• Police seek suspects in deadly birthday party shooting
  • Lawmakers launch inquires into U.S. boat strike
  • Nov. 29, 2025, 10:07 PM EST / Updated Nov. 30, 2025,…
  • Mark Kelly says troops ‘can tell’ what orders…

Be that!

contact@bethat.ne.com

 

Be That ! Menu   ≡ ╳
  • Home
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Contact Us
  • Politics Politics
☰

Be that!

India's top court wanted Delhi's stray dogs gone, but it may have worsened the issue

admin - Latest News - October 25, 2025
admin
21 views 14 secs 0 Comments




NOIDA, India — Sujata Bisht is proud to be called the “grandma” of over 40 dogs in this city, which sits just southeast of New Delhi



Source link

TAGS:
PREVIOUS
Oct. 25, 2025, 4:14 PM EDTBy Daniel ArkinThe members of New York City’s notorious “Five Families” are known by many names: wise guys, goodfellas, friends of ours. At least a dozen men with alleged ties to the Mafia can now add a new moniker to the mix: defendants in a federal investigation dubbed “Operation Royal Flush.”The sprawling illegal gambling case announced by federal officials this week names 34 defendants in total — among them a dozen men the government says are members or associates of New York’s notorious Genovese, Gambino, Bonanno and Lucchese crime families. They are accused of orchestrating a high-tech poker rigging scheme that duped unsuspecting gamblers and raked in millions of dollars over six years.“This alleged scheme wreaked havoc across the nation, exploiting the notoriety of some and the wallets of others to finance the Italian crime families,” said Christopher Raia, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York field office.Here’s what we know about the alleged Mafia leaders, members and associates at the center of the explosive case.Ernest AielloThe U.S. government’s 22-page indictment identifies Aiello as a member of the Bonanno crime family. Prosecutors allege that organizers of a rigged game on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan were required to make payments to Aiello and his Bonanno associates.Aiello, 46, has three prior felony convictions, according to a government detention memorandum unsealed Thursday. He pleaded guilty in 2017 to promoting gambling in the first degree and was sentenced to two to four years behind bars, according to the memo. He also has prior convictions for attempted criminal possession of a loaded firearm in the third degree and attempted assault in the second degree.An attorney listed for Aiello did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment. Louis Apicella, aka ‘Lou Ap’The indictment identifies Apicella as an associate of the Gambino family and a member of a “Cheating Team” that organized and participated in poker games, according to prosecutors.Apicella, 50, has no criminal history, according to the detention memo, but “the government’s investigation revealed that Apicella has access to firearms and has expressed a willingness to use violence for his own gain.”The memo cites one text message exchange in which Apicella allegedly discussed “cracking … heads open.”Apicella’s lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, declined to comment. Ammar Awawdeh, aka ‘Flapper Poker’ and ‘Flappy’The indictment identifies Awawdeh, 34, as an associate of the Gambino crime family. Prosecutors say he organized and participated in a rigged game at Washington Place in Manhattan and other locations, including the Hamptons, and was required to make payments to the mobsters backing the scheme.Awawdeh is also accused of committing gunpoint robbery in September 2023 to steal a “specific model” of rigged shuffling machine that he and other defendants wanted to use at their games.He has one prior felony conviction for laundering the proceeds of controlled substances and was sentenced to probation in 2020, according to the detention memo.Awawdeh’s attorneys, Mark Lesko and Matin Emouna, declined to comment. Matthew Daddino, aka ‘Matty’ and ‘The Wrestler’The indictment identifies Daddino, 43, as a member of the Genovese family. Prosecutors say he helped manage the Washington Place poker game in Manhattan and received “proceeds” from the rigged games.Gerard M. Marrone, an attorney for Daddino, said his client “had no criminal history whatsoever” and maintains his innocence. Comparing the case to the 1919 Black Sox scandal, he said Daddino and other Italian American defendants are “easy targets for the government” while the “real criminals are being protected.”Lee FamaThe indictment identifies Fama, 57, as a member of the Gambino family. He received a portion of the money from the games, according to prosecutors.Fama has three prior felony convictions, according to the detention memo. He pleaded guilty to distribution of marijuana in 2012 and was sentenced to six months behind bars. He was previously convicted of assault in aid of racketeering and sentenced t0 58 months in prison. He was also convicted of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the second degree.Fama’s lawyer, Marissa Sherman, declined to comment.John GalloThe indictment identifies Gallo, 53, as an associate of the Gambino family. He was an organizer of the Washington Place game and a member of a “Cheating Team” that rigged the matches, according to prosecutors. He also received proceeds from the game, the indictment says.Gallo has one prior felony conviction, according to the detention memo. In 2014, he pleaded guilty to attempted enterprise corruption, attempted criminal usury and promoting gambling in the first degree. He was sentenced to one year in prison.An attorney listed for Gallo did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.Thomas Gelardo, aka ‘Juice’The indictment identified Gelardo, 42, as an associate of the Bonanno family who later became affiliated with the Genovese family. Prosecutors say he received proceeds from the illegal games.Gelardo is also accused of extorting an unnamed person to “secure the repayment of debtfrom illegal poker games” between November 2022 and September 2023.He has multiple prior felony convictions for violent crimes, including assaults and weapons possession, according to the detention memo. Gelardo was convicted of assault in the second degree in 2002 and sentenced to a year in prison. Three years later, he was convicted of assault in the second degree and given a suspended five-year sentence.Then, in 2008, he was convicted of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree and sentenced to two to four years behind bars.An attorney listed for Gelardo did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.Joseph LanniThe indictment identifies Lanni, 54, as a member and an alleged captain of the Gambino family. He also received proceeds from the illegal games, according to prosecutors.He has multiple prior felony convictions, according to the sentencing memo. He was convicted of securities fraud in 1999 and sentenced to 30 months behind bars. He was convicted of promoting gambling in the first degree in 2014 and sentenced to one year in prison.Lanni pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy related to his leadership role in the Gambino family.Frederick Sosinsky, an attorney for Lanni, said in a statement that his client has “been compliant with all of the conditions of release” from the racketeering conspiracy case to which he pleaded guilty last week. Sosinsky said the court agreed to release Lanni on similar bail conditions so he can defend himself in the new case. “Unlike most of the other individuals who are accused in this week’s indictment of fraud, extortion, robbery or money laundering, Mr. Lanni has been charged solely with somehow being involved in the operation of a gambling business — what the government itself terms a ‘straight’ poker game where none of the elaborate means of high-tech cheating is even alleged to have taken place,” Sosinsky said. “Mr. Lanni denies participation in that ‘straight’ or unfixed poker business and looks forward to his next court date.”Nicholas MinucciThe indictment identifies Minucci, 39, as an associate of the Gambino family and a member of the “Cheating Team,” according to prosecutors. Prosecutors allege he took part in a September 2023 gunpoint robbery revolving around the rigged shuffling machine.Minucci has a “criminal history,” according to the detention memo. He was convicted on various counts of robbery as a hate crime related to an incident in which he beat a Black man in the head with a baseball bat and, using the N-word, told the victim not to enter his “predominantly Italian-American” neighborhood, the memo says.He was sentenced to 25 years behind bars and released to parole supervision in 2018.An attorney listed for Minucci did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.Anthony Ruggiero Jr.The indictment identifies Ruggiero, 53, as a member of the Gambino family who received “proceeds” from the underground games. Prosecutors describe him as having a “long history of committing serious crimes — including witness tampering.”In 2008, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering and was sentenced to 84 months in prison.While serving that sentence, he was convicted of witness tampering for intimidating a potential trial witness, reportedly forming his hand into “the shape of a gun” and saying, “You know how we take care of rats, we get up-close and personal.”He received an additional 36-month sentence.Ruggiero’s attorney, James R. Froccaro, declined to comment.Seth TrustmanThe indictment identifies Trustman, 43, as an associate of the Lucchese family — the only alleged member of that clan named in the case. Trustman organized illegal games on Lexington Avenue and other locations, making payments to Aiello and Gelardo, the indictment says. He is also accused of extorting an unnamed person to collect gambling debts in 2023.Trustman has two prior felony convictions, according to the detention memo. He was sentenced to 22 months in prison in 2010 after pleading guilty to racketeering, racketeering conspiracy and two counts of illegal gambling. Nine years later, he was convicted of criminal usury and enterprise corruption, then sentenced to three years in prison.Contact information for attorneys representing Trustman was not immediately available, and NBC News could not reach them for comment. Julius Ziliani, aka ‘Jay’The indictment identifies Ziliani, 54, as a member of the Bonanno family who received a share of the games’ proceeds. Prosecutors allege he and co-defendant Gelardo extorted an individual to collect gambling debts between November 2022 and February 2023.Ziliani’s attorney, Marco A. Laracca, said his client “denies all allegations against him and looks forward to his day in court.”Daniel ArkinDaniel Arkin is a national reporter at NBC News.Sophie Comeau contributed.
NEXT
Trump ‘very disappointed’ in Canada for anti-tariff ad
Related Post
October 31, 2025
Freddy Krueger actor receives Walk of Fame star
October 8, 2025
Trump: Israel, Hamas agree to first phase of peace plan
September 22, 2025
Sept. 22, 2025, 6:10 PM EDTBy Peter Nicholas and Matt DixonWASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s insistence that his attorney general bring charges against three perceived political opponents could backfire if any cases get to court, undermining his effort to see them punished, some legal experts said Monday.In a social media post Saturday, Trump pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi about three people who’ve raised his ire and who’ve not faced criminal charges to this point: Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; New York state Attorney General Letitia James; and former FBI Director James Comey.He mentioned that he’d been impeached and indicted multiple times “OVER NOTHING!”“JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED NOW!!!” he wrote. He also cited unspecified “statements and posts” he’d read contending that the trio are “‘guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.’”Because of Trump’s exhortation, defense lawyers could argue in court that their clients were targets of selective prosecution and did not receive constitutionally required due process, said Bruce Green, a professor at Fordham Law School who specializes in ethics issues.“If they’re picking these people not because they’re guilty of something … but because the president is out to get them because they’re Democrats and they made his life miserable previously, that’s an impermissible basis,” Green said.Another issue is whether Schiff, James and Comey could ever get a fair trial if it were to come to that, said Stephen Gillers, a professor of legal ethics at New York University School of Law.“He is his own worst enemy,” Gillers said of Trump.“Sometimes people make statements, but this is the president of the United States telling the court and an eventual jury that the people on trial before them are guilty. I can’t imagine that a court would let that go to a verdict. The prejudice from that kind of statement is enormous,” Gillers said.John Walsh, who served as the U.S. attorney in Colorado for six years ending in 2016, said in an interview: “It certainly gives the defense an argument that the charges are politically motivated and not based on the merits and the evidence and the argument. Some judges might find that persuasive depending on the motions that take place prior to trial.” But he added that even if the Justice Department understands this reality, officials could be pursuing a strategy that he described as, “Investigation is the punishment.” Enduring a federal investigation is costly to the target and can bring significant harm to one’s reputation, he said. “An investigation is a very serious thing against professionals, yes, there is a cost to even just defend yourself,” he added.Trump’s extraordinary weekend message to Bondi — “Pam,” as he called her — put the attorney general in a tough spot, said Jill Wine-Banks, a former general counsel to the U.S. Army and an assistant special prosecutor in the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s.If Bondi accommodates the president and the Justice Department seeks indictments against Schiff, James and Comey, “who’s going to believe it wasn’t done for political purposes?” Wine-Banks asked rhetorically. “And if she doesn’t, she’s going to get fired. So, it’s a lose-lose, no matter what.”Trump tempered his message to Bondi later on Saturday.He posted that Bondi was doing a “GREAT job” while also later telling reporters in a press gaggle: “If they’re not guilty, that’s fine. If they are guilty, or if they should be judged, they should be judged. And we have to do it now.”All three of the people Trump singled out have rankled him for different reasons.Comey led an investigation into Trump’s possible ties to Russian leadership, which concluded that Trump’s campaign did not collude with Russian operatives. Trump fired Comey five months into his first term. Comey declined comment Monday.Schiff, then a House member, led the first impeachment of Trump during the president’s first term. Schiff posted a response to Trump on social media: “There’s no hiding the political retaliation and weaponization. It’s all out in the open.”James brought a successful civil suit against Trump in 2022 that accused him of overvaluing assets, including real estate, in loan applications. The suit’s financial penalty against Trump was later voided.James’ office declined a request for comment.At a press briefing Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt amplified Trump’s condemnation of the trio.“You look at people like Adam Schiff and like James Comey and like Letitia James,” she said, “who the president is rightfully frustrated.”She added that Trump “wants accountability for these corrupt fraudsters who abused their power, who abused their oath of office to target the former president and then candidate for the highest office in the land.”Trump has long contended that he was a victim of a weaponized judicial system when Joe Biden was in office. In his inauguration speech on Jan. 20, he pledged to end such practices. “Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents — something I know something about,” he said. “We will not allow that to happen. It will not happen again.”Bondi made a similar promise during her confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate in January. “Under my watch, the partisan weaponization of the Department of Justice will end,” she said. “America must have one tier of justice for all.”Now, though, critics worry that Trump is erasing post-Watergate norms that were supposed to shield prosecutors from political interference.Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told NBC News in a statement: “The president should not be directing the Attorney General to prosecute those who pursued him over the last six years. Lawfare is corrosive to a democracy and he is doing exactly what he has accused the Democrats of doing to him. We need to stop the cycle of lawfare and escalation. His public statements to the attorney general were not wise and they undermine the citizens’ confidence of our legal system.”A worrying development came last week, critics said, when the federal prosecutor tasked with investigating mortgage fraud allegations against James resigned after Trump said he no longer wanted him to serve in that position. (Trump said he fired the prosecutor, Erik Siebert.)Trump administration officials had been pressing Siebert to investigate potential mortgage fraud charges against James. Two federal law enforcement sources say prosecutors did not believe they had enough evidence to charge James with mortgage fraud over a Virginia home she purchased for her niece in 2023.Those same sources said prosecutors felt there was not enough evidence to charge Comey regarding allegations that he lied to Congress in 2020 about FBI investigations into the 2016 election.Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., a member of the Judiciary Committee, told NBC News: “‘Two wrongs don’t make it right but they do make it even’ is the sort of thing that happens in countries whose Powerball jackpot is 287 chickens and a goat. It’s not supposed to happen in America.”“President Biden’s administration started this ‘lawfare’, as the media calls it, and I worried then that they had unleashed spirits they would be unable to control,” he added. “I questioned Attorney General Bondi about this in her confirmation hearing, and she agreed with me. Any prosecution of a public official has to be based on objective, compelling evidence of criminal behavior, not based on that official’s political ideology.”Peter NicholasPeter Nicholas is a senior White House reporter for NBC News.Matt DixonMatt Dixon is a senior national politics reporter for NBC News, based in Florida.Katherine Doyle, Dennis Romero, Ryan J. Reilly, Michael Kosnar and Chloe Atkins contributed.
October 18, 2025
Illinois Gov. Pritzker addresses ‘No Kings’ rally in Chicago: ‘Democracy requires your courage’
Comments are closed.
Scroll To Top
  • Home
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Contact Us
  • Politics
© Copyright 2025 - Be That ! . All Rights Reserved