2nd man found guilty in Mich. antiques dealer's slaying

A Kalamazoo County jury on Friday delivered its verdict against 52-year-old John Aguilar who was charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery and home invasion.

Robert Medema was beaten to death with a baseball bat in August in his home.

A judge sentenced 21-year-old Antonio Livingston in March to life in prison for his role in the slaying. Prosecutors have said Livingston was present when Aguilar beat Medema to death.

Aguilar will be sentenced June 10. He also faces life in prison without parole.

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AP-WF-05-10-13 2142GMT

Homer Laughlin sues 2 companies over Fiesta knockoffs

The Weirton Daily Times says the lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in western Pennsylvania, where the products are being sold.

It says Hanna's Candle Co. of Fayetteville, Ark., and The Bazaar Inc. of River Grove, Ill., are selling Chinese knockoffs of the famous American brand under the name Carnaval.

Homer Laughlin alleges violations of a federal law that prohibits trademark infringement, trademark dilution and false advertising.

Neither Hanna's Candle nor The Bazaar immediately returned telephone messages Tuesday.

Homer Laughlin is the nation's largest domestic manufacturer of dinnerware, and attorney Charles Gibbons says deliberately copying other companies' products is illegal and creates confusion in the marketplace. The lawsuit says it's also causing the Newell-based china company irreparable financial harm.

Homer Laughlin is demanding monetary damages and the destruction of all Carnaval products that have not been sold, as well as the recall of advertising, catalogs and other marketing materials, including those on The Bazaar's website.

It also wants a judge to order the companies to contact consumers to say they don't represent Homer Laughlin.

The lawsuit claims the Carnaval products trade upon the popularity of Homer Laughlin's Fiestaware, which is popular with collectors nationwide. The brand was introduced at a Pittsburgh trade show in 1936 and reintroduced in 1986.

“Fiesta dinnerware has an iconic status and claims thousands of collectors, dealers, students and historians from around the world,” the lawsuit says. “It is also the most collected dinnerware in the United States.”

Carnaval's Art Deco designs and bold colors are “strikingly similar” in appearance to Fiesta, the lawsuit says, although the Chinese products “are inferior copies that do not come close to meeting the standards of Fiesta dinnerware.”

Even the cardboard box “is a clear knockoff of the Fiesta dinnerware packaging,” the lawsuit argues.

The defendants “are engaging in a systematic effort to deceive the public by unfairly competing with Homer Laughlin and its efforts to sell Fiesta dinnerware,” the lawsuit says. “Defendants' copycat activities—both with respect to the products themselves and their packaging—are willful and intentional.''

___

Online:

Homer Laughlin: http://www.hlchina.com/

Bazaar Inc.'' http://www.thebazaarinc.com/

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AP-WF-05-07-13 1611GMT

U.S. returns smuggled dinosaur skeleton to Mongolia

The artifact will be flown to its native land free of charge via Korean Air, U.S. and Mongolian officials said Monday while announcing the repatriation of the priceless artifact.

“We are very pleased to have played a pivotal role in returning Mongolia's million-dollar baby,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said. “Of course, that million-dollar price tag, as high as it is, doesn't begin to describe the true value of an ancient artifact that is part of the fabric of a country's natural history and cultural heritage.”

The skeleton had been looted from Mongolia's Gobi Desert and illegally smuggled into the U.S. by fossils dealer Eric Prokopi, authorities said. Prokopi, who bought and sold whole and partial dinosaur skeletons out of his Florida home, illegally imported the bones into the U.S. then assembled them into a skeleton, authorities said.

The dinosaur was seized by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after it was sold at auction in New York for over $1 million last year. The government said the skeleton was mislabeled as reptile bones from Great Britain.

By law, any dinosaur fossils found in Mongolia belong to the country and its people.

“It's really important that as nations, we recognize there's a difference between art sold in the regular course of business, and then there are things that are truly national heritage,” said ICE director John Morton.

Prokopi pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy, the fraudulent transfer of the bones and making false statements to customs authorities.

Mongolia President Tsakhia Elbegdorj has thanked U.S. authorities for returning the dinosaur that once stood 8 feet tall and was 24 feet long. It'll eventually be displayed as a centerpiece of a new museum called Central Dinosaur Museum of Mongolia.

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AP-WF-05-06-13 1916GMT

Man thought linked to Boston art heist faces sentencing

Robert Gentile of Manchester is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in federal court in Hartford. He pleaded guilty in November to illegally possessing and selling prescription drugs and illegally possessing guns, silencers and ammunition as a convicted felon.

A prosecutor said last year the FBI believed Gentile had some involvement with stolen property related to the 1990 theft of a half-billion dollars' worth of art from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

Gentile's lawyer, A. Ryan McGuigan, has said Gentile cooperated with authorities but knows nothing about the theft and denies the mob allegation.

No one has been charged in the heist.

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