The Earl was big news around here for awhile...
NICE, France (AFP) - The widow and brother-in-law of an English lord whose decomposing body was found on the French Riviera went on trial here Tuesday accused of murdering him to get their hands on his fortune. Jamila M'Barek, 45, appeared before the court in Nice charged with accessory to murder, alongside her brother, Mohammed M'Barek, 43, who is accused of murdering Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 10th Earl of Shaftesbury. "I loved this man," Jamila M'Barek told the court, pleading innocence. "He brought me peace. He was for me a lover and a father." ...ewww. What is this, Chinatown?
The body of the 66-year-old lord was found in a public dump in April 2005, five months after he vanished from his home in Cannes. Bet he didn't smell too good...
Prosecutors say M'Barek, a Dutch-Tunisian former nightclub hostess who married the lord in 2002, had feared an impending divorce would threaten her lifestyle as well as inheritance and had persuaded her brother Mohammed to strangle her husband. Damn him! I'll have to go back to doin drunken sailors in the street!
Mohamed M'Barek -- who was extradited from Germany in 2005 -- initially denied involvement, but later told police he accidentally strangled the lord during an argument. Oh...that's right! I...forgot.
"I am innocent. My sister is innocent," Mohamed M'Barek told journalists who were given permission by the judge to film the defendants before the opening of the trial."It was just an accident," he said. Can we go now? And can we have his money?
Mohamed M'Barek also railed against the conditions for his detention and called on President Nicolas Sarkozy and his newly-appointed government to improve the prisons. "You have concentration camps" here, not prisons, Mohamed M'Barek told reporters. A verdict is expected on Friday. Well get used to them because it appears you're gonna be in one for awhile...
Educated at Eton and Oxford and a fluent French speaker, Ashley-Cooper inherited his title from his grandfather when he was 22 years old, along with the family seat at Wimborne and its 9,000-acre estate. The press has estimated his fortune at seven million euros. That'll keep you in booze and cheap Arab hookers for awhile...
Ashley-Cooper divided his time between Britain and the French Riviera where he led a colourful and largely nocturnal existence. "Colourful and nocturnal". I think that's British for "rich old English boozehound who liked cheap hookers".
He met Jamila M'Barek in a Riviera nightclub, married her and gave her an apartment in Cannes. In October 2002, Ashley-Cooper drafted a new will in which he left many of his properties in Ireland and France to Jamila. Ish all yours, baby...I loves ya, baby...
But he later met another nightclub waitress, Nadia, in Cannes and decided that she would be his new bride. Whoops...wait a second, baby...I said what?
At the time of his death, he had been living apart from Jamila M'Barek, who was his third wife. Ashley-Cooper was last seen on November 6, 2004 walking out of a Cannes hotel where he had spent the night. His body was found in the town of Theoule-sur-Mer, south of Cannes five months later in April 2005. Shee ya later, schnookems...gonna find mes anuther wife.
Jamila M'Barek had initially told police that she had last seen her husband at her Cannes apartment on the morning of November 5 and that he had admitted to having financial problems. Something about whores taking all his money, I think he said. On second thought, I don't recall...
But she later changed her version of the events, telling investigators that he had showed up at her flat drunk and that a fight broke out between him and her brother Mohamed who had come from Germany to pick up 10,000 euros promised by the English lord. Sorry, Mohamed, but seein how I'm not doin you...kiss my rich white British arse.
Infuriated at Ashley-Cooper's refusal to honour his promise, Mohamed knocked him down and strangled him to death, according to the widow. DIE...rich infidel English pig who gives me no money!
But prosecutors say the murder was premeditated and that the motive was money. Nah, c'mahn, Jamila sounds like a class broad...
Police in Kenya have launched a manhunt for followers of the outlawed Mungiki religious sect accused of beheading six people in the centre of the country. Security Minister John Michuki said some 200 suspects have been arrested this week since the corpses were found.
Followers of the Mungiki sect, have been battling with public transport operators who refuse to pay them protection fees. The sect promotes female circumcision and oath taking and was banned in 2002.
Police say the latest victims of the sect members were abducted and tortured before being hacked to death and their bodies dismembered. The body parts were found dumped near a police station, in Kiambu town, a few kilometres from the capital, Nairobi.
The group has been linked to influential politicians from central Kenya in the past and there are fears they may be used to disrupt the general elections later this year.
President Mwai Kibaki is seeking a second term in office and is facing a stiff challenge from the opposition Orange Democratic Movement of Kenya. ¿Mungiki, Taliban or whatever they call themselves we are going to wipe them out tomorrow and we are determined,¿ Mr Michuki told reporters in Nairobi. The security minister denied claims that the killings are linked to politics.
Mungiki which means a multitude of people in Kikuyu, one of the major tribes in Kenya, claims to have more than one million followers across the country.
Police are also investigating reports that the sect has extended its criminal activities to kidnapping and extortion. Last week, security forces were placed on high alert following the distribution of leaflets allegedly authored by the sect leaders asking the youth to join the banned sect in readiness for an uprising against the government.
A man trying to kill his girlfriend by leaving her in a car on railroad tracks was himself killed Monday when a commuter train launched the vehicle into him as he tried to flee, police said. The girlfriend survived.
The man drove the car in front of a group of other vehicles stopped at a railroad crossing in the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Sunland, Officer Mike Lopez said. The driver, who was seen arguing with his girlfriend, parked the car on the tracks and jumped out, leaving her behind, Lopez said.
A northbound Metrolink train hit the rear of the car, hurling it into the man. The girlfriend was taken to the hospital, where she was in stable condition, Lopez said. "She gets hit by a train and lives. He gets hit by his own car and he dies," Lopez said.
The 450-ton train was heading from downtown to Lancaster in northern Los Angeles County at the time of the 12:08 p.m. crash, said Denise Tyrrell, a spokeswoman for Metrolink. There were no injuries on the train, which carried 132 passengers and crew members, Tyrrell said. The train had
The train's speed wasn't immediately known. The limit in the area is 79 mph, Tyrrell said. At that speed, it would take one-third of a mile to stop, she said. "If someone drives in front of an oncoming train there is almost nothing the engineer can do," Tyrrell said, noting it was highly unusual for someone to survive being struck by a train. "The train to your car is like your car to a soda pop can. It's just not going to be a fair fight," Tyrrell said.
#11
"A man trying to kill his girlfriend by leaving her in a car on railroad tracks was himself killed Monday when a commuter train launched the vehicle into him as he tried to flee"
Works for me.
#6 wx - did you have to go to hoof-in-mouth school, or is this a natural talent? >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/22/2007 16:05 Comments ||
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James Taranto, "Breast Best of the Web," Wall Street Journal
This is quite a story, from the Associated Press in Cairo:
Al-Azhar University, one of Sunni Islam's most prestigious institutions, ordered one of its clerics Monday to face a disciplinary panel after he issued a controversial decree allowing adults to breast-feed. "You're busted!"
Ezzat Attiya had issued a fatwa, or religious edict, saying adult men could breast-feed from female work colleagues as a way to avoid breaking Islamic rules that forbid men and women from being alone together. "What a boob!"
In Islamic tradition, breast-feeding establishes a degree of maternal relation, even if a woman nurses a child who is not biologically hers. It means the child could not marry the nursing woman's biological children.
Attiya--the head of Al-Azhar's Department of Hadith, or teachings of the Prophet Muhammad--insisted the same would apply with adults. He argued that if a man nursed from a co-worker, it would establish a family bond between them and allow the two to work side-by-side without raising suspicion of an illicit sexual relation. "Plus, it'd be fun!"
Well, it's certainly a creative attempt to resolve a conundrum that must bedevil many a jihadi human-resources manager. One wonders if a similar approach could help shield American employers against sexual-harassment lawsuits. Nah, one realizes, probably not.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/22/2007 16:04 ||
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#1
I'll have to try that with one of my breast-feeding colleagues. Move over junior...
#3
I think we have a winner for the Best Cairo Bar Pickup Line.
Posted by: ed ||
05/22/2007 18:34 Comments ||
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#4
This really slays me. Islam can be used to justify damn near anything, can't it?
When I go to "Ask The Imam" websites like www.askimam.org and look around, I get the impression that Islam gives its adherents absolutely no ethical or moral framework within which an individual can tell right from wrong-- only a seemingly-endless canonical list of arbitrary do's and don't's.
No wonder they're so fucked up.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/22/2007 18:38 Comments ||
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... this one is harmless, though.
Sleepless record man feeling fine, really
A Cornish man attempting to break the world record for sleep deprivation says he is feeling fine, despite being awake for more than a week.
Tony Wright, 42, from Penzance, started his attempt to beat the current record at 0600 BST on 14 May.
The current record stands at 264 hours - 11 days.
Mr Wright said: "It's a bit difficult for me to say but I feel fine - there's a lot of pressure and there's been troughs of tiredness, but I feel OK."
He has been passing the time by popping speed playing pool and keeping an online diary.
In one of the entries, Mr Wright described his experience of nearly falling asleep on Saturday as: "The flat screen starts turning into a multi-dimensional portal to another world and the text into a welcoming entourage of giggling dancing pixies and elves. I know how that feels, happens to me often when I spend too much time surfing adult entertainment websites.
'Not going mad'
"Remarkably, one's nose heads in a similar direction, and without a last-second reprieve would have come firmly to rest on the Z key."
He said this entry was poetic licence and not an example of him going mad. "No, really".
"I was partly being serious, but also I couldn't think of anything else to write as I haven't done anything."
The only physical change he has noticed is his speech becoming incomprehensible at times.
He is unsure if this is through lack of sleep or from talking too much.
He has also noticed that colours seem very noisy yet strangely musical bright.
"I don't look any worse than in the beginning and can hold a conversation," he said. "Well, except for that incomprehensible speech part, I mean".
He said the hardest part was that he had to stay in one place - Penzance's Studio Bar - in order to prove that he was not popping out for a sleep.
"Although this is a lovely place, staying in one place long enough drives you stir crazy," he said. "But I'm not. Really. The pixies told me so."
Increasingly confident
A live we*b ca*m and CCTV cameras are monitoring him 24-hours a day.
"It does seem kind of strange like a reality TV show," he said.
He said he was becoming increasingly confident that he would break the record which was set by Randy Gardner in the US in 1964.
"I've already done eight days so three more doesn't seem much of an effort. I can do that," he said.
Angler catches world's biggest carp - which weighs almost as much as Kylie
British angler Graham Slaughter has scaled new heights by catching the world's biggest carp that weighed a whopping 88.6lbs - almost as much as Kylie Minogue.
It is the first ever captured carp to weigh more than 40 kilos - and was the angling equivalent of the four minute mile.
I dunno. There's something fishy about this story.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/22/2007 13:07 ||
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#1
When did Kylie Minogue become the standard measurement for prize winning fish?
#2
Since the moment some desperate editor realized that he can spice up those boring local interest stories with a picture of a babe instead of just a fish.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
05/22/2007 13:35 Comments ||
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#3
When did Kylie Minogue become the standard measurement for prize winning fish?
It's the Daily Mail - what do you expect?
#4
When the dolphins said "Thanks for all the fish.", they were talking about Kylie and her sister.
Posted by: ed ||
05/22/2007 14:12 Comments ||
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#5
With all those weird mutant animals because of pollution and radioactive wastes, by mid-21st century, the coming generations will have to use rosie o'donnell as measurement unit, so consider yourselves lucky to be still able to use with Kylie.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/22/2007 16:02 Comments ||
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#8
I don't know who she is either, Barbara.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/22/2007 21:21 Comments ||
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#9
Can't say that I really care, Deacon. I was just asking out of idle curiosity. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/22/2007 21:26 Comments ||
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#10
Click on the article. There's picture of Kylie.
I'm gonna get a sammich for bait and go fishing for Kylie. A much better catch than that oversized goldfish.
The United States will sign a deal next month for closer nuclear energy cooperation with Algeria, which has already been provided with a reactor by the Chinese, it was announced here Sunday. A cooperation protocol would be signed "on June 9 during a visit to Algiers by an American expert delegation, including a senior official of the energy department," Algeria's Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil told journalists. Algeria has two experimental reactors, one built by China, the other by Argentina.
The new agreement with Washington would set up cooperation mechanisms and various exchanges in the field of civil nuclear energy, including joint programmes, the minister was earlier quoted as saying during a visit to the US. "The two sides will work towards organising sharing of experience and data, mutual visits by experts and specialists, and also conducting joint programmes," Khelil said then.
The visiting US group was scheduled next month to visit Algerian development centres for nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, Khelil also announced. Algerian specialists would later visit the US. Algeria's two reactors have a strength of three and 15 megawatts respectively. One was built by Argentina near the capital Algiers, while the other, constructed by China, is situated 250 kilometres (150 miles) south of Algiers.
#1
Hugo the Red dictator learned well from his older pal Castro.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
05/22/2007 2:42 Comments ||
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#2
Somehow this pic seemed appropriate on several levels. The public made their bed by voting this snake into the customary socialist dictator position, and now they have to lie in it. And it's something they'll be handing down to their children. Some years from now when those kids grow up and figure out what happened, they'll know who to thank for their situation. It's not like Hugo the Clown misrepresented what he'd be doing.
#3
These people are cowards. Hugo has stolen their democracy, and they are protesting ? Get some weapons and start killing his police and such you cowards. Buy a clue, you won the last election, but Hugo did the vote counting. You've been duped !
The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found in a national survey that nearly 80% of Muslims in the USA say suicide bombings are never justified to "defend Islam," but nearly a quarter of those under 30 think such attacks are OK in some circumstances.
"It is a hair-raising number," Radwa Masmoudi, head of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, tells the AP.
The wire service, which describes the poll as one of the most exhaustive examinations of Muslim opinion in the United States, says: the data revealed a community that in many ways blends comfortably into society. Its largely mainstream members express nearly as much happiness with their lives and communities as the general public does, show a broad willingness to adopt American customs, and have income and education levels similar to others in the U.S.
Even so, the survey revealed noteworthy pockets of discontent.
A quarter of the respondents didn't express an opinion when asked whether they held a favorable or unfavorable view of al-Qaeda. (About 5% say they have a favorable view of the terrorist group.)
"We have crazies just like other faiths have them," Eide Alawan, an employee of the Islamic Society of North America, one of the nation's largest mosques, tells the wire service. Alawan says killing innocents goes against the tenets of Islam.
One of the key findings of the survey: Muslim Americans reject Islamic extremism by larger margins than do Muslim minorities in Western European countries. However, there is somewhat more acceptance of Islamic extremism in some segments of the U.S. Muslim public than others. Fewer native-born African American Muslims than others completely condemn al Qaeda. In addition, younger Muslims in the U.S. are much more likely than older Muslim Americans to say that suicide bombing in the defense of Islam can be at least sometimes justified. Nonetheless, absolute levels of support for Islamic extremism among Muslim Americans are quite low, especially when compared with Muslims around the world.
#3
nearly 80% of Muslims in the USA say suicide bombings are never justified to "defend Islam," but nearly a quarter of those under 30 think such attacks are OK in some circumstances.
25% think suicide bombings are O.K. in some circumstances. What circumstances? This is alarming. These folks should be watched. We don't need this here. Suppose non-Muslims decided that it was OK to shoot up or blow up Muslim communities such as Detroit, etc.? What the hell would these jackasses think of such a poll?
So even after Sept 11, 2001 atrocities and a war, even more muslims than ever before are allowed to immigrate. Well done our elected leaders. When you get bought by the Sauds, you stay bought.
Posted by: ed ||
05/22/2007 13:57 Comments ||
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#5
tu3031,
I knew there was a document linked off this page. But, I didn't have a chance to link off the first story. I had to step away. I was counting that people would likely go to the original link and get the second document there which was more extensive.
#6
"We have crazies just like other faiths have them," Eide Alawan, an employee of the Islamic Society of North America, one of the nation's largest mosques, tells the wire service.
Yeah, but in the faith I grew up in, 'crazy' was defined as altering the lefse recipe... not, you know, cutting the heads off non-Lutherans.
Alawan says killing innocents goes against the tenets of Islam.
Could Alawan define 'innocent' as he or she uses it in this context, please? Are 'infidels' ever innocent? How about apostates?
#7
This is the sort of shit that is going to get America's Muslim population rounded up and put into internment camps or just plain deported. More importantly, for those who think that America's "melting pot" effect will better assimilate these immigrants than they have in Europe, go back and examine how the second generation Muslims are becoming more radicalized. It is the exact same pattern of increasing jihadism. This is a recipe for disaster. All Muslim immigration needs to be halted immediately.
#8
Go back to your OWN countries and fix those hellholes. Do not come over to this sovereign country and tell me how screwed up it is. I already know how screwed up it is. It is Soros screwed up. Fix your house, and I AM will open a new age for your families.
Officials from Iran, Pakistan and India are scheduled to meet early next week for dialogue on the $7 billion pipeline project that will carry gas from Iran to India via Pakistan, a senior government official said on Monday. Trilateral talks are scheduled for May 27 and May 28 in Tehran to discuss modalities of the project. S Sundareshan, the newly appointed Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas additional secretary will likely lead the Indian side. Although the exact agenda of the meeting isnt known, officials are likely to deliberate on the project structure and framework agreements. The pipeline, which will span 2,300 kilometres, will initially carry around 60 million cubic meters of gas a day.
Meanwhile, the Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources has observed that the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project is very useful and of great significance. The committee, which met at the Parliament House in Islamabad on Monday under the chairmanship of Senator Syed Dilawar Abbas, took stock of the fact that greater amounts of oil and gas would be required to sustain the current growth rate and to meet future requirements. It called upon the government to pursue the project vigorously. The committee made these observations while receiving an update on the gas pipeline project by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources. It was informed that a Term Sheet was signed between Iran and Pakistan in 2005 for a supply of two billion cubic feet of gas per day for 30 years. It was also told that agreement on gas pricing had been reached in January under which each country would build the pipeline in its respective territory.
The greenie meanies are making them convert from gas-powered rickshaws to CNG rickshaws that are costly and underpowered; the police are "helping" by impounding all the older vehicles and then releasing them after payments of bribe money...
PESHAWAR: Rickshaw drivers went on a three-day strike here on Monday, and protested against the impounding of nearly 700 rickshaws by traffic police. A rally, staged on the call of the Rickshaw Drivers Unions joint action committee, was taken out from Gulbahar and after marching on the Grand Trunk (GT) Road staged a sit-in at Hashtnagri, the citys main traffic artery, suspending traffic for more than an hour. Addressing rally participants, Union leaders Baz Mohammad, Murad Khan, Rafiullah, Ayaz, Noor Akbar and Amanullah criticised the provincial and city governments and police for impounding two-stroke rickshaws, permit restrictions and police excesses. They also blamed Peshawar Nazim Ghulam Ali for the prevailing situation and said the government is depriving us of our bread.
They demanded that the government release the impounded rickshaws and issue route permits for non-permit vehicles.
Later, the unions joint action committee chairman Baz Mohammd told Daily Times that traffic police had impounded vehicles and that, we have been fined Rs 5,000 for the permits. He accused the SP traffic of causing trouble and demanded his transfer. He also alleged that police officials had released impounded vehicles after receiving Rs 1,500 to 2,000 in bribes, and said there were nearly 20,000 rickshaws in Peshawar and that a rickshaw supports 30 people including its driver, owner, mechanic and spare parts sellers. We have paid Rs 200,000 for a rickshaw and cannot afford the recently introduced CNG rickshaws that are weak compared to two-stroke vehicles.
Union Faqirabad Chapter President Waheed Ullah said, The government says the increasing number of rickshaws is causing trouble, but it is launching the CNG rickshaws at the same time.
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.
Mr Wright said: "It's a bit difficult for me to say but I feel fine - there's a lot of pressure and there's been troughs of tiredness, but I feel OK." 
