[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Michael Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter Monday over the King of Pop's death in June 2009, the court clerk said.
Cheers erupted outside and someone cried out in the court room, but a grim-faced Murray himself gave no reaction when the long-awaited verdict was announced after a six-week trial in Los Angeles.
Jackson's family -- led by mother Katherine and father Joe -- were in court to hear the verdict, having braved their way through a huge media and fan scrum outside the court.
Murray faces up to four years in jail and could be banned from practicing medicine after his conviction in connection with Jackson's death from an overdose of propofol on June 25, 2009.
Since opening on September 27, the trial at Los Angeles Superior Court has heard from 49 witnesses -- 33 for the prosecution, and 16 for the defense.
In his closing arguments last week, Deputy District Attorney David Walgren said Murray caused the star's death through negligence and greed, depriving Jackson's children of their father and the world of a "genius."
Walgren, summing up an "overwhelming case" against Murray, claimed the medic concocted lies to cover his tracks -- specifically about the timeline on the day Jackson died, and not telling paramedics what drugs he had given.
He alleged that Murray above all wanted to protect his $150,000 a month salary for looking after Jackson, describing how the doctor agreed to treat the star's insomnia with the anesthetic propofol against all medical advice.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2011 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Fresh festivities erupted Monday in the Democratic Republic of Congo's city of Lubumbashi between government and opposition supporters, two days after similar violence left 15 maimed.
Supporters of the ruling Party for Reconstruction and Democracy and of the opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress, rivals in the November 28 general elections, were pelting each other with stones, an AFP news hound said.
The latest round of street fights between the two camps effectively locked down parts of the city, the DRC's second largest.
At least 15 people were maimed Saturday in similar festivities in the mining city, located some 1,000 miles southeast of the capital Kinshasa, between UPDS supporters and supporters of the Kabila-allied Unafec movement.
Calm had returned to the capital of the mineral-rich Katanga province on Sunday but tensions flared anew early Monday.
Shop windows were smashed, banks shuttered, one vehicle transported food goods was looted and pedestrians were mugged, an AFP correspondent said, reporting that most residents were holing themselves up in their homes.
Late last month, an alliance of 73 Congolese and international rights groups called for restraint in an open letter sent to all presidential contenders.
Aides to President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled the country since the liquidation of his father Laurent in 2001, say he will tour all 11 of the provinces making up the vast country, which is four times the size of La Belle France.
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11/08/2011 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Liberian riot police rubbed out up to four protestors during a rally in Monrovia, opposition leaders said Monday on the eve of a run-off vote they accuse President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of rigging. Four? Only four? Slow day in Liberia...
Shooting erupted after anti-riot police and UN peacekeepers using water cannons tried to block an unauthorised march by thousands of demonstrators supporting the opposition challenger Winston Tubman.
Tubman's call to boycott the second of the west African country's second post-war polls on Tuesday drew wide international condemnation and raised fears that Liberia was being dragged back to the dark days of civil war.
"Three or four were killed and many injured. They (police) came and started shooting at unarmed people who just wanted peace," said Tubman's running mate, former football star George Weah.
AFP journalists saw two bodies, including that of a man aged around 20 with a gunshot wound to the head at the Congress for Democratic Change headquarters.
One policeman at the scene said a protestor fired the first shot but an eye witness blamed the security forces for the flare-up and the man's death.
"He was standing in front of the building when a policeman shot and I saw him going down," said witness Anita Mulba.
George Weah, who lost to Sirleaf in 2005, was defiant and told journalists: "We are going to continue the march because we are not more important than those who have been killed."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2011 00:00 ||
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President Obama has called people who work on Wall Street "fat-cat bankers," and his reelection campaign has sought to harness public frustration with Wall Street. Financial executives retort that the president's pursuit of financial regulations is punitive and that new rules may be "holding us back."
But both sides face an inconvenient fact: During Obama's tenure, Wall Street has roared back, even as the broader economy has struggled.
The largest banks are larger than they were when Obama took office and are nearing the level of profits they were making before the depths of the financial crisis in 2008, according to government data.
Wall Street firms -- independent companies and the securities-trading arms of banks -- are doing even better. They earned more in the first 21 / 2 years of the Obama administration than they did during the eight years of the George W. Bush administration, industry data show.
Behind this turnaround, in significant measure, are government policies that helped the financial sector avert collapse and then gave financial firms huge benefits on the path to recovery. For example, the federal government invested hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars in banks -- low-cost money that the firms used for high-yielding investments on which they made big profits.
Skai TV and radio reported at 4 p.m. that former Bank of Greece governor and ex-European Central Bank vice president Lucas Papademos will become the next Greek prime minister.
An emergency cabinet meeting finished shortly before 3 p.m. Current Prime Minister George Papandreou is said to have informed his ministers to have their resignations ready to speed up the process of forming a new government once its head has been agreed.
Former European Central Bank vice president Lucas Papademos was reported to be back in the frame after reports that he spoke with Papandreou on the telephone earlier in the day.
Papademos is thought to want to bring several of his choices into the cabinet, which could also include politicians from both PASOK and New Democracy. The conservatives have been reluctant to place their members on the cabinet as they do not want to be seen to be supporting the new set of austerity measures that is expected to accompany Greece's next bailout. Thus political advantage is seen as more important than serving the country. I think that sums up Greece's problems right there...
Among the names being mentioned as likely appointments by Papademos is the head of the IOBE think-tank Yiannis Stournaras.
The process of appointing the next government will involve the current ministers resigning, Papandreou informing President Karolos Papoulias of the candidate for prime minister and Papoulias then announcing the formation of a new cabinet.
#2
I think this boils down to, "Let's hook some more tubes and wires and machines with blinking lights to this cadaver, to make it look more lifelike."
[An Nahar] Prime Minister Francois Fillon announced plans on Monday to save 100 billion euros to eliminate La Belle France's budget deficit by 2016, including 500 million Euros in extra state budget savings next year.
"The time has come to adjust La Belle France's efforts. With the president, we have only one goal: to protect the French people from the serious difficulties that many European countries are now facing," Fillon said during a presser.
"I believe that our citizens are now aware of the risks to our livelihoods and futures caused by deficits and debt. Bankruptcy is no longer an abstract term. Our financial, economic and social illusory sovereignty require prolonged collective efforts and even some sacrifices," he said.
Fillon announced a series of budget cuts and tax hikes aimed at keeping La Belle France's finances on track and preserving its critically important triple-A credit rating.
"To reach zero deficit by 2016, which is our objective, we must save a little more than 100 billion Euros," he said.
"It is unthinkable to do this exclusively by raising taxes, as the opposition suggests. This would lead to the tripling of income taxes and the doubling of VAT." Wonder if Bambi will emulate the Europeans this time...
The government's flagship reform of raising the retirement age from 60 to 62 will be brought forward from 2018 to 2017, he said.
The Value Added Tax (VAT) on many goods and services will be raised from 5.5 percent to 7.0 percent, except on essential goods such as food.
Corporate taxes will also be temporarily raised by 5.0 percent on corporations with annual turnovers of more than 250 million Euros, he said.
"Our country must not be condemned to have its policies one day imposed by others. I want to tell the French people that the budgetary and fiscal efforts that we undertake today are a choice we make for the country and for generations to come," Fillon said.
The new measures are on top of August's 12 billion euro deficit-cutting package that raised taxes on the rich and closed tax loopholes and after La Belle France revised its 2012 growth forecast from 1.75 to 1.0 percent.
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 spent the weekend huddled with top ministers and advisors to devise the plan, amid rumors that La Belle France might be stripped of its triple-A rating.
Ratings agency Moody's warned last month that it may place a negative outlook on La Belle France's Aaa credit rating within three months as the government's financial strength had "weakened."
The new measures also come as centre-right Sarkozy seeks to shore up his economic credentials six months ahead of a presidential election.
Sarkozy is lagging in the polls behind Socialist challenger Francois Hollande, who has been mounting a strong challenge from the left.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
BHARAT RAKSHAK > EUROZONE CRISIS CAN BE FIXED WID A TWO-CURRENCY SYSTEM, i.e. all-EU "universal" EuroDollar + State-specific National Currency, as similar to the highly successful, pre-1870 system using Gold + Silver Coins throughout Europe.
and
* SAME > THE DENIALS THAT TRAPPED GREECE | PAMPANDREOU: PRIOR GOVT. LIED ABOUT SIZE OF DEFICIT SPENDING. 'Twas wholly unsustainable, twice the legal limits, + just plain bad for Women, Elderly, Kids, Working-class + Goats but the then-Admin did it anyway.
#3
What is not said is that France has long held the dominant lip lock on the EUs financial teat with subsidies to its farmers that look ridiculous even by US standards.
Because farmers in France are as strong politically as in Japan.
[Tripoli Post] Two journalists close to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ...current Italian prime minister, known for his plain (for a European politician) speaking and his liking for hookers a third his age or less... , Giuliano Ferrara, editor of the Foglio newspaper and a former minister, and Franco Bechis, vice-director of the pro-Berlusconi Libero newspaper, said he could resign as early as Monday.
Giuliano Ferrara said on its website: "That Silvio Berlusconi is about to resign is clear. It is a question of hours, some say of minutes," while Bechis said on twitter that Berlusconi would resign on Monday night or Tuesday morning.
The embattled prime minister returned from the Group of 20 summit in Cannes on Friday to face defections in his party amid growing unease about his handling of the economic crisis, and on Monday was seeking to win back party rebels and the support of wavering MPs after a key minister questioned whether he still had a majority.
Berlusconi held late night talks with key allies cabinet undersecretary Gianni Letti and secretary of his People of Freedom party (PdL) Angelino Alfano on Sunday amid speculation that the opposition would provoke a confidence vote in parliament to bring down the government on Tuesday.
Two PdL deputies, Alessio Bonciani and Ida D'Ippolito, announced their decision to leave the party on Thursday as the government came under increasing pressure from the International Monetary Fund and international leaders to carry out its pledged economic reforms.
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni raised further doubts about the prime minister's future on Sunday after MP Gabriella Carlucci abandoned Berlusconi's party.
"The latest news leads me to think that the majority no longer exists," Maroni, a member of the Northern League, said on a TV talk show.
"In a democracy you win and you lose".
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
And then we won't have Silvio Berlusconi to kick around any more.
(CNSNews.com) - Self-professed conservatives now outnumber self-professed liberals in the United States, 42 percent to 21 percent, according to a Gallup poll published Monday. Another 37 percent described themselves as moderates.
The percentages are based on Gallup's daily tracking polls conducted from June 1 to Aug. 31 of this year.
Over the past two decades, according to Gallup, the percentage of Americans describing themselves as conservative has gradually increased, rising from 36 percent who said they were conservative in 1992.
The percentage who described themselves as liberal rose from 17 percent in 1992 to a high of 22 percent in 2007 and 2008. Since then, the percentage saying they were liberal has held steady at 21 percent.
#1
...however, in the MSM the ratio is totally non-reflective of those numbers. One day some executive will wake up to those numbers and corner the market at the expense of his/her competitors. Well at least until the competitors can get their agents in Congress to pass legislation to end the competition regardless of the 1st Amendment.
#2
I'm sure the next election cycle we'll see an end to liberal and progressives in favor of some new term hoping to avoid being pinned down to the nightmare that is their political belief system. Say what you want about the communists at all these protests, ignorant as they are about just about everything at least they say who they are and what they believe in.
#8
What Bright Pebbles said. When I lived in San Francisco I was considered a reactionary (pro-life, anti-gun control). Now that I live in a small town in Nevada, I'm considered liberal (anti-war on drugs, don't care about gay marriage). A lot of these things have to do with context.
#9
Right BP - however the left will usually wait until after they are in power before trotting out the ole "ideological purity tests" along with the old standby "loyalty test".
See Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, China, North Korea, Cuba, etc....
#10
"I think you should leave "ideological purity tests" to the left, especially if you want to win elections."
Exactly, BP.
The perfect is the enemy of the good.
Posted by: Barbara ||
11/08/2011 13:04 Comments ||
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#11
Although interesting, the problem with such polls is that we don't know what "conservative, moderate, or liberal" means to the respondents. 37 percent described themselves as moderates? A moderate might really be quite liberal. The meanings of these words are imprecise and fuzzy.
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.
Michael Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter Monday over the King of Pop's death in June 2009, the court clerk said.
Liberian riot police 
President Obama has called people who work on Wall Street "fat-cat bankers," and his reelection campaign has sought to harness public frustration with Wall Street. Financial executives retort that the president's pursuit of financial regulations is punitive and that new rules may be "holding us back."
Two journalists close to Italian Prime Minister 
