Rapper LL Cool J nabs intruder at Los Angeles home

( ya gotta love L.L. )

LOS ANGELES — LL Cool J plays a special agent on TV's "NCIS: Los Angeles," and now he's caught an actual bad guy.

The 44-year-old rapper struggled with and subdued a suspected burglar early Wednesday morning at his home in the Studio City area, police said. He was not hurt.

Police got a 911 call shortly before 1 a.m. from someone who said her father had spotted an intruder in their home and was holding him downstairs.

"There was a prowler at his residence whom he confronted in the kitchen. ... There was a physical confrontation briefly between the two of them," LAPD spokesman Richard French said.

A 58-year-old man was taken to the hospital and was expected to be arrested on suspicion of burglary. His identity wasn't released but there was no indication that he knew LL Cool J or had a personal vendetta, French said.

"He appeared to be a homeless person," French said.

Early police information said the man received minor bruises. However, the Los Angeles Times (lat.ms/OS63xL) cited police sources it did not identify as saying the suspect received a broken nose and jaw in a "knock-down, drag-out" fight.

French said he had no details about the man's injuries or how he may have gotten into the home, a walled and gated mansion in a wealthy hillside section of the San Fernando Valley that's not far from major studios.

"LL Cool J, and his family, are safe and thank everyone for their thoughts and concern," said a statement released by his publicist, Rhett Usry. "As a father, husband and citizen, he is committed to keeping his family safe and is cooperating with authorities on this private matter."

LL Cool J, whose real name is James Todd Smith, has had such hits such as "Mama Said Knock You Out" and "I'm Bad."

In crisis, Greece rounds up immigrants

(cause blame the foreigner is a game for the whole family! Seriously though folks this is the oldest dodge in the world, blame all your problems on the guys who look different and sadly this dodge works time and time again. Don’t look at greed, mismanagement or a system overrun with bureaucracy, nepotism, and corruption it was all the foreigners fault!! From Dallas to Athens and all around the world, just build a wall to keep the evil more tan than me people out seems to be the order of the day. ‘cause nothing sells like fear and hate.)

By COSTAS KANTOURIS, APNEA VYSSA, Greece — Border police jeeps hurtle along hot, dusty tracks past potato fields on their way to the river that marks the Greek-Turkish border. Sirens blaring, the convoys have been repelling wave after wave of migrants.

Greece's remote Evros region has turned into Europe's main battleground against illegal immigration; more than two-thirds of people making the clandestine journey into the European Union pass through here from neighboring Turkey.

Greece launched an aggressive campaign this month to try to seal its 200-kilometer (130-mile) northeastern border, as it faces a debilitating financial crisis that has caused a swell in joblessness and a surge in racist attacks against immigrants with dark skin.

The police operation has brought nearly 2,000 additional border guards to the Turkish frontier previously manned by about 500 officers. They fanned out with dogs, night vision equipment and flat-bottomed boats for 24-hour patrols of the Evros River that forms a natural border. At least 21 people have drowned or died of exposure crossing the river this year, while several have been listed as missing.

In Athens, the operation is being bolstered by mass roundups of suspected illegal immigrants. They are seen lined up on the streets of the capital every day, many in handcuffs, waiting to be put in detention until they can be deported. In the first week of the crackdown in early August, police said they apprehended nearly 7,000 people for identification checks; nearly 1,700 were slated for deportation.

Anwar, a 22-year-old man from Bangladesh, walked across the border near Orestiada, a small town wedged between Turkey and Bulgaria. Unaware of the immigration clampdown, he said he is looking for police so he can turn himself in. It's a well-worn ploy: Migrants have actively tried to get themselves taken to detention centers near Athens, assuming they will be released due to overcrowding and allowed to blend into the chaotic capital.

"I've come here to work," Anwar, who declined to give his full name because of his illegal status, said moments after crossing the border. "I know what will happen to me: They might keep me in detention for around three months, but then they'll let me out and I'll go to Athens."

Now, however, authorities are determined to swiftly deport illegal migrants they round up.

In a recent pre-dawn operation, authorities using thermal imaging cameras spotted a group of around 60 illegal immigrants on the Turkish side of the Evros River. Officers used spotlights, sirens and loud speakers to deter them from crossing, although fifteen immigrants still made it over to a river islet in a no man's land and were arrested.

Uniformed police officers from 25 countries are already helping Greece guard the Evros River as part of the European Union's border protection agency, Frontex. Greek police figures show more than 21,000 illegal migrants were arrested in the first six months of 2012 after crossing over from Turkey, with nearly all — 20,841 — caught along the northeastern land border rather than on one of the many Aegean islands near the Turkish coast. The figures show a nearly 29 percent increase from the same period last year.

Afghans currently make up the highest number of people crossing illegally, followed by Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and an increasing number of people from war-ravaged Syria, according to the agency.

The police operation has faced strong criticism from human rights groups, local officials, and even police officers' associations — with criticism focusing on alleged racial profiling and police brutality. Allegations include arbitrary detention, beatings and degrading police treatment.

Police video showing riot police and other officers rounding up mostly South Asian immigrants as they got off a train that arrived at Athens' main station also received condemnation from local rights groups and leftwing opposition parties.

Amnesty International called on Greek authorities to stop the roundups immediately.

"While Greece has the right to control migration, it does not have the right to treat people like criminals purely because of the color of their skin," Amnesty's Jezerca Tigani said in a statement. He warned that many immigrants fleeing war zones and potential persecution from dictatorial regimes were being denied a fair asylum assessment.

"Greece may be going through financial difficulties while facing one of the highest migration flows among EU countries," Tigani said, "but these police operations violate international human rights standards and should stop immediately."

Police say migrants' rights are being respected.

"Our aim is to deter illegal immigrants and arrest traffickers, but the migrants' well-being and rights are always a main priority," said Orestiada police chief Yiorgos Salamangas.

The government insists the operation is working, reporting a drop in illegal border crossings by around 90 percent in the first week.

"This is a massive operation that is taking place in the country for the first time and it will continue in the long-term," police spokesman Christos Manouras said.

"It is widely accepted that the expulsion of immigrants who are here illegally is a national necessity, an issue of national survival."

Greece is a member of Europe's passport-free Schengen agreement but shares no borders with any of the other 25 member states. That has meant hundreds of thousands of irregular immigrants have been unable to cross the border into other European countries, trapping them in limbo in Athens and other Greek cities, typically in slum conditions.

As the country struggles through a fifth year of recession, illegal immigration and a rise in violent crime have become central issues in the political debate, with mainstream parties blamed by many for the country's near financial collapse facing opposition from more radical political groups.

The extreme right Golden Dawn party, described by political opponents as neo-Nazis, won nearly 7 percent of the vote in June general elections, a 20-fold jump since a national vote in 2009.

The party denies any involvement in a recent surge in anti-immigrant attacks, and says police should be more concerned by attacks on Greeks by foreign criminals.

In one suspected attack by racist gangs this month, an Iraqi man was stabbed in the street and died hours later in the hospital.

Anti-racism campaigners last month said immigrants living in Greece have been targeted in at least 300 violent attacks between early April and late July. The rise in hate crimes is believed to be one of the triggers of the government clampdown.

Authorities are using a newly built detention center near Athens and two converted police academy buildings in northeastern Greece to house detainees, while dozens of additional facilities are planned using converted Army bases.

Police associations argue that the massive deployment of manpower should have been delayed until more of those new facilities are ready. They cite the lack of detention capacity as a key reason for the country's inability to deal with illegal immigration.

It's a concern shared by local authorities in the Evros region, and many residents.

"As long as people know they can make it here and eventually live freely, they will keep coming," said 63-year-old Christos Kyriakidis. "Nothing will stop them."

___

Derek Gatopoulos contributed to this report from Athens, Greece.

Police: Pa. woman cited nonexistent twin in theft

(what? No evil twin? I’m shocked and surprised!)

BIG BEAVER, Pa. — Police say a western Pennsylvania woman blamed her nonexistent twin sister for stealing items from a hotel room.

The Beaver County Times ( http://bit.ly/Sm5XDv) reports Wednesday that police charged 31-year-old Jennifer Brown, of Rochester, with false reports and theft.

State police say Brown took some bed clothes, an alarm clock, coffee pot, basket and a hair dryer — worth a total of $206 — from the Holiday Inn in Big Beaver on Aug. 5. Police say they found Brown in another hotel nearby and she claimed her twin sister had taken the items.

When police found no record of a sister, they say Brown claimed her sister had just returned the items, which police found in the other hotel room.

Brown doesn't have an attorney. Police say relatives confirmed she doesn't have a twin.

Britons shrug off nude photos of UK's Prince Harry

( ah Prince Harry, I find this encouraging on many levels, 1^st it makes American celebrities seem a bit more tame,2^nd it shows Good old Prince Harry is in touch with the age old tradition of debaucherous royals. It’s not like he’s having anybody beheaded he’s just doing what any red blooded young man would do with ludicrous power, wealth and popularity. He’s having a right proper blast with it. so cavort on oh Prince we here at the Daily Parade salute you!)

By RAPHAEL SATTER and JILL LAWLESS, APLONDON — Britain's Prince Harry has been caught on camera doing something embarrassing — again.

Celebrity gossip website TMZ on Tuesday posted photos of the 27-year-old royal cavorting nude with an unidentified woman in a VIP suite in Las Vegas. It's hardly the first time the prince — who allegedly disrobed as part of a game of strip pool — has been filmed in a compromising situation. The third-in-line to the throne was famously photographed wearing a Nazi uniform for a costume party, and in another photo gaffe he was seen cupping the breast of a female TV presenter. Some would argue footage in which he was heard to utter a racial slur while teasing a fellow army cadet from Pakistan was more serious.

If the reaction of Britons to Harry's Las Vegas adventure was anything to go by, the nude photos will do little to tarnish his generally positive, party-prince image. The Associated Press asked an assortment of royal watchers and British subjects about what they thought about the prince's naked romp.

Norway vows 'humane' conditions for mass killer

( oh Norway you are so civilized. Guy goes on a murderous rampage, derides the very system keeping him from death and the decent folk just seeking answers and still he’s being treated better than many a free citizen here. How come America, ”the greatest nation on earth” cannot uphold such high standards?” It's all about a philosophy of humane prison treatment and rehabilitation that forms the bedrock of the Scandinavian penal system “,is apparently the answer, an earnest desire to rehabilitate not just harshly punish, recognizing that even this unrepentant monster deserves better than he gave. I stand humbled living in a land where millions are not given such justice.)

By JULIA GRONNEVET and KARL RITTER, APOSLO, Norway — Those expecting Anders Behring Breivik to spend the rest of his days alone in a cramped cell will be disappointed when the far-right fanatic receives his sentence Friday for killing 77 people in a bomb and gun rampage last year.

If declared insane, the confessed killer will be the sole patient of a psychiatric ward that Norway built just for him, with 17 people on staff to treat him.

If found mentally fit, he will remain isolated, for now, in the high-security prison where he uses three 86-square-foot (8-square-meter) cells: a bed room, an exercise room and a study.

Officials at Oslo's Ila Prison say the ambition would be to eventually transfer Breivik to a section with other prisoners, who have access to a school that teaches from primary grades through university-level courses, a library, a gym, work in the prison's various shops and other leisure activities.

It's all about a philosophy of humane prison treatment and rehabilitation that forms the bedrock of the Scandinavian penal system.

"I like to put it this way: He's a human being. He has human rights. This is about creating a humane prison regime," said Ellen Bjercke, a spokeswoman for Ila (EE-luh) Prison.

Dealing with an unrepentant killer responsible for Norway's worst massacre since World War II puts the system to, perhaps, its most challenging test yet.

During his trial, Breivik, 33, coolly described how he set off a car bomb that killed eight people and injured scores in Oslo's government district on July 22 last year. Then he unleashed a shooting rampage that left 69 people dead, mostly teenagers, at the summer camp of the governing Labor Party's youth wing. The youngest victim was 14.