04.02.2011
Russian uproar over adopted boy's punishment in US
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Russian officials are closely watching a case involving an Anchorage mother of six who was charged with child abuse after a video that aired on "Dr. Phil" showed her punishing her adopted Russian son by squirting hot sauce into his mouth and forcing him into a cold shower.
The case has sparked a public uproar in Russia at a time that nation is nearing completion of a bilateral treaty with the U.S. on adoptions. Russia called for the agreement following the deaths of Russian children who were abused or neglected by their adoptive American parents in recent years.
Russian officials say they have not ruled out pushing for the return of the 7-year-old boy to his native country should his adoptive mother, Jessica Beagley, be found guilty.
"This video caused a huge wave of outrage in Russia," said Andrey Bondarev of the Russian Consulate in Seattle. "We're going to pay attention because this behavior is absolutely unacceptable."
Beagley's attorney, meanwhile, maintains she is a caring mother who submitted the video to the show because she genuinely wanted help.
The boy and his fraternal twin brother remain in the home with Beagley, her husband and their four biological children. Bondarev, who twice visited the family, said he saw no reason to have the boys removed at this point, and neither did authorities. He said Beagley vowed to never exert that kind of discipline again.
Authorities began investigating Beagley, 36, after the video aired in November in a segment on the CBS show called "Mommy Confessions." The city charged Beagley with one misdemeanor count of child abuse last month.
She has pleaded not guilty.
The video, shot by Beagley's 10-year-old daughter, included sounds of the boy screaming behind the shower curtain and Beagley yelling about the consequences of misbehavior. It brought many in the show's audience to tears.
On the air, host Phil McGraw called Beagley's actions abusive and over the top.
Beagley is married to an Anchorage police officer who was aware of the punishment, Bondarev said. The husband, Gary Beagley, also was investigated, according to municipal prosecutor Cynthia Franklin. She declined to elaborate, saying only that he has not been charged.
On the show, Jessica Beagley said the boy acts up and lies. She said other disciplinary actions such as time-outs, spankings and soap in the mouth have had no effect on his misbehavior.
"I would definitely say that (the boy) is the biggest stress in my life," she said.
Bill Ingaldson, Beagley's attorney, declined to make his client available for an interview. He said she was on the show to seek help about the boy, who was adopted with his brother when they were 5 years old. She saw a "Dr. Phil" episode inviting frustrated parents to the show, according to her lawyer, so she wrote to producers but didn't hear back until 18 months later.
She originally sent a video showing her talking to her children about cold showers as a consequence of misbehavior, but producers wanted to see the actual discipline, Ingaldson said.
The subsequent video was made after legitimate misbehavior, and Beagley's sole motivation was to find solutions, he said.
"She's being portrayed as this evil person, which isn't at all the case," he said. "She's a really caring mom."
Show spokeswoman Stacey Luchs said producers routinely accept home videos or ask participants to tape "naturally occurring behaviors and interactions, in order to gain insight" when dealing with family dynamics.
"We were shocked by what we saw, and called for the immediate halting of this behavior and also referred, at the show's expense, both mother and child for evaluation and treatment with appropriate professionals," she told The Associated Press in an e-mail.
Yevgeniy Khorishko, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., said his office is following the case, which has prompted many reactions in his country.
Russia and U.S. officials are concluding work on a new, binding agreement to cover adoptions between the two countries. Russia demanded such an agreement after a Tennessee adoptive mother put her 7-year-old boy on a plane back to Moscow last year, unaccompanied by an adult.
There also have been instances of severe mistreatment by American parents, Khorishko said.
"There were several cases in recent years with adopted Russian children, including the deaths, beatings and cruel attitude of the parents toward these children," he said. "We actually questioned many times our American counterparts on these issues, and we both understood that we actually need an agreement."
An estimated 17 adopted Russian children have died in instances of domestic violence in American families since 1992, according to Pavel Astakhov, Russia's government-appointed children's rights ombudsman. His office also is monitoring the Beagley case.
"Theoretically, we don't rule out that we could insist on the return of the boy to Russia. But at this point we're not going to," Astakhov said. He suggested that could happen if the family is shown to be unfit to raise him, but he added it's too early to draw that conclusion.___
Associated Press Writer Varya Kudryavtseva in Moscow contributed to this story.
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Danish cartoonist's attacker jailed for nine years
AARHUS, Denmark (AFP) – A Danish court jailed a Somali for nine years on Friday after finding him guilty of attempted terrorism and attempted murder for an axe attack on a cartoonist who caricatured the Prophet Mohammed.
"Mohamed Geele is sentenced to nine years in prison and expulsion from Denmark for life," after he completes his sentence, judge Ingrid Thorsboe told the court in the central Danish city of Aarhus said.
The 29-year-old Somali "must also pay damages amounting to 10,000 Danish kroner (1,830 dollars, 1,340 euros) to Kurt Westergaard, as well as cover the costs of the trial," she added.
The court on Thursday found Geele guilty of attempted terrorism and attempted murder for his New Years Day attack last year on the 75-year-old cartoonist.
Prosecutors had requested he serve 12 years in prison before being deported back to his war-torn homeland and banned from ever returning to Denmark, while the defence asked that he only serve six year and not be forced to leave the country.
Geele broke into Westergaard's home last year wielding an axe and screaming, "You must die! You are going to Hell!", according to the cartoonist's testimony in court last month.
Westergaard, who has faced numerous death threats since the publication of his drawing of Mohammed that appeared in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in 2005, said he escaped "certain death" by rushing into a bathroom-turned-panic-room to call police.
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Las Vegas Sands turns to profit, but revenues miss
LAS VEGAS – Soaring revenue in Macau and Singapore helped casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp. return to a profit in the last three months of the year, and billionaire CEO Sheldon Adelson said Thursday that his company will continue to expand its reach in Asia, Europe and the U.S.
While profit topped expectations, investors had hoped that the surge in gambling revenue in the Chinese enclave of Macau would translate into even more robust revenue growth for the company. At $2.02 billion, quarterly revenue came in below forecasts, sending Las Vegas Sands shares down nearly 7 percent after-hours.
A recovery in Asian economies helped Macau's casino gambling revenue rise by more than half in 2010 to $23.52 billion, solidifying its rank as the world's biggest gambling market. Las Vegas Sands, which generates the majority of its profit in Asia, said revenue from its Macau properties rose 13 percent to $1.09 billion during the quarter. In Singapore, the company's Marina Bay Sands resort, which opened in April, took in $560.4 million and Adelson said that market is all but certain to grow. He said Marina Bay is a perfect showcase for government officials in various countries that are considering allowing casino companies to enter their markets. He expects Sands to be favored to win bids to build resorts in Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
"There's no reason to believe any fundamentals of our business are changing, so we have every expectation that this growth trajectory will continue," he said on a conference call with analysts. "But make no mistake about it; we will not rest on our laurels. We will continue to aggressively pursue new opportunities, which will fill our development pipeline and help us maintain our position as the pace-setter for growth in our industry."
Sands owns the Venetian Macao, Sands Macao and Four Seasons Hotel Macao and the Venetian and Palazzo casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, among other properties. Domestic casino revenue, while a much smaller portion of Sands' overall take, also improved during the quarter. In Sin City revenue rose nearly 17 percent to $310.6 million as Sands spent less on promotions and customers spent more on food, drinks and retail shopping.
The company reported net income of $273 million, or 34 cents per share, for the three months ended Dec. 31. In the year-ago period Sands booked a loss of $113.9 million, or 17 cents per share, as it wrote down the value of its properties in Macau and Pennsylvania and ramped up spending ahead of the Singapore resort's opening.
Excluding one-time items, the company earned 42 cents per share in the latest period, which beat the average estimate of 38 cents expected by analysts surveyed by FactSet. Revenue jumped 57 percent to $2.02 billion from $1.28 billion, but fell shy of the $2.05 billion analysts' had forecast.
Sands shares fell $3.36, or 6.7 percent, to $46.92 in aftermarket trading, having closed the regular session up 85 cents at $50.28. The stock has more than tripled since the start of 2009 as the economy — and Sands' fortunes — have improved.
For the full year, the company earned $407.5 million, or 51 cents per share, on revenue of $6.85 billion. That compares with a loss of $540.1 million, or 82 cents per share, on $4.56 billion in revenue in 2009.
Sands said it had $3.04 billion in unrestricted cash at year-end, and $809.9 million allocated for construction in Macau and Singapore. Its total debt as of Dec. 31 was $10.14 billion, with $767.1 million due this year.
Adelson said the company is considering paying off the debt on its existing resorts in China, so it will only owe money on the resorts it is currently building.
"Having cash is better — and no debt," he said.
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