Tokyo's 'oldest woman' is missing?
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/bre ... ing19.html
Local authorities in Japan have admitted that they lost track of Tokyo’s supposed oldest woman years ago, only days after it emerged that the city’s oldest man had been long dead.
Fusa Furuya, born in July 1897 and now aged 113 years old, does not live at the address where she is registered and her whereabouts are unknown, a municipal official said.
He said that they had not personally contacted the two old people for decades, despite their listing as the longest-living in the city.
They made the discoveries when they began updating their records for a holiday in honour of the elderly to be held next month.
The revelations last week that police had found the mummified remains of a man thought to have been Tokyo's oldest resident at 111 but actually dead for 30 years shocked a country facing the challenge of a rapidly ageing population.
"It is important for authorities to grasp the reality of where and how old people are living," health minister Akira Nagatsuma told reporters.
As of October 1st last, there were 41,000 centenarians in Japan, whose women have held the record for the world's longest life expectancy for 25 years.
More reports of missing centenarians this week showed that their whereabouts were unknown or their family members were unaware of what had happened to them.
But in the case of the mummified man, police are investigating his family members for possible fraud after money was withdrawn from the bank account of the deceased, who had been receiving a pension, according to media reports.
JamesWhitehead said:Bishop Porfyrios: Much as I'd love to stick around and bless your taramosalata, I find that tonight I am watching Boy George on the television - again! :shock:
Excerpt from Father Tzatziki, episode 23
ramonmercado said:Kidnap victim Dugard speaks out
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8307063.stm
Previous public photos of Jaycee Dugard showed her at age 11
US kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard has spoken publicly for the first time since she was discovered living with her alleged kidnappers after 18 years.
"I'm so happy to be back with my family," the online edition of People magazine quoted her as saying.
The first photo of her as she is now was also published online, showing her smiling with long brown hair.
Phillip Garrido and his wife Nancy are accused of kidnapping Ms Dugard when she was 11. They deny the charges.
...
Garrido 'fit to stand trial' over Jaycee Dugard kidnap
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12362073
Phillip Garrido Phillip Garrido had spent time in prison on a 1977 rape conviction
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A California judge has ruled that a man accused of kidnapping Jaycee Dugard, a young woman held captive for 18 years, is mentally competent to stand trial.
Phillip Garrido is now due back in court later this month to enter a plea. The judge ruled he was fit for trial after reviewing psychiatric reports.
Mr Garrido and his wife, Nancy, are accused of abducting Ms Dugard in 1991, aged 11, from a street near her home.
Mr Garrido allegedly fathered her two daughters while keeping her captive.
Ms Dugard was discovered and the couple arrested in California in August 2009.
The 18 counts against the couple include kidnapping for sexual purposes, rape, lewd acts on a child, false imprisonment and production of child pornography with the victim, according to the indictment document.
In addition, Mr Garrido is charged under special allegations stemming from a 1977 rape conviction, including being a habitual sex offender.
Mrs Garrido entered a "not guilty" plea last year. Mr Garrido was not formally charged at that time, pending the evaluation of his mental status.
ramonmercado said:Who ate the other half of the dodo?
Garridos 'confess' to Jaycee Dugard kidnapping
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12604814
Nancy and Phillip Garrido, shown 3 February in court in California A lawyer for Phillip Garrido did not confirm or deny Mr Tapson's account of the purported confession
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* 'Dugard kidnapper' fit for trial
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The California couple accused of kidnapping a California girl and holding her prisoner for 18 years have confessed to detectives, a lawyer says.
Stephen Tapson, who represents Nancy Garrido, said she and Phillip Garrido had admitted snatching 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard in 1991.
He said a plea deal was not yet agreed but prosecutors had proposed a 440-year sentence for him and 241 years for her.
Mr Garrido allegedly fathered Ms Dugard's two children.
Phillip Garrido's lawyer, Susan Gellman, did not confirm or deny Mr Tapson's account.
Speaking after a court hearing in Placerville, California, Mr Tapson told reporters that the Garridos had submitted to a lengthy interview with police detectives last month.
Ms Dugard was present during a session with Mrs Garrido, the first time the pair had met since the latter's August 2009 arrest, he said.
Plea negotiations
The 18 counts against the couple include kidnapping for sexual purposes, rape, lewd acts on a child, false imprisonment and production of child pornography with the victim, according to the indictment document.
Prosecutors and defence lawyers for the pair have reportedly begun negotiations towards a plea deal.
Mrs Garrido pleaded not guilty to the charges against her last year. Phillip Garrido had been due to enter a plea on Monday but his lawyer asked for the hearing to be postponed until 17 March.
Mr Tapson said the Garridos had spoken to detectives in the hopes of winning a deal that would allow Mrs Garrido one day to walk out of prison, the Sacramento Bee newspaper reported.
Prosecutors say that in June 1991, the Garridos snatched Ms Dugard from a street in El Dorado county, California.
They then held her - and later her two children - hostage in a squalid garden behind their house in Antioch, near San Francisco. Prosecutors allege Ms Dugard was repeatedly raped during her 18-year captivity.
In August 2009, a police officer at the University of California, in Berkeley, questioned Mr Garrido, then notified his parole officer after discovering he was on parole for sex offences.
The parole officer called him in for a meeting the next day, and Mr Garrido brought with him Nancy Garrido, Ms Dugard and the two children he is alleged to have fathered. Ms Dugard and the children were freed and the couple arrested.
Phillip Garrido had previously been convicted of rape and kidnapping in Nevada.
Dundee diploma lost for 40 years claimed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-t ... l-12651278
Diploma The diploma was originally sent out in 1970
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The widower of a woman whose diploma from a Dundee college went missing in the post 40 years ago has said he is looking forward to receiving it.
The certificate was sent to Dorothy Sanderson in Arbroath, Angus, in 1970, but never reached her.
She died in 1995, but her widowed husband Dr Andrew Scott was traced after a relative contacted the BBC.
Dundee College received the diploma in the post on Thursday, marked "not at this address".
It had been issued by the then Dundee College of Commerce when Miss Sanderson passed her one-year medical secretarial studies course in 1970 and sent to an address in Montrose Road, Arbroath.
Dr Scott said: "It just seems surprising after over 40 years. I hadn't been aware that she hadn't had one - but I don't remember seeing it either.
"It didn't seem to hinder what she wanted to do because she was still able to get work as a medical secretary."
Dr Scott, who now lives in Heswall, Wirral, said his wife had worked in Dundee for a year before joining him in Aberdeen, where she found work at the city's Royal Infirmary.
'Bits and pieces'
The couple were married in 1973.
He added: "It would be nice to have it after all this time, because I've got one or two of her old bits and pieces but it would be nice to have the actual diploma."
Dundee College said the diploma would be sent to Dr Scott as soon as possible.
A spokesman said staff were "saddened" to hear Mrs Scott had died at such a young age, but were pleased she had pursued a successful career as a medical secretary.
The Royal Mail said it suspected the package had been "reposted" rather than being lost in the postal system for such a long time.
Stolen Stan Laurel statue returned after 'trip'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-g ... t-12773490
Michael Durkin with the returned Stan Laurel statue The statue was stolen from the Oban hotel seven years ago
A lifesize statue of Stan Laurel which was stolen from a Scottish hotel seven years ago has been returned, along with a diary of his adventures.
The six-foot-tall figure was stolen from Oban's Rowantree Hotel in 2004.
Its owners put up a reward for its return but eventually lost hope of ever seeing the mascot again.
Staff were shocked when the statue appeared at the door last week, with a spoof diary around his neck claiming he had only "popped out for a loaf".
It revealed his "adventures", including images of him superimposed alongside famous figures, including the Queen, Nelson Mandela, the Spanish World Cup winning team, Barack Obama and Colonel Gaddafi.
'Pretty embarrassed'
Rowantree Hotel office manager Michael Durkin, 35, who was working at the hotel in 2004 when the statue was stolen, said: "Stan went missing seven years ago, overnight.
"Everyone was annoyed and pretty embarrassed that a six-foot statue could have been taken from the reception without anyone noticing.
"The hotel was full the night he was pinched and we thought a stag party may have been responsible, but we never got to the bottom of the mystery and we'd given up hope of seeing Stan again."
"Then, I was coming in to work last Wednesday and saw him standing at the door to the back car park. I couldn't believe my eyes and just burst out laughing."
His last diary entry reads: "It will be a while before I go out for a loaf again."
Mr Durkin added: "There's a camera trained on him now."