- A Michigan jail inmate says he's being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment because he can't have pr0nography.
In a handwritten lawsuit, 21-year-old Kyle Richards claims his civil rights are being violated at the Macomb County Jail. Richards says denying his request for erotic material subjects him to a "poor standard of living" and "sexual and sensory deprivation."
The Michigan Department of Corrections tells The Detroit News that prisons allow some pornographic material, though it's banned at the jail. The American Civil Liberties Union says prisons have a lot of leeway.
Richards was charged with bank robbery after police followed a trail of snowy footprints and dropped money to his apartment from a bank robbery scene in January in Fraser, north of Detroit.
[Dawn] A French novelist will file a complaint on Tuesday accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape, her lawyer said, raising the prospect of a new sex assault investigation starting just as the US case against the former International Monetary Fund chief falters.
The announcement threw Strauss-Kahn's legal situation in his home country into question, and injected fresh uncertainty into a national debate about whether he will be able to return to his political career and enter the 2012 presidential race.
Strauss-Kahn went on the offensive against his French accuser Tuesday evening, saying through his legal team that he planned to file his own criminal complaint of slander against her.
The sexual assault case against Strauss-Kahn in New York was badly weakened last week by prosecutors' publicly expressing doubts about the credibility of the hotel maid who accused him of forcing her to perform oral sex.
As a result, La Belle France was consumed Monday morning by the question of whether the longtime Socialist Party politician would, or should, revive his dream of running against unpopular conservative 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...
Strauss-Kahn's supporters suffered a new shock within hours, when the lawyer for writer and journalist Tristane Banon announced she planned to file the complaint in Gay Paree within a day.
Banon, 31, said on a 2007 television show that she had been attacked five years earlier by a politician she had interviewed for a book. She later identified the man as Strauss-Kahn.
"It finished very violently," she said on the television show. "I kicked him. He opened my bra. He tried to undo my jeans. It finished very badly."
Lawyer David Koubbi said Banon had been dissuaded from filing charges by her mother, a regional councilor in Strauss-Kahn's Socialist party. Her mother, Anne Mansouret, admitted in a French television interview in May that she had urged her daughter not to file a complaint after the incident.
Banon came forward again after Strauss-Kahn's May 14 arrest in New York, but Koubbi said his client had no intention of pressing charges while the American prosecution was going on because the two cases should be kept separate.
Banon is now moving forward, Koubbi told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. He denied that decision was connected to the weakening of the US case.
"It is all the same to me what happens in the hours and days to come in the United States," he said.
Strauss-Kahn's lawyers said Monday that Strauss-Kahn "has always said that the incident described by Ms Banon since 2007 is imaginary."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2011 00:00 ||
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Guess the prosecutors of his rape case in New York needn't worry about him doing a runner to France now. If the French govt want to extradite him will the US Govt try to stop them as there is no extradition between the two countries, but DSK is a French citizen?
#4
Shocked, I am. Shocked!, that in society today the wealthy and powerful can commit any crime they want against a common peasant and get away with it.
On July 6, 1997, young Mary Mahoney, a former White House intern, who was about to go public with sexual assault/rape charges against Bill Clinton, was shot to death in a professional hit at the Georgetown Starbucks coffee shop. She took 5 shots including a shot to the back of the head, execution style. Later as a message to Monica, Bill Clinton gave Lewinsky a Starbucks coffee mug.
#5
Bullshit, anonymoose. She interned five years before the murders, was the manager of the Starbucks, and whoever heard of a "professional hit" with three bodies and over a dozen bullets in everything that moved and some that didn't? Not to mention that confession in the provided link. It was exactly the sort of botched armed robbery that makes prosecutors push for first-degree for murders caused in the course of a felony.
I don't appreciate this kind of rubbish rumor-mongering. The Clintons were *not* a gangland dynasty, and every murder in the District was *not* the indirect result of Bill Clinton's dick.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/05/2011 10:36 Comments ||
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[Emirates 24/7] A Chadian man died while praying in a packed mosque in Soddy Arabia a day after he performed Umra (mini pilgrimage) in the holy city of Makkah, a newspaper in the Gulf kingdom reported on Monday.
Ahmed Adam Hassan bent down along with scores of Moslems at a mosque in the western Red Sea port of Jeddah and remained in the same position throughout the noon prayers, 'Sabq' said.
"When the others finished their prayers, they were surprised to see that Ahmed was still bending down...when they checked him, they found he was dead," the Arabic language daily said without mentioning his age.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2011 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/05/2011 15:25 Comments ||
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Anyone in the mosque who takes seriously the jihadi expression We love death more than you love life! should have been thrilled at the sight of his corpse.
[An Nahar] A Tunis court on Monday sentenced ousted Tunisian president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in his absence to 15 years in jail for possession of arms, drugs and archaeological artifacts.
In his second trial, Ben Ali, who decamped to Soddy Arabia following a popular uprising in January, was also sentenced to a fine of 78,500 dollars.
The trial before a Tunis court had been scheduled to take place last week but was postponed due to a judges' strike.
The former strongman and his wife Leila Trabelsi had already been sentenced in their absence last month to 35 years in prison for misappropriating public funds after large sums of cash and jewellery were discovered in a police search of their palace.
In Monday's trial, Ben Ali alone was accused of harboring drugs and weapons at his palace in the Carthage neighborhood north of Tunis. He also faces a drug trafficking charge.
The presiding judge noted Ben Ali's absence for the record. "The accused is not present and is a runaway," Judge Touhmi Hafi said.
Ben Ali's attorneys pressed for another postponement to allow them more time to prepare their defense.
After their request was turned down, the lawyers stormed out, with Hosni Beji blasting what he called "the disregard for the rights of the defense". Their exit triggered loud boos from the public.
"I am bitter. We did a good job. Our request for a delay is not a lawyer's whim. This trial is tainted by irregularities," Beji fumed.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2011 00:00 ||
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Remains me, I promised to take my son to circus this summer.
[Emirates 24/7] A Saudi man mounted a prayers platform at the Grand Mosque in Islam's holiest shrine in the Gulf kingdom and told thousands of worshippers that he was a prophet and their saviour before he was seized by police.
The 36-year-old man, identified as Sami, waited until the Mohammedans finished their evening prayers at the Grand Mosque in the western town of Makkah, mounted the podium and delivered his brief, fiery speech. "I am Al Mehdi Al Montathar...I am a prophet sent (by God) to save and guide you," he told the packed hall before was overpowered by police.
'Okaz' newspaper said the incident took place on Friday night and that Sami insisted during police interrogation that he was a prophet. It said police would subject him to medical examination to check if he is suffering from mental illness.It was the latest in a series of incidents involving persons claiming to be Al-Mehdi Al-Montathar (the Chosen Imam Al-Mehdi) at Islamic holy sites in Makkah over the past few months.
All of them had been tossed in the clink and medically examined. Mohammedans believe Imam Al-Mehdi, dubbed "the ultimate saviour of mankind' will eventually reappear as a great reformer who will destroy the beliefs of injustice and ignorance and fill this earth with fairness after it has been filled with injustice and oppression.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2011 00:00 ||
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It said police would subject him to medical examination to check if he is suffering from mental illness.
or if, at least, more than the rest of the Mohammedan faithful
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/05/2011 9:15 Comments ||
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And I was so hoping it would be a virginity exam.
#5
OUT IN THE NOT-WEST-TEXAS TOWN OF NOT EL-PASO MAKKAH ...
versus
* DEFENCE FORUM INDIA > CHINA BANS XINJIANG MOSQUE PRAYERS [e.g. Friday Prayers], + CHINESE OPPPRESSION SILENCES UIGHURS.
UIGHUR = argues that Beijing = China is doing as such because it cannot effectively control Muslims otherwise.
The Artics give me the impression that while the crackdown is seemingly succeessful at this time, its LT effectiveness remains highly dubious or subjective.
Islami Ain Bastobayon Committee yesterday called a 48-hour countrywide hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... starting tomorrow to protest the removal of phrases "Absolute Faith and Trust in Allah" from the constitution.
Fazlul Haq Amini, ameer of the committee, announced the programme at a presser at his Lalbagh office in the city.
He demanded scrapping of all secular and anti-Islamic provisions from the constitution.
Amini, chairman of an Islami Oikya Jote ... a political party in Bangladesh. In the 2001 elections the party won 2 out of 300 elected members in an alliance with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. It has a focus on building an islamic state, and has used the madrassas to gain support... faction, also announced a rally in Dhaka for July 14. "The country is heading towards non-stop hartal due to the government's anti-Islamic activities," he said.
Earlier on Sunday, BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami announced a 48-hour countrywide hartal from tomorrow. Amini's IOJ is part of the BNP-led four-party alliance
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2011 00:00 ||
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[KUNA] Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva announced his resignation from the ruling democratic party, after losing the elections against opposition "Pheu Thai" party headed by Yingluck Shianwatra.
The democratic party only won 160 seats in the 500-seat parliament, while Pheu Thai party won 265.
Vejjajiva said in remarks to local media that he presented his resignation to the party, wishing that it will choose its new head during the few coming months.
Red-shirt protesters are celebrating the win of their candidate Shianwatra, sister of ousted Premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
They said it was a win for the people of Thailand in the political conflict that lasted for six years.
The red-shirt protesters represent the poor Thai inhabitants of villages and traditional elites.
Political analysts expressed fears that in case the democratic party won the elections, the re-shirt protesters would carry out massive demonstrations.
Shianwatra is the first female Thai Prime Minister in the country's history in spite of her humble political experience, while her brother would support her in her new post.
The winnig of the opposition party in the parliamentary elections was a great surprise to the ruling party, which was protected by the army.
The army has a remarkable presence in the political arena, especially as the country witnessed 18 military coups during the last 79 years.
The red-shirt protesters held massive demonstrations and protests to overthrow Vejjajiva's cabinet, which resulted in the killing of 91, while injuring more than 200 in festivities with the army in Bangkok.
Since the military coup to expel Thaksin, Thailand witnessed continuous political crises marked by violence and disorder, while the result of the elections would put an end to the political unrest in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2011 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] A day after she led Pheu Thai party to a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in Thailand, Yingluck Shinawatra has announced a new five-party coalition government.
Yingluck, a sister of the ousted leader, Thaksin Shinawatra, unveiled an agreement on yesterday where the new coalition will control about 60 per cent of parliament, or 299 seats.
The accord came unusually quickly, as constitution allows the new parliament 30 days of the elections to convene and select a house speaker, according to a 2007 constitution.
Pheu Thai won a majority of 265 in the 500-seat parliament - a margin big enough to rule alone without forming a coalition - and Yingluck is poised to become Thailand's first female prime minister.
Yingluck said yesterday the first mission of her administration would be "how to lead the country to unity and reconciliation" and vowed to boost transparency and to fight corruption.
"I myself, and Pheu Thai, are determined to serve the nation," she said.
Yingluck said her coalition would be joined by Chart Thai Pattana, with 19 seats in preliminary results; Chart Pattana Pheu Pandin, with 7 seats; Palang Chon, 7; and Mahachon, 1.
Earlier on yesterday Abhisit Vejjajiva, the outgoing prime minister, resigned from leadership of the Democrat party, taking responsibility for his party's loss.
"As the election results came out with the party winning fewer votes and fewer seats than in the 2007 poll, and in the spirit of a good leader of an organization, I should take responsibility," he said.
Abhisit said the Democrats will hold a general meeting within 90 days to choose a successor.
Thailand has been suffering from political instability for the past several years since Thaksin, a telecoms tycoon turned prime minister, was deposed in a 2006 military coup alongside conviction for corruption.
Thailand has seen 18 coups since becoming a constitutional monarchy in 1932.
Sunday's elections were held amid looming fears of a renewed turmoil, as the memory of last year's mass opposition rallies in Bangkok, the capital, which sparked a military crackdown that left at least 91 people dead.
However, some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... Gen. Prawit Wongsuwon, the Thai defence minister, eased concern on yesterday by saying the army would accept a government led by 44-year-old Yingluck, and promising that the military would not stage a coup.
"I've said this several times,'' Prawit was quoted as saying by several Thai newspapers.
"We are not going to intervene.''
Critics of Yinigluck have voiced concerns that she might function as a power proxy for her billionaire older brother, or perhaps facilitating his return home
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2011 00:00 ||
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[KUNA] The number of qat users in Europe appears to be growing, yet the scale and nature of the problem is poorly understood, according to a new publication released Monday by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).
Qat refers to the young leaves and shoots of the qat tree, cultivated in the Horn of Africa, Southern Arabia and along the East African coast.
The leaves have been chewed for centuries for their mildly stimulating properties and, for many, are part of their cultural legacy and social life.
Migration from the Horn of Africa has been associated with the spread of khat use to neighbouring countries, Europe and the rest of the world.
The drug goes by many names: 'qat' (Yemen), 'chad' (Ethiopia, Somalia), 'miraa' (Kenya) or 'marungi' (Uganda, Rwanda).
In the EU, qat is treated as an illegal drug in 15 of the 27 member states.
"The fact that qat is controlled in some, but not all, countries is reflected in both legitimate and criminal transportation networks," said EMCDDA Director Wolfgang Goetz, in press statements.
The report notes that the two main entry points for qat into Europe are the UK (London) and the Netherlands (Amsterdam), where it is imported, traded and consumed legally as a vegetable product.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/05/2011 00:00 ||
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Aren't users identified by green dribbles down their chins and noticeable mental slowness while chewing?
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.
A French novelist will file a complaint on Tuesday accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape, her lawyer said, raising the prospect of a new sex assault investigation starting just as the US case against the former International Monetary Fund chief falters.
A Chadian man died while praying in a packed mosque in 
A Tunis court on Monday sentenced ousted Tunisian president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in his absence to 15 years in jail for possession of arms, drugs and archaeological artifacts.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva announced his resignation from the ruling democratic party, after losing the elections against opposition "Pheu Thai" party headed by Yingluck Shianwatra.
