Agent Richard Fekete had been drinking so heavily at a party that his partner, Shaun Curl, put him in his car to sleep it off.No one is exactly sure why, but when Curl later went back to the car to drive him home, Fekete woke up with a start and shot his friend. Beforeconvicting him of murder, the court was told Fekete had been having a nightmare about being shot at.”There are a lot of wealthy people involved in the drugs business The stakes are high,” said Pam Brown, a DEA agent in Miami “You’re taught You’re trained to take risks. You try to minimise them, but there’s always a danger there.” Brown described one undercover operation she went on in Miami, posing as a drug purchaser, supposedly delivering hundreds of thousands of dollars for a cocaine package.”I was up against an Italian gang. I had the supposed money in a gym bag, which was actually stashed with paper but weighted properly to feel like the right amount,” she said. “We had people on surveillance in the area but you never know how it’s going to turn out I handed over the bag and got out quickly You try to minimise the danger but it’s always there. It’s a very exciting job.”Brown was involved in a major sting operation in Miami last year, uncovering a drug smuggling ring in a local secondary school.
The school’s assistant principal, Willie James Young, 53, was sentenced on Monday to 30 years in jail for the distribution of large amounts of cocaine on behalf of the Florida drug lord, Luis Cano. Cano was jailed for life earlier this year for importing an estimated 10 tons of Colombian cocaine into the US during the past decade.After the sting pointed to the involvement of a police chief in Detroit and a former federal prosecutor in Miami, the DEA agents received death threats and had to move their families to secret locations.Agent Brown carries her pistol in her handbag wherever she goes “I’ve seen agents shot at I’ve seen agents killed But you believe in what you’re doing You’re getting drugs off the streets You feel you’re giving something back to society.”. MORE TODAY of the rediscovered Shakespearean masterpiece The History of King Tony or New Labour’s Love Lost, in which King Tony has his hands full with the uprisings of the Welshman Sir Rhodri Morgan, and the Cockney rebel Duke “Red” Ken Livingstone. Meanwhile, he also has to deal with a state visit by an ally, the newly crowned King Gerhard of Germany
Fanfares, martial music, police sirens, etc. Enter King Tony and Queen Cherie to welcome King Gerhard of Germany.
King Tony: Welcome and thrice welcome to ourshores!Welcome to New Labour and New Britain,A land where sheep may safely graze at will…King Gerhard: Unless, of course, they’ve firstcontracted scrapie! Tony: You jest, I hope, for know, my dearest coz,That all our flocks and herds are safe at last to eat.There was a time when British cows would runAnd fall, and rise, until we called them mad.But that was then, in bad John Major’s days.Now all is changed and cows may safely graze!Gerhard:[ Aside.] This fellow talks a lot, butlittle says.I wonder what he truly purposes…[Aloud.]Then hail, King Tony! Heil Dir, lieber Tone! Wir haben oft gesprochen am Telephon,Und endlich treffen wir uns! Ist gut!Tony: Alas, I speak no German. Oh, that I could!Gerhard: Also, Du kannst nicht Deutschverstehen?Wie du Franzosisch kannst? Sehr schade!Tony: Will someone please enlighten me forthwithAs to what King Gerhard means to say?Gerhard: Fear not, good Tony! It is but my jest! I thought I would pretend to speak no EnglishTo show we Germans have a sense of humour! Tony: It was not very funny.Gerhard: No, but it worked!Tony: So tell me, German coz, what did you say?Gerhard: When?Tony: E’en now, when you did spoutthat German…Gerhard: Ah, yes! I said that it was good to meetNow that we have all Europe at our feet.In turn pray tell me, if you simply may,What exactly you mean by “the third way”?Tony: Good, Gerhard, good! I’m glad you asked methat.You see, we must rethink our ancient ways,Nor be bound by musty modes of thought.Forward! Upward! Free from dogma’s chains!Gerhard: [Aside.] He says all this without the useof brains…[Aloud.] ‘Tis very well said, King Tony, as I know,For I said just the same a while ago,When I was fighting for the German throne,With Old King Kohl, to make the crown my own.Follow the middle way, I told the crowd.Not left, not right, but middle! I told them loud.It must have sounded sweetly to their ear…But what comes next? One can electioneerFor ever in the middle way, but governingIs rather harder, even for a King.Enter a messenger, panting hard, after a long ride.Tony: But, soft! What hard-pressed messengeris this?Speak, varlet, speak!Messenger: My liege, I bring bad news.The House of Lords is baying for your blood!Arrayed against you are they all, and armed!Tony: Arms? What arms? There’s nothing thereto fear!These toothless lords have only privilege,And privilege is a blunt old battle-axeHanging useless on the family walls.One puff from me, and down their privilege falls!The time has come for me to quell these lords.I do not fear their stale and rusty swords!Enter a man in a white suit, pointing an accusing finger.
It is the holy prophet, Martin Bell.Martin Bell: Woe to you, King Tony! Alas, alack!From temptation’s brink step smartly back!Yes, you’ve a mandate to unmake these peersBut take care that it does not end in tears,For when you take away another’s power,You do increase your own, hour by hour.Remember, Tony, that there’s nothing chicIn showing yourself to be a control freak.[Exit.] Gerhard: What was this warning that I heard himutter?Tony: Pay no attention. The man is just a nutter.More of this saga some other time…. Sir: Once again I see a letter from someone who obviously has no idea about farming, but considers farmers a “pampered elite” (23 November). I suggest that your reader from Plymouth takes herself out on to the moors only a few minutes from her home and asks those trying to make a living on small to medium-sized farms just how pampered they feel. She would see proud, hard-pressed, hard-working and nigh-on desperate people who are swimming as hard as they can but still sinking.
Farmers’ incomes have halved this past couple of years, and many are making a loss year-on-year, no matter what type of farm they run.
My father ran a small mixed farm, and would never have chosen to do anything else as it was in his blood, but he worked so very hard. He cannot recall a time when every area of farming was making a loss, and I can only say that I am glad that he has now retired, but I have many other relatives and family friends (from the North of England) who are living on a knife- edge, and who keep going only because to give up would not be in their nature.ANGELA GRAHAMSt Martin’s,Guernsey. Sir: Those of us who are unhappy about the Independent Television Commission’s decision to allow ITV to abolish News at Ten are not arguing for a “paternalist vision of `guided democracy’ ” (leader, 20 November). Rather we are asking why the opinions of viewers were so contemptuously dismissed by the ITC. The ITC launched a major public consultation about the proposal to move News at Ten and even commissioned an opinion poll to canvass views.
In the end, however, the ITC apparently gave more weight to the wishes of the ITV companies and their advertisers.
As one of those who took part in the public consultation exercise, I now feel I participated in a meaningless charade. I would question whether a determinedly non-interventionist ITC has any role to play in the future regulation of television.TREVOR J RHODESWallasey,Merseyside. Sir: Matthew Ravenhill (Letter, 23 November) does not understand the objections to a closed list system. In this part of the world we have an MEP, David Hallam (Labour), who is highly respected and widely regarded.
