Free Republic

Bloodstains were still visible in the doorway of an apartment in the quiet Miami neighbourhood of Coral Way on Wednesday, two days after an alleged plan to rip off a drug dealer left one of the sons of Canada’s consul general to Florida dead and another charged with murder. Jean Wabafiyebazu, the 17-year-old son of longtime diplomat Roxanne Dubé, died in hospital of injuries suffered in Monday’s shootout, which police say erupted during a dispute over two pounds of marijuana, valued at US$5,000. His 15-year-old brother, Marc, is being held in a youth detention centre, charged with felony murder and...

A twisted story out of Maine, where police say one man's plan to play the hero ended with the death of a 15-year-old girl. Kyle Dube, 20, allegedly planned to kidnap a teen, who he would then "find." Police say he set up a fake Facebook account under the name Bryan Butterfield and used it to convince Nichole Cable to meet him on the evening of May 12 at the end of her street. A ski mask-clad Dube grabbed her, secured her with duct tape, and hid her in his dad's truck, according to a police affidavit; Cable was reportedly...

A team of gunmen shot and killed Lucky Dube, an international reggae star and one of the nation’s best-known musicians, apparently in a carjacking attempt late Thursday that underscored the continuing peril of violent crime here. As the provincial police commissioner appointed seven veteran investigators to chase down the attackers, President Thabo Mbeki called on the nation “to confront this terrible scourge of crime, which has taken the lives of too many of our people, and does so every day.” The police said Mr. Dube, 43, was shot by three assailants in Rosettenville, just south of downtown Johannesburg... The attackers...