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During the traffic stop, she allegedly attacked a Florida Highway Patrol trooper with her fingernails. The incident occurred around 8:30 p.m. in St. Petersburg, FHP said. A Mercedes being driven by Bianchi allegedly raced past a trooper on the Gandy Bridge. As the trooper was trying to take her into custody for driving under the influence, she allegedly became “violent” and dug her fingernails into the trooper’s hands... also charged with resisting officer with violence, battery on law enforcement, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, speeding and no insurance. She was taken to the Pinellas County Jail, where her...

Formula 1 star Jules Bianchi is fighting for his life in hospital after spinning off a rain-soaked track and into a recovery vehicle clearing up an earlier crash in the Japanese Grand Prix. The race was cut short by nine laps as Marussia driver Bianchi dramatically crashed out at the same site as Adrian Sutil's Sauber - which had aquaplaned off the track and was being recovered by marshals and machinery at the time. Unconscious but breathing for himself, Bianchi was taken to Mie University hospital, 10 miles away, and the race was stopped on lap 46. Bianchi's father has...

A wealthy motel owner was convicted Friday of traveling to eastern Europe to sexually assault impoverished boys in exchange for money and gifts. Anthony Mark Bianchi, 44, of North Wildwood, N.J., was found guilty of virtually all the charges he faced in federal court. Bianchi was convicted of having sex with or attempting to have sex with four boys on foreign soil, including in the isolated Moldovan village of Trebujeni. During the three-week trial, most of which was heard through translators, several Moldovan boys testified that Bianchi assaulted them in small boarding houses where he stayed during his trips. Mark...

PHILADELPHIA — Seven years ago, Russian courts convicted a wealthy American motel owner of molesting children, sent him to prison, then expelled him from the country. The experience did little to keep Anthony "Mark" Bianchi stateside. Over the next few years, U.S. officials allege, he traveled to Moldova, Romania, Cambodia and Cuba to recruit destitute boys for sexual trysts. Bianchi, 44, of North Wildwood, N.J., faces trial beginning Monday under a controversial federal law aimed at thwarting "sex tourism." He is accused in this country of committing crimes -- assaulting nearly a dozen minors -- on foreign soil. More than...

ONCE AGAIN we have a full-grown woman — in this case, a 19-year-old from Long Island — claiming to be the innocent victim in a high-profile extramarital affair. When are women going to learn, I found myself thinking as I watched Diana Bianchi toss her beautiful locks and confess to one of those pushy and obsequiously empathetic TV news reporters that she had stumbled into an affair with her employer, one Peter Cook, a.k.a. Mr. Christie Brinkley. “I didn’t expect him to take it to another level,” she said, with a strangled giggle. “It” being a flirtation. “Another level” being...

Republicans' liberal use of Mafia metaphors has angered some Italian-American activists who weighed in on the contentious campaign for the governor's office Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Forrester enjoyed some unexpected praise from environmental leaders who are at odds with his Democratic opponent, U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine, over preservation of a Delaware River island. The Italian-American activists gathered in Trenton to demand an apology from top Republicans, who have repeatedly compared Corzine and his allies to mobsters in an effort to underscore his links to the party's most controversial figures. "To actually have a party organization that...