[EURONEWS] A Canadian male escort, found guilty last month of killing and dismembering a Chinese student, has appealed his first-degree murder conviction, claiming errors by the trial judge, Canadian media reported Monday.
Luka Magnotta, 32, was found guilty in the 2012 death of Jun Lin, 33, after eight days of jury deliberation. He was also convicted on charges including committing an indignity to a human body, publishing and mailing obscene material as well as criminally harrassing the Canadian prime minister and other politicians.
Magnotta's defence lawyer, Luc Leclair, filed an appeal against all charges and is requesting a new trial, saying the judge erred in his instructions to the jury. The appeal also says the "verdicts are unreasonable and unsupported by the evidence and instructions."
Magnotta had admitted to killing and dismembering the engineering student in Montreal but pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." on grounds of mental illness.
A first-degree murder conviction in Canada carries an automatic life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years. A hearing on the appeal will take place in Montreal on Feb. 18, media reported.
Daniel Urban, a Montreal lawyer who represented Lin's family during the trial, said in a statement that the trial judge was "experienced, talented and careful."
"His skill and his approach to obtaining consensus from the prosecution and the defence eliminated most any grounds of appeal for the decisions he had to take," Urbas said.
Jun Lin's father, Diran Lin, who travelled from China to Montreal for the trial, is still in Canada.
The case gripped Canada in the spring of 2012 after Lin's body parts were found in the trash behind a Montreal apartment building and in packages mailed to political parties in Ottawa and to schools in Vancouver.
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[MASHABLE] Police in Kenya on Monday tear gassed a group of schoolchildren who were demonstrating against the removal of their school's playground by powerful politician.
A group of students from Langata Road Primary School between the ages of six and 14 and clad in their green and blue school uniforms pushed down a wall erected around their playground. It was acquired by a private developer said to be a powerful politician, according to Boniface Mwangi, a Kenyan photojournalist at the scene.
Moments later, however, police shot tear-gas canisters into the crowd, sending the children scrambling. Local TV footage showed children writhing in pain, screaming and choking because of the tear gas. One child cried as a man poured water into his eyes while another child was carried away from the scene.
"We pushed down the wall and accessed the playground ... our aim was to play but we played with teargas," said Holy Dave, founder of an education nonprofit who was with the students at the site in an Instagram post.
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#1
Kenya? I seem to recall that there's someone here that was born in / has ties to Kenya. Who was that again?
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A mysterious case has been reported in Viluppuram district at Tamil Nadu state of India a newborn baby who is mysteriously catching fire. "Yep. Bust into flames. I seen it!"
According to the local media reports, the 10-day-old baby boy is currently being tested by the doctors in Kilpauk Meical College and Hospital (KMCH) in Chennai. "Went up like a match, he did!"
The mother of the baby has said her child caught fire and his feet burst into flames last Thursday when he only six day old. "We seldom see children burst into flames before age two."
A four-member special committee headed by KMC dean Dr N Gunasekaran, and comprise chief pediatrician Dr Sathya Moorthy, chief plastic surgeon Dr Nirmala Ponnambalam and chief psychiatrist Dr Raja Rathinam was formed by the state governmnet to investigate the mysterious case. The KMCH dean Dr Gunasekaran has said they have conducted blood, creatinine and electrolyte tests immediately after the infant was admitted, and the results were normal. What were the results of his kerosene tests? Betcha they were elevated.
"The child suffered burns on the legs. Today morning, the wound swab culture was sent for tests to detect bacterial infection if any. The results will be known after 48 hours," Gunasekaran quoted by The Indian Express said.
This comes as a 3-month-old baby belonging to the same family was also admitted to the hospital in August 2013 where doctors conducted a series of tests. According to the results of the tests, the baby had not caught fire mysteriously which raised concerns at that time that the baby may have been abused by relatives or burnt in an accidental fire. No! Really?
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[DAWN] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... on Monday beheaded a convicted Pak heroin smuggler, the third person from his country executed for the crime this year.
Yassir Arafat Munir Ahmed was executed in the Moslem holy city of Makkah, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
"Investigations led to his confession and after a trial he was sentenced to death," the ministry said.
Ahmed is the 11th person, and the third Pak, to be executed in the kingdom this year under a strict version of Islamic Shariah law.
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[ARABNEWS] The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Haia) has registered several complaints with the organizers of the Historic Jeddah festival, including women participants not wearing modest dress and music played too loud by a local radio station.
The Haia also observed that the organizers had not arranged enough space for prayers to accommodate the large number of visitors. The organizers said they have taken note of the commission's observations.
Fuad Kawther, former general manager of the Industrial City Dawa Office, said the Haia was doing the right thing to remind people about Islamic teachings and values.
"Our Islamic culture is the most advanced in the world. We should not forget about our culture and traditions while taking part in festivities," he told Arab News.
Kawther, who is an aviation engineer, said Saudis and other Moslems should uphold their Islamic culture whose pillars were established by Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) while he was in Madinah.
"There is a move to secularize society, separating religion from our day-to-day lives. This goes against our true Islamic culture and our all-embracing faith," he added.
He praised Haia officials for doing an honorable job. "They remind us when we cross boundaries set by the Shariah, when we forget about the Islamic dress code and values."
Kawther said Islam allows its followers to celebrate happy occasions but within certain limits. "During the time of the Prophet, women took part in dances, while the Prophet and his wives watched them."
Madinah Mayor Khaled Taher, who visited the Jeddah festival on Sunday, praised the organizers for setting up the event that highlights the Kingdom's rich culture and traditions.
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For a map, click here. You can enlarge the map, if you open it separately.
By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
A total of 200 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Friday in the battles at the Donetsk airport, according to Russian language video and news sources.
Currently, it appears from rebel news sources that the airport and surrounding regions have been taken by rebel forces after a long campaign that began back in October, 2014, just one month after the Minsk ceasefire accord went into effect.
Rebel forces are attempting to sweep Ukrainian forces from two key towns which were used by the Ukrainians to support defensive operations at the airport, Peski and Avdievka.
Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin wrote in his Live Journal account that rebel forces control about 60 percent of Peski despite two Ukrainian counterattacks which drove rebel forces back.
A separate attack by rebel forces at Avdievka began around the same time, but little has been reported on the status of that battle by either side.
The battles to clear Peski and Avdievka are significant in that Ukrainian troops in both villages had stood firm against rebel probes and attacks since September. It is unclear, aside from the rebel effort, what changed that allowed rebel forces to eliminate the Ukrainian presence in the airport and the two positions used to support Ukrainian presence at the airport.
100 Soldiers die at the new terminal
According to a top Donetsk military official, Lt. Colonel Basurin, rebel forces had reached an agreement with some Ukrainian troops at the airport for safe passage back to their lines. Although the precise number of soldiers who left the new terminal was not disclosed, Basurin said that a munitions cache left at the new terminal was destroyed by explosion and that 100 Ukrainian regulars were killed in the explosion.
In the past, for example in the battle of Ilovaisk last summer, rebels had allowed surrounded Ukrainian forces to return to their own lines providing they leave weapons and equipment behind.
Basurin also said that the entire structure of the new terminal had been wired for detonation, and that rebel engineers were in the process of defusing those explosives.
Until last Friday, the Ukrainian occupation of the new terminal was a thorn in the side of rebel commanders who had tried repeatedly to eject Ukrainian forces from the last stronghold at the airport. Only days before, rebel tanks leveled the control tower by tank gunfire. The control tower had been used by Ukrainian forces to spot artillery strikes into Donetsk city, so its destruction may have played a role in the Ukrainian decision to abandon the new terminal.
Rebel soldiers in the nearby old terminal had been in constant contact with Ukrainian forces at the new terminal. One video shot in December showed a rebel soldier speaking about an exchange with Ukrainian forces at the airport. Apparently, those soldiers shouted to the Ukrainians, "If you think (Ukrainian president Piotr) Poroshenko is a faggot, fire once. If you think he is a cool dude, fire twice." They fired once.
Encounter at Putilovsky Bridge
According to data supplied by videos of Donetsk officials talking about the battles for the Donetsk airport, the decision to counterattack and attempt to restore the situation at the airport was made at the highest levels of the Ukrainian government.
According to Lt. Col Basurin, an official identified by Basurin as Andrey Turchinov of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council had made the decision to throw everything the Ukrainians had at the airport, presumably after some of the Ukrainian forces left.
The actual number of attacks is unknown, but going by statements made by rebel officials at least five attacks fell on rebel forces defending around the airport. According to Basurin, and a statement made by Donetsk president Aleksandr Zakharchenko, all the counterattacks failed, with what Zakharchenko characterized as "massive losses" by the Ukrainians.
According to Basurin, a total of 200 Ukrainian effectives killed in action and another 300 wounded was the butcher's bill for the Ukrainians. Equipment losses included 27 tanks and another 20 armored vehicles destroyed, with one tank captured.
Basurin said that 12 rebel effectives were killed since Friday and another 62 were wounded.
Ukrainian artillery during the counterattacks included the use of BM-21 Grad and BM-27 Urugan rocket artillery launchers, "unmatched in scale and intensity", according to Basurin.
Ukrainian forces commanders attempting to reach the airport grounds had decided to use a position near the rebel hold town of Spartak as their main route into the airport using Putilovsky bridge. Apparently, according to a video which featured the rebel commander identified as "Givi", rebel forces also had tanks at the location, which was actually a choke point with good cover for defending infantry with RPG-7 antitank rocket launchers as well as for tanks.
"Givi" said in the video even while artillery was hitting around his position, that the Ukrainian military used BM-21 as well as 152mm tube artillery for support at the bridge. The artillery hit Spartak to suppress rebel forces there, and to provide cover to breakthrough to the bridge, and the airport beyond.
"Givi" said that Ukrainian riflemen mounted aboard an APC attempted to take "ambush positions" beneath the bridge, but rebel forces struck back with RPGs. Rebel forces damaged one vehicle and then tried to outflank the Ukrainian position. Apparently, it was then the APC commander decided to mount up his riflemen and leave.
"Givi" said he took advantage of the situation and deployed a tank at the bridge, and started firing at Ukrainian forces in the area. "Givi" claimed one destroyed Ukrainian tank in the encounter. Another armored personnel carrier from his unit -- the "Somaliya" battalion -- flanked the Ukrainian positions via Spartak and opened fire as well.
According to "Givi", a second Ukrainian tank took a cover position behind the destroyed tank and attempted to flee, but was caught by RPG fire and destroyed. Ammunition cooking off from the destroyed tanks collapsed the bridge.
Ukrainian fire strikes in Donetsk, Gorlovka
Little information had been released by Ukrainian media about the battles for the Donetsk airport. The last statement issued by the Ukrainian military last Friday was that the Ukrainians had recaptured the airport, a report which has been parroted and repeated worldwide.
The rebels have claimed since Sunday that Ukrainian forces have been hitting residential areas in Donetsk and Gorlovka using artillery, and in Gorlovka using combat aircraft.
According the data supplied by the pro rebel Voices of Sevastopol, Ukrainian artillery hit several districts in Donetsk city including the Kuibyshev district, Petrovsky district, Putilovsky district, Spartak and the new terminal at the airport.
According to Lt. Col Basurin, and data supplied by Rustoday.info, Ukrainian forces used Su-24 tactical bombers against rebel positions in Gorlovka. On Sunday morning, several bombers appeared in the sky above the city and circled around for a few minutes before leaving. That evening, bombers reappeared and dropped several 500 kilogram fuel air explosive (FAE) bombs on the city.
Additionally, a massive artillery strike was launched by Ukrainian forces from their positions to the west in Mayorsk and Dzezherzinsk. Rebels say a total of 30 civilians were killed or wounded in the bombing attack, which struck an unidentified residential sector of the city.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here.
[ZEENEWS.INDIA] Pro-Russian separatists renewed attacks on Ukrainian forces at an airport complex in the east on Monday after Kiev launched a mass operation to reclaim lost ground there that Russia called a "strategic mistake".
Ukrainian officials said three soldiers had been killed and 66 maimed over the past 24 hours, during which they said they had returned battle lines at the airport outside Donetsk to the status quo under a much violated international peace plan.
Russia expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... at what it called escalation by Kiev and published its own peace plan on Monday in the form of a letter from President Vladimir Putin ...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead... to Ukraine`s President Petro Poroshenko, which it said Poroshenko had rejected.
"It`s the biggest, even strategic mistake of the Ukrainian authorities to bank on a military solution to the crisis," Interfax quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin as saying. "This may lead to irreversible consequences for Ukrainian statehood."
In Kiev, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said Ukrainian intelligence had confirmed Russian cross-border arms deliveries to the separatists were continuing.
"Tanks, howitzers, Grad systems, Smerch, Buk," Yatseniuk told a joint news conference with Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz, listing Russian-made missile systems which he said were being channelled to the separatists.
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[ARABNEWS] The former Korean Air executive famous for an inflight tantrum over macadamia nuts pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." Monday to violating aviation safety law and hindering a government investigation.
Lawyers for Cho Hyun-ah did not dispute the major elements of the prosecutor's account of events on Dec. 5 when Cho forced a Korean Air jet to return to the gate. Instead, they are focusing on a technical rebuttal.
Cho spent most of the first day of her trial Monday with her head lowered and hair covering her face. She declined to make any comments when invited to by a judge. Cho's attorney Yu Seung-nam said Cho is unable to mentally recover from her ordeal as she has been "beaten" by the media.
Cho, who is the daughter of Korean Air's chairman, achieved worldwide notoriety by kicking the chief flight attendant off a Dec. 5 flight after another crew member offered her macadamia nuts in a bag, instead of on a dish. At the time, Cho was vice president of cabin service at the airline.
Her behavior, dubbed nut rage, caused an uproar in South Korea. The incident touched a nerve in a country where the economy is dominated by family-run conglomerates known as chaebol that often act above the law.
Cho has been in police custody since Dec. 30 and could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of all four charges against her.
Prosecutors accused her of forcing a flight to change its route, which was the most serious charge with a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. The three other charges Cho faces are the use of violence against flight crew, hindering a government probe and forcing the flight's purser off the plane.
Yu, Cho's attorney, told a panel of three judges that the flight had moved only 17 meters from the gate at New York's John F. Kennedy airport before it returned, which did not amount to a forced change of an aviation route.
Cho admitted using violence against one flight attendant in first class by pushing her shoulder and throwing an object at her, but denied that she poked the hands of chief flight attendant Park Chang-jin with a book. Yu argued that those acts did not amount to threatening safety on the flight.
Prosecutor Kim Tae-hoon told the court that a flight attendant who witnessed Cho's tantrum was scared and nervous throughout the 14-hour journey.
"The moment her anger erupted, the vice president did not look like a human. She looked like an angry tiger," said Kim, reading from the flight attendant's statement.
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(Reuters) - Lithuania is publishing a manual to advise its citizens on how to survive a war on its soil as concerns grow that Russia's intervention in Ukraine heralds increased assertiveness in its tiny Baltic neighbors.
"Keep a sound mind, don't panic and don't lose clear thinking," the manual explains. "Gunshots just outside your window are not the end of the world."
The manual, which the Defence Ministry will send to libraries next week and also distribute at army events, says Lithuanians should resist foreign occupation with demonstrations and strikes, "or at least doing your job worse than usual".
#3
Well gundhots just outside your windows are not the end of the world. Neither are bullets goi,nd straight at you. They will be the end of your life but not of the world.
#4
Go fishing for Major von Dach
And your anglers were in for a shock:
Not a Bach but a Meer,
More a Fluss than a Heer,
With a fish inside each cuckoo clock.
#7
Again, iff one presumes that POTUS Bill Clinton as America's "First Black President" ultimat presaged the Bammer, and the Bammer per se is allegedly presage for a coming or future
"HISPANIC/ASIAN PRESIDENT" = POTUS BOBBIE JINDAL???
"Dark Horse(s)" for Anti-US, US-led OWG Globalism???
[DAWN] A week into the debilitating fuel shortage distressing the Punjab province, Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday said he was ashamed on behalf of the government that the crisis has been allowed to continue.
At a press conference in Islamabad, Abbasi accepted responsibility for the crisis and said that a high-level committee had been formed to investigate those responsible for the shortage.
The minister said that oil supply has been increased by 30 per cent throughout the country.
He said that shortage of petrol in some areas of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa occurred due to exceptional demand following substantial reduction in prices.
He further stated that closure of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations in some areas of Punjab also caused shortage of the commodity.
"Supply has increased by 50 per cent in Islamabad and Rawalpindi and 100 per cent in Lahore," Abassi said during his briefing.
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#2
Battery life is problematic Wildcat. You must either wear it 24x7 or set it in the sun. You've got sun in Kansas, right? I'm on mine right now. Also, if you limit the wearing to your wrist, you're missing an intriguing function.
[DAILYCALLER] Actress Jane Fonda issued an apology late Friday for her infamous visit to North Vietnam in 1972, a moment that earned her the dubious nickname "Hanoi Jane."
Fonda called it a "huge mistake" during a speech given at an arts center in Frederick, Maryland, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named reports. She made her comments in response to protests against her appearance.
"But those people out there... I'm a lightning rod," Fonda told the audience, according to The Frederick News-Post. "This famous person goes and does something that looks like I'm against the troops, which wasn't true, but it looked that way, and I'm a convenient target. So I understand."
However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... Fonda still considered her trip to the communist state at war with the U.S. a "great experience." While on the trip, she took publicity shots manning an anti-aircraft gun used to shoot down American planes and publicly criticized the war effort against North Vietnam.
The protesters gathered outside the arts center, many of whom were Vietnam veterans, did not forget Fonda's anti-war effort and carried signs that bore the phrase, "Forgive? Maybe. Forget? Never."
"She encouraged North Vietnam to pull away from the negotiations table," Bob Hartman, a Vietnam Army veteran, told The News-Post. "She got Americans killed... and she went to Vietnam to advance her husband's career."
Fonda focused most of her talk on gender politics and encouraged the crowd to not raise boys to become "emotionally illiterate" by emphasizing masculinity.
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#1
She still has no idea of the torture and murder she alone caused by her hatred for the home team.
#10
"This famous person goes and does something that looks like I'm against the troops, which wasn't true, but it looked that way, and I'm a convenient target. So I understand."
What is this? Denial week for celebrities? Michael Moore, Seth Rogan and now Hanoi Jane.
#11
When I took my first Task Force Command we were given a former USMC building at then Mather AFB as a HQs.
My first visit to the head found four spotless urinals with her picture in each one. Four years later they were still being watered with the respect she deserved.
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.
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
