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The founder of one of Singapore’s richest churches has been charged in court for allegedly syphoning off nearly $19m of the congregation’s money to support his wife’s singing career.

Pastor Kong Hee, 47, faces three charges of “criminal breach of trust” relating to the misuse of funds belonging to the City Harvest Church, one of Singapore’s biggest - with a membership of over 30,000.

Kong was accused of “dishonestly misappropriating monies” from the church’s building fund over several years to support the career of his wife Ho Yeow Sun, who had tried to become a music star in the US.

Oh… “My wife made me do it!” has got to be the second oldest excuse for clerical naughtiness.

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A New Zealand court has ruled that search warrants used when 70 police raided the New Zealand mansion of the suspected kingpin of an internet copyright theft ring were illegal.

German national Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, was one of four men arrested in January as part of an investigation into his Megaupload.com website led by the FBI.

Prosecutors say Dotcom was the ringleader of a group that has netted $175m since 2005 by copying and distributing music, movies and other copyrighted content without authorisation.

Dotcom’s lawyers say the company simply offered online storage.

On Thursday, High Court Judge Justice Helen Winkelmann found the warrants used in the seizure of property from Dotcom’s mansion near Auckland were illegal and that moves by the FBI to copy data from Dotcom’s computer and take offshore were also unlawful.

“The warrants did not adequately describe the offences to which they related,” Winkelmann said in her ruling. “Indeed they fell well short of that. They were general warrants, and as such, are invalid.”

Crikey! Now what? Can we extradite him?

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Zookeepers searching for 30 squirrels that escaped from a Japanese zoo under cover of a typhoon have been extremely successful in tracking down the animals.

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Naharnet now reports zoo spokeswoman Eri Tsushima has revealed that their efforts have been a resounding success as 38 of the missing 30 squirrels have been recovered.

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LZ Granderson is a regular CNN columnist and contributor, and has written a column this week that — no joke — urges Americans to stop being so “nosy” about all the bad things the U.S. Government does. You just have to read it to believe it

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An orthodox Jewish woman in Jerusalem risked the life of her newborn child to allow herself complete her vow of silence. The woman took the vow of silence which would finish at the end of Shabbat on Saturday night; however, the woman gave birth Saturday morning. So she hid the baby under her dress with the umbilical cord still attached, put the placenta in a bag and waited in her house. Medics were not alerted until the husband went to a rabbi for a blessing for the child and it the Rabbi who called the hospital. When paramedics arrived they were not allowed see the woman or child. A rabbinical tribunal was performed to relinquish the woman from her vow but even after that she still refused to speak or even communicate in any form. Eventually police and rescue teams had to use force to separate the mother from the child, cut the umbilical cord and rush the pair to a hospital. Ariel Atias, one of the paramedics, said ‘it’s a miracle the baby is safe and healthy, the incident could have ended badly’.

According to the notes, Frank de Grave, member of the Eerste Kamer (the senate) said this last Tuesday.

source

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AP

The Supreme Court upheld the health care law today in a splintered, complex opinion that appears to give President Obama a major victory.

Basically. the justices said that while Congress did overreach in part with the individual mandate — the requirement that most Americans buy health insurance or pay a fine — the provision is held constitutional as a tax.

Chief Justice John Roberts — a conservative appointed by President George W. Bush — provided the key vote to preserve the landmark health care law, which figures to be a major issue in Obama’s re-election bid against Republican opponent Mitt Romney.

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She made it clear that if any client ever tells her he’s gay, she’s going to respond by telling him he needs to be “cured.” She supported “conversion therapy,” something that doesn’t work and harms the patients.

In response, her school made her take diversity sensitivity workshops as part of a remediation plan. Keeton refused to participate. The school kicked her out of the program. Keeton sued. She said the school discriminated against her because of her faith. They didn’t, of course, because they weren’t asking her to alter her religious beliefs — she just had to keep them to herself and do her damn job.

Now, a Georgia federal district court has sided with the school (PDF). Yay!

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“Hi all, just as an FYI, I will be in noon’ish on Monday,” wrote one of Barclays Bank’s submitters, a person responsible for reporting the interest rate at which one of Britain’s biggest banks is able to borrow money, through its dealings with other financial institutions, and derivatives products on offer over-the-counter.

“Noonish? Who’s going to put my low fixings in? Hehehe,” came the cheeky reply from one of Barclays’ traders.

This is just one of the emails released at the conclusion of an investigation by industry regulators the Financial Services Authority (FSA) into Barclays’ interest rate fixing of its LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) and EURIBOR (Euro Interbank Offered Rate).

In practices outlawed by the FSA, Barclays traders and submitters worked together to manipulate the interest rates being reported in order to benefit the bank’s trading positions and increase its profits.

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The High Court has ruled the police raid on internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom’s Auckland mansion was illegal and the removal from New Zealand of cloned copies of hard drives seized was unlawful.

Justice Helen Winkelmann found the warrants used did not adequately describe the offences to which they were related.

“Indeed they fell well short of that. They were general warrants, and as such, are invalid.”

A spokesman for Dotcom’s attorneys said Dotcom and his co-defendants were pleased.

“They are very happy with Justice Winkelmann’s decision,” wrote a representative for Simpson Grierson. “We are considering our clients’ remedies as a result of the decision that the search warrants were unlawful and that the FBI sending the clones to the USA was also unlawful.”

Police said they were considering the judgement and are in discussions with Crown Law to determine what further action might be required.

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Het Openbaar Ministerie (OM) verdenkt een van de broeders van voormalig internaat Sint Joseph in Heel ervan de hand te hebben gehad in de dood van 37 hulpbehoevende jongens onder de 21 jaar in de periode 1952-1954. Justitie bestempelt dit als een misdrijf. Deze Broeder Andreas werkte in die jaren als enige verzorger met de onder verdachte omstandigheden overleden hulpbehoevende jongens. Dat maakte het OM in Roermond donderdag bekend na onderzoek.

Here is a google translate.

Summary: The Public Prosecutor suspects one of the brothers of former boarding school in St. Joseph Many have had their hand in the death of 37 needy boys under 21 years.

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Het advertentiemodel voor websites is mislukt; de tijd van gratis artikelen online is voorbij. Dat stelde De Persgroep-CEO Christian van Thillo vanmorgen op de Vlaamse radio, vlak voor hij als voorzitter van het Media Futures Forum de Europese Commissie zou adviseren over maatregelen.

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It’s truly “One more thing”.