Attorney killed wife on Italian cruise for her money, police say

A former Orange County attorney allegedly killed his ex-wife for financial gain in 2006 by strangling her and throwing her overboard while on a cruise along the Italian coast, authorities said.

Lonnie Kocontes, 55, a former Mission Viejo resident, was arrested Friday at his home in Safety Harbor, Fla., in connection with the death of his former wife, Micki Kanesaki, 52, of Ladera Ranch, authorities said. He is charged with one felony count of special circumstances for financial gain.

If convicted, he faces a maximum life sentence in state prison without the possibility of parole and is eligible for the death penalty, authorities said. Kocontes, who is being held without bail, also faces extradition proceedings at a date to be determined.

He is accused of financially benefiting from Kanesaki’s death because he was the beneficiary of several of their bank accounts and property and was receiving the proceeds from the sale of their home, authorities said.

The couple divorced in 2001 and were in the midst of a court battle when they decided to put aside their rancor and take a Mediterranean vacation together.

Kocontes is suspected of killing his wife on the night of May 25, 2006, or the morning of May 26, by strangling her and throwing her body overboard, authorities said.

At the time, Kocontes reported his wife missing. He told authorities that the couple had retired to bed when about 1 a.m. Kanesaki stepped out to get a cup of tea to help her relax and never returned.

Her body was found on the morning of May 27 by the Italian coast guard, floating in the sea near Reggio di Calabria.

"I wish I knew what happened," Kocontes was quoted as saying at the time. He told authorities that his former wife had previously talked of suicide.

But an autopsy revealed Kanesaki had been strangled, authorities said.

In 2008, Kocontes is accused of attempting to transfer $1 million between various banks accounts with his new wife, Katherine, authorities said. The FBI began investigating the money transfers for possible illegal activity and the U.S. attorney’s office ultimately seized the money from Kocontes’ bank account.

The Orange County district attorney’s office was contacted and subsequently the Sheriff’s Department relaunched its investigation, authorities said.

On Wednesday, the district attorney filed its murder case against Kocontes.      

The FBI and the Orange County Sheriff's Department are continuing the investigation.

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Blasts Across Baghdad Kill at Least 21 People

BAGHDAD — A wave of attacks in Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad killed at least 21 people and wounded 125 on Sunday, a security official said.

Four car bombs exploded in a market, a bus station and on a major road in the Sadr City district, killing seven people and wounding more than 30 others, officials said.

More people were killed and dozens were wounded when car bombs were set off in a market in Husseiniya, northeast of Baghdad; in the southeastern Baghdad neighborhood of Al Ameen; and in the Kamaliya area in Baghdad’s eastern suburbs.

In the central Baghdad neighborhood of Karrada, near the Babil Hotel, a roadside bomb killed one person and wounded five others.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Sunni extremists have stepped up their efforts to undermine the Shiite-led government and stoke sectarian divisions since the beginning of the year. More than 200 people have been killed in attacks across Iraq since January.

Sunnis, who are a minority in Iraq, complain of discrimination by officials and accuse Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and his political allies of seeking to monopolize power before the provincial elections this spring.

The government’s arrests of a Sunni politician’s bodyguards in December set off weekly protests in several Iraqi cities. But the protesters have rejected calls for violence and have distanced themselves from extremist groups.

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See Mementos from the John F. Kennedy Auction

Fifty years after JFK's death, a cache of rare mementos from his closest aide goes on sale Feb. 17 at John McInnis Auctioneers

Credit: David F. Powers Estate/John Mcinnis Auctioneers

Updated: Saturday Feb 16, 2013 | 06:00 AM EST

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UN warns risk of hepatitis E in S. Sudan grows

GENEVA (AP) — The United Nations says an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed 111 refugees in camps in South Sudan since July, and has become endemic in the region.

U.N. refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards says the influx of people to the camps from neighboring Sudan is believed to be one of the factors in the rapid spread of the contagious, life-threatening inflammatory viral disease of the liver.

Edwards said Friday that the camps have been hit by 6,017 cases of hepatitis E, which is spread through contaminated food and water.

He says the largest number of cases and suspected cases is in the Yusuf Batil camp in Upper Nile state, which houses 37,229 refugees fleeing fighting between rebels and the Sudanese government.

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Christopher Dorner supporters organize on Facebook

Several days after Christopher Dorner's death ended his standoff with authorities, some sympathizers have been expressing support for him online and on the street.

Dorner -- accused of the slayings of four people -- has gained some
supporters on the Web who have read his alleged manifesto and believe
its claims that he was unfairly fired by the Los Angeles Police
Department and was a victim of
racism.

Dozens of protesters gathered outside LAPD headquarters in downtown L.A. on Saturday afternoon in an event they said was organized through a
Facebook page called “I support Christopher Jordan Dorner.” The post announcing the protest advised attendees to “keep it PEACEFUL” and
to bring recording equipment.

PHOTOS: Manhunt for ex-LAPD officer

The Facebook page states: “This is not a page about supporting the
killing of innocent people. It’s supporting fighting back against
corrupt cops and bringing to light what they do.”

Those gathered Saturday said they were protesting police corruption and the
way the massive manhunt for Dorner was conducted. Authorities said
Dorner appears to have died from a self-inflected gunshot wound after a
shootout with police in Big Bear on Tuesday, ending a deadly rampage
that stretched across Southern California.

Protesters also said they were appalled by police officers' mistakenly shooting
at passengers in two separate trucks in Torrance, wrongly believing
Dorner might be in the vehicles. One woman was shot in the back and is
still recovering.

FULL COVERAGE: Sweeping manhunt for ex-cop

The protesters emphasized that they did not condone the killings of which Dorner is accused.

Michael Nam, 30, stood at the corner of 1st and Main Streets with a
sign, painted by his girlfriend, showing a tombstone and the words “RIP
Habeas Corpus.” The tombstone was engulfed in flames.

Nam, of Lomita, said he was disturbed by the burning of a mountain
cabin near Big Bear where Dorner barricaded himself with a high-powered
sniper rifle, smoke bombs and a cache of ammo. The blaze started shortly
after police fired "pyrotechnic" tear gas into the cabin; the canisters
are known as "burners" because the intense heat they emit often causes a
fire.

WHO THEY WERE: Victims in the Dorner case

But authorities have maintained that the fire was not intentionally set. 

Dorner, whose charred body was found in the cabin, appears to have died of a single gunshot wound to the head, authorities said.

“How the police handled this -– they were the judge, the jury and the
executioner,” Nam said. “As an American citizen, you have the right to a
trial and due process by law.”

TIMELINE: Manhunt for ex-LAPD officer

Nam, a former Marine and a current member of the Army National Guard,
said he has combat experience from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He said he has been in situations in which a combatant has been
barricaded and successfully waited until the person surrendered,
eventually getting “tired and coming out on their own.”

Nam said it was “pretty obvious” police wanted Dorner dead. “What I
saw was a complete disregard for the Bill of Rights,” Nam said.

San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon, during a news conference
Friday, defended the tactics used by his agency in the shootout at the
mountain cabin, which left one of his deputies dead and another
seriously wounded.

“The bottom line is the deputy sheriffs of this department, and the
law enforcement officers from the surrounding area, did an outstanding
job,” he said. “They ran into the line of fire.”

As the protesters stood Saturday, drivers passing by honked, waved
and gave thumbs up. A handful of officers watched from police
headquarters across the street.

Nam said he spoke to the officers before the protest began about what
the protesters should do to keep the event peaceful. He said the
officers were respectful.

The protesters marched around the block, circling an intersection
near the department headquarters. They chanted, “LAPD, you are guilty.”

Signs expressed anger at police and support for Dorner.

“If you’re not enraged, you’re not paying attention,” one sign read.

“Why couldn’t we hear his side?”

“Clear his name! Christopher Dorner”

Liliana Alaniz, 40, came with her family -– her mother, sister,
nieces and daughters -– from Long Beach to join the protest, which she
said was her first.

“I really, really believe he was innocent in the firing case,” Alaniz said of Dorner.

Alaniz held a sign that read, “Trying to clear your name.”

Her daughter, Andrea Tovar, said Dorner “has his supporters.”

“Murder is never right, but neither is the law when it’s unjust,”
said Tovar, 18. She said police need to know they “can’t get away with
everything.”

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Dorner probably died of self-inflicted gunshot, officials say

-- Hailey Branson-Potts

twitter.com/haileybranson

Photo: Protesters outside LAPD headquarters on Saturday. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

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Some Chinese Are Souring on Being North Korea’s Best Friend

Eugene Hoshiko/Associated Press

A billboard showing Mao Zedong, right, and North Korea’s founding father, Kim Il-sung, near the China-North Korea border.

YANJI CITY, China — Beds shook and teacups clattered in this town bordering North Korea, less than 100 miles from the site where the North said it detonated a nuclear test that exploded midmorning in the midst of Chinese New Year festivities.

At home and abroad, China has long been regarded as North Korea’s best friend, but at home that sense of fraternity appears to be souring as ordinary people express anxiety about possible fallout from the test last Tuesday. The fact that North Korea detonated the device on a special Chinese holiday did not sit well, either.

Among Chinese officials, the mood toward the young North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has darkened. The Chinese government is reported by analysts to be wrestling with what to do about a man who, in power for a little more than a year, thumbed his nose at China by ignoring its appeals not to conduct the country’s third nuclear test, and who shows no gratitude for China’s largess as the main supplier of oil and food.

“The public does not want China to be the only friend of an evil regime, and we’re not even recognized by North Korea as a friend,” said Jin Qiangyi, director of the Center for North and South Korea Studies at Yanbian University in Yanji City. “For the first time the Chinese government has felt the pressure of public opinion not to be too friendly with North Korea.”

With its site near the border, Yanji City has long been a hub of North Korean affairs inside China, and people here have a relatively good understanding of their opaque and recalcitrant neighbor. This is often where desperate defectors from the impoverished police state first seek shelter, where legal and illegal cross-border trade thrives, and where much of the population has roots in North Korea.

That familiarity breeds mixed attitudes. There is tolerance among some toward the regime — mostly from those who profit financially. But there is also great anger among many ethnic Korean Chinese about the almost incalculable suffering of the people living under the Kim dynasty, which relies on gulags to deal with even the glimmers of dissent and where years of failed economic policies have left many people near the edge of starvation.

The test detonated at Punggye-ri in northeastern North Korea last week was considerably more powerful than its first nuclear test in 2006 and as large as, or larger than, one in 2009, according to Western and Chinese experts. It remained unclear whether the test was fueled by plutonium or uranium; a uranium test would exacerbate tensions, suggesting the North had a new and faster way of building its nuclear fuel stockpile.

But to some Chinese, the technicalities seem irrelevant.

In postings on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, people asked about the possible dangers of radioactive fallout from a nuclear test. Many said they were dissatisfied by assurances from the Ministry of Environmental Protection that it had checked for radiation at various border areas after the blast and announced that the levels were normal.

“I’m worried about radiation,” said a 26-year-old woman as she served customers in a bookstore here. “My family lives in the mountains close to the border. They felt the bed shake on the day of the test. I have no idea whether it is safe or not, though the government says it is.”

There are growing uncertainties among at least some of China’s foreign policy experts, too. In the aftermath of the test, a prominent Chinese political scientist with a penchant for provocative ideas, Shen Dingli at Fudan University in Shanghai, wrote on the Web site of Foreign Policy, based in Washington, that it was time for China “to cut its losses and cut North Korea loose.”

Other experts suggested the test could worsen relations between the North and China and urged China’s new leadership to consider taking a tougher stance to curb the North’s nuclear weapons program, which appears to be advancing after some early technical difficulties.

Such opinions, coupled with new worries among some ordinary Chinese people, pose a problem for the new Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, according to Mr. Jin, who often goes to Beijing to participate in policy discussions about North Korea.

.

If China decides to go along with the United States’ calls for much more stringent sanctions than exist now, there are fears among China’s policy makers that the North’s government would collapse, possibly setting the stage for mayhem on the border and a reunification of Korea as an American ally. But if China maintains the status quo, it could face mounting criticism among its own citizens.

If it decided to take a harder stance, China could punish North Korea by curtailing its oil shipments, by far the major source of fuel in the energy-starved North, Mr. Jin said.

Mia Li contributed research.

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Stories You Loved: Mariska Hargitay Loves Her Curves from Motherhood

02/16/2013 at 02:30 PM EST

Mariska Hargitay

Courtesy Ladies Home Journal

In another week of tragedy, it was a breath of fresh air to read something lighthearted, like Mariska Hargitay's outlook on her body after baby.

Readers loved the reason why the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star, 49, embraces her curves.

"I love my curves because they scream, 'I'm a mama!' " the actress said. "I'm the girl who started wearing maternity pants about an hour after I found out I was pregnant because I was so excited about becoming a mom."

Curves aside, Hargitay acknowledges that she no longer has the body she had when she was younger, but she's just fine with it.

"Things are sagging a bit – I'm not going to lie," she says. "But am I going to be upset about the sag or am I going to look at my three gorgeous kids and my husband and count my lucky stars? I try to focus on who I am rather than who I'm not."

For the full story, click here.

Read More..

UN warns risk of hepatitis E in S. Sudan grows

GENEVA (AP) — The United Nations says an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed 111 refugees in camps in South Sudan since July, and has become endemic in the region.

U.N. refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards says the influx of people to the camps from neighboring Sudan is believed to be one of the factors in the rapid spread of the contagious, life-threatening inflammatory viral disease of the liver.

Edwards said Friday that the camps have been hit by 6,017 cases of hepatitis E, which is spread through contaminated food and water.

He says the largest number of cases and suspected cases is in the Yusuf Batil camp in Upper Nile state, which houses 37,229 refugees fleeing fighting between rebels and the Sudanese government.

Read More..

Attorney killed wife during Italian cruise, police say

A former Orange County attorney allegedly killed his ex-wife for financial gain in 2006 by strangling her and throwing her overboard while on a cruise along the Italian coast, authorities said.

Lonnie Kocontes, 55, a former Mission Viejo resident, was arrested Friday at his home in Safety Harbor, Fla., in connection with the death of his former wife, Micki Kanesaki, 52, of Ladera Ranch, authorities said. He is charged with one felony count of special circumstances for financial gain.

If convicted, he faces a maximum life sentence in state prison without the possibility of parole and is eligible for the death penalty, authorities said. Kocontes, who is being held without bail, also faces extradition proceedings at a date to be determined.

He is accused of financially benefiting from Kanesaki’s death because he was the beneficiary of several of their bank accounts and property and was receiving the proceeds from the sale of their home, authorities said.

The couple divorced in 2001 and were in the midst of a court battle when they decided to put aside their rancor and take a Mediterranean vacation together.

Kocontes is suspected of killing his wife on the night of May 25, 2006, or the morning of May 26, by strangling her and throwing her body overboard, authorities said.

At the time, Kocontes reported his wife missing. He told authorities that the couple had retired to bed when about 1 a.m. Kanesaki stepped out to get a cup of tea to help her relax and never returned.

Her body was found on the morning of May 27 by the Italian coast guard, floating in the sea near Reggio di Calabria.

"I wish I knew what happened," Kocontes was quoted as saying at the time. He told authorities that his former wife had previously talked of suicide.

But an autopsy revealed Kanesaki had been strangled, authorities said.

In 2008, Kocontes is accused of attempting to transfer $1 million between various banks accounts with his new wife, Katherine, authorities said. The FBI began investigating the money transfers for possible illegal activity and the U.S. attorney’s office ultimately seized the money from Kocontes’ bank account.

The Orange County district attorney’s office was contacted and subsequently the Sheriff’s Department relaunched its investigation, authorities said.

On Wednesday, the district attorney filed its murder case against Kocontes.      

The FBI and the Orange County Sheriff's Department are continuing the investigation.

ALSO:

Riverside officer wounded in Dorner manhunt is identified

Coliseum sues ex-auditor, alleging failure to detect corruption

LAPD's 'protection details' end after Dorner's remains identified

-- Andrew Blankstein

Read More..

Indian Troops Kill Pakistani Soldier in Kashmir Border Clash

NEW DELHI — Indian troops have shot and killed another Pakistani soldier at the de facto border between the two countries in Kashmir, adding to an unusually tense period in the disputed region.

A statement released Friday by the Indian Army said that Indian soldiers saw an intruder at 3 p.m. on Thursday in the Nowshera sector of the so-called Line of Control separating the Indian- and Pakistani-held parts of Kashmir. The Indian soldiers challenged the intruder, who “opened indiscriminate fire,” wounding two soldiers, the statement said. The soldiers returned fire and later found a dead Pakistani soldier in uniform, it said.

On Friday at 10 a.m., Pakistani commanders called their Indian counterparts and asked for the body to be returned, according to the Indian statement.

“Acceding to this request,” the statement said, “the dead body was returned to Pakistan Army personnel in the same sector in the evening with military respects.”

A Pakistani military official sent a text message to reporters on Friday saying that the soldier had accidentally crossed the boundary, The Associated Press reported.

The A.P. report said the Pakistani military later issued a statement accusing the Indian troops of killing the soldier after he had explained his mistake.

“We condemn such an inhuman and brutal act of killing our soldier after he had identified himself and explained his position,” the statement said, according to The A. P.

Last month, three Pakistani soldiers and two Indian soldiers were killed at the border, and one of the Indian soldiers was beheaded. The killings heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed countries to their worst since they agreed to a cease-fire in 2003. The two countries have been in conflict over Kashmir almost since their founding in 1947.

Border skirmishes are not the only immediate problem in Kashmir. Last weekend, Indian authorities executed Mohammed Afzal, known as Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri who was convicted of participating in a 2001 attack on India’s Parliament. Many in Kashmir believe that Mr. Afzal did not receive a fair trial, and have expressed outrage over the timing and circumstances of his execution.

Indian officials put a curfew in place following the execution. Nevertheless, as many as 25 protests have flared around the Indian-held parts of Kashmir, and there have been at least 110 arrests. The region is predominantly Muslim, and curfew was tightened Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, and many of the major mosques in Srinagar, the main city, were closed Friday.

The week before the execution, a Kashmiri girls’ rock band decided to disband after threats against the members were posted on social media sites and a top Muslim cleric asked that they stop performing.

Hari Kumar contributed reporting.

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