Cuba hands over U.S. parents accused of abducting their sons

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - Cuba allowed U.S. authorities to land a plane in Havana and retrieve an American couple accused of kidnapping their two young sons and sailing to the communist island with them, Florida officials said.

The plane returned to Tampa, Florida, early on Wednesday with Joshua Michael Hakken, his wife, Sharyn Hakken, and their sons, 4-year-old Cole and 2-year-old Chase, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said.

The parents, who had lost custody of their children, were jailed on kidnapping and other charges. The children were returned to their maternal grandparents, from whose home they were allegedly abducted last week.

Cuba's Foreign Ministry issued a terse statement on Tuesday saying the family had arrived by boat at the Hemingway Marina near Havana on Sunday and would be turned over to U.S. authorities. Cuba handed them over to officials from the U.S. State Department and the FBI a few hours later.

A State Department official said earlier that the United States was receiving "very good cooperation from the Cuban authorities," who had provided "all appropriate assistance to the family."

Washington and Havana have no extradition agreement and tensions flared between the two Cold War enemies during the Elian Gonzalez child custody battle more than a decade ago.

But there were few if any parallels between the Hakken case and Gonzalez saga, which involved a boy plucked from an inner tube off the Florida coast after his mother and others drowned while fleeing Cuba. He was ultimately returned to his father in Cuba.

Joshua Hakken is accused of breaking into his mother-in-law's home north of Tampa a week ago, tying her up and fleeing with his sons, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said.

Hours later, Hakken, his wife, and the children left from a dock in Madeira Beach, Florida, aboard the Salty, their recently purchased 25-foot (7.6-meter) sailboat, investigators said.

The boys had been placed in the legal custody of their grandparents, Patricia and Robert Hauser, after the Hakkens attended an "anti-government" rally in June in Louisiana, where police said they found Hakken in the family's hotel room with a gun, marijuana and a knife, talking about a "journey to Armageddon," according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Joshua Hakken, 35, was booked into the Hillsborough County Jail in Tampa on Wednesday on charges of burglary with assault, false imprisonment, stealing his in-laws' car, child neglect, interference with child custody and kidnapping.

Sharyn Hakken, 34, was jailed on charges of kidnapping, burglary with assault, child neglect and interference with custody.

(Reporting by Saundra Amrhein in Tampa and Jane Sutton in Miami; Editing by Eric Beech)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cuba-hands-over-u-parents-accused-abducting-sons-115020710.html

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Gunman who held four firefighters hostage in suburban Atlanta dead

Gwinnett County spokesperson Edwin Ritter tells the media that a flash-bang device was used, as there was concern for the firefighters safety, and that the gunman died after an exchange of gunfire during the rescue.

By Becky Bratu, Staff Writer, NBC News

A gunman who was holding four firefighters hostage outside of Atlanta was killed during a tactical operation, police said Wednesday.

Following a standoff, the Gwinnett County Police Department SWAT team entered the residence where a barricaded gunman was holding four firefighters hostage in Suwanee, Ga.

The gunman had taken five firefighters hostage but allowed one of them to leave to move the fire truck, police said.

As officers entered the home, a small explosion could be heard. Officials later said it was used to distract the suspect. The sound of gunfire followed.

One officer suffered a non life-threatening injury in the exchange, and the four firefighters have "superficial wounds," Gwinnett County Police Cpl. Edwin Ritter said. It is believed the suspect was killed by gunfire, he said.

The firefighters responded to a medical call with one fire truck and an ambulance around 3:41 p.m., police said. They came from a nearby station, officials said, and they were trained as both emergency medical technicians and paramedics.

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Local NBC affiliate WXIA reported that the house where the firefighters were being held hostage was foreclosed on in November and is currently bank-owned.

Ritter said that once the firefighters were taken hostage, the suspect demanded his power, cable and cell phone be turned on.

Suwanee is a suburban community about 35 miles northeast of Atlanta.

John Bazemore / AP

A police officer clears a path for an ambulance after an explosion and gunshots were heard near the scene where a man was holding four firefighters hostage Wednesday, April 10, 2013 in Suwanee, Ga. A police spokesman said the suspect was dead and none of the hostages suffered serious injuries.

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This story was originally published on Wed Apr 10, 2013 5:25 PM EDT

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PlayStation Vita's firmware update 2.10 adding folders, enhanced video playback

Tired of all those messy icons cluttering up your PlayStation Vita's home screen? Sony's providing a solution in its next update, firmware version 2.10, which enables folders of up to 10 items to be organized on the screen. That means you could potentially take those 100 max applications allowed and stuff them all into folders on the home screen, effectively condensing your various home screens from 10 to one. The rest of the update isn't so thrilling -- namely, being able to identify which memory card you've got in the device, some email app enhancements, and video support which "allows you to play video within the browser." There're a few more minor tweaks, which we've included in the list past the jump -- a complete list of updates in gritty detail will show up here when the update goes live at some point "later this evening."

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds, Software, Sony

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Adobe Launches Primetime To Facilitate TV Everywhere Services, Signs Up Comcast & NBC Sports As Customers

Adobe has changed the way it sells technology used to enabled high-quality streaming services from TV networks and other video providers. With the launch of Adobe Primetime -- previously know as Project Primetime -- the technology company is providing a suite of tools for video delivery. And it's signed up a couple of big new clients for the suite of products.

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2 bodies found in charred Detroit medical facility

DETROIT (AP) ? A man identified by employees as a former maintenance worker opened fire Tuesday inside a Detroit medical facility, sending workers and visitors screaming and rushing for the doors just moments before the building erupted in flames.

Crews digging through the gutted Park Medical Centers building hours after the fire recovered the remains of a man and a woman, Detroit police said Tuesday night in a release.

Authorities did not release the identities of the dead, pending autopsies, but police had been searching for 35-year-old medical assistant Sharita Williams and the fired maintenance worker, who relatives said was her ex-boyfriend.

Williams' mother, Antha Williams-Hill, told The Associated Press that one of her daughter's co-workers told her that the man threatened her daughter inside.

"He said, 'You think I'm playing with you?'" Williams-Hill said. "He told the other girl, 'I think you better get out of here.' The girl left and said she then heard two shots."

Last week, Sharita Williams was granted a personal protection order against the man, according to Wayne County Court records.

Williams-Hill said two days earlier, someone had emailed her sexually explicit photos of her daughter that also were posted on Facebook. The text accompanying the photos read: "How do you like Sharita's new boyfriend?" her mother said.

Dr. Stuart Kirschenbaum, a podiatrist who operated his private practice from the building for about 30 years, said he heard a security guard yell that the gunman "had taken Sharita and is shooting at other people in the building."

Destroyed in the blaze, Kirschenbaum said, was his collection of boxing gloves, personal letters and photos of boxing great Joe Louis. He estimated the memorabilia were worth about $100,000.

Dr. Kim Logan-Nowlin, a clinical psychologist, said she was driving in for an appointment Tuesday morning when a member of her staff called with this frantic message: "Kim, the building is on fire. They're shooting."

Dwane Blackmon, Detroit police homicide inspector, declined to identify the maintenance man as the suspect but said everyone else inside except the woman and male suspect appeared to have escaped the blaze.

Investigators were unable to quickly go deep into the one-story building, described by tenants as also having a basement, due to fears of the structure's integrity.

Williams-Hill said she was asked to go to the coroner's office to identify whether the deceased woman was her daughter "because of the condition of the body."

She said her daughter had been dating the married maintenance man for more than a year, but their relationship was rocky and Sharita eventually began seeing someone else and even moved out of the city and into a Detroit suburb to get away. However, he refused to leave her alone, Williams-Hill said.

Police and arson investigators on Tuesday interviewed people who worked in the building and relatives of Sharita Williams and the maintenance man.

Blackmon could not confirm whether the two had been in a relationship.

__

Associated Press writers Mike Householder and Jeff Karoub contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-bodies-found-burned-detroit-medical-facility-012714807.html

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The Problem With Every Adobe Update Ever

You know that something, somewhere, has gone seriously wrong when every last software update requires you to update a proprietary download manager before you can even think about getting your hands on whatever trivial bug fix that's on offer. [XKCD] More »

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