The Gwinnett County School District has launched an investigation after a teacher at Sweetwater Middle School allowed her eighth-graders to wear Ku Klux Klan costumes for a history project.
A school spokesperson said the teacher, Stephanie Hunte, agreed to let the students dress-up last Thursday as part of a history project.
The project was not approved by the school.
Another teacher saw the students in the hallway and alerted an administrator. Hunte was told the project was inappropriate, and it was immediately stopped.
Hunte was told not to come to school on Tuesday and to report to the district's central office on Wednesday.
Wednesday is the last day of school for the district.
The spokesperson said nothing has been decided on Hunte's future pending the outcome of the investigation. Hunte's been with the district since 2006.
Gwinnett Schools Spokesperson Sloan Roach said no parents or students contacted administration to complain about the incident.
Roach did not know how many students were involved.
A similar incident happened at the high-school in Lumpkin County last week. That teacher was suspended for two days and returned to class Wednesday morning
WASHINGTON - The United States said on Tuesday Ethiopia's election failed to meet international standards and called for stronger democratic institutions in the country, a key U.S. ally in Africa.
Really? Vote fraud in Ethiopia, you say? Boy howdy, that's like, um, Detroit, or Milwaukee, or Newark, or ...
While the elections were calm and peaceful and largely without any kind of violence, we note with some degree of remorse that the elections there were not up to international standards,' Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson told a House of Representatives panel.
Carson, the Obama administration's top diplomat for Africa, said Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's government had taken clear and decisive' steps to ensure it won a landslide victory in Sunday's vote. The ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front and allied parties won nearly every seat in the country's 547-member parliament.
A European Union observer mission said on Tuesday the polls had been marred by reports of violence and intimidation, as well as the ruling party's use of state resources for campaigning, but that this did not invalidate the results.
It is important that Ethiopia move forward in strengthening its democratic institutions and when elections are held that it level the playing field to give everyone a free opportunity to participate without fear or favor,' Carson said.
The United States regards Ethiopia as a crucial ally in the fight against hardline Islamism in the Horn of Africa, and has provided some $4.7 billion in aid to the country between 1999-2009, including $862 million in 2009, according to State Department figures.
But Washington has also noted opposition accusations of repression by Meles, who has been in power since 1991.
The two countries traded sharp words in March after Meles accused the U.S.-funded Voice of America broadcaster of spreading destabilizing propaganda' and said it would explore jamming the broadcaster's Amharic language service.
Carson indicated that the United States would continue to press Meles to make democratic changes, but not at the price of endangering the alliance.
We appreciate the level of collaboration that we receive from Ethiopia in a number of areas, but we also believe that Ethiopia must do better in strengthening its democratic institutions,' he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/26/2010 00:00 ||
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Yeah...real tough guys.
In an unprecedented outburst toward Saudi Arabia's religious police, a married woman shot at several officers in a patrol car after she was caught in an "illegal seclusion" with another man in the province of Ha'il on Tuesday. You think you bad! You think you bad!
BANGBANGBANGBANGBANG...
"She shot at the officers to distract them and allow the man to escape instant detention," said Sheik Mutlak al Nabet, a spokesman for the religious police in Ha'il. He added that the unnamed woman's husband has filed an official report, asking for his wife to be punished and stripped of her Saudi nationality. Oh, no...not that.
Saudi law forbids women to socialize with unrelated men or walk in public without a male guardian, other than her husband, father or brother. Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, known as the religious police, are tasked with segregating the sexes. Damn, chief. I didn't sign up for this...
Saudi media report that the woman is Syria-born and recently obtained Saudi citizenship after living for years in the kingdom. Her male compatriot is still at large. And plans on staying that way... The incident occurred only few days after the Saudi daily newspaper, Okaz, reported that a religious cop was taken to hospital with bruises after being punched by a woman in her 20s in the city of Al Mubarrazz. Woah, Mahmoud! Who kicked your ass?
I don't wanna talk about it...
The paper wrote that the young lady got violent with the officer after he asked her and man she was with at a public park to verify their relationship. Despite the possibility of facing imprisonment or lashing, the woman's fisticuffs was hailed by Saudi human rights activist Wajiha Huwaidar. Kick his ass, girlfriend!
"People are so fed up with these religious police, and now they have to pay the price for the humiliation they put people through for years and years," she said. "This is just the beginning and there will be more resistance." Dee..licious!
The religious police, who patrol shopping malls to make sure women are fully veiled, are reviled in much of the nation. King Abdullah has attempted in recent years to weaken their grip in an overall effort to soften the nation's fundamentalist Wahhabi Islam. Sounds like the ladies are handling that on their own...
#2
And the liberals say that vigilantism is OK as long as it's justified in their eyes. Just like "I'm against the death penalty but that guy needs it."
#3
Anguper: The problem with hat pins was not pain, it was that they caused lethal internal bleeding. Often people did not even realized they had been stabbed, feel ill an hour later and lie down, never to get up again.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The reasons behind stopping women from driving in Saudi Arabia no longer exists, a prominent Saudi cleric told Al Arabiya, bringing the issue of whether Saudi women should be allowed to drive to the surface once more.
The comments were made during the TV show Wajih al-Sahafah (Face the Press), aired by Al Arabiya few days ago, and presented by prominent journalist Dawood al-Shirian.
Sheikh Ahmed bin Baz, said that a fatwa on the matter, issued by the Council of Senior Islamic Scholars, was given in a particular context in the early 1990s, a time when there was much upheaval in the region, including the Gulf War, Saddam's invasion of Kuwait and the arrival of U.S. forces, something that some conservatives described as an American invasion.
General "right"
Bin Baz is an Islamic affairs researcher and lecturer and the son of the Kingdom's late former grand mufti, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Baz.
He added that it was at this time that the actions of a small group of women who got into cars and drove around was rejected by these conservatives who viewed their actions as intimidating and a move away from the Islamic status quo, reported the Saudi English-language daily Arab News in its analysis of the show.
Sheikh bin Baz added that the issue of women driving should not be viewed through a fatwa but as a general "right."
"Nowadays, stances and views have changed regarding everything and this is not an alien thing. Blocking pretexts is not necessary as not everything can lead to vices," said Sheikh bin Baz, asking whether driving and the use of cars should also be banned if traffic accidents lead to the loss of life.
The son of the Kingdom's former grand mufti said forbidding women from driving fearing they may be sexually harassed indicates that "we do not trust out education system, which teaches a sense of right and wrong that is derived from Islamic teaching. If we are in doubt about it, then we should re-evaluate it."
On the other hand, Nasser al-Oud, a professor of social services, looks at women driving as a cultural issue that needs to be studied from various angles. He added that there are no studies, surveys or research to elucidate the impact of foreign drivers on society.
740,000 drivers in KSA
There are over 740,000 drivers in the Kingdom, said al-Oud, adding that this is harmful to the economy as drivers send remittances abroad, harmful to families as drivers sometimes interfere in family matters, harmful to society as drivers are sometimes involved in crime and harmful to laborers as drivers are often involved in human trafficking.
Al-Oud said Saudi society rejects novel changes, which he said also includes women driving, something that makes men feel relegated from a dominant position in society. "But the thing is, it is not the men of the house who are the actual ones driving and fulfilling their families' needs. It is the foreign drivers," he said.
Mohammed al-Zulfa, a former member of the Shura Council, refuses seeing women as fragile and in need of protection. "Women are much stronger than we imagine. There are many widows and divorcees who provide for their entire families," he said, adding that people should have faith in them and they should be trusted.
He added that issues involving women are sensitive and are often dealt with in a conservative fashion. "The Shura usually puts an issue up for discussion should there be a recommendation to do so. Yet the issue of driving has not even been presented for discussion, as there is a fatwa on the matter issued by the Council of Senior Islamic Scholars in 1990-1991. We need a fatwa to annul the previous one or a royal decree," he said.
Al-Zulfa said religious institutes tolerate women mixing or being in "khalwa" (privacy) with their drivers but stop short of allowing women to drive. "It is a cultural and social issue rather than a religious one," he said, adding that it is a political decision and should be dealt with by the government.
What al-Zulfa says about the issue being a social and cultural matter, rather than a religious one, is something that bin Baz agrees on. "There are rights the government should give like education, health care and the ability to move and use transportation freely," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/26/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
This is extraordinary. Not the ruling, but the decision that there is no need for a ruling. This goes against the Wahabbi principle that everything is inclusive to the Koran, which gives clerics universal jurisdiction.
DOHA - Qatar's emir has pardoned a group of Saudis for their involvement in an attempted coup to overthrow him in 1996, the country's foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
In response to the desire of the custodian of the two holy shrines, Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, issued an emiri decision to pardon a number of convicts charged for a failed coup d'etat,' the ministry said.
The statement did not specify the number of convicts, nor say what their sentences were.
The group left the country on Tuesday afternoon accompanied by the deputy commander of the Saudi National Guard, Prince Mutaib bin Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the ministry said.
For its part, the Saudi Press Agency said the Saudi king had asked his Qatari counterpart to pardon the Saudi prisoners held in Qatar' and that he had done so.
In July 2008, Qatar released Wabran al-Yami after he spent 12 years in prison for involvement in the February 1996 coup. He was the only Saudi among 19 people sentenced to death.
The aborted coup aimed to overthrow the current emir, who had himself seized power by ousting his father Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani in June 1995. Sheikh Khalifa returned to Qatar in October 2004 after nine years in exile.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/26/2010 00:00 ||
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North Korea accused South Korea's navy Tuesday of trespassing in its waters and threatened military action, further raising tensions sparked by the sinking of one of Seoul's warships in March.
South Korea pressed a visiting Chinese official Tuesday to support international efforts to punish the North.
"The Chinese position still appears to be unclear," a foreign ministry official said after Wu Dawei held talks with Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan and chief nuclear envoy Wi Sung-Lac. "What the Chinese side mainly emphasised was stability and peace on the Korean peninsula."
That seems clear to me: don't upset the status quo. The Chinese really, really don't want a couple million starving Norks crossing the Yalu ...
China -- which could veto any UN move for new sanctions -- has not publicly blamed its ally the North for the sinking, despite pressure from visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to get tougher.
"The two sides believe that ensuring peace stability in east Asia and the Korean peninsula is critical," State Councillor Dai Bingguo said in Beijing at a joint press appearance with key US officials.
"Relevant parties should proceed on the basis of safeguarding the overall interest of peace and stability in the region and calmly and appropriately handle the issue and avoid escalation of the situation."
[Al Arabiya Latest] A Pakistani court on Tuesday remanded in custody a portly fertilizer dealer and teenage eunuch for allegedly trying to marry in the Taliban bomb-hit city of Peshawar, police said. A portly fertilizer dealer and a teenage eunuch get married? And they're gay? And Pakistani? Sounds like sitcom gold!
The alleged couple and dozens of guests were arrested when police raided a late-night party after a tip off that 42-year-old Malik Mohammad Iqbal Khan was trying to marry a 19-year-old eunuch, police said.
"We arrested the bridegroom, the would-be bride and 41 others at the wedding party," local police station chief Shahid Khan told AFP in the working class neighborhood of Faqir Abad in the northwestern city.
All of them were remanded in custody for one day on charges of attending an event that is "against Sharia " and "illegal", police said. ...and incredibly tacky.
The fertilizer dealer, who already has two wives, denied he was marrying the eunuch it had only been a birthday party for Rani. Yeah, sure. Sounds like Malik was up for a walk on the wild side...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/26/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
This should be a Rantburg Classic, Fred, after it ripens up with a day of snarking.
Ya see, there was this portly fertilizer dealer in Peshawer who was looking for some action, see. And this 19 year old teenage eunich comes up to him, see, and he sez, "I wanna marry you, your portliness."
And the fertilizer dealer sez, Look, I'm only throwing a surprise birthday party for yez, so don't read anything more to it than it is, which is just an excuse for a tumble in the ammonium nitrate bin with yez.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/26/2010 2:28 Comments ||
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#2
Sounds like a eunuch experience.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/26/2010 8:40 Comments ||
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This sounds like a joke that needs a third character. "A portly fertilizer dealer, a eunuch, and a __________ go into a bar(mitzvah?)..."
[Straits Times] FRANCE said on Tuesday it had persuaded Thailand's ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to abandon a speech in Paris on the Thai political crisis, but the event's organisers insisted it would go ahead.
'Thaksin Shinawatra assured us he would do what was asked,' foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters, referring to French officials' demands last week that he should not speak in Paris on May 31 as planned.
Mr Valero said the address to journalists, organised by a little-known think tank called the Centre of Political and Foreign Affairs, 'was no longer planned' and Thaksin 'told us he would not come back' to France.
But the head of the group of organising the speech, Fabien Baussart, told AFP: 'This event is still scheduled and it will take place whether the foreign ministry wants it to or not.'
France had earlier asked Thaksin to refrain from speaking in public during his private visit to France because of the tense situation in Thailand, where political instability has boiled over into deadly street violence. A Thai court on Tuesday issued a warrant for Thaksin's arrest on terrorism charges, which carry a maximum penalty of death, over accusations that he has been bankrolling the protests and inciting unrest from overseas.
Mr Valero said France was not currently bound by the warrant. After Thursday's statements, the organisers of the speaking event said Thaksin had temporarily left Paris for London.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/26/2010 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] THAILAND has extended the curfew imposed in Bangkok and 23 other provinces to Friday. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Tuesday the duration of the curfew would be shortened from midnight until 4am.
'However, the curfew in any area can be cancelled immediately if the security situation returns fully under control,' he told reporters after chairing a Cabinet meeting at the Government House, the first meeting to he held there after shifting it to other places during the 10 weeks of anti-government protest.
Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Security Suthep Thaugsuban said the curfew extension was necessary as there were still anti-government movements in some areas.
The government has declared curfew in the provinces since May 19 following unrest in those provinces after the military crackdown against the red shirts anti-government protesters in the capital which has left 85 dead and 1,400 injured throughout 10 weeks of protest.
The curfew had been extended several times and was supposed to end today. On the no-confidence motion against him, Mr Suthep and four other ministers tabled by Opposition in parliament on Monday, Mr Abhisit said the government welcomed the motion for debate. 'It is a great opportunity for the public to listen to explanation from both sides,' he said.
He said the government had contacted the Parliament president, Chai Chidchob for a date to be set for the debate which was expected to be held next Monday or Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/26/2010 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] A Thai court on Tuesday approved an arrest warrant for fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra on terrorism charges, which carry a maximum penalty of death, in connection with recent violent protests.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government has accused Thaksin of inciting unrest and bankrolling the mass rallies by the opposition 'Red Shirts', many of whom seek the return of the former telecoms tycoon.
'A court found there was enough evidence so it issued an arrest warrant,' Naras Savestanan, deputy chief of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), told reporters after the closed-door hearing at the Criminal Court. 'Now it's the attorney general's job to enforce the warrant,' he said.
The tycoon-turned-premier was ousted in a bloodless military coup in 2006 and lives in self-imposed exile, mainly in Dubai, to avoid a jail term for corruption. If found guilty, Thaksin could in theory face the death penalty, but the warrant appears aimed at boosting attempts to extradite Thaksin, who has found sanctuary in several countries.
The government has exerted pressure on countries he has visited and moved to freeze his finances. Abhisit said the court ruling and the severity of the charge would help the government's efforts to have Thaksin extradited.
'It will make our work with foreign countries easier,' he told reporters. 'We still have to monitor his movements and seek cooperation in line with existing agreements. As of now many countries are banning him, but not all.'
The DSI, tasked with investigating violence surrounding the anti-government demonstrations by the Red Shirts, said on Monday it had submitted evidence 'which show Thaksin's coordinating role' in the unrest. Thaksin last week denied he was the 'mastermind of the terrorists'.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/26/2010 00:00 ||
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We have been here before. Take note on who proposed it then...
City cops are livid over a legislative proposal that could handcuff the brave officers involved in life-and-death confrontations every day -- requiring them to shoot gun-wielding suspects in the arm or leg rather than shoot to kill, The Post has learned. How about the feet? I've heard they do that...someplace.
The "minimum force" bill, which surfaced in the Assembly last week, seeks to amend the state penal codes' "justification" clause that allows an officer the right to kill a thug if he feels his life or someone else's is in imminent danger.
The bill -- drafted in the wake of Sean Bell's controversial police shooting death -- would force officers to use their weapons "with the intent to stop, rather than kill" a suspect. They would be mandated to "shoot a suspect in the arm or the leg." Geez, Muldoon! Ya killed him! You're supposed to shoot the gun outta his hand!
Damn, sarge. Looks like I missed.
Under present NYPD training, cops are taught to shoot at the center of their target and fire their weapon until the threat has been stopped.
"These are split-second, spontaneous events -- and officers have to make a full assessment in a fraction of a second," said an angry Michael Paladino, president of the Detectives Endowment Association. "It is not realistic, and it exists only in cartoons." Maybe the cops can buy guns from ACME where the flags that say "BANG!" come out when you pull the trigger?
"It's moronic and would create two sets of rules in the streets if there is a gunfight. This legislation would require officers to literally shoot the gun out of someone's hand or shoot to wound them in the leg or arm." Or both. And all at once...
"I don't know of any criminal who doesn't shoot to kill. They are not bound by any restrictions. The legislators have their heads buried in the sand, and we would not be able to fully protect the public or ourselves."
In fact, NYPD officers and detectives hit their targets only 17 percent of the time because of the incredibly stressful circumstances surrounding a shooting.
Paladino, whose association represents 5,100 investigators, said he showed the bill last week to Vice President Joe Biden, who scoffed and suggested it be dubbed "The John Wayne Bill" because it demands sharp-shooting skills of the kind only seen in movies. Woah! Even JOE thinks it's stupid! So you know it's stupid...
Sponsored by Brooklyn Assembly Members Annette Robinson (D-Bedford Stuyvesant) and Darryl Towns (D-East New York), the bill came up at the Assembly Codes Committee but was held for further consideration rather than killed or put to vote before the full Assembly. Hmmmmmm...interesting bill. I think we'll put that in the circular file so I know where it is. Have a nice day, guys.
They did not immediately comment. Probably too busy calling for a SWAT team because somebody's dog shit on their lawn...
Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, the Codes Committee chair from Fort Greene and Williamsburg, said that the bill is well-intentioned but that the language may need changing. Yeah, that sounds so much better then "they're friggin idiots."
#1
Without even sending it to them, I think I know what the Lakewood, WA police force would think of this bill. Maybe the NY idiot should check out reality; we had 7 LE's killed or wounded in the past few months by perps that were packin'.
#5
OBVIOUSLY,
two A-holes that have never shot a pistol before.
That would be kind of cool to have ace marksman, shoot from the hip lawmen, like from the cowboy movies. Like for someone smoking in a restaurant, they could shoot the cherry off the end of the cigarette. Maybe we could require that they be masters of the bullwhip also, so they could do kewl Indiana Jones whip tricks and not even need a gun.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/26/2010 21:26 Comments ||
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#7
CF: Yes and thanks for finishing my thought.
My son is a Lakewood city att'y and was friends with the four that were gunned down. He is still having bad days from that; on the plus side, he is no longer in the plea-deal mode.
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.
