Butcher Knife

It’s been more than two decades since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Experts still wonder how the Soviet empire managed to last so long. I know how: animal protein. My friend Charlotte and I spent two weeks traveling in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary in the summer of 1987. Everywhere we ate, the menus were “mit Fleisch,’’ this; “mit Fleisch,’’ that. Charlotte spoke German. I didn’t. “Vegetarisch?’’ she’d ask looking at the menu. “Vegetarier,’’ she’d say pointing at me. The looks I got ran the gamut from pity to incomprehension.

ATLANTIC CITY - Authorities investigating the stabbing deaths of two Canadian tourists during a mugging said Wednesday that the victims were a 47-year-old woman and her 80-year-old mother, who tried to aid her. Po Lin Wan and her daughter Alice Mei See Leung, both from the Scarborough section of Toronto, were killed by a Philadelphia woman across the street from Bally's Atlantic City, the Atlantic County prosecutor's office said. The office also corrected a chronology of the attack it initially released Tuesday night.

A man was shot to death Friday night in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Jamaica Plain, Boston police said. The shooting took place about 6:30 p.m. in a house on Hyde Park Avenue near the intersection with Walk Hill Street, which is a short distance from the MBTA's Forest Hills station. The shooting is considered a homicide, said Boston police spokeswoman, Officer Nicole Grant. On Friday night, police blocked off a three houses, including the scene of the shooting. Inside a multifamily house, the flash of crime-scene photographers' cameras could be seen as other police officers stood...

WOBURN - As a raging Christopher Piantedosi kicked in the door and hacked again and again at his ex-girlfriend with a meat cleaver and as she pleaded with him, "Chris, please stop! I love you," the horror of her killling was recorded by an iPad in the room, prosecutors said Monday. Left behind by the victim's 15-year-old daughter - who had been video-chatting with a friend on Thursday when Piantedosi allegedly burst in - the iPad saw and transmitted to the girl's friend the final, terrible details of the Burlington resident's life and her assailant's rage.

WOBURN - As a raging Christopher Piantedosi kicked in the door and hacked again and again at his ex-girlfriend with a meat cleaver and as she pleaded with him, "Chris, please stop! I love you," the horror of her killling was recorded by an iPad in the room, prosecutors said Monday. Left behind by the victim's 15-year-old daughter - who had been video-chatting with a friend on Thursday when Piantedosi allegedly burst in - the iPad saw and transmitted to the girl's friend the final, terrible details of the Burlington resident's life and her assailant's rage.

STAMFORD, Conn. - A large pet chimpanzee attacked a woman visiting a Stamford home yesterday, leaving her with serious facial injuries, police said. Officers were called to a house on Rockrimmon Road after the owner lost control of the 175-pound primate, which was shot and killed by a responding officer when it tried to get into his cruiser, police said. The injured woman was taken to Stamford Hospital. Her condition and identity were not available, but police described her as a woman in her 50s. The Advocate of Stamford reported on its website...

ATLANTIC CITY - Authorities investigating the stabbing deaths of two Canadian tourists during a mugging said Wednesday that the victims were a 47-year-old woman and her 80-year-old mother, who tried to aid her. Po Lin Wan and her daughter Alice Mei See Leung, both from the Scarborough section of Toronto, were killed by a Philadelphia woman across the street from Bally's Atlantic City, the Atlantic County prosecutor's office said. The office also corrected a chronology of the attack it initially released Tuesday night.

TACOMA -- A seriously wounded 8-year-old boy calmly described his father's deadly knife rampage during a call for help to 911. "My daddy killed me with a knife and I'm gone," the boy told a dispatcher. "Can you please send the Army men or the ambulance?" The soft-spoken child gave a wrong address and then hung up. But a second dispatcher called back, keeping him on the line while a frantic search was underway. On Wednesday, authorities released the remarkable tape of Anthony Sukto's calm courage during the Oct. 22 ordeal, and the frantic efforts to find him. "What's going...

Of all the supernatural shows that have premiered in recent years, NBC's "Heroes" always had special promise: an epic feel, a comic-book knack for pacing, and a handful of standout characters, from the corrupt politician who could fly to the lovable nerd who could travel through time. But while the show won a devoted following, it also quickly built a reputation for disappointment. "Heroes" routinely builds up to climaxes that fizzle, adds and drops characters with lightning speed, rewrites its own rules with abandon.

The ads are making "Vacancy " look like the latest meat-grinding horror special to come down the chute in the wake of "Saw " and "The Hills Have Eyes . " It's not. It's an entrance exam. And a pretty good one at that. Director Nimrod Antal made a stylish Hungarian film in 2003 called "Kontroll ," about brutal power games among the ganglike employees of the Budapest subway system. Riding on that festival hit, the L A -raised director has returned home to see what Hollywood might offer and come up with a stripped-down suspense drama that, at its best, begs comparisons to Steven...

A man was shot to death Friday night in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Jamaica Plain, Boston police said. The shooting took place about 6:30 p.m. in a house on Hyde Park Avenue near the intersection with Walk Hill Street, which is a short distance from the MBTA's Forest Hills station. The shooting is considered a homicide, said Boston police spokeswoman, Officer Nicole Grant. On Friday night, police blocked off a three houses, including the scene of the shooting. Inside a multifamily house, the flash of crime-scene photographers' cameras could be seen as other police officers stood...

It’s been more than two decades since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Experts still wonder how the Soviet empire managed to last so long. I know how: animal protein. My friend Charlotte and I spent two weeks traveling in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary in the summer of 1987. Everywhere we ate, the menus were “mit Fleisch,’’ this; “mit Fleisch,’’ that. Charlotte spoke German. I didn’t. “Vegetarisch?’’ she’d ask looking at the menu. “Vegetarier,’’ she’d say pointing at me. The looks I got ran the gamut from pity to incomprehension.

STAMFORD, Conn. - A large pet chimpanzee attacked a woman visiting a Stamford home yesterday, leaving her with serious facial injuries, police said. Officers were called to a house on Rockrimmon Road after the owner lost control of the 175-pound primate, which was shot and killed by a responding officer when it tried to get into his cruiser, police said. The injured woman was taken to Stamford Hospital. Her condition and identity were not available, but police described her as a woman in her 50s. The Advocate of Stamford reported on its website last...

Of all the supernatural shows that have premiered in recent years, NBC's "Heroes" always had special promise: an epic feel, a comic-book knack for pacing, and a handful of standout characters, from the corrupt politician who could fly to the lovable nerd who could travel through time. But while the show won a devoted following, it also quickly built a reputation for disappointment. "Heroes" routinely builds up to climaxes that fizzle, adds and drops characters with lightning speed, rewrites its own rules with abandon.

The ads are making "Vacancy " look like the latest meat-grinding horror special to come down the chute in the wake of "Saw " and "The Hills Have Eyes . " It's not. It's an entrance exam. And a pretty good one at that. Director Nimrod Antal made a stylish Hungarian film in 2003 called "Kontroll ," about brutal power games among the ganglike employees of the Budapest subway system. Riding on that festival hit, the L A -raised director has returned home to see what Hollywood might offer and come up with a stripped-down suspense drama that, at its best, begs comparisons to Steven...

TACOMA -- A seriously wounded 8-year-old boy calmly described his father's deadly knife rampage during a call for help to 911. "My daddy killed me with a knife and I'm gone," the boy told a dispatcher. "Can you please send the Army men or the ambulance?" The soft-spoken child gave a wrong address and then hung up. But a second dispatcher called back, keeping him on the line while a frantic search was underway. On Wednesday, authorities released the remarkable tape of Anthony Sukto's calm courage during the Oct. 22 ordeal, and the frantic efforts to find him. ...

TYLER, Texas - A 16-year-old former juvenile detainee is accused of stabbing a high school teacher to death with a butcher knife. Another teen was convicted of killing a roofer during a 30-minute robbery spree. Both were released by the Texas Youth Commission because the agency was not equipped to treat their mental illnesses and had to let them go under the law. The cases highlight what some juvenile justice specialists say is a loophole in the way Texas treats underage offenders with severe psychiatric issues.

Prosecutors say Timothy Kostka broke into Barbara Coyne's residence in South Boston on Patriots Day last week looking to steal high-end fishing equipment, but encountered the 67-year-old grandmother during the break-in and fatally stabbed her. "The defendant . . . slipped into Barbara Coyne's home in broad daylight, beat her, and slashed her throat, leaving her bloody and dying," Ursula Knight, assistant Suffolk district attorney, said during...