[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Disgraced former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn's legal woes has deepened as French prosecutors opened a preliminary probe into accusations he took part in a gang rape in the US.
Prosecutors in Lille, where Mr Strauss-Kahn and three others are charged in a vice case, said in a statement the probe centred on an incident "that could be described as gang rape" that took place in Washington, DC in December 2010.
Strauss-Kahn, two businessmen and a police chief have been charged with "aggravated pimping in an organised gang" in Lille for allegedly organising a prostitution ring for orgies in La Belle France, the United States and elsewhere.
Earlier this month prosecutors in the northern French city said investigating magistrates in the case had submitted new evidence, based on testimony from two Belgian sex workers, that could also implicate the men in a gang rape.
Testimony from one of the hookers indicated that she had been forced into non-consensual sex acts while in Washington with Strauss-Kahn and the other accused. She has not filed a complaint.
"I don't see the coherence of opening preliminary investigations for gang rape when the person concerned, who was questioned at length, did not file a complaint for rape," said one of Mr Strauss-Kahn's lawyers, Richard Malka.
He said the opening of the probe "shows the incredible relentlessness" of Sherlocks against his client.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2012 00:00 ||
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here in another article in The Telegraph. It is being characterized as pimping and gang rape.
Since the crime took place in the US, I think the Federal Government should ask for extradition. From what I hear, rapists are the lowest members of the food chain in US prisons. It would be interesting to see how he fares here.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
05/22/2012 11:19 Comments ||
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Can you name the religion?
A New Jersey woman says she was fired from her job after her manager told her to "tape her breasts" down, and now has filed suit against the company claiming religious and sexual discrimination.
Former data entry worker Lauren Odes said that after two days with Native Intimates, a midtown Manhattan wholesale lingerie company, a supervisor told her the store owners were not happy with her outfit, suggesting it was too "distracting."
"When I first started working there, I asked what the dress code was, and I was just told to look around and see what everyone else was wearing," Odes said in a press conference Monday. "So I did. The dress was very casual athletic wear to business attire."
Odes said the company owners are Orthodox Jews who were offended by her attire.
At a news conference announcing the suit, she said that at first she compromised, saying she'd wear a gray T-shirt and black jeggings with rain boots to work, but that wasn't enough.
"When my supervisors suggested that I tape down my breasts, I asked 'Are you kidding me?'" Odes said. "The supervisor said, 'Just cover up a little more.'"
The female supervisor then walked over to a closet, pulled out a bright red bathrobe decorated with pictures of guitars, and told Odes to put it on, she said.
"She told me to sit at my desk and wear it all day. I felt completely humiliated," Odes said. "She put the bathrobe on me and tied the belt and I returned to my desk wearing it."
Her supervisor then gave her the option of to go out and buy a sweater that "went to her ankles" instead of wearing the bathrobe, she said. After being ridiculed and made fun of by co-workers, Odes said, she obliged.
"I sat in the bathroom for a while crying. I'd prefer to go out and buy a sweater rather than sit there in the bathrobe feeling humiliated," Odes said.
But while she was out shopping for the sweater, the 29-year-old got a phone call saying she'd been terminated, she said.
Now, attorney Gloria Allred has filed suit against Native Intimates with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
"The treatment was discriminatory, profoundly humiliating and unlawful," Allred said.
This isn't the first time Allred has represented a client for allegedly being fired for what she was wearing.
Two years ago, she represented Debrahlee Lorenzana, a Queens, N.Y., woman who sued former bosses Citibank for banning her "sexy outfits and heels." Citibank ended up settling with Lorenzana.
Odes, who said she is also Jewish, said no employer has the right to impose their religious beliefs on employees.
"I do not feel an employer has the right to impose their religious beliefs on me when I'm working in a business that's not a synagogue, but sells things with hearts on the female genitals and boy shorts for women that say hot in the buttocks area," she said.
#3
Not to worry, Attorney Gloria Allred is on this; the Reverend Al Sharpton of the legal world. This does seem like hypocrisy. What do they want a burqa?
Ha! And Pappy thought I was crazy.
This month marks the 20th anniversary of a spectacular day for zoologists. Two decades ago, in May 1992, scientists announced the discovery of a new species the saola living in the lush mountain forests that straddle the Vietnam-Laos border.
It was the first large mammal discovered since the 1930s.
Yet celebrations are muted in light of the elusive species' plight; the saola, also known as the "Asian unicorn," is likely fast disappearing, conservationists warned in an announcement today, and they say there could be only 200, or even as few as just several dozen of the animals left on the planet.
The saola is a small, horned animal that resembles a strange antelope hybrid, but is more closely related to a type of wild cow.
Vietnamese scientists first identified the new species only through the bizarre, horned skulls that villagers living near the animal's range had collected.
Stark markings on the face, long, graceful horns and a tufted tail lend to the animal's mystique. [See rare photos of saola.]
But according to Barney Long, an Asian species expert for the conservation organization WWF, the creature got its mythical moniker more for its habits than its looks.
"It's so rare to see that it would almost be like seeing a unicorn," Long told OurAmazingPlanet in 2011, when a protected area for saola was created in Vietnam.
These secretive ungulates wander the steamy green forests of South Asia's Annamite Mountains, where poaching is rampant. Although saola themselves are not prized in the wildlife trade or for their meat, many of their neighbors are.
"Saola are caught largely as bycatch like the tuna and dolphin scenario," William Robichaud, coordinator of the Saola Working Group, said in a statement.
And although the rare creatures are caught and killed by snares, scientists have never observed them in the wild. The rare saola that has been captured alive has quickly died.
"When they're in captivity, they seem to act extremely tame, and they're very open to having people come up to them and touch them," Long said, but explained that their sweet demeanor is likely a sign of extreme stress. "The animal is freaking out," he said.
Conservationists said it's encouraging that saola are not a direct target for poachers, and offered hope that the critically endangered animals can be saved.
"But we still need to act," Robichaud said. "One of the rarest and most distinctive large animals in the world has been quietly slipping toward extinction through complacency."
#1
"Discovered since the 1930's" - I dunno about that, as none of my Instructors in youth or adulthood have ever effec answered my inquiry, i.e. could Marco Polo or other earlier ancient Explorer brought Saola specimens to Europe where they indeed became the de facto inspiration for "mythical/fantasical/magical" Unicorns???
#2
How can we be "complacent" if we didn't know that they existed in the first place?
I don't know about you, but it's been years since I've straddled the Vietnam-Laos border.
Fifteen people were killed or injured in tribal fighting in Yemen after a male donkey chased an ass and raped it just near the house of its owner.
Newspapers in Yemen said the owner of the ass got mad after he saw the donkey attacking his animal, prompting him to chase the donkey and hit it.
The attack infuriated the donkey owner, who called his armed tribe men and asked them to take revenge.
The problem snowballed into an armed fight between Makabis tribe, which owns the donkey, and Bani Abbas which owns the ass 15 people were either killed or injured in the battle, the Saudi Arabic language daily Aleqtisadiah said, quoting newspapers in Yemen.
A large police force intervened and stopped the fighting at a village in the southwestern province of Abb, newspapers said, adding that police had arrested eight persons involved in the conflict.
Hundreds of young Saudi men, some wearing horror masks, attacked a deserted building with torches and flash lights on late Monday in response to online calls to chase ghosts believed to be living inside before they were evicted and chased by a large Saudi security force.
The men set the building on fire before fleeing the site after they were chased by scores of baton-wielding police men and security agents in the conservative Moslem Gulf Kingdom.
"Hundreds of young men entered the building which was a hospital 26 years ago....they were responding to calls on Blackberry phones and social networks to go into the building and check rumours that it is haunted," the Saudi Arabic language daily Sabq said in a report from Riyadh.
"Some of them set part of the building ablaze before fleeing when police raided the place...all of them were evicted while the fire was put out later."
With the campaign for president a little more than halfway over, Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) candidate Enrique Pena Nieto continues to maintain a commanding lead over his other rivals, according to polling data supplied by Milenio news daily.
Pena Nieto now has 47.6 percentage of voters over Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) candidate Josefina Vazquez Mota, who has 26 percent. The margin between the two candidates has widened by more than 20 percent, the widest so far to date.
Leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador remains in third place with 21.2 percent of voters.
When undecided voters are taken into account, Pena Nieto maintains a strong 17.3 percentage point margin over Vazquez Mota. Undecided voters have declined since the start of the month from 25.9 percent to 19.2 percent, probably indicating those voters are just now coming to terms with the candidates.
In what has been classified as a security incident, the security detail for Lopez Obrador detained an unidentified individual carrying a loaded gun at a campaign event Sunday night at Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores de Ecatepec (TESE) technical school in Mexico state. The armed individual was not turned over to state authorities and was apparently released.
Milenio news daily reported in a Monday evening post on their website that Lopez Orbador would reinforce his security, saying the incident was no different than risks run by Mexicans.
Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com
[Iran Press TV] France's first left-wing President in nearly 20 years, Francois Hollande has unveiled a government that includes three Muslim ministers.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2012 00:00 ||
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one of the Muslims is a woman who is now the minister for woman's rights.
Posted by: lord garth ||
05/22/2012 7:23 Comments ||
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...one of the Muslims is a woman who is now the minister for woman's rights.
"You've a right to wear a hijab. If you give up your right to wear a hijab, you've a right to be raped."
[Al Ahram] Iran's foreign ministry said on Monday it has sacked one of its diplomats who allegedly fondled underaged girls in a swimming pool in Brazil, where he was stationed before being recalled.
"After an investigation into the violations by the Iranian employee of the Iranian embassy in Brazil, it was found his behaviour was contrary to administrative regulations and Islamic conduct ... thus he was dismissed," the ministry said in a statement.
Brazilian media identified the diplomat as Hekmatollah Ghorbani, 51, and reported that he groped at least four Brazilian girls aged between nine and 15 in a Brasilia pool last month, making them cry and attracting the fury of their parents.
He was set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock You have the right to remain silent... but quickly released when Brazilian police verified his diplomatic immunity.
Iran's embassy in Brasilia had initially defended the diplomat by issuing a statement claiming the groping allegations were the result of a "cultural misunderstanding".
But foreign ministry front man Ramin Mehmanparast subsequently said the diplomat had been recalled and would be "dealt with", even though he also asserted that the incident was being twisted by Western and Arab media.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2012 00:00 ||
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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.
Iran's foreign ministry said on Monday it has sacked one of its diplomats who allegedly fondled underaged girls in a swimming pool in Brazil, where he was stationed before being recalled.
