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ROME (Reuters) – A Sicilian man stole sweets and a packet of chewing gum so he could get arrested and spend New Year's Eve in a jail cell rather than be with his wife and relatives, Italian media reported on Friday. The 35-year old Sicilian first showed up at a police station on Thursday asking to be arrested because he preferred spending the night in prison rather than with his family, but was rebuffed because he had not committed a crime, the Agi news agency said.

<p>I guess that being a 'Citizen of the World' has hidden relatives all over the world.</p> <p>BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama took time out of his busy diplomatic schedule in China to meet with his half-brother, who lives in the southern part of the country -- but only for five minutes.</p>

Madoff Family Members Sued For $198 Million Published: Saturday, 3 Oct 2009 | 1:37 AM ET By: Scott Cohn Senior Correspondent, CNBC The bankruptcy trustee trying to recover assets from the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme says Madoff's relatives used the firm "as if it were the family piggy bank." Irving Picard is suing Bernard Madoff's sons Mark and Andrew, his brother Peter, and his niece Shana for $198.7 million. That is the amount Picard says the family members received from Madoff's investment advisory business — $141 million of it in the last six years. All four of the family members...

US president-elect Barack Obama's Indonesian step-cousin is among a number of other Indonesians invited to witness Obama's historical inauguration on Jan. 20 in Washington D.C. Yana Trisulo, a niece of Obama's Indonesian step-father Lolo Soetoro, said her husband and one of her cousins would be family guests at the ceremony that will make Obama the first black US president. Yana's mother was Lolo's sister. "I was supposed to attend the inauguration together with my father (in-law, Lolo) but I don't think we can make it now as he (my father) is not in a good health. And so I have...

Obama's Kenyan aunt found in a Boston slum... Developing...

Jim BramlettBlock African witchcraft curses against McCain and Palin NOW! Jim Bramlett Sep 28 2008 04:12PM Dear friends: THIS IS EXTREMELY SERIOUS. Minutes ago I spoke with friend Dr. Norman G. Marvin, M.D. and he is so concerned at what he has learned about Barack Obama's family in Kenya that he is calling a special prayer meeting in his home to pray against the witchcraft curses attempted by them against John McCain and Sarah Palin. Dr. Marvin sent me the below e-mail from Flo Ellers.  Flo is credentialed with the International Fellowship of Ministries which is based in Washington...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - As a state senator, Democrat Barack Obama awarded $75,000 in government grants to a Chicago social service organization led by a rabbi who is also his wife's cousin, records show. ADVERTISEMENT In 1999, Obama arranged for $50,000 for adult literacy and counseling services offered on Chicago's South Side by a group called Blue Gargoyle. A $25,000 grant for the group's youth services followed the next year. The group's executive director when the grants were awarded was Capers Funnye, a South Side rabbi and Michelle Obama's first cousin once removed. Funnye (pronounced fun-NAY) said Monday there was nothing...

The idea that life on Earth might have originated elsewhere, on Mars, for example, has gained currency in recent times as we’ve learned more about the transfer of materials between planets. Mars cooled before the Earth and may well have become habitable at a time when our planet was not. There seems nothing particularly outrageous in the idea that dormant bacteria inside chunks of the Martian surface, blasted into space by comet or asteroid impacts, might have crossed the interplanetary gulf and given rise to life here. But what of an interstellar origin for life on Earth? The odds on...

3 Jefferson relatives plead innocent Three relatives of indicted U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., have pleaded innocent to charges they ripped off three charities they founded. Mose Jefferson; his sister, 4th District Assessor Betty Jefferson; and her daughter, Angela Coleman all entered pleas at an arraignment hearing Friday, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported. They are accused of skimming more than $600,000 from three non-profit groups. U.S. Magistrate Louis Moore told the trio to avoid any contact with Brenda Foster, who pleaded guilty Wednesday. Foster, who also goes by the name Brenda Jefferson, is a sibling of the congressman, as well...

A seven-year-old boy was kept chained in a closet as relatives hacked off pieces of his flesh to eat, a court has heard. In a case with echoes of the Fritzl family horror in Austria, Ondrej Mauerova was partially skinned in the closet in a cellar at his home in Kurim near Brno, in the Czech Republic, according to reports. The abuse – involving members of a religious cult – was uncovered by chance last May when a neighbour's television baby monitor picked up graphic pictures of what was happening next door. Ondrej and his nine-year-old brother Jakub were locked...

Orkney Islanders have Siberian relatives Last Updated: 12:01am BST 23/05/2008 A new study on ancient human migrations suggests that Orcadians and Siberians are closely related, writes Roger Highfield. Orkney Islanders are more closely related to people in Siberia and in Pakistan than those in Africa and the near East, according to a novel method to chart human migrations. The surprising findings come from a new way to infer ancient human movements from the variation of DNA in people today, conducted by a team from the University of Oxford and University College Cork, which has pioneered a technique that analyses the...

Sir Mick Jagger parties with Jade and daughters in London's Automat nightclub By Tom Chivers Last Updated: 11:24AM BST 10/05/2008 Three generations of Jaggers were out partying this week in a trendy London nightspot.Amba, Jade and Assisi Jagger at the Automat nightclub Dominic O'Neill Amba Jagger at Automat Mick, daughter Jade and granddaughters Amba and Assisi descended upon the Automat club, in Mayfair, to celebrate the launch of an ice-pick. The children, aged 12 and 15 respectively, courted controversy by wearing outfits more suited to adults. Amba wore a black-and-white patterned mini-dress, while her sister wore a flimsy black satin...

Obama family in Kenya watches US vote By KATY POWNALL, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 51 minutes ago Seated on plastic chairs surrounded by chickens and barefoot children, Barack Obama's Kenyan relatives listened to the radio Tuesday for news of how their favorite son was doing in the New Hampshire primary. The early results were encouraging, bringing a whoop of satisfaction from the candidate's uncle. "Ah, that's wonderful," Said Obama declared, breaking into a wide grin. "But I don't want to jump just yet." Kogelo, the western Kenyan village of Barack Obama's father, has been spared the political and ethnic...

My grandmother recently, and reluctantly, asked if I could give her some money. There's no question my wife, Amy, and I will give her the funds; she raised me and is, by and large, the woman I consider my mom. She has always been kind to Amy. If we have the discretionary cash that can make my grandmother's life happy, shouldn't we hand it over? Yet the request has caused us a lot of angst. Part of our concern is where this will lead. Although my grandmother isn't asking for a lot of money -- just a few hundred dollars...

Close Relations Exhibit Greater Agreement On The Attractiveness Of Faces ScienceDaily (Dec. 13, 2007) — A new study from researchers at Harvard University shows that friends, siblings and spouses are more likely than strangers to agree on the attractiveness of faces. Recent research regarding facial attractiveness has emphasized the universality of attractiveness preferences, and in this study there was some agreement among the strangers - but the close relations were in even greater agreement regarding facial attractiveness. The study appears in the current issue of the journal Perception, and was led by Richard Russell, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department...

COLUMBIA, South Carolina — Maybe Mitt Romney should study his family tree. Surprised to see a distant relative in the front row at a campaign stop Wednesday, the Republican presidential hopeful interrupted his education speech at a children's museum to introduce her. "In the front row over here is my niece, Heather Glenn," Romney said. "That's probably not your last name anymore, Heather. But Heather is a school teacher. Are you a school teacher?" "No. I'm a pediatrician," she responded. "She's a pediatrician," Romney said, to laughter. "Deals with kids. I haven't seen Heather in, um, 20 years. Good to...

Relatives demand justice as police go on trial over Katrina killings Paul Harris in New Orleans Sunday March 4, 2007 The Observer (UK) Ronald Madison stayed on in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina - he could not bear to leave behind the family dogs, a beloved pair of dachshunds called Bobbi and Sushi. It cost him his life. Madison, 40, who had the mental age of a child, was shot by police one morrning on Danziger Bridge. James Brisette, 19, was also killed, and four others, including two women, seriously injured. All were black. None had committed a crime. Now...

In his hometown, relatives pray for 1,000 Zarqawis ZARQA, Jordan (Reuters) - In the bleak Jordanian city where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi grew up, shocked relatives mourned the al Qaeda leader's death as a loss to Islam and prayed for 1,000 "Zarqawis" to fight the Americans in his place. "This is a tragedy. We are all sad here," said Zarqawi's uncle, Yazm Khalayleh, 64. "We have to be sad because he was fighting the infidels. Anyone who says he is not sad is lying; people believe he is a martyr. We do not want to believe that he is dead." Zarqawi,...

Moussaoui Judge Warns Againt Prejudicial Testimony Monday, April 10, 2006 ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The grandfather of the youngest victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, testifying at Zacarias Moussaoui's sentencing trial Monday, described watching on television as the plane carrying his son and granddaughter hit the World Trade Center. C. Lee Hanson said that his son, Peter, was calling from the phone. "As we were talking he said, very softly, 'Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!' " The 73-year-old Hanson was describing the moment before he watched the plane become the second to hit the Twin Towers...

MINEOLA, N.Y., March 16 — As the story of the $11.2 million Roslyn school embezzlement unfolded over the past two years, prosecutors and auditors often remarked on the almost giddy abandon with which a few administrators dipped into school funds to pay for personal indulgences like vacation trips, luxury homes, jewelry and pedicures. ...Mr. Signorelli, 60, of Manhattan, was for 33 years the domestic partner of the Roslyn schools superintendent, Frank A. Tassone. Dr. Tassone has admitted to stealing more than $2 million during his tenure between 1994 and 2002. Prosecutors said Dr. Tassone had been the schools chief for...