Canadian ‘Cannibal’ and Hollywood Murder Not Connected: Cops

US Worried About Generic Oxycontin Pills Crossing Canadian Border

Dec 052012

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Drug Czar is warning police and border patrol agents in the north to be on the lookout for a possible flood of the generic version of a popular painkiller.

Cheap, generic versions of the painkiller Oxycontin could hit shelves in Canada as soon as next month. The concern is that these generic pills, which have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the United States — can be easily crushed and snorted by people who abuse pain killers. That was a big problem with the first Oxycontin pills, which are now crush resistant.

Health officials worry the generic version could undo those efforts to stop abusers from overdosing.

Tsunami Warning in Hawaii Downgraded to Advisory After Canada Quake

Oct 282012

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A tsunami warning was downgraded to an advisory for the state of Hawaii this morning, following a 7.7 earthquake off the coast of British Columbia Saturday night.

Although waves up to six feet were predicted, the first waves that reached the islands were much smaller.

“We appear at this stage to be very, very fortunate,” said Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie.

Residents in low lying areas were evacuated.

Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle said while the waves were not as big as expected, officials have to remain cautious.

“These events are capricious. They’re dangerous. You have to always err on the side of safety,” Carlisle said.

Carlisle told ABC News affiliate KITV that it is now safe for residents from the evacuated areas to return home and roads were reopening.

But Carlisle said he won’t give the “all clear” because previous incidences show the danger might not be over.

“In some instances, after the last great warning, there was danger that lasted for two full days in certain areas. We do not want somebody to go into the water and risk that type of danger,” he said.

The 7.7 quake that triggered the tsunami warnings was centered around an island north of Vancouver in Canada.

A 5.8 aftershock was reported just after the first earthquake.

No major damage has been reported.

Jay Albrecht with the National Weather Service said the quake’s impact was felt as far south as San Francisco.

“There is a tsunami advisory that’s been issued for the Southern Oregon and Northern California coast and that goes from about 80 miles northwest of San Francisco, northward to a location about 10 miles southwest of Florence, Ore.,” Albrecht said.

Tsunami advisories were canceled for Canada and Oregon.

Where to Escape the Individual Mandate (Hint: Not Canada)

Jun 302012

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — The Supreme Court’s ruling upholding Obama’s health care law on Thursday made some people so disillusioned with the United States that they posted on Facebook and Twitter that they were jumping ship and moving to Canada.

But Canada’s health care system makes Obamacare look like the poster child for free market capitalism. Canada not only has an individual mandate requiring all residents to buy health insurance, but that insurance is government-run.

So if not America’s northern neighbor, where can people looking for a reprieve from a government that will soon force them to buy health insurance turn?

Heading south to Mexico won’t work. Nearly the entire Mexican population gets their health care from a Medicaid-like system funded by the government.

Europe isn’t an option either. The health care systems in Britain, Denmark, Spain, Norway and Sweden are all funded by taxes much in the same way as public schools or the police force.

Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden all mandate that residents buy private insurance and those insurance companies are non-profits that are required to cover everyone and are highly regulated, giving governments the control to manage costs.

Even Singapore has a policy similar to Obamacare’s individual mandate, requiring residents to set aside part of their incomes in personal savings accounts, which can be used to pay for health care.

“As far as I can tell, there’s not really any developed country that doesn’t have either a government-provided system or a mandate,” said Michael Tanner, a senior fellow at the Libertarian Cato Institute who studies health policy.

Even with the individual mandate, the United States still has one of the most privately-run health care systems in the world, said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“We were very exceptional,” Huang said of the U.S. “Among industrialized countries we were the only one that adopted the market-based system.”

So where can people disillusioned by ‘Obamacare’ turn to find a country whose health care system has less government involvement than the United States?

“I can’t name one,” said Robin Osborn, vice president and director of The Commonwealth Fund’s International Program in Health Policy. “It’d be more likely a third world country.”

Haung suggested “maybe sub-Saharan Africa.”

Canadian Porn Actor Linked to Unsolved Miami Murder?

Jun 112012

Montreal Police(MIAMI) — Miami police say they haven’t ruled out the possibility that porn actor Luka Rocco Magnotta, who allegedly killed his male lover, chopped up the body and mailed pieces of it to government officials, could have committed an unsolved murder in Miami in 2009.

The news comes days after Los Angeles police confirmed there is no possible link between Magnotta and the chopped-up body found beneath the Hollywood sign in January.

Magnotta, 29, was arrested in Berlin last week on murder charges. He allegedly filmed himself stabbing a Montreal college student to death with an ice pick, hacked the corpse to pieces and mailed them to government offices. He allegedly also had sex with some of the body parts.

The victim in the unsolved Miami case was Omar Laparra, 21, whose body was found in the Biscayne Bay, dismembered and floating in plastic bags. Detectives still don’t know how he died, according to ABC News affiliate Local 10 in Miami.

The Canadian Press reports that someone posting as “luka-magnotta” wrote on Lotus car websites in 2010 and said he was living in Miami.

“Why not look into it? Any agency with a similar case, we would look into it,” Miami Police Sgt. Confesor Gonzalez told the Miami Herald.

But at first glance, the Miami killing doesn’t follow the pattern of Magnotta’s alleged crime in Canada, said Gonzalez, the lead investigator on the Laparra case.

“In the Canadian case, it appeared to be domestic, and the killer knew the victim, while in our case, it appears to be random,” he told the Herald. “Nonetheless, in the interest of being thorough, we will follow up with Montreal police.”

Magnotta is currently in a German jail awaiting extradition to Canada, where police say he allegedly murdered Chinese student Jun Lin around May 24.

Magnotta and victim Jun Lin, 33, were gay lovers, according to Montreal police.

Canadian ‘Cannibal’ and Hollywood Murder Not Connected: Cops

Jun 082012

Montreal Police Department(LOS ANGELES) — Los Angeles police do not believe the dismemberment of a Montreal student by a Canadian “cannibal” is connected to the chopped up body found beneath the famous Hollywood sign in January, a commander told ABC News on Friday.

L.A. cops said on Thursday they were in touch with their counterparts in Montreal looking for a possible connection between the murder of Hervey Medellin, 66, who was decapitated and his remains were scattered beneath the famous landmark, and the videotaped dismemberment of Jun Lin, 33, a Chinese student killed in May in Quebec.

Lin was allegedly killed by former porn actor Luka Magnotta, 29, who recorded himself murdering Lin with an ice pick and hacking apart the Chinese student’s corpse. Magnotta then allegedly had sex with some of Lin’s dismembered body parts and ate others. The man’s hands and feet were mailed to two government offices and two schools.

Authorities in Los Angeles are continuing to talk with Canadian cops, but at this point do not believe the two murders are related.

Los Angeles sources believe there is a large body of evidence suggesting Medellin’s murder was the result of a love-triangle. There was also a very distinct method of dismembering Medellin’s body, sources told ABC News. The evidence points to a person or persons with no known link to Magnotta, sources said.

A Facebook page in Magnotta’s name, and one of many attributed to the accused killer, includes posts made in February that suggest the user was in Los Angeles working as a masseuse.

Authorities in Los Angeles say they do not believe Magnotta was in L.A. at the time of Medellin’s murder. Canadian sources, however, have yet to determine Magnotta’s whereabouts at that time.

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