Swiss 'gigolo' admits blackmail

A Swiss man has pleaded guilty to seducing several rich women in order to swindle them out of millions of dollars, at a trial in Munich, Germany.

Helg Sgarbi - nicknamed by the media as the Swiss Gigolo - faces up to 10 years in prison for fraud and extortion.

His most prominent victim was Susanne Klatten, the heiress of the German car manufacturer BMW.

Sgarbi told the court he deeply regretted his actions and apologised to his victims.

Prosecutors say Mrs Klatten, a married business tycoon who owns a 12.5% stake in BMW, gave Helg Sgarbi nearly $9m, but went to the police after he tried to blackmail her.

The reclusive 46-year-old mother-of-three said he secretly videoed them having sex in a Munich hotel and threatened to make the tape public if he did not receive another $18m.

The BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Munich says there has been a huge amount of media attention on the trial, which is being described as one of the most remarkable and sensational in German judicial history.

Sgarbi was surrounded by photographers as he entered the courtroom but sat expressionless while the charges against him were read out.

Three of the women were referred to by the initials H, S and R to protect their identities, while Mrs Klatten was listed by name.

Sgarbi's lawyer then told the court the accusations were basically accurate.

Before the trial, Sgarbi had been expected to face a sentence of up to 10 years, but the feeling is it will be reduced because of his guilty plea, our correspondent says.

Defiant Sudanese president visits Darfur

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir made his first trip to Darfur since an international tribunal ordered his arrest on war crimes charges, pledging resistance Sunday to what he called efforts to "recolonize" Africa.
Thousands of supporters lined the streets of El-Fasher, the capital of Sudan's North Darfur state. Al-Bashir toured the city in an open car in full military uniform, drawing cheers similar to the ones he received in a Thursday rally in Khartoum.

"They know that we are leading the international movement to rebel against injustice, against the new world order and against neocolonialism," he said Sunday.

"We are ones who liberated Africa. We supported liberation movements all over Africa and expelled the colonizers from Africa, so it is completely unacceptable for us to allow the recolonization of Sudan."

The International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands, has charged al-Bashir with war crimes and crimes against humanity. The tribunal issued a warrant for his arrest last week, accusing him of complicity in a campaign of violence against the people of Darfur, in the west of the country.

The allegations stem from the long-running civil war between rebels in the territory and the government in Khartoum. The United Nations estimates that 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict, and 2.5 million have been forced to flee their homes.

Sudan has angrily rejected the accusations and the indictment. Kamal Obaid, Sudan's state minister of information and communications, called the ICC a "white man's tribunal" and the arrest warrant "an insult."

After the warrant, Sudan ordered a number of international aid agencies out of the country and seized their assets. The agencies have warned that the expulsions could have put up to 1 million lives at risk -- but the warrant appears to have rallied many Sudanese behind al-Bashir, said Thierry Durand, the director of operations in Sudan for the medical charity Doctors Without Borders.

"The decision of the International Criminal Court has generated support," Durand said. "It transcended a bit the political parties here. So it's a question of national pride somehow."

Durand said the Nobel Peace Prize-winning group has no idea what has happened to the patients in its hospitals since it was ordered out of the country.

Sudanese authorities accused Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups of misappropriating funds and spying. Durand dismissed those allegations as "propaganda," noting that his group does not take any government funding and has no ties to the ICC.

"We have been taken offstage and mistaken for human rights activists that have lobbied for justice and for the ICC," he said. "This is why we are not maintaining any relation with the ICC and certainly not providing them with any kind of information."



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Real IRA was behind army attack

A Dublin-based newspaper has received a call supposedly from the Real IRA which claimed responsibility for the attack at Massereene army base.

Using a recognised codename, it claimed responsibility for the attack in which two soldiers were killed.

Four other people, including two pizza delivery men, were also injured when gunmen struck at the Antrim base.

The prime minister described the attack as "evil" and said "no murderer" would derail the peace process.

The soldiers are the first to be murdered in Northern Ireland since Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick was killed by an IRA sniper in 1997.

The dead men, both in their early 20s were due to fly to Afghanistan in the coming days.

Flowers have been laid at the scene and a vigil was held nearby on Sunday.

The Real IRA was born out of a split in the mainstream Provisional IRA in October 1997, when the IRA's so-called quartermaster-general resigned over Sinn Fein's direction in the peace process.

It carried out the worst single atrocity of over 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland when it bombed the County Tyrone town of Omagh, killing 29 people, in August 1998.

The chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland has said he does not believe the attack at Massereene was a response to him deploying special forces soldiers.

Sir Hugh Orde had asked for help to gather intelligence on dissident activity.

Northern Ireland's top police officer also said he had no plans to deploy additional military personnel.

"The police deliver policing in Northern Ireland, and that is exactly how it is going to stay," he said.

Gordon Brown told the BBC: "I think the whole country is shocked and outraged at the evil and cowardly attacks on soldiers serving their country.

"We will do everything in our power to make sure that Northern Ireland is safe and secure and I assure you we will bring these murderers to justice.

"No murderer will be able to derail a peace process that has the support of the great majority of Northern Ireland."

All four injured men are being treated at Antrim Area Hospital, about a mile away from the scene.

Of those who were injured, three are in a serious condition and another is said to be serious but stable.

Pizza

Chief superintendent Derek Williamson said at about 2120 GMT on Saturday night a pizza delivery service sent two delivery men to the Antrim barracks. As they arrived, shots began to be fired from a car.

He said the pizza delivery men were an innocent party and both were among those injured.

After two gunmen with automatic rifles fired an initial volley of shots, which left those under attack lying on the ground, they moved forward and opened fire again.
He said: "There's no doubt whatsoever in my mind that this was an attempt at mass murder."

The area surrounding the barracks, which is home to 38 Engineer Regiment, has been sealed off.

The delivery drivers bullet-riddled cars are still at the scene.

Police are examining a car in Randalstown, five miles from the army base, which they suspect may have been used by the gunmen.

NI's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, a former IRA member, said nobody should say or do anything which would see Northern Ireland return to its troubles.

"I supported the IRA during the conflict, I myself was a member of the IRA but that war is over," said the Sinn Fein MP.

"Now the people responsible for that last night's incident are clearly signalling that they want to resume or restart that war."

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams described the shooting as an attack on the "peace process" and said it was "wrong and counter-productive".
"Those responsible have no support, no strategy to achieve a United Ireland," he said.

"Their intention is to bring British soldiers back onto the streets. They want to destroy the progress of recent times and to plunge Ireland back into conflict."

Northern Ireland's First Minister and Democratic Unionist Party leader Peter Robinson offered his sympathies to the families of the victims, and said he and the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness would postpone a scheduled trip to the United States.

Mr Robinson said the attack was a "terrible reminder of the events of the past".

He said information that those responsible had "deliberately turned their weapons on civilians" after murdering the soldiers gave an "idea of the crazed gunmen involved in this".

"It is the duty of everyone to ensure these people are defeated," he said.

Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward condemned the shootings as "an act of criminal barbarism".
Loyalist political representatives made a plea to people within their communities not to retaliate.

Frankie Gallagher, from the Ulster Political Research Group, which has links with the paramilitary UDA, said: "The people who carried out this attack have no mandate for their futile actions.

"Their communities, the Irish nationalist and republican communities in Northern Ireland, must let them know that loud and clear."

A spokesman for the US Department of State said: "Our condolences go out to the families of the slain soldiers.

"We call on all parties in Northern Ireland to unequivocally reject such senseless acts of violence, whose intention is to destroy the peace that so many in Northern Ireland have worked so hard to achieve."

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Pastor slain in Illinois church shooting.

MARYVILLE, Ill. — Illinois State Police say a pastor was shot and killed and two others were injured Sunday morning by an assailant at an 8 a.m. worship service.

In a telephone interview, Jeff Ross, a lay minister at the First Baptist Church of Maryville, Ill., said Senior Pastor Fred Winters was shot to death after he was hit in the heart and the neck.

"He's gone home to be free with the Lord," Ross said.

Parishioners tackled the gunman, who wounded himself with a knife, state police said. Illinois State Police say Winters used a Bible to deflect the first of four shots fired.

Master Trooper Ralph Timmins says the man walked down the aisle during the service, exchanged words with the pastor, then drew a .45-caliber handgun and fired.


Timmins said the man fatally shot Winters once before the gun jammed, then pulled out a knife and wounded himself.

Churchgoers tried to subdue the attacker, and two of them were slightly hurt by the knife, Timmons said.

The gunman and one victim, 39-year-old Terry Bullard, were being treated at St. Louis University Hospital, said spokeswoman Laura Keller. Bullard underwent surgery for stab wounds and was in serious condition, she said.Keller said the gunman was undergoing surgery early Sunday afternoon but could not provide his name, condition, or type of injuries.

Timmins said officials don't know whether Winters and the suspect knew each other.

Ross said that over the last 21 years, Winters built the congregation up from about 30 to 1,500 members. "This is just Satan. Who else would do it? Someone who wanted to stop his message," he said.

Winters was married and had two daughters, Ross said. Winters had led First Baptist for nearly 22 years and was the former president of the Illinois Baptist State Association and an adjunct professor for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, according to the church's website.

Ross described the church as occupying a suburban location about 18 miles outside St. Louis in an area largely untroubled by crime or violence. "He built this church in a cornfield," he said of Winters, "and now houses are filling in around us."

Winters, he said, "was on fire for the Lord. He only worried about people who were lost."

He said he and other church members were praying for the gunman. "He's still alive, so there's still a chance for him to turn his life around and find the Lord."

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