Sometimes the bait is a small amount of cash in a stray wallet. Or a credit card. Even a pack of cigarettes can do the trick.

Police in New York City leave the items unattended - on subway platforms, on park benches, in cars - and wait to see if someone grabs them.

The New York Police Department says the practice has been a valuable tool for catching career criminals and deterring thefts in public places. But a recent court ruling throwing out a larceny case against a Bronx woman cast a harsh light on a tactic critics say too often sweeps up innocent people.

Judge Linda Poust Lopez found that there was no proof Deirdre Myers tried to steal anything - and that she was framed by a sting that took the tactic way too far.

Upholding the charges "would greatly damage the confidence and trust of the public in the fairness and effectiveness of the criminal justice system, and rightly so," the judge wrote.

Myers, a 40-year-old single mother with no criminal record, has since sued the city, claiming she and her daughter were traumatised by a wrongful arrest in 2010.

 "You know how embarrassing and humiliating this was?" Myers said. "I'd never been stopped by the police for anything in my life."

The city Law Department is still reviewing Myers' lawsuit, city attorney Raju Sundaran said in a statement. But, he added, "undercover sting operations are lawful and help reduce crime."

The judge suggested that Myers' brush with the law had its roots in the so-called lucky bag operation that the NYPD began in 2006 to deter thefts of wallets, shopping bags, smartphones and other valuables in the subways.

A typical scenario was for a plainclothes officer to place a handbag with cash on a train platform and briefly look or step away. Anyone who took the bag, then passed up chances to return it to the undercover cop or to report it to a uniformed officer posted nearby could be locked up.

At the time, police credited the subway operation with driving down crime there. They say they still use the tactic when they see a spike in thefts of personal property in public places such as Grand Central Terminal or Central Park. But they now require more evidence of intent - a suspect trying to hide a wallet or taking cash out of it and throwing it away - before making an arrest.

Last year, police arrested a tourist from Atlanta in Central Park after he picked up a purse and took out $27 stashed inside, according to court papers in another pending civil case. He ended up paying a $120 fine as part of a plea bargain.

Authorities began using "bait cars" about six years ago in the Bronx to combat a chronic problem with car thefts and break-ins in working-class neighbourhoods. In most cases, police plant property - an iPad, a pack of cigarettes - in plain sight as the bait for thieves but make sure the car is locked so that a suspect would have to take the extra step of breaking in before being arrested.

But the strategy used in the Myers case "was certainly the most extreme version of the operation that we've seen," said her attorney, Ann Mauer.

According to court papers and to Myers' account, she and her daughter Kenya, then a 15-year-old high school student, were sitting on the stoop of their building when the sting unfolded

"It seemed like everybody in the Bronx was out that night," she said in an interview monitored by Vik Pawar, her attorney in her federal lawsuit.

The summer scene was interrupted by a bit of theater staged by police: A dark car raced down the block before stopping. Another vehicle carrying plainclothes officers wasn't far behind. When the driver got out and ran, the officers gave chase, yelling, "Stop! Police!" her suit says.

Myers' daughter, seeing that the driver left the car door open, went over and peered inside to see personal items that included what looked like a bundle of cash - in reality, a dollar bill wrapped around pieces of newspaper. The girl had called her mother over when another set of police officers suddenly pulled up in a van and forced them to the ground, according to Myers' account.

The officers took them into custody, even though they never touched anything inside the car, the suit says. While entering a stationhouse in handcuffs, Myers spotted the driver of the car standing outside, smoking a cigarette. It dawned on her that he was an undercover with a starring role in the sting - a suspicion supported by the court ruling.

The girl ultimately wasn't charged. But her mother spent more than two years fighting charges of petty larceny and possession of stolen property.

A spokesman for the Bronx District Attorney's office conceded that the bait car had been left unlocked and said prosecutors would not appeal the judge's ruling. He declined to comment further.

Though defence attorneys in the Bronx say there have been a few other cases involving bait cars and pretend police pursuits, the tactic hasn't drawn much attention outside the borough.

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union and a lucky bag critic, said she wasn't aware that police were using decoy cars until asked about the Myers case.

The 33-year-old son of a Howard County man on trial for allegedly killing his wife and burying her beneath a backyard shed two decades ago testified through tears on Thursday about waking up on the morning of her disappearance and wandering around the home looking for her.

Robert Jarrett III was 10 years old at the time, and it was a morning ritual for his mother, Christine, to wake him and his younger brother. On Jan. 4, 1991, he got up on his own and saw no sign of her. He checked her bed and the garage, and then called his aunt.

"She was a stay-at-home mom, and she was very loving," he said. "We were with her all the time."

Jarrett's father, Robert Jarrett Jr., 58, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Christine Jarrett after a body was found in April 2012 on the Elkridge property they shared.

The discovery came after Jarrett left his second wife; she allowed police to search the shed.

Prosecutors allege that Jarrett killed his wife and disposed of her remains. He continued to raise their children in the home after her disappearance.

Testimony on the second day of the trial in Howard County Circuit Court came from Robert Jarrett III — the elder of Jarrett's two sons — and a nephew. Both said they had witnessed Robert Jarrett Jr. abusing Christine.

Though the body was found under a slab of concrete in the shed, Jarrett's attorneys say prosecutors have no evidence to link him to the killing, and they question whether the remains were hers. They say the decision by their sons to cremate the body after an autopsy prevented defense attorneys from conducting independent tests.

Also found with the body were personal items belonging to Christine Jarrett, including a ring, her purse and family photographs. Prosecutors say her identity was confirmed through dental records.

But the defense objected. Circuit Judge Richard S. Bernhardt instructed Robert Jarrett III not to describe the remains found as those of his mother.

Robert Jarrett Jr. told police in 1991 that he and his wife had agreed to separate weeks before her disappearance. He said they had had an argument, and that when he woke up she had left.

Two close friends of Christine's testified Wednesday that she had made comments about "walking out and never coming back."

Robert Jarrett III, who is now a licensed counselor, testified that the only conversation he had with his father about the matter after Christine's disappearance involved the father handing the boy a newspaper article about the case.

"He told me to read it, and if I had any questions to ask him," Robert Jarrett III testified.

He declined to be interviewed after testifying.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys agree that the Jarretts' marriage was strained, but the defense said Robert Jarrett had no reason to kill his wife and actively looked for her after she vanished. Prosecutors say he was feigning concern.

Robert Jarrett III described his parents' marriage as "tumultuous" and marked by frequent verbal disputes. He testified that he twice watched from the kitchen as his father knocked his mother to the ground in the living room.

Christine Jarrett's nephew, David Mueller, testified that Christine once called him from a drugstore, where she said she had taken refuge after a beating that he said left welts and a gash on her face and neck.

"'I need you to pick me up," Mueller recalled her saying. "The son of a bitch just beat the [expletive] out of me.'"

Robert Jarrett III and a childhood friend both testified that they had access to the shed where the body was found. The family kept dirt bikes, tools and other items in it.

Not long after Christine's disappearance, Robert Jarrett Jr. rebuilt the shed, witnesses testified, with help from his brother and a next-door neighbor.

Looking for a new morning pick-me-up or a cup-a-Joe on the go? A new coffee shop in downtown Millburn has brewed up the right blend.

Light to dark roasts and blends using coffee beans from more than seven different countries, The Coffee Mill Roasters has everything for coffee lovers and roasts it all in house.

The brick walls, stand up bar and outside tables transports you into a Williamsburg-style coffee shop as you step off Main Street into the store not more than 50 yards from Starbucks and Rockn’Joes.

“It’s an urban-style New York coffee shop with roasting,” owner Gennaro Raimo explained. “And with an Italian flare of course with cappuccinos, lattes and espressos.”

Walking in, the first thing you’ll notice is Raimo welcoming coffee cravers into the store, recommending new blends — unless he’s roasting coffee beans downstairs— and his 27-year-old son, Daniel, who runs the shop with his dad, probably behind the counter.

Raimo, who was one of the owners of ASAP Photo next-door, said he wanted to bring a micro-roaster to Millburn so residents could get fresh coffee—by the pound or cup—without having to go to New York City.

“I’m 50-years-old, I just wanted to do something cool and hip,” Raimo said with a laugh.

The duo roasts the coffee in the basement with beans from Brazil, Ethiopia, Sumatra, Columbia, Timor, Kenya, and Guatemala. Originally, the roaster was upstairs, when the shop opened on Saint Patrick’s Day, but Raimo said it was too loud and smoky.

“Myself and my son are extremely passionate about coffee,” Raimo said.

The father-son business experiments with many different blends of coffee and its 4-bean espresso but also sell each country’s roasts separately by the pound.

Coffee isn’t the only fresh ingredient to Raimo’s idea of a boutique coffee shop. The store bakes crispy croissants daily— or cornettos, the Italian translation as the shop calls them—filled with chocolate, apricot, custard cream or just plain. It also gets shipments daily of other pastries from Balthazar in New York.

The small shop has a retro, urban feel to it with old diner-style stools, chrome with red cushions, at high-top tables and a stand-up bar with a large 1934 Coca-Cola sign on the wall. You won’t find any couches or comfy chairs in the coffee boutique either.

“Places are getting away from them [couches and chairs],” Raimo said as he rests his arm on the stand up bar, comparing it to pubs and coffee shops in Europe. “This is just more social.”

On a nice day, the shop opens the front café windows bringing in a relaxing breeze and has tables behind the shop and on Main Street for outdoor seating.

 “I love this place and the people,” coffee lover and town resident, Esta Steiger said. “It’s like our own little ‘Cheers’ in Millburn.”

Steiger told Raimo she recently bought a pound of his coffee and split it up into Ziploc bags. She walked the bags around to all her neighbors with the store information on it to spread the word.

“My neighbors didn’t even open the bag and they were saying, ‘Wow I can smell the beans through the bag,” she said.

Texting by the pilot of a medical helicopter contributed to a crash that killed four people, federal accident investigators declared Tuesday, and they approved a safety alert cautioning all pilots against using cellphones or other distracting devices during critical operations.

It was the first fatal commercial aircraft accident investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board in which texting has been implicated. And it underscored the board’s worries that distractions from electronic devices are a growing factor in incidents across all modes of transportation — planes, trains, cars, trucks and even ships.

While no U.S. airline crashes have been tied to electronic device use, the Federal Aviation Administration in January proposed regulations prohibiting airline flight crews from using cellphones and other wireless devices while a plane is in operation. The regulations are required under a law passed last year by Congress in response to an October 2010 incident in which two Northwest Airlines pilots overflew their destination of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by 100 miles while they were engrossed in working on their laptops.

Regulations already in place prohibit airline pilots from engaging in potentially distracting activities during critical phases of flight such as takeoffs, landings and taxiing. In some cases, however, pilots are allowed to use tablet computers containing safety and navigation procedures known as “electronic flight bags,” replacing paper documents.

The five-member board unanimously agreed that the helicopter crash was caused by a distracted and tired pilot who skipped preflight safety checks, which would have revealed his helicopter was low on fuel, and then, after he discovered his situation, decided to proceed with the fatal last leg of the flight.

The case “juxtaposes old issues of pilot decision making with a 21st century twist: distractions from portable electronic devices,” said board Chairman Deborah Hersman.

The helicopter ran out of fuel, crashing into a farm field in clear weather early on the evening of Aug. 26, 2011, near Mosby, Mo., a little over a mile short of an airport. The pilot was killed, along with a patient being taken from one hospital to another, a flight nurse and a flight paramedic.

One board member, Earl Weener, dissented on the safety alert decision, saying the cases cited as the basis for it — including the medical helicopter accident — were the result of bad decisions by pilots without a direct connection to the use of distracting devices.

Other board members disagreed. “We see this as a problem that is emerging, and on that basis, let’s try to get ahead of it,” said board member Chris Hart.

The pilot, James Freudenberg, 34, of Rapid City, S.D., sent 25 text messages and received 60 more during the course of his 12-hour shift, including 20 messages exchanged during the hour and 41 minutes before the crash, according to investigators and a timeline prepared for the board.

Most of the messaging was with an off-duty female co-worker with whom Freudenberg had a long history of “frequent, intensive communications,” and with whom he was planning to have dinner that night, said Bill Bramble, an NTSB expert on pilot psychology.
 

A former Minnesota airport worker charged with stealing 10 firearms and other valuables from checked bags targeted luggage being routed from one flight to the next, making it harder to uncover the thefts, an airport spokesman said on Tuesday.

David Vang, 23, worked for a private contractor at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and was captured on video taking items from bags last year, according to a state criminal complaint charging him with 11 felonies.

Airport police, who were investigating firearms thefts at the airport, placed hidden cameras in mid-October and reviewed security footage from a remote area where detectives had found about 100 broken baggage locks, according to a police report.

The review of security video found that Vang had removed what appeared to be gun cases on three consecutive days in late September and a case for a compound hunting bow in early October that a Michigan man had reported missing, the report said.

Vang was arrested and his apartment in St. Paul searched in mid-October after police witnessed him taking more items from the airport, according to the police report.

Authorities recovered more than 700 items in labeled boxes at the apartment including five shotguns, four handguns and a bolt-action rifle, the complaint said. The items recovered were valued at about $84,400.

Items recovered also included iPads, laptops, mobile phones, cameras, purses, clothing, boots, watches, jewelry, perfumes, cigars, fishing and hunting gear, backpacks and knives.

Vang initially said the items had fallen out of bags, but eventually admitted to taking them from about June or July until October, the complaint said.

Vang told police he had not given away any of the firearms taken and they were found in a living room closet along with the hunting bow and ammunition, the report said.

"He was taking everything from connecting bags, which is what really made it difficult," airport spokesman Patrick Hogan said. "We didn't know for some time that the problem even existed."

In most cases, passengers would report items missing from inside bags to the airlines they flew on or to the airports where they started or ended their trips, Hogan said.

Firearms are checked separately in their cases and their disappearance raised alarms with airport police, Hogan said.

"We saw they had been scanned as arriving at this airport and had not been scanned as getting on to an aircraft, so we knew something was happening to them at this airport," he said.

Vang is accused of taking the items to a car in an unsecured employee parking ramp for his wife, Vue Xiong, 21, to transport away from the airport. Xiong faces a single felony theft charge.

No attorney was listed for Vang or Xiong on Minnesota court electronic records and attempts to reach them by phone on Tuesday were unsuccessful. They were charged in February and their first court appearances are scheduled for later in April.

Phil Mickelson has won three green jackets, and he was the one asking all the questions Sunday during a practice round at the Masters.

"Awesome," Mickelson said after playing 18 holes with his agent and Augusta members Rice and Lee Styslinger. "She's one of my favorite people to be around. She's so knowledgeable and interesting to talk to. I always learn so much. When I saw she became a member, one of the first things I did was schedule a game close to Masters time. The fact she's here, we were able to work it out. It was really cool."

Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore made history in August when they became the first women invited to join the home of the Masters.

Rice had lunch with Mickelson and then donned her green jacket to meet with other members on the practice range. Even though she has been a member for more than seven months, it was no less striking to see her in the elegantly tapered jacket that for eight decades had been worn only by men.

She slipped away without taking questions, which is not unusual. Members don't typically give interviews during the week of the Masters.

They played a $10 game in which they rotated partners every six holes, and it ended on a big note -- Rice made what Mickelson described as a 40-foot putt with about 18 feet of break on the final hole. That gave her a net birdie.

"Perfect pace," Mickelson said. "Her speed, touch, being able to read the greens. She one of the better members on the greens that I've seen."

"Every once in a while," Rice said as Mickelson gushed.

Sunday before the Masters is the last day members have the same access to the course as the players, and they occasionally play in the same group. Tiger Woods teed off with Steve Stricker and U.S. Amateur Public Links champion T.J. Vogel as Rice was finishing.

She walked over to the first tee to greet Woods, and they spent a few minutes chatting before Woods teed off. Woods spent two years at Stanford. Rice became the first black woman to be a Stanford provost in 1993, and she now is a professor of political economy at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. She's also one of the Cardinal's biggest sports fans, along with being a member of the U.S. Golf Association's nominating committee.

This day was just about golf -- except for Mickelson's inquiring mind. Lefty was asked if their round ever reached a point that he hounded Rice with too many questions. Mickelson laughed and said, "She kept asking me about the golf course, and I kept asking her about countries."

"It was really fun," he said. "And she can really putt."

Told about what Mickelson said, Rice laughed and said, "He's such a good friend. I've known him for years."

Mickelson was thrilled to learn Augusta National had invited women to join, and he said it wasn't long before he called Rice to arrange a game.

"As soon as I saw she was a member, I called her to work up a game, just like I did Arnold (Palmer) back in the day as an amateur," Mickelson said. "She's just one of my favorite people to be around."

Rice on the golf course -- and later in a green jacket -- attracted the most attention on an otherwise lazy day before one of the biggest weeks of the year.

Zach Johnson gave his caddie, Damon Green, the treat of a lifetime by inviting him to play. Graeme McDowell played with his University of Alabama-Birmingham golf bag in a game with Brandt Snedeker and Toby Wilt, an Augusta member who was Snedeker's winning partner at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

The club's pro was on the tee, sending out members and players, just like any other country club. Masters week officially begins Monday, with the tournament starting Thursday. Yet, some players, like Mickelson and Adam Scott, have been around all weekend getting in their preparations before it gets too busy.

"My work is done," Scott said. "I've mapped out what I wanted to do. The course is the best I've ever seen it."

Mickelson did not plan to return to the course until Tuesday. Scott said he would putt for about an hour on Monday, and perhaps play nine holes Tuesday and Wednesday. He looked across the course, empty of fans, realizing it would be packed for the rest of the week.

He mixed with the well-to-do in the upscale suburb of San Marino, proclaiming himself an English baronet who taught film at USC.

He briefly settled in a wealthy Connecticut enclave, convincing locals he was a successful television producer. He talked his way onto Wall Street, persuading one firm to let him run a bond trading desk.

But it was his fraudulent claims of being a member of the famous Rockefeller family that led to his most lucrative success — and, ultimately, his downfall.

For the last three weeks, both the prosecution and defense in the downtown Los Angeles murder trial of Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter have highlighted the German native's numerous fabrications. Both are using his history of deceit to their advantage in the case, which revolves around the 1985 killing of his landlady's adult son in San Marino and the victim's missing wife.

Gerhartsreiter's use of false identities has taken on added importance to the prosecution, which is hampered by a lack of DNA or other strong forensic evidence connecting him to the killing, as well as by the faded memories of witnesses. Deputy Dist. Atty. Habib Balian has argued that Gerhartsreiter went to extreme lengths after the killing to hide his true identity from authorities, particularly when he realized detectives wanted to talk to him.

But defense attorneys point to their client's long history of fictional tales, saying they were part of a pattern that began as soon as he arrived in the United States, years before the killing.

"They've proven that he's a strange guy, an odd guy, a guy who may have tried to get things from other people, like meals and housing, but not much else," attorney Brad Bailey told jurors.

As closing arguments begin Monday, jurors have been left with two conflicting portraits of Gerhartsreiter: one as a simple fabulist, the other as a killer covering his tracks.

Gerhartsreiter was born in 1961 in the small Bavarian town of Bergen. His father was a sign-maker and his mother a homemaker, according to one witness who met them. As a teen, Gerhartsreiter talked of leaving Germany and his interest in the film industry.

He arrived in the U.S. in 1978 at 17, eventually enrolling at a high school in Berlin, Conn.

Edward Savio's family took him in. Savio said he liked the German student who wore tight jeans and claimed that his father was a wealthy industrialist who supplied parts for Mercedes-Benz.

Gerhartsreiter experimented with American accents, trying to perfect his speech, Savio said. Gerhartsreiter was kind to Savio and his sister, but he was dismissive of the rest of the family, telling Savio's mother her cooking was terrible and that he "would never live like this."

Gerhartsreiter soon enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he dated Elaine Siskoff, a student. Siskoff recalled how he asked her to be his bride in a "sham marriage" so he could get a green card. She refused, but her sister agreed.

After the wedding, Gerhartsreiter took off, telling Siskoff he was going to California for an internship with "Star Wars" director George Lucas, she testified.

He landed in San Marino, ingratiating himself with older parishioners at an Episcopal church and bragging that he was descended from British royalty. He passed out a business card with a family crest and a new name: Christopher Chichester, the 13th baronet.

He presented a friend from church with a paper bag filled with tea, saying it was from his family's plantation abroad. He hung around the USC film school, telling some he was a student and others he was a professor.

Though he boasted of wealth, he drove an old car and always seemed hungry, said a friend, Dana Farrar. Another friend said she could tell he was masking an accent and spoke like Thurston Howell III, the wealthy character on "Gilligan's Island."

Gerhartsreiter lived in a guest house at 1920 Lorain Road. The property's owner, Ruth "Didi" Sohus, lived in the front house with her son, John, and his wife, Linda.

In early 1985, the young couple disappeared. Around the same time, Gerhartsreiter lent a white truck to a USC student, the former student testified. The vehicle's description matched the truck the Sohuses had recently purchased.

There was other peculiar behavior, according to court testimony. Gerhartsreiter told a neighbor who complained about foul-smelling black smoke coming from his guest house chimney that he was burning carpet. He tried to sell an Oriental rug that appeared to have a small bloodstain.

DESPITE the shock of losing their jobs, the former CEO of Cork Film Festival, Mick Hannigan, and programmer, una Feely, treasure their memories of the 58-year-old event. Hannigan, who had helmed the festival since 1986, says there was the joy of “discovering talent, like Ken Wardrop. We took bags of DVDs home every night. I remember putting on Undressing My Mother and wondered who the guy behind it was. I went through my database and discovered that Wardrop had submitted about six other films. One was more interesting than the next. I knew this was real talent.”

Hannigan and Feely gave Wardrop a programme for his films.woven leather masterpiece from the house of bottega purses. Undressing My Mother, made in 2004, won the European Film Academy Award in 2005. Wardrop later made the charming documentary, His and Hers, about Irish women’s relationships with their men.

The Cork Film Festival was the first to screen Martin McDonagh’s short film, Six Shooter, which won at Cork, and at the Irish Film and Television Awards, before winning an Oscar for ‘best dramatic short.’

Kirsten Sheridan was a student filmmaker when she submitted her 1995 film, The Bench, to the festival. “I had no idea she was connected to Jim Sheridan. I thought her film was very rough around the edges, but I knew she had flair. It was only when she came to down to Cork, for the festival, that I realised who she was,” Hannigan says.

Last year’s opening gala, The Great Flood, directed by Bill Morrison, with live music by legendary classic and jazz guitarist, Bill Frisell, and his quartet, was an example of the festival “taking a chance. It’s a non-narrative, experimental film. But the audience really responded to it. The only other time I can remember a standing ovation of that significance was when we screened Carl Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc, with an original score performed by the RTé Symphony Orchestra.”

The Cork Film Festival was renowned for its celebration of the short film and was a platform for emerging Irish and Cork filmmakers. Such is the proliferation of local short films that last year’s ‘Made in Cork’ category was broadened into three programmes.

“This category started out with, maybe, 20 films being entered to something that became highly competitive,” says Feely. “It’s about nurturing the local film community and providing it with somewhere decent to show their films. The filmmakers had access to everything at the festival and they could meet industry professionals.”

Documentary makers were also championed, such as the maverick, John T Davis, who was a regular attendee. “You had people who are so dedicated to the documentary form that they came here especially for it. Documentary makers are the first people to pitch up at festivals. They found their audience in Cork,” Hannigan says.

Feely says that the philosophy of the festival was that “films had to earn their place in the programme. They had to be somehow unforgettable. You knew you weren’t going to please everyone, but, often, audiences wouldn’t get to see many of the films we showed. They weren’t going into mainstream distribution and they may not have been going into art-house distribution.”

Neither Hannigan nor Feely knows what they will do next. Their hearts and knowledge lie in film and they have a huge network, both locally and internationally. More than 3,000 films are submitted to the festival every year from all over the world.

Hannigan says that, at last December’s board meeting,woven leather masterpiece from the house of bottega purses. the board members were very complimentary about the festival.

“But they did say they wanted more red-carpet events. I think there is, perhaps, a fantasy that if only we asked for bigger films, the stars would come. The reality is that every main city across Ireland and England has film festivals. Film distribution is a commercial activity and people want to see a return on their investment. So there would need to be a motivation for the distributors to give their films to Cork, as opposed to Dublin.”

Dublin Film Festival has been graced by stars of the calibre of Al Pacino and Danny De Vito in the past few years. “But Dublin is major territory, second to London. We have a different focus, as a niche festival for young, emerging filmmakers.”

Hannigan says that, given the size of Cork and the cinema infrastructure, “it’s a moot point whether the Cork Film Festival can have the type of glitzy, glamorous event that the board thinks it can have. We laid all this out in a discussion document recently.”

With its broad-ranging programme, which includes education and the very popular Slow Food film event, Hannigan says he feels the festival was “ticking all the boxes, attracting young filmmakers and enjoying a great reputation internationally. The ordinary film buff is not going to travel to Cork to see the latest film that will be shown at their own festival, anyway, or will be in their own cinemas down the road.”

Directors, such as Lenny Abrahamson and Paul Duane, have contacted the board of the Cork Film Festival expressing their disgust at Hannigan and Feely being let go. Hannigan says that Duane will boycott the festival.

“I think there’s concern out there that by getting rid of Una and I, the festival will lose its way. It remains to be seen whether we can continue to work in film. We are obviously concerned about our own situations, but our heart is with the festival.

“We have built up credibility for it and my concern is that this may be frittered away now. I think that’s bad for Cork,” Hannigan says.

There has been renewed fight over the ownership of Bakassi Peninsula as Cameroon gendarmes launched an attack on Efot Ebot Ikot village in Bakassi with 11 persons feared dead and about 1,800 displaced. Early last month, there had been misunderstanding between the Bakassi people living in the Peninsula and the Cameroon Government. The Cameroon Government is accusing Nigerians of not paying tax while Nigerians are complaining of double taxation and all sorts of human indignities meted out to them by the gendarmes.

The development had led to series of confrontations between the Cameroonian authorities and the Nigerian nationals with over 300 fishing boats and nets seized by Cameroon security agents. Disclosing this while addressing newsmen during the visit to the displaced people of Bakassi at the camp at St. Mark’s Primary School, Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross River State, former senator representing Southern Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, said it was a pity that Cameroon government was not respecting the Green Tree Agreement and rather took pleasure in engaging in all sorts of human rights abuses. Ita-Giwa described the situation as being unbearable as the people were living in deplorable condition.Shop the latest collection of bottega wallet from the most popular stores.

She said children and pregnant women had no water, food or clothing with neither medicine nor good sanitary condition to produce succor to the displaced people. Ita-Giwa urged the Federal Government and the international community to take proactive steps to resettle the people at Dayspring Island where the refugees wanted to be resettled. “It is not their fault that the land was ceded to the Cameroons. Our people don’t want to remain here and continue to beg for alms.

They want to be resettled in a place they can become self-sustaining.” Confirming that 11 persons might have died in the process, the camp master for the displaced people of Bakassi, Chief Etim Okon Ene, said the Bakassi people needed restoration against the Green Tree Agreement. Also speaking, the paramount ruler of Bakassi, His Highness Etiyin Etim Okon Edet said he was happy that President Goodluck Jonathan set up the Presidential Committee on Resettlement of Bakassi People, which Senator Giwa was a member but lamented that the implementation process of resolution on the matter had been very slow.

To cushion their hardship, the Director General of the Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr. Vincent Aqua, had sent relief materials to the displaced people. The materials include mattresses, cartons of Indomie Noddles, bags of salt, rice, garri, blankets. Aqua urged the refugees to be calm as the state government was aware of their plight, stressing that very soon government was going to give directives to Akpabuyo and Bakassi Local Government Council authorities to come up with palliative measures that would alleviate the sufferings of the people.

Liason Officer, National Union for Nigeria and Cameroon, Prince Aston Joseph, lamented that his people who previously could fish within the length and breadth of the waters had now been restricted from going to those regions that were viable for making a big cash, as they were no longer allowed to go beyond a particular boundary. Aston complained that Bakassi people had so far lost over 300 fishing boats and nets to the gendarmes and urged the Federal Government to come to the rescue of three women who had so far given birth to babies at the camp.Find purses from our handbags and purses Collection in a variety of styles for every occasion.

Police walked into a makeshift drug "supermarket" at the invitation of the suspected dealers early Tuesday.

A pair from out of town were hit with an array of felony and misdemeanor drug charges after police officers entered their rented room at the Comfort Inn, South Transit Street, shortly before 4 a.m. and found quantities of suspected marijuana, cocaine and prescription medications, some packaged in tell-tale sandwich bags, resting on a night stand.

Charles E. Griffith, 30, 1642 Linwood Ave., Niagara Falls, is being held without bail, and Brianna J. Brown, 25, 281 Millicent Ave., Buffalo, is being held in lieu of $10,000 bail, after they were both arraigned Tuesday in City Court on charges including third-, fifth- and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and third-degree criminal possession of marijuana.

Police were called to the Comfort Inn by the general manager after Griffith and Brown complained they were unable to get into their room and feared the room had been broken into.

Once police arrived,Incredible high quality Cheap Bottega veneta bottega handbag, the general manager used a key to open the door and asked the officers to enter and make sure the room was safe. Neither Griffith nor Brown objected to police entering the room, Police Chief Lawrence Eggert noted.

When the officers entered, they noticed a strong odor of marijuana immediately, looked around the room and saw a quart-size zip bag "stuffed" with marijuana, laying on a night stand. In an opened night stand drawer they saw sandwich bags holding quantities of cocaine, oxymorphone tabs and a medication normally prescribed to persons being weaned off of heroin, Eggert said.

Upon searching the room the officers found several sandwich bags containing individual packages of marijuana, plus two digital scales, a pair of rubber gloves, three cell phones, three intact White Tiger cigars, a box of sandwich bags and $2,500 cash.

"It was kind of like a supermarket for drugs," Eggert said. "Anything you wanted, they had."

It's relatively unusual for drug dealers to set up shop in a hotel room in the city, Eggert said.

When Griffith and Brown were charged, police did not ask how long they'd been renting a room. Investigation is continuing, Eggert said.

Samoa Air planned on Wednesday to start pricing its first international flights based on the weight of its passengers and their bags. Depending on the flight, each kilogram (2.2 pounds) costs 93 cents to $1.06.

That means the average American man weighing 195 pounds with a 35 pound bag would pay $97 to go one-way between Apia,Shop the latest collection of bottega wallet from the most popular stores. Samoa, and Pago Pago, American Samoa. Competitors typically charge $130 to $140 round trip for similar routes.

The weight-based pricing is not new to the airline, which launched in June. It has been using the pricing model since November, but in January the U.S. Department of Transportation approved its international route between American Samoa and Samoa.

The airline's chief executive, Chris Langton, said Tuesday that "planes are run by weight and not by seat, and travelers should be educated on this important issue. The plane can only carry a certain amount of weight and that weight needs to be paid. There is no other way."

Travelers in the region already are weighed before they fly because the planes used between the islands are small, said David Vaeafe, executive director of the American Samoa Visitors Bureau. Samoa Air's fleet includes two nine-seat planes for commercial routes and a three-seater for an air taxi service.

Langton said passengers who need more room will be given one row on the plane to ensure comfort.

The new pricing system would make Samoa Air the first to charge strictly by weight, a change that Vaeafe said is, "in many ways... a fair concept for passengers."

"For example, a 12- or 13-year-old passenger, who is small in size and weight, won't have to pay an adult fare, based on airline fares that anyone 12 years and older does pay the adult fare," he said.

Vaeafe said the pricing system has worked in Samoa but it's not clear whether it will be embraced by travelers in the U.S. territory.

Langton said the airline has received mixed responses from overseas travelers since it began promoting the pricing on its website and Facebook page.

Ana Faapouli, an American Samoa resident who frequently travels to Samoa, said the pricing scheme will likely be profitable for Samoa Air.

"Samoa Air is smart enough to find ways to benefit from this service as they will be competing against two other airlines," Faapouli said.

Pago Pago-based Inter Island Airways and Polynesian Airlines, which is owned by the Samoa government, also run flights between the country and American Samoa.