Tag Archives: woman
California woman accused of planting poisoned juice at Starbucks
SAN FRANCISCO |
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A northern California woman has been arrested on suspicion of spiking orange juice bottles with a deadly dose of rubbing alcohol and stocking the bottles at a Starbucks coffee shop, law enforcement officials said on Tuesday.
Ramineh Behbehanian, 50, was arrested at her San Jose home on Monday night and booked into the Santa Clara County Jail on charges of attempted murder and poisoning, San Jose Police Sergeant Jason Dwyer said.
Behbehanian is accused of carrying two bottles of tainted juice into a Starbucks outlet in San Jose on Monday, pulling them from her bag and placing them in the display case of a cooler stocked with various beverages.
A customer saw the woman and what appeared to be her suspicious behavior and alerted the store’s employees, but police say Behbehanian fled the shop when she overheard the conversation between the customer and employees. Another Starbucks patron followed Behbehanian outside and recorded the woman’s license plate as she drove away, Dwyer said.
San Jose police and firefighters were called to the coffee shop, which was quickly evacuated. Hazardous materials inspectors tested the contents of the two bottles in question and found they contained a mixture of orange juice and isopropyl alcohol, or rubbing alcohol.
“According to the fire department, both of the bottles contained a lethal dose of alcohol,” Dwyer said.
The store closed early to aid in the investigation, and all of the bottled drinks in the display case were destroyed, Starbucks spokesman Zack Hutson said. All nearby Starbucks stores also were directed to check the seals on beverage bottles in their inventory as a precaution, but no evidence of additional tampering was found, he added.
“We’re immensely grateful to the vigilant customer who did the right thing by immediately alerting our store partners after witnessing the suspicious behavior,” Hutson said.
Dwyer said a motive for the alleged tampering was under investigation. He said he could not release additional details about the case.
(Editing by Steve Gorman and Bob Burgdorfer)
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Dutch Man Confesses to Killing British Woman in Kashmir, Police Say
Attacker blamed influence of cannabis in part for killing, police said
NYT > Marijuana and Medical Marijuana
Man and woman, preferably married, wanted for expedition to Mars
An artist’s rendition shows a Mars capsule which will carry two people to Mars and back in this image released by Inspiration Mars Foundation on February 27, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Inspiration Mars Foundation/Handout
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida, – A nonprofit foundation wants to recruit a man and a woman – possibly a married couple – for a bare-bones, 501-day journey to Mars and back that would start in less than five years, project organizers said on Wednesday.
The mission, expected to cost upwards of $ 1 billion, would be privately financed by donations and sponsorships.
Project founder Dennis Tito, a multimillionaire who in 2001 paid $ 20 million for a trip to the International Space Station, said he will pay start-up costs for two years to begin development of life-support systems and other critical technologies.
Currently, there are no U.S. human spaceships in operation, but several are under development and expected to be flying by 2017.
That leaves little time to take advantage of a rare planetary alignment that would allow a craft to loop around Mars, coming as close as about 150 miles to the planet’s surface, before returning to Earth.
The launch window for the mission opens on January 5, 2018. The next opportunity is not until 2031.
“If we don’t make 2018, we’re going to have some competition in 2031,” Tito told Reuters.
“By that time, there will be many others that will be reaching for this low-hanging fruit, and it really is low-hanging fruit,” said Tito, who set up the nonprofit Inspiration Mars Foundation to organize the mission.
Project chief technical officer Taber MacCallum said U.S. industry is up for the challenge.
“That’s the kind of bold thing we used to be able to do,” said MacCallum, who also oversees privately owned Paragon Space Development Corp.
“We’ve shirked away from risk. I think just seriously contemplating this mission recalibrates what we believe is a risk worth taking for America,” he said.
TIGHT QUARTERS
The spacecraft will be bare-bones, with about 600 cubic feet (17 cubic meters) of living space available for a two-person crew. Mission planners would like to fly a man and a woman, preferably a married couple who would be compatible during a long period of isolation.
The capsule would be outfitted with a life-support system similar to the one NASA uses on the space station, which recycles air, water, urine and perspiration.
“This is going to be a very austere mission. You don’t necessarily have to follow all of NASA’s guidelines for air quality and water quality. This is going to be a Lewis and Clark trip to Mars,” MacCallum said, referring to the explorers who set out across the uncharted American Northwest in 1803.
If launch occurs on January 5, 2018, the capsule would reach Mars 228 days later, loop around its far side and slingshot back toward Earth.
The return trip takes 273 days and ends with an unprecedented 31,764-mph (51,119-kph) slam into Earth’s atmosphere.
Once the spaceship is on its way, there is no turning back.
“If something goes wrong, they’re not coming back,” MacCallum said.
The crew would spend much of their time maintaining their habitat, conducting science experiments and keeping in touch with people on Earth.
Tito said he expects the cost to be similar to a robotic mission to Mars. NASA’s ongoing Curiosity rover mission cost $ 2.5 billion. A follow-on mission scheduled to launch in 2020 is expected to run $ 1.5 billion.
“You’re really flying this mission without a propulsion system on the spacecraft. It’s in the most simple form,” Tito said.
NASA is working on its own heavy-lift rocket and Orion space capsule that could carry crews of four to an asteroid and eventually to Mars.
“We can just barely, every 15 years, fly by Mars with the systems we have right now,” MacCallum said. “We’re trying to be a stepping-stone.”
(Editing by Jane Sutton and Xavier Briand)
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Japanese woman, 114, recognized as world’s oldest
Misao Okawa (R) receives a certification from an official of Guinness World Records in Osaka, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo February 27, 2013. Okawa of the western Japanese city of Osaka was on Wednesday officially recognised by the Guinness World Records as the oldest woman alive at 114 years old. Born to a clothing merchant in 1898, also the year of the Spanish-American war, Okawa is due to celebrate her 115th birthday next week on March 5th. Mandatory Credit.
Credit: Reuters/Kyodo
Woman defaces famous Louvre painting with black pen
1 of 2. Vincent Pomarede, curator of painting department at the Louvre Lens Museum, poses front of Eugene Delacroix ‘s painting, ”Liberty Leading the People (28 July 1830) (La Liberte guidant le peuple) in ”La Galerie du Temps” (Gallery of Time) during a media day on the eve of the inauguration of the Le Louvre Lens Museum, in Lens, northern France, in this December 3, 2012 file photo.
Credit: Reuters/Pascal Rossignol
