Pope's butler convicted in leaks, given 18 months

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The pope's butler was convicted Saturday of stealing the pontiff's private documents and leaking them to a journalist in the gravest Vatican security breach in recent memory. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, but the Vatican said a papal pardon was likely. Judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre read the verdict aloud two hours after the three-judge Vatican panel began deliberating Paolo Gabriele's fate. Gabriele stood impassively as it was read out in the tiny wood-paneled tribunal tucked behind St. Peter's Basilica. The sentence was reduced in half to 18 months from three years because of a series of mitigating circumstances, including that Gabriele had no previous record, had acknowledged that he had betrayed the pope and was convinced, "albeit erroneously" that he was doing the right thing, Dalla Torre said. For now, he is serving his sentence under house arrest. Gabriele was accused of stealing the pope's private correspondence and passing it on to journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, whose book revealed the intrigue, petty infighting and allegations of corruption and homosexual liaisons that plague the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. He has said he leaked the documents because he felt the pope wasn't being informed of the "evil and corruption" in the Vatican, and that exposing the problems publicly would put the church back on the right track. In his final appeal to the court Saturday morning, Gabriele insisted he was no thief. "The thing I feel strongly in me is the conviction that I acted out of exclusive love, I would say visceral love, for the church of Christ and its visible head," Gabriele told the court in a steady voice. "I do not feel like a thief." Gabriele's attorney, Cristiana Arru, said the sentence was "good, balanced" and said she was awaiting the judges' written reasoning before deciding whether to appeal. Nuzzi's book, "His Holiness: Pope Benedict XVI's Secret Papers" convulsed the Vatican for months and prompted an unprecedented response, with the pope naming a commission of cardinals to investigate the origin of the leaks alongside Vatican magistrates. Arru said Gabriele would return to his Vatican City apartment to begin serving his sentence. He has been held on house arrest there since July after spending his first two months in a Vatican detention room. Gabriele was also ordered to pay court costs. Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the possibility of a papal pardon was "concrete, likely" and that the pope would now study the court file and decide. He said there was no way to know when a papal pardon might be announced. In something of a novelty in jurisprudence, the pope was both victim and supreme judge in this case. As an absolute monarch of the tiny Vatican City state, Benedict wields full executive, legislative and judicial power. He delegates that power, though, and Lombardi said the trial showed the complete independence of the Vatican judiciary. In reading the sentence, however, in a courtroom decorated with a photograph of Benedict on the wall opposite Gabriele, Dalla Torre began: "In the name of His Holiness Benedict XVI, gloriously reigning, the tribunal invoking the Holy Trinity pronounces the following sentence..." In her closing arguments, Arru insisted that only photocopies, not original documents, were taken from the Apostolic Palace, disputing testimony from the pope's secretary who said he saw original letters in the evidence seized from Gabriele's home. She admitted Gabriele's gesture was "condemnable" but said it was a misappropriation of documents, not theft, and that as a result Gabriele should serve no time for the lesser crime. With the trial over, several questions still remain about the leaks, most importantly whether Gabriele acted alone. In his testimony this week, Gabriele insisted "in the most absolute way" that he had no accomplices. But in earlier statements to prosecutors, he named a half-dozen people including cardinals and monsignors with whom he spoke and said he received "suggestions" from the general environment in which he lived. He even identified one layman as the source of a segment of Nuzzi's book detailing some conflicts of interest of some Vatican police officers. But in his closing arguments, prosecutor Nicola Picardi said the investigation turned up no proof of any complicity in Gabriele's plot. "Suggestions aren't proof of the presence of accomplices," he said. There is another suspect in the case: Claudio Sciarpelletti, a 48-year-old computer expert in the Vatican secretariat of state who is charged with aiding and abetting the crime. Police say they found an envelope in his desk that said "Personal P. Gabriele" on it, with documentation inside. Sciarpelletti has said Gabriele gave him the envelope, and later, that someone identified in court documents as "W'' gave it to him to pass onto Gabriele. Sciarpelletti's lawyer successfully got his case separated out at the start of Gabriele's trial. But attorney Gianluca Benedetti has said his client was innocent and that, regardless, there were no "reserved documents" in the envelope. Author: Nicole Winfield, Follow her www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Veuve Clicquot Rose Champagne

I know the ladies just love this pink bottle of clicquot. It's actually good i had it recently that is why i'm posting on it. This one comes with it's own tiny fridge to keep it cool. So if you get a chance to try some do so ladies it's the one that will get you off moscato if you can afford it.

Jake Evans 911 Call: Texas Teen Who Gunned Down Mother And Sister Was 'Planning On Killing'

ALEDO, Texas -- A chilling recording of a 911 call captured a 17-year-old Texas boy telling the operator in a calm, monotone voice that he had just shot his mother and sister multiple times. Jake Evans, 17, has been charged with capital murder in the deaths of his mother and 15-year-old sister and remained jailed Friday without bond. The double slaying in the family's upscale home in Aledo, about 20 miles west of Fort Worth, happened while Evans' father was out of town on business and his two older sisters were not home. The motive remains "a big mystery," Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said Friday. During a 25-minute call to a 911 operator that started about 12:30 a.m. Thursday, Evans calmly says he just shot his mother and sister with a .22 revolver. He answers "yes" when asked if he's sure they are dead. "It's weird," he says as the operator continues asking questions. "I wasn't even really angry with them. It just kind of happened. I've been kind of planning on killing for a while now." He adds that he could have shot "pretty much anybody." When asked why, he says first that he doesn't know but then says he doesn't like people's attitudes. Evans tells the Parker County 911 operator that his mother and sister were rude, but he also says his sister, Mallory, had a really sweet side. "This is probably selfish of me to say, but to me, I felt like they were suffocating me in a way," he says. "Obviously, you know, I'm pretty – I guess – evil." Evans describes shooting his mother several times and then, as his sister screams, shooting her in the head three times. He recalls apologizing to her and telling her to "hold still ... that, you know, I was just going to just make it go away." Toward the end of the call but before deputies arrive at his house, Evans tells the operator that he's "going to be messed up." He says he's worried about having nightmares and asks if there's medication to treat that. "I don't mean to sound like a wimp or anything, but this is – wow. I've never done anything violent in my life, you know?" he says. Later, he's heard taking deep breaths, as the operator has instructed. "I just thought it would be quick, you know? I didn't want them to feel any pain. That's why I used a gun, but it's like everything just went wrong." Fowler said Evans was the only suspect in the deaths. Evans and his sister Mallory were being home-schooled. Evans had played on the golf team before withdrawing from Aledo High School in January. He played football in middle school. Mallory Evans "was a sweet child that will be missed by her friends and school family," Aledo schools superintendent Doug Manning said in a statement. Jami Evans, 48, was an elementary teacher and assistant principal for the Aledo school system for 15 years, and "her dedication to her students and her love of learning was an inspiration to all who knew her," Manning said.

Plurality: New York In 2023

This is something that no one in there right mind would vote on. Invasion of privacy to the highest degree!

Is Your Shower Making You Dirty?

Think showers are getting you cleaner? Get ready for a gross awakening, toots. Turns out that bacteria on your shower head could be making you a sick mess. According to an article in the NY Daily News, an analysis of 50 showerheads from nine U.S. cities found that about 30 percent harbored high levels of Mycobacterium avium -- a group of bacteria that can cause lung infections when inhaled or swallowed. Can you say "eww!"? Luckily, Homesessive is here to make sure that shower head is squeaky clean -- and so are you. Check out our steps to the cleanest shower around -- and don't delay. This is your health we're talking about here! 1. Give Everything a Thorough Rinse Use a bucket or your shower extension to rinse your shower walls and door with hot water. If you use a shower curtain, now is a great time to throw it in the washing machine or replace it. 2. Get Scrubbing You can make a fantastic homemade shower cleaner with 1 cup of vinegar, 1/2 cup baking soda, 1 cup ammonia and 1.5 gallons of hot water. Be sure to use rubber gloves, scrub well (use an old toothbrush for those tough tiles!) and rinse with hot water. Wipe dry. Also, tackle your glass shower door with white vinegar to prevent streaks and mildew at the same time. Bonus! 3. Don't Forget the Shower Head Remove your shower head and let it soak in a bowl of straight vinegar. Leave for a few hours or overnight. Then scrub the holes with an old toothbrush and remove scum with a toothpick. Rinse, wipe dry and position shower head back in place. 4. Drain the Drain Don't forget to tackle your shower's drain, which is pretty self-explanatory. My only tip? Wear rubber gloves, because hair in the drain is one of the grossest things in the world. That's it! Easy enough, and much quicker than you'd think. Here's to keeping your shower clean and your body healthy this winter!

Daughter on Life Supports wants to die now!

A 28-year old woman dying from terminal brain cancer was still locked in a legal battle Thursday with her religious, Korean immigrant parents--because Grace Lee wants her ventilator and feeding tube removed, so she can die in peace.

3 Women Workers Claim Wal-Mart Discrimination

Three Tennessee women sued Wal-Mart Inc. on Tuesday claiming they lost pay and promotion opportunities because of their gender. The Barrett Johnston law firm said the suit is the third of its kind against Wal-Mart in the country in the past year. Wal-Mart spokesman Randy Hargrove said the company has strong policies banning discrimination. In 2011 the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out a class action lawsuit representing 1.6 million women who worked at Wal-Mart on the grounds that their allegations were too varied to show the company engaged in a specific nationwide pattern and practice of gender bias. Since then, litigation attorneys have been pursuing cases on a regional basis. The latest represents three women who each worked for Wal-Mart for more than 10 years and seeks class-action status to cover current and former female employees at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores in Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Mississippi. Cheryl Phipps of Covington and Shawn Gibbons of Cookeville claim they were denied management training and were paid less than men. Bobbie Millner of Jackson claims that she inadvertently got the paycheck of a fellow assistant manager with less experience and found that he earned thousands of dollars more per year than she did. She said a Wal-Mart manager told her "men needed to earn more." Hargrove cited the previous Supreme Court decision in responding to the Tennessee lawsuit. "As we have said all along, these claims are unsuitable for class treatment because the individual situations are so different and because the claims of these three people are not representative of the hundreds of thousands of women who work at Wal-Mart." In a statement, Phipps said, "Many of us have waited more than a decade to have our day in court to fight for the pay and advancement opportunities that we rightly deserved."