Transitional council also asked to investigate torture, illegal detentions and other human rights abuses reported by Amnesty Britain is urging Libya’s rebel administration to move swiftly to form an interim government once it declares the country liberated — with the defeat of Gaddafi loyalists in Sirte now looking imminent. It has also pressed the National Transitional Council to investigate evidence of torture and illegal detentions in a new Amnesty International report into abuses that risk tarnishing the “new” Libya with practices associated with the old regime. Foreign secretary William Haguetold MPs on Thursday that leaders of the NTC “have confirmed their clear understanding of the need for quick formation of a new, inclusive government.” The NTC has said political change will begin when most fighting is over. If Sirte falls then resistance is likely to be confined to Bani Walid, a sizeable but isolated town south of Tripoli, where Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam is rallying loyalists. Hague also said that Nato air operations to protect Libyan civilians — in the language of UN resolution 1973 —would continue “for as long as is necessary at the request of the NTC.” Russia, China and other countries complain that Nato has exceeded the mandate granted by the UN security council in March and has in effect intervened in a civil war between the regime and rebels. Foreign Office officials said that Britain’s mission in Tripoli had urged the NTC to investigate an Amnesty report that revealed a pattern of beatings and ill-treatment of captured Gaddafi soldiers, suspected loyalists and alleged mercenaries. It said that since August, when the Tripoli uprising took place, armed militia have arrested and detained up to 2,500 people in the capital and al-Zawiya. None of the detainees seen by Amnesty had been shown any arrest warrant and many were effectively abducted from their homes. Detainees were almost always held without legal orders by local councils or armed brigades — far from the oversight of the ministry of justice. “The Amnesty report raises serious questions which the NTC needs to investigate and we have pressed them to take action”, an FCO official said. “Anyone who has committed such abuses must be held to account, so that the new Libya shows a clear break with the past. The NTC leadership has declared their commitment to human rights. But despite what is a challenging situation on the ground, orders from the top need to be translated into action”. The NTC official responsible for justice, Mohammed al-Alagi, said that abuses would be investigated. “People will be held to account,” said spokesman Guma el-Gamaty. “We have been living with human rights violations for 42 years. No-one is trying to hide anything.” Hague warned too that no country should give shelter to fugitives. Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi are all wanted on charges of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court and are still at large. Other members of the family and regime have taken refuge in Niger, Algeria and Tunisia. The NTC meanwhile approved an investigation into another Gaddafi son, Saadi, over the murder of Bashir al-Ryani, a footballer who played for Libya in the 1980s. He was tortured and killed in December 2005. Saadi is in Niger, where the government says he is under surveillance but it is unlikely to extradite him to a country where he would not be given a fair trial and risked the death penalty. Libya Middle East Africa Amnesty International Muammar Gaddafi Foreign policy Nato Human rights Ian Black guardian.co.uk
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A brand of gummy candy is sour-apple flavored and doesn’t contain cannabis, but some parents and activists are outraged over its leaf shape. Critics say the candy encourages children to smoke pot. “We’re already dealing with a high amount of drug abuse and drug activity and trying to raise children so they don’t think using
Continue reading …Here at The Lookout, we’ve found ourselves citing our current bleak economic statistics so frequently that we know many of them by heart: 14 million officially unemployed, with the unofficial tally nearly twice that; 45 percent of the jobless out of work for more than six months; meanwhile, corporate profits at an all-time high. But
Continue reading …It hasn’t been a good couple of weeks for Scott Brown: Last week, there was that unfortunate Elizabeth Warren comment ; now, he’s being accused of plagiarism. A liberal super PAC discovered that Brown’s website lifted a significant portion of an Elizabeth Dole speech from 2002, the Boston Globe reports. The…
Continue reading …Traci Nobles Writes About Anthony Weiner Scandal In New Book, ‘I Freinded You’ (VIDEO)
October 13, 2011 No Comment
Traci Nobles, the 35-year-old former cheerleading coach from Athens, Georgia who exchanged explicit text messages with former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), has now written a book about her online affair with the congressman. The book, I Freinded You (the misspelling is intentional), is set to be published this week. “If anyone would have told me a year ago what would have been in store for me just one year later, I would have never imagined in my wildest dreams,” Nobles writes in the book, according to an exclusive excerpt published in the Daily Mail. Weiner resigned in June after he mistakenly tweeted a photo of his underwear-clad genitalia from his public Twitter account. He initially claimed his account had been hacked, but after more photos and revelations emerged, Weiner admitted to having online relationships with six women. Nobles exchanged messages with Weiner for nine months. After the scandal broke, she was outed by her roommate, who sent a screenshot of a private Facebook conversation between Nobles and Weiner to the Las Vegas Sun. But Nobles says that not all of their conversations were sexual. In an excerpt published in the Daily Mail, Weiner complains about his wife’s devout Muslim parents, who he describes as “a bit backwards thinking.” “A lot has to do with religion,” Weiner, who is Jewish, wrote to Nobles. “Lots of restrictions and how I’ve never been accepted by them.” “Touchy is a good word for this. It’s been touchy and worse from the beginning.” Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, revealed during the Weinergate scandal that she is pregnant. In September, Republican Bob Turner won a special election to replace Weiner in New York’s 9th congressional district. Read more at the Daily Mail. Correction: This article originally misspelled the title of Traci Nobles’ book. The title is I Freinded You, not I Friended You.
Continue reading …![Rihanna Nude, Talks Stage Sex <![CDATA[&]]> Chris Brown](https://newsbreakingonline.com/wp-content/themes/transcript/timthumb.php?src=%3Cimg+src%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fnewsbreakingonline.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F10%2Fb56d15e246E-mini.jpg.jpg%22+%2F%3E&q=90&w=190&h=100&zc=1 "Rihanna Nude, Talks Stage Sex <![CDATA[&]]> Chris Brown")
Beyond the obvious vocal talent and preternatural understanding, at such a young age, of how to market herself, Rihanna, it must be said, is known for being sexy. And she knows it. The Barbados-born star, named Esquire’s Sexiest Woman Alive on Tuesday, has spent the past half decade rising to the top of the pop consciousness, thumping club beats across our radios (well, iPods, really) and lighting up the internet and all its video players with erotic movements that are more slithering than dancing, natural movements setting off the freudian subconscious alarms in our heads. To her, it’s no big deal. “At the end of a concert, I don’t feel like I’ve been this sexy thing. Really, I don’t even think about it,” she tells the magazine, for which she poses naked this month. Finally, after some reality check insisting, she makes a small admission. “Unless it’s a song that really calls for it, like ‘Skin’ or ‘S&M,’ or when I cover Darling Nikki,’” she allows. “There’s a section that’s called ‘Sex’ in the show, which is the obvious section for sexuality.” But that’s as far as she’ll go — even if she admits that she loves choosing men from the audience on whom she can grind. “Like, really? Honestly, even if it comes across sexual — it has to be a part of my subconscious thought,” Rihanna says. “It’s never deliberate in the rest of the show. I don’t even really… I could see ‘What’s My Name?’ — the dancing is pretty sexy. ‘Rude Boy.’ But I don’t know. I guess people find different things sexy.” That’s less than she’d admit in an interview with Glamour earlier this month; there, she at least allowed that she was being sexy, even if it was a character she was playing. “That’s not me. That’s a part I play. You know, like it’s a piece of art, with all these toys and textures to play with,” she said. “See, people … they want me to be a role model just because of the life I lead. The things I say in my songs, they expect it of me, and [being a role model] became more of my job than I wanted it to be. But no, I just want to make music. That’s it.” The star also speaks about the infamous Chris Brown incident, in which he, as her boyfriend in 2009, beat her bloody. “It’s incredible to see how he pulled out of it the way he did. Even when the world seemed like it was against him, you know? I really like the music he’s putting out,” she says. “I’m a fan of his stuff. I’ve always been a fan. Obviously, I had some resentment toward him for a while, for obvious reasons. But I’ve put that behind me. It was taking up too much of my time. It was too much anger. I’m really excited to see the breakthrough he’s had in his career. I would never wish anything horrible for him. Never. I never have.” For more, click over to Esquire. PHOTO:
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#BOOMSTICK strikes again!.m4v ALCS game 4 Eden Rangers vs Tigers Game 4 Free Pick madelainesoapeB says: texas rangers http://t.co/uVZb84Go Texas Rangers just one victory away from World Series after 7-3 victory in 11 innings over Detroit …
Continue reading …Tragic details are emerging from the shooting that left eight people dead and one critically wounded yesterday at a Seal Beach salon. Police have identified the alleged shooter as Scott Dekraai, 42, who they say was wearing body armor when they apprehended him a half-mile from the scene. Dekraai was…
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• Cameron backs £4bn plan for ‘new Atlantic frontier’ • Greenpeace warns of oil spills and rising emissions BP faced fresh condemnation from environmentalists on Thursday after it got the go-ahead to invest £4bn to develop one of the North Sea’s largest oilfields off Shetland. The company has been criticised by green campaigners for trying to open up “a new Atlantic frontier” west of Shetland, to replace dwindling reserves in other parts of the North Sea. BP’s latest move to extract oil from the Clair Ridge field was immediately criticised by Greenpeace, which claimed it was now “frankly risible for David Cameron to claim that this government will be the ‘greenest ever’.” Greenpeace said: “While [energy secretary] Chris Huhne likes to portray himself as the good green guy of the cabinet, all those around him are pledging the UK to a dirty fuel future that will do only one thing: increase CO2 emissions and cause irreparable damage to the environment.” Green groups have already criticised BP for seeking permits to drill a potentially hazardous deep-water well 1,300 metres below the surface in the North Uist field – a seabed block named after the Hebridean island but located 80 miles north-west of Shetland. However, the prime minister threw his weight behind BP, declaring: “We should be looking to try and make these things happen rather than ruling them out.” The firm had planned to start drilling in the North Uist area last year but the launch date was postponed following the Deepwater Horizon disaster, in which 11 workers were killed and 4.9m barrels of oil leaked into the Gulf of Mexico. Now the company is pushing ahead, prompting environmental groups to write to Huhne urging him to withhold consent. They warn that a spill could be disastrous and that exploiting new oil reserves would be harmful to the climate. But during a visit to BP’s headquarters in Aberdeen, Cameron appeared to dismiss those concerns when he said: “There are some people who you will never reassure, who quite frankly would probably prefer we weren’t recovering oil from any part of the North Sea. I don’t think you’re going to convince them.” Cameron said he was delighted to give BP the go-ahead for the next phase of development of the huge Clair Ridge field, 50 miles from Shetland, which is not in deep water. He said it was “great news for Aberdeen and the country and provides a massive boost for jobs and growth”. BP said its Clair investment was its biggest in a single year in the North Sea and, together with other recently announced projects off the UK, should enable it “to maintain our production from the North Sea to around 200,000-250,000 barrels a day until 2030″. The UK energy group, headed by Bob Dudley, desperately needs good news after several international setbacks that resulted in shares falling. Besides the disastrous Mexican Gulf oil spill, BP’s joint venture in the Arctic with Russia’s Rosneft collapsed. So far this year, BP has announced North Sea investments worth £10bn, including contributions from its partners, Shell, Chevron and ConocoPhillips. Dudley said: “Although it began over 40 years ago, the story of the North Sea oil industry has a long way yet to run. BP has produced some 5bn barrels of oil and gas equivalent so far from the region and we believe we have the potential for over 3bn more.” BP said after a “decade of decline”, industry-wide oil investment in the North Sea and the Atlantic margin was now increasingly strongly once more. The announcement of the Clair scheme comes after BP and its partners revealed plans earlier this year for a £3bn redevelopment of the Schiehallion and Loyal oilfields, also to the west of Shetland. In addition, they are investing £700m in developing the Kinnoull field in the central North Sea. Cameron said: “We live in a very dangerous and difficult world. We do not want to be over-reliant on energy supplies from difficult parts of the world, from unstable parts of the world. And it is a huge national advantage having such a brilliant oil and gas industry here in Aberdeen and here in the North Sea. “We should treasure that and want to see it expand, want to see it grow, want to see it be part of a good and diversified energy industry in the UK.” According to BP, since the late 1960s, £300bn has been invested in exploration drilling and field developments on the UK continental shelf – and a similar figure has been paid in corporate taxes. BP alone has invested about £35bn into the UK North Sea, paying more than £40bn to the government in tax Dudley said: “We have a major presence in the North Sea today, operating around 40 oil and gas fields, four onshore terminals and a network of pipelines that transport almost half of the UK’s oil and gas production. And as demonstrated by these announcements, the region still offers competitive, attractive investment opportunities, which we will pursue.” Over the next few years, BP will be bringing onstream more major project developments in the UK than ever before over a similar period, it said. BP Oil Oil Scotland Energy industry Oil spills Greenpeace Energy Commodities Fossil fuels Oil and gas companies BP oil spill United States Pollution David Cameron Activism Richard Wachman guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Vincent Tabak ‘joked with friends about police search for Joanna Yeates’s killer’
October 13, 2011 No Comment
Court hears Tabak told friends that whoever murdered Yeates must be a ‘detached, crazy person’ to carry on acting normally The man accused of the murder of landscape architect Joanna Yeates joked about the police search for the culprit at a dinner party and offered a theory about the sort of character who would commit such a crime, his trial has heard. Vincent Tabak discussed the case with friends over a vegetable curry and said he believed that whoever murdered Yeates must have been a “totally detached, crazy person”, the jury was told. Tabak, a 33-year-old engineer, from the Netherlands, joked at the party that police had opened a drawer in his flat to see if there was a body there, it was claimed. Bristol crown court also heard that Tabak had been planning to marry his girlfriend, Tanja Morson, and start a family. Tabak has admitted the manslaughter of 25-year-old Yeates but denies murder. The prosecution claims he strangled her to death at her flat in Clifton, Bristol, on 17 December 2010, before putting her body into his car and dumping it on the verge of Longwood Lane, Failand. The jury was told about a dinner party that Tabak and Morson attended on 15 January. In a written statement one of the guests, Sarah Maddock, described how the conversation turned to Yeates. She said Tabak had said that whoever killed Yeates had to be a “totally detached, crazy person” to be able to “carry on acting normally after something like that”. Maddock described Tabak as perfectly normal at the dinner party and said he held his girlfriend’s hand under the table. She also revealed that Morson had told her of their plans to marry and start a family. Andrew Lillie, an engineer who hosted the party, said Tabak and Morson were recounting how police had searched their flat after Yeates went missing. His statement, read to the court, said: “Vincent just made a small remark about how police opened a drawer so they could look for a body. This was said in a light-hearted way.” The court also heard that Tabak drank champagne at a party the night after the alleged murder. He attended a friend’s birthday at a bar on Bristol harbourside but seemed “unwilling to talk” and “short”, according to Linda Marland, a witness. Jurors also heard more about the night Yeates was allegedly murdered . She had spent the early part of the evening with work colleagues at the Ram pub in Bristol. One colleague, Elisabeth Chandler, an office manager, said Yeates was dreading the weekend because her boyfriend, Greg Reardon, was away. Other colleagues described how Yeates told them she was going to spend the weekend baking bread and cakes. After leaving the pub, the prosecution says, she walked home and within a few minutes was attacked by Tabak. Florian Lehman told the court that he and his wife, Zoe, heard two screams as they walked up the path of a house opposite Yeates’s flat on their way to a party. He said: “We were through the gate and we were in the middle of the footpath between the gate and the entrance. That’s when I heard two screams. They were quite loud. They seemed to me to come from quite a distance. “The first scream was just for a moment, a scream and then a little pause, maybe just two seconds, and a second scream which was a lot shorter. The first one was louder. The first was longer.” Zoe Lehman said she also heard screams and a thud. “I heard a loud scream and turned around to have a look. The first one was loud, then there was a gap of about two seconds, then the second one was slightly less loud – a bit stifled. Then afterwards there was what sounded like furniture falling over, a thud.” Harry Walker, who lived behind Yeates’s flat, said he heard a scream at about 8.30pm. He told jurors: “I would say it was definitely a human noise. It was definitely not an animal. At the time I thought it must have been students out in the road as it was the end of term.” The trial continues. Joanna Yeates Crime Bristol Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
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