Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...
ATLANTA - The runaway bride who generated a media storm with her phony tale of abduction and the fiance who took her back have broken up for good, the man's friends and family told People Magazine. It was those "crazy eyes" I'll bet.
"We're just glad there's a final resolution," John Mason's father, Claude Mason, told the magazine. ...cuz that bitch was craaaazy.
He had planned to be his son's best man at the wedding.
Jennifer Wilbanks, 33, told the magazine: "John and I have some things to work out." Not any more...
Wilbanks would not confirm or deny a breakup, the magazine said on its Web site Thursday. She, her attorney and a family spokesman did not respond to requests seeking comment Friday. Her mother, Joyce Parrish, declined to comment.
Wilbanks disappeared four days before the scheduled wedding in April 2005. Hundreds of police officers and volunteers searched for her for three days before she called Mason from Albuquerque, N.M., claiming to have been abducted and sexually assaulted.
She later recanted, saying she fled because of personal issues, and pleaded no contest to telling police a phony story. She also was sentenced to two years probation, which she performed through community service that included mowing the lawns of public buildings. Good. She learned a trade.
#1
The groom-to-be lucked out bigtime. But the fact that he was more than willing to take back the crazy bitch doesn't speak well of his future chances.
IIRC the fiance's family is rather well to do and prominent, so she may need one now that they're not marrying
the fact that he was more than willing to take back the crazy bitch doesn't speak well of his future chances.
Maybe. but the accounts of her concerns about wedding plans had more than a whiff of rich groom's manipulating, controlling mother taking over wedding and other plans. Mother in Law from Hell ... which will indeed be a problem for sonny boy, if true, in any future marriage.
#4
Don't tell me, let me guess . . . she ran off, right?
Posted by: Mike ||
05/19/2006 17:31 Comments ||
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#5
lotp - that explains the sexual relations in Vegas eh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/19/2006 17:37 Comments ||
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#6
Oh, she's probably a real prize too. Just wanted to point out that she might have had a reason for the cold feet. Even paranoid people have enemies .... and even flaky brides-to-be sometimes have MILFHs.
#7
And we're supposed to give a shit why, exactly?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/19/2006 19:40 Comments ||
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#8
Wilbanks would not confirm or deny a breakup, the magazine said on its Web site Thursday. She, her attorney and a family spokesman did not respond to requests seeking comment Friday. Her mother, Joyce Parrish, declined to comment.
"Well Hell no! This story is worth a million! No freebies. Whaa choo offerin?"
That's silly, the few Gor books I've read really sucked, even for a sex-starved, frustrated teen like I was (I'm not a teen anymore); if they want to go that way, why don't they simply convert to the Master Religion(tm), I ask you?
A sex slavery cult based on a series of 1960s science fiction novels has been uncovered by police in Dar-al-Islam Darlington. Durham Police discovered the bizarre sect after raiding a home in the area, after receiving complaints that a woman was being held against her will. But a spokesman said the Canadian was a willing participant and the other people involved were consenting adults.
"Y'wanna keep me chained up nekkid in a concrete dungeon and flog me twice a day? Hokay."
The group, called Kaotians, follow the Chronicles of Gor novels which depict a society where women are dominated. The 29-year-old woman is said to have voluntarily attended the sect after finding out about it over the internet. She later contacted a friend in United States, who then contacted the police, saying she wanted to leave but couldn't as she had burnt her passport and return ticket. But a police spokesman said upon arriving at the premises they did not find any evidence of "criminal offences". Police also investigated claims by a father in Essex his 18-year-old son had joined the sect. However police also found the teenager was at the property voluntarily and they had no grounds to get involved.
"Sure I'm here voluntarily! I get to flog her twice a day and they feed me!"
Lee Thompson, 31, says he is the "master" who trains the slaves at the Darlington address. But he said everything the women are told to do, which includes cooking and cleaning, is "voluntary and safe". "It works on the system that some women have a desire to serve," he told the Northern Echo newspaper.
"Hubert, I'm leaving you for a sex slavery commune in Darlington. I feel the desire to serve!"
"Wouldja make me my breakfast before you go?"
"Get it yerself. I go to serve a higher purpose!"
He said: "Most people think it is a very sexual thing, but it is about every action that they make, they do it for their master. Saying that, the girls will do everything they are told when it comes to sex, but it is all voluntary and all safe." Mr Thompson added: "I have been called sick but I don't think what I do is bad."
"Of course, I don't call myself sick, either..."
Mr Thompson said up to 350 followers regularly meet in pubs and clubs around the North East, in an area from Berwick to York. Kaotians are a splinter group of the Goreans, which base their beliefs on novels written by American university professor John Norman. The books are set on the quasi-medieval planet of Gor, which has a caste system and uses women as slaves. There are an estimated 25,000 Goreans worldwide. !!! I sincerely hope this is a made-up figure.
#1
An another article on that very important matter : Gor blimey! Subservient cult is unleashed on Darlington "The local butcher, for one, has banned Mr Thompson from his premises
for turning up with his girlfriend attached to a leash."
Hé hé hé.
#4
I don't know. Perhaps it's a symptom, perhaps the western man as figured by the dominant PC culture has forgotten how to be manly, and has to resort to such roleplaying. Don't know if it's worth going all analytical on that.
#5
The problem with the Gor books, imho, was the plots often hinged on the S&M in some way so you couldn't just remove it and sell the book as decent sword and sorcery.
If you took out the S&M they were pretty decent sword and sorcery, lots of action and detail.
I think the guy could have made a lot of money if he wasn't overly occupied with his S&M world view.
#7
Yes, but Darlington for chrissake. It's the arse end of the world. My only clear recollection of the place was making a swift exit from a pub after making some money off some unemployed miners playing pool. They were none too happy about handing their cash over to an obviously worse for wear southern (England) prick.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/19/2006 17:51 Comments ||
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#19
I haven't had sex in so long I subistuted food for sex. Now I can't even get into my OWN pants.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/19/2006 19:30 Comments ||
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#20
The Priest-Kings of GOR, an anti-Earth on the other side of the Sun, wid loin-cloth wearing barbarian society(s) capable of interstellar space travel.
I wonder if afghans will suffer from that too? LISBON (Reuters) - An illness that medical officials are calling the "Strawberries with Sugar Virus" is sweeping Portuguese schools as children complain of symptoms similar to those suffered by characters in a television soap opera. More than 300 children have complained of symptoms including rashes, breathing difficulties and dizziness at 14 schools in different parts of the country. Some schools have been forced to close.
The outbreak came a few days after the popular "Strawberries with Sugar" teenage television show aired an episode about a life-threatening virus descending on a school. Medical officials believe many children, after watching the show, feared their own minor rashes and wheezes were something serious. Others noted the outbreak came at the same time as end-of-year exams.
"What we concretely have is a few children with allergies and apparently a phenomenon of many other children imitating," said doctor Nelson Pereira, director of the national institute of medical emergencies. "I know of no disease which is so selective that it only attacks school children," doctor Mario Almeida told local daily Correio de Manha. Television virus... See how Nuanced And Sophisticated we euros are?
#1
"Tune in tomorrow, when we will hear Ashley say:"
"Cameron, I cannot marry you. I'm pregnant with Basil's secret surrogate child, and now my mysterious life-threatening disease prevents me from uncovering the secret conspiracy to turn my half-sister's second cousin into a laser-wielding zombie."
[cue cheesy organ music]
Posted by: Mike ||
05/19/2006 6:52 Comments ||
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The sensational discovery of what appeared to be the skeleton of a new species of small humans - dubbed hobbits - has been dismissed by a team of scientists.
A 3ft skeleton found on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003 was said to be a new branch of the human family tree and named Homo floresiensis. Scientists dubbed the species "hobbits" after the characters in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, helping to grab newspaper headlines.
But scientists in the United States say a "far more likely explanation" is that the 18,000-year-old remains were of a modern human with the genetic condition micro- cephaly, which reduces the size of the brain and often results in short stature. The condition can also lead to cerebral palsy, epilepsy, impaired sight and hearing, and autism.
The idea of a species of "hobbits" was appealing, partly because island environments can result in the evolution of small versions of various species due to reduced food supplies and fewer predators.
The researchers behind this theory suggested that Homo floresiensis was a descendant of Homo erectus, who lived about 1.8 million years ago.
However, writing in the magazine Science, a team led by Dr Robert Martin, of the Field Museum in Chicago, said that, while selective breeding had reduced the size of some mammals, it had always done so within certain parameters.
Body size could shrink considerably, but the reduction in the size of the brain was always less marked and the hobbit's brain was too small to follow what appeared to be a universal law.
The skeleton was also found alongside sophisticated stone tools that have been associated with modern humans, rather than Homo erectus or any other kind of early hominid.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/19/2006 6:54 Comments ||
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#4
I believe multiple sets of remains have been found, which makes the microcephaly argument seem less likely. It's been a while since I read up on this, though.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/19/2006 8:24 Comments ||
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#5
I forget. When were midgets invented?
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2006 9:37 Comments ||
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You seem to believe the microencephaly proponents should have the right to argument from authority but the scientists who discovered the bones shouldn't.
Posted by: Phil ||
05/19/2006 12:21 Comments ||
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#11
The movie in the pic is, in fact, one of the funniest movies ever made.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has told the country's newspapers to stop publishing pictures of women as they could lead young men astray.
The move surprised some observers as the absolute monarch has sought to portray himself as a quiet reformer since taking the throne last year in the ultraconservative country.
All media in the kingdom are either owned by the state or run by it, but in recent months some Saudi newspapers have published pictures of women, always with the hair covered and only their face showing. The images of women wearing the traditional Muslim headscarf were used to illustrate stories connected to women's issues, including the right to vote and drive, both of which are withheld. The Saudi embassy in London declined to comment on the apparent ban.
The King reportedly told editors in a meeting this week that publishing a woman's picture was inappropriate. "One must think, do they want their daughter, their sister, or their wife to appear in this way? Of course, no one would accept this," the newspaper Okaz quoted King Abdullah as saying. "Young people are driven by emotion and the spirit, but the spirit can go astray. So I ask you to go easy on these things," the King reportedly said.Yes sir nothing gets the boyz excited as seeing a picture of woman peering out from her Bee-Keeper suit.
King Abdullah had been regarded by many Saudis as a quiet reformer who might begin to loosen the strict social codes. In recent months, however, many figures in the powerful religious establishment have used mosque sermons and websites to criticise any move towards liberalisation.
The authorities indefinitely postponed a move to replace male shop assistants with women at lingerie shops. The proposal, offered as evidence of progress on women's rights, has been quietly shelved amid claims that shopowners need more time to manage the transition.
#1
King Abdullah is back-pedalling something fierce for someone his age on this one. Watch for Saudi reports that he had been misquoted and meant "foreign press" harlots was what he meant, ammit. SA media will continue to show appropriately covered females it seems. And reports were (retracted) misunderstood and misquoted.
Welcome - our new UN Human Rights Commission member. Glad to have you aboard!
Politicians George Galloway and Al Gore, naturalist Sir David Attenborough and the creators of South Park will all speak at this year's Edinburgh TV Festival.
The 2006 lineup for the annual industry event - held over three days in August - also includes journalist Rageh Omaar and comic writer Armando Iannucci.
Galloway will go head-to-head with former Sun editor Kelvin Mackenzie in a debate on whether it is easier to get on TV if you are right wing, while former US vice-President Gore will talk about his viewer-created content network, Current TV, in the Alternative MacTaggart Lecture. ITV chief executive Charles Allen was previously confirmed for the keynote MacTaggart Lecture.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park, will fly into the UK to deliver a special Edinburgh Masterclass on the cult sitcom, now in its tenth season. The pair will discuss how the series has evolved since its 1997 launch, their approach to the worlds of celebrity and politics, and what's next for the show.
"This is a great line up," said Alison Sharman, advisory chair for the festival. "I am very excited by the quality and breadth of the speakers announced. I am sure they will make waves - and make news - in their contribution to the great debate of our broadcasting time: how do we all as broadcasters respond to the huge challenges of the rapidly changing digital environment."
#1
Galloway and Gore, these assclowns were meant for each other.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/19/2006 1:20 Comments ||
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#2
GORE told reporters on FNC that he wasn't interested in 2008 - I don't believe it. Amongst other reasons, iff and when Dubya succeeds in resolving or mostly resolving the IRAN, NORTH KOREA, and TAIWAN, etal crises, there will nothing for the Dems to do except what they do best, i.e. SPEND SPEND SPEND, besides continuing to PC destabilize America unto anti-US OWG. SAVING AMERICA FROM THE WORLD = SAVING THE WORLD FROM AMERICA = SAVING AMERICA + WORLD FROM THEMSELVES, and never the two or more shall meet iff the Dems-MSM can help it. If Hillary expects to serve eight years as Prez, she cannot run against GOP-Dem male candidates whom appear equal or stronger than her in matters of national policy or decisions, not against Dubya's record or an America in wartime. Remember, the Dems as a Party cannot singularly claim anything from Bill's pre-9-11 econ record either. Dubya & Co. needs to watch his = their behinds between now and January 2009.
#3
"Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park, will fly into the UK to deliver a special Edinburgh Masterclass on the cult sitcom, now in its tenth season."
"Cult"? For ten seasons?
I should've majored in journalism - college would have been so much easier.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/19/2006 6:05 Comments ||
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#4
I don't think you would enjoy having 3/4 of your brain sucked out to become a 'Journalist'....
(at least as evidenced by the current field of 'top journalist's).
#12
Sweaty-pits AlGore is playing--- and has, "Played on OUR FEARS..." Hell, I'm wearing wool socks in May in Southern Maryland for godsakes Al. No warming trends happening down here you frickin' asshole!
Posted by: as ||
05/19/2006 21:50 Comments ||
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PUNTO FIJO, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has for years predicted that a foreign army would attack the South American nation to snatch its vast oil reserves. A simulation conducted this week showed how it might happen.
A naval landing craft made landfall on the shores of Western Falcon state carrying troops and over a dozen camouflaged tanks. The "invading" army then took over the massive Paraguana Refining Complex, a key asset of the world's No. 5 crude exporter.
The "occupation" is part of a military exercise to train troops and communities to repel a foreign invader.
The Chavez government said it is preparing citizens to fight a guerrilla war to repel a possible Iraq-style invasion by U.S. troops. The Bush administration insists the invasion paranoia is nothing more than leftist saber-rattling, but for Chavez supporters the threat is real.
"They've already invaded us, now the invading forces are controlling certain strategic objectives," said Rear Admiral Zahin Quintana, a squadron commander, after disembarking from a warship as part of the exercise. "Now begins the resistance by our troops together with our people."
The tanks began circulating through the streets, and units of mock invading soldiers launched smoke bombs to clear the way. But local residents, organized and trained by military authorities, resisted the assault by blocking roads with rusting cars and burning tires.
"We're willing to go anywhere to defend our homeland," said Rosmery Trujillo, a participant in the operation, told state television. "This country will never again be put under the boot of the North, thanks to our President Chavez."
The simulated attack is part of a military operation called "Operation Patriot 2006" being carried out this week.
PREPARING FOR A FIGHT
Venezuela's government has created community organizations called "Local Defense Councils" that would provide support during a potential invasion by hiding weapons deposits, relaying messages or sabotaging water and power services.
Quintana said the mock attack involved nine warships, three combat planes and four helicopters -- two of which are Russian-made models Chavez started acquiring after the U.S. thwarted his attempts to acquire American technology.
On Friday, the mock invasion force is scheduled to be repelled by Venezuelans trained to defend the nation's strategic assets including oil terminals, fuel filling stations and tanker trucks.
Chavez, a former paratrooper turned populist politician, is locked in a heated war of words with Washington. The State Department describes him as a threat to democracy in the region, and this week said it would no longer sell weapons or military equipment to the South American nation.
Chavez describes the United States as a decadent empire accustomed to having sway in Latin America, and has called Bush everything from "assassin" to "donkey."
Despite U.S. criticism, Chavez is expected to easily win a reelection bid this December as massive social spending and the widely popular anti-American discourse have kept his approval ratings high.
Critics in Venezuela say Chavez is squandering record oil wealth on improvised social programs and creating an artificial conflict with the United States.
But with oil prices surging and anti-American sentiment high, many Venezuelans see the invasion threat as a reality.
"If oil goes to $100 per barrel?" said one high ranking officer. "Who knows? Anything could happen."
#3
No Hugo the flash will be much brighter, much, much brighter.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/19/2006 4:37 Comments ||
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#4
My guess is that a foreign invasion would start after the uprising of Venezuelan middle class and Chavez's attempts to put them down. Foreign invaders would simply secure assets and perhaps grab senior Chavez.
#6
The trouble with most sophisticated weapons systems is the long and complex logistics tail. Without continued access to spares and tech support, most of the stuff stops working in a few months. Selling somebody sophisticated weapons keeps them tied to you for as long as they want to use them. Hugo's US weapons will be mostly useless by this time next year.
#8
The difference is that Noriega did not help muslim terrorists. Chavez is and the State Department knows it.
Of course the MSM and the rest of the idiots of the world would say it is for the oil.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese readers looking for a slightly different tale can now curl up with "Get Out of Here, Curse You" -- a novel by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The book, believed to have been written on the eve of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and titled "Devil's Dance" in its Japanese translation, hit stores around the nation on Friday.
Jordan banned the book on the grounds it could damage ties with Iraq, but pirated copies of the tale of an Arab tribesman who defeats foreign invaders became a bestseller in Amman.
The original manuscript was smuggled out of Iraq by one of Saddam Hussein's daughters, Raghad, and a copy given to Japanese journalist and translator Itsuko Hirata. "The novel is dated to the times of ancient tribal society but the tribal warfare depicted in the novel is strikingly similar to what happened and is happening in the Iraqi war -- totally," Hirata told Reuters before the book's release.
"He (Saddam) knew he was heading into a war he couldn't win, so I think with this book he was trying to make his position clear and send a message to the Iraqi people."
Since the Iraqi people hadn't quite figured out what kind of man Saddam was from the two million he killed.
Among the chapters are those titled "The Foreigner Who Sold the Tribes," "Retaliatory Tactics" and "The Burning of the Twin Towers," although Hirata said this did not specifically refer to the World Trade Centre buildings attacked on September 11, 2001.
#1
Does it have a chapter about the hero surrendering to a marine patrol from a spider hole. A big talking despot in a hole full of guns who proclaimed he would never be taken alive. A shabby, beaten, criminal who was already on his second(and last) chance from the U.S. who though his last great deed for his country would be to condemn it to years of civil war and reduce it to rubble.
TOP UN race-discrimination investigator Doudou Diene has denounced a new Japanese law for compulsory fingerprinting of foreigners as evidence of a worldwide trend towards "criminalising" outsiders.
If I had a name like 'Doudou' I'd take up a more obscure line of work.
Mr Diene, the UN High Commission on Human Rights special rapporteur on racial discrimination, said yesterday that the Japanese legislation illustrated a "worrisome development" of creating laws to set foreigners apart, on the pretext of combating terrorism. These laws undermined the international agreements to curb racial discrimination and had infiltrated an "extreme Right" agenda into democratic governments.
"Especially since 9/11, there has been a process of criminalisation of foreigners, as foreigners - of asylum-seekers, migrant workers, migrants," Mr Diene said. "(The Japanese law) is an illustration of a very worrisome development of racism in the world; it is what I call the 'banalisation' of discrimination, of racism."
Mr Diene produced a report earlier this year on racial discrimination in Japan, which many Japanese deny exists in their country because of its assumed racial homogeneity. However, Mr Diene found widespread discrimination, at official and private levels, against indigenous Ainu on northern Hokkaido, Okinawans in the south, and Korean and Chinese residents. About 800,000 Koreans are the largest group among an estimated two million foreigners living in Japan.
Though the Diene report was avoided by domestic news outlets, it caused a major stir in government and non-government organisations.
The Government has yet to respond to Mr Diene's recommendations, including an official statement of recognition that racism and xenophobia exist in Japan, a national law banning race discrimination and a national anti-discrimination authority.
Filled with lots of bureauocrats.
Mr Diene said he expected Japan to respond next month at the first session of the new UN Human Rights Council, a beefed-up replacement of the UNHCR, or the following one in September.
The immigration control law passed the upper house on Wednesday. Intended to prevent terrorists arriving under false identities, it calls for foreign visitors older than 16 to be fingerprinted and photographed, and it foreshadows gathering other biometric data. The law excludes ethnic Korean residents and others with special permanent residence status.
#6
Doudou Diène
Representative of the Senegal in the UNESCO and the General Assembly of the United Nations. Person in charge of projects of intercultural, interreligious dialogue and peace culture.
SHANGHAI, China - Tropical Storm Katrina Chanchu pummeled southern China on Thursday, killing at least 11 people to bring its death toll in Asia to 50 while flooding scores of homes in an area where more than 1 million people were evacuated.
Chanchu was the most severe typhoon to strike the South China Sea region during the month of May and already was blamed for 37 deaths and the destruction of thousands of homes in the Philippines last weekend. It was downgraded to a severe tropical storm after hitting the coast of China early Thursday. China said just over 1 million people have been moved to safety in Guangdong and Fujian provinces just to the north, a number that grew through the day. The storm bypassed the financial center of Hong Kong.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/19/2006 00:00 ||
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PARIS One day after President Jacques Chirac called his government to order, demanding that ministers focus on their jobs rather than the political scandal that has dominated headlines here for weeks, a senior French defense executive ruined hopes for a lull by admitting that he had written an anonymous letter at the heart of the affair.
The revelation by Jean-Louis Gergorin, published Thursday in an interview in Le Parisien, is the latest piece of the puzzle in an apparent smear campaign against Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and many others. Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin both face suspicions of targeting Sarkozy, their chief rival, ahead of presidential elections next year.
But Gergorin, a former vice president of the aerospace giant EADS who has known Villepin for 25 years, denied that Sarkozy's name was on a list of 70 bank accounts that was apparently forged to link several high-profile people to kickbacks from a 1991 defense contract.
In an extensive interview following days of speculation about his role in the scandal, Gergorin said that it was he who first told Villepin about the list of bank accounts in January 2004. That prompted Villepin, who at the time was foreign minister, to call a three-way meeting with a retired intelligence official, whom he asked to investigate the list.
Gergorin admitted that four months later, he anonymously sent the list to the judge investigating the kickbacks for fear that the first investigation would take too long. He said he had met the judge, Renaud Van Ruymbeke, in several confidential meetings in March and April 2004 but refused to formally testify. Both sides agreed to transfer the information in an anonymous letter, he said.
According to Gergorin, Sarkozy's name only appeared on a second list, which he obtained from someone he identifies only as "the source," but who in French press reports is widely suspected to be a former EADS computer specialist, Imad Lahoud.
Ruymbeke received the second list in the mail in June 2004, with references pointing to Sarkozy. In his interview Gergorin refused to comment on the second letter and others that followed, though without explicitly denying that he sent those as well.
"About all the letters that followed, I reserve my information and analysis for the judges," Gergorin told Le Parisien.
While Gergorin's revelations appear to establish the identity of the mysterious informer, key questions remain. The most crucial one was formulated by Ruymbeke, in his testimony before the two other judges investigating claims of defamation in the affair on behalf of Sarkozy and others on the list: "Who falsified the bank accounts and with what objective?" he asked in the testimony, published Thursday in Le Monde.
Following weeks of leaks from confidential testimony and confiscated material, key witnesses in the scandal now appear to openly bypass the judicial system in a case that has been characterized by its public nature: Gergorin's interview comes after the retired intelligence official conducting the first inquiry gave his version of the story to Le Journal du Dimanche, published Sunday, and declared that he would not testify before judges again.
The European Union said on Thursday it was freezing the assets and funds held in EU countries by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and 35 other top officials to protest the continuing crackdown against opposition groups and the president's re-election two months ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2006 00:00 ||
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SAN DIEGO The vast majority of people caught smuggling immigrants across the border near San Diego are never prosecuted for the offense, demoralizing the Border Patrol agents making the arrests, according to an internal document obtained by The Associated Press.
It is very difficult to keep agents' morale up when the laws they were told to uphold are being watered-down or not prosecuted, the report says.
The report offers a stark assessment of the situation at a Border Patrol station responsible for guarding 13 miles of mountainous border east of the city. Federal officials say it reflects a reality along the entire 2,000-mile border: Judges and federal attorneys are so swamped that only the most egregious smuggling cases are prosecuted.
Only 6 percent of 289 suspected immigrant smugglers were prosecuted by the federal government for that offense in the year ending in September 2004, according to the report. Some were instead prosecuted for another crime. Other cases were declined by federal prosecutors, or the suspect was released by the Border Patrol.
The report raises doubts about the value of tightening security along the Mexican border. President Bush wants to hire 6,000 more Border Patrol agents and dispatch up to 6,000 National Guardsmen. He did not mention overburdened courts in his Oval Office address Monday on immigration.
The report was provided to the AP by the office of Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who has accused the chief federal prosecutor in San Diego of being lax on smuggling cases. Issa's office said it was an internal Border Patrol report written last August. It was unclear who wrote it.
The lack of prosecutions is demoralizing the agents and making a joke out of our system of justice, said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents agents. It is certainly a weak link in our immigration-enforcement chain.
The 41-page report says federal prosecutors in San Diego typically prosecute smugglers who commit dangerous/violent activity or guide at least 12 illegal immigrants across the border. But other smugglers know they are only going to get slapped on the wrist, according to the report.
The report cites a 19-year-old U.S. citizen caught three times in a two-week period in 2004 trying to sneak people from Tijuana, Mexico, to San Diego in his car trunk, two at a time.
This is an example of a kid who knows the system, the report says. What is true is that he will probably never be prosecuted if he only smuggles only one or two bodies at a time.
The report also cites a Mexican citizen who was caught in Arizona and California driving with illegal immigrants and was released each time to Mexico. He was prosecuted the fourth time and sentenced to five years in prison, after two illegal immigrants in his van died in a crash.
U.S. Attorney Carol Lam in San Diego said about half her 110 attorneys work on border cases in an area where the Border Patrol made nearly 140,000 arrests last year. She said she gives highest priority to the most serious cases, including suspects with long histories of violent crime or offenders who endanger others' lives.
We figure out how many cases our office can handle, start from the worst and work our way down, she said.
Lam said many suspected migrant smugglers are prosecuted instead for re-entering the country after being deported, a crime that can be proved with documents. Smuggling cases are more difficult to prosecute because they require witnesses to testify.
The Border Patrol, which would neither confirm nor deny the document's authenticity, said prosecutors in San Diego recently agreed to prosecute a Top 20 list of smugglers if they are caught.
The Justice Department in Washington declined to comment. However, at a congressional hearing last month, Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla., told Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that Lam's record on migrant smuggling was a pathetic failure. Gonzales replied that he was urging U.S. attorneys to more actively enforce laws but noted that immigration cases were a tremendous strain and burden along the border.
Peter Nunez, a former U.S. attorney in San Diego, said prosecutors along the border struggle with limited resources and a huge caseload of immigration cases.
This is not an indictment of the U.S. attorney's office, because you have to deal with the realities of the caseload, but it is an indictment of how badly Congress and presidents have handled the immigration system, he said.
The report says immigrants in the area paid an average of $1,398 to be guided across the border in 2004.
Smugglers are making lots of money breaking the immigration laws, and there is not much incentive for them to stop these illegal activities, it says. The smugglers know that even if they are caught, it will be difficult to punish them.
#1
When you get no justice from those officials responsible, then you take matters into your own hands.
I believe volunteers should go to the border and start digging 2 x 6 x 6s so the border patrol has an option. The sight of all those open graves will send a message to the wetbacks also.
#2
Gonzales replied that he was urging U.S. attorneys to more actively enforce laws but noted that immigration cases were a tremendous strain and burden along the border.
Yeah... you know prosecuting murders and rapes als is a 'tremendous strain' perhaps we shouldn't prosecute those either.
If you start prosecuting these and close the frigging border you wouldn't have such a 'strain'. DOH!
#4
Anyone who has ever been summoned for jury duty on a deportation case realizes just how badly we shoot ourselves in the foot. Although I was not selected, I found the selection process to be illuminating. The defendant who had been deported twice before was there with his tax-payer funded defense team, two lawyers and a jury selection consultant. The judge asked if anyone thought that deportation hearings were a waste of time and clogged the federal court system. Anyone who responded affirmatively was asked to leave. Further, there were an inordinate number of questions about our thoughts about illegal immigration, anyone who responded that the operative word was illegal was dismissed. Anyone with a military background was deselected by the taxpayer paid jury consultant. The only one who smiled through this travesty was the defendant, who was prima facie guilty having been arrested a 3rd time in the US without papers. He was enjoying the fact that the US taxpayer was paying for a six week long circus involving no fewer than 5 lawyers, a jury consultant, the judge and all the other court personnel, about 50 potential jurors and 18 final jurors, for his amusement.
Anyone who has ever had any contact with this charade who is not demoralized has already been lobotomized.
Things like this make me really wonder if this nation is going to survive the peace-love-&-happiness mentality that invaded this nation in the 60's long enough to bring things back a nation that has enough pride, will to live to survive in a dog eat dog world called Earth.
#6
DMFD: I suggest looking at the breakdowns per party before getting ready to "make the RINOs pay."
Posted by: Phil ||
05/19/2006 1:55 Comments ||
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#7
AP: MEXICANS SAY NOTHING WILL KEEP THEM OUT OF USA, or headline to that effect. Its not for Mexico and Mahican Socialism to stop their own people, or reform, but for America to make concessions and do it for Mahico and Mahicans at no costs/loss to Mahico, even iff it means making = forcing hyperpower America into a Third World poor nation - you know, the reason(s) why the DEMS-LEFTIES > POST 9-11 AMERICA IS NOT AT WAR FOR ITS SURVIVAL, IDENTITY, AND SOVEREIGNTY, etal.
#10
This is just crazy. California and Florida stand to make billions from this and just might be able to balance their world class debts. Nat gas drilling is safe to the environment. What went wrong?
I suspect if we researched all the lobbyiests that fought this we would find tons of Chinese money paying for it. Time to go at this again.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/19/2006 8:18 Comments ||
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#11
You'll find tons of Soddy money paying for it, Pan
#12
Thanks Grom, this war is being waged on many levels and our congress has not a clue!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/19/2006 8:59 Comments ||
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#13
``Drilling for natural gas means drilling for oil,'' argued Capps, citing industry views that where there is gas, often oil is found and probably would be developed. ``Drilling three miles off our coast will not lower gas prices today or anytime in the near future.''
I'd say this congressman is either lying, stupid, or both. Or, perhaps knows something none of us here know.
Seems like the big bitch from repub's who supported the ban was that it would negatively affect tourism and further hurt their state economies. I don't know the truth of that as I wouldn't know where to start to do the cost/benefit numbers of oil drilling vs. the tourism economy. Maybe one of you out there working in either sector know the real deal.
#14
Correct me if I'm wrong, but we can directional drill 15,000 feet offshore by having drill rigs on the coast. I remember that we had a well or two in Cook Inlet up here in Alaska recently that did just that. To develop ANWR, we would use small footprints on drill pads and directional drill.
I also agree with the sentiments that the vast majority of Congress (both the House and the Senate) need to go. They have sold this country down the river. There are few rational problem solvers in Congress. A choice between Dems (absolutely not) and Republicans (majority not) is not much of a choice at all. I would like to see more independents take their seats, though I am an idealistic, delusional, problem-solving dreamer.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/19/2006 10:35 Comments ||
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#15
AP, what's your thoughts on drilling in ANWR? I've never had a chance to talk to any native Alaskans that actually know the real deal.
#16
It's that old problem with American politics again. Any bastard willing to run around endlessly shaking hands and kissing babies and making promises he can't keep for money and votes is not the kind of personality you can trust.
We need common men and women in there, not egocentric know-it-alls bloviating ad nauseum.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/19/2006 11:08 Comments ||
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#18
Your congress is fine, Pan.
I used to think my countrymen (territories for peace belief) are the dumbest people on Earth. Your congress gives me---if not pride in being an Israeli, than at least the feeling that we're not the dumbest.
#20
California and Florida should be able to use as much oil as they produce. If they insist on selfishly screwing the rest of the nation (and themselves), then cut the pipelines from AK, LA and TX. Then Yankees can drive into Florida and pay for their vacation with the leftover gas in the tank.
Posted by: ed ||
05/19/2006 20:16 Comments ||
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BRITAIN has made a dramatic appeal for the life of a British Muslim who faces execution by hanging under Islamic law in Pakistan despite being acquitted of murder by the countrys criminal courts.
Mirza Tahir Hussain, from Leeds, who served in the Territorial Army, has spent the past 18 years on death row for a crime that he claims he did not commit. The date of his execution is to be announced on June 1, two days before his 36th birthday.
He has endured seven trials and appeals throughout which he has consistently denied robbing and murdering a taxi driver in 1988.
Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, intervened in the case yesterday, writing a personal letter to President Musharraf of Pakistan to plead for the death sentence to be commuted.
The exceptional appeal was made on humanitarian grounds considering the severity of the sentence and the time that Hussain has already spent in prison, a spokesman for Mrs Beckett said. It also refers to Britains longstanding opposition to the death penalty and mentions Tony Blairs interest in the case.
Hussain was initially sentenced to death in 1989, then cleared on appeal by the High Court in Lahore but subsequently convicted of highway robbery by a religious court, which again imposed the death penalty.
Hussains brother, Amjad, who visited him in jail yesterday, told The Times that he was completely distraught and looks much older than his age. He added: We were only allowed to speak to him through the iron bars of the cell. The situation in the jail is terrible and inhuman and most of the prisoners are in shackles.
It was the first time in six years he had been able to visit his brother because of threats from the family of Janshir Khan, the dead taxi driver. They have vowed to avenge him and have refused an offer of £18,000 from the Hussain family to revoke the death penalty.
Hussain was 18 when he went to Pakistan in December 1988 to visit relatives. He spent one night with an aunt in Karachi before travelling to Rawalpindi, intending to go on from there to his ancestral village of Bhubar.
In Rawalpindi he found a taxi driver who agreed to take him to the village for 500 rupees (£4.40). Hussain alleged that during the journey the driver abruptly stopped the car and attempted to assault him sexually at gunpoint.
According to Hussains statement, the weapon went off as they struggled and the driver was wounded. Hussain immediately drove the taxi to a police station and reported the incident. He was charged with murder and in September 1989 was found guilty and sentenced to death at the Sessions Court in Islamabad.
The court gave no weight to a character reference from Hussains TA battalion in Leeds, which described him as an honest man, very polite and always well turned out . . . Private Hussain is a likeable man and a respected member of this company.
Three years later, however, an appeal court found serious discrepancies in the case, struck out the death sentence and returned it to a lower court. A retrial in 1994 led to a sentence of life imprisonment.
In 1996 the Lahore High Court heard a further appeal by Hussain and quashed his convictions. But within a week, following the intervention of the taxi drivers family, his case was passed to the Federal Sharia Court, which held jurisdiction over allegations of highway robbery.
In 1998 that court found Hussain guilty of robbery by a 2-1 vote of its judges. The third judge wrote a lengthy dissenting opinion and described the verdict of his colleagues as a miscarriage of justice. Campaigners say that the court broke its own rules because Sharia requires there to be a witness to the crime or a confession by the accused.
In 2003 and 2004 the Pakistani Supreme Court reviewed the findings of the Sharia court and upheld the death penalty. Last year Mr Musharraf rejected a plea for clemency from Hussains family.
Pakistans Foreign Ministry confirmed yesterday that a request for clemency had been received from the British Government but offered little hope. The judicial legal system is taking its course. The sentence has been upheld by the highest court in Pakistan, a spokeswoman said.
Until now successive foreign secretaries, from John Major to Jack Straw, have declined to act in the case because Hussain has dual British and Pakistani nationality. In 1999 Baroness Scotland of Asthal, then a Foreign Office Minister, wrote that while the Government was extremely concerned about Hussain a volunteer private in the 3rd Battalion Yorkshire Volunteers it had no formal consular responsibility for him nor any formal right to consular access.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/19/2006 17:34 Comments ||
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#3
Hussain was initially sentenced to death in 1989, then cleared on appeal by the High Court in Lahore but subsequently convicted of highway robbery by a religious court, which again imposed the death penalty.
Pakistan. Where eye-rolling, ignorant, insane, "pious" law RULES. Overstepping even High Court, real law.
I can't wait for the global khalifate. What fun and honour.
Nepals reinstated parliament on Thursday unanimously approved a sweeping plan to curtail the powers of the king and take away his control over the army. The historic move came less than a month after often violent mass protests across the Himalayan nation pressured King Gyanendra to reinstate parliament and hand power back to a multi-party government. The landmark resolution was approved by a verbal vote by deputies in the 205-member house, less than two hours after it was presented by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. The proclamation takes away the title of supreme commander-in-chief of the military from the king, traditionally revered as an incarnation of Hindu God Vishnu until the present monarch fell foul of his people after he grabbed power in 2005.
The government will no longer be called His Majestys Government but just Nepal government. The country would also stop being a Hindu nation and become a secular state. It reflects the aspirations of the people and respects the sacrifices of the people who were martyred during the movement, Koirala said as he tabled the resolution, referring to weeks of mass protests against King Gyanendra.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2006 00:00 ||
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Veteran Indian actor Feroz Khan was banned by Pakistan yesterday from returning to Pakistan after officials said he had insulted the country during a visit to promote a film.
"Pakistan? It's ugly, man. No sense of style, y'know? And it smells funny."
Interior Ministry officials said the presidents directive had been sent to all the airports, seaports and railway stations not to allow entry to Feroz to Pakistan.
"Calling all cars! Be on the lookout for an Indian actor making fun of Pakistan! That is all!"
The directive has also been sent to all the Pakistans embassies and consulates directing them not to grant visa to Feroz Khan.
"Calling all diplomats!..."
President Musharraf took this decision after receiving a report from Dubai where actor Feroz Khan was a guest and the show was being anchored by Pakistani singer and actor Fakhar-e-Aalam. It was reported that the actor criticized the two-nation theory when he was called on to the dais.
"Well, y'see, on the one hand, y'got India, with all sorts of different people, all stirred together in a great, big, spicy pot. The army stays in its barracks except for when it's beating up invading Pakistanis or Chinese, and civilians run things, and it's getting to be a pretty successful country. On the other hand, y'got Pakistan. It's all Muslims, and they spend all their time bumping each other off or setting fire to their wives. The army's been running things for years, it's never won a war, and they've made the place into a backwater of ignorance and brutality. Every time I start thinking our government's corrupt, I think of Pakistan and Bangladesh, and then I feel better."
Feroze had also said Muslims were better off in India than in Pakistan at a show business function in Lahore last month to promote the Bollywood epic, Taj Mahal, produced and directed by his brother.
"We have occasional fistfights, but usually we get along, since we're a secular state. Most of the ignorance and brutality comes from Maoists, though we do get the continual spillover from the Muslim states to the east and west of us."
He abused our hospitality. He made derogatory remarks, which are unacceptable, said Tasnim Aslam, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.
"Whether they're true or not! Which, of course, they aren't. Really."
A senior official, who requested anonymity said President Pervez Musharraf had personally ordered the ban.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The hot lady in the image up there says more about why India vs Pakistan then all the verbage this guy could come up with.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Thursday that most nations believe his successor should come from Asia, as campaigning for his replacement intensifies. "I can say that most of the member states believe that it is a turn for Asia," Annan told a news conference in Tokyo. "It is a practice that we have rotated it over the years from one region to the other," the Ghanaian said. The United States, however, has resisted the regional power-sharing arrangement, saying it would support the best candidate regardless of his or her region. Several Asian countries are putting forward successors to Annan, whos second five-year term expires at the end of the year. The world's largest region has not had a UN chief since U Thant of Burma (now Myanmar) finished his second term in 1971. South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon, whom Annan met earlier this week on his regional tour, has announced his candidacy. Other Asians who have expressed interest include Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai and Sri Lanka's Jayantha Dhanapala, an adviser to President Mahinda Rajapakse.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/19/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Maybe because liberal prejudice is stronger and thus easier to test? (More likely because the study was on a college campus and that's a real easy prejudice to find; still interesting that it even occured to them to think of it as prejudice.)
#2
still interesting that it even occured to them to think of it as prejudice
they are scientists - not moonbats. Racial prejudices would be more difficult today - since very few people college age (in America, at least)actually see members of black, white, hispanic as a distinct group of "other".
Christians are to today's liberals as Jews are to Muslims - the ones you point to whenever the world is not right. Makes it all so simple that way.
Credit where credit is due. I regularly trash the MSM's dismal reporting on science. However, I thought this was a very good, accessible but accurate piece on something that could be important.
Scientists believe Mount St. Helens will erupt today, the 26th anniversary of the explosive eruption that produced the world's largest known landslide, killed 57 people and launched a new era in volcanology.
"It's been erupting almost continuously since late 2004," said Tom Pierson, a U.S. Geological Survey researcher at the Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver. So it's a good bet it will also erupt today, Pierson said.
The real question that's "driving everyone nuts" in the volcano-watching research community, he said, is what's causing this period of eruption -- and if its peculiarities indicate the mountain is building pressure for another explosive event.
Unlike the massive, catastrophic blast of 1980, the current eruption on St. Helens is slowly, steadily pushing up a relatively cool and solid column of lava rock, or magma.
Right now, the spine, or "dome," that's building up in the crater is growing by about 4-5 feet a day. Although gravity forces it to constantly crumble back, it is now topping out at about 300 feet above the crater's glacial surface.
The height of the new dome might not sound like much, Pierson said, but that's because it keeps breaking down to fill in the crater floor. He said this period of eruption has so far pushed out about 100 million cubic yards of magma -- enough rock to fill a football field 10.5 miles high -- and at this rate would rebuild the mountain in less than 100 years.
And some think it could be building an increasingly bigger cork on a planet-size, pressurizing bottle of Mr. Fizzy Magma, leading toward another explosive eruption.
So what's the big mystery about this eruption?
"It's been very unusual in a number of respects," said Dan Dzurisin, one of the USGS' lead volcanologists at the Cascades Volcano Observatory. To begin with, Dzurisin said, there's very little gas emission.
According to standard theory, he said, it is pressurized gas down deep in the hot magma that drives volcanic eruptions. But the ongoing eruption at Mount St. Helens is taking place without the expected amount of gas -- carbon dioxide, water vapor or hydrogen sulfide -- being released.
"Mount Hood puts out more sulfur dioxide gas than Mount St. Helens," said Seth Moran, a USGS seismologist who gave public talks Wednesday at the Johnston Ridge Observatory overlooking the northwest-facing maw of the volcanic crater. "It's a weird one."
The extruding lava rock also appears to be a lot cooler, by about 50 degrees Celsius, than has been observed in previous eruptions, Dzurisin said. This could indicate it is relatively cooler surface magma that is being driven to the top by another reservoir of highly pressurized magma much deeper down.
Then there are the drumbeats.
"We really wanted to figure out what those were all about," Dzurisin said.
In September 2004, St. Helens announced its reawakening with some seismic rumbling -- a swarm of earthquakes. The volcano had been quiet since 1986 and the scientists had been forced to cut back on monitoring. They had to scramble to get more monitoring equipment up on the volcano.
The only GPS instrument on the volcano at the time was at the Johnston Ridge Observatory. This satellite-positioning device gave the first inkling St. Helens was getting weird. Volcanoes moving into an eruptive phase typically inflate and bulge. At St. Helens, the GPS showed the mountain was actually deflating.
The drumbeats began a little later, in October 2004. After the first swarm of episodic quakes, the volcano soon fell into a regular, rhythmic drumbeat of small quakes that mystified scientists and largely continue to this day.
Another USGS scientist, Richard Iverson, suggested that the seismic drumbeats could be caused by an alternating process of dome building in which the molten rock gets stuck repeatedly as it rises. But when it rises, pressure is released. With less pressure beneath, the molten rock stops and solidifies within the volcano. Pressure builds up again, eventually forcing the rock up again. This type of movement, which the geologists call "stick-slip," is believed to create the regular pattern of quakes.
Dzurisin said the model has been supported by field studies as well as monitoring data.
"That was pretty exciting for us because it explained the drumbeats and also suggested a model for the eruption," he said.
Iverson's explanation, Dzurisin said, also indicated that the solid rock of the lava dome was likely growing in both directions -- up and down.
"We now know we've basically got a solid plug on top," he said. "Over time, the plug gets bigger and it takes more pressure to move it. The system is pressurizing."
That's the kind of scenario that can lead to explosive eruptions, Dzurisin said.
The scientists who have accumulated around Mount St. Helens since 1980 are widely regarded as world leaders in explosive volcanology. That's why John Pallister and three others from the USGS office in Vancouver were in Indonesia last week to assist with the threat of eruption from Mount Merapi.
"We were sent there by the American Embassy (in Indonesia)," said Pallister. He's head of the USGS' Volcano Disaster Assistance Program -- sort of a rapid response team of scientists who are constantly bouncing around the world assisting with dangerous, explosive volcanoes.
"St. Helens laid the framework for what we do," he said. Pallister said the Indonesian scientists already have a sophisticated monitoring system for listening to quakes and detecting ground surface changes (like bulging).
But because of St. Helens' reawakening in 2004 -- when they got caught off-guard and the mountain quickly became too dangerous for anyone to go place monitoring equipment -- Pallister's team developed a new kind of monitoring device that can be slung into a crater or on an eruptive volcano by helicopter.
They were at Merapi to consult with the local scientists and help if the situation became too unpredictable.
The Cascade volcanoes are still pretty unpredictable themselves, noted Moran. St. Helens is perhaps the most well-studied volcano in the contiguous United States, he said, but it still can surprise and baffle the experts.
If other dormant volcanoes such as Mount Rainier or Mount Baker started rumbling again, Moran said, we could have a hard time figuring what was going on in time.
"We just don't have enough instruments out there on our volcanoes," he said.
This week, Moran was at Rainier to talk with national park officials about placing some GPS units and more seismic stations up on the iconic peak.
The danger on Rainier is not thought to be so much an explosive eruption as it is a massive lahar -- a volcanic mudflow. One Rainier lahar, some 5,600 years ago, produced a huge wall of mud and rock that reached Tacoma's Commencement Bay. Other prehistoric Rainier lahars have flooded the Duwamish Valley into what is now Kent.
"It wouldn't necessarily take an eruption to trigger a lahar," said Pierson. A massive pre-eruption quake could destabilize the top of Rainier -- which is largely weak rock -- and cause a lahar.
A quarter century after Mount St. Helens blew its top, we're still trying to figure out what's going on with the volcanoes in our back yard.
#5
"We now know we've basically got a solid plug on top," he said. "Over time, the plug gets bigger and it takes more pressure to move it. The system is pressurizing."
Think Grizzly Bear after 4 month winter nap. Not pretty.
#6
I climbed Mt St Helens back in 1990. Lots of gas and steam coming out. The trail was marked with posts as the trees were all gone and in cloudy conditions it was very easy to loose direction.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/19/2006 19:40 Comments ||
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#7
did the same Deacon, under cloudy conditions about 5 years ago. It worked for me though as i was able to hike up into the restricted cone area due to the visabilty....and yes I have samples!!
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
LISBON (Reuters) - An illness that medical officials are calling the "Strawberries with Sugar Virus" is sweeping Portuguese schools as children complain of symptoms similar to those suffered by characters in a television soap opera. More than 300 children have complained of symptoms including rashes, breathing difficulties and dizziness at 14 schools in different parts of the country. Some schools have been forced to close.
The sensational discovery of what appeared to be the skeleton of a new species of small humans - dubbed hobbits - has been dismissed by a team of scientists.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has told the country's newspapers to stop publishing pictures of women as they could lead young men astray.
Politicians George Galloway and Al Gore, naturalist Sir David Attenborough and the creators of South Park will all speak at this year's Edinburgh TV Festival.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park, will fly into the UK to deliver a special Edinburgh Masterclass on the cult sitcom, now in its tenth season. The pair will discuss how the series has evolved since its 1997 launch, their approach to the worlds of celebrity and politics, and what's next for the show.
SHANGHAI, China - Tropical Storm 
PARIS One day after President Jacques Chirac called his government to order, demanding that ministers focus on their jobs rather than the political scandal that has dominated headlines here for weeks, a senior French defense executive ruined hopes for a lull by admitting that he had written an anonymous letter at the heart of the affair.
The European Union said on Thursday it was freezing the assets and funds held in EU countries by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and 35 other top officials to protest the continuing crackdown against opposition groups and the president's re-election two months ago.
Nepals reinstated parliament on Thursday unanimously approved a sweeping plan to curtail the powers of the king and take away his control over the army. The historic move came less than a month after often violent mass protests across the Himalayan nation pressured King Gyanendra to reinstate parliament and hand power back to a multi-party government. The landmark resolution was approved by a verbal vote by deputies in the 205-member house, less than two hours after it was presented by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. The proclamation takes away the title of supreme commander-in-chief of the military from the king, traditionally revered as an incarnation of Hindu God Vishnu until the present monarch fell foul of his people after he grabbed power in 2005. 
Veteran Indian actor Feroz Khan was banned by Pakistan yesterday from returning to Pakistan after officials said he had insulted the country during a visit to promote a film.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Thursday that most nations believe his successor should come from Asia, as campaigning for his replacement intensifies. "I can say that most of the member states believe that it is a turn for Asia," Annan told a news conference in Tokyo. "It is a practice that we have rotated it over the years from one region to the other," the Ghanaian said. The United States, however, has resisted the regional power-sharing arrangement, saying it would support the best candidate regardless of his or her region. Several Asian countries are putting forward successors to Annan, whos second five-year term expires at the end of the year. The world's largest region has not had a UN chief since U Thant of Burma (now Myanmar) finished his second term in 1971. South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon, whom Annan met earlier this week on his regional tour, has announced his candidacy. Other Asians who have expressed interest include Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai and Sri Lanka's Jayantha Dhanapala, an adviser to President Mahinda Rajapakse.
