http://greece.greekreporter.com/2012/12/27/woman-burned-alive-in-xanthi/
The police have found the burned body of a woman behind a block of flats in the northern Greek city of Xanthi.
According to information the 33-year-old, daughter of a well-known businessman of Xanthi in the marketing of chick peas, was attacked by unknown assailants outside her parents’ home in 40 Eklissies Street, above the main square.
The perpetrators tried, as indicated by evidence so far, to rape the woman and then after stabbing her, they set her on fire with gasoline removed from a parked motorbike.
The woman was tortured just below the balcony of her parents’ apartment and when neighbors heard the screaming they immediately called the police. She was found naked and burned alive. As expected, the view of the unfortunate woman spread sorrow, shock and fear to all neighbors and both to the men of the police and ambulance forces.
The 33-year old victim lived in Thessaloniki, and came to Xanthi to spend the Christmas holiday with her family.
According to latest information, a special police team from Thessaloniki who reached the crime scene has asked for the trash bins in the area not to be emptied, in the event of finding any kind of evidence that could lead them to the killers, as well as to find the woman’s purse.
Mayor of Xanthi, Michael Stylianidis, obviously shocked by the gruesome incident, expressed his condolences to the victim’s family.
Woman sleeping on Los Angeles bus bench set on fire
Reuters – 4 hours ago
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A homeless woman was in critical condition in a Los Angeles hospital after a man doused her with liquid accelerant and set her on fire as she slept on a bus bench, police said on Thursday.
Officers arrested Dennis Petillo, 24, in connection with the early morning attack, and he has been booked in jail on suspicion of attempted murder, police said.
The woman, whose name has not been released, was being treated at a local hospital with burns all over her body, said Los Angeles police Lieutenant Damian Gutierrez.
Erickson Ipina, a witness to the attack, told local station ABC 7 that he often saw the homeless woman sleeping on the bus bench. Ipina said he chased after the attacker, and called for help on his cell phone.
"I called 911 and he just turned back on me and pulled out a knife, and he told me, 'Stop following me or I will cut you,'" Ipina told ABC 7.
The television station showed images of the bus bench set on fire, which had black burn marks along it.
and.....
http://abcnews.go.com/US/miami-man-fighting-life-christmas-torching/story?id=18075203#.UNyIHGfhdn4
A Florida man is fighting for his life after being doused with gasoline and set on fire on Christmas in a horrific attack that has baffled police.
Darrell Brackett, 44, was driving with his girlfriend at 11:30 p.m. in Miami when his car ran out of gas and he walked to a nearby U-Gas station to fill up a can of gas. He told his girlfriend to wait for him in the car.
After leaving the station, "witnesses reported that they saw him running in the middle of the street on fire," Miami-Dade Police said in a statement.
Brackett's mother Bridgett Brackett said she has been told that her son was surrounded by three men who "doused him with gas and set him on fire."
"It's heartbreaking. It's horrendous," Bridgett Brackett told ABCNews.com. "I would never imagine that this would happen to my son."
An unidentified woman who was passing by spotted Brackett and helped him roll around in the sand and dirt near the road to put the fire out.
"If she hadn't done that, he would have burned to death," his mother said.
Brackett was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital where he is in the burn center's intensive care unit.
Earlier in the day, Brackett and his girlfriend had had a cookout and visited with his mother and family. Now, his mother was rushing to his hospital bedside.
"He was semi-alert. He could hear me, moving his eyes and thrashing around in the bed," she said.
He suffered from burns on 75 percent of his body, including his legs, torso and face.
"He has no skin left on his body," Bridgett Brackett said. "The only things that didn't burn were his feet and short jeans."
Brackett was originally in extremely critical condition and is now in stable condition after being placed in a medically induced coma, his mother said. She said doctors plan on using cadaver skin to reconstruct his skin.
Doctors will be watching him closely over the weekend, hoping that he does not develop an infection, which could cause him to take a turn for the worse.
"My son is fighting for his life...It's touch and go right now. We're just seeing how things progress and keeping up hope," she said. "I believe in God. My son is a fighter."
Brackett said authorities told her that his son had kept repeating one thing about his attackers when authorities arrived on scene, "The only thing I did was ask a question and they didn't have to do this to me."
Police said today that they have not yet identified a motive or any suspects in the case.
"Based on the preliminary investigation, the Miami-Dade Police Department Arson Squad is investigating this incident as a possible attempted murder," police said in a statement.
Darrell Brackett works for a landscaping company and his mother said her only son would not have done anything to deserve the attack.
"He's a fun-loving guy," she said. "He doesn't bother anybody. He was just going about his business."
The Brackett family has made flyers about the incident and will be canvassing the neighborhood around the gas station in hopes of finding anyone who may have seen the incident or have more information. They are also looking for the woman who helped save Brackett in order to thank her.
"Nobody can imagine how a person could be so cruel to another human being for no reason," Brackett said. "It's sad how the world has changed so much."
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/sandy_relief_church_torched_nX1tSe4kiukPYywIDurrhK
Arsonist torches historic Brooklyn church that’s helping victims of Hurricane Sandy
- Last Updated: 6:06 AM, December 24, 2012
- Posted: 12:34 AM, December 24, 2012
A coldhearted arsonist yesterday set fire to a historic Brooklyn church that was storing hundreds of toys for underprivileged children, police said.
The firebug poured gasoline — which was being stored at the targeted site for a holiday party in the storm-ravaged Rockaways — around the front doors of the Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew in Clinton Hill and set it ablaze at about 3:30 a.m.
Three volunteers were sleeping on the Romanesque church’s second floor and were awakened by the smell of smoke. They rushed out and called 911.
“I was in a kind of shock. As I got closer to the doorway, the smoke was strong,” said security volunteer John Chappelle, 29.
The church is the headquarters for Occupy Sandy relief efforts.
“Thank God the other two people were there,” added a shaken Chappelle, who was sleeping at the sanctuary to receive early-morning donations and safeguard relief supplies for Sandy victims.
“I’m a deep sleeper. [My friend] woke me up and said, ‘We’ve got to go.’ ”
It took more than 100 firefighters to put down the blaze, which went to a second alarm at about 4:30 a.m. and was under control an hour later.
The flames damaged the church’s balcony above the foyer and partially burned the nave.
It also damaged two 19th-century chairs — one of which was going to be used on Christmas by a parishioner playing Santa Claus and handing out gifts to children.
“Why do people do things like this? Why does darkness cloud their hearts?” asked the Rev. Christopher Ballard, who saw two empty gasoline cans near the church’s front entrance.
Church officials said late yesterday they won’t be able to use the sanctuary’s main entrance.
But they’re hopeful they’ll be able to hold Christmas Eve Mass.
“Christmas is the biggest service here of the year,” said photojournalist Kelly Guenther, 37, a neighbor. “It’s horrible! I don’t know how someone could do something like this so close to Christmas.”
Church leaders were still figuring out details, but parishioners will likely have to squeeze through a small entrance on the side of the building.
One church volunteer, Eljay Marquez, 25, said there were hundreds of donated toys stored in the church’s basement.
Fortunately, the presents, which will be given to Sandy victims and other children in need, were not damaged.
“It’s horrible someone would do this to a church and to people who are helping with relief, especially two days before Christmas,” Marquez said.
“Thank God nobody is hurt.”
Authorities have yet to find any suspects.
One neighbor said he was awakened by arguing on the street before the blaze broke out.
Another told cops someone had been knocking on the church’s door, trying to get in, before the fire.
The Rev. Ballard said that the blaze was started with gasoline from the holiday cans and that he found pamphlets from an undisclosed ultraconservative church, which he said “were used as kindling.”
He would not disclose where the pamphlets appeared to come from, and authorities would not say if they suspected a church rivalry led to the fire.
“Fire is not going to deter us from what we are doing,” Ballard said.
Built as St. Luke’s Protestant Episcopal Church in the 19th century, the church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
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