Criminal Investigation

MISSOULA, Mont. - As she tends her inn on the bank of Montana's Clark Fork River, Meg Estey says she welcomes the federal government's investigation of 80 reported rapes in three years in the college town she calls home. "I have never in my life felt concerned about my safety in Missoula," said Estey, an innkeeper at Goldsmith's Bed and Breakfast. "This is alarming, knowing this is going on in your community. To know the book is being opened and evaluated is a good thing in our minds.

Argentina's government on Thursday revoked the commuter railway concession for a company whose train crashed in February, killing 51 people and injuring 703. The Trains of Buenos Aires company, which operated some commuter rail lines in the capital region since the operations were privatized in 1995, failed to adequately maintain equipment, ignored multiple sanctions and fines, and allowed quality to seriously deteriorate, Planning Minister Julio...

TORONTO -- Canadian officials are opening a criminal investigation into accounting at Nortel Networks Corp. Shares in the telecom equipment maker edged lower yesterday. Canada's largest high-tech company said late yesterday it had received a letter from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's Integrated Market Enforcement Team advising that it will begin a criminal investigation. The probe follows months of informal review by police. "The RCMP are beginning a criminal investigation, but they did not provide additional detail," spokeswoman Tina Warren said yesterday.

The president of the Vatican bank has effectively been ousted after receiving a unanimous vote of no-confidence from bank overseers for having leaked documents and failed to do his job at a critical time in the Holy See's efforts to show financial transparency, the Vatican and officials said. Ettore Gotti Tedeschi has been a polarizing figure ever since he was named president of the bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR, in 2009. He is under investigation for alleged money laundering by Italian magistrates, but the investigation isn't believed to have factored into the...

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into Toyota Motor Corp.’s safety problems, and the Securities and Exchange Commission is reviewing what the automaker told investors, the company disclosed yesterday. The developments created new public relations challenges for Toyota plus the prospects of hefty federal fines or even indictments against executives in the United States and Japan. They also complicate Toyota’s ability to discuss details of its recall of 8.5 million vehicles because anything executives say could be used against the...

WELLINGTON, Fla. - Investigators have opened a criminal probe into whether someone poisoned 21 polo horses that died during preparations for a match in the sport's top championship in Florida, officials said yesterday. The horses from a Venezuelan-owned team began collapsing Sunday as they were unloaded from trailers at the International Polo Club Palm Beach, with some dying at the scene and others hours later at stables or clinics. State investigators believe the horses died from an adverse drug reaction, toxins in their food or...

Attorneys for a northern Maine priest say a criminal investigation leading to his voluntary leave of absence has nothing to do with allegations of sexual misconduct. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland announced this week that the Rev. James Nadeau had taken a leave pending results of an investigation launched by the Maine attorney general's office. Neither the diocese nor the attorney general's office would disclose the nature of the investigation The Bangor Daily News ( http://bit.ly/Ie1afx)

The U.S. Treasury Department has seized more than $60,000 from a bank account of the owners of the Mystic Pizza restaurant made famous in a 1988 movie starring Julia Roberts. The Day of New London reports ( http://bit.ly/wKrjKf) that federal authorities took the money from the account of John Zelepos, George Zelepos and Christos Zelepos in January after a criminal investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. IRS officials refused to disclose details of the investigation or why the money was seized.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan barred the head of the airline whose jet crashed near the capital from leaving the country Saturday, vowing to investigate a tragedy that has revived fears about the safety of aviation in a country saddled by massive economic problems. The Bhoja Air passenger jet crashed Friday evening as it tried to land in a thunderstorm at Islamabad's main airport, killing all 127 people on board. As the second major air disaster close to the capital in less than two years, the crash triggered fresh criticism of an already embattled...

FAIRFAX, Va. - A man who says his father's body was left for months to rot in the garage of a funeral home when he was supposed to be buried with military honors is asking for a criminal investigation. Richard Morgan Jr. of Harrisonburg hand-delivered a letter Monday to the office of Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh, contending that the National Funeral Home neglected the remains of his father, Major Richard Morgan, so badly that it constitutes a crime under state law. "Placing my father's corpse in a garage, unrefrigerated, cannot be...

The state's highest court ­ordered a juvenile court judge Thursday to explore whether the privacy rights of Boston public school students are violated when their student ID cards are given to Boston police for use in photo arrays. In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Judicial Court said it needed more information from the judge before it could decide the constitutionality of the practice, which was used in 2009 as police investigated the armed robbery of a Boston public school student by a fellow student.

IOWA CITY — Lawyers representing a disgraced egg industry magnate, his son, and one of their company's financial officers say their clients are potential targets of a criminal investigation into the 2010 salmonella outbreak that sickened thousands of Americans and led to a massive recall of their products. In recent documents filed in a civil case in California, defense lawyers for Austin ‘‘Jack" DeCoster, son Peter DeCoster, and Quality Egg chief financial officer Patsy Larson say a federal grand jury has been meeting in Iowa to determine whether fraud or other...

LONDON — Rebekah Brooks, the former head of Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper empire and a close friend of Prime Minister David Cameron, was formally charged Tuesday, along with her husband and four others, of perverting the course of justice in the hacking scandal that has burrowed deeply into British public life. It was the first time that charges had been brought since the police reopened inquiries into the long-running scandal 16 months ago. The accusations are an important watershed in a wider criminal investigation that has resulted in about 50 people being arrested and released on bail by Scotland...

MISSOULA, Mont. - As she tends her inn on the bank of Montana's Clark Fork River, Meg Estey says she welcomes the federal government's investigation of 80 reported rapes in three years in the college town she calls home. "I have never in my life felt concerned about my safety in Missoula," said Estey, an innkeeper at Goldsmith's Bed and Breakfast. "This is alarming, knowing this is going on in your community. To know the book is being opened and evaluated is a good thing in our minds.

German police say they have opened a criminal investigation against 81 members of an ultra-conservative Muslim group who were arrested Tuesday after clashes with officers. Police spokeswoman Claudia Otto said Wednesday all of the Salafists are being investigated on suspicion of dangerous bodily harm and breach of the peace. The men were arrested after attempting to stop a small far-right march in the western German city of Solingen during which cartoons depicting Islam's Prophet Muhammad were shown.

Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reports that a woman starved to death after embarking on a spiritual diet that required her to stop eating or drinking and live off sunlight alone. The Zurich newspaper reported Wednesday that the unnamed Swiss woman in her fifties decided to follow the radical fast in 2010 after viewing an Austrian documentary about an Indian guru who claims to have lived this way for 70 years. Tages-Anzeiger says there have been similar cases of self-starvation in Germany, Britain and Australia.

Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reports that a woman starved to death after embarking on a spiritual diet that required her to stop eating or drinking and live off sunlight alone. The Zurich newspaper reported Wednesday that the unnamed Swiss woman in her fifties decided to follow the radical fast in 2010 after viewing an Austrian documentary about an Indian guru who claims to have lived this way for 70 years. Tages-Anzeiger says there have been similar cases of self-starvation in Germany, Britain and Australia.

Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell is planning to announce the results of his criminal investigation into whether officials from the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant lied about the release of radioactive tritium from the plant’s piping system. Sorrell is planning to make the announcement Wednesday in Montpelier. In early 2010 officials with the Vernon reactor admitted they had misled state officials — sometimes under oath — by saying the plant did not have the sort of underground pipes that could carry tritium when the plant did have such a system.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan barred the head of the airline whose jet crashed near the capital from leaving the country Saturday, vowing to investigate a tragedy that has revived fears about the safety of aviation in a country saddled by massive economic problems. The Bhoja Air passenger jet crashed Friday evening as it tried to land in a thunderstorm at Islamabad's main airport, killing all 127 people on board. As the second major air disaster close to the capital in less than two years, the crash triggered fresh criticism of an already embattled government, which faced...

WASHINGTON - The General Services Administration investigator who revealed a wild agency spending spree said Monday he is looking into possible bribery and kickbacks, and has already recommended criminal charges to the Justice Department. Inspector General Brian Miller made clear that he is not done investigating GSA current and former officials, after his lengthy report April 2 on an October 2010 Las Vegas conference that cost taxpayers $823,000. The regional executive who hosted the Western Regions Conference, Jeffrey Neely, invoked his Fifth...