EARTHNEWS.COM

Indonesian pop star jailed over sex tapes

2011-01-31T01:08:00.000-08:00

Kuching
Monday, 31st January 2011

Indonesian pop star Nazril 'Ariel' Irham outside the court where he was sentenced to jail and a fine for appearing in home-made sex tapes with two celebrity girlfriends

Nazril 'Ariel' Irham, 29, gets three and a half years in jail and fined $25,000 for violating strict anti-pornography law

An Indonesian pop star who rocked the predominantly Muslim nation after several home-made sex tapes found their way onto the internet has been sentenced to three and a half years in jail.

The trial of Nazril "Ariel" Irham's has made headlines and dominated chatter on social networking sites for more than three months.

Fans insist he did nothing wrong, making the tapes in the privacy of his own home. But Islamic hardliners warned that his actions had contributed to the country's moral decline.

The 29-year-old singer, who said the videos were stolen and posted online without his knowledge, was the first celebrity to be found guilty of violating the country's strict anti-pornography law that came into effect in 2008.

Presiding judge Singgih Budi Prakoso said the singer made the videos with two celebrity girlfriends and did nothing to prevent their wide distribution.
He sentenced him to three and a half years in jail, well short of the maximum 12, and fined him $25,000 (£16,000).

"As a public figure, the defendant should be aware that fans might imitate his behaviour," Prakoso said, adding that Ariel, lead singer of the group Peterpan, showed no remorse.

Indonesia, a secular nation of 237 million people, has more Muslims than any other country in the world. Though most are moderate, a small extremist fringe has become more vocal in recent years.

They have pushed through controversial laws such as the anti-porn bill and criticised anything they perceive as blasphemous, from transvestites and bars to "deviant" religious sects.

Some of the hundreds of demonstrators who gathered outside the court pelted the police vehicle carrying Ariel to the court with rotten eggs and tomatoes. Others held placards criticising the star.

"I have three daughters," said Kurnia Maryati, a 33-year-old pharmacist, as she straightened out her headscarf.

"To me, pornography is even more dangerous than drugs. Just think of the schoolboys watching those videos," she said. "Next thing you know, they'll be imagining their female teachers naked!"

The videos were made public in June.

The first six-minute clip showed Ariel in bed with his girlfriend Luna Maya, a top model, actor and, until the scandal, the face of Lux beauty soap. The second clip showed him with a former girlfriend, also a popular model and television presenter.

Egyptian army now protecting the state, not Mubarak

2011-01-30T07:05:00.000-08:00

Kuching

Sunday, 30th January 2011

A startling change has taken place in the interaction between security forces and protestors in Egypt with many Egyptian army personnel seen to be taking a step back and allowing crowds to demonstrate despite a curfew and ban on public gatherings.

The development comes as Mubarak has sought to secure a line of succession for his government, nominating his former intelligence chief as the Vice-President on Saturday. The new Vice-President had resigned from his intelligence role just a few hours earlier.

The move has been seen by political analysts to be a desperate attempt by Mubarak to quell the anger of tens of thousands of protestors demonstrating in Cairo, as well as many more throughout the rest of the country.

The move did little to placate the public. Protests in Cairo continued into their sixth day, with the Associated Press reporting over 102 killed and several hundred injured.

“This is the revolution of people of all walks of life,” read black graffiti painted on the side of an army tank in Tahrir Square. “Mubarak, take your son and leave.”

Similar demands have been made by protestors in Alexandria, Suez and several other cities and towns, reflecting the over-arching goal of the demonstrators; to see Mubarak resign from power after three decades of largely authoritarian rule.

The chaos in Egypt has put the international community on edge, with all major world powers expressing their deep concern for events unfolding in the country. The United States has called on Mubarak, a long-time ally in the Middle East, to enact reforms in order to avoid the necessity of resignation.

For many countries, their interest in Egypt’s turmoil goes much deeper.

Russia is one of several countries with a significant number of tourists in Egypt, around 20,000 according to local Russian news reports. The UK too, is monitoring the situation as the North African country is a popular tourist destination for British holidaymakers.

Many Arab nations, meanwhile, have begun making plans for the evacuation of their citizens amid the chaos.

For those tourists trying to leave, the cancellation of flights from Cairo due to the curfew has seen them stranded at the airport in Cairo. Several dozen key Egyptian businessmen have reportedly fled the country on private planes, signalling the private sector’s eroding confidence in Mubarak’s regime.

Protestors occupied Tahrir Square through the night in Cairo, the national capital, defying a curfew that was not enforced by nearby police and army officials. Instead, the army has backed off, appearing reluctant to open fire on protestors.

Army tanks and vehicle instead have spread out across the city, setting up barricades around buildings and national treasures seen as integral to the future of Egypt and the interest of the nation.

The Egyptian Museum and the Cabinet building were some of the institutions protected while in other parts of the country, similar steps were taken, such as the security barricade set up around the iconic Pyramids of Giza. Other tourist and archaeological sites have been singled out for protection from looters and protestors.

In the streets of major cities, however, the army has in some cases been welcomed by protestors who see the security forces as being with them, rather than against them.

In Egypt, where the army has been a central pillar of power since a military coup in the 1950s, this may be a further sign for Mubarak of his weakening power.

The military may be trying to secure its own future in an Egypt without Mubarak at the head of government.

By defending the state and its national treasures, rather than its leader, they may be attempting to deflect the anger of protestors and ensure the continuity of the army’s role in Egyptian governmental affairs.

White girls seen as 'easy meat' by Pakistani rapists, says Jack Straw

2011-01-08T03:22:00.000-08:00

Kuching
Saturday, 8 Jan 2010

Row erupts after former home secretary says grooming for sexual abuse is a particular problem amongst Pakistani men

A row has broken out after the former home secretary Jack Straw said some British Pakistani men regard white girls as "easy meat" for sexual abuse.

The Blackburn MP spoke out after two Asian men who raped and sexually assaulted girls in Derby were given indefinite jail terms.

Straw said there was a "specific problem" in some areas of the country where Pakistani men "target vulnerable young white girls".

His comments were criticised by Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, who said it was wrong to "stereotype a whole community".

Yesterday Mohammed Liaqat, 28, and Abid Saddique, 27, were jailed at Nottingham crown court after being found guilty at a trial in November of charges including rape.

The judge in the case said he did not believe the crimes were "racially aggravated", adding that the race of the victims and their abusers was "coincidental".

Speaking on the BBC's Newsnight programme yesterday, Straw said: "Pakistanis, let's be clear, are not the only people who commit sexual offences, and overwhelmingly the sex offenders' wings of prisons are full of white sex offenders.

"But there is a specific problem which involves Pakistani heritage men ... who target vulnerable young white girls.

"We need to get the Pakistani community to think much more clearly about why this is going on and to be more open about the problems that are leading to a number of Pakistani heritage men thinking it is OK to target white girls in this way."

Straw called on the British Pakistani community to be "more open" about the issue. "These young men are in a western society, in any event, they act like any other young men, they're fizzing and popping with testosterone, they want some outlet for that, but Pakistani heritage girls are off-limits and they are expected to marry a Pakistani girl from Pakistan, typically," he said.

"So they then seek other avenues and they see these young women, white girls who are vulnerable, some of them in care ... who they think are easy meat.

"And because they're vulnerable they ply them with gifts, they give them drugs, and then of course they're trapped."

Vaz, the Labour MP for Leicester East, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "I disagree with Jack Straw ... I don't think you can stereotype an entire community. What you can do is look at the facts of these national cases, give it to an agency, make a proper investigation and see how we can deal with these networks of people who are involved in this horrendous crime.

"One can accept the evidence that is put before us about patterns of networks but to go that step further is pretty dangerous."

Saddique was jailed for at least 11 years while Liaqat will be locked up for at least eight years. The pair were the ringleaders of a gang that groomed and abused girls aged from 12 to 18.

The sentences were passed down a day after the prime minister, David Cameron, said "cultural sensitivities" should not hinder police action in such cases.

Six other men had already been sentenced for their part in the abuse, investigated in Operation Retriever, led by Derbyshire police.

The Barnardo's chief executive, Martin Narey, said the case was more about vulnerable children of all races who were at risk from abuse. Street grooming was "probably happening in most towns and cities" and was not confined to the Pakistani community.

"I certainly don't think this is a Pakistani thing. My staff would say that there is an over-representation of people from minority ethnic groups – Afghans, people from Arabic nations – but it's not just one nation," said Narey.

Retired detective chief superintendent Max McLean, who led a previous police investigation into sexual exploitation involving the grooming and trafficking of young girls in Leeds, questioned whether it was a cultural problem.

"I'm not suggesting, and I do not think anybody is, that it is a problem within a community," he told the Today programme.

"What I am saying is that, when you take a crime type – street grooming – and see that the vast majority of people convicted are from a particular community, then there appears something we should do about those offenders.

"But that is the very danger, that we say that all street groomers are Asian men. What we have found is that our investigations have led to convictions, generally speaking, for this type of crime.

"That is a slightly different thing and it is incumbent on the police and professionals to engage with communities where we identify those offenders to see if their are preventative opportunities."

Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of Muslim organisation the Ramadhan Foundation, condemned the crimes and called for the issue to be addressed without prejudice. "No community or faith ever sanctions these evil crimes and to suggest that this is somehow ingrained in the community is deeply offensive."

President Rafael Correa Of Ecuador Rescued From Rebellious Police

2010-10-01T07:51:00.000-07:00

Kuching

Friday, 1st October 2010

President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, sitting in a wheelchair, was rescued from a hospital, where he was held by rebellious elements of the police forces in Quito.

CARACAS, Venezuela — The police chief in Ecuador resigned on Friday after an uprising by officers who held President Rafael Correa captive for more than 10 hours on Thursday, and the government maintained the state of emergency it had declared Thursday, several news agencies reported.

The chief, Freddy Martínez, submitted his resignation on Friday morning, a spokesman for the police told Reuters, hours after President Correa vowed to overhaul the force on Thursday night in Quito, the capital.

Ecuadorean soldiers on Thursday stormed the police hospital where Mr. Correa was held by rebellious elements of the police forces and rescued him amid an exchange of gunfire in an effort to end a tense standoff between Mr. Correa and hundreds of protesting police officers and military personnel.Speaking shortly after the rescue operation, which involved about 500 soldiers who entered the hospital grounds wearing gas masks, Mr. Correa delivered a fiery speech from the balcony of the presidential palace and blamed “infiltrated elements” of the security forces for the day’s events.It was unclear if anyone died during the rescue, although Mr. Correa said that at least five people had been woundedThe operation came during a state of emergency declared Thursday in Ecuador after Mr. Correa was caught at one point earlier in the day in an angry scrum of officers at a barracks in the Quito and was physically assaulted. He was tear-gassed, shoved, insulted and pelted with water, and emerged gasping for air.He sought refuge in the police hospital, which was surrounded by protesting officers. Speaking to the news media by telephone, the president said that he was “practically captive,” while hundreds of his supporters marched on the police compound, demanding his release.He called the protests “an attempt at a coup d’état” and lashed out at the protesting officers as “a bunch of ungrateful bandits.”Striking police officers also occupied the National Assembly, where hundreds of Mr. Correa’s supporters gathered outside.However, it was not clear on Thursday night whether the police officers, who were protesting a new law that would reduce their benefits and slow salary increases, also sought control of the government.The standoff arose after security forces took over barracks in several cities to protest the law, part of a broader project to rein in government spending. Some members of the air force joined the protests in Quito, blocking the airstrip at the international airport and preventing planes from landing or taking off.Miguel Carvajal, the minister in charge of internal security issues, said at least one person had been killed and several injured.In the security vacuum created by protesting officers, sporadic robberies were reported at supermarkets and at banks, in the capital and in Guayaquil, a large coastal commercial city. Retail businesses and schools shut down.Mr. Correa had gone to the barracks to address the police complaints in person. A shouting match ensued, and at one point, he loosened his tie and opened his shirt as if to show that he was not wearing a bulletproof vest. “If you want to kill the president, here he is,” he said. “Kill him, if you want to. Kill him if you are brave enough.”The military leadership appeared to support the president. Gen. Ernesto González, the highest-ranking military official, called on the protesting police officers and troops to stand down. “We are a state of law,” he said in comments broadcast on Ecuadorean radio. “We are subordinated to the maximum authority, which is the president of the republic.”Leaders from across the hemisphere expressed support for Mr. Correa, 47. The White House expressed support for Mr. Correa and urged a peaceful end to the crisis. “The United States deplores violence and lawlessness and we express our full support for President Rafael Correa, and for the institutions of democratic government in that country,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement.The chaos raised new doubts over the stability of a country that had churned through eight different presidencies in the decade before Mr. Correa was first elected in 2006. Since then, Ecuador has enjoyed relative calm, and Mr. Correa’s leftist agenda of increased state control of the oil industry and welfare programs for the poor proved popular enough that he was re-elected in 2009.But his approval ratings recently slipped amid protests over his efforts to reorganize the federal bureaucracy.

Ethnic Riot in Tarakan East Kalimantan, Indonesia

2010-10-01T06:53:00.000-07:00

Kuching
Friday, 1st October 2010

Jakarta, 29th Sep 2010. Following a deadly riot that resulted in a man's death, National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri said that he had already sent officers from the Mobile Brigade or Brimob unit to secure Tarakan, East Kalimantan.

“At 3 a.m., we deployed officers from the Brimob Headquarters in Kelapa Dua [Depok] and have reported the latest development to the president,” Bambang said at the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

The situation in Tarakan remains tense after a riot broke out between the local ethnic groups of Tidung and Bugis. All the police would say is that the riot, which resulted in the death of a 50-year-old man named Abdullah, revolved around an extortion attempt. A group of men also burned down the house of the man they identified as the alleged murderer.

Bambang said that the police was doing everything they could to stop the violence. “We have also gotten assistance from the military to secure the area and we have met with local figures and ethnic leaders from both sides to stop the violence,” he said.

“We are evacuating people and taking preventive measures to stop violence from reoccurring. I ask everyone not to be provoked,” he added.

S Widjanarko, a military spokesman, confirmed the evacuation.

“People are taking shelter at military bases around Tarakan,” Widjanarjko said.

“In evacuating the locals, the military is not taking sides. We are only trying to give people a sense of security and the local police has requested that we help in securing the area to prevent the conflict from getting bigger,” he added.

South Sulawesi Governor Syahrul Yasin Limpo called out to Bugis ethnic in East Kalimantan, especially in Tarakan, to keep their feelings in check.

“I hope the tension in Tarakan will decrease and the conflict will not get bigger. I ask the Bugis people in Tarakan to control your emotions and not be provoked. Please be safe,” Limpo said on Tuesday night.

Stampede At Love Parade In Germany

2010-07-25T06:02:00.000-07:00

Kuching
Sunday, 25th July 2010

Reporting from Berlin — A music festival rooted in the heady and optimistic days that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall ended in tragedy Saturday when at least 18 people attending the hugely popular Love Parade were crushed to death as crowds panicked inside a tunnel and started a stampede.

Police said that more than 200 people were injured at the rave, which had attracted an astonishing 1.4 million people and is reputed to be the largest techno music festival in the world.

The stampede is believed to have occurred when revelers dashed to enter the tunnel after being told by police that the festival grounds in the western city of Duisburg had been closed off because of crowding.

Kevin Krausgartner, a 21-year-old who found himself trapped in the tunnel, told German news media he had witnessed "gruesome scenes."

"I've never seen anything like it," he said. "There were 25 people lying in a heap. I screamed; people could no longer get any air. I saw dead people, and one person was sitting there looking extremely pale. I wanted to give him some water, but the ambulance medic told me there was no point as he was already dead."

Krausgartner said he saw police "standing on the bridge doing nothing."

Incongruously, the sound of thumping bass notes boomed across the festival grounds as many revelers, unaware of the tragedy nearby, continued to party.

Police apparently encouraged organizers to keep the event going as a way of trying to prevent an even bigger outbreak of panic, fearing that people would storm the exits.

"The crisis team set up in Duisburg has decided for security reasons not to end the event," city spokesman Frank Kopatschek said.

The tragedy unfolded at 5 p.m. But according to reports from police, revelers and reporters, there were already plenty of signs much earlier in the day that the event was dangerously overcrowded. By midday, police were warning crowds to stay away, saying too many revelers were trying to pack into the space.

The Love Parade, which began in Berlin 21 years ago, was being held in Duisburg for the first time in an old train depot on the edge of the city, which was cordoned off by a metal fence.

Before the festival, some officials had wondered whether it was too big for the 500,000-strong city to manage. But Duisburg was proud to be hosting such a major cultural event, which is also a huge moneymaker.

Emergency rescue teams suggested that the tragedy may have been exacerbated by the fact that they had difficulty reaching the site. Revelers had spilled onto a neighboring highway, blocking the route designated for emergency vehicles. Once the medics arrived on the scene, they had to struggle through the tightly knit masses.

Ten years ago, a similar concert crush left nine people dead at a Pearl Jam concert in Denmark.

The Love Parade has always prided itself on its nonaggressive image, and was for years held as a political demonstration whose message was world harmony and peace.

It was organized by Berlin's underground music scene and quickly attained cult status, attracting electronic music fans from around the globe who dance to music pumped from high-wattage speakers on huge floats.

At its height in the 1990s, it attracted as many as 1.6 million ravers. It has over the years spawned many copy-cat events in places as far afield as Acapulco and Tel Aviv. It was moved from Berlin to the Ruhr Valley in 2006 after disputes between the organizers and authorities in the capital over who was responsible for the considerable cleanup and security costs, which ran into the millions of dollars.

Earthquake at 8.8 Richter Hit Chile

2010-02-27T03:35:00.000-08:00

CHILE
Saturday, 27th February 2010

A massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck Chile early Saturday, producing powerful aftershocks and triggering a tsunami.

The epicenter of the earthquake was located off the coast in Maule, near the city of Concepcion, 212 miles (341 kilometers) from the capital of Santiago. The quake struck at 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. ET).

At least 47 people have been confirmed dead, according to government officials, with the death toll expected to rise.

Concepcion is Chile's second largest city with a population of 200,000. There are reports of collapsed buildings in Santiago. The quake was felt in several Chilean towns and in parts of Argentina as well. Some buildings in Buenos Aires were evacuated.

'I lost count after 25 aftershocks!'

"This is a major event. This happened near some very populated areas," said Randy Baldwin, a geophysicist with USGS. "With an 8.8, you expect damage to the population in the area."

Check out the world's biggest earthquakes since 1900

Numerous aftershocks, including one that measured 6.9 magnitude, were felt within hours of the initial quake, USGS said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning, the highest level of a tsunami alert, for the entire coast of Chile and Peru. A tsunami watch was in effect for Ecuador, Colombia, Antarctica, Panama and Costa Rica. Hawaii was placed under a tsunami advisory.

"An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicenter within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours," the National Weather Service said in a statement.

USGS geophysicist Vicro Sardina said several tsunami waves had made landfall along the Chilean coast; the largest was recorded at 9 feet and came ashore near the quake's epicenter. The earliest estimated arrival for a wave that could affect Hawaii was 11:19 a.m. local time (5:19 p.m. ET).

Electricity and basic services, including water and telephones, are out in the capital of Santiago. The ceiling of a parking lot in the Las Condes neighborhood came crashing down, pinning at least 50 cars underneath.

'You could feel the walls moving'

Santiago resident Leo Perioto jumped out of his bed in his apartment at the top of a six-story building.

"The whole building was shaking," he said. "The windows were wobbling a lot. We could feel the walls moving from side to side."

Alessandro Perez, who is staying at the Santiago Marriott Hotel, reported shattered windows, but there was no structural damage. No one at the hotel was injured, he said.

Anita Herrera, who works at the Hotel Kennedy in Santiago, said electricity was knocked out at that hotel and guests were nervous.

"Our hotel is built for this," she said. "In Chile, this happens many times."

Officials hoped to learn more about the devastation in the morning.

Chile holds the record for the largest earthquake in the world, according to the USGS. A magnitude 9.5 quake struck the South American country in May 1960 and killed 1,655 people.

Inquiry Into the Death of five U.S. troops and nine Afghans in a Sept. 8 2010 Battle

2010-02-18T21:11:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON
Thursday, 18th February 2010

The absence of experienced senior leaders and inadequate action by officers in a tactical operations center, including a failure to provide effective artillery and air support, contributed to the deaths of five U.S. troops and nine Afghans in a Sept. 8 battle, an official investigation has found.

Three unidentified officers from the 10th Mountain Division from Fort Drum, N.Y., received official reprimands following the inquiry into the clash, which erupted after Afghan security forces and U.S. Army and Marine trainers were ambushed in the Ganjgal Valley, near the border with Pakistan in northeastern Kunar province.

"This event highlights the enduring importance of the inherent duties and responsibilities of command," said the executive summary of the investigation, which was obtained by McClatchy. "While authorities may be delegated, responsibility cannot."

The Army and Marine colonels who conducted the inquiry praised the "extreme heroism" of several U.S. troops, saying their actions "stand out as extraordinary examples worthy of the highest recognition."

The names of the colonels and the troops were redacted from the summary, which hasn't been released publicly.

A McClatchy correspondent was embedded with the U.S. trainers for the operation, which was launched after elders in the village of Ganjgal publicly disavowed the Taliban and agreed to accept the authority of local Afghan officials.

Some 90 Afghan troops and border police were to search the village, and then hold a meeting with the elders. About a dozen U.S. trainers accompanied them.

The contingent was ambushed as it moved up the valley just after dawn, pinned down by a withering storm of fire from insurgents in the village and the surrounding mountainsides armed with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, recoilless rifles and machine guns.

Eight Afghan troops and an Afghan translator also were killed. Two U.S. Marines and 19 Afghan troops and border police were wounded.

The investigation found that numerous oversights contributed to the deaths of the U.S. and Afghan forces. Most involved 10th Mountain Division officers assigned to Forward Operating Base Joyce, the U.S. outpost that had tactical control of the operation.

The base commander was on leave, his deputy was deployed elsewhere and the response to the ambush by the officers who manned the tactical operations center in their absence was "inadequate and ineffective, contributing directly to the loss of life," the report said.

Two majors, the senior officers there, "were not continually present" in the operations center. They left a captain who'd been on the overnight shift in charge of the center for more than four hours after the fighting began.

The officers' names were redacted from the report that McClatchy obtained.

"The absence of senior leaders in the operations center with troops in contact ... and their consequent lack of situational awareness and decisive action was a key failure," it said.

Another major factor, it said, was the operations center officers' failure to provide "effective" artillery fire on the insurgents, despite repeated requests from the battlefield.

The acting commander and "all commissioned staff officers" failed to "monitor a rapidly degenerating tactical situation," the report said. That mistake "prevented timely supporting fires in the critical early phases of the operation and ensured that higher headquarters did not grasp the tactical situation."

Only four artillery salvoes were fired in the first hour of the operation; three were ineffective and no more salvoes were authorized from 6:39 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., the report said.

One of the majors told the investigators that he denied further requests for fire support "for various reasons including: lack of situational awareness of locations of friendly elements; proximity to the village; garbled communications; or inaccurate or incomplete calls for fire."

The inquiry, however, found that too many calls over a radio network "may account for some confusion in the conduct of fires, but in our judgment is not an adequate explanation for the complete lack of fires from 0639 until 1615."

The report found that the failure to provide adequate artillery support wasn't due to a tactical directive issued by Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal that was designed to avert civilian casualties, as officers involved in the battle had believed.

"A second key failure was the lack of timely air support," the report said.

An unidentified officer denied requests from the battlefield to send a helicopter gunship that was minutes away because the requests weren't sent through his brigade headquarters and the aircraft was assigned to another operation, the report said.

The "probability is high" that Marine 1st Lt. Michael E. Johnson of Virginia Beach, Va.; Marine Gunnery Sgt. Edwin W. Johnson of Columbus, Ga.; Marine Staff Sgt. Aaron M. Kenefick of Roswell, Ga., and Navy Petty Officer James R. Layton of Riverbank, Calif., were killed during the more than an hour that it took for air support to be properly authorized and arrive on the scene, the report said.

Army Sgt. Kenneth W. Westbrook of Colorado Springs, Colo., was wounded at the same time and died in October at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

"This decision, while technically correct on procedural grounds, was devastating in its consequences," the report said. "The correct tactical decision was clearly to divert (the helicopter). It was at this point in the fight that experienced, decisive senior leadership was most lacking."

A "third key failure" was a decision by the two majors not to send a relief force into the valley, said the report.

Twice-divorced Madonna to act as marriage referee on new U.S. TV show

2010-02-13T17:55:00.000-08:00

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 2:02 PM on 13th February 2010

Madonna is set to act as marriage referee on a new television show about warring couples.

The twice-divorced singer will be one of a panel of celebrities on The Marriage Ref, an upcoming show from comedian Jerry Seinfeld, and will help decide which spouse should be declared 'winner' of a domestic spat filmed in their own homes.

The pop superstar, who was previously married to actor Sean Penn, has made very few appearances on TV shows that do not involve performances or interviews.

Other stars to appear on the episode, which will be shot in New York in front of a studio audience next week, are The Office star Ricky Gervais and U.S. comedian Larry David.

Later episodes of the series, which debuts on U.S. television on February 28, will see celebrity judges including Alec Baldwin, Eva Longoria and Tina Fey sit on the panel.

The Marriage Ref sees the return to TV of the creative talents of the popular star of 1990s U.S. comedy series Seinfeld.

The light-hearted show is one of the centerpieces of NBC's efforts to revamp its prime-time line-up following the axing of its five nights a week Jay Leno Show after just five months.

Despite being divorced from actor Penn and director Guy Ritchie, it seems Madonna's love life is back on track.

The 51-year-old mother-of-four was reunited with her toyboy lover Jesus Luz, 23, in Rio de Janeiro this week, when they passionately embraced on the stairs of a local nightclub.

While 30 years ago she knew how to get into the groove, she was happy to sit back and let Jesus enjoy himself with his friends at the sweaty venue.

Madonna and her toyboy lover Jesus Luz are oblivious to fellow clubbers are they share a passionate kiss at a nightclub in Rio de Janeiro

Madonna looks ready for her bed as she leans into Jesus for a hug

Let's go dancing: Madonna and Jesus Luz went to the Circus nightclub

Taking a back seat: The singer appeared to be one of the oldest people in the venue, with most of the patrons more than half her age

Sweaty: Jesus and his friends stripped to the waist and rehydrated with water

It's getting hot in here: The Brazilian model threw some dance moves, but Madonna played spectator and remained seated

Accused Alabama prof shot, killed brother in 1986

2010-02-13T17:30:00.000-08:00

HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA
Sunday, 14th February 2010

Amy Bishop

The professor accused of killing three colleagues during a faculty meeting was a Harvard-educated neurobiologist, inventor and mother whose life had been marred by a violent episode in her distant past.

More than two decades ago, police said Amy Bishop fatally shot her teenage brother at their Massachusetts home in what officers at the time logged as an accident — though authorities said Saturday that records of the shooting are missing.

Bishop had just months left teaching at the University of Alabama in Huntsville when police said she opened fire with a handgun Friday in a room filled with a dozen of her colleagues from the school's biology department. Bishop, a rare woman suspected in a workplace shooting, was to leave after this semester because she had been denied tenure.

Police say she is 42, but the university's Web site lists her as 44.

Some have said she was upset after being denied the job-for-life security afforded tenured academics, and the husband of one victim and one of Bishop's students said they were told the shooting stemmed from the school's refusal to grant her such status. Authorities have refused to discuss a motive, and school spokesman Ray Garner said the faculty meeting wasn't called to discuss tenure.

William Setzer, chairman of chemistry department at UAH, said Bishop was appealing the decision made last year.

"Politics and personalities" always play a role in the tenure process, he said. "In a close department it's more so. If you have any lone wolves or bizarre personalities, it's a problem and I'm thinking that certainly came into play here."

The three killed were Gopi K. Podila, the chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, and two other faculty members, Maria Ragland Davis and Adriel Johnson. The wounded were still recovering in hospitals early Saturday. Luis Cruz-Vera was in fair condition; Joseph Leahy in critical condition; and staffer Stephanie Monticciolo also was in critical condition.

Descriptions of Bishop from students and colleagues were mixed. Some saw a strange woman who had difficulty relating to her students, while others described a witty, intelligent teacher.

Students and colleagues described Bishop as intelligent, but someone who often had difficulty explaining difficult concepts.

Bishop was well-known in the research community, appearing on the cover of the winter 2009 issue of "The Huntsville R&D Report," a local magazine focusing on engineering, space and genetics. However, it was unclear how many of her colleagues and students knew about a more tragic part of her past.

She shot her brother, an 18-year-old accomplished violinist, in the chest in 1986, said Paul Frazier, the police chief in Braintree, Mass., where the shooting occurred. Bishop fired at least three shots, hitting her brother once and hitting her bedroom wall before police took her into custody at gunpoint, he said.

Frazier said the police chief at the time told officers to release Bishop to her mother before she could be booked. It was logged as an accident.

But Frazier's account was disputed by former police Chief John Polio, who told The Associated Press he didn't call officers to tell them to release Bishop. "There's no cover-up, no missing records," he said.

Attempts by AP to track down addresses and phone numbers for Bishop's family in the Braintree area weren't immediately successful Saturday. The current police chief said he believed her family had moved away.

After being educated at Harvard University, Bishop moved to Huntsville and in 2003 became an associate professor at the University of Alabama's campus there. The school, with about 7,500 students, has close ties with NASA and is known for its engineering and science programs.

Setzer, the chemistry chairman, said he was not aware of the incident with Bishop's brother.

Bishop and her husband placed third in a statewide university business plan competition in July 2007, presenting a portable cell incubator they had invented. They won $25,000 to help start a company to market the device.

Her husband, James Anderson, was detained and questioned by police but has not been charged. Police said Bishop was quickly caught after Friday's shooting. A 9-millimeter handgun was found in the bathroom of the building where the shootings occurred, and Huntsville police spokesman Sgt. Mark Roberts said Bishop did not have a permit for it.

Bishop was in custody and it wasn't immediately known if she has an attorney. No one was home at the couple's house.

Several experts said campus shootings commonly occur because the shooter has some kind of festering grievance that university officials haven't addressed, and the granting of tenure can be a polarizing and politicized process for many academics.

"Universities tend to string it out without resolution, tolerate too much and to have a cumbersome decision process that endangers the comfort of many and the safety of some," said Dr. Park Dietz, who is president of Threat Assessment Group Inc., a Newport Beach, Calif.-based violence prevention firm.

Tenure, which makes firing and other discipline difficult if not impossible, can seem generous to outsiders. But the job protection gives professors the freedom to express ideas and conduct studies without fear of reprisal. The system typically emphasizes research over teaching, and tenured professors typically are paid more.

While it's rare for the stresses of the tenure process to incur violence, what's even rarer is for a woman to be accused in such an incident like the one Friday that also left three of Bishop's colleagues injured, two critically.

"Workplace shootings of that kind are overwhelmingly male," said Franklin E. Zimring, a law professor and director of violence prevention at the University of California, Berkeley. "Going postal was essentially a monopoly position of the XY chromosome."

Myanmar frees defiant Suu Kyi deputy from house arrest

2010-02-13T16:40:00.000-08:00

YANGON (AFP)

Saturday, 13th February 2010

Tin Oo, deputy leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), talks to journalists at his residence in Yangon. Myanmar's junta released the elderly deputy leader of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party from house arrest, days before a visit by a UN rights envoy focusing on elections later this year.(AFP)

Myanmar's junta freed the deputy leader of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party from house arrest Saturday, prompting him to vow to resume his political activities ahead of elections later this year.

Tin Oo, 83, the vice chairman of the National League for Democracy, had been held without trial since 2003 when he and Suu Kyi were arrested after a pro-regime mob attacked their motorcade during a political tour.

His release on the day his current period of government-ordered detention expired came shortly before a UN rights envoy was due to visit Myanmar for talks focused on the polls promised by the ruling generals.

"The authorities informed me that they have withdrawn their restriction order," Tin Oo, appearing healthy despite his time in captivity, told reporters at his Yangon home after police officers visited him to tell him the news.

Tin Oo said he believed that Suu Kyi, who has been in detention for most of the last 20 years and had her house arrest extended in August after an incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside house, would be freed "soon."

"I believe Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will be released soon. We have had our history before -- after two or three months of my release, she used to be released," he said, referring to earlier periods of detention in the 1990s.

He said he planned to visit Yangon's famed Shwe Dagon pagoda on Sunday and would be at the NLD's offices on Monday, while he also hoped to meet Suu Kyi at some point.

"They (the authorities) also told me not to take actions which can disturb the building of the state. But I will continue my duty as vice chairman of the party as I am their vice chairman," he said, wearing traditional Burmese dress.

His release is the latest in a series of mixed signals to come from the ruling junta, which has appeared to respond to recent international moves to end its isolation, while at the same time continuing a crackdown on dissent.

The United Nations human rights envoy for Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, is due to start a five-day trip to Myanmar on Monday and expects to meet the foreign minister, but not reclusive junta leader Senior General Than Shwe.

Quintana has said he also wants to see Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi, 64.

Tin Oo was a former army general who was forced into retirement in the 1970s after falling foul of the country's military rulers.

He and Suu Kyi later helped lead the NLD to a landslide victory in Myanmar's last elections, in 1990, which the junta refused to recognise.

The pair were detained after a militia attacked her convoy near Depeyin in northern Myanmar in 2003, killing around 70 people. Tin Oo was transferred from prison to house arrest in Yangon in February 2004 under an anti-subversion law.

Tin Oo is likely to play a key role in deciding whether the NLD will take part in the the elections, promised by the junta this year as part of a so-called roadmap to democracy.

But he said that there was no decision by the party yet.

"Regarding to the 2010 matter, the NLD cannot say whether it will participate or not. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has also said that it's early to decide. That's right. There is no election law yet," he said.

No date has been set for the vote and critics say the plans are simply designed to entrench the generals' power.

Than Shwe said in a speech on Friday that the elections would be free and fair and would be held "soon." Analysts predict they will take place in October or November.

Myanmar's 2008 constitution -- pushed through in a referendum days after a cyclone killed 138,000 people -- bans Suu Kyi from holding office, while reserving a quarter of the seats in parliament for the military.

But in recent months there have been signs of rapprochement between Suu Kyi and the junta, while US President Barack Obama's administration has promoted engagement with the regime because sanctions have failed to bear fruit.

Tin Oo said it was the "right time" for Washington to engage with Myanmar but added that the military regime had to "take this opportunity."

South Africa hails Mandela on anniversary of release

2010-02-13T16:26:00.000-08:00

South Africa on Thursday hailed Nelson Mandela's legacy of a non-racial, unified post-apartheid nation as the country celebrated the 20th anniversary of his historic release from jail.

Lawmakers cheered and sang "Nelson Mandela, here is none like you" as the delighted 91-year-old former president made a rare public appearance in parliament, accompanied by his wife Graca Machel.

Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu exhorted South Africans to use the day to remember the long road the country had travelled since February 11, 1990.

"The day Nelson Mandela walked free from Victor Verster Prison our collective spirit soared. It was a day that promised the beginning of the end of indignity," he said.

Profile: Nelson Mandela

Speaking in parliament, President Jacob Zuma added: "As we celebrate Madiba's (Mandela's) release today, let us commit ourselves to building a better future for all South Africans, black and white."

South Africans heaped praise on Mandela two decades after his release cemented the fall of white minority rule.

Key figures of the anti-apartheid struggle paid tribute at the former Victor Verster Prison from which Mandela was released after nearly 30 years.

And hundreds of people re-enacted the historic moment when Mandela, hand in hand with his then-wife Winnie, walked proudly out of the prison with his fist raised high as the world watched.

With Mandela sitting nearby, Zuma spoke in parliament of the social challenges that have stymied the government's progress on promises to improve education, health, crime and housing.

Timeline: Key events in South Africa's recent history

South Africa's economy was again creating work after shedding 900,000 jobs in its first post-apartheid recession last year, he said.

"Economic indicators suggest that we are now turning the corner. Economic activity is rising in South Africa, and we expect growth going forward. It is too soon, though, to be certain of the pace of recovery," he said.

"Now is the time to lay the groundwork for stronger growth going forward... The hosting of the FIFA World Cup makes 2010 truly a year of action," he said.

Leader of the main opposition party Hellen Zille, criticised Zuma's speech as lacking substance.

"I thinks his address was short on substance and detail. He did not come up with workable solutions to ease poverty and unemployment," said Zille.

Inkatha Freedom Party leader, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, however, said he was not surprised by the president's speech.

"I expected more unpacking of issue, but I am not surprised because his previous speeches have lacked details,"said Buthelezi.

Leading labour union body, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said it was concerned that little recognition was paid to the extent of the massive crisis of unemployment, poverty and inequality. Related article: Cashing in on Mandela

"There is no evidence yet that we are on track to create new jobs on the scale required and bring down the world-record levels of inequality," said the union in a statement.

Former Zambian's president Kenneth Kaunda was among the foreign dignitaries who attended the colourful ceremony.

Also present was apartheid's last president FW de Klerk, who shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela.

Mandela spent the bulk of his 27 year imprisonment on the notorious Robben Island prison served a four year term as president from 1994-1999.

He retired from public life in June 2004. Timeline: Nelson Mandela's life

Malaysian civil services Dominate By Malay

2010-02-08T03:37:00.000-08:00

Kuching, Sarawak
Monday, 8th February 2010

Racist will remain in Malaysia as long as it is under UMNO

The article “Emphasis on raising standards” by Shagul (The Star, Jan 30) seems to be aimed at ensuring that the situation of Malay dominance in the civil service should remain unchanged and unchallenged.

The director-general’s analysis fails to point out some very important reasons why a representative and multi-racial civil service should remain a key national priority, especially in the context of building 1 Malaysia.

One crucial reason is that the second prong of the New Economic Policy (from 1970) — the reduction in the identification of economic function with ethnicity — was intended to apply to both the private and public sectors. This second prong has been deemed to be so vital to the cause of national unity that the restructuring of the private sector continues until today (nearly 20 years after the NEP was supposed to have ended in 1990).

What has happened to the restructuring of the civil service that was part of the original NEP?

Although great strides have taken place towards a more multiracial private sector, the reverse has happened in the civil service.

According to available statistics for the year 2005, the proportion of Malays in the civil service had grown from 60 per cent to 77 per cent from 1970 to 2005 whilst the Perkhidmatan Tadbir dan Diplomatik (PTD) had 85 per cent Malays in its staffing, or six Malays for one every non-Malay.

The situation of Malay dominance of the civil service, especially for the higher level service groups, is likely to have been enhanced since.

It is not simply the issue of Chinese under-representation mentioned by the D-G that is of concern. Representation of other communities and the East Malaysia native communities in the civil service at all levels is of as much concern.

Data absent

Official statistics such as racial and regional breakdown of civil service staffing by ministries, agencies and departments and categorised according to top management group, management and professional group and support group and other key variables can provide us a better understanding of the representational issue. From it we can draw related racial, regional and other ramifications and implications.

Though easy to collate, analyse and make publicly available, these data are conspicuously unavailable.

Many government leaders have acknowledged that we need more transparency in government to raise public confidence. Should these data and the relevant analysis be made publicly available, we are confident that they will agree with the concerns of many Malaysians that current Malay over-dominance of the civil service is unhealthy and undesirable and that it adversely affects national unity, social cohesion and economic competitiveness.

Another important reason why the civil service in Malaysia needs to be made fully representative of the country’s racial make-up is that in all modern governments, civil servants are fully engaged in formulating and implementing public policies on behalf of, and in the interests of, all the communities.

Democratic norms call for a representative, impartial and neutral bureaucracy, not only to ensure that public policies are responsive to the legitimate needs of all citizens in a fair and equitable fashion but also to ensure that there is an absence of racial bias in the individual or collective manner that the civil servants formulate policies and conduct their work.

In February 2006, a study titled “Towards a representative and world-class civil service” was presented to the government as part of the Centre for Public Policy Studies (CPPS) proposals for the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

Racist Minister who is also the Malaysian Internal Affairs Minister!

The study contained a full set of arguments as to why the civil service needs to pursue an appropriate and racially diverse representation policy in its staffing.

It also provided practical suggestions on how this policy could be implemented in the form of a quota system in recruitment and career advancement. The quota system would be similar to the quota systems long used by the government in sectors such as education and commerce to bring about Malay advancement.

The civil service quota system — in this case specifically used as a temporary affirmative action tool to increase non-Malay numbers and reduce marginalisation — could be formulated in such a way as to meet with the constitutional provisions providing for the special position of the Malays and Bumiputera groups of Sabah and Sarawak.

This 60-40 recruitment system would be relatively easy and painless to implement. It would ensure Malay dominance but not over-dominance by helping bring a gradual increase in the number and proportion of non-Malay civil servants in the country.

Since that CPPS study aforementioned, the growing number of racial profiling allegations aimed at the police and various other ministries and agencies is a clear danger sign that changes in recruitment of new staffing and racial composition at the higher levels are urgently needed if these allegations are not to spiral out of control.

Sidelining non-Malays

The director-general has emphasised that “there has never been any deliberate and conscious effort to discourage the non-Malays from entering and staying in public service”.

The veracity of this statement can be questioned.

If a full and open inquiry is held on the issue of whether or not bias exists in terms of recruitment and promotion in the civil service (and this includes staffing in the public universities and many strategic ministries and agencies), we are sure that many conflicting views — including those based on personal experience — are likely to dominate the proceedings.

Even if we accept as largely true the statement that there are no “deliberate and conscious” attempts to discourage non-Malay participation in the civil service, it does not absolve the government from its responsibility of ensuring a fully representative civil service — a national objective which it has long pledged to pursue but has cynically ignored instead.

In fact, if only a miniscule fraction of the public resources that has gone into the restructuring of the private sector had been allocated towards the restructuring of the civil service, we would have long ago achieved that goal and arrived at a higher stage of national unity, resilience and competitiveness.

Instead what we have had is a lot of rhetoric, foot dragging, attempts to “blame the other side”, and now another garbled attempt at explaining why the status quo in terms of the civil service composition has to remain the same.

That is why the contrasting statement by the Second Minister of Finance, Datuk Ahmad Husni Mohd Hanadzlah, that the civil service should be more multiracial is most welcome.

In order to fulfil this noble aspiration, we hope that Husni and his colleagues in the Barisan Nasional will support the introduction of a quota system reflective of the country’s racial composition and for the system to be introduced as soon as possible for all civil service recruitment and promotion.

It is important for the government to change its mindset on the issue and not to view the issue of a representative civil service in zero-sum game terms. It is not simply the interests of the non-Malay communities presently under-represented that would be enhanced with more equitable representation. Malay interests would also benefit in many ways.

Implementation of reforms providing for the recruitment and career advancement of non-Malays in the civil service will help ensure that national unity and the goal of 1 Malaysia will be more quickly realised.

This article is written by Dr Lim Teck Ghee is director, Center for Policy Initiatives, and Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam is former president, Transparency International Malaysia.

This article is taken from Malaysian Insider

Haiti Hits By Earthquake Photo News

2010-01-17T05:04:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, 12 January 2010, an earthquake at 7.0 magnitude hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti,.The International Federation of the Red Cross estimated Wednesday that up to 3 million people were affected by the powerful quake.

Please see the photos on aftermath of the earthquake.

Wounded people gathered at the office of Medecins Sans Frontieres in Port-au-Prince, Haiti Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Haitians piled bodies along the devastated streets of their capital Wednesday after the strongest earthquake hit the poor Caribbean nation in more than 200 years crushed thousands of structures, from schools and shacks to the National Palace and the U.N. peacekeeping headquarters

Debris lays in the street after an earthquake along the Delmas road in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010.

Haiti's National Palace is seen damaged in Port-au-Prince, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. A powerful earthquake struck the country on Tuesday.

A man gestures behind a person trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010.

An injured person is seen after an earthquake hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010.

People gather in the street after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010.

People carry an injured person after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, late Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010.

This Jan. 12, 2010, photo shows an injured person being tended to at Hotel Villa Creole in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit the Caribbean nation. The International Red Cross says a third of Haiti's 9 million people may need emergency aid and that it would take a day or two for a clear picture of the damage to emerge from Tuesday's earthquake.

An injured person being tended to at Hotel Villa Creole in Port-au-Prince, Haiti after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit the Caribbean nation, Jan. 12, 2010.

Earthquake survivors view a crack, in a shanty town on the outskirts of Port au Prince, following a major earthquake in Haiti, Tuesday Jan. 12, 2010.

damage to the Hotel Villa Creole in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit the Caribbean nation, Jan. 12, 2010.

A man helping an injured person at the Hotel Villa Creole in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit the Caribbean nation, Jan. 12, 2010.

Earthquake survivor huddles in a blanket in a shantytown on the outskirts of Port au Prince, following a major earthquake in Haiti, Tuesday Jan. 12, 2010.

An earthquake survivor carries a small baby in a shanty town on the outskirts of Port au Prince, following a major earthquake in Haiti, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010.

An earthquake survivor is carried in a shantytown on the outskirts of Port au Prince, following a major earthquake in Haiti, Tuesday Jan. 12, 2010.

Earthquake damage to a shanty town on the outskirts of Port au Prince, following a major earthquake in Haiti, Tuesday Jan. 12, 2010.

A woman lies on the ground as others stand outside a market that collapsed after a powerful earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday Jan. 12, 2010.

Earthquake survivors huddle together in a shantytown on the outskirts of Port au Prince, following a major earthquake in Haiti, Tuesday Jan. 12, 2010.

A man sits next to a car after a powerful earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010.

Top 10 Mistresses in The Worls

2010-01-12T21:55:00.000-08:00

Kuching
Wednesday, 13th January 2010

1. Jaimee Grubbs

It's unclear why onetime reality show contestant Jaimee Grubbs, 24, decided to talk about an alleged 31-month affair with Tiger Woods. The Californian waitress, who had appeared alongside her ex-boyfriend on VH1's guy-improvement show Tool Academy, discussed her liaisons with Woods in Us Weekly magazine. She described their relationship as "romantic" — as well as sexual — and never indicated that things had gone sour. But the evidence she presented for her claims — steamy text messages and a voicemail where someone purportedly sounding like Woods asks Grubbs to help him cover up his cheating tracks — paints a picture of a man who realized the heat was on. In a press release posted on his website, Woods apologized Dec. 2 for unspecified "transgressions" days after a one-car accident in the early morning hours the day after Thanksgiving left the media buzzing about a possible domestic dispute. Nor was Grubbs the only alleged mistress on the scene: the National Enquirer reported before the accident on rumors that Tiger had had a relationship with New York club promoter Rachel Uchitel, 34, — a story which she vehemently denies — while Life & Style magazine claimed that Tiger had been seeing Kalika Moquin, 27, a Las Vegas marketing agent, for months.

Post-affair: Grubbs has said that she was "hurt" to hear of other women possibly being in the picture. As, no doubt, was Tiger's wife Elin Nordegren.

2. María Belén Chapur

Who, exactly, is the Argentine woman about whom South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford had waxed so poetically in his e-mail missives? A 41-year-old former TV reporter, Chapur admitted on June 28 to being Sanford's object of affection, but details about her remain hazy. A divorcée living in Buenos Aires with her two children, Chapur said someone "hacked" her e-mail last year. Her short statement asked for privacy and offered no further details about her life.

Post-affair: Chapur might be keeping quiet, but Sanford can't seem to shut up. In a June 30 interview with the Associated Press, he called Chapur his "soul mate," although he said he'd "try" to fall back in love with his wife.

3. Rielle Hunter

Hunter has been an equestrian, a bit-part actress, a filmmaker and even the inspiration for a novel. But history will know her as John Edwards' "other" woman. After Edwards hired Hunter to produce a series of documentaries on his 2008 campaign for President, the two began a romantic affair that continued until the National Enquirer revealed the couple's liaison at a Los Angeles hotel. More salacious still: Hunter had a child, with no father listed on the birth certificate.

Post-affair: An Edwards aide, Andrew Young, quickly claimed to be the unnamed father of Hunter's baby, and despite an alleged promise to marry Hunter, Edwards quickly distanced himself from his mistress. Now Young says he is disillusioned by his former boss's actions, and he's writing a book claiming that Edwards is the actual father of Hunter's child — and that the couple recorded a sex tape together. For her part, Hunter has declined a paternity test, but she is reportedly angry at how Edwards' wife Elizabeth has cast her in the media. The Edwards family has not commented on Young's allegations.

4. Marilyn Monroe

Such is the wattage of both Monroe and John F. Kennedy that rumors of their affair have kept tongues wagging more than 40 years later. Though there has never been official confirmation of any of Kennedy's dalliances, there are indications he was unwilling to cede his playboy lifestyle to the conventions of marriage. Of his supposed conquests, Monroe tops the list. A sultry version of "Happy Birthday" sung by Monroe to Kennedy at Madison Square Garden in 1962 was supposedly the impetus for their affair:

Post-affair: Monroe died later in 1962 of a drug overdose, but tales about her alleged fling with the President grew increasingly tall. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover tried to prove that the man on a secret FBI sex tape of Monroe was Kennedy, but he lacked definitive proof. Others claim Kennedy was involved in her death. Needless to say, the rumors are even less substantiated than the affair itself.

5. Ashley Dupré

Before meeting then New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, Dupré was a struggling singer who worked as a call girl on the side. But when Spitzer's patronage of the Emperors Club VIP attracted federal attention in 2008, Dupré found herself catapulted into the limelight along with her former client. Hers was the first MySpace scandal, and Dupré found pictures of herself taken from her profile and plastered around the Web. Spitzer resigned in disgrace, but Dupré garnered almost equal face time.

Post-affair: For Dupré, taking down the sitting New York governor provided a short-lived career boost. After her illicit assignations with the guv were discovered, her songs were downloaded millions of times. Of course, that didn't mean they were good, and none of the notoriety has translated into any further commercial success.

6. Anne Boleyn

It's the rare woman who is so desirable that she ends up cleaving a church. But Boleyn's insistence that she would be a mere mistress to Henry VIII caused a rift that began to split the Anglicans from the Catholics. Though Henry courted Boleyn for years, she refused his advances, requiring that he annul his marriage to Queen Catherine of Aragon first. Pope Clement VII delayed granting the annulment, leading Henry to create the Anglican Church of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury finally nixed Henry's first marriage, clearing the way for Boleyn to become Queen at last.

Post-affair: Ironically, and unfairly, Boleyn would end up executed after being accused of having affairs with a number of men, including her brother. Historians generally agree that the charges were shams, sparked by rivalries among the court and Boleyn's inability to give Henry a male heir. She was beheaded at the Tower of London in 1536.

7. Lucy Mercer

Hired as a secretary by Eleanor Roosevelt, Mercer ended up having an affair with Roosevelt's husband. Eleanor discovered love letters between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mercer in 1918, when the presidency was just a distant ambition for her husband. Fearing for his political life, Franklin convinced Eleanor to stay married, promising he would avoid seeing Mercer again and that the two would sleep in separate beds.

Post-affair: Franklin didn't keep his promise. With help from the Roosevelts' daughter Anna, he continued to rendezvous with Mercer, and she was in Warm Springs, Ga., the day Franklin died. (Eleanor was conspicuously absent.) Mercer died in South Carolina in 1948.

8. Monica Lewinsky

After the White House intern conducted an infamous affair with President Bill Clinton in 1995 and 1996, Lewinsky's name became a punch line. Though Clinton initially denied their relationship, Lewinsky was called to testify before the Starr commission and contradicted the President, leading to an impeachment trial (and an eventual acquittal) in the Senate.

Post-affair: Lewinsky summed it up well: "I'm well-known for something that isn't great to be well-known for." Lewinsky remained a minor celebrity, appearing on Saturday Night Live and hosting a short-lived reality-TV show. But for the past five years, Lewinsky has kept out of the spotlight. In 2006 she graduated from the London School of Economics with a master's degree in social psychology.

9. Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall

An on-again, off-again relationship gets a little more attention when it's with Britain's Prince Charles — and especially when one of those "on" periods was during his marriage to Princess Diana. Lurid (and bizarre) conversations between the two were leaked in 1993, which didn't help Camilla's cause. Married at the time as well, she kept a low profile in the press but eventually divorced her husband and married her suitor after Princess Di perished in a tragic car accident.

Post-affair: The pair had a low-key wedding (by royal standards) in 2005, and the royal family has gradually accepted Camilla into its ranks. Though she could have opted for the title "Princess of Wales" like Diana's, Camilla chose to become the Duchess of Cornwall instead. She has been lauded for her charity efforts on the royal family's behalf.

10. Amy Fisher

Fisher was a tabloid newspaper's dream. Though neither she nor her paramour — Long Island auto mechanic Joey Buttafuoco — were famous, the bizarre details of their relationship turned Fisher into the archetype of a jealous mistress in the eyes of the nation. At just 16, Fisher started a relationship with the much older Buttafuoco in 1991. The sordid saga culminated in Fisher shooting Buttafuoco's wife Mary Jo in the face after confronting her on the doorstep of the Buttafuoco home. Mary Jo survived, and Fisher earned herself seven years in prison for assault as well as one of the catchiest tabloid epithets ever: the Long Island Lolita.

Post-affair: Fisher managed to stretch her 15 minutes of infamy into a D-list career as a writer and porn star.

No pressure, the G-spot may not exist

2010-01-06T19:17:00.000-08:00

WHAT an anti-climax. It's just a figment of your imagination.

Now, men no longer have to fumble around in bed looking for their partner's mysterious G-spot.

It doesn't exist, according to a study by British scientists.

The scientists at King's College London who carried out the study claim there is no evidence for the existence of the G-spot - supposedly a cluster of internal nerve endings - outside the imagination of women influenced by magazines and sex therapists, Sunday Times reported.

The study surveyed more than 1,800 British women.

Said Mr Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology, who co-authored the research: "Women may argue that having a G-spot is due to diet or exercise, but in fact it is virtually impossible to find real traits.

"This is by far the biggest study ever carried out and it shows fairly conclusively that the idea of a G-spot is subjective."

In the study, 1,804 women aged between 23 and 83 filled in questionnaires, Daily Mail reported. All were pairs of identical or non-identical twins. While identical twins share all their genes, non-identical ones share only half.

The study suggested that the G-spot is a matter of a woman's subjective opinion, Sunday Times quoted the study as saying.

If one identical twin reported having a G-spot, this would make it far more likely that her sister would give the same answer.

But no such pattern emerged.

No need for inadequacy

While 56 per cent of women overall claimed to have a G-spot, they tended to be younger and more sexually active.

Where is the g-spot supposed to be?

Identical twins were no more likely to share the characteristic than non-identical twins.

Ms Andrea Burri, who led the research, said she was anxious to remove feelings of "inadequacy or underachievement" that might affect women who feared they lacked a G-spot.

She said: "It is rather irresponsible to claim the existence of an entity that has never really been proven and pressurise women - and men, too."

Dr Gedis Grudzinskas, consultant gynaecologist at London Bridge Hospital, told the Daily Mail: "I think this study proves the difference between popular science and biological or anatomical science."

The G-spot is named after a German scientist Ernst Grfenberg, who claimed to have discovered it in 1950. It was popularised by Beverly Whipple, emeritus professor at Rutgers University, New Jersey, in 1981.

Professor Whipple said she found G-spots in a study of 400 women, and described the new British study as "flawed".

She has also written a number of books on the phenomenon.

However, the quest to find the G-spot will not be abandoned.

The Journal of Sexual Medicine, which will publishing the work next week, is planning a debate, with publication of research from the pro and anti G-spot camps.

This article was first published in The New Paper.

Li Zhuang Ping : Nude Goddess of the East

2010-01-05T05:50:00.000-08:00

Li Zhuang Ping, Male, born 1948, President of Art, China Art Academy, with years of focus and experience, engaging in-depth study of traditional Chinese painting and oil painting. Foster daughter is also a successful painter. In 2008 together with her daughter, Li Qin, they produced oil-painting album "Chinese realism oil painter Li Zhuang-ping (李勤东) Mountain Goddess (山鬼) series of paintings collection. It won international acclaim. Also known as Oriental Goddess or Goddess of the East by some.

In this case, while the great oil painter Li Zhuang Ping painted her daughter, Li Qin in the nude, to the despise of the people of China and the authority, one need to look at the actual goods delivered, to decide if this is not another melanine-tainted story.

First, the daughter obviously does not have such big breasts as shown in the paintings, neither does she possesses that physical built. Only the face looked very much like hers.

Secondly, the tiger, leopard and lion are not in captivity in Li's home, or else he or Li Qin would be mauled to death by now. Like these animals, he could have painted them and her daughter from pictorial references, being an expert that he is, this can be easily done. He just needed to take some photos of her daughter in various moods and facial expressions to achieve that, the rest is up to his imagination and inkling.

In short, there is no need for Li Qin to strip naked, stand or sit still in the jungle, with those creatures beside her, for hours. In fact, the body of Li Qin in the painting reminded me of that of top Japanese gravure model, Mikie Hara.

Photos Of Drunk People

2009-12-10T19:40:00.000-08:00

Hi guys...Christmas is just around the corner. For those who celebrating x-mas, please don't drink too much to avoid being too drunk as shown below :-

Top Ten Big Asses Of Celebrity

2009-12-06T17:38:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, we at Odd Culture try to offer intellectual commentary on the news of the day. But nobody gives a crap about that kind of thing, so here is our list of Top Ten Big Asses of the Celebrity World.

So here the list from big to biggest.

10. Kim Kardashian

Socialite Kim Kardashian is thick in all the right places. Apparently she also has a new dance workout video in the making. There are better behinds out there than Kim’s, but like J-Lo, KK helps bring booty into the mainstream, which is a better achievement in our eyes than her sex tapes. (Not that we have a problem with those either). Kim’s measurements are 35D-26-40.

9. Rita G

Rita G. is an African-American and Italian model and adult entertainer. She stars in the controversial music video for Kanye West’s Flashing Lights. West picked her specifically to be in the video, calling her “the best girl [Playboy] had in the last three years.” Rita got an endorsement from Howard Stern, who claimed that she has the best natural chest on the planet. She’s a hardcore gym goer, has been in Playboy a few times and doesn’t go anywhere near alcohol or drugs. She has a great body to show for it. Height: 5′7″ Measurements: 34-26-37
8. Melyssa Ford

A child of an Afro-Barbadian father and a Russian-Norwegian mother, Melyssa Ford is a Canadian model, actress and radio personality. Music video director Little X discovered Ford while she was working as a bartender at a Toronto nightclub and helped launch her career. She has appeared in music videos, men’s magazines, television programs and films. Ford is currently an on-air personality for Sirius Satellite Radio’s Hot Jamz channel. Her nickname is Jessica Rabbit, which comes from her advice column for Smooth magazine. Apparently, she gets about 50 marriage proposals per issue. She’s got a 34D-22-36 figure.

7. Jennifer Lopez

We assume that J.Lo needs no introduction. More conservatively dressed these days, she can still bring the game, as seen in the recent Golden Globe Awards. There may be better butts out there but she still deserves recognition for putting booty on the map. Kim Kardashian could not exist without Jennifer Lopez

6. Stacey Dash

Believe it or not, good looking Stacey Dash used to be on Sesame Street. The soon to be 43 year old was also in Fresh Prince of Bel Air and the movie Moving (with Richard Pryor). Remember her in that movie as Pryor’s daugher? Hot! Dash was born in The Bronx, of West Indian and Aztec descent, her green eyes being described as one of her most striking features. At age 40, Stacey Dash posed nude in the August 2006 issue of Playboy

5. Mýa

Mýa Harrison is a Grammy Award winning American R&B singer, actress, model, and dancer. She has appeared in films like Chicago. She’s a very talented tap dancer and a decent singer, even though we’re not into the new R&B stuff. Her cute rear end, however, could use more exposure. Height: 5′7″, Measurements: 34-23-34

4. Shay Johnson / Buckeey

Shay Johnson, nickname Buckeey, is probably not a name you recognize unless you watched Flavor of Love,the reality television dating game show starring Flavor Flav. Twenty different ladies compete for Flavor Flav’s heart as they live together in a mansion in Encino, “Buckeey” being one of them. On the show, she is beaten out by Deelishis (who also has much back). Shay is a 5’5’ bomb shell with the measurements of 34-25-38. She also has a sex tape out. We leave it to you detectives to find it.

3. Stacy Keibler

Stacy Keibler is a former professional wrestler and valet for the WCW and WWE. She began her professional wrestling career as a part of the Nitro Girls and quickly moved on to a more prominent role as manager Miss Hancock, where she did some decent table dances. Appearing on Dancing with the Stars, where she was nicknamed “The Weapon of Mass Seduction”, she placed third. Having done modeling in mags like Maxim and Stuff, Keibler has measurements 34A-24-35 and has 42 inch long legs. The girl got it goin’ on

2. Vida Guerra

Vida Guerra is a Cuban-born American model, actress, and singer. Her first notable appearance was in the U.S. edition of FHM magazine in December 2002 (after that pictorial, FHM reported that almost 1/3 of their mail was from readers who wanted to see more photos of her). Since then, she has modeled for many other men’s magazines, including the July, 2006 issue of Playboy. At measurements of 34C-25-37 and a height of 5′ 3″ , Vida comes extremely close to Sir Mix-A-Lot’s suggestion for the perfect figure (according to Baby Got Back). This girl’s butt is just amazing.

1. Angel Melaku / Lola Luv

Angel Melaku’s real name is Fershgenet, but she also goes by Lola Luv. Despite these names, we believe she has never done porn. Angel is a hip hop model of Ethiopian and Trinidadian descent who has been frequently featured in urban magazines as well as videos for artists like Kanye West and Young Jeezy. Black Men named her the new “It girl” for 2007. But we don’t think Clara Bow had an ass like this. With measurements of 34C-22-40 – Lola Luv’s booty is like some kind of holy grail of bottoms. We hear that Melaku is interested in getting into real-estate. We think we are prepared to buy whatever house she shows us

Enjoy Reading.

Gigantic Belgian Monster Cows

2009-12-03T17:54:00.000-08:00

Have you ever seen the cow with the giant size and muscular like the pictures below. In Malaysia we have what the local call Seladang or wild cow. But Seladang is far smaller from the Belgian Cow.

Originating in 19th century Belgium by crossing local cattle with British cattle, the Belgian Blue cattle are gigantic bovine wonders. Their enormous size and muscle mass, sometimes called “double muscling,” is a naturally occurring mutation of the gene for myostatin, a protein that regulates muscle growth. This mutation results in accelerated lean muscle growth

Cannibalism In Thailand

2009-12-03T06:50:00.000-08:00

Please see a group of people in Thailand eating the human flesh.

FHM India Top 10 Most Sexiest Woman Around The Earth

2009-12-01T01:20:00.000-08:00

The finalists included the likes of Hollywood superstars Angelina Jolie and Scarlett Johansson, singers Rihanna and Madonna, Bollywood superstars like Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Bipasha Basu, supermodels like Adriana Lima and Gisele Bundchen, amongst several other sexy and successful women in the world. The Global Winner was Transformers star Megan Fox who came second in the poll, while the vivacious Kareena Kapoor was third closely followed by the beautiful Deepika Padukone and sexy Bipasha Basu in the fourth and fifth slot.

1: Katrina Kaif

2: Megan Fox

3: Kareena Kapoor

4: Deepika Padukone

5: Bipasha Basu

6: Aishwarya Rai

7: Angelina Jolie

8: Priyanka Chopra

9: Lara Dutta

10: Sushmita Sen

News in pictures on Sunday 22 Nov 2009

2009-11-22T07:31:00.000-08:00

A British Shorthair kitten is being comforted by its owner during an international cat show in Warsaw, Poland. -- PHOTO: AP

Palestinian militants with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) train in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis. -- PHOTO: AFP

Russia's Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov perform their free program to win the silver medal in the pairs competition at the Home Sense Skate Canada International figure skating competition in Kitchener, Ontario. -- PHOTO: AP

Driver Shauna Rohbock and brakewoman Elana Meyers of the United States slide through a curve during their first run at the women's Bobsled World Cup race on Saturday, in Lake Placid N.Y. The pair finished fifth. -- PHOTO: AP

A man casts a fishing net in the Makoko fishing community in Lagos. Despite being the world's eighth biggest crude oil exporter, 70% of Nigeria's population live below the poverty line, according to official sources. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

A worker tries on a headdress that will be used for the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting that begins Nov 27, in Port of Spain. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

A man rests on the side of a lake in Polonnaruwa, about 216km east of Colombo. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

A boy walks over a bridge in the Makoko fishing community in Lagos. Despite being the world's eighth biggest crude oil exporter, 70% of Nigeria's population lives below the poverty line, according to official sources. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

A young monkey leaps between trees in a Kuala Lumpur suburb in Malaysia. Many colonies of monkeys still live in inner city communities amongst small areas trees and bush land. -- PHOTO: AP

Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruely to Animals (RSPCA) Inspectors return dogs to their owners in Cockermouth, northwest England, after being locked into the upper floors of flooded properties before their rescue. -- PHOTO: AFP

A University of Mississippi police officer searches a member of the Ku Klux Klan before a protest on the steps of Fulton Chapel at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. -- PHOTO: AP

England's Louis Deacon (right) wins the ball from New Zealand's Brad Thorn during their international rugby union match at Twickenham stadium, London. -- PHOTO: AP

Sydney residents and tourists line Bondi Beach. -- PHOTO: AFP

Women soldiers, dressed as "revolutionaries", ride horses as they greet the crowd during a military parade celebrating the 99th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution at the Zocalo square in Mexico City. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

A man shows tattoo scarring on his back during the No Violence festival in Havana. Brother Saiz, an association of young Cuban artists, organised the festival and used tattoos and body piercing to draw people's attention to gender violence issues. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

A man is handcuffed at the police station of Mariche in the slum of Petare in Caracas. The dozens of murders every weekend in Caracas are just the tip of a crime problem that polls show is Venezuelans' main daily concern. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

Relatives of the Washington sniper’s victims gather for his execution

2009-11-10T15:36:00.000-08:00

Relatives of the victims shot and killed by the Washington sniper in 2002 gathered last night to watch his execution, hours after the Virginia Governor cleared the way for his death by denying his appeal for clemency.

Closing off John Allen Muhammad’s final chance for a last-minute stay of execution, Tim Kaine said nine hours before the scheduled lethal injection that he found “no compelling reason” to set aside the death sentence.
Muhammad was unmoved when he heard that his appeal had failed. “The guy is delusional, he’s paranoid,” his lawyer, Jonathan Sheldon, said. “In a movie, when somebody is told that, then he reacts in a way that seems satisfying to people, especially victims, and he explodes, expresses remorse and then he goes to the last chamber with his last words.
“That’s not how it works. It doesn’t work like that because the majority of people [on death row] in this country have some mental illness and probably quite a few, up to 40 per cent, have severe mental illness.”
Relatives of Muhammad’s victims prepared to gather in a curtained room at the Greensville Correctional Centre to watch the execution through a window.

Many had travelled thousands of miles to see the final moments of Muhammad, who was sentenced to death in 2003 after going on a three-week shooting rampage around the Washington area that killed ten people and wounded three. His teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, was sentenced to life without parole.
Marion Lewis, from Idaho, is the father of Lori Lewis Rivera, who was shot while vacuuming a van at a petrol station. “I want to see what he made me see,” he said. “He forced us to look at our little girl laying in a coffin. I want to see him take his last breath.”
Anti-capital punishment protesters gathered in a field outside the prison for a candlelit vigil organised by the pressure group Virginia Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
Muhammad requested a special last meal but, according to the Virginia Department of Corrections, asked for his choice not to be made public. He had to eat it at least four hours before his execution and was allowed a shower two hours before his death.
The condemned man was moved to Greensville from death row this month. He spent yesterday locked in one of three cells built next to the death chamber.
Muhammad was permitted visits by immediate family yesterday, although it is unclear whether he received any. His former wife published a book last week alleging that he intended to kill her, and said he went on his shooting rampage to make her murder look like another random killing.
Adjoining the room where the victims’ relatives were gathering, another 20 to 25 people were to watch the execution. They included at least six witnesses, stipulated by state law and chosen from Virginia residents, and the media. If requested, a cleric would have been allowed to accompany Muhammad into the death chamber to offer final words of comfort.

Breaking News-Shoot Out At Fort Hood Texas

2009-11-05T23:33:00.000-08:00

(CNN) -- Eleven people plus a gunman were dead and 31 wounded after a shooting Thursday at a soldier-processing center at Fort Hood, Texas, officials said.

The gunman who was killed was a soldier, Army Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said. Two other soldiers have been detained as suspects, Cone said.
The slain gunman was identified as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, a law enforcement source told CNN. Licensed in Virginia, Hasan was a psychiatrist who previously worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center but more recently was practicing at Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, according to professional records.
Hasan was scheduled to be deployed to Iraq, "and appeared to be upset about that," Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said.
"I think that there is a lot of investigation going on now into his background and what he was doing that was not known before," Hutchison said.
Ten of the other dead also were soldiers, while the remaining one was a civilian police officer who was working as a contractor on the base, Cone said.
Two of the injured were in "very serious" condition, Fort Hood spokesman Christopher Hogue said.
More than one shooter may have been involved, Cone said.
"All the casualties took place at the initial incident, that took place at 13:30 [1:30 p.m. CT], at the soldier readiness facility," Cone said.
The primary shooter had two weapons, both handguns, he said.
"The local police response forces were there relatively quickly and killed the confirmed shooter," Cone said.
Hutchison said she was told that the soldiers at the readiness facility "were filling out paper processing to go to Iraq or Afghanistan," according to CNN affiliate KXAN in Austin, Texas.
A senior officer who was playing golf Thursday about 2.5 miles from the attack said he witnessed the arrest of one of the two surviving suspects.
Shortly after the shooting, military police told him to clear the course, and he saw other MPs surround the building that held the golf carts, he said. He ducked into a nearby house for cover as 30 to 40 cars carrying MPs approached, he said.
A congressional aide said he was on the post to attend a graduation service when he saw a soldier with blood on his uniform near the building where the service was being held, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Greg Schannep, an aide to U.S. Rep. John Carter, said the soldier ran past him and said a man was shooting. He said the soldier appeared to be injured in a shoulder, the American-Statesman reported.
President Obama called the shootings "tragic" and "a horrific outburst of violence." He expressed his condolences for the shooting victims.
"These are men and women who have made the selfless and courageous decision to risk, and at times give, their lives to protect the rest of us on a daily basis," Obama said. "It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil."
Officials at Fort Hood, which is the Army's largest U.S. post, were asking people there to stay away from windows, CNN affiliate KXXV said. The incident took place at the sports dome, now known as the soldier readiness area, the station reported.
The Army has asked the FBI to look into the background of the suspects, Cone said.
On the Fort Hood Web site, the word "closed" is posted with the statement, "Effective immediately, Fort Hood is closed. Organizations/units are instructed to execute a 100 percent accountability of all personnel."
Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas, posted an online appeal for blood as it began receving victims. "Due to the recent events on Fort Hood, we are in URGENT need of ALL blood types," it said.
Fort Hood, with about 40,000 troops, is home to the Army's 1st Cavalry Division and elements of the 4th Infantry Division, as well as the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 13th Corps Support Command. It is located near Killeen, Texas.
At least 25,000 people are at Fort Hood on any given day, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon said.
Fort Hood is home to the Warrior Combat Stress Reset Program, which is designed to help soldiers overcome combat stress issues.
In June, Fort Hood's commander, Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, told CNN that he was trying to ease the kind of stresses soldiers face. He has pushed for soldiers working a day schedule to return home for dinner by 6 p.m., and required his personal authorization for anyone working weekends. At the time, two soldiers stationed there had committed suicide in 2009 -- a rate well below those of other posts.

Fort Hood Home For Thousands

(CNN) -- Fort Hood, Texas, is -- for all intents and purposes -- a city. With as many as 30,000 residents, it has all the trappings of an American metropolis: malls, a theater and softball fields. Beautiful subdivisions and as many as nine schools.
But in other ways, Fort Hood is like no American city. It is a transition point for troops who have served overseas, soldiers who have seen the worst that war has to offer and are returning to life at home. It is one of the first stops for U.S. troops heading to war or returning from combat.
The post is constantly in flux these days, with hundreds of troops heading to the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan, said U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.
Some of the dozens killed or wounded were at the Readiness Center, a building that is one of the last stops before deployment, according to a Fort Hood spokesman. It is also one of the first places a solder goes after returning from war.
Fort Hood is the largest U.S. military installations in the world by size, and on any given day, it can be home to at least 25,000 to 30,000 people, according to an Army spokesman at the Pentagon.
The post also houses the families of service members and other civilians. Fort Hood operates a number of programs to help soldiers assimilate to life at home. One such program -- called the Warrior Stress Reset Program -- is "designed to help address those common and normal reactions to war experiences," says a military Web site.
"It is well documented that participation in a major conflict ... has a way of leaving its mark on the psyche of our soldiers," the Web site reads.
The program lasts three weeks and provides counseling and treatment.
Hutchison said the post has a robust support system for families of deployed troops, which would help troops and civilians there handle Thursday's violence.
"The people who are there will surround the families and take care of them, the ones who have had loved ones who were killed," she said.
The Army's 1st Cavalry Division and elements of the 4th Infantry Division, as well as the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 13th Corps Support Command, are based at Fort Hood.
Fort Hood measures about 340 square miles across and is approximately 160 miles south of Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, according to GlobalSecurity.org.

Curry kills cancer cells

2009-10-29T20:53:00.000-07:00

A molecule found in a curry ingredient can kill oesophageal cancer cells in the laboratory, suggesting it might be developed as an anti-cancer treatment, scientists said on Wednesday. -- PHOTO: AP

30th October 2009

LONDON - A MOLECULE found in a curry ingredient can kill oesophageal cancer cells in the laboratory, suggesting it might be developed as an anti-cancer treatment, scientists said on Wednesday.

Researchers at the Cork Cancer Research Centre in Ireland treated oesophageal cancer cells with curcumin - a chemical found in the spice turmeric, which gives curries a distinctive yellow colour - and found it started to kill cancer cells within 24 hours. The cells also began to digest themselves, they said in a study published in the British Journal of Cancer.

Previous scientific studies have suggested curcumin can suppress tumours and that people who eat lots of curry may be less prone to the disease, although curcumin loses its anti-cancer attributes quickly when ingested. But Sharon McKenna, lead author of the Irish study, said her study suggested a potential for scientists to develop curcumin as an anti-cancer drug to treat oesophageal cancer.

Cancers of the oesophagus kill more than 500,000 people across the world each year. The tumours are especially deadly, with five-year survival rates of just 12 to 31 per cent. Ms McKenna said the study showed curcumin caused the cancer cells to die 'using an unexpected system of cell messages'.

Normally, faulty cells die by committing programmed suicide, or apoptosis, which occurs when proteins called caspases are 'switched on' in cells, the researchers said.

But these cells showed no evidence of suicide, and the addition of a molecule that inhibits caspases and stops this 'switch being flicked' made no difference to the number of cells that died, suggesting curcumin attacked the cancer cells using an alternative cell signalling system. -- REUTER

Al-Fayed - first president of Scotland?

2009-10-26T22:53:00.000-07:00

Monday, 26 October 2009 12:30

EDINBURGH – Remember the movie “The Last King of Scotland” about the late Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.

Now, it seems Hollywood has to come up with a new one which should be aptly titled, “The First President of Scotland”.

Harrods tycoon Mohamed Al-Fayed last night urged Scots to back independence and ditch the Royal family - and make him Scotland's first president.

The Egyptian-born millionaire - who owns a Highland estate - hopes to be offered Scottish citizenship if the UK splits, the Scottish Sun reported today.

He then wants to help create a republic north of the border - vowing to buy Balmoral Castle and turn it into a museum.

In coma for too long

Al-Fayed - who owns 65,000 acre Balnagowan estate in Easter Ross - said: "You Scots have been living in a coma for far too long.

"It's time for you to waken up and detach yourselves from the English and their terrible politicians.

"Whatever help is needed for Scotland to regain its independence, I will provide it.

"When you Scots regain your freedom, I am ready to be your president."

Al-Fayed - who was refused a British passport - also slated First Minister Alex Salmond for snubbing him.

He added: "I will do anything for Scotland but I don't want this Alex Salmond.

"I asked to meet him but he refused. I wanted to give him some help and advice but he didn't want to know."

A comment from a reader at the end of the story asked in glee, “Is it April 1 already?”

Questions on Executions Mount in India

2009-10-07T06:20:00.000-07:00

AHMEDABAD, India — The tableau was as improbable as it was grisly. The bullet-riddled bodies of four Muslims lay neatly lined up in the middle of a road. One of the dead cradled a machine gun. Bomb-making chemicals and a suitcase full of cash sat in the trunk of their car. Intelligence reports had identified the four as terrorism suspects.

four Islamic extremists who planned to assassinate the powerful chief minister of India’s richest state stopped cold by a fearless band of policemen early on the morning of June 15, 2004. The officers were hailed as heroes.

But the story was too good to be true, according to a recently released magistrate’s report. The supposed militants included a 19-year-old college student, a woman named Ishrat Jehan, who had no evident links to terrorist groups, the magistrate wrote.

The forensic evidence showed that the four had not died in a shootout but were shot at point-blank range, much earlier than the police had said. None of the four had actually fired a gun. They had been killed, the magistrate declared, in cold blood.

The sensational case has fed a heated national debate about the longstanding Indian police practice of killing suspects. Known euphemistically as “encounter killings,” such extrajudicial executions have been a tolerated and even celebrated method of dealing swiftly with crime in a country with a notoriously slow and sometimes corrupt judiciary. An officer in such cases invariably “encounters” a suspect and kills him, supposedly in self-defense.

In cities like Mumbai, which was for decades gripped by violent organized crime syndicates, officers who killed notorious gangland figures were often seen as dark folk heroes, selflessly carrying out the messy business of meting out justice. These officers, known as encounter specialists, became celebrities, even boasting about the number of gangsters they had killed.

But Indians have become increasingly wary of police officers crusading as judge, jury and executioner. Since 2006, 346 people have been killed in what seem to have been extrajudicial police killings, according to the National Human Rights Commission.

In many of these killings, investigations have found, the motive was not vigilante justice. The police often staged such killings for personal gain: bumping off a rival of a powerful politician in the hopes of a big promotion; killing a crime boss at the behest of one of his rivals; settling scores between businessmen.

Here in the state of Gujarat, the grim practice took on an even more sinister form. According to court documents, lawyers, human rights activists and the families of the victims, police officers seeking the favor of Gujarat’s chief minister, Narendra Modi, began killing small-time Muslim criminals and framing them as big-time terrorists bent on mass murder. No evidence has been offered to show that Mr. Modi encouraged such killings.

Riots in Gujarat killed more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, in the aftermath of an attack on a train carrying Hindu pilgrims that killed 59 people in 2002. Mr. Modi, a prominent member of the Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has long been accused of fueling the anti-Muslim violence with inflammatory remarks.

Tensions between Hindus and Muslims here are high. The officers who carried out the killings hoped to win promotions and other favors from lawmakers, according to court documents and human rights workers here.

In Gujarat, the team of officers suspected of carrying out these killings usually chose their victims carefully. In all five cases pending in the courts so far, the main targets had shady pasts confirmed by an arrest or conviction, usually for a petty crime. Most were Muslims.

But in the killing of Ms. Jehan that formula went awry. She hardly fit the usual profile of encounter victims. She was a full-time college student who also worked to provide for her widowed mother and six siblings.

According to her family, she was on a trip with her employer to help him set up his marketing business. On June 15, she was shot, according to the police, along with her accomplices as they tried to evade capture.

But the Gujarat magistrate’s report shredded that claim. The food in the victims’ stomachs proved that they had been killed much earlier, the report said. Their wounds were consistent with point-blank shootings. Their hands showed no trace of gunpowder residue. The police had planted weapons on the victims and staged the crime scene.

Gujarat government officials dispute the magistrate’s report, and Gujarat’s High Court has stopped the authorities from arresting the officers it named as the court conducts an inquiry.

Deadly Tsunami Hits Samoan Islands

2009-10-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, 30 September 2009

The United States has declared a major disaster in American Samoa following a deadly tsunami Tuesday that reportedly killed more than 99 people when it struck the island U.S. territory and the independent nation of Samoa.

A magnitude 8.0 quake centered about 120 miles south of the islands of Samoa spawned massive waves that drove residents to higher ground and destroyed homes. The Associated Press reported that dozens of people are still missing in the wreckage.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency flew supplies of food, water and repair materials to American Samoa early Wednesday.

Samoa has reported 77 deaths, the majority of the tsunami's casualties and more than twice the deaths reported by American Samoa. Samoa has a population of about 180,000 people, and American Samoa, a U.S. territory, has about 65,000.

The prime minister of Samoa Tuila'epe Sailele Malielegaoi, told Australia's AAP news agency he was shocked by the destruction.
"So much has gone. So many people are gone," he said. The BBC reported Samoa is considering aid offers from New Zealand and Australia.
Filipo Ilaoa, deputy director of the American Samoan office in Honolulu, told the New York Times that the tsunami hit the coast within minutes of the quake, there was little warning time. Most American Samoan residents live on the coastline of the island.
When an underwater earthquake hits that close to land and is relatively shallow, meaning it originates within 40 miles of the earth's outer surface, there is usually not enough time to get an official warning to inhabitants, said Delores Clark, spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, based in Hawaii.

"Public education becomes so important. We try to help people understand the natural warning signs for a tsunami," so they can act quickly when they are in the situation, said Clark.
The three obvious signs of a tsunami are if the ground is shaking to the point where standing is difficult, the water recedes from the shoreline and exposes the ocean floor and if a loud roar can be heard from the ocean. These signals are taught as warnings that people should go inland and find higher ground.
Eni Faleomavaega, who represents American Samoa in the U.S. Congress, said the waves had "literally wiped out all the low-lying areas in the Samoan islands," reported the BBC.

After the tsunami hit, the streets of American Samoa's capital of Pago Pago were reportedly filled with debris and several buildings in the city were flattened. The eastern part of American Samoa was without power and water supplies, and power could be out in some areas for up to a month.
American Samoa Gov. Togiola Tulafono, spoke with CNN from Hawaii and said the quake ranked "right up there with some of the worst" disasters on the island. He said the military may mobilize reserve forces for assistance.
After the 8.0 magnitude quake, 15 smaller quakes hit the Samoan islands region over the next several hours, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Less than 24 hours after the first quake, another underwater quake hit western Indonesia on Wednesday, causing a tsunami alert for countries along the Indian Ocean, which was later cancelled. The 7.6-magnitude quake created a landslide on Sumatra island, and at least 75 people were reported killed. The two quakes do not appear to be related.
After 2005's devastating Tsunami hit southeast Asia, more attention was drawn to the need for early warning systems, public education and a plan of action in case of an alert.
Tsunami warning centers in the U.S. doubled their staff and went into 24 hour a day operations. They also broadened their area of responsibility, serving not just the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean, but also acting as the interim warning center for the Indian Ocean.

"May God Bless Those That Perished"

Strong Earthquake Hits Indonesia

2009-09-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

Earthquake Hits Indonesia Kills 75

PADANG (Indonesia) - A POWERFUL earthquake struck off the city of Padang on Indonesia's Sumatra island on Wednesday, killing at least 75 people and trapping thousands under rubble, officials said. The death toll was likely to rise further as many buildings, including hotels, schools and shops had collapsed, Vice President Jusuf Kalla told a news conference in Jakarta.

TV footage showed devastation, with piles of rubble and smashed houses after the 7.6 magnitude arthquake, which caused widespread panic across the city of 900,000 people.

Rustam Pakaya, the head of the health ministry's disaster centre in Jakarta, said 'thousands of people are trapped in the rubble of buildings'. Metro Television reported the roof of Padang airport had collapsed.

The quake was felt around the region, with some high-rise buildings in Singapore, 440 km (275 miles) to the northeast, evacuating staff. Office buildings also shook in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre cancelled an earlier tsunami alert. 'Hundreds of houses have been damaged along the road. There are some fires, bridges are cut and there is extreme panic here,' said a Reuters witness in the city, who also said broken water pipes had triggered flooding.

His mobile phone was then cut off and officials said power had been severed in the city. A resident called Adi later told Indonesia's Metro Television there was devastation around him. 'For now I can't see dead bodies, just collapsed houses. Some half destroyed, others completely. People are standing around too scared to go back inside. They fear a tsunami,' said Adi.

'No help has arrived yet. I can see small children standing around carrying blankets. Some people are looking for relatives but all the lights have gone out completely.'

Sumatra is home to some of the country's largest oil fields as well as its oldest and smallest liquefied natural gas terminal, although there were no immediate reports of damage to those facilities. -- REUTERS

Tremor Shook Singapore

TREMORS shook buildings in Singapore at about 6.15 pm on Wednesday, shortly after a powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami alert for Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Thailand.
The Indonesian agency said the tremor had a magnitude of 7.6. Its epicentre was just off the coast of Sumatra. The US Geological Survey put the strength at 7.9.
The shaking could be felt in high buildings in Jakarta, several hundred kms away and in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.
In Singapore, residents from Toa Payoh, Woodlands, Bukit Timah, Simei and Kembangan in the eastern part, reported tremors shaking their buildings.
A spokesman from National Environment Agency said it has received calls from 15 members of the public from Red Hill, Choa Chu Kang, Changi, Toa Payoh, the city area, Punggol, Sengkang, Sembawang and Pasir Ris who experienced the tremors.
Shahida Ariff, 32, from Simei, told the straitstimes.com: 'My sister felt her chair swaying for a moment and my mom felt very dizzy. I felt a light vertigo too but thought nothing of it till my maid pointed out that the mirror was shaking. That scared me for a bit and I thought there must have been a quake somewhere.'
Ms Kee Ya Ting of Woodlands thought her flat was going to collapse.

'I was scared. I live on the 12th floor. I was sitting at my desk when the flat shook and I felt myself swaying from left to right. I thought my flat was going to collapse.'

Some people said the tremors lasted for two to three minutes.

Ms Lim Woan Ying, a consultant whose office is on the third floor of the Sime Darby building in Bukit Timah, said: 'We literally felt the earth move under our feet. The whole building shook for about a minute. We heard the glass panes rattling.

'We were all so surprised. I asked my colleague, 'I'm not feeling giddy right? The whole building shook?''

A resident who lives in The Trumps, a condominium in Kembangan, said she felt the entire 11th floor shaking.
The aftershocks were also felt somewhere in town.
Said newcastle on Straitstimes.com's discussion board:

'Over a minute's worth of shakes in the Killiney Road location. On the ninth floor, the earth really moved. Neighbours were really worried.' Added altruist: 'I was at my 6th floor office in Ang Mo Kio and suddenly, the cubicles started to shake for a few seconds, stopped, and shook again. We all came down using the stairs.'

Noordin Mat Top Malaysian Muslim Extremist dead

2009-09-17T16:47:00.000-07:00

JAKARTA - A SEVEN-YEAR manhunt for Malaysian-born terror leader Noordin Top finally ended on Thursday when he was shot dead in a nine-hour siege on a house in Solo, Central Java.

The body of the 41-year-old hardline leader of a group that split from the extremist Jemaah Islamiah (JI) was among four recovered after Indonesian security forces stormed the house.

National police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said: 'From national police doctors' examinations...and fingerprints sent by the Malaysian police, thank God, in this holy month of Ramadan...it is Noordin M. Top.'

Mr Bambang smiled as he held up photographs to show the match between Noordin's fingerprints and those on police file, as reporters and officers in the room cheered.

Thursday's news followed a dramatic raid last month in which Noordin was initially reported killed, only for forensic tests to prove the reports wrong days later.

But Mr Bambang said on Thursday that there were 14 points of match between the fingerprints. Only 11 are required for a confirmation. 'This fingerprint data, we can say, is 100 per cent reliable,' he said. 'We will still do a DNA test, and the results will be out in the next 30 hours.'

Malaysia's Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, on Thursday asked that Noordin's body be repatriated to his home country once the identification is completed.

Noordin allegedly took responsibility for the July attack on the Ritz-Carlton and J.W. Marriott hotels, one of many attacks he is believed to have masterminded since 2002.

On Thursday, his body, armed with a loaded gun, was found with three other suspected militants, police said.

One of the others was identified as Bagus Budi Pranoto. He rejoined Noordin recently after being released from prison for his involvement in the 2004 bombing of the Australian Embassy here. The other two killed were identified as Aryo Sudarso, said to be an expert bomb-maker, and Hadi Susilo, who had rented the house in Solo.

Comment By Bunga Nuing

In Mumbai, the Muslim community there refused burial of the terrorists in the Muslim cemetery.

As for this terrorist, who had been link for several "massacres" in South East Asia. The Malaysian government should not accept the body of this brutal and inhumane terrorist. He is not entitled to any Malaysian soil and should be thrown into the fire!

Thanks.

Nordin Mat Top Still Alive

2009-08-13T04:30:00.000-07:00

JAKARTA - INDONESIA'S police and media were left red-faced after it was officially confirmed on Wednesday that terror mastermind Noordin Top is still alive and on the run. After six years of eluding capture, the Malaysian-born Noordin apparently escaped an 18-hour siege and gunbattle in central Java last Friday. Indonesian media had reported extensively that South-east Asia's most wanted terrorist was believed shot dead, and the authorities said it needed to be confirmed.

On Wednesday, national police spokesman Nanan Soekarna told a packed press conference that DNA tests showed the dead man to be Ibrahim, a Noordin follower who was a florist at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. The 40-year-old florist disappeared after the Ritz-Carlton and J.W. Marriott hotels were bombed on July 17, leaving nine people dead.
Mr Soekarna said Ibrahim helped to smuggle explosive materials into the hotels and helped to coordinate the twin attacks. He also said that Ibrahim was to have taken part in a suicide bombing targeting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's home outside Jakarta around the time of Indonesia's Independence Day on Aug 17. This plot was uncovered also last weekend.
The Noordin fiasco is a major blow to the police, and overshadowed a recent major success in nabbing five suspected militants, uncovering a cache of materials that could be turned into 100kg bombs, and seizing a pick-up truck which might have been used in the attack on the President.
Last Wednesday, the police were told by an arrested terrorist that Noordin was travelling to Solo, Jepara or Temanggung, all in Central Java. They tailed some men who left a rented house in Bekasi, West Java, and then travelled to different locations in Central Java. They were told that one of the men was in fact Noordin.
On Friday, police caught two men believed to be Noordin's bodyguards at a bicycle workshop in Temanggung. When shown a photograph of Noordin, the men said that he was the person they had taken to a farmhouse nearby. Police reinforcements were sent to Beji, a village in Temanggung, in the hope of nabbing Noordin.
But some in the police force tipped off television networks about the operation, which involved more than 100 heavily armed, anti-terrorist police troops who surrounded the farmhouse.
When a body bag was seen being taken from the house, several TV networks covering the siege concluded that Noordin had been killed by the elite Detachment 88 police unit. Major newspapers and media reported extensively that Noordin was dead.
Police spokesman Soekarna on Wednesday blamed the media. 'Police never said it was Noordin. Who said it was Noordin?' he replied, when asked about the fiasco.

Nordin Mat Top-SEA Most Dangerous Terrorist From Malaysia Will Be Confirmed Death Within 2 Weeks

2009-08-09T18:45:00.000-07:00

Monday, 10th August 2009.

JAKARTA - INDONESIAN police said yesterday it could take one to two weeks to confirm the death of Asian terror mastermind Noordin Top, amid doubts that he was the man killed in a dramatic stand-off with police special forces on Saturday.

One of Malaysian-born Noordin's wives and her children were travelling to Jakarta to provide DNA samples for the test, said Mr Dynno Chressbon, a government anti-terrorism adviser.
The Malaysian authorities were also going to Indonesia to assist in the identification, he said.
'The standard process takes about one week at the earliest if we have necessary references,' said Brigadier-General Eddy Saparwoko of Indonesia's disaster victim identification unit.
Noordin is blamed for some of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Indonesia in recent years, including last month's bombing of the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta.
He was believed to have been killed on Saturday after police officers stormed a house in a Central Java village at the end of an 18-hour siege.

But doubts were raised yesterday that a massive manhunt for Noordin had come to a close after seven years.
'Until the test results are out, we cannot yet confirm that this is Noordin Top,' said national police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri.
Mr Chressbon expressed scepticism that Noordin had been killed, citing comments from former militants who told media that a militant leader would never have been left alone at a hideout.
Only one body was recovered from the scene. -- REUTERS, AP, AFP

A Malaysian Tugboat and a German Container Ship Freed By Somali Muslim Pirates After Ransom Paid

2009-08-05T17:15:00.000-07:00

NAIROBI - SOMALI pirates freed a Malaysian tugboat and a German container ship with a total of 35 seamen after the hijackers were paid ransoms, maritime officials said on Monday, 3 August 2009.
Pirates released the German vessel Hansa Stavanger and its 24-strong crew after being paid US$2.7 million (S$3.86 million). It was later escorted from the Somali coast by a European Union naval force, said Andrew Mwangura of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme.
'She is heading up north,' he told AFP without specifying its destination. The 20,000-tonne vessel was seized in April around 400 nautical miles from the Somali coast, between Kenya and the Seychelles.

In Berlin, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier confirmed the release. 'I have learned with great relief that the crew of the Hansa Stavanger has been freed,' Mr Steinmeier said in a statement, which added that the crew members were well.
Earlier, hijackers freed a Malaysian tugboat with 11 sailors, ending the second longest hostage saga off the coast of Somalia, a maritime watchdog said. The TB Masindra 7 and its attached Indonesian barge ADM1 had been operating under a contract from French oil giant Total when it was seized eight months ago on Dec 16, said Kenya-based Ecoterra International.
The tugboat crew was 'all right, given the circumstances,' said the statement adding that 'a ransom was paid'. The tugboat and barge had been on their way back to Malaysia from Mukallah in Yemen when the vessels were boarded by pirates.
Mr Mwangura said the crew were 'safe and sound' after their ordeal and their ship was 'now steaming out to safe waters.' He gave no details of the amount of the ransom. The boat had been moved between pirate hideouts but lately had been held off Hobyo village in northern Somalia, Mr Mwangura explained.
Small villages dotting the coast of Somalia's self-declared state of Puntland are the pirates' main bases. Ecoterra said a lack of cooperation between the Malaysian and Indonesian ship owners meant the case dragged on for months.
'Over long stretches the crew felt completely abandoned. One engine of the tugboat was damaged during the first night of the sea-jacking and provisionally repaired. Vessel, barge and crew therefore are approaching the nearest harbour for repairs and bunker,' it said.
The eight-month hostage saga is the second longest ship seizure by the Somali criminal gangs. A Nigerian tugboat and its 11 crew were held for 10 months before their release in June. -- AFP

Lubna Hussein: ‘I’m not afraid of being flogged, It doesn’t hurt. But it is insulting’

2009-08-02T17:04:00.000-07:00

KHARTOUM, Aug 2 — Sitting in the restaurant where her ordeal began, Lubna Hussein looks at the offending item of clothing that caused all the trouble and laughs softly. "In Sudan, women who wear trousers must be flogged!" she says, her eyes widening at the thought. The former journalist faces up to 40 lashes and an unlimited fine if she is convicted of breaching Article 152 of Sudanese criminal law, which prohibits dressing indecently in public.

What exactly constitutes "indecent" is not clear. Last month Lubna was among a crowd listening to an Egyptian singer in a restaurant in a swish area of Khartoum when policemen surged in. They ordered Lubna and other women to stand up to check what they were wearing, and arrested all those who had trousers on. Lubna, who was wearing loose green slacks and a floral headscarf, was taken to the police station.
"There were 13 of us, and the only thing we had in common was that we were wearing trousers," Lubna says. "Ten of the 13 women said they were guilty, and they got 10 lashes and a fine of 250 Sudanese pounds (about £380). One girl was only 13 or 14. She was so scared she urinated on herself."

Lubna leaves the cafe where she was arrested in Khartoum. She faces 40 lashes for wearing trousers in public. — Reuters pic

Lubna asked for a lawyer, so her case was delayed. Despite the risks, she is determined that her trial should go ahead. Before her initial hearing last Wednesday, she had 500 invitation cards printed, and sent out emails with the subject line: "Sudanese journalist Lubna invites you again to her flogging tomorrow."
The court was flooded with women's rights activists, politicians, diplomats and journalists, as well as well-wishers. During the hearing, Lubna announced that she would resign from her job as a public information officer with the United Nations, which would have provided her with immunity, to fight the case. The judge agreed, and adjourned the trial until Tuesday.
Lubna says she has no fear of the punishment she might face. "Afraid of what? No, I am not afraid, really," she insists. "I think that flogging does not hurt, but it is an insult. Not for me, but for women, for human beings, and also for the government of Sudan. How can you tell the world that the government flogs the people? How can you do that?"
She is determined to face prosecution in order to change the law. "It is not for me. It is my chance to defend the women of Sudan. Women are often arrested and flogged because of what they wear. This has been happening for 20 years. Afterwards some of them don't continue at high school or university, sometimes they don't return to their family, and sometimes if the girls have a future husband, perhaps the relationship comes to an end."
Lubna, a widow in her 30s, says women have faced similar punishments, mainly in silence, ever since President Omar el-Bashir seized power in 1989. For much of the time since then, Sudan has been at loggerheads with the west. It provided shelter for Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, and is still on an American list of countries that sponsor terrorism, although a senior US official said recently that there was no justification for this.
But Lubna says her concerns are not political. Her frustration stems from what she believes is an erroneous interpretation of her religion.
"Islam does not say whether a woman can wear trousers or not. The clothes I was wearing when the police caught me — I pray in them. I pray to my God in them. And neither does Islam flog women because of what they wear. If any Muslim in the world says Islamic law or sharia law flogs women for their clothes, let them show me what the Quran or Prophet Muhammad said on that issue. There is nothing. It is not about religion, it is about men treating women badly."
Since news of the case broke, Lubna has been celebrated in the western press. She is bemused by the thought of being seen as a heroine, and even more by the idea — suggested by some British newspapers — that she was targeted because she is a Christian. "I am a Muslim, and a good Muslim," she says.
In response to the articles about her case, the Sudanese embassy in London pointed out there had been next to no coverage of a recent landmark arbitration ruling on the region of Abyei, which is contested by the north and the south following two decades of civil war. Despite fears that it might spark renewed conflict, both sides announced they would respect the ruling.
"The floodgates of expert and non-expert comments on Sudan opened suddenly on July 29 in the wake of an indecency and anti-social behaviour case in Khartoum involving journalist Lubna A Hussein," the statement read. "The case is still ongoing and it wouldn't be appropriate to comment on it. The real question, which is relevant to the deep-rooted Islamophobic and anti-Arab prejudice, is the selective spotlight on Ms Lubna Ahmed Hussein and determined neglect of Abyei dispute's result for eight long days."
Sitting in the Khartoum restaurant as the fierce late-afternoon sun intrudes through the windows, Lubna dismisses the notion that western praise might be a drawback in a country like Sudan. "In Sudan, we like the west," she exclaims, apparently agitated by the idea that people might not realise this. "For many Sudanese, our dream is to go to the west." But the government doesn't always give that impression. "The government thinks differently to the people. The government hopes to be friends with the west, but sometimes they try to look tough, that's all."
Nevertheless, she is worried that the foreign attention on her case could lead to further cultural misunderstandings. "The west really doesn't understand Islam," she says. "Because as Muslims we know that, if the police catch girls and arrest and flog them, we know this is not Islam. But when the government of Bashir does that, the west says: 'Oh, that is Islam.' It presents a bad face of Islam."
Since her initial hearing, Lubna has been bombarded with messages and phone calls from all over the world. Her family has been supportive, she says, perhaps in part because they are used to it: she was first arrested 15 years ago as a campaigning university student, and has been called in by the police on many subsequent occasions, often after writing satirical articles for the newspaper her husband set up.
But one phone call from within the country touched her most. "I talked to my colleagues in the court, the 10 who have already been flogged. At the beginning they were very sad, and one of them was in a bad psychological state. But when she saw me on TV and in the newspaper, she called me to say that this was good. In the beginning, her neighbours and her family didn't believe she was flogged just for the clothes she was wearing. So she called me to say thank you."
The issue is rapidly becoming politicised. The Sudan People's Liberation Movement, which represents the mainly non-Muslim south in a coalition government, has called for the law to be changed. Under a 2005 peace deal, sharia law is not supposed to apply to non-Muslims, and not the least controversial among Lubna's statements is that several of the 10 women she says were flogged were non-Muslims.
But, for Lubna, the heart of the case goes beyond the north-south divide and its ramifications. She says nothing in Islam justifies flogging a woman for wearing trousers. "I am not a hero, I just don't have a choice," she says, fiddling with her pale gold headscarf.
When she spoke to the Observer, Lubna was wearing trousers again, this time blue jeans. Will her experience change the way she dresses? "I have trousers, I have dresses, I have traditional Sudanese clothes — I wear what I like. I won't change."
And what will happen if the judge decides, as is still possible, that she was indecently dressed, and sentences her to 40 lashes?
"I will take my case to the upper court, even to the constitutional court," she insists, measuring her words. "And if they find me guilty, I am ready to receive not only 40 lashes, I am ready for 40,000 lashes. If all women must be flogged for what they wear, I am ready to be flogged 40,000 times." — Guardian

SEX SCANDAL IN KASHMIR INDIA

2009-07-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

Unearthed in 2006, sex scandal shook valley

SRINAGAR: The high-profile sex scandal, which resurfaced on Tuesday with the opposition PDP accusing CM Omar Abdullah of his involvement in it, came to light in 2006 and triggered the first of the massive street protests that have rocked the Valley from time to time since then.
The sex racket surfaced after police discovered two VCDs showing sexual exploitation of a minor girl. The cops later arrested a local woman, Sabina, who then confessed to sending girls, including minors, to politicians, senior bureaucrats and policemen.

Sabina, dubbed as the scandal’s kingpin, was running a brothel in Srinagar and luring young girls with jobs and monetary benefits and forcing them into prostitution. Two ministers in the then Congress-PDP government G M Mir and Raman Mattoo, a BSF DIG, 10 senior police officers, an IAS officer and many businessmen were said to have been involved in the racket.
CBI has filed a chargesheet against 18 people including Mir and Mattoo, IAS officer Iqbal Khanday, BSF DIG K C Padhi, two DSPs — Mohammad Yousuf Mir and Mohammad Ashraf Mir. All 18 are presently out on bail and facing trail in a Chandigarh sessions court. Police said 43 women, including a minor, were in the ring run under the patronage of influential men.
Several others, including some senior politicians, were also named in the scam but no action was taken in absence of concrete evidence.

J&K sex scandal: Omar Abdullah quits, Governor says no

TIMESOFINDIA.COM 28 July 2009, 06:17pm IST
JAMMU: On a day of high drama, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah today submitted his resignation to Governor N N Vohra after allegations against him by the opposition PDP. The governor however refused to accept Omar’s resignation.
During the J&K assembly session today, PDP leader and former deputy chief minister Muzaffar Beig linked the J&K chief minister to the infamous sex scandal that had rocked Srinagar in 2006.

Omar was accompanied to the governor’s residence by his father Farooq Abdullah. In his resignation letter, Omar asked the governor to initiate an enquiry into the allegations leveled against him within a specified time frame. "I would be grateful if in a time bound manner you can enquire into the allegations leveled against me at the earliest," his political advisor Davender Rana quoted Omar as saying, according to PTI.
In an emotional outburst in the assembly earlier in the day, Omar Abdullah said," I can't bear this kind of humiliation. I am innocent until proven guilty."
However, the Governor is reported to have observed that he would be able to consider Omar's resignation only after being fully informed about the details of the allegation against him and verifying its basis.
The Governor has asked Omar to continue to discharge his responsibilities as chief minister till a final decision is taken, a Raj Bhavan spokesperson said in a statement.
Vohra, who was on his way to the airport to leave for Delhi to attend to certain engagements, deferred his departure on receiving a message that the chief minister wanted to meet him urgently.
The spokesperson said Omar requested the Governor to inquire on a time-bound basis into the allegations made against his moral character by former Deputy Chief Minister Muzzafar Hussain Beigh, a PDP MLA, in the assembly today and to "immediately accept his resignation in case the Governor is satisfied that there is any basis therein."
The opposition had alleged that Omar's name figures at 102 on the list of offenders involved in the sex scandal. His name is being probed by the CBI, it claimed. "I have to say with regret, there is the name of Omar Abdullah, son of Farooq Abdullah, in the list. He has lost the moral authority to rule the state. He must resign," Muzaffar Beig said, PTI reported.
To which the J&K CM said, "I am going to submit by resignation to Governor N N Vohra. I know it is a false allegation. But I want to resign till I am cleared of this false allegation. I cannot work till I am proved innocent. It is a blot on my character.
There was huge uproar in the assembly during Omar's statement. The MLAs and ministers physically restrained him from going out telling him not to resign and that the party would not accept it. He was virtually forced to take his seat by the ruffled members but he got up to shout at them saying "allow me to take this first step."
Abdullah, who came to power in January this year at the head of a National Conference-Congress coalition, was virtually forced to take his seat by the ruffled members but he got up to shout at them saying "allow me to take this first step"".

A huge sex scandal hit the Valley in 2006. According to reports, girls, including minors, were coerced into prostitution, blackmailed and supplied to top police officials, bureaucrats, politicians, ministers and surrendered militants. The state had witnessed angry protests over the issue.

I am guilty till proven innocent: Omar Abdullah

M Saleem Pandit, TNN 29 July 2009, 01:17am IST
SRINAGAR: J&K CM Omar Abdullah didn't go to meet governor N N Vohra first after he left the assembly. He drove back home, drafted his resignation — which is apparently so worded that it can be said to be ambigious about his
insistence on immediate resignation — and reached Raj Bhavan with state finance minister Abdul Rahim Rather and political advisor Devendra Rana to hand it in.

Vohra is said to have reasoned with the 39-year-old chief minister, urging him not to act emotionally. He is learnt to have told him that he would not accept the resignation until the allegation was probed and determined one way or the other and Omar should carry on with his work until then.
Omar has finally agreed to stay on provided a clear time frame is given for the probe. The CM hasn't made a statement after that but he bared his mind — and anguish — in the assembly: "I know it's a false allegation. But I want to resign until I am cleared of this false charge. I cannot work till I am proved innocent. This is a blot on my character...Under the law, one is innocent until proven guilty. But that's for routine crimes. Since the allegations raise questions on my morality, I consider myself guilty until proven innocent."
His resignation letter is said to be a little more nuanced. It said, "I will be grateful if you could inquire into the allegations against me in a time-bound manner and...if you are satisfied that there is any basis in these allegations please accept my resignation immediately."
His tormentor Muzaffar Beig appeared unmoved by the drama. Reacting to the CBI’s denial of his claim, he said, ‘‘The agency is trying to cover up the issue as it has been doing since it was formed.’’
He added PDP leaders named in the CBI list had been denied party tickets in 2008 assembly elections. Beig said Farooq Abdullah’s name, too, figured in the list as entry No. ‘C-38’.
Already the CBI has arrested G M Mir and Raman Mattoo, both ministers in the former PDP government, besides Iqbal Khandey, the former principal secretary to then chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.
Meanwhile, Vohra has reached Delhi to discuss the simmering crisis with government leaders.

Sex scandal case: PDP rejects CBI's clean chit to Omar, demands probe

Times Now 29 July 2009, 12:18pm IST
NEW DELHI: A day after Omar Abdullah resigned as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir following a sensational allegation of his involvement in the 2006 sex scandal, pandemonium broke out once again in the state assembly on Wednesday with members of the opposition PDP demanding a judicial probe into Omar's involvement into the scandal.
Just moments after the Speaker tabled CBI's report which clears Omar's name, members of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) along with the chief Mehbooba Mufti alleged that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was covering up for Omar Abdullah. Tearing the CBI's letter that denies his involvement in the scandal and throwing it across the floor, Mufti created scenes of ruckus in the assembly, as she said, "CBI is covering up, we want a judicial probe."

Earlier today, Speaker Akbar Lone said he had received a communication from the CBI to this effect. "Yes, I have received a letter from CBI director (Ashwani Kumar) stating that neither the chief minister nor Farooq Abdullah were involved in the sex scandal," he said.
"...It is clarified that nine chargesheets have been filed in connection with RC(S)2006/SCR/III in competent courts against 17 persons. The name of Omar Abdullah does neither figure nor that of Farooq Abdullah in the list of accused persons chargesheeted in the case," Lone quoted the CBI communication as saying.
The National Conference (NC) has moved a privilege motion against senior PDP leader Muzaffar Beig after he on Tuesday made the sensational allegation that the J&K chief minister was involved in the Srinagar sex scandal.
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah resigned on Tuesday following the allegation and pressed for its acceptance if there is any basis in the charge.
Stunned by the allegation levelled by former deputy chief minister and PDP leader Beig, an angry and emotional Omar immediately announced his decision to resign till he was cleared of the "blemish" and shortly afterwards drove to the Raj Bhawan and tendered his resignation to Governor N N Vohra.
Meanwhile, members of PDP and NC clashed outside the J&K assembly after ruckus erupted today. Security forces were rushed in to take stock of the situation and control the agitating members.

PDP chief 'shut his eyes' to sex scandal when in power: Omar

PTI 30 July 2009, 02:54pm IST
SRINAGAR: Hitting back at the PDP, Jammu and Kashmir chief Mmnister Omar Abdullah on Thursday accused its leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of "shutting his eyes" to the sex scandal when it first surfaced in 2006 as his own people were involved.
Sayeed preferred that this scandal should go on and never bothered how callously daughters of Kashmir were being exploited by his own people. He should have resigned at that very time if he would have been a real son of soil but he preferred to shut his eyes," an angry Omar said while addressing supporters at his Gupkar Road residence here.

The state assembly has witnessed high drama after PDP deputy leader Muzaffar Hussain Beigh alleged that Omar's name figured in the sex scandal case. PDP has demanded a judicial inquiry in the case, saying that it was not satisfied with the CBI probe.
Omar, who has given a conditional resignation to the state’s governor after the accusation, said Sayeed was "scared" that his government would fall as his own men were also "involved" in the scam which came to light during 2006 after the arrest of a woman.
"Sex scandal came to the notice of Sayeed when he was the chief minister. His own people and his close associates were actually involved in the scandal because of which he felt that his government will fall," he alleged.

Omar appreciated the role of former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who handed over investigations in the case to the CBI.
"Sayeed in his capacity as home minister at the Centre selected Jagmohan as governor and succeeded in his mission to impose AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) in the state," Omar alleged, adding it was because of these issues that his father Farooq Abdullah had to resign from the chief minister's post in 1990.
"When PDP ruled the state there was no talk about withdrawal of AFSPA. But today when my government is actually making efforts for its removal, that party is sabotaging the process by directly or indirectly fomenting violence," he said.
Omar asked both Sayeed and his daughter Mehbooba Mufti to be patient and wait for six years to face people in the next elections.
"During the last six years, we have played responsible role of opposition. We never snatched any mike from the Speaker's podium and allowed the government to run their business in the House. But now PDP has crossed all limits by stooping to a level which has no parallel in political ethics," he said.
He said it is first time that such a massive financial support has come from the Centre under plan funds. Apart from Rs 5,500 crore being earmarked for the state from plan outlay another Rs 1,200 crore package has been sanctioned under Prime Minister Reconstruction Plan, he said.

Obama Racist Remarks on The Arrest Of Havard Black Professor

2009-07-27T05:13:00.000-07:00

Obama’s beer fails to cool fiery race row

THEY are calling it bar-stool diplomacy – a novel attempt by President Barack Obama to cool a heated racial controversy by inviting the offended parties to settle their differences over a beer at the White House.

Yet the president’s efforts to limit the fallout from a row over the arrest last week of Henry Louis Gates Jr, a black Harvard professor, may serve to extend a furore that has shaken the White House and raised questions about Obama’s vaunted leadership skills.
The row showed no sign of diminishing yesterday as Massachusetts media pressed for the release of police tapes that could shed new light on the angry exchanges between Gates and Sergeant James Crowley, a white officer who arrived at the professor’s Cambridge home to investigate a report of a break-in.
The incident led to a rare breakdown of Obama’s previously impressive political judgment. Having spent much of the past two years steering clear of racial controversy and nurturing an image of so-called “postracial” conciliation, the president plunged unexpectedly into the Gates affair.
He declared on Wednesday, when it was still far from clear what had happened, that the Massachusetts police had “acted stupidly” by arresting Gates, whom Obama described as a personal friend.

By Friday evening, Obama was back-pedalling furiously and his invitation to Gates and Crowley to join him for a beer was interpreted as an acknowledgment by the president that he had spoken too hastily in “maligning” the police. “I could have calibrated those words differently,” he said.
Yet the move also ensured that a story he desperately wants to go away will continue to overshadow his domestic political agenda. No beer-drinkers are likely to make as many headlines as the president, the professor and the policeman. Gates said yesterday that he would accept the invitation and would meet Crowley.
Within hours of Obama’s televised press conference on Wednesday night it was clear the Gates incident did not exactly fit the shameful mould of thuggish white cop picking on an innocent black man.
Crowley had been sent to the house after a neighbour noticed two black men attempting to break through the front door.
Gates had returned from a trip to China to discover the door was jammed, so he broke into his home with the help of his taxi driver.
Exactly what transpired after Crowley arrived at the house with another officer and asked Gates to identify himself may never be known. Crowley claims Gates became agitated and abusive and ignored warnings to calm down.
Although tapes exist of Crowley’s radio reports back to his station, it may take a media lawsuit to make them public; one police officer who knew the content of the tapes said Gates could be heard yelling at Crowley but it was not always clear what was being said.
For many African-Americans, Gates’s subsequent arrest for disorderly conduct, a charge that was rapidly dropped, was an all-too-familiar tale.
Even Obama linked the incident to what he called “the long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately”.
The fact that Gates was hauled away from his own home despite having provided proof that he lived there fuelled the complaints of “racial profiling” – supposed police discrimination against blacks.
It then emerged that Crowley, 42, knew a great deal about police treatment of black suspects – he had been hand-picked by his African-American chief of police to teach a local academy course on avoiding discrimination.
Obama’s discomfort increased when Sergeant Leon Lashley, a black Cambridge officer who was at the scene, said he supported Crowley’s actions “100%”.
Lashley added: “I was there. He did nothing wrong. There’s nothing rogue about him. He was doing his job.”
As police unions around the country took umbrage at Obama’s “stupid” remark, it was not just white conservatives who were happy to bash the president.
Bill Cosby, the black entertainer who has criticised African-Americans for a “victim” mentality, said he was “shocked” by the president’s willingness to jump into the dispute.
“If I’m president of the United States . . . I’m keeping my mouth shut,” added Cosby.
Crowley told a local radio station: “I think he’s way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts.”
By Friday evening, Obama was back in character as the smooth and charming diplomat as he joked about Crowley’s problems with overwhelming media attention.
“He wanted to find out if there was a way of getting the press off his lawn,” the president said. “I informed him that I can’t get the press off my lawn.”
Behind the humour lay an awkward reality for Obama. His approval ratings have been slipping steadily as Americans worry about his interventionist policies.
In a Rasmussen poll released on Friday, he fell below 50% for the first time, and an ugly argument about race is not going to help him recover.

Part 1. Obama says police were 'stupid' to arrest black professor Henry Louis Gates

WASHINGTON — President Obama bluntly accused the police of acting “stupidly” in arresting the Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. last week after an officer had established that Mr. Gates had not broken into his own home in Cambridge, Mass.

Mr. Obama stopped short of accusing the police department of racial profiling, as Mr. Gates has done.

But at a prime-time White House news conference that was otherwise largely devoted to health care, Mr. Obama weighed in on the Gates case and suggested that the police should never have arrested him. He added that African-Americans and Hispanics in the United States have long been familiar with racial profiling by law enforcement.
“There’s a long history in this country of African-Americans being stopped disproportionately by the police,” Mr. Obama said. “It’s a sign of how race remains a factor in this society.”
For Mr. Obama, who has rarely talked about race, this was an unusual instance of openly addressing an issue of deep concern to African-Americans.
The Gates arrest came up in the final question of the hourlong news conference in which Mr. Obama largely stuck to familiar talking points about why the country needs to overhaul its health care system right now. Lynn Sweet of The Chicago Sun-Times asked him about the case and what it said about race relations in America.
Mr. Obama paused, then said, “Well, I should say at the outset that Skip Gates is a friend, so I may be a little biased here.”
Then he made his only joke of the evening, as he speculated about what would happen if he were seen trying to force the door of his own home? “I guess this is my house now,” he said, “so it probably wouldn’t happen.” Then, after a beat, he added, “Let’s say my old house in Chicago. Here, I’d get shot.”
The president then became serious, taking up a chronology of the events last week after the police received a report of a possible break-in at the home of Mr. Gates, a leading authority on African-American history.
“The police are doing what they should,” he said. “There’s a call. They go investigate. What happens?

“My understanding is that Professor Gates then shows his I.D. to show that this is his house, and at that point he gets arrested for disorderly conduct.”.
“I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that,” Mr. Obama continued. “But I think it’s fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry; No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and No. 3, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by police disproportionately. That’s just a fact.”
The Cambridge police dropped disorderly conduct charges against Professor Gates on Tuesday, but he says he still wants a personal apology. Professor Gates has said he thinks it was because he is black that the officer, Sgt. James Crowley, had not at first believed he lived in the upscale home.
Many of Professor Gates’s friends say they believe he may still file charges against the Cambridge Police Department.
On Wednesday the union representing Sergeant Crowley said it was standing behind the officer. The union, the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, said in a statement that Sergeant Crowley was a “highly respected veteran supervisor” who had its “full and unqualified support.”
Sergeant Crowley told The Associated Press that he had followed proper procedures and would not apologize.
The union’s statement said, “His actions at the scene of this matter were consistent with his training, with the informed policies and practices of the department, and with applicable legal standards.” The police department did not respond to requests for comment late last night.

Malaysian Muslim Suspect Involved In Indonesian Bombing

2009-07-19T01:41:00.000-07:00

The Malaysian-born Noordin Mohamed Top was a key figure behind the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings in Indonesia and remains one of Asia's most wanted fugitives.
Officials believe the former accountant has orchestrated a series of attacks across Indonesia.

Noordin was thought to be a key recruiter and financier for regional Islamist militant group, Jemaah Islamiah, but analysts say he has now formed his own militant group.
The Indonesian government has managed to stifle militant strikes since September 2005 - the second major attack on Bali, which left 23 dead.
The man thought to have been Noordin's closest ally, Malaysian bomb-maker Azahari Husin, was killed in 2005.
Two self-proclaimed JI leaders were then jailed in April 2008 and three Bali bombers were executed in November that year. Once in Indonesia, he got married using an assumed name, Abdurrachman Aufi. His wife, Munfiatun, was jailed in June 2005 for concealing information about his whereabouts. The two men are thought to have acted together to plan attacks, with Noordin as the financier and Azahari as the bomb-maker. Newspapers dubbed them the "Money Man" and the "Demolition Man". In addition to the two Bali bombings, both men were named as suspects in two other major attacks - one in 2003 on Jakarta's JW Marriott hotel which killed 12 people, and one on the Australian embassy in 2004 which killed 11 people.
Indonesian troops finally cornered Azahari, a trained engineer and former university lecturer who in 1990 gained a doctorate from the UK's University of Reading, at a house in East Java in November 2005.

The father of two was killed, either by a police bullet or by a bomb triggered by an accomplice.
But Noordin has continued to evade capture. In January 2006, police said he was claiming to lead a previously unknown group called Tanzim Qaedat al-Jihad, which translates as Organisation for the Base of Jihad. Analysts speculated that he had drifted away from the main Jemaah Islamiah structure due to a disagreement about attacks on "soft targets", which often kill civilians.
In April 2006 police raided a house in the village of Binangun in Central Java after reports that he had been staying there. Two alleged Jemaah Islamiah militants were killed and another two arrested in an early-morning gun fight. Explosives were later found near the site. But Noordin was not there when the raid happened, police said. He remains the Indonesian police's primary target. However, the suicide attacks on two hotels in Jakarta in July 2009, which killed nine people including two suspected bombers, raised concerns that Noordin's militant activities had resumed.
The country's anti-terror chief said there were "strong indications" Noordin's group was to blame.
Assumed name Noordin had fled to Indonesia with Azahari Husin after the Malaysian government cracked down on Islamists following the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.

Malay Threesome Sex Men End-up In Prison

2009-07-09T15:11:00.000-07:00

Former cabby joined the victim and her uncle in pre-planned sexual trysts

A TEENAGE girl had sex simultaneously with a man more than 20 years her senior as well as with her uncle. On Wednesday, former cabby Zulaimi Karim, 38, a friend of the uncle, was jailed for two years after pleading guilty to two counts of having group sex with the then 14-year-old in 2006. A third similar charge of having threesome sex at her uncle's flat was also taken into consideration.
Zulaimi's 36-year-old accomplice is now serving 14 years behind bars on seven offences of unnatural sex, underage sex with a minor and attempted sex. Twelve other charges were considered. He is appealing against the sentence.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz told the court that investigations showed the girl, now 17, had engaged in sex with Zulaimi and her uncle simultaneously.
On April 26, 2006, the accomplice, who was then in a relationship with the victim, took her to a hotel in Geylang and met Zulaimi. There, the accomplice suggested that the victim have sex with Zulaimi first.
Initially the young girl refused but she relented when her uncle showed his displeasure. The DPP said the trio watched a pornographic movie before the two men took turns having sex with the teen. Afterwards, Zulaimi gave her $30 to top up her phone card. She took the money.
On June 17, the accomplice took the girl to another hotel in Geylang and engaged in threesome sex with Zulaimi. Again, Zulaimi gave her $30.
Only in 2007 were their sexual activities found out. The victim's brother discovered she was having sex regularly and told their parents. When confronted, she told her father she had been in a relationship with her uncle and had been having sex with other men. On May 27 that year, the father took her to make a police report.
Defence lawyer Ravinderpal Singh said in mitigation that had Zulaimi, a father of four, known about the relationship between the accomplice and the girl, he would not have engaged in the group sex.
Citing numerous aggravating factors in the case, DPP Sharmila said the two adults manipulated and sexually exploited the young girl with no regard for her innocence, vulnerability and immaturity. She said Zulaimi, who is more than twice the victim's age, had played an instrumental role in morally corrupting her. On each occasion, he even gave her money after sex, effectively encouraging the victim to prostitute herself in exchange for money. She said on all three occasions, the two men pre-planned their sexual trysts.
Zulaimi's guilty plea, she added, came only after he knew the game was up. 'The accused has demonstrated that he is an opportunist who was waiting to see if his accomplice would snitch on him,' she said. She urged the court to impose a sentence higher than the benchmark of 12 months to reflect its intolerance and abhorrence of his reprehensible conduct.

Breaking News-Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson Pass Away...

2009-06-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

Farrah Fawcett Passes Away ( Age 62 Years)

LOS ANGELES - FARRAH Fawcett, whose luxurious tresses and blinding smile helped redefine sex appeal in the 1970s as one of TV's 'Charlie's Angels,' died on Thursday after battling cancer. She was 62.
The pop icon, who in the 1980s set aside the fantasy girl image to tackle serious roles, died on Thursday shortly before 9:30 am (1230am Singapore time) in a Santa Monica hospital, spokesman Paul Bloch said.
She burst on the scene in 1976 as one-third of the crime-fighting trio in TV's 'Charlie's Angels.' A poster of her in a clingy swimsuit sold in the millions. She left the show after one season.
She had been diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006. As she underwent treatment, she enlisted the help of actor Ryan O'Neal, who had been her longtime companion and was the father of her son, Redmond, born in 1985.
This month, Mr O'Neal said he asked Fawcett to marry him and she agreed. They would wed 'as soon as she can say yes,' he said.
Her struggle with painful treatments and dispiriting setbacks was recorded in the television documentary 'Farrah's Story.' Fawcett sought cures in Germany as well as the United States, battling the disease with iron determination even as her body weakened.
'Her big message to people is don't give up, no matter what they say to you, keep fighting,' her friend Alana Stewart said. NBC estimated the May 15, 2009, broadcast drew nearly 9 million viewers.

In the documentary, Fawcett was seen shaving off most of her trademark locks before chemotherapy could claim them. Toward the end, she's seen huddled in bed, barely responding to a visit from her son.
Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith comprised the original 'Angels,' the sexy, police-trained trio of martial arts experts who took their assignments from a rich, mysterious boss named Charlie (John Forsythe, who was never seen on camera but whose distinctive voice was heard on speaker phone).

The program debuted in September 1976, the height of what some critics derisively referred to as television's 'jiggle show' era, and it gave each of the actresses ample opportunity to show off their figures as they disguised themselves in bathing suits and as hookers and strippers to solve crimes.
Backed by a clever publicity campaign, Fawcett ? then billed as Farrah Fawcett-Majors because of her marriage to 'Six Million Dollar Man' star Lee Majors ? quickly became the most popular Angel of all.

Her face helped sell T-shirts, lunch boxes, shampoo, wigs and even a novelty plumbing device called Farrah's faucet. Her flowing blond hair, pearly white smile and trim, shapely body made her a favourite with male viewers in particular. -- AP

Michael Jackson (Age 50 Years)

LOS ANGELES - MICHAEL Jackson, the child star turned King of Pop who set the world dancing to exuberant rhythms for decades, died on Thursday, a Los Angeles County Coroner's office spokesman confirmed Thursday. He was 50.

'Pop star Michael Jackson was pronounced dead by doctors this afternoon after arriving at a hospital in a deep coma, city and law enforcement sources told The Los Angeles Times,' the newspaper reported on its website late on Thursday.
Jackson had been taken ill at his home and found not breathing by paramedics who rushed him to a hospital, the paper said.
The paper's report followed news of Jackson's death first reported by the TMZ entertainment website, which said that the singer suffered a cardiac arrest. There was no immediate comment from spokespersons for Jackson.
Known as the 'King of Pop,' for hit albums that included 'Thriller' and 'Billie Jean,' Jackson's dramatic stage presence and innovative dance moves were imitated by legions of fans around the world.
His one-gloved eccentric style also earned him plenty of critics and another nickname, 'Wacko Jacko.'

Jackson, who had lived as a virtual recluse since his acquittal in 2005 on charges of child molestation, had been scheduled to launch a comeback tour from London next month.
TMZ said on its website that Jackson suffered a cardiac arrest on Thursday afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him. 'We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back,' the site said.
Earlier, the Los Angeles Times said the singer had been rushed to a Los Angeles-area hospital by fire department paramedics.

The newspaper said paramedics performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation at the singer's home before taking him to the UCLA Medical Centre hospital.
Jackson had been due to start a series of concerts in London on July 13 running until March 2010. The singer had been rehearsing in the Los Angeles area for the past two months.
The shows for the 50 London concerts sold out within minutes of going on sale in March.
His lifetime record sales tally is believed to be around 750 million, which, added to the 13 Grammy Awards he received, makes him one of the most successful entertainers of all time.
There were concerns about Jackson's health in recent years but the promoters of the London shows, AEG Live, said in March that Jackson had passed a 4-1/2 hour physical examination with independent doctors. -- REUTERS

Home Security Tips

2009-06-21T15:35:00.000-07:00

When was the last time you heard about a house being broken-into? Maybe you have been hit yourself. Not a good feeling, is it?
You don’t have to be a victim of house break-in. While it is one of the most frequently committed crimes, it’s preventable. Most house break-in are done by opportunists who spot an open window, a faulty lock or a house that looks like no one’s going to be around for a while.
You can reduce the chance that this will happen to you. This tips will try to share with you what need to be done to reduce or avoid the house break-in.Most of the suggestions will cost you very little, but they will contribute immensely to your peace of mind.They will also safeguard your property.Safeguarding your your house is just like the tactic uses by military in Defense.
The most important elements/priciple in defense is in-depth principle. Indept principle means when planning the security of your house you must use multiple ways and layers. For example, if you install your house with CCTV. CCTV alone will not help to capture or stop the crime. There must be a mechanism to alert someone or yourself on the presence of intruders in your house. CCTV alone without any support mechanism will be only effective in deter crime only. It cannot help to stop crime from happening.

Other than the electronic security systems, dog might be able to help as an indepth defense of your house. But untrained dog may be easy to defeat by the intruders by giving it food tainted with poison. In the past, few incidents were reported to Police whereby dogs were given with poisoned food and died.

To avoid losses, the Risk Manager will propose to insure your property, but will it protect the life of your family members ? The answer is no. Therefore the best way for you to protect your house from break-in is to take following steps :-

Conduct Security Survey on Your House

No house is absolutely burglar-proof when professional burglars target your home. But they would be the first to admit that you can discourage burglars if you beef up your home security. You can begin this process by identifying your weak areas and fixing them.

The Next Step

Now that you have identified the weak points in your home security, you can take the next step and learn about securing your home. The next section of this tips describes what’s needed to secure your home — what’s a good lock, a good door and secure windows.

Protecting Against Entry

Many of the locks and other items described in this section are inexpensive and can be installed yourself. Some, however, may require a professional to install them.

Key Control

True security begins with key control. When you move into a home or apartment or lose your keys, always have the locks re-keyed. You don’t have to replace the lock itself, as re-keying of locks will render the previous keys useless. Do not leave an “emergency” key under the door mat, on top of the door frame or
in any other “hiding spot” so well-known to burglars. Never attach a name, address, or license tag to your house keys or your children’s. If keys are lost or stolen, you will have an unwelcome visitor very quickly!
Keep car keys and house keys separate. Never leave your house keys with an attendant when you go to the car wash or parking lot.

Exterior Lighting

Exterior lighting is extremely important in residential security. Each exterior doorway should be lighted from dusk to dawn so a burglar can’t hide to break in.Yards and windows should be lighted. Night blind spots can be eliminated by use of ornamental porch and Car Park posts. Car Park lights and entrance lights can be equipped with sensors that turn the light on at dusk and off at dawn or when it detects motion. The motion detectors seem to work better because when the light turns on there is a change in environment. Motion detector lights can also be equipped with bell or other warning sounds. Check the sensors or motion detectors periodically to make sure they work.

Landscaping

Keep doorways, windows and porches clear when planting bushes and flowers. Remember that the bushes that provide you with privacy also give a burglar a place to hide. Prune large trees. A burglar can climb the lower limbs to the second story. A well-maintained lawn is a very effective clue that someone is at home and cares. Plan your landscaping with both privacy and security in mind — planting thorny bushes and shrubs near windows and along fences may discourage burglars. Locked gates and well-maintained fences can make break-ins more difficult and prevent the removal of large items. Walks and driveways should be easily seen so no landscaping offers concealment for intruders.

Doors

Hinge doors

The hinge door is the most common type used in houses and apartments. They are used for front, porch, garage and basement doors leading into the home. All exterior hinge doors should be of solid core construction, 1-3/4 inch thick. The door frame should be of solid construction and be equipped with a proper strike plate. Hollow core or composition board doors can easily be battered or broken through.

Outside hinges.
Doors with hinges on the outside will provide a burglar with easy access to your home. The burglar only has to remove the hinges and lift the door away from its frame. This situation can be corrected in three ways:
(1) Remove the door and remount the hinges on the inside of the frame so that the door swings inward; or
(2) Install a set of hinges with non-removable hinge pins; or
(3) Install a locking pin below the existing hinge plate. Here is how:
(a) Drill holes below the hinge plate.
(b) Insert a “headless” screw, bolt or nail into the door jamb below the hinge plate. Leave at least one-half inch of the screw, bolt or nail extending from the frame. Once this is done, as the door closes, the pin in the jamb will penetrate the hole in the door and the door will be held in position even if the hinge pins are
removed.

Dead bolt locks.

The best defense for a good solid core wood door is a dead bolt lock with one-inch throw bolt. The security dead bolt lock can be used on any hinge door where the strike plate can be securely fastened to the door frame. When installing a dead bolt, attach the strike plate (the jamb fastening that receives the bolt in the locking position) to the door with four to six, three-inch brass wood screws. The screws should penetrate through the frame to a structural member.Dead bolt locks come in double key cylinder and inside thumb-operated models. If there are no windows in or near the door, the bolt may be operated from inside by a thumb turn. Both single and double key cylinder dead bolt locks should meet the following criteria to be a good security device:
(1) The bolt must extend a minimum of one-inch and contain a hardened steel insert.
(2) The dead bolt should contain a cylinder guard to prohibit twisting of the lock with a wrench or pliers. It must be solid metal — not hollow casting or stamped metal.
(3) The key way should contain a five-pin tumbler system to make it more difficult to pick.
(4) The connecting screws that hold the lock together must be on the inside and made of case-hardened steel. No screw heads should be exposed on the outside.
(5) The connecting screws must be at least one-fourth inch in diameter and go into solid metal stock, not screw posts. Many communities prohibit the use of a double key cylinder dead bolt lock because it may be hazardous if the door is to be used as an emergency fire exit. If used in your home, a key should be left in the inside cylinder whenever the home is occupied. Key-in-the-knob locks. These locks on an outside door are an invitation to even the most inexperienced burglar. These locks can be forced by breaking off the knob, and frequently they can be opened by prying or slipping a piece of plastic between the jamb and the bolt. Do not rely on these locks. Install a dead-latching plunger type lock to supplement it. Locks for double doors.

Many homes with double doors use half-barrel slide bolts on the inactive door. These are weak and inadequate and should not be relied upon. Additional locking devices should be installed. Flush bolts installed at the top and bottom of the inactive door of a pair of doors offer additional security since the intruder cannot get at these devices to tamper with them if the doors are locked. It is important that the bolts have at least one-inch of throw and that they protrude well into the top frame and threshold. Additionally, the strike plates should be well secured with at least three-inch brass wood screws.

Sliding glass doors.

Sliding glass doors present a major security problem if they do not have the proper locks and if special steps are not taken to prevent removal of the door. A sliding glass door is lifted into position when installed and, therefore, must be lifted from the track to be removed. To prevent this, insert #8 or #10 sheet metal screws into the top of the door frame at both ends and the middle. Adjust these screws so that the door barely clears them when it is operated. If properly inserted, this will take up the slack between the upper part of the door and the interior frame. It is important to note that dowels alone placed in the door track will not prevent a burglar from removing the sliding door. The best lock for a sliding glass door is operable by a key from the inside.The lock bolt should engage the strike sufficiently so that it will not be disengaged by any amount of movement. When the existing inside pull has to be changed in order to accommodate a new deadlock, an inside cylinder pull is recommended as a replacement. A single lock is not recommended because of the softness of aluminum frames. A supplemental lock should be installed at the top or bottom, made out of steel and inserted in the sliding door at a slightly downward angle.

Sliding windows

Sliding windows should be secured by the same methods used for the sliding doors. Both the pan head top screws and the bracing devices are effective on this type of window, if the slider is on the inside. Several types of auxiliary locks which offer improved security are also available.

Casement windows (crank type)

These windows are the easiest to secure. Make sure the locking latch works properly and the crank which opens and closes the window has no excessive play. Replace any worn hardware. Key lock handles are available, if you desire. If the window is not normally opened or closed, remove the crank handle. Double-hung sash-type windows To secure these windows, drill a hole that angles slightly downward through a top corner of the bottom window into the bottom of the top window, on both sides. Then place an eye bolt or eight penny nail into the hole to prevent the window from being opened. Auxiliary latches may also be installed. The most effective protection for doublehung windows is a key-locking security sash lock. If possible, mount the lock with two-inch wood screws.

Louvered windows

It is best to replace louvered windows with another type. Metal grating may also be used as long as it is secured with large bolts, preventing the bars or grating from being torn free from their mount. For the interim period of waiting for the replacement windows or installation of window bars, you might want to secure the windows:
(1) Remove each individual pane of glass and sand the glass and metal frame where the two meet; and,
(2) Apply a two-part epoxy resin glue to the sanded area and replace the piece of glass into the framework.

Window guards or grilles

For extremely vulnerable windows, you may wish to consider installing heavygauge metal (iron) grilles. Before installation, consult your local fire department about emergency release require- ments. Grilles should be attached with one way screws or fastened from the inside. Bars and gratings are not recommended for sleeping rooms because they could create a fire hazard. If they are used, however, they must have an inside mechanism that allows them to swing out in an emergency.

Alarms

An alarm system can contribute to your home’s security. However, do not depend only upon an alarm to protect you. Be sure to use the proper locking devices and join or start a Neighborhood Watch program in your area. There are many types of alarms on the market.

Safe Practices

Don’t tip off burglars by telephone Burglars often try to find out if anyone is home by phoning. If you get several suspicious “wrong number” calls or “nobody-at-the-other-end” calls, tell the police. Warn family members, especially children, not to give out information by phone — especially about who is home, who is out, or how long anyone is expected to be out.

Make it look as if you’re home

Maintaining an appearance of occupancy even when your home is vacant is essential to thwarting burglary attempts.Timers can automatically regulate television, radios, and the interior lighting of a home to create such a deception. Timers should be used while you are on vacation, when you are out to dinner or even during the day while you are at work.

Don’t advertise your vacation plans

Inform one or two people of your vacation plans — a trusted neighbor who can keep an eye on things while you are gone. Have your neighbor pick up your newspaper and other deliveries. (Do not inform any delivery people that you will be on vacation.) If you will be gone for more than a week, arrange to keep your
lawn maintained and for your garbage can to be put out and brought in. Notify the police/sheriff if you live in a jurisdiction which provides vacation checks.

Don’t reward the burglar who does get in

If, despite your precautions, a burglar does get into your home, do not give him or her a “bonus” of cash or easily-carried jewelry. Never keep large sums of cash around the house. Keep valuable jewelry that you do not often wear in a safe deposit box.

Protecting Your Property

Mark and record your property – permanent. The experience of many communities vividly confirms that you and your community can reduce the risk of burglary by simply marking your possessions.

"Security Starts from Home !"

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION DECLARES H1NI PANDEMIC

2009-06-11T17:29:00.000-07:00

The swine flu crisis has escalated into the world's first influenza pandemic in 40 years, the World Health Organization declared Thursday, after infecting tens of thousands of people in 74 countries.
WHO Director General Margaret Chan said the declaration of a "moderate" pandemic should not spark panic and did not mean the death toll from A(H1N1), which currently stands at 144, would rise sharply.
The UN body said it was not recommending the closure of borders nor restrictions in movement of people, goods and services. But it warned the virus was spreading beyond the Americas where it was first detected in April.
"We will be raising our pandemic alert level to level six; and this means that the world is moving into the early days of its first influenza pandemic in the 21st century," Chan told reporters after a meeting of scientific experts.
"At this time, the global assessment is that we are seeing a moderate pandemic," she added.
The WHO raised its six-phase alert level to five at the end of April, indicating an imminent pandemic.
The latest WHO figures show that the number of reported A(H1N1) infections has reached 28,774 in 74 countries, including 144 deaths.
The vast majority of the deaths have been in Mexico, the original epicentre of the outbreak, and no deaths have been announced outside the Americas.
"Moving to pandemic phase six level does not imply we will see increase in number of deaths or very severe cases," said Chan.
"Quite on the contrary, many people having mild disease will recover without medicine in some cases, and it is good news, but the tendency to move into complacency is our biggest concern," she added.
Chan said the health agency is concerned that the virus is causing "very severe disease disproportionately" among people 30 to 50 years old.
WHO Assistant Director General Keiji Fukuda warned the pandemic could last up to two years.
"For a period for one to two years the virus is going around the world, and is getting people infected in a way a pandemic virus will get people infected... We need to be flexible how we respond to it," said Fukuda.
The declaration comes amid growing evidence that the virus, which originated in Mexico two months ago, is now being widely transmitted between humans in Asia and Europe as well as the Americas.
EU officials promised measures on Thursday to reduce the impact of swine flu as Spain said 22 schools in the Madrid region had been hit by the virus.
The United States said it was well prepared to tackle the pandemic as it had been taking precautionary measures.
"We acted aggressively to stay ahead of the virus as it spread across the country. Now our challenge is to prepare for a possible return in the fall," Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement.
Hong Kong authorities Thursday ordered all primary schools in the city to be closed for two weeks after the first cluster of local swine flu cases was found in the Chinese territory.
In Germany, a school for Japanese youngsters in the western city of Duesseldorf was closed after 27 children tested positive for the virus. And in Australia, four swine flu victims were admitted to intensive care wards.
Following the announcement, the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies were mobilising to respond to the pandemic.
Chan said that it was up to individual countries to decide how to proceed given the outbreak was now classified as a pandemic.
"The global level assessment is very different from national level assessment because it has to take into account the vulnerability of the population in a specific country and also the health system resilience," she said.
Although no vaccine against A(H1N1) has yet to be produced, drug companies are looking to come up with one by the end of June or early July and last month sent three "seed viruses" to drug companies for use in making a vaccine.
Chan said the WHO would ask drug-makers to quickly prepare to produce swine flu vaccines once the production of seasonal flu shots ends in the next couple of weeks.
The last flu pandemic came after an outbreak of the H3N2 viral strain from 1968-69, which originated in Hong Kong, and went on to kill up to two million people.

Sarawak's logging: Carrots, sticks and lies

2009-06-02T21:14:00.001-07:00

(Courtesy of Malaysiakini)

Henneson Bujang walked with slow, sure steps through the emerald rainforest. The steep trail was thick with creepers and low branches. The canopy overhead provided shelter from the noon sun.This was the quiet time of day when most birds and insects had been lulled to sleep by the moist heat. As Henneson led the way, a few cicadas and frogs broke the silence

Henneson, a fit, well-built 53-year-old, stopped and listened. "Can you hear the chainsaw? It's only fifteen minutes' walk downhill ... over there," he gestured in the direction of the barely audible, stubborn whine."The company built a logging track up the mountain. They drove their bulldozers all the way to our source of water on the mountain. We could see the oil slicks when the machines were not there," Henneson said in fluent Malay."We blockaded the road to get the company to discuss their intrusion. We've always been willing to listen to their point of view. But the company never talked to us, so we put up the blockade.

"The company said we were breaking the law, because the company had a licence from the government. We asked the company: how could there be such an unfair law?"How could the law take the forest away from poor villagers to give to a company from the town? The company started taking the forest without even asking us. We have to stop the company trespassing on our land."Henneson breached the forest cover. He stepped onto the logging track. The narrow soil track was a long, barren smear of yellow across the green slope. The sun baked down on Henneson's head. He showed the way to the flimsy Long Benali blockade.

The blockade at Long Benali, Sarawak, is the longest continuous anti-logging protest in Sarawak.This denial of access to timber transnational giant Samling began when Henneson was a young man.It has been sustained by men, women and children from several Penan villages in the area for two decades.The blockade is simply a small barricade of sticks and bamboo strung across Samling's timber access track.Each time Samling, known to local villagers as "the company", tries to break down the blockade, the villagers stand behind the sticks and branches, braving hunger and the elements, until Samling backs down.

The villagers have blocked the way of Samling bulldozers with their own frail bodies, as one lone protester did against a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square in the famous television footage from 20 years ago.A small notice on the barricade, in neat writing, states in Penan and Malay: "Land is Our Life". The notice is flanked by decorative tendrils carved from bamboo.Police back the companyAfter half an hour's trek back through virgin forest to his modest house, Henneson recounted part of the long history of threats and inducements from the company."The company sent in the Police Field Force when they couldn't get through the blockade," he explained."The police set up a camp with tarpaulin tents beside the logging track. They stayed for half a year. They had guns but they couldn't stay for long. We felt sorry for them. They were far from home, living in the middle of the jungle, bitten by mosquitoes and leeches."We even gave rice to some of the police. They are human beings after all, like the Penan."Henneson spoke of his eventual arrest."Some angry policemen arrested me for supporting the villagers at the blockade. They punched me in the stomach and slapped my face when I was in the police truck on the way to the police lock-up in Marudi.

"Then in the Marudi lock-up, they tied my hands so that my arms were outstretched like this," Henneson extended his arms horizontally, "and beat me with a stick, again and again."I never confessed that I'd done anything wrong. We were only trying to protect our land, for our children and grandchildren. I was released after a few days. I could still walk, but it was painful. I was covered in bruises."Henneson said that government spokesmen, including state assemblyperson for Ba'kelalan Nelson Balang Rining, and former Miri resident Ose Murang, have visited Long Benali, to press the villagers to take down the blockade.According to Henneson, representatives of the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC), a national body tasked with investigating whether timber is sustainably produced without harming local communities, also accompanied government officials and Samling staff.

"The government and the MTCC people asked us, over and over, to take down the blockade," Henneson said."YB Nelson told us: ‘You are against the government. You are ‘bodoh' (stupid)! You will be left behind. You will be blacklisted. We will not bring projects to you.'"We replied that we are not against the government. We only want to protect our forest and our drinking water. We welcome the development projects that the government brings. Who wouldn't?" Henneson asked.Henneson related a visit in late 2007 of Kho Thien Seng, also known as "Sio". Henneson said Kho was acting as a Samling agent. Kho flew in to Long Benali on a Samling helicopter, with an offer of a huge bribe for Henneson."He sat here at my kitchen table, and offered me RM22,000 if I could get the blockade removed," Henneson said. "I said it was impossible. I told him the land was for all the generations, not just for this one. He was furious. He punched me hard in the chest."After I refused his bribe, Kho Thien Seng went to the rest of the village, telling the others that I had accepted money from him, and that the blockade would be destroyed," Henneson said. "The other Long Benali villagers were shocked and didn't believe him. They came to my house straight away and asked me."I hurried to the field where the Samling helicopter was preparing to take off. I caught this Kho Thien Seng before he left, and confronted him with the truth. The villagers knew he had lied. After that he took off in the helicopter with the Samling logo on the side."Still waiting for justiceKho Thien Seng has been in the limelight for other seedy reasons as well. He has been charged in Miri High Court, for forging the signature of Nick Kelesau, the son of Penan headman Kelesau Naan of Long Kerong, Baram.Tua Kampung (village chief) Kelesau disappeared during a routine hunting trip in October last year

Tua Kampung Kelesau's death raised suspicion of foul play. Samling employees from Long Siut had threatened Long Kerong villagers last July and Samling had shown antipathy towards Long Kerong in the past. Long Kerong villagers have been staunch opponents of Samling's intrusion into their forests.Tua Kampung Kelesau (photo) had been a plaintiff in a longstanding legal suit, filed in 1998, against Samling's intrusion into Long Kerong's communal forest.According to Nick Kelesau, the police investigation into Tua Kampung Kelesau's death was cursory. The investigation consisted, in its entirety, of a visit to Long Kerong to collect Tua Kampung Kelesau's bones. The bones had been discovered by the villagers, two hours' walk from Long Kerong, last December. Long Kerong villagers say part of the forearm bones had been damaged. They suspect there may have been a struggle with assailants before their revered leader died.The police did not conduct any interviews with villagers. Nor did they see fit to visit the site where the remains were found. The police did not pursue any further investigations after the postâ€‘mortem examination of the bones was reported as inconclusive.

Nick Kelesau (above) brought the issue of his father's death to the nation's attention, with reports in Malaysiakini. Following these news reports, Nick said Kho Thian Seng sought him out. With some foresight, Nick recorded their conversation. Kho offered Nick a bribe of RM20,000 to disown the police report and Malaysiakini articles regarding Tua Kampung Kelesau's suspicious death.When Nick refused, a letter was sent to Malaysiakini in January 2009, bearing a forgery of Nick's signature. The forged letter stated Nick wanted to "end speculation" that there had been foul play involved in his father's death. [see letter below]The forgery trial has been postponed twice, since March 2009. Tua Kampung Kelesau's original suit against Samling in 1998 has also been left in limbo by the judicial system. The cries from the rural communities that "justice delayed is justice denied" have been ignored.Meanwhile, Henneson Bujang and other Long Benali villagers continue to defend their land, for the benefit of future generations. Long Benali, Long Kerong and other Sarawakian communities refuse to back down, despite the intimidating odds stacked against them.Over a simple meal of vegetables and rice in his kitchen, Henneson gave thanks for the food his family were about to share."God, may others receive also the gifts we have received from you," he said.

Building Collapsed in Petaling Jaya Cased Two workers killed, seven trapped in building collapseTwo workers killed, seven trapped in building collapse

2009-05-28T15:32:00.000-07:00

(Petaling Jaya Malaysia, 28 May 2009) The building which housed the Jaya supermarket and still remains a landmark in Section 14 here partially collapsed this evening, killing at least two workers and trapping seven others.

The multi-level car park of the building went down at about 4.45pm.
Demolition and rebuilding work on the building, which is to make way for a new commercial project, had been going on since its tenants moved out more than two years ago. The nine workers, all believed to be Indonesians, were working on the ground and first floors in different locations when the incident occurred.

Petaling Jaya police chief ACP Arjunaidi Mohammad, who is overseeing the rescue operations, said Fire and Rescue Department personnel managed to save two workers, who escaped with minor injuries, within an hour of the collapse.
Forty-five minutes later, with the help of SMART team members and tracker dogs, the rescuers recovered the first body, identified as that of Maskor, 28, from the rubble.
The second body was recovered late at night. Search and rescue operations are still going on for the remaining five workers.
The building which is about three decades old saw its tenants gradually moving out three years ago ago on being notified the structure was projected for development, many of them who relocated their business to another new shopping centre a stone's throw away called Jaya 33.

According to the Selangor Fire and Rescue Department head Soiman Jahid the it is believed that due to the progressive demolition works, the structure had weakened and crumbled.
Also at the scene was Selangor police chief DCP Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar

Mugabe and Mahathir Saga - Mubadala denies reports about investments in Malaysia

2009-05-25T04:48:00.000-07:00

Abu Dhabi: Mubadala Development Co, the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government denied media reports about its plan to invest $1.8 billion (Dh6.6 billion) in property projects in Malaysia.
"Beyond the Medini Project in the Iskandar Development Region, we currently have no other real estate projects in Malaysia," the company said in a statement to Gulf News.
Mubadala however, clarified that they are not closing their doors to "partnerships and real estate opportunities globally that generate sustainable returns which may include future projects in Malaysia".
"Any commitment will be subject to our norsmal rigorous due diligence and approvals processes and the necessary disclosures being made," the statement said.
Mubadala said they are planning to expand their hospitality flagship, Viceroy, by exploring opportunities in key gateway cities such as New York, London and Paris as well as other "strategically important markets including Malaysia".
According to a report published in a Malaysian newspaper and quoted by a wire service agency, Mubadala planned to get involved in the construction of hotels and villas on a 1,200-hectare site in Terengganu state on the east coast of Malaysia.
The report cited Shahrol Azral Ebrahim Halmi, CEO of the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) as the source of the story.
TIA has been set up and labelled as Malaysia's first sovereign wealth fund. The fund is modelled on similar concepts in the Gulf with the aim of investing oil revenues in long term projects
The Malaysian fund this week said it plans to sell five billion ringgit (Dh5.2 billion) worth of bonds guaranteed by the federal government.
Halmi said the fund aims to raise another six billion ringgit (Dh6.3 billion) later this year by forward selling the oil royalty to be received by the oil-producing state over the next few years.

Stay Tune..

Japan Poise to Export Weapons

2009-05-25T04:18:00.000-07:00

THE Japanese Government is about to ease its universal embargo on weapons exports in a move that may foreshadow Japan joining the US-controlled F-35 joint strike fighter project.
The decision is another whittling-away of Japan's long-standing policy of standing apart from foreign military engagements and co-operation.
It would allow Japanese companies to join international weapons development programs, such as the F-35 program, by removing the ban on exporting components to other participants
Tokyo has already lifted one corner of the 33-year-old embargo to participate in the US's Pacific ballistic missile defence program - Japan is developing an advanced nose-cone for the SM-3 high-altitude interceptor missile.
The easing of the embargo closely follows last week's confirmation that US Defence Secretary Robert Gates had dashed Tokyo's lingering hopes of buying the F-22 Raptor, the world's most advanced fighter aircraft.
Mr Gates had told Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada in Washington earlier this month Japan should instead seriously consider the F-35.
Ten countries are engaged at various levels in Lockheed Martin's F-35 project and the Rudd Government's new defence white paper has committed Australia to acquiring about 100 aircraft from 2012.
Japanese defence planners have persisted in their dogged quest to persuade the Pentagon to sell the F-22, despite its huge cost and the long-standing congressional ban on exporting the aircraft.
However, in April Mr Gates recommended ending USAF F-22 program at the 187 aircraft under order. Including development costs, the F-22 is estimated to cost $US339 million ($435 million) each.
The average cost of the F-35 is estimated at $US133 million, although Lockheed Martin claims more international orders and new manufacturing methods could bring that below $US100 million.
The Japanese are looking at four other aircraft types for a next-generation fighter to replace their aged F-4 fleet, but only the F-22 and F-35 are "stealthy".
Japan's arms embargo was declared by prime minister Eisaku Sato in 1967 against communist governments and those engaged in hostilities and it was toughened in 1976 to cover all countries.
However, it is not locked into legislation and can be changed by a cabinet decision.

Slumdog Millionaire Child Actress -Popularity VS Poverty

2009-05-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

SICK Slumdog Millionaire star Rubina Ali spent a night sleeping on the FLOOR of an Indian hospital after her slum home was bulldozed.
Nine-year-old Rubina was struck down with a dose of flu after spending two days homeless on the streets of Mumbai.
She was taken to the nearby Bhaba hospital, but because there were no beds left she had to lie in the arms of her aunt Mohidin on the floor.
Her dad Rafiq Qureshi said: “Rubina was out in the hot sun when they knocked down our home and then was exposed to the humid night. It was extremely stressful for all my family and I am not surprised that this caught up with my daughter.”
Rubina was later discharged from hospital and moved into a cramped house that her family is now sharing with one of her uncles.
The film’s eight Oscars and £216million box-office receipts have done little to change the lives of its two child stars. But the producers have given £500,000 to a charity helping slum kids.