LOS ANGELES (BNO NEWS) — Television host and producer Don Cornelius was found dead at his California home on Wednesday from a gunshot wound to the head in an apparent suicide. He was 75.

Cornelius, born Donald Cortez Cornelius in Chicago, Illinois, is famously known for creating and hosting ‘Soul Train,’ a TV musical variety show that mostly featured African-American artists commonly performing R&B, soul, hip hop, funk, disco, jazz, and gospel.

Police found Cornelius’ body early Wednesday morning at around 4 a.m. local time at his Sherman Oaks, located in Los Angeles, home with a gunshot wound to the head. He was transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles where he was pronounced dead, but local authorities believe the gunshot wound was self-inflicted.

“This is devastating news,” Shawn Holley, Cornelius’ friend and lawye, told gossip and entertainment news website TMZ. “Don was a kind, funny and brilliant man. Even though his many health battles had left him frail, he remained vibrant, courtly and always sharp as a tack.”

Cornelius began working at local radio station WVON in his native Chicago as an announcer, disc jockey and news reporter. He had also been promoting traveling caravan shows that he called ‘The Soul Train’ in which local music groups would perform in concerts at Chicago-area high schools.

Chicago’s WCIU-TV, which later transformed to UHF, noted Cornelius’ work and invited him to bring ‘The Soul Train’ to television in 1970. The show, which officially aired from 1971 to 2006, becoming the longest-running, first-run, nationally syndicated program in television history, would later move to Los Angeles and. It continued to be produced in Chicago as a local program as well.

Prior to his death, Cornelius had been arrested in 2008, pleading no contest to misdemeanor domestic violence for beating his wife, Russian model Victoria Avila-Cornelius, also known as Viktoria Chapman. He was sentenced to 3 years probation. About two years later, he and his wife divorced in 2010.

Conrelius had also reportedly been suffering from significant health issues, including a stroke and a condition that required brain surgery.

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LOS ANGELES (BNO NEWS) — U.S. prosecutors have arrested and charged a former Los Angeles teacher with allegedly molesting at least 23 young children over a two-year period, officials said on Tuesday. The allegations have shocked the local community.

Mark Berndt, 61, was arrested on Monday at his home in the City of Torrance after an investigation which began about a year ago. He had worked as a teacher at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles for more than 30 years until he was fired last year when police launched an investigation.

According to prosecutors, the investigation began in March 2011 when a film processor discovered about 40 photographs depicting children in a school classroom with their eyes blindfolded and their mouths covered with tape. The photos were turned over to law enforcement who identified the adult in some of the photos as Berndt.

Some of the photographs depicted young girls being fed with a blue plastic spoon which was filled with a white liquid substance, believed to be the suspect’s semen. “There are also photos of children with large live Madagascar-type cockroaches on their faces and mouths,” the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.

In addition to the 40 photos turned over by the film processor, detectives also found more than 100 similar photographs at Berndt’s home, where adult pornography was found which mirrored the bondage-type photos of the children. An additional 250 photos were later recovered from the film processing establishment.

So far, investigators have identified a total of 26 children but at least 10 other children are yet to be identified. Of those identified, 23 boys and girls between the ages of 7 and 10 years old have been identified as the victims of crimes which were allegedly committed in Berndt’s classroom between 2008 and 2010.

Berndt, who allegedly told the children it was a game, faces 23 felony counts of Lewd Acts Upon a Child and is due to appear in court on Wednesday. His bail has been set at $2.3 million.

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DUBLIN, IRELAND (BNO NEWS) — A former priest and convicted child abuser was sentenced to three years in jail in Ireland on Tuesday for possessing child pornography, court officials told a local newspaper.

Oliver O’Grady, 66, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to three counts of possessing child pornography. Police said O’Grady possessed thousands of explicit images of children, some as young as two, which were stored on computers and USB drives.

Police also found more than six hours of child pornography videos and more than 500 pages of online discussions about children engaged in sex, the Irish Times reported. An audio file was also discovered in which O’Grady discussed religious matters and the sexual abuse of a male child.

“If people didn’t download child pornography, there is a good chance that those children would not be abused in the first place, said Judge Martin Nolan, as quoted by the newspaper.

The images were discovered when O’Grady left his laptop on an Aer Lingus flight in 2010 and a staff member alerted police after coming across the files. Aer Lingus rules state that if lost property is not claimed within three months, the staff member who found it is allowed to keep it.

O’Grady was born in Limerick and emigrated to California after joining the priesthood. He was previously sentenced to 14 years in prison in California for abusing children while a priest. He was deported to his native Ireland in 2001 after serving seven years of his sentence.

After leaving the priesthood, he moved to the Dutch capital of Amsterdam for several years before returning to Ireland on the flight where he left his laptop behind.

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SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) — A private pilot was killed on Monday morning when he was struck in the face by the propeller of his small plane at a San Diego-area airport, federal officials said.

The gruesome accident happened at approximately 8:30 a.m. local time when the pilot, whose identity was not immediately released, got out of his single-engine Piper Cherokee aircraft in the ramp area at Gillespie Field in El Cajon, a city in San Diego County.

“The pilot [..] got out of the aircraft in the ramp area and was struck in the head by the moving propeller. He was taken to a hospital with critical injuries,” said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The victim died several hours later at Sharp Memorial Hospital.

According to FAA records, the 1974-built aircraft was registered to a man in Lakeside, California.

Both the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will investigate the cause of the accident. “NTSB is the lead investigative agency,” Gregor said.

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RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) — Legendary rhythm and blues singer Etta James died as a result of complications from leukemia on Friday morning, her longtime friend and manager said in a statement. She was 73.

James, born as Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles in 1938, died at Riverside Community Hospital in the California city of Riverside on Friday morning, just five days short of her 74th birthday. James was a six-time Grammy award winner.

Although she interpreted a large number of songs in a variety of music genres such as rock and roll and gospel, she is probably best known for her interpretation of Glenn Miller’s 1941 song ‘At Last’. Among her hit songs are also ‘Tell Mama,’ ‘Something’s Got a Hold on Me,’ ‘Dance with me, Henry,’ and ‘I’d Rather go Blind.’

During her successful music career, which began in the 1950s, James encountered a number of problems related to her drug use and addiction. Besides continuous treatment at drug rehabilitation centers, she was also involved in several legal problems as she was accused of cashing bad checks, forgery, and possession of heroin.

James had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2008 and, in January 2010, she was hospitalized to treat an infection caused by MRSA. She had also been associated with drug induced dementia before being diagnosed with leukemia early last year.

“She passed away this morning. Cause of death was complications from leukemia,” said Lupe De Leon, a longtime friend and manager of James. Her husband Artis Mills and sons Donto James and Sametto James were by her side.

“This is a tremendous loss for the family, her friends and fans around the world,” De Leon added. “She was a true original who could sing it all — her music defied category. I worked with Etta for over 30 years. She was my friend and I will miss her always.”

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LOS ANGELES (BNO NEWS) — Detectives in Los Angeles were looking for clues on Wednesday after a human head and several other body parts were found below the Hollywood sign, police said.

The first body part was found at around 2:30 p.m. local time when two women were walking with nine dogs in the Hollywood Hills area, close to the famous sign. “Two of the dogs started playing with an object in a bag,” police said. “When they looked at the object, they realized it was a human head.”

On Wednesday, about a dozen detectives conducting a grid search of the area discovered two human hands and two feet. “The head appears to be that of a male victim that did not appear to have been there long,” police said, adding that the victim is likely between 40 and 60 years old.

Investigators said the cause of death is still unknown, but the head appeared to have been severed just below the chin. There were no signs of significant decomposition, a spokesperson said.

On Wednesday, police were knocking on doors, hoping to find potential witnesses. One resident on Canyon Drive said police were interested in whether body parts might have been dumped in trash cans along the road, the Los Angeles Times said.

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ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) — A 23-year-old man, who was arrested in Southern California on Friday evening after allegedly killing a homeless man, is also believed to have been responsible for three similar murders, police said on Sunday.

Itzcoatl Ocampo, of Yorba Linda in Orange County, was taken into custody on Friday evening after police responded to calls of an assault in progress in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant in Anaheim. Upon arrival, officers found a homeless man who had been stabbed to death.

“Several brave individuals from the community were able to pursue the suspect at a slight distance and provide critical information to the police department which led us to detain a suspect we believe was responsible for this incident here tonight,” Deputy Anaheim Police Chief Craig Hunter told reporters on Friday evening.

Anaheim police chief John Welter on late Saturday announced that police believe Ocampo was also responsible for three other murders since mid-December. “We are extremely confident that we have the man who is responsible for the murders of all four homeless men in Orange County,” the Los Angeles Times quoted Welter as saying on Sunday.

As the killings continued, sparking fear among homeless people and local residents, authorities had established a task force of police officers, sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents to find the serial killer. Friday’s victim was identified as 65-year-old John Berry, a Vietnam War veteran.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Ocampo was a former Marine who appeared to be ‘deeply troubled’ after his return from service in Iraq in the summer of 2010, although his motive is still unclear. His uncle, Ifrain Gonzales, told the Times that Ocampo said he was ‘seeing and hearing things’ after returning from Iraq.

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LOS ANGELES (BNO NEWS) — Canadian police are investigating whether a series of suspicious fires in Vancouver last year were committed by the same man arrested for a string of fires in California over the New Year’s holiday.

Harry Burkhart, a 24-year-old German national, was arrested on early Monday morning and was charged on Wednesday with 37 counts of arson. He is suspected of setting more than four dozen fires in Hollywood and West Hollywood over the New Year’s weekend.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Burkhart lived with his mother in the Canadian city of Vancouver until he moved to the Los Angeles area last year. Police there are now investigating whether he may have been responsible for at least 12 suspicious property fires in Vancouver, although no actual link has been found so far.

The fires allegedly set by Burkhart terrorized residents of Hollywood and the Westside from December 30 until his arrest on early Monday. There were only minor injuries, but property damage to homes and automobiles was in the millions of dollars. Most of the fires were started in automobiles in carports, causing them to spread to structures in many cases.

The suspect is also under investigation for arson and insurance fraud after a fire caused major damage at a building in the mountainous region near Marburg in central Germany in October 2011. Burkhart flew from Frankfurt to Las Vegas several days after the fire.

The fires in Hollywood began just after Burkhart’s mother, 53-year-old Dorothee, was detained by U.S. authorities on a German criminal warrant which charged her with fraud. Dorothee had previously escaped from a hospital in September 2007 while she was in pretrial detention. She is currently fighting an extradition to Germany.

Harry Burkhart was last week removed from a court in Los Angeles after shouting expletives during the first hearing on his mother’s extradition warrant. He ranted against the United States, and prosecutors believe he set the fires over his ‘rage against Americans.’

Since being arrested, Burkhart has been uncooperative, according to the Los Angeles Times. He has not spoken about the fires and, the only times he talked, it was rants against the United States.

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LOS ANGELES (BNO NEWS) — The Archdiocese of Los Angeles on Wednesday announced that one of its Catholic bishops has resigned after acknowledging he fathered two children in the past.

Gabino Zavala, 60, resigned under the code of canon law which allows bishops to retire earlier than the standard age of 75 if they are sick or unfit for office. He served as the auxiliary bishop for the San Gabriel Pastoral Region, which covers East Los Angeles through the San Gabriel and Pomona valleys.

“I have some sad and difficult information to share with you,” the Archbishop of Los Angeles, Jose Gomez, said in a letter. “Bishop Gabino Zavala informed me in early December that he is the father of two minor teenage children, who live with their mother in another state.”

Gomez added: “Bishop Zavala also told me that he submitted his resignation to the Holy Father in Rome, which was accepted. Since that time, he has not been in ministry and will be living privately.”

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles said it has reached out to the mother and the children to provide spiritual care as well as funding to assist the children with college costs. “The family’s identity is not known to the public, and I wish to respect their right to privacy,” Gomez said. “Let us pray for all those impacted by this situation and for each other as we reflect on this letter.”

Roman Catholic priests must take a vow of celibacy when they are ordained. The celibacy requirement often discourages many men from priesthood.

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SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) — Internet giant Yahoo!, Inc. on Wednesday named former PayPal President Scott Thompson as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Thompson’s new position will become effective as of next Monday, at which time Tim Morse will resume his role as Chief Financial Officer. Morse had been working as the company’s interim CEO.

“Scott brings to Yahoo! a proven record of building on a solid foundation of existing assets and resources to reignite innovation and drive growth, precisely the formula we need at Yahoo!,” said Roy Bostock, Chairman of the Yahoo! Board.

“His deep understanding of online businesses combined with his team building and operational capabilities will restore the energy, focus, and momentum necessary to grow the core business and deliver increased value for our shareholders,” he added.

Thompson was also appointed to the company’s Board of Directors, which in September fired former CEO Carol Bartz. Pressured by the success of social media giant Facebook and internet rival Google, Bartz was unable to increase Yahoo!’s revenue and was eventually let go.

“Yahoo! is an industry icon and I am very excited about the prospect of working with one of the great teams in the online world to deliver Yahoo!’s next era of success,” Thompson said, noting that he will be “diving deeply” into the company’s products and services to learn more about the more than 700 million users’ interests.

Last November, Yahoo!, Microsoft Corp. and AOL announced joint advertisement agreements to boost the process of buying and selling premium online display inventory in an effort to counterbalance Google’s dominant internet presence.

Thompson served most recently as President of PayPal, a division of eBay, which under his leadership expanded its user base from 50 million to more than 104 million active users in 190 countries worldwide, increasing the number of merchant partners to more than 8 million globally, and growing revenues from $1.8 billion to more than $4 billion in 2011.

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