Ending a monthlong search that has cost 76 people their lives, Jamaican authorities on Tuesday captured Christopher "Dudus" Coke, 42, an alleged trafficker in guns and drugs who is also wanted in the United States.
Acting on a tip, police captured Coke in St. Catherine parish on the outskirts of Kingston. He was dressed like a woman and wearing a wig, police said.
Coke was in the company of the Rev. Al Miller, who earlier had mediated the surrender of Coke's brother, Leighton, to police. Coke was on his way to surrender at the U.S. Embassy in Kingston when he was stopped at a police checkpoint, Miller told a Reuters reporter.
"The police searched the vehicle that I was in and they recognized him and held him," Miller said.
Police said Tuesday they are now seeking to arrest Miller, who was not taken in with Coke and remains at large.
The capture occurred two days after the police offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
"I knew when they offered so much money, he would not be allowed to remain at-large too long," a vendor in downtown Kingston said.
U.S. authorities initially requested the extradition of Coke in August after he was indicted in New York on drug- and gun-smuggling charges. Although he first declined to execute an arrest order, Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding finally launched an operation to capture Coke in the last month in the Tivoli Gardens slum, which is Coke's power base.
Authorities met with resistance from Coke's gang members, with 73 civilians and three security force members killed in gun battles. More than 900 suspects were arrested and held in the National Arena for several days.
Golding's reluctance to arrest Coke had raised suspicions that the leader was protecting him, and the bloody search for Coke nearly cost Golding his job. Opponents, including former Prime Minister Edward Seaga, urged Golding to resign, and he narrowly survived a no-confidence vote in Jamaica's Parliament on June 1.
The case has focused scrutiny on the close relations between some Jamaican politicians and so-called "dons," or neighborhood ward bosses, of whom Coke was the most powerful. As the Caribbean became a major drug-trafficking route in recent years, U.S. authorities say that some dons, including Coke, became involved in illicit drugs and other illegal activities, with some accruing more power and wealth than their former political patrons.
Coke allegedly was the leader of the so-called Shower Posse, the most powerful Jamaican drug-smuggling gang, with members in New York and other American cities along the East Coast.
Coke's father is a former Shower Posse boss who was burned to death in jail in 1992 before he could be extradited.
A state of emergency and curfew is still in effect for much of Kingston, and the U.S. State Department has issued a travel advisory for the capital and its environs.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"Disguised as a Woman" > I'm a'guessin' this meant that [Italo-Sicilian Mafia style, Other US Underworld?]WEARING SENIOR CITIZEN SLIPPERS, BATHROBES, + FEIGNING? SICKNESS OR OLD-AGE DEMENTIA(S), ETC. didn't suffice???
The LATE MICHAEL JACKSON PIC'D WEARING WOMEN'S CLOTHES IN YEMEN???
Once again, Virgina, we learn why God invented RUSSIAN ROULETTE.
Not everyone expects a response when they write a letter to the president of the United States. But Caroline Jamieson got much more than she expected when her husband ended up in jail and afraid he would be deported. Be careful of what you vote ask for . . . .
Jamieson, vice president of marketing at a new-media advertising company, wrote President Barack Obama in January because her husband, Hervé Fonkou Takoulo, was facing deportation to his native Cameroon. Takoulo failed in a bid before political asylum almost a decade ago, and a judge issued a deportation order after they were married.
After he and Jamieson married on 2005, Takoulo applied for a green card based on his marriage to a U.S. citizen. But immigration law requires that the deportation order be lifted before the couple can appear before immigration officials to argue their case that the marriage is legitimate and not a ploy to legalize Takoulo's presence in the United States.
"We want to be given the chance to interview and prove that we are a married couple, so Hervé can get a green card, and that has proven extremely difficult to do," Jamieson told CNN.
They never received a direct response to the letter. But they did get two Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers waiting outside their East Village, Manhattan apartment on June 3 when Takoulo was leaving the apartment to go to the gym.
Jamieson told CNN that the officers cornered her husband and asked him if he had written a letter to the president. "He said 'No, but my wife did.' And they explained that with that letter -- when it was brought to their attention -- that the Obama administration wanted them to resolve this quickly,'" Jamieson said.
Her husband was held at ICE headquarters for six hours, alone in a room, until he was chained at the wrists, around his stomach and his ankles and taken to the Hudson County Correctional Center in New Jersey, she said.
For the next two weeks, a frantic Jamieson wrote letters to politicians and anyone else who might be able to help. She got responses, she said, but none seemed to lead anywhere. Takoulo was allowed to call his wife once a day at designated times but he knew little about his situation. He spent his days with repeat sex offenders and men accused of felonies, fearing imminent deportation.
"I did everything I could and went into survival mode and pushed for all these connections to the press," she said. "We are fortunate to have that leverage. What about the people in the country who don't have access to those means?"
Then, on Thursday, he was brought to an immigration processing jail in Manhattan and released. There was no explanation offered for his release, but Takoulo is now wearing an electronic ankle monitor while his case is being reviewed.
ICE spokesman Brian P. Hale said the circumstances of Takoulo's arrest were undergoing an internal review and he was released as "an alternative to detention pending a review of his case."
Investigators are looking to determine whether "appropriate separation" between Jamieson's letter to the president and Takoulo's deportation case were violated. If so, he said, the case will go to the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility and the Homeland Security Department's inspector general for "immediate and appropriate action."
Takoulo graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook with an engineering degree in 2008 and received several job interview offers after graduation. But the deportation order hung over his head and prevented any followup.
"All he wants to do is contribute to this economy," Jamieson told CNN. "We want to be a productive couple. He's been dying to work."
The couple has been following Barack Obama's rise in the political world since 2004.
"I felt a special kinship to him because I'm of mixed race, and my husband obviously has a similar background," Jamieson told CNN.
Regardless of whether or not her letter was mishandled, the incident has deeply affected the couple's faith in the Obama administration. Take a number and get in line.
"I feel really confused, I don't understand how something like this is possible. I can't imagine that at the top of the Obama administration that they realize that something like this is happening," Jamieson told CNN. Obviously, you were not paying attention.
#1
For those who might be interested, Bob Tisdale reports on various sea surface temperatures every month and has quite an interesting posting on El Nino and La Nina at his Climate Observations blog:
http://bobtisdale.blogspot.com/
El Nino is actually a period when the ocean is giving up its heat to the atmosphere ... which is why we see the warm surface temperatures. La Nina is when it is an absorbing phase of solar energy. So while sea surface temperatures are low during La Nina, the ocean is actually banking heat at this time (and storing it in the far Eastern Pacific). Once the trade winds slack off, this warm water "sloshes" (so to speak) back across the equatorial region raising surface temperatures there while it gives the heat up to the atmosphere.
#2
Following from crosspatch, 99.x% of the Earth's climate heat is in the oceans. So when the atmosphere warms from an El Nino it means the Earth's climate is cooling as the oceans lose heat, and as the atmosphere cools from a La Nina it means the Earth's climate is warming.
Atmospheric temperatures (over timescales less than a century or so) are irrelevant to whether the Earth's atmosphere is warming or cooling. It's Ocean Heat Content that matters. And we have only been able to measure OHC with any accuracy for less than 10 years.
Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has dismissed four of his cabinet members as part of ministerial reshuffle in the country's coalition government.
Energy Minister Elias Mudzuri has been relieved form his duties only days after a nationwide power failure during the World Cup, a Press TV correspondent reported on Wednesday.
However, the Zimbabwean premier has brushed aside speculations that his energy minster was dismissed over the blackout, saying the change was "to strengthen the performance" of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
The MDC, whose top politicians hold half of the posts in the cabinet, signed a power-sharing deal with African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) led by President Robert Mugabe last year.
The outgoing energy minister will be replaced by Minister for Economic Planning Elton Mangoma, who will in turn be replaced by the MDC's former Deputy Secretary General Tapiwa Mashakada.
Among the ministers who were sacked was Housing Minister Fidelis Mhashu.
Tsvangirai has denied that the changes could be linked to power wrangles within his party.
"I want you to disabuse this notion that any redeployment is victimization....the move was strategic and meant to allow them to focus their energies on party issues ahead of next elections," he said.
The new ministers are expected to be sworn in by Mugabe on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
I have a ten Million Dollar Zimbuck, worthless, of course
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/24/2010 1:21 Comments ||
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#2
Zimbabwean premier reshuffles cabinet
bob's papers are now on top, pens and pencil are now here...ok done...all in a days work...
Venezuela's Roman Catholic Church is blaming the government of President Hugo Chavez for the decomposition of more than 22,000 tons (20,000 metric tons) of food inside a port. That phrase you're probably looking for right now would be 'single point of failure.' The one-word description would be 'incompetence.' Stalin had to starve out the kulaks ...
Church leaders condemn what they call the irresponsibility of officials at the state-run company that imported the food, calling the scandal "a sin that Heaven is crying over."
Chavez has urged prosecutors to bring all those responsible to justice. Authorities have arrested the ex-president of the company and two other officials.
The Venezuelan Bishops' Conference said Tuesday the decomposed food is an example of government mismanagement. It complained of what it calls "the moral deterioration of public institutions."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2010 00:00 ||
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There is nothing surprising about the arrest warrant in Venezuela for Guillermo Zuloaga, principal shareholder and president of Globovision, the country's lone independent TV station. What is surprising is that Hugo Chavez has taken this long to make a move that those who follow Globovision's heroic resistance against the autocrat have long expected.
Ever since Chavez took RCTV, Venezuela's oldest station, off the open airwaves in 2007, Globovision knew it was next in line. But despite a dizzying array of judicial charges and acts of intimidation, Zuloaga's media outlet maintained its investigative reporting and commentary. Even when the government falsely accused Zuloaga, who also owns two car dealerships, of hoarding vehicles with the purpose of raising their prices, Globovision's president kept up the fight. Meanwhile, other critics -- mayors, governors, intellectuals, business people -- were arrested or forced to flee the country. The latest was Oswaldo Alvarez Paz, former governor of Zulia province, who spent time in jail for saying that his country had become a haven for drug traffickers. But somehow Chavez figured that a definitive move against Zuloaga, whose brief detention last March triggered international protests, was not in his interest.
This has now changed. Zuloaga is a wanted man; the government wants to eliminate the last bastion of freedom in broadcast journalism. There is always something rational about the timing of Chavez's moves against key opponents. What the Zuloaga arrest warrant reveals is the real extent of the country's crisis three months before legislative elections that will give the opposition a presence in Congress for the first time in years (it abstained from participation in the last legislative elections).
Corruption scandals reached their apex recently when 30,000 tons of rotting imported food were discovered in the warehouses of various government-owned enterprises. Venezuela, a country that suffers from chronic shortages due to price controls, imports 70 percent of its food. It is a cruel irony that, due to official corruption, the government, which routinely accuses private retailers of hoarding food for speculation, should be denying the most basic products to people dependent on a government aid program. It has cost Chavez, whose popularity has dropped to 48 percent.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2010 00:00 ||
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June 23 (Bloomberg) -- Purchases of U.S. new homes fell in May to the lowest level on record after a tax credit expired, showing the market remains dependent on government support. Or one could just as well say that US housing prices are still far too high to be affordable to the average family not suffering from unemployment &/or that US consumers are tapped out after going hog-wild into debt.
The entire economy is dependent on government support.
We are in a Depression now and have been since 2008. A Depression is defined as a 10% contraction in GDP. But for the government borrowing 11% of GDP and spending it, GDP would have contract[ed] by at least the same amount borrowed and spent.
#6
#2 Strange the tax assessors keep and insurance keep raising my valuations.... all those unsold homes should be driving them down... strange....Posted by 3dc
Add to that a demographics change, a high school no one wants their kids go to anymore, and a real estate market which consists almost exclusively of foreclorsures.
"But, but, but..... our savings is the equity in our house."
#7
The banks that own these homes will NOT be coming down on the price, thank you very much. They will hold them for decades without changing the asking price.
#10
The ratio between house prices and wages is still FAR too high, thanks to all that regulatory created credit.
Credit needs to be reduced, house prices need to fall, and taxes on incomes need to fall too, so that a decent affordability of housing is found.
The state used Credit volume increases to hide the damage it's income taxes were doing to the economy.
This pushed down yields and now the west faces bankruptcy. To cap it off they tried to reflate and not even remove bankrupt institutions from the economy.
PJ O Rourke talked about politicians being akin to giving children whisky and car keys, but it's more like giving children PCP and RPGs.
#11
3dc has a point. I wonder what a Tea Party local meeting could do if someone pointed out that since the price of local housing has gone down (10%, 30%, whatever it is in that neck of the woods), that assessments and property taxes should go down by the same amount.
I understand that the local schools and villages need money. People want local services; they want their police and fire protection, they want the library, they want the parks. Counties and villages have to find revenue.
But a house worth $400K in 2006 is now worth $300K in our area (Will County IL). Foreclosed houses are worth a lot less. Besoeker is correct: many people considered their homes a primary source of long-term savings. That's been wiped out.
And people won't forever understand why government, public employees and public programs won't share in the pain.
Final passing thought: wonder if, when a bank forecloses, they get the county assessor to cut the taxes on that house, and if so, how come I can't get the same consideration?
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/24/2010 9:32 Comments ||
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#12
But, but, but, Robert Gibbs, BO's mouthpiece told us the economy was improving. What the...?
#13
got PCS orders back to NC and was damn lucky to sell the house here in Ohio...only owe about $9K for the basement we put in (knew it wouldn't raise the asking price of the home but figured it would help sell the home) - we were lucky, priced it to sell and had it sold in 6 weeks. I got a tax assessment in the mail after the sale saying our prop taxes went up - I LMAO in irony. In 3 yrs my home went from being worth $225K to $209K (not bad compared to our neighbors) and still all our prop taxes went up about $30.00 a month.
I will prolly only rent from now until I retire from the service.
#15
I'm planning on building my own home (Iown a smsll bit of land) That way I can build slowly and pay as I build so there will be NO mortgage.
Without the Bank's greedy tongue lapping up my cash I can take my time, build it over a year or so and have a much nicer home than I could buy.
I did this once before(Thieves burned it down, they're in Prison)I can do it again, better.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/24/2010 12:08 Comments ||
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#16
I have been humbly suggesting to a couple people, and only because I know their situation and do not suggest this to anyone because I do not know that situation, to wait 6 months before buying a house. Renters I suggest to get a long term unchanging contract and be prepared for reduced maintenence. There are instances where people are paying the same to rent as they would to pay back for a borrow for a house. I do understand the Renting angle, don't have to take care of the place so much and many do not know where they will be a year out. Again, this is just me and the people I know well enough to suggest this to and still feel uncomfortable doing so - when I was doing this for myself I spent a good amount of time weighing all scenarios. Its crazy to me to see people spend months fretting about a new car but go buy a house without too much worry like is it in a flood plain, does the inspector know what s/he is talking about, is the plumbing accessable, how are those shingles, what about that old tree leaning over the roof, where are the pipes in the yard property, etc etc etc.
As far as the housing stimulus deal, IMHO the whole point was to bouy property values/taxes, not necessarily to get people into homes. Same thing could have been accomplished by letting the market drop out and 6 months later when housing could be afforded by more people with no cost the government, but hey with only a couple months left before setting the tax charts.
#17
Strange how the government lowers interest rates to prop up housing prices but then threatens to go ape shit if health insurance companies raise their premiums. I mean, if people could afford to buy a home they might not be so concerned about insurance companies trying to stay profitable. I wonder if it has anything to do with the socialists attempt to grab total control of the health care industry?
#18
Some property levies are actually a total amount of taxes, which are then apportioned to property owners based on the value of the property. So to maintain a certain amount of taxes received, an individual owner's taxes might well go up even as his assessed value goes down.
OTOH, some taxes are based on a %-age of the assessed value, as assessments rise & fall, the taxes assessed will rise & fall. So in areas where property values skyrocketed, so did tax receipts, and the local governments spent accordingly.
Neither method of assessing taxes takes into account that in a depression, some property owners either can't or won't pay what is due. The locality's only solution is to seize the property and sell it for back taxes.
Even if you buy a house for cash, or owe no money to anyone for it, you are STILL 'renting' it -- this time from the government which can seize your property if you fail to pay your real estate taxes.
#19
In 1978 in California we passed Proposition 13 which limits the amount of property taxes local government can collect. It works pretty well. Of course, the politicians got back at us with income taxes but at least the old folks on fixed incomes are less likely to be taxed out of their homes.
#20
My understanding 1/4 of the home owners in DuPage Co. IL have not paid their higher property taxes.
The banks and local gov. can go FOAD - the homes need to assume a real value. What is happening means I have to pay more and more of the 1/4's kids schooling, parks, libraries, etc... If gov would trim it's piggish hunger and banks would take some lumps the houses could be valued a lot more reasonably letting a lot more of the 1/4 home owners actual pay a property tax... WIN WIN
#21
Of course the PC correct stupidity is making it impossible to curb....
Example - one of my wife's patients - who should really be in state lock-up facility like Elgin.... has run up near a million dollars in rehab funds since March by refusing to take his meds, claiming psychotic episodes and calling 911 himself to be pampered in a hospital psych ward.
Its NOT PC to force him to take is fricking meds or make him clean his room or go to school or not threaten everybody. It's not PC to make a mental patient uncomfortable in anyway...
SO in 4 months he has wasted more county state and fed money then any of the people working with him will earn all together in a decade.
PC needs to FOAD - I am sorry Dr S and ltop...
It's the way my taxpayer balance book sees it...
#22
Okay... my tax appraisal went up %30 last year.... so the woman across the street, with a much bigger house, paid $550K for it about 10 yrs ago. She has it on the market now so I ambled over and grabbed a sales bill.... $345K hmmm she's selling it for a $205K loss? But, it is not selling... so there is no recent comp price to compare my house to....
Gov appraisers are pure jerks it seems...
#24
But, it is not selling... so there is no recent comp price to compare my house to....
3dc, you have a couple of options to get comparative prices. First, go to the Re/Max site -- they have a neat little search engine that will tell you what very roughly comparable houses have sold for. See link. I just did it, and I very sincerely hope it has undervalued my house by quite a bit. Then call a real estate agent, any real estate agent, and ask them to do a quick "comps. sold" for you, based on the usual information real estate agents collect when they list a house. With four or five comparables you will be able to argue with the tax appraiser, because this is exactly the information they use. Pretty much any real estate agent will be happy to spend ten minutes or so doing the work in order to generate goodwill -- business is so slow these days that's about the cheapest advertising effort he/she will go through this week.
Comparing list prices is not useful, as so many list prices, even in these troubled times, are wishful thinking.
#25
On a personal note, the last few times we bought or sold houses we based the prices on comps. sold, and never had an argument from the opposite party or the banks doing the appraisals. And, when we sold, we got offers in the first two weeks of listing our homes. Granted, we never tried in the current environment, so your mileage will vary.
#26
I will prolly only rent from now until I retire from the service.
That is very smart. Particularly if you move frequently. I am advising my children not to buy for at least 10 years or until WWIII is over, whichever comes first.
#28
Denver- Used housomg prices down 14%. Existing hone sales down 38% in one year. Value of my home,County assement, up 20%. Percentage paid toward education 59%.(I have no children) Denver County rating in the US, 38th. Seems fair to me. I'm sure those undocumented Americans will make my life do much better in my golden years.
Posted by: Flapper Scourge of the Algonquins4926 ||
06/24/2010 22:24 Comments ||
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#29
From one of the real estate sites: Over the last year, Wheaton appreciation rates have trailed the rest of the nation. In the last twelve months, Wheaton's appreciation rate has been -4.56%, which is lower than appreciation rates in most communities in America. In the latest quarter, NeighborhoodScout's data show that house appreciation rates in Wheaton were at -0.73%, which equates to an annual appreciation rate of -2.92%.
Notably, Wheaton's appreciation rate in the latest quarter is one of the lowest in America.
Relative to Illinois, our data show that Wheaton's latest annual appreciation rate is higher than 15% of the other cities and towns in Illinois.
#1
There doesn't need to be a ban in force to make life difficult but it is a shame.
Posted by: Bacon in the Mosque horror ||
06/24/2010 7:46 Comments ||
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#2
I think mass deportation of all islamists will be more up to the point than banning burka's.
It seems they are refusing to face their real problem untill the day an islamic majority mobs them out of their soft couches and destroys the European culture forever.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
06/24/2010 9:16 Comments ||
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#3
So the Council won't ban them.
But the national governments of Spain, France and Belgium will, and other national governments are considering it.
Tells you all you need to know about the prospects of a future 'United Europe'.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/24/2010 9:34 Comments ||
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#4
I wonder what they will do when muslims start getting serious about griping about bikinis.
The measures, which will ease hiring and firing regulations seen as essential to lift Spain out of the recession, won preliminary approval only after Spain's opposition parties agreed to abstain in Tuesday's vote.
The governing Socialist party won 168 votes in favour in the 350-seat assembly with 173 deputies abstaining, including all those from the conservative opposition Popular Party.
The labour market reforms, which will make it easier to dismiss workers and will simplify contracts, have angered Spain's main unions, who have called a general strike in September in protest.
The Governor of the Bank of Spain, Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordóñez, also voiced his criticism of the measures claiming they did not go far enough.
Spain's unemployment rate has soared to 20 per cent of the workforce, the highest rate in the 27-nation European Union after Latvia's, following the collapse of the labour-intensive construction sector at the end of 2008.
The rise in joblessness has caused government spending on unemployment benefits to soar, which has in turn helped to push Spain's public deficit to 11.2 per cent of gross domestic product last year, the third-highest in the eurozone after Greece and Ireland.
Zapatero's 15 billion (£12.5 billion) austerity bill scraped through parliament by one vote last month. The unpopular plan aims at shoring up Spain's public finances amid investor concerns it could follow Greece into a financial crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#3
France does whatever gives it the tiniest benefit, no matter how it screws over it's neighbors. Once that is realized, it becomes easy to deal with the French.
Posted by: ed ||
06/24/2010 12:18 Comments ||
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#4
Is russia still driving those T-90 garbage cans around?
#5
Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
[aloud]
Captain Renault: Everybody out at once!
A key witness in the trial of a powerful Muslim clan accused of orchestrating the worst political massacre in the Philippines has been shot dead, a prosecutor said Thursday.
The witness, Suwaib Upham, claimed to have taken part in the November killings of 57 people in a crime allegedly planned by his former employers, the Ampatuan clan. "He was supposed to be one of our strongest witnesses," prosecutor Harry Roque told AFP. "He saw, and participated in, the killings and could have directly named in court those involved."
Roque warned that Upham's killing, which he was told occurred last week in the southern province of Maguindanao, could potentially weaken the case against the Ampatuan family. Roque said Upham had been talking to prosecutors in Manila since February, but went back to Maguindanao after the justice department did not act quickly on his request for protection. "He went back to Maguindanao when it became apparent the witness protection programme would take a while to take him in," Roque said.
His death comes two months after an uncle of another witness was also shot and killed, in what authorities said was part of a plan to intimidate those speaking out against the Ampatuan clan.
The clan, which has ruled Maguindanao with brutal efficiency for a decade, enjoyed political ties with outgoing President Gloria Arroyo, who used the family's huge private army as a force against separatist rebels. Six clan members are among 196 people charged over the murders, allegedly carried out to prevent a member of a rival clan from running as governor of the province.
The main suspect, Andal Ampatuan Jnr, allegedly led about 100 armed militiamen who stopped the convoy of supporters of Esmael Mangudadatu and then summarily executed 57 people, including 30 journalists.
The closely watched trial has been mired in controversy, and has been suspended since April. Justice Secretary Alberto Agra in April controversially dropped charges against two Ampatuan suspects, but was forced to reverse his decision after public outrage. The justice department then courted more criticism when it allowed the main suspect, Ampatuan Jnr, to hold a free-wheeling press conference inside his prison cell without handcuffs.
Roque said the court has not yet given prosecutors a definite timeline for the resumption of the trial. "But justice needs to be served quickly in this case," he said.
Roque said Upham's relatives had informed him that the witness had been killed by gunmen last week in Maguindanao. It was not clear why police did not immediately report his killing to prosecutors, and no officials were immediately available for comment.
[Straits Times] PHILIPPINE police have filed murder charges against two local politicians and a police officer over the separate killings of two provincial radio reporters last week, but none of those charged have been detained.
The Philippines was the deadliest country for journalists in 2009, accounting for 37 of 132 journalists and support staff around the world that were killed or died while working, the International News Safety Institute said.
'Murder charges had been filed against them based on the strength of testimonies from several witnesses,' national police spokesman Leonardo Espina Espina told reporters on Wednesday, saying politics could be among the motives for the killings.
Village head Romeo Antoling and police officer Dennis Jess Lumikid have been charged with the June 14 murder of Desadario Camangyan, a radio commentator known for his anti-mining and anti-logging editorials. They have not yet been arrested.
Camangyan was shot from behind while judging a singing contest in Manay town on southern Mindanao island.
Pacifico Velasco, who was elected vice mayor Bacarra town in northern Ilocos Norte province last month, and his aide Leonardo Banaag have been charged with the June 16 murder of radio reporter Jovelito Agustin, but remain at large.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2010 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] Members of political parties contesting Myanmar's first elections in two decades will be banned from marching, waving flags and chanting to garner support, under rules announced on Wednesday.
The directive, which did not reveal a date for the polls, requires party members who want to gather and deliver speeches at places other than their offices to apply for a permit one week in advance, according to state media.
'Rules prohibiting the act of marching to the designated gathering point and the venue holding flags, or marching and chanting slogans in procession ... shall be stipulated in the permit,' the New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
Holding knives, weapons and ammunition are also banned, along with acts that harm security and the rule of law or tarnish the image of the military. Misuse of religion for political gains is also prohibited, state media said.
Critics have dismissed the election - which is scheduled for some time later this year - as a sham due to laws that have effectively barred opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from participating.
Suu Kyi?s National League for Democracy (NLD) was forcibly dissolved under widely criticised laws governing the polls. The NLD refused to meet a May 6 deadline to re-register as a party - a move that would have forced it to expel Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest - and is boycotting the vote.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Indonesian police said Wednesday they would detain two television starlets who allegedly appear in sex videos posted online, after furious Islamic extremists threatened to do it themselves.
Rather than promising to defend the stars' homes or arrest the radical extremists making the threats, police said they would detain Luna Maya, 29, and Cut Tari, 32, for their own protection.
"The reason is not simply to arrest them but to protect them from mass organizations that are furious," chief detective Ito Sumardi told reporters.
The women -- models and television presenters -- allegedly appear in separate homemade sex videos with rock singer Nazril Ariel, 28.
Ariel surrendered to police on Tuesday, facing up to 12 years in jail for alleged breaches of the 2008 anti-pornography law. He denies uploading the clips to the Internet.
The clips have been widely shared among Indonesia's 40 million Internet users, stirring a raging debate about Web freedoms and fuelling calls for tighter controls on information technology in the mainly Muslim country.
The controversy took an ugly turn on Tuesday when about 1,000 Islamist extremists rallied in central Jakarta to demand the stars be publicly caned or stoned to death for adultery.
And on Wednesday the Islamic Defenders Front -- a vigilante group known for its unprovoked armed assaults on liberals, transsexuals and nightclubs -- threatened to attack Maya and Tari unless they were arrested within three days.
"If police fail to arrest them, we will locate their houses and drag them to the police headquarters for detention," group chairman Habib Salim bin Umar Alatas told AFP, adding that hundreds of militants were standing by.
"Their acts have insulted Islam and will have a bad impact on the morality of our young generations," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/24/2010 00:00 ||
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"Their acts have insulted Islam and will have a bad impact on the morality of our young generations"
Maybe then Islam is required to change and adapt to fit with modern society you stupid man!
There shall be bacon in your mosque!
Posted by: Bacon in the Mosque horror ||
06/24/2010 7:51 Comments ||
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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.
Not everyone expects a response when they write a letter to the president of the United States. But Caroline Jamieson got much more than she expected when her husband ended up in jail and afraid he would be deported.
A key witness in the trial of a powerful Muslim clan accused of orchestrating the worst political massacre in the Philippines has been shot dead, a prosecutor said Thursday.
