[Arab News] A Saudi citizen convicted of murdering another Saudi
In most countries the nationalities of the parties would only be of interest if one (or both) was a foreigner...
was executed in the city of Khamis Mushayt in the southern Asir province on Thursday, the Ministry of Interior announced.
Saeed bin Safar Al-Humaid was convicted of stabbing Muhammad bin Saeed Abu Mahroos to death following an argument between the two, said a ministry statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency. He was sentenced to death by the general court in Abha.
The execution was carried out after the Court of Cassation ratified the sentence.
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[Straits Times] POLICE incarcerated two men in connection with the sex video of a man who is said to resemble a prominent opposition politician having sex with a foreign hooker.
It is learnt that the two - former Malacca chief minister Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik and businessman Datuk Shazryl Eskay Abdullah - are now out on police bail.
Bukit Aman police secretary Deputy Commissioner Datuk Ghazali Md Amin said several items that could be used as evidence were also seized from the two.
'One of them even told us where the sex video was filmed and we have sent a forensics team together with Sherlocks to the scene.
'Both men have been released on bail pending investigations,' he said without revealing the identity of the two.
Inspector-General of police Tan Sri Ismail Omar said police were also trying to determine the identity of the people seen in the video as well the person who recorded it.
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Ferraro revealed [in 2001] that she had been diagnosed with blood cancer. She discussed blood cancer research before a Senate panel that month and said she hoped to live long enough "to attend the inauguration of the first woman president of the United States."
Maybe President Palin will say something in her inaugural remarks.
Snark aside, Ferraro's passing is yet another depletion of the Democrat's Old Guard (albeit not the Hubert-Humphrey-first-string) and another loss of an old-time center-left Northeast politician. She had the breeding to accept her political losses and not embarrass herself afterwards. RIP.
[Arab News] YANGON, Myanmar: A powerful earthquake that toppled homes in northeastern Myanmar has killed more than 70 people, and there were fears Friday the toll would mount as conditions in more remote areas became known.
The Thursday night quake, measured at a magnitude 6.8 by the US Geological Survey, was centered just north of the town Tachileik in the mountains along the Thai border. It was felt hundreds of miles (kilometers) away in the Thai capital Bangkok and Vietnamese capital Hanoi.
Myanmar state radio announced Friday that 74 people had been killed and 111 injured in the quake, but was updating the total frequently. It said that 390 houses, 14 Buddhist monasteries and nine government buildings were damaged.
An official from the UN's World Food Program said there were many casualties and serious damage in Mong Lin village, five miles (eight kilometers) from Tachileik.
State radio said 29 were killed there and 16 injured.
The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported that 15 houses collapsed in the town of Tarlay, where state radio said 11 were killed and 29 injured. Another UN
official said a small hospital there was partially damaged as well as a bridge, making it difficult to access the town.
The newspaper said another two people were killed in Tachileik, including a 4-year-old boy. It said six people were maimed in the town, which is just across the border from Mae Sai in Thailand's Chiang Rai province.
In Mae Sai, one woman was killed when a wall fell on her, according to Thai police, but damage was otherwise minimal.
The second UN official said medicine would be sent to the affected areas as soon as possible along with an assessment team in cooperation with the Myanmar Red Thingy Society.
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] Zambian President Rupiah Banda on Friday formally declared his re-election bid in polls due later this year, when he will seek his first full term at the ballot box.
Banda won a special presidential election in 2008 to complete the term of the late Levy Mwanawasa, who died while in office. Zambia's regular national elections are scheduled for later this year.
Banda filed papers Friday to declare his candidacy.
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] Two ethnic Rwandans were tossed in the calaboose this week in Belgium and charged over their alleged role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, federal prosecutors said Friday.
"They were jugged on Wednesday after an inquiry carried out in Belgium and at the request of the prosecution," Leen Nuyts, front man for the prosecutor's office, told AFP.
They were then charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
They'll be prosecuted by Carla del Ponte who will take another 17 years to get them to trial.
Sure. But it'll feel like ninety, so that's ok -- and it will keep Ms del Ponte's team away from more harmful pursuits.
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[Iran Press TV] The leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have called on the UN to take stricter measures and push for Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo's resignation. ... President of Ivory Coast since 2000. Gbagbo lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and Laurent has refused to leave despite the international community's hemming, hawing, and broad hints...
Members of the ECOWAS wrapped up a two-day summit in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Thursday. They demanded urgent action by the UN to end post-election violence in Ivory Coast.
The African Union, the United States and the European Union have recognized Alassane Ouattara as the rightful winner of November presidential vote. However, The over-used However... Gbagbo has defiantly refused to cede power, triggering a bloody violence in the country.
"[ECOWAS] requests the UN Security Council to strengthen the mandate of the UN operation in Ivory Coast enabling the mission to use all necessary means to protect life and property and to facilitate the immediate transfer of power to Mr. Alassane Ouattara," the statement said.
The African body has also called for more international sanctions on Gbagbo and his associates to pressure him out of power.
The expected sanctions include blocking the assets and banning travels, a measure previously taken by the US and the EU.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has also urged the UN Security Council for a "more efficient role" in Ivory Coast, saying the UN mission in the African country is authorized to use force.
AU President Jean Ping has expressed regret over the violence in Ivory Coast, saying military intervention "might" be the only possibility to end the crisis.
A recent UN report says political unrest in Ivory Coast has claimed at least 462 lives.
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[Emirates 24/7] [Emirates 24/7] Abidjan is teetering on the edge of civil war, the French ambassador to the United Nations, ... aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... Gerard Araud, said Friday as the Security Council discussed the worsening crisis in Ivory Coast. Nothing gets past them...
"Law and order is collapsing, humanitarian access is more and more difficult, hospitals are closing -- we are very, very close to a civil war in Abidjan," Araud told news hounds.
"The political reason for this crisis is very simple. It's that (Laurent) Gbagbo does not want to leave."
Gbagbo has refused to leave office even though he was defeated in November's presidential elections by Alassane Ouattara.
"There have been many, many attempts to find a solution. This is the reason why Nigeria and La Belle France have presented a draft resolution that will be discussed," Araud said.
"It's saying first 'Gbagbo has to leave.' The second point is to stop the violence against the civilians," he added.
The UN Security Council was meeting Friday to discuss a draft resolution introduced by La Belle France that would ban the use of heavy weapons in Abidjan, the commercial capital of unrest-plagued Ivory Coast.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... had called on the 15-member council to adopt the resolution, which calls for a strengthening of the UN peacekeeping mandate in the West African nation in order to enforce the ban in the city.
Diplomats said it also called for targeted sanctions against Gbagbo's entourage.
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] First Lady Sandra Torres de Colom has said that she will divorce President Alvaro Colom and marry "the people" to circumvent legal roadblocks preventing her from running for president of Guatemala.
"The love for Guatemala is the reason why the president and I put the interests of the country ahead of our own interests," said Torres.
Torres shed crocodile tears as she described the "great and solid love" she felt for her husband, but said that her love for the people was "limitless."
"Don't cry for me Guatemala..."
According to the Guatemala's constitution, close blood relatives of the president and those of "second level of affinity" are banned from running.
Torres has been married to Colom for eight years.
It just seemed like it was longer...
The divorce was filed on March 11, just days after Torres announced she was running for president in the September election.
Critics say the move mocks the constitution, but the couple dismiss the critics as politicians and business interests opposed to the government's social reforms.
"I represent the most forgotten and humble sectors of Guatemala," she said. "I've been criticised for what I do and what I don't do, and I've been criticised because I'm divorcing the president, but I'm marrying the people" of Guatemala, she told news hounds.
Colom earlier said that the divorce decision was "difficult" but that he took it "to avoid pressure on the judicial system."
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Damn, she sounds like Pelosi's even more evil twin...
Japan's government revealed a series of missteps by the operator of a radiation-leaking nuclear plant on Saturday, including sending workers in without protective footwear in its faltering efforts to control a monumental crisis.
Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, or NISA, said the two workers recently burned were wearing boots that only came up to their ankles -- hardly high enough to protect their legs, agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said. "Regardless of whether there was an awareness of high radioactivity in the stagnant water, there were problems in the way work was conducted," Nishiyama said. Sounds like a bonehead mistake
US Navy barges carrying large supplies of fresh water are being towed to the stricken reactor site to enable TEPCO to stop using sea water for emergency cooling. TEPCO continues to use trucks to pump water into the reactors as radiation levels prevent the use of built-in reactor cooling pumps, as had been hoped for earlier.
- Trade union protests outside an EU summit in Brussels against the austerity being imposed across the continent by the bloc turned violent on Thursday (24 March), as riot police battled rock-wielding demonstrators with water cannon and pepper spray. Time for NATO to intervene and declare No Spray Zone over Belgium?
[Iran Press TV] Conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has received a vote of no-confidence over "abuse of power" allegations, leading to the collapse of the government.
The opposition parties managed to gather 156 votes in favor of the motion versus 145 for the government's survival on Friday. The main opposition, Liberal Party, along with the separatist Bloc Quebecois and leftist New Democrats supported the motion.
Before the vote, the leader of the main official opposition Liberal Party, Michael Ignatieff, said "After five years of Conservative government, it is time to say enough is enough."
Earlier this week, a parliamentary committee hit another blow to the government as it announced that the conservatives had hidden the full costs of a spending program from parliament and people.
"A government that breaks the rules and conceals facts from the Canadian people does not deserve to remain in office," Ignatieff noted.
The Liberals vowed to scrap $6.1 billion in corporate tax cuts and end extravagant multibillion-dollar plans to buy new fighter jets and build prison cells.
Canada's budget deficit hit a record high of C$55.6 billion last year. The Canadian joblessness is 7.8 percent.
The Canadian premier has to go to the governor-general and ask to officially dissolve parliament and hold an election, which is slated for early May.
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The Canadian joblessness is 7.8 percent
Is this a "funny figure" like the Obama numbers? if not, unemployment is fairly low.
#2
Not a particularly "funny figure", JohnQC. We don't play really heavy games with the "Birth/Death" nonsense up here, nor the seasonal adjustments, so 7.8 % should be close to the mark. Another variable is "where", depending on what part of the country and what industry/industries are going concerns.
#2
My first interaction with Islam was this movie called Not Without my Daughter. That was my first glimpse into what Western society believed was really going on in Islam, he said.
#3
Yeah, it's based on a true story. But he didn't say he thought it was bad idea.
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#2 "My first interaction with Islam was this movie called 'Not Without my Daughter'. That was my first glimpse into what Western society believed was really going on in Islam," he said.
We have a friend who was married to an Iranian man. They had a daughter together. The father spirited the girl out the country to Iran. The girl's mother played hell getting her daughter back. Needless to say they are no longer married.
#5
Criticism of the corrupt news network? Let me tell you, I cannot go 8 minutes without hearing a lie or some pomp ass political bullshit from this "news" network. It is almost as corrupt as the NY Times. Grow up you little degreed punks. Why don't you take that hag Christine with you and go LIVE in the middle east if you love it so much. Don't mind the burka, you will be well done in the sun in mere weeks.
On Wednesday, digital certificate issuer Comodo released a security warning that its European affiliate had issued nine fraudulent SSL certificates. The certificates -- used by Web sites to confirm the identity of end users -- were issued without sufficient identity validation, and were apparently obtained by the government of Iran.
All certificates have been revoked by Comodo. They involve seven domains: Firefox extensions (addons.mozilla.org), Global Trustee, Gmail (mail.google.com), Google (www.google.com), Skype (login.skype.com), Windows Live including Hotmail (login.live.com), and Yahoo (login.yahoo.com -- 3 certificates).
What's the threat posed by real security certificates being issued to the wrong party? According to Microsoft, "these certificates may be used to spoof content, perform phishing attacks, or perform man-in-the-middle attacks against all Web browser users including users of Internet Explorer."
Or to gather intelligence. "If you are a government and able to control Internet routing within your country, you can reroute all, say, Skype users to [a] fake https://login.skype.com and collect their usernames and passwords, regardless of the SSL encryption seemingly in place," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, in a blog post."Or you can read their email when they go to Yahoo, Gmail, or Hotmail. Even most geeks wouldn't notice this was going on."
Who would try to obtain fraudulent certificates? Comodo says that circumstantial evidence points to a state-backed operation run by Iran, due to the speed and accuracy of the operation, as well as the focus. "The perpetrator has focused simply on the communication infrastructure -- not the financial infrastructure as a typical cyber-criminal might," according to Comodo's incident report.
#1
Comodo says that circumstantial evidence points to a state-backed operation run by Iran, due to the speed and accuracy of the operation, as well as the focus.
Likely, but I can think of a few other nations as well.
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.
[Arab News] A Saudi citizen convicted of murdering another Saudi 
Laurent Gbagbo's resignation.
[Iran Press TV] Conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has received a vote of no-confidence over "abuse of power" allegations, leading to the collapse of the government.
