WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – A white Mercedes-Benz found in a parking lot in West Hollywood belonged to an ex-model whose brutal slaying prompted an international manhunt for a former reality TV contestant wanted in the murder, police said Wednesday.
Police received an anonymous telephone tip and found the car belonging to 28-year-old Jasmine Fiore in a parking lot next to a grocery store, Buena Park police Detective Eric Burciaga said.
Police have not found a murder scene and say Fiore could have been killed in the car before her nude body was found stuffed in suitcase in a Southern California trash bin on Aug. 15.
Investigators did not attempt to open the car and were not able to see inside because of its tinted windows. A tow truck transported it from the scene.
The examination of the car "could take quite awhile because they're going to be very methodical going through it," said Tom Hession, chief inspector for the regional fugitive task force of the U.S. Marshals Service.
A witness told police the car had been parked in the lot since the day of the killing. A note slipped under the windshield wiper read, "This is a private parking lot. Unattended vehicles may be towed at owner's expense."
Fiore's fingers and teeth had been removed when her body was found, presumably to hamper efforts to identify her. Police learned her identity by tracing the serial number on her breast implants.
Suspect Ryan Jenkins, 32, her ex-husband and a former contestant on the VH1 show "Megan Wants a Millionaire," was found hanging from a clothes rack in a hotel room in Hope, British Columbia on Sunday after a frantic dash to the border. An autopsy concluded he committed suicide.
In Canada, authorities said a silver PT Cruiser matching the description of the vehicle seen dropping Jenkins at a motel was parked at his half-sister's condominium in Vancouver.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. Norm Massie declined to say whether Alena Jenkins is the woman who checked Jenkins into the Thunderbird Motel in Hope, British Columbia, three days before he was found dead.
A message left with a woman answering Alena Jenkins' phone was not immediately returned. The woman said Jenkins' half-sister was away arranging funeral details.
Police have identified the woman who helped Jenkins check into the motel but have not released her name. She was not in custody and police were considering whether she would face charges.
Massie said police would need proof the woman knew Ryan was wanted before they could file charges.
"We're not going to confirm or deny anyone involved in the investigation," Massie said. "Our investigation is on two fronts, first we want to find the circumstances around the incident at the motel in Hope and, as importantly, we have yet to determine how Ryan entered Canada from the U.S. and if any one assisted him doing so."
Jenkins left a real estate job in his native Calgary, Alberta, earlier this year to pursue a Hollywood career and found some success. He was among a group of wealthy young men on the reality show who tried to win over a materialistic blonde. An episode featuring Jenkins aired around the same time police sought him for Fiore's murder.
He was also a participant in a competitive reality series, "I Love Money 3," that was canceled by VH1 after news of the murder.
Jenkins and Fiore met in Las Vegas in March, shortly after Jenkins finished taping for "Megan Wants a Millionaire," and they married on March 18, according to court documents. The couple separated shortly afterward, but had reportedly reconciled.
Lisa Lepore told The Associated Press her daughter had the marriage annulled in May.

On Aug. 13, Jenkins and Fiore checked into a luxury boutique hotel in San Diego. Authorities have said it was the last time Fiore was seen alive. The next day, Jenkins left alone.

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Associated Press Writers Gillian Flaccus in Tustin, Calif., Rob Gillies in Toronto and Jeremy Hainsworth in Vancouver, British Columbia, contributed to this report.

Fantasy Basketball

There are many rule variations when playing fantasy basketball. The rules used in a particular league are determined by the rule settings. Some common rule variations are discussed below. Commonly, fantasy basketball leagues may track as few as three or as many as eleven categories. Three-category leagues usually account for only points, rebounds, and assists. Five-category leagues generally add blocks and steals. Eight-category leagues usually add field goal percentage, free throw percentage, and either three-point field goals made or three-point field goal percentage. Nine-category leagues usually add the category of turnovers. Rarely, other statistics such as fouls are counted.

There are two types of drafting used to select players – the snake draft and the auction draft. In a snake draft, the first round is drafted in order. In the second round, the draft order is reversed so that the manager who made the last pick in the first round gets the first pick in the second round. The order is reversed at the end of each round so that the manager with the first overall pick does not maintain this advantage in every round. In an auction draft, each manager has a set budget (commonly $260, an amount borrowed from fantasy baseball) that he/she must use to fill out the team's roster. Players are put up for auction by managers, and the manager willing to pay the most for the player "drafts" that player. The advantage of an auction is that all managers have equal access to all players (not the case in a snake draft). The disadvantages are that it typically takes longer than a snake draft, and can be intimidating for newer/inexperienced managers who may be relying on rankings from websites to draft.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
U.S. banking regulators partially retreated from a much-criticized proposal to impose new rules on private equity investment in troubled banks, aiming to encourage responsible investment in distressed banks.

The 4-1 vote by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp board was a partial victory for potential investors and some regulators who had warned that an initial proposal unveiled in July threatened to scare away much-needed capital.

The regulators lowered capital requirements and dropped or modified measures that could have required investors to kick in more capital after their initial investment. The rules will be further reviewed in six months.

Even so, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said the modified rules could depress investor interest in failed banks, a view shared by a private equity industry group.

"The FDIC recognizes the need for additional capital in the banking system," Bair said, but added: "We do want people very serious about running banks."

U.S. bank regulators are increasingly looking to nontraditional investors -- such as private equity groups and international banks -- to nurse failed banks back to health as the number of insolvent institutions continues to rise, draining the FDIC's deposit insurance fund.

Regulators have shuttered 81 banks so far this year, compared with 25 last year, and three in 2007.

The Private Equity Council said the rules, at a minimum, would reduce the value of any bids for failed banks, increasing resolution costs for the FDIC.

"Given the well-documented track record of private equity firms in turning around troubled companies, it also makes little sense to deprive the banking system of needed expertise," the group said.

Josh Lerner, a Harvard Business School professor, said the FDIC was walking a tightrope given that there was a clear need for outside money due to the number and cost of bank failures.

"At the same time there's clearly a sense of reluctance to give too good a deal to the private equity guys," he said.

CAPITAL RATIOS

A capital requirement for private equity investments in banks was lowered to a Tier 1 common equity ratio of 10 percent, from the 15 percent Tier 1 leverage ratio previously proposed.

One private equity executive said their analysis was that on a typical $10 billion bank, a private equity bid would be put at around a $1 billion disadvantage because of the 10 percent capital level.

The regulators also dropped a requirement that investors serve as a "source of strength" for the bank they buy, which critics said could have put them on the hook for more capital if the institution struggled.

A cross-guarantee proposal -- meaning if an investor owns more than one bank, the FDIC can use the assets of the healthier bank to cut losses from the one that has faltered -- was modified to only include banks that had an 80 percent common ownership.

The FDIC kept a requirement that private equity investors maintain their ownership of a bank for at least three years, unless they get prior approval by the FDIC.

BankUnited Chief Executive John Kanas said it was clear regulators were holding private equity to a higher standard than other investors.

"And it will probably result in private equity adjusting their prices downward accordingly for these transactions," Kanas told Reuters. Earlier this year he led a consortium that included private equity giants Blackstone Group (BX.N), Carlyle Group (CYL.UL) and WL Ross & Co in taking over failed Florida lender BankUnited.

The dissenting vote was from acting director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, John Bowman, who said the revised policy was overly broad and imprecise. He also expressed unease at singling out private equity investors as a separate group.

Voting for the rules were Bair, FDIC Vice Chairman Martin Gruenberg, FDIC Director Thomas Curry and Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan.

Dugan had raised concerns in July about the initial version of the rules, but said he supported the new guidelines, describing them as "significantly improved."

The FDIC on Wednesday also voted to extend by six months a program that guarantees transaction deposit accounts, which businesses typically use to meet payroll and pay vendors.

"It has improved overall liquidity throughout the banking system," Bair said.

The agency also said it would seek comment on whether to phase in the impact on capital requirements of an accounting change that will force banks to bring $1 trillion of off-balance sheet assets back on their books.

(Reporting by Karey Wutkowski and Steve Eder; Additional reporting by Paritosh Bansal and Megan Davies in New York; Editing by Tim Dobbyn and Simon Denyer)

ULAN BATOR (Reuters) –
Russia wants to buy from France an advanced warship which can launch amphibious assaults, a general said on Wednesday.

The Kremlin has made re-equipping Russia's 1.1 million- strong armed forces a priority after last year's war with Georgia showed serious problems with outdated hardware and inadequate electronic equipment.

Gen. Nikolai Makarov, the chief of the general staff, told reporters on Wednesday during a state visit to Mongolia that Moscow wanted to buy a 21,300 ton Mistral-class helicopter carrier and might jointly build several more with France.

The ship can be used to launch amphibious assaults or as a mobile command and control center. It would be Russia's biggest one-off purchase of weapons abroad.

"We are considering a possibility of buying such a ship in France, and arranging the joint output of vessels of the same class in the future," Makarov said.

"The talk at this stage is about one, but we want to launch joint production to make at least a series of four or five of these. We hope to agree on our contractual obligations by year-end."

Makarov declined to give the cost of the carrier -- an amphibious assault ship able to carry helicopters, personnel, armed vehicles and tanks for thousands of miles overseas but analysts estimated it at 300 million euros.

Some analysts questioned the purchase of the ship they said was too expensive for Russia's strained budget and unnecessary for its navy. The French navy operates two of the ships and plans a third.

"Mistral is an expedition ship for colonial countries," said Konstantin Makiyenko from Center for Strategy and Technology Analysis think-tank.

"This is a ship which Russia does not need and which will rob resources from other more useful projects,"

Makiyenko said Russia's biggest arms purchase abroad so far was buying drones from Israel in a deal totaling between $50 million and $100 million.

The five-day war with Georgia last August, launched to repel Tbilisi's attempt to retake the rebel province of South Ossetia, also presented Russia with the challenge of trying to control the Black Sea coast, where NATO warships appeared during the conflict.

Despite a peace deal mediated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, tensions remain high in the region viewed by the West as a key energy transit route from the Caspian to Europe.

Tbilisi reacted calmly to Russia's plans to purchase a Mistral-class warship, which are marketed by French naval concern DCNS, a quarter owned by defense electronics group Thales.

"There is no country, whether that's a NATO member country or another country, that would be restricted in any way from having a business relationship with Russia," National Security Council Secretary Eka Tkeshelashvili told Reuters.

Makarov also said Russia could consider buying in France a small number of FELIN modular infantry combat suits combining weapons, communication and positioning devices.

In 2004, Sagem Defense Systems won a contract to supply them for the French army.

"In principle, it is in many respects better than our own (equipment)," he said.

Makarov said the purchase of FELINs should send a strong signal to domestic arms producers, who have failed to meet the needs of the armed forces.

"Our producers do not understand what we want from them," he said.

(Reporting by Denis Dyomkin, writing by Oleg Shchedrov and Michael Stott, editing by Angus MacSwan)