Money doesn’t grow on trees for every professional sports franchise. Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt has taken a storied franchise into bankruptcy this week, and brought a wee bit of drama along the way.
Continue reading …A Michigan medical student is being charged with torturing and killing up to 14 dogs he purchased in the last nine months. Police checked on David Thompson, 24, after a tipster complained that he was bringing in a large number of dogs, mostly Italian greyhounds, that were never seen again….
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Six paramilitary soldiers to be tried by civilian court after being caught on camera apparently shooting unarmed suspect Sarfaraz Shah Six Pakistani paramilitary soldiers face a possible death sentence after being charged with the murder of an unarmed civilian in a Karachi park this month. The shooting in broad daylight of Sarfaraz Shah, who was accused of theft, led to a national furore after a video of his death was aired on television . Many Pakistanis were horrified to see a uniformed man shoot the 22-year-old twice at point blank range as he begged for mercy, then watch him bleed to death. A civilian who dragged Shah towards the rangers, seen on camera grabbing him by the hair, has also been charged. If convicted, all seven face the death penalty. “The court has formally framed charges of murder and terrorism against all the accused,” prosecutor Mohammad Khan Buriro told reporters. The accused men have pleaded not guilty. The brutality of the slaying amplified strong criticism of Pakistan’s security forces that started with the death of Osama bin Laden on 2 May, reaching as far as the national parliament. The scrutiny has brought some changes. The six soldiers are standing trial before a civilian court instead of a military tribunal, as is usually the case. The supreme court had taken the rare step of ordering the head of the Sindh Rangers, a two-star general, to be transferred. The army says it will comply. The security forces are beset by other scandals too. In western Balochistan province Frontier Corps paramilitaries are under investigation for the shooting of five unarmed Chechens, including a pregnant woman, at a checkpoint. The corps initially claimed they were suicide bombers, which proved to be untrue. Video footage showed the Chechens trying to surrender as they were being shot. In Islamabad a judicial inquiry has been launched into the death of investigative journalist Saleem Shahzad, who was found dead after disappearing from the city centre. He had previously told colleagues he feared his life was in danger from the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency . The ISI has denied the allegation. Scenes of death and destruction have become commonplace on Pakistan television since a wave of Taliban attacks in major cities started four years ago. But Pakistanis were shocked at the images of Shah’s death because they showed the young man screaming as he slowly died in a public park named after the assassinated prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Police said they recovered an imitation pistol from Shah’s body, heightening suspicions that he was a thief. But the video evidence swung public opinion firmly against the soldiers. “The video had a huge impact. No civilised force has the right to shoot an unarmed man,” said Zafar Hilaly, a retired diplomat. The shooting was filmed by a TV cameraman with a local station. The journalists’ union in Karachi said the reporter had received death threats and had been pressured by the authorities to “say it was a fake”. Videos have played a prominent role in Pakistan in recent years. In 2009 the country was electrified by a footage of Taliban militants whipping a young girl in Swat , triggering outrage that paved the way for an army assault months later. Last year a video emerged of soldiers executing blindfolded militants , also in Swat, triggering criticism from the US that forced the army chief to order a military inquiry. No findings have yet been made public. Pakistan Declan Walsh guardian.co.uk
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Meteorologists call for more lightning conductors as 38 children injured in same incident are admitted to hospital with burns Eighteen schoolchildren and their teacher have been killed in a lightning strike in Uganda, police said. The country has one of the highest rates of lightning deaths in the world and its capital, Kampala, has more days of lightning per year than any other city, according to the World Meteorological Organisation . The lightning hit the victims in a classroom at a school in Kiryandongo, 130 miles north of Kampala. Another 38 children were admitted to hospital. The east African country has suffered several fatal lightning strikes in recent weeks during unseasonably heavy rains. The deaths were debated in parliament on Monday, with MPs calling on the government to come up with strategy to deal with what several termed “a crisis”. “I don’t know which minister is in charge of the lightning but let the government come up with a statement to inform the country on what is going on and how we can manage it,” speaker Rebecca Kadaga said. Local meteorologists have criticised the government for not providing enough lightning conductors for buildings in storm hotspots. “The 19 were killed in a single lightning strike on Monday,” a police spokesman said. “They were ready to leave school but there was a heavy downpour and so they sheltered in the classroom and then, all of a sudden, it struck.” Police said 15 of the 38 injured were still in hospital being treated for burns. Local media quoted medical officials in Kiryandongo predicting the death toll could rise. The state-owned New Vision newspaper said on Tuesday that at least 40 people had been killed by lightning strikes in recent weeks. The police did not give an official death toll. Many of the strikes have killed children. Three siblings aged four, six and eight were killed while sheltering under a tree on their way home from school last week and another two children were killed the week before, police said. Uganda Natural disasters and extreme weather Africa guardian.co.uk
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Remember how excited we all were when we found out that Android 2.3.4 would bring video chat to Google Talk on the Nexus S? Only to have our hopes and dreams smashed when we discover that it didn’t work over 3G on T-Mobile. Well, it seems the carrier has quietly flipped a switch, and now all you Nexus owners can GChat face-to-face over HSPA+. Surely this an historic day, one that will go down in the annals of mobile history — or, you know, at least one that deserves an exasperated ” finally! ” Check out the video proof after the break. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Continue reading Google Talk video chat finally available over T-Mobile 3G and 4G (video) Google Talk video chat finally available over T-Mobile 3G and 4G (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jun 2011 11:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Former Bond girl Michelle Yeoh, who plays pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in an upcoming movie, has been booted out of Burma and told not to come back. The Malaysian-born actress, who met the activist after her release from house arrest late last year, was deported on the next…
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Arab Israelis and Palestinians say arrest of Sheikh Raed Salah in London is ‘strange’ and ‘illegitimate’, and call for his release Arab Israelis and Palestinians have accused the British government of collaborating with Israel in detaining Sheikh Raed Salah , the leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel. Ibrahim Sarsur, a United Arab List member of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, described the arrest of Salah as “strange”. He said: “Sheikh Salah is one of the leading figures in the Arab Israeli community. He travelled to the UK legitimately, and he had no knowledge of any ban on his entering the UK, so we are surprised and disappointed by this illegitimate procedure.” Sarsur called on Britain to release Salah immediately. “We know that Israel is not happy with anyone that opposes its policies, but we see Britain as the most democratic place in the world and the birthplace of democracy. Britain should deal with delicate matters of the Middle East with delicacy and not act as a collaborator with the Israeli government.” Ben White, a writer and activist who was due to speak at an event with Salah on Wednesday, said there was a stark contrast between how Britain treated Palestinian and Israeli leaders. “The same government that sent police to arrest a Palestinian civil society leader from his hotel bedroom is changing UK legislation explicitly to facilitate the entry of accused Israeli war criminals,” he said. Israel has acted angrily in the past when its army officers and politicians have been threatened with arrest, such as when the former foreign minister Tzipi Livni had to postpone a trip to the UK to avoid arrest in 2009. A spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry said that the Israeli consulate in London had been informed of the arrest as would happen with the arrest of any Israeli. “It’s up to the British authorities to explain the reason for the arrest. Sheikh Raed Salah will be visited by consular officials if it is necessary.” Salah is despised by Israel’s right wing and his arrest was used as an opportunity by one member of the Knesset to launch his own “Raed Salah bill”. Alex Miller of the Israel Our Home party said the bill would prevent people such as Salah, convicted of aiding a terrorist organisation, from using government-funded institutions. “If the British government forbade this man from entering its territory because of his extremist views and a fear that he would use public and academic forums to incite violence and racism, there is no reason the Israeli government should give that pleasure to Salah and his peers,” Miller told the Jerusalem Post. Israel Middle East Palestinian territories London Conal Urquhart guardian.co.uk
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Man with fetish for cutting locks of hair from women faces extradition over earlier killing of teenager in Italy A man with a fetish for surreptitiously cutting locks of hair from girls and women has been found guilty of murdering a British seamstress and now faces extradition over the killing of a teenager in Italy. Danilo Restivo was convicted of killing his neighbour, Heather Barnett, at her Bournemouth flat and mutilating her body before placing a hank of someone else’s hair in her right hand and a clump of her own beneath her left. During his seven-week trial at Winchester crown court, Restivo, an Italian national, was also accused of killing 16-year-old Elisa Claps in the loft of a church in Potenza, southern Italy, and leaving cut strands of her own hair in her hands and next to her body. Both women suffered wounds to their chests but the jury was told the killer’s “hallmark” was to leave cut hair at the scene. Restivo admitted he had a “fetish” for cutting hair from women and girls in the UK and Italy, often while they travelled on buses. The court was told he had cut the hair of 15 women in the UK and nine in Italy. Restivo, 39, was born in Sicily and lived in Potenza before moving to Bournemouth in Dorset in May 2002. Police quickly came to believe Restivo had killed Barnett, 48, in November 2002 and kept him under intense surveillance amid fears he would strike again. But it was not until Claps’s body was discovered in the church loft where she had been killed in 2010 – 17 years after she vanished – that the British authorities felt they could make a case against Restivo largely based on the similarities of the two ritualistic murders. The Italian authorities want Restivo extradited to face trial over the murder of Elisa Claps. Officers may also quiz him about other unsolved murders in Italy. In the UK the Criminal Cases Review Commission has been watching the Restivo trial because the legal team for a man called Omar Benguit convicted of killing a student, Jong Ok Shin, in July 2002 three streets from Heather Barnett’s home claim that Restivo could also be guilty of that attack. Shin was also stabbed to death. Crime Italy Europe Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Turning victims into perpetrators: Right-wingers defend Prosser’s chokehold by claiming assaulted colleague was the aggressor
June 29, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Greta Van Susteren already has a record of favoritism when it comes to Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, so it probably wasn’t any surprise when she devoted a segment of her show the other night to suggesting loudly that Prosser was being set up by the woman he allegedly tried to throttle , Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, as well as the court’s Chief Justice, Shirley Abrahamson, whom he has previously attacked verbally as a “total bitch” . Indeed, that’s largely a continuation of Van Susteren’s previous narrative around Prosser — namely, that Prosser is the innocent victim of a campaign cooked up against him by conniving feminist justices in Wisconsin. And the heated denials and countercharges coming from Prosser and his many ardent defenders (including the Planet Bizarro that is the Althouseosphere) have certainly played into that narrative. It’s almost as if they’re colluding. Van Susteren is promising “more to this story”. What’s next? Some Breitbartesque e-mail thefts, perhaps? Well, it’s their only possible narrative short of abject humiliation, so of course they’re sticking to it.
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