MONTREAL —(CNN) A Canadian hit man whose victims included outlaw bikers, mobsters and innocent bystanders pleaded guilty Tuesday to 27 charges of first-degree murder, making him one of Canada's worst killers.
Gerald Gallant, who has become a police informant while already serving a life sentence for a 2001 slaying, also pleaded guilty to 12 charges of attempted murder and a handful of other charges.
The killings between 1978 and 2003 targeted members of motorcycle gangs, mobsters and people in street gangs. Biker gangs have long been a problem in the French-speaking province of Quebec, and most of the murders happened between 1994 and 2002 as the Hells Angels and Rock Machine gangs battled over drug sales.
Gallant's attacks sometimes struck bystanders, such as Helene Brunet, a waitress who was wounded in 2000 by an associate of Robert Savard when Gallant killed Savard.
The previous year, Gallant by mistake fatally shot Luc Bergeron, a private detective who happened to be living in an apartment formerly occupied by the intended target, a Hells Angels associate.
Gallant, 58, apologized Tuesday as he read a prepared statement in front of survivors and relatives of victims in a Quebec City courtroom.
Acting on information provided by Gallant, provincial police arrested 10 people across Quebec last week in connection with dozens of murders tied to biker gangs over a quarter century.
"It serves to remind people what a murderous biker war was happening," said Julian Sher, author of two books on Canadian biker gangs. "Twenty-seven gang-related killings out of 160 total biker-related murders during that period. That's stunning."
At least one Quebec man has killed more people than Gallant: Yves Trudeau, a founding member of the Hells Angels in Quebec, was sentenced to life in prison in 1986 after pleading guilty to 43 counts of manslaughter, part of a deal struck in exchange for information about fellow gang members.
Gallant won't get additional jail time, and will be eligible to apply for parole in 25 years. Under the plea deal, he is barred from writing a book or making a film about his crimes, but prosecutors said he will get $50 monthly to spend at the prison canteen and receive protection.
Police were first led to Gallant by using his DNA to link him to a slaying from 2001 in Ste-Adele, north of Montreal. He fled to Europe but was eventually arrested in Switzerland in 2006.
Fairfield, IDAHO (CNN)--Authorities say a fire has destroyed the main lodge at a small ski operation co-owned by Bruce Willis.
Camas County Chief Deputy Brian Miller says the Soldier Mountain Ski Resort lodge and an adjacent ski rental building were destroyed in the Monday morning blaze. No one was injured.
Willis has been working with forest officials on a new master development plan for the south-central Idaho resort, with runs in the mountains of the Sawtooth National Forest. The "Die Hard" actor has a home in nearby Hailey.
FARGO, North Dakota (CNN) -- Just as the threat of historic floods decreased in parts of North Dakota, a major snowstorm continued to smack the area Tuesday, forecasters said.
North Dakota National Guard members inspect a levee along the Red River near Fargo on Monday.
Residents in and around Fargo, North Dakota, breathed a sigh of relief Monday as waters of Red River had receded.
But the snowstorm could dump as much as 16 inches of snow near the Red River valley, which could add to the level of the river.
The river, which at one point was at a historic level of nearly 41 feet, had fallen below 39 feet Monday.
By 7 a.m. CT the river was forecasted at about 38 feet and was expected drop to the 18-foot flood level by early next week.
Officials had scaled back the furious sandbagging effort in the Fargo area as the river dipped. But with more than a foot of new snow falling, North Dakota officials weren't ready to let down their guard.
"It's not over," Fargo Deputy Mayor Tim Mahoney said during a televised meeting of officials Monday.
"We're still in a flood fight, so now you just have to be careful and watch things, and we'll monitor as we go along." Still, he said, it's time to "start thinking about what we'd do if we weren't fighting a flood. So we're now going to start talking to different people to see when we can start getting things back online and get going."
The snowstorm was expected to hit the area until Wednesday. But the National Weather Service warned of another rise in the river level in mid-April as temperatures begin to warm and melt the snow.
Two deaths and 50 injuries have been reported in flood-related incidents. The injuries included victims of car wrecks caused by flooded roads, epidemiologist Kirby Kruger said. Other illnesses -- including mental health problems, carbon monoxide poisoning and cardiac-related events -- were reported, Kruger said.
President Barack Obama has signed emergency and disaster declarations for Minnesota and North Dakota, freeing up federal funds for the region.
The flood's crest of 40.82 feet on Saturday broke a record that had held since 1897, when the Red River reached 40.1 feet at Fargo.
The river approached the 1897 level in 1997, when it reached 39.6 feet, a level that many residents thought would be the highest they'd ever see the river.
On April 1 2009, Casio will start selling the newest Protrek model: the PRX-2000T. It's an evolution of the ABC watch (Altimeter/Barometer/Compass) reduced in size and upgraded in terms of build materials. Here are the specs from the translated press release:
List price is 99,750 JPY, or about $1,030 US as of Feb 2009. Yes, it's expensive.
"World's thinnest" ABC watch at 11.3mm by 47.7mm by 57mm.
Sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating - excellent, I have been looking forward to this.
Titanium case and band, carbide hardened.
Waterproof to 100m (330ft).
Low-temperature resistant down to -10C (14F).
Six-band atomic set up to six times per day.
24-hour stopwatch.
24-hour countdown timer.
Dual-layer LCD: one layer for compass and another for the rest. LCD segments are fixed in shape, so this makes sense.
Five alarms.
World time with 31 time zones and 48 cities. Not clear if this includes fractional hour offsets.
Automatic EL backlight.
Tough solar power, 23 month power reserve.
The compass claims "16 azimuth angle of orientation" and "orientation correction function," which I would guess means it's more accurate when not held perfectly level.
Lots and lots of measurements and modes for the altimeter/barometer, graphing and so on.
Basic temperature measurement, but unless they've invented something new it mostly measures the temperature of your wrist and is therefore almost useless while worn. (This is a problem with all ABC watches.)
Overall, it looks like a really nice watch. The reduced size, streamlined case and improved materials are something I look forward to reviewing. I do wonder why they priced it so high, though: The Ultimate Pathfinder has a similar feature list, and is only $400USD.
WASHINGTON --(CNN) However they satisfy their nicotine cravings, tobacco users are facing a big hit as the single largest federal tobacco tax increase ever takes effect Wednesday.
Tobacco companies and public health advocates, longtime foes in the nicotine battles, are trying to turn the situation to their advantage. The major cigarette makers raised prices a couple of weeks ago, partly to offset any drop in profits once the per-pack tax climbs from 39 cents to $1.01.
Medical groups see a tax increase right in the middle of a recession as a great incentive to help persuade smokers to quit.
Tobacco taxes are soaring to finance a major expansion of health insurance for children. President Obama signed that health initiative soon after taking office.
Other tobacco products, from cigars to pipes and smokeless, will see similarly large tax increases, too. For example, the tax on chewing tobacco will go up from 19.5 cents per pound to 50 cents. The total expected to be raised over the 4 1/2 year-long health insurance expansion is nearly $33 billion.
Smokers are mulling their options.
The tax increase is only the first move in a recharged anti-smoking campaign. Congress also is considering legislation to empower the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. That could lead to reformulated cigarettes. Obama, who has agonized over his own cigarette habit, said he would sign such a bill.
Prospects for reducing the harm from smoking are better than they have been in years, said Dr. Timothy Gardner, president of the American Heart Association. The tax increase "is a terrific public health move by the federal government," he said. "Every time that the tax on tobacco goes up, the use of cigarettes goes down."
About one in five adults in the United States smokes cigarettes. That's a gradually dwindling share, though it isn't shrinking fast enough for public health advocates.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says cigarette smoking results in an estimated 443,000 premature deaths each year, and costs the economy $193 billion in health care expenses and lost time from work. Smoking is a major contributor to heart disease, cancer and lung disease.
TORONTO —(CNN) A cyber spy network based mainly in China hacked into classified documents from government and private organizations in 103 countries, including the computers of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan exiles, Canadian researchers said Saturday.
The work of the Information Warfare Monitor initially focused on allegations of Chinese cyber espionage against the Tibetan community in exile, and eventually led to a much wider network of compromised machines, the Internet-based research group said.
"We uncovered real-time evidence of malware that had penetrated Tibetan computer systems, extracting sensitive documents from the private office of the Dalai Lama," investigator Greg Walton said.
The research group said that while it's analysis points to China as the main source of the network, it has not conclusively been able to detect the identity or motivation of the hackers.
Calls to China's Foreign Ministry and Industry and Information Ministry rang unanswered Sunday. The Chinese Embassy in Toronto did not immediately return calls for comment Saturday.
Students For a Free Tibet activist Bhutila Karpoche said her organization's computers have been hacked into numerous times over the past four or five years, and particularly in the past year. She said she often gets e-mails that contain viruses that crash the group's computers.
The IWM is composed of researchers from Ottawa-based think tank SecDev Group and the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies. The group's initial findings led to a 10-month investigation summarized in the report to be released online Sunday.
The researchers detected a cyber espionage network involving over 1,295 compromised computers from the ministries of foreign affairs of Iran, Bangladesh, Latvia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Barbados and Bhutan. They also discovered hacked systems in the embassies of India, South Korea, Indonesia, Romania, Cyprus, Malta, Thailand, Taiwan, Portugal, Germany and Pakistan.
Once the hackers infiltrated the systems, they gained control using malware — software they install on the compromised computers — and sent and received data from them, the researchers said.
Time Title Artist Year 1. 6:06 My Sharona--The Knack 1979 2. 6:13 Whatcha See is Whatcha Get--The Dramatics 1971 3. 6:29 You Belong to Me--Carly Simon 1978
6:24 FM memories from the 70's
4. 6:30 Roll Over Beethoven--The Beatles 1964 5. 6:35 Help Yourself--Tom Jones (live version) 6. 6:45 Horse With No Name--America 1972 7. 6:51 Disco Duck, Part 1--Rick Dees and his Cast of Idiots 1976 8. 7:06 Boogie Down--Eddie Kendricks 1974 9. 7:12 Let's Hang On!--Four Seasons 1965 10. 7:23 Cara Mia--Jay and the Americans 1965
7:26 Jay Black interview
11. 7:39 This Magic Moment--Jay and the Americans 1969 12. 7:48 In the Ghetto--Elvis Presley 1969 13. 8:06 The Longest Time--Billy Joel 1984 14. 8:12 Go All the Way--The Raspberries 1972 15. 8:18 Song Sung Blue--Neil Diamond 1972
8:25 Fake Break
16. 8:32 Your Mama Don't Dance--Loggins and Messina 1973 17. 8:40 I Get Around--The Beach Boys 1964
8:43 BeatleSpectacular: The Fool on the Hill 8:44 Paul McCartney demo (Sept. 1967) 8:46 Original version 18. 8:48 The Fool on the Hill--The Beatles 1967
19. 8:57 Help Me Make it Through the Night--Sammi Smith 1971 20. 9:06 Let's Stay Together--Al Green 1972 21. 9:14 Tutti Frutti--Little Richard 1955
9:17 Chuck McCann interview
22. 9:33 The Letter--The Box Tops 1967 23. 9:40 Kung Fu Fighting--Carl Douglas 1974 24. 9:56 Leaving on a Jet Plane--Peter, Paul and Mary 1969
NEW YORK —(CNN) A van driver was arrested on manslaughter and other charges after plowing onto a Manhattan sidewalk at rush hour, killing a pregnant woman and seriously hurting another woman, police said Saturday.
Keston Brown, 27, also was arrested on charges of felonious assault and driving while intoxicated in the wreck Friday.
The Manhattan District Attorney's office did not immediately return a telephone call Saturday seeking information about Brown's arraignment, and police did not know whether he had a lawyer. No working telephone number could be found for him.
The reason for the crash was unclear, but some witnesses told reporters that the van's driver and a passenger had been driving slowly alongside the women, catcalling them, in the moments before the vehicle lurched forward and slammed into a building.
The wreck killed Ysemny Ramos, a 29-year-old mother of two from Brooklyn. Relatives said she had a third child on the way. She had been headed home to celebrate her third wedding anniversary.
"She was full of love," her distraught husband, Renaldo Ramos, told the New York Post. "She refused to see the glass half-empty, and she always filled up my cup when I saw it half-empty."
The accident happened at about 5 p.m., just a few blocks from the Empire State Building.
A second, 37-year-old woman, one of Ramos' co-workers at a building consulting firm, was taken to a hospital in serious condition.
(CNN) -- Dogs and cats soothe the soul and provide companionship, but a report released this week suggests they sometimes cause broken bones and sprains, too.
Most data on human-pet relationships have been devoted to the health benefits, such as lower blood pressure.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that every year, more than 86,000 fall injuries are caused by pets. Dogs are the biggest culprits, causing 88 percent of the injuries. Cats cause 11.7 percent of the falls, according to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
CDC researchers formulated the national estimates based on data from 66 emergency rooms.
"Many of them occurred while people were walking their dog or chasing either their dog or cat," said Judy Stevens, an epidemiologist with the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. "Over half the injuries with dogs were either falls or tripping over the pet or they were pushed or pulled by the pet."
Pets can suddenly rush to the door or scurry around the owners' feet, causing these accidents, experts said.
At least once a week, a patient injured by an overexcited dog or an unexpected chew toy walks into the office of Dr. Leon S. Benson, an orthopedic surgeon and chief of hand surgery at the NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, Illinois. These patients often have wrist fractures after falling on an outstretched hand.
"It's a common scenario," said Benson, who is also a spokesman for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. "People trip over their pet or the pet, usually a dog, has a leash that pulls them down. While there's incredible incidence of falls in the elderly, people of all ages fall."
The CDC report did not determine whether individuals have died from pet-related falls, although Stevens said it was highly unlikely. Pet-related tumbles amount to about 1 percent of the total injuries caused by falls in the United States.
Psychologist and dog trainer Dr. William Doverspike said if people are tripping over dogs, they're "the ones that need to get newspaper and hit themselves for not teaching the dog;"he recommended taking every dog to obedience training.
"My opinion is that dogs are a lot happier and a lot more secure when they know what their handlers want," he said. "The relationship is stronger when the dog knows what he needs to get treats and has lot more freedom."
The CDC estimates about 9 percent of the falls are related to tripping over a toy or food bowl.
VASSAR, Mich. —(CNN) A former police officer suffered a heart attack and died at a Michigan gas station where he saved his future wife's life nearly 15 years ago.
Lynne Smith tells The Saginaw News she and James Smith were returning home from breakfast on Monday when their pickup truck started to veer off course.
Lynne Smith looked at her 66-year-old husband and knew something was wrong. She scrambled to take control and piloted the vehicle through some bushes. It came to rest in the parking lot of the service station.
In 1994, James Smith acted quickly to save the then-Lynne Butterfield's life when her estranged husband slashed her throat at the same station.
Said his widow: "He saved my life here and now his life ended here." His funeral is set for Friday afternoon.
(CNN)--The rumor mill has been running rampant that Jennifer Aniston gave John Mayer the boot over his twittering (tweeting?) obsession, and it looks like Mayer has made a mental note and getting ready to soon kick the habit.
"I’m just goofing off, it’s silly. Isn’t it silly? Twitter is fun, but I’m gonna get off as soon it becomes like ‘Skippy Peanut Butter Presents Twitter.’ But for right now it feels sort of underground, but of course sadly it’s not that underground anymore.
On Saturday night oldies this week, our guests will be Jay Black and Chuck McCann. Saturday night 6-10pm on 77 WABC Radio.
Saturday, March 28
On the Saturday morning show, Lesley Stahl of "60 Minutes" with the real story about computer viruses and what you can do about them. 7-10am on 77 WABC Radio.
TOKYO, (CNN) -- Japan is mobilizing its missile defense system, and U.S. Navy ships are deploying to the Sea of Japan, as North Korea prepares to launch a rocket that is expected next month, officials said.
The USS Chaffee is one of two destroyers headed to South Korea for an upcoming ceremony.
Japan's move, aimed at shooting down debris from the launch that might fall into its territory, is notable for a country with a pacifist constitution.
The U.S. ships are capable of shooting down ballistic missiles, a Navy spokesman said.
North Korea says it will launch a commercial satellite on top of a rocket sometime between April 4 and April 8. But other governments fear the North Koreans will actually put a long-range missile on top of the rocket.
The United States and Japan have been stepping up pressure on North Korea, hoping to head off the launch.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin on Friday also urged North Korea to not launch the rocket, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.
Japan's military has two-pronged orders: to move destroyers carrying air-to-sea missiles to the Sea of Japan, which separates Japan and North Korea, and to send land-to-air missiles to northern Japan.
However, the probability of a missile successfully hitting a moving target without a known trajectory -- as in the case of debris -- is very low, Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshitada Konoike said earlier this week.
If North Korea launches, the United States may have as little as five minutes to decide whether it is a threat and, if necessary, try to shoot it down.
The U.S. ships that are being moved to the Sea of Japan are "prepared to track a launch or more, if afforded," according to a U.S. Navy official who could not be named because of the sensitivity of the information.
The United States generally has a number of Aegis-capable ships in the Sea of Japan because of the threat posed by North Korea to launch missiles. The ships monitor the region and are designed to track and, if need be, shoot down ballistic missiles.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles-- To the Lighthouse
Season 2, Episode 20 Friday, March 27 8:00 p.m. FOX-TV
Sarah, fearing for her life, hides John in a safe house with the only person she feels she can trust (Dean Winters); Cameron and Derek struggle to work together after she reveals a big secret.
TW LW 1. All You Need Is Love - The Beatles (Capitol) *1 week #1* 2 2. Light My Fire - The Doors (Elektra) 1 *3. Pleasant Valley Sunday - The Monkees (Colgems) 4 4. Ode to Billie Joe - Bobbie Gentry (Capitol) 25 *5. Reflections - Diana Ross & the Supremes (Motown) 8 6. Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie - Jay & the Techniques (Smash)17 *7. Baby, I Love You - Aretha Franklin (Atlantic) 7
----------------------------------------------------------------- *8. I Was Made to Love Her - Stevie Wonder (Tamla) 5 9. You're My Everything - The Temptations (Gordy) 15 10. Don't Let the Rain Fall Down On Me - The Critters (Kapp) 9 11. (I Wanna) Testify - The Parliaments (Revilot) 14 12. Carrie-Anne - The Hollies (Epic) 10 13. A Whiter Shade of Pale - Procol Harum (Deram) 3 *14. A Girl Like You - The Young Rascals (Atlantic) 6 ----------------------------------------------------------------- 15. Can't Take My Eyes Off You - Frankie Valli (Philips) 16 16. Little Bit o' Soul - The Music Explosion (Laurie) 13 *17. Funky Broadway - Wilson Pickett (Atlantic) 27 18. Windy - The Association (Warner Brothers) 12 19. Heroes and Villains - The Beach Boys (Brother) 21 20. Cold Sweat, Part 1 - James Brown & his Famous Flames (King)-- 22. Silence Is Golden - The Tremeloes (Epic) 26 23. There Is a Mountain - Donovan (Epic) -- 28. I Make a Fool of Myself - Frankie Valli (Philips) -- 29. You Know What I Mean - The Turtles (White Whale) -- *32. Fakin' It - Simon & Garfunkel (Columbia) -- 37. Blues Theme - Davie Allan & the Arrows (Tower) 66 41. Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon) - The Mamas & the Papas (Dunhill) -- 43. Making Every Minute Count - Spanky & Our Gang (Mercury) 60 62. Gettin' Together - Tommy James & the Shondells (Roulette) HP *63. Love Bug Leave My Heart Alone - Martha & the Vandellas (Gordy) 73
WASHINGTON (CNN)-- Call it Round Two of the news conference, with a big Internet twist.
President Barack Obama took questions from the White House press corps on Tuesday in a prime-time, East Room session that represented the most formal and time-honored of president-and-reporter interactions.
On Thursday, he is taking to that same room for another public grilling -- this time by regular folks armed with questions submitted via the Internet and in person, as part of a political strategy to engage Americans directly.
"It's a way for the president to do what he enjoys doing out on the road, but saves on gas," press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters on Wednesday.
Obama used the Internet to build a grass-roots movement that delivered the presidency and raised unheard-of money. Now in power, he is employing the same online network and style to speak -- unfiltered -- with Americans.
The president already has taken that tactic on the road, spending two days on the West Coast last week at town hall-style meetings and appearing on Jay Leno's late-night talk show. It offered easier questions and a chance to get his message to the widest possible audience.
"It's not a whole lot different than were we in California doing the meeting," Gibbs said. "It's just we'll have people hooked up from a lot of different places all over the country, but he'll be able to do all that from the East Room."
Already, the White House is connecting the old-school press conference with the new-media event. It will be an easy contrast between skeptical reporters and supporter-selected questions. Political operatives say the White House's strategy is a way to reach a demographic key to Obama's election.
"In the new world of online media, formal press conferences are just one element or program to get the message out -- to those, usually older, who watch such things on TV. The online version he is doing is an alternative way to get out the same message, in this case on the budget, targeted toward a different audience, usually younger," said Morley Winograd, a former adviser to ex-Vice President Al Gore who now runs the Institute for Communication Technology Management at the University of Southern California.
"In both cases the questioners are just props -- or, in some cases, foils -- for the star, Obama, to deliver his message. But in the latter case, they get to self-nominate instead of be selected by elites," Winograd said.
In a way, it's part campaign-style politics and part "American Idol," said political strategist Simon Rosenberg.
"Barack Obama is going to reinvent the presidency the way he reinvented electoral politics," said Rosenberg, president of the New Democrat Network and a veteran of presidential campaigns.
"He is allowing everyday people to participate in a way that would've been impossible in the old media world."
Obama's campaign allowed supporters to organize themselves to go door-to-door and raise money from themselves. Because of that, many felt an ownership of the campaign and devoted countless hours to giving Obama the Democratic Party's nomination and then the presidency.
Obama's aides are taking that step forward, incorporating tools that let visitors to the White House Web site pick the questions Obama will answer, turning the president's Thursday event into a democratic press conference.
"Average people get to shape the outcome, like 'American Idol,"' Rosenberg said. "This is not a couch-potato age. Average people are expecting to be part of the process."
Yet the process lends itself to softer questions and ones the White House is eager to answer, Republicans noted.
"The president is going back to the safe confines he was always most comfortable with, in this case a friendly audience where the focus is on the sale rather than the substance," Republican strategist Kevin Madden said.
Obama remains a popular figure, although the country and Congress are reluctant to embrace his budget proposals. Aides say that the more the president talks about his plans -- and frames his budget proposal through real-world needs -- the more Americans would be swayed.
In that vein, Obama aides want to keep the questions about energy, health care and education, the three key priorities in his first budget document. Some of the questions will be from the Web site, others via YouTube and some from an audience of about 100 people representing teachers, nurses and small-business employees.
"The president just thinks it's another opportunity to talk directly with the American people about the challenges that we have, the choices and the decisions that we're making, and the path that we're taking to get us back to prosperous days," Gibbs said.
FARGO, North Dakota (CNN) -- City officials spent much of Wednesday working on a revised plan after the National Weather Service issued a foreboding forecast for the Red River: a 41-foot crest predicted to hit Saturday.
Kevin Hard rides in a trailer loaded with sandbags Wednesday in Oxbow, North Dakota.
The last flood even near that level was in 1997, when the river crested at 39.6 feet. The record for the Red River in Fargo, the state's most populous city, was set in 1897 at 40.1 feet, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Red River was one of many rivers that were at flood level early Thursday in North Dakota.
The threat from the Missouri River caused more than 1,000 people to be evacuated from an area near Bismarck on Tuesday. On Wednesday, authorities blasted ice jams from the river in effort to keep it from rising even higher.
But the Red River posed the gravest threat as it rose toward historic levels, officials said.
"Nobody that's alive today has ever seen it at 41 feet," said Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker. "They need to take this extremely seriously."
City officials had been hoping that the river would top out at 39 feet, which would mean that their plan of getting all dikes to a 42-foot level would be fine.
But with the 41-foot-crest predicted, officials and volunteers will need to add an extra foot on the levees containing the river.
