, but also to a widespread lack of planning and unrealistic guesswork by individuals about how much they need to save.

The EBRI survey stands out from the dozens of other retirement surveys for its longevity. Now in its 23rd year, it gives a measurable long-range view of American attitudes about retirement. This year's results show historically high worry about retirement security among workers and current retirees.

"Confidence dipped after 2007, and it's been sliding since then," says Nevin Adams, co-director of the EBRI's Center for Research on Retirement Income.

The EBRI surveyed 251 retirees and 1,003 workers, ages 25 and older in January. Some of their worries:

* Just 24 percent of current retirees are confident about their ability to meet basic expenses, down from 35 percent in 2011.

* More than half of the surveyed workers have saved less than $25,000 for retirement (excluding the value of their home and any traditional defined benefit pension). And just 24 percent of households with incomes of less than $35,000 have managed to put away any sum of money at all, down from 49 percent back in 2009.

* Employment worries are paramount. Current workers and retirees both cite job uncertainty as the biggest problem facing Americans.

* More people expect to rely on Social Security. Seventy percent of retirees call it a "major source" of income, up from its recent low of 55 percent in 2007, before the recession and stock market decline began.

* People expect to work longer. Thirty-six percent of workers expect to stay on the job past age 65, up from 11 percent back in 1991. Meanwhile, the percentage of workers expecting to retire before age 65 is now half what it was two decades ago: down from 50 percent in 1991.

All these numbers point to the profound damage wreaked by the recession, joblessness and wage stagnation. But the survey also points to another problem: Workers and retirees seem to lack the planning skills and the information to figure out what they need to save and how to save it.

For example, less than half (46 percent) of survey respondents have tried to calculate the assets they will need for retirement. The numbers are only slightly better among workers closer to retirement.

As a result, savings goals often are unrealistically high. One-fifth of workers say they need to save between 20 percent and 29 percent of their income each year, and 23 percent indicate they need to save 30 percent or more. The average savings rate in 401(k) plans is 8 percent, according to a recent study released by Fidelity.

But the lack of planning goes beyond saving; it also means many of us have not really projected retirement expenses. Instead, people are guessing, or relying on misleading rules of thumb promulgated by the financial services industry - namely that we all will need at least 80 percent of pre-retirement income, if not more, in retirement.

These rules of thumb are what I called "rules of dumb" even before the recession. Now it is more important than ever to get a realistic projection.

This requires some effort, but it is not rocket science. Start by penciling out actual nondiscretionary expenses in retirement, like housing, food, utilities and transportation. Remember that when you stop working, some expenses disappear: commuting, work wardrobes, lunches out - and saving for retirement itself.

Compare your expense projection with what you can count on from Social Security (it will be there), pensions (if any) and a conservative annual drawdown of your savings (say, 3 percent in the first year plus an annual adjustment for inflation).

If those two columns do not match, by all means try to save more, but also sharpen up the pencil and think creatively about ways to reduce expenses. You may want to downsize to less-expensive housing or eliminate other nonessential spending.

The Internet is littered with expense calculators that can help get you started. But the classic book on the subject is "Retire on Less Than You Think" (Times Books) by Fred Brock, the former retirement columnist of The New York Times. Brock concludes that most of us can retire on far less than the rules of thumb suggest, if we are willing to get creative.

In this economy, a little creativity could just carry you a long way into retirement.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/getting-past-americas-retirement-blues-1C8954051

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Dunia Finance LLC 2012 full year financial results ... - AME Info

Dunia is a leading UAE headquartered financial institution created out of a strategic partnership between Mubadala Development Company of Abu Dhabi, Fullerton Financial Holdings (wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings) of Singapore and Waha Capital PJSC of Abu Dhabi, along with a prominent business group A.A. Al Moosa Enterprises of Dubai.

Dunia delivered net revenues of Dhs281m in FY 2012, up 37% on the previous year, and net profit of Dhs73m, which builds on the company's first full year of profit in 2011.

FY 2012 was marked by further growth momentum, with revenue and profit growth driven by Dunia's success in acquiring new customers, deepening relationships, driving cross-sell and focusing on providing world class service in line with its commitment to delivering value by building deeper, and more focused relationships.

The strength of this customer-centric strategy is illustrated by a 28% increase in total customer numbers, which in turn has led to a strong growth in customer assets of 36% to Dhs757m and a commensurate growth in customer deposit balances, which are up by 71% in the period versus the previous period, reaching Dhs414m as compared to Dhs242m in FY 2011.

The highlight of Dunia's robust balance sheet lies in its granularity, both on the asset and liabilities side, which helps ensure predictability of growth.

Despite a challenging macro-environment, Dunia's business fundamentals continue to trend positively, reflecting a well-designed customer focused and service driven strategy, which has led to strong process control elements and strategic risk management focus, which in turn enables it to be a low cost provider.

Together with strong customer revenue growth momentum, and a controlled strategic cost management approach, Dunia continues to deliver very positive operating leverage of 35% during the year. This helps ensure predictability and profitability of operations, which is critical for sustaining the growth momentum ahead. Dunia's cost-income ratio also has shown healthy improvement, to 48% from 65% in the prior year, highlighting greater efficiency in its operations.

Dunia's prudent strategic risk management focus is reflected in its lower cost of credit by 6% over prior year, while ensuring a healthy and adequate impairment provision of 4% of customer assets, which is substantially ahead of the regulatory requirement. This is reflective of a very healthy and robust customer balance sheet.

Dunia's capital adequacy stood at 32% at the end of FY 2012, which is significantly higher than the regulatory requirements of 15%, and underlines the company's focus on sound risk management principles and overall standards of governance. Cash and cash equivalents also grew over the period to Dhs46m reflecting prudent liquidity management.

Rajeev Kakar, Executive Director and CEO, said, "We are delighted to share the good news that Dunia once again delivered record financial performance in 2012 as it has done in previous years. While the business continues to grow in terms of profitability and customer numbers, we are particularly happy to share that our Dunia brand is now stronger, and even better recognized for our unique service standards."

"We continue to invest for the future, in line with our commitment to go the extra mile for our customers, and to keep developing our talent to effectively deal with the challenges and opportunities ahead, while ensuring predictable, sustained growth," he added.

Source: http://www.ameinfo.com/dunia-finance-llc-2012-financial-results-333765

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Man suspected in NYC woman's death nabbed in Syria

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) ? Istanbul's police chief says a man suspected of killing a New York City woman in Istanbul was caught in Syria in a joint operation by Syrian rebels and Turkish officials.

Huseyin Capkin contradicted a statement by the interior minister who had said the suspect was detained at the border as he entered Turkey.

Istanbul Governor Avni Mutlu says the suspect has confessed to killing Sarai Sierra, whose body was found in Istanbul on Feb. 2, days after she was reported missing during a solo vacation. Authorities say she died of a blow to the head.?

A video reportedly recorded in Syria, and posted on Hurriyet newspaper's website, shows the purported suspect saying he was under the influence of paint thinner during the incident.

Turkish news reports have described him as a homeless scrap paper collector.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/man-suspected-nyc-womans-death-nabbed-syria-113032827.html

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