http://m.almasryalyoum.com/node/1147266
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Obama Cabinet Flunks Disclosure Test With 19 in 20 Ignoring Law
Obama Cabinet Flunks Disclosure Test With 19 in 20 Ignoring Law
On his first full day in office, President Barack Obama ordered federal officials to "usher in a new era of open government" and "act promptly" to make information public.
As Obama nears the end of his term, his administration hasn't met those goals, failing to follow the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act, according to an analysis of open-government requests filed by Bloomberg News.
Nineteen of 20 cabinet-level agencies disobeyed the law requiring the disclosure of public information: The cost of travel by top officials. In all, just eight of the 57 federal agencies met Bloomberg's request for those documents within the 20-day window required by the Act.
"When it comes to implementation of Obama's wonderful transparency policy goals, especially FOIA policy in particular, there has been far more 'talk the talk' rather than 'walk the walk,'" said Daniel Metcalfe, director of the Department of Justice's office monitoring the government's compliance with FOIA requests from 1981 to 2007.
The Bloomberg survey was designed in part to gauge the timeliness of responses, which Attorney General Eric Holder called "an essential component of transparency" in a March 2009 memo. About half of the 57 agencies eventually disclosed the out-of-town travel expenses generated by their top official by Sept. 14, most of them well past the legal deadline.
Public Interest
Bloomberg reporters in June filed FOIA requests for fiscal year 2011 taxpayer-supported travel for Cabinet secretaries and top officials of major departments. Justice Department official Melanie Ann Pustay said in an interview that disclosure of those records is in the public interest.
Data and Graphics: Testing Obama's Promise of Government Transparency
Even agency heads who publicly announce their events -- including Holder, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius -- didn't provide the costs of their out-of-town trips more than three months after the initial request.
"It's ironic that the demands in the presidential campaign for Mitt Romney's tax returns are unrelenting, but when it comes time to release the schedules for senior appointees there's the same denial of access," said Paul Light, a New York University professor who studies the federal bureaucracy.
"Over the past four years, federal agencies have gone to great efforts to make government more transparent and more accessible than ever, to provide people with information that they can use in their daily lives," said White House spokesman Eric Schultz, who noted that Obama received an award for his commitment to open government. The March 2011 presentation of that award was closed to the press.
2013 Delivery
The travel costs generated by some other Obama officials --Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, and Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano -- also remain undisclosed.
A request made in June for the travel records of Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, will remain unfulfilled for more than a year, according to a federal official involved in the case.
"We really appreciate your patience in this matter. The estimated completion date is July 2013," wrote Chris Barnes, a State Department FOIA official, in a Sept. 24 e-mail. Under FOIA, the department is required to offer a timetable for delayed responses.
GSA Scandal
Government travel costs have received greater scrutiny since a report by the General Services Administration's inspector general on April 2 revealed that a 2010 Las Vegas junket -- featuring a mind reader and a clown -- cost taxpayers more than $823,000. Since then, GSA Administrator Martha Johnson has resigned and the IG has referred the matter to the Department of Justice.
Related: Activist's Nine Year Navy FOIA Fight Results in Supreme Court Win
Records obtained as a result of another Bloomberg FOIA request showed that the GSA almost tripled its expenditures for conferences from 2005 to 2010. Taxpayers paid $27.8 million for more than 200 overnight gatherings attended by at least 50 GSA employees over the five-year period, according to the records.
Under Obama, federal agencies also have stepped up the use of exemptions to block the release of information.
During the first year of the administration, cabinet agencies employed exemptions 466,402 times, a 50 percent jump from the last year of the presidency of George W. Bush. While exemption citations have since been reduced by 21 percent from that high, they still are above the level seen during the Bush administration, according to Justice Department data.
DHS Exemptions
The majority of the exemptions came from the Department of Homeland Security, which gets the most requests, records show.
The greater number of documents released online helps explain the increased use of exemptions, according to Tracy Russo, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department. "The pool of requests that are made tend to be more complex," she said.
Open government advocates note that Obama's transparency pledge is undermined by a federal bureaucracy that often cites staff shortages and compliance costs to delay the release of information.
"I don't think the administration has been very good at all on open-government issues," said Katherine Meyer, a Washington attorney who has been filing open records requests since the late 1970s. "The Obama administration is as bad as any of them, and to some extent worse."
Fee Fight
In one case Meyer pursued, the Center for Auto Safety was told by Treasury FOIA officials that its request for records relating to the U.S. auto bailout would cost $38,000. Meyer successfully argued the fees should be waived because the request was in the public interest.
The Freedom of Information Act, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966, is designed to open up the process of government to citizens. Individuals have the right to file requests, and the law mandates that the department answer the query within 20 working days, ask for a 10-day extension, or offer a timetable for the release of the information.
In the past, FOIA has been used to obtain a wide range of government records. Among them: Documents on the use of the defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War; Department of Transportation reports detailing safety issues with the Ford Pinto's fuel tank that contributed to some 500 deaths; and details of the Bush administration's deliberations on the use of torture following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
'Smoking Gun'
"It's the smoking gun that often holds government accountable for its misdeeds," said Kevin Goldberg, a First Amendment attorney at Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth Plc in Arlington, Virginia, who also serves as legal counsel for the American Society of News Editors.
Miriam Nisbet, the head of the Office of Government Information Services, which acts as a FOIA ombudsman, said Obama deserves praise for highlighting government accountability.
"We see a great deal of emphasis and attention paid to transparency," she said. "That is a really important message."
Nisbet's office offered travel documents three days after acknowledging the FOIA request.
The Bloomberg FOIA filing also asked each department to identify trips, lodging and meals provided by non-federal sources. All told, 30 of the 57 agencies contacted replied with those travel records by Sept. 14.
SBA Response
Of the 20 Cabinet-level agencies contacted by Bloomberg News, only the Small Business Administration met the legal 20- day deadline by disclosing that Administrator Karen Mills took 27 trips out of Washington at a total cost to the U.S. taxpayer of $15,856.
The records of Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, Labor Hilda Solis, former Secretary of Commerce and Acting Secretary Gary Locke and Rebecca Blank, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Jacob Lew, the former director of the Office and Management and Budget who is now White House Chief of Staff, were released to Bloomberg News under the request, though those agencies did not meet the 20-day deadline.
Kirk, "who travels all over the world" for his duties according to the USTR website, took 23 business trips in fiscal 2011, 17 of which involved domestic travel, for a cost of about $45,000. Kirk "has said many times that increased outreach to the American people" is important for economic growth, USTR spokeswoman Carol Guthrie said in an e-mail.
No Excuse
Eric Newton, senior adviser at the Knight Foundation, a Miami-based group that promotes citizen engagement, said agencies have no excuse not to rapidly disclose travel costs.
"In a 24/7 world, it should take two days, it should take two hours," Newton said. "If it's public, it should be just there."
The Department of Justice, which is charged with monitoring how all federal agencies respond to FOIA requests, has yet to release the travel details of top officials at three of its affiliated agencies: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Pustay, head of the Justice Department's Office of Information Policy, said that taxpayer-supported travel records are "certainly something that people would ask for and something that's of interest to the public." She said "the crush of work" makes swift replies difficult.
Redacted Information
None of the nine exemptions under the FOIA -- which protect national security, personal information or corporate trade secrets, for example -- allow taxpayer-supported travel expenses to remain hidden from view.
Those records may include information, such as private mobile-phone numbers or information related to security, that is exempted from disclosure, which could be causing the delays, Pustay said.
Responsive agencies were able to redact personal details within the FOIA time period. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, the chief regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, provided the travel expense records for Acting Director Edward DeMarco's six trips out of town within 15 days of the filing.
DeMarco's trips cost $5,653.29, the documents show. Personal information such as his Social Security number and home address were blacked-out in the file.
Data and Graphics: Testing Obama's Promise of Government Transparency
The process for accessing information that hasn't been already released remains confusing, time-consuming and at times antagonistic, said Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, a Washington-based open-information repository.
'Obfuscation' Culture
"There is a culture of obfuscation among agency Freedom of Information officials," he said. "Bureaucrats are able to deter a lot of citizen engagement."
Travel records were largely shielded from public view until Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act on July 4, 1966. Congress adopted post-Watergate reforms in 1974, giving agencies a deadline to comply with requests and narrowing exemptions for law enforcement and national security agencies. The FOIA law was updated another four times through 2007, when the Office of Government Information Services was established as the federal ombudsman.
The White House says it has released more than 2.5 million records since Obama took office. Recovery.gov allows citizens to track stimulus spending by state. The administration also has for the first time posted the names of White House visitors, though not a full list of who has attended meetings.
Backlogged Files
Other records now disclosed include the number of weapons in the nation's nuclear arsenal, report cards for veterans' hospitals, and employer-specific workplace safety records kept by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
The total number of FOIA requests increased, with 631,424 processed last year, compared with 600,849 in 2010.
The government's website dedicated to monitoring its response to filings, FOIA.gov, shows the number of backlogged requests grew 20 percent to 83,490 filings from 2010 to 2011.
The Justice Department reported in 2008 that there were 3,691 full-time FOIA personnel across all departments and agencies. In 2011, the figure increased by 19 percent to 4,400, according to the department. Some agencies outsource FOIA- related tasks, including the redaction process. The government has spent at least $86.2 million on contracts described as pertaining to FOIA since 2009, according to federal procurement data compiled by Bloomberg.
The administration acknowledged systemic issues with the FOIA process when the Office of Management and Budget issued guidelines Aug. 24 to all federal agencies on how to streamline government information. The memo called for all government information to be stored in an electronic format by December 2019 -- almost three years after the end of a potential second Obama term.
Stephen Hess, a presidential historian at the Washington- based Brookings Institution, called the survey results a "grim" assessment of Obama's transparency record. He said the president -- like many of the men who have occupied the Oval Office -- has discovered how difficult it is to bend the government's bureaucracies to his will.
"The sad part is it won't be any better for the next folks either," Hess said. "The only difference perhaps is the Obama people led us to believe it would be different."
To contact the reporters on this story: Jim Snyder in Washington at jsnyder24@bloomberg.net; Danielle Ivory in Washington at divory@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net; Stephanie Stoughton at sstoughton@bloomberg.net
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
Saturday, September 29, 2012
BBC E-mail: Tunisia 'police rape' condemned
I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.
** Tunisia 'police rape' condemned **
Tunisia's minister for women denounces the alleged rape by policemen of a woman who was later charged with indecency, along with her fiance.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19763641 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
** Tunisia 'police rape' condemned **
Tunisia's minister for women denounces the alleged rape by policemen of a woman who was later charged with indecency, along with her fiance.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19763641 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
BBC E-mail: Iran leader's press man jailed
I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.
** Iran leader's press man jailed **
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's top press adviser is jailed for publishing "offensive" material, while the president is away in New York.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19741739 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
** Iran leader's press man jailed **
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's top press adviser is jailed for publishing "offensive" material, while the president is away in New York.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19741739 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
BBC E-mail: Indian lawyer who was a symbol of hope
I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.
** Indian lawyer who was a symbol of hope **
Film critic Saibal Chatterjee talks to Indian director Hansal Mehta about his latest film Shahid, a biopic of activist lawyer Shahid Azmi who was killed at the age of 32.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-19595663 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
** Indian lawyer who was a symbol of hope **
Film critic Saibal Chatterjee talks to Indian director Hansal Mehta about his latest film Shahid, a biopic of activist lawyer Shahid Azmi who was killed at the age of 32.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-19595663 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
BBC E-mail: US bank settles Merrill lawsuit
I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.
** US bank settles Merrill lawsuit **
Bank of America pays $2.43bn (£1.5bn) to settle a lawsuit over its acquisition of Merrill Lynch.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19760897 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
** US bank settles Merrill lawsuit **
Bank of America pays $2.43bn (£1.5bn) to settle a lawsuit over its acquisition of Merrill Lynch.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19760897 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
BBC E-mail: Pope butler evidence thrown out
I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.
** Pope butler evidence thrown out **
Vatican judges refuse to allow key evidence to be heard at the trial of the Pope's former butler for stealing documents.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19767667 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
** Pope butler evidence thrown out **
Vatican judges refuse to allow key evidence to be heard at the trial of the Pope's former butler for stealing documents.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19767667 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
Producer of Anti- Islam film arrested
Producer of Anti-Islam film arrested, order held without bail, for more information click on the link below:
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/27/world/california-anti-islam-filmmaker/index.html?hpt=imi_c2
have a nice week end
cheers,
Mohamed Shaheen
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/27/world/california-anti-islam-filmmaker/index.html?hpt=imi_c2
have a nice week end
cheers,
Mohamed Shaheen
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Military Murder Charges Reveal Terror Groups Inside Army
Military Murder Charges Reveal Terror Groups Inside Army
Sergeant Deirdre Aguigui had been dead less than three months when a police officer alerted the Army and FBI: Her widower was stockpiling high-powered firearms.
The officer reported that Isaac Aguigui, a private on leave, bought 15 weapons at a store in East Wenatchee, Washington. His wife's battered body had been found in their home at Fort Stewart in Georgia, and the autopsy, noting the couple had "marital problems," said how she died was undetermined. He received $500,000 in life insurance benefits.
A relative alarmed by the purchases and unnerved by the unexplained death tipped off police, the officer, John Kruse, said. Still, Aguigui didn't break any laws in buying the guns, and was free to return to Georgia -- where prosecutors say he amassed more firearms and committed murder.
The 21-year-old Aguigui and two other soldiers were charged Aug. 10 with killing two teenagers to conceal a plot to use $87,000 worth of munitions to blow up a fountain in Savannah, bomb a dam in Washington, overthrow the government and kill the president. Indictments four days ago widened the alleged conspiracy to a total of 10 people, eight of them current or former soldiers.
"The Army painted over something," said Brett Roark, whose son was one of the victims, shot in the head as he knelt in a south Georgia swamp. "If they knew, it's very wrong. If they didn't know, they're very stupid. Either way, a lot of people are dead and many lives are ruined."
Criminal Records
Michael Roark, 19, and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Tiffany York, were killed Dec. 5 by four soldiers who were members of a band of would-be anarchists called FEAR, for Forever Enduring, Always Ready, according to the capital murder charges filed in rural Long County. The new indictments accuse a fifth soldier of tampering with evidence in the case and three former soldiers and a civilian of committing crimes to help finance FEAR.
The murder defendants had troubled histories that included petty crimes and violent threats documented in civilian court records, military files and a social-networking website. The Army took no action to discharge any of them before the murders.
That fit a pattern in which the military, desperate for manpower to fight prolonged conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, accepted more recruits with criminal records and discharged fewer who behaved badly while in uniform.
Normally, one felony or two serious misdemeanors bars a prospect from the Army. In 2006 alone, the Department of Defense issued 30,615 special dispensations that diluted that standard, more than double the total a decade earlier, amounting to 17 percent of all enlistees. That year, the military also reduced by 30 percent the number of troops discharged for misconduct and poor performance, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
'High-Risk Behavior'
Also by Elliot Blair Smith: Grisly Camp Liberty Killings Show Cruel Failure of Military Psychiatry
More sketchy recruits helped explain why violent crimes committed by active-duty soldiers at home and abroad rose 31 percent between 2006 and 2011 to 399 per 100,000 troops, according to an Army report issued in January. It found a crime is committed in the Army every six minutes, and a homicide every 63 hours, and cited growing "high-risk behavior with increasingly more severe outcomes."
"We saw this in Vietnam -- you get these substandard troops and pretty soon you're screwed," said Barry McCaffrey, a retired four-star general who is a military consultant and analyst. "This put the military at risk."
Assistant District Attorney Isabel Pauley said Aguigui was FEAR's ringleader, an Army intelligence analyst who "actively recruited new members at Fort Stewart and targeted soldiers who were troubled or disillusioned."
Loaded Rifle
One of his co-defendants in the murder case is Sergeant Anthony Peden, a 26-year-old veteran of three combat tours, two in Afghanistan. Peden was sent home from Iraq in August 2010 after threatening to shoot a fellow soldier, according to military records. Once back at Fort Stewart, he aimed a loaded rifle at his wife, she said in one of three complaints she filed with the police in Hinesville, Georgia, before they divorced.
The third murder defendant is Private Christopher Salmon, 25, who was demoted from specialist in August 2011 for reasons not made public. In the year before Salmon's 2006 enlistment, he was charged with 12 misdemeanors, including one for marijuana possession, police records show. That background would have disqualified him from service without one of the special exemptions, known as a moral conduct waiver.
The fourth soldier charged in the teenagers' deaths, Private First Class Michael Burnett, 26, pleaded guilty Aug. 27 to manslaughter and illegal gang activity. He said FEAR members saw themselves as revolutionaries who would "give the government back to the people."
'Aggressive Measures'
The accused soldiers "are indicative of a military that has turned a blind eye to organized and violent groups within its ranks," said Matt Kennard, author of "Irregular Army: How the U.S. Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members and Criminals to Fight the War on Terror."
With the exception of Burnett, the defendants haven't entered pleas. Their lawyers either declined to comment or didn't respond to telephone calls.
Army and FBI officials declined to comment on the tip from the police officer in East Wenatchee.
"We do everything we can with local, state and federal law enforcement to prevent crime," said George Wright, a spokesman at the Pentagon. "We take some very aggressive measures. There are times criminals outwit law enforcement."
Under Investigation
The Army Criminal Investigation Command had been familiar with Aguigui since he reported finding his wife's body on July 17, 2011, one or two hours after the couple had sex, he told authorities. A linguist who spoke Arabic and had served in Iraq, she was 24 and five months pregnant. The autopsy inventoried "blunt force injuries" to her head, arms and back. The postmortem "did not detect an anatomic cause of death."
Her death is under investigation, said Chris Grey, a spokesman for the command in Quantico, Virginia.
Aguigui, the son of a career soldier who moved frequently, had been going on anti-government tirades for years, according to a childhood friend, Phylicia Hanson.
"He was paranoid that they were corrupting us and taking over the world," Hanson said. Aguigui had wanted to be the center of attention since they were kids, she said, talking about how important it was to "do something big."
In March 2009, he posted on his MySpace page a threat to an unnamed person, writing that "nothing would please me more than to personally finish you off" and that "prison sounds lovely to me." Pauley, the assistant district attorney, said he described himself on a recording discovered after his arrest as "the nicest cold-blooded murderer you will ever meet."
'The Awakening'
In July 2009, Aguigui was accepted into the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School, a program that put him on a track for officer training at West Point in New York.
He was kicked out in November for breaking the rules by dating his future wife, a fellow cadet who also had to leave, according to her father, Alma Wetzker. They married in December.
At Fort Stewart, Aguigui assessed whether soldiers were fit to join FEAR by watching their reactions to a trailer for a video game in which a vigilante group acts as judge, jury and executioner on behalf of victims of economic inequality, Pauley said. She said he called this test "the awakening."
The Saturday before the murders, Anthony Peden showed up at a bar in Savannah where his ex-wife worked. "We're involved in some really bad stuff," Landri Peden said her former husband told her. "I could tell he was scared. He was acting crazy."
She said she and two friends drove him back to the base, about an hour away. He was ranting, she said, saying, "If you find out anything that's going on, they'll kill you."
Walkie-Talkies
That Monday night, the four FEAR members rolled into an alligator-infested swamp of cypress and oak trees known as Morgan Lake, in a tan Jeep Cherokee loaded with handguns and several boxes of ammunition, according to state investigative records. Roark and York followed in a black Nissan Altima.
Roark had received a less-than-honorable discharge from the Army four days earlier for drinking and disciplinary issues, according to his father. York, a high school junior, had been dating him for a few months, her mother said.
The occupants of the two vehicles communicated with walkie- talkies, navigating inlets filled with water moccasins and rattlesnakes where they often went to practice target-shooting, according to the records and interviews.
Unscheduled Formation
The teenagers had $500, money they planned to use for a West Coast trip, Roark's father said. He said his son had agreed to help Aguigui set up a private security company in Washington but was having second thoughts. The company was to have been a front for FEAR's criminal activities, according to prosecutors.
At an isolated turnout, Aguigui allegedly directed the vehicles to stop and pressed the soldiers into action.
Peden shot York in the face as she sat in the Nissan, took her pulse, and then shot her again, according to Burnett's testimony in court. Peden then handed the Taurus Judge .410 caliber handgun to Salmon, who shot Roark, Burnett said.
The four soldiers stripped off clothes splattered with blood and brain matter and burned them in Peden's backyard, according to a Georgia Bureau of Investigation search warrant.
That Saturday, they were called to an unscheduled formation at 6 a.m. and arrested by military police in battle gear, said Long County Sheriff's Lieutenant Thomas Sollosi. "It's the most sinister case I've ever been involved with," Sollosi said. "It shocks the conscience of anyone with morality."
Later that day, Landri Peden said a social worker called her to pick up her 3-year-old son, who was visiting her ex- husband. When she went to collect his clothes, she said, she saw loaded firearms, boxes of ammunition and gun racks throughout the house near the base, including in her son's bedroom.
To contact the reporter on this story: Elliot Blair Smith in Hinesville, Georgia, at esmith29@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gary Putka at gputka@bloomberg.net;
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
Adoboli Loss Could’ve Topped $12 Billion, Prosecutor Says
Adoboli Loss Could've Topped $12 Billion, Prosecutor Says
Kweku Adoboli's web of faked deals fell apart one year ago when the UBS AG (UBSN) trader could no longer hide billions of dollars in losses as the euro zone crisis moved markets against his bets, a prosecutor said.
Adoboli left the bank's London office at 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 14 of last year, claiming he had a doctor's appointment. An hour later he sent a "bombshell e-mail" to a UBS accountant describing unauthorized trades in the German and U.S. futures markets, prosecutor Sasha Wass told the 12-person jury at the beginning of a London criminal trial yesterday. His losses could have reached as much as $12 billion at one point, she said.
"The scale of Mr. Adoboli's gambling was so large and so unchecked he could have quite easily approached and even exceeded the limits of the bank's resources," Wass said. "One only has to imagine doubling the loss that he made of $2.3 billion a few more times to see that he was putting the very existence of the bank at risk."
Adoboli, 32, exceeded his trading limits and invented hedges to conceal losses from his managers, Wass said, with the aim of increasing "his bonus, his status within the bank, his job prospects and his ego." His pay rose from 40,500 pounds ($65,600) in 2005 to 360,000 pounds in 2010, including bonus, she said.
The former trader is charged with falsifying records on exchange-traded fund transactions and other documents needed for accounting purposes as early as October 2008. Prosecutors also charged him with fraud for abusing his senior trader position.
Adoboli worked for the Zurich-based investment bank's Delta One desk, which handles trades for clients -- or risks the bank's own money -- typically by speculating on a basket of securities. The loss, which came from trading in Standard & Poor's 500, DAX and EuroStoxx index futures, didn't affect any client positions, according to UBS.
'Deeply Sorry'
Adoboli described how he accrued losses during "the aggressive sell-off in the days of July and early August" as a result of the "escalation of the euro-zone crisis," in his e- mail to the accountant, William Steward. He was called back to the bank to meet with managers and explain.
"I am deeply sorry to have left this mess for everyone and to have put my bank and my colleagues at risk," Adoboli wrote.
Adoboli's team had a daily trading limit of $100 million, the prosecutor said, however, the extent of the losses discovered by 3:30 p.m. "was astronomical." Adoboli admitted he'd risked $5 billion on Standard and Poor's 500 futures and a further $3.75 billion in the German futures market, Wass said.
Adoboli, dressed yesterday in a charcoal gray suit and purple tie, "lost all professional caution" and "was throwing money wildly into the market hoping to dig himself out of the mess he had created," Wass said.
'Colossal Loss'
"This colossal loss arose purely as a result of Mr. Adoboli's fraudulent deal-making, which amounted, as we will see, to nothing more than gambling," Wass said.
Adoboli created various internal accounts at UBS, which he called his "umbrella" to protect him on a rainy day, Wass said. He used the accounts to hide profits and losses of his unauthorized trading, she said. The umbrella had profit of $30 million by November 2009, she said.
He first began false accounting in October 2008 to hide a trading loss of $400,000, Wass said.
In the U.K., fraud charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail, and seven years for false accounting. Adoboli, facing two counts of each, has denied the allegations.
London Scandal
The trial comes on the heels of a series of scandals for London's finance industry. Barclays Plc (BARC), the country's second- largest lender by assets, settled with regulators in June for a record 290 million pounds for rigging interest rates. Standard Chartered Plc (STAN) paid $340 million last month to settle allegations by New York's banking regulator that it laundered $250 billion for Iran and HSBC Holdings Plc is also being probed over handling cash for sanctioned nations.
Held in Wandsworth prison in southwest London after his arrest on Sept. 15, 2011, Adoboli was granted bail and released June 13. He is staying with a friend in the British capital, his lawyer has said. As part of his bail conditions, he has a curfew and has surrendered his Ghanaian passport.
Adoboli was born in Ghana to a former United Nations official and attended a Quaker boarding school in West Yorkshire, England, until 1998. He graduated with honors from the University of Nottingham in July 2003 with a degree in e- commerce and digital business. Photography, cycling and wine are among his interests, according to his LinkedIn profile.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lindsay Fortado in London at lfortado@bloomberg.net Ben Moshinsky in London at bmoshinsky@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
Las Vegas Sands Sanctioned for Not Disclosing Evidence
Las Vegas Sands Sanctioned for Not Disclosing Evidence
Las Vegas Sands Corp. was sanctioned by a Nevada judge who said the company and its Sands China Ltd. (1928) unit intentionally deceived her by not disclosing evidence sought by the former head of its China operations in a lawsuit over his firing.
Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez in Las Vegas said in a ruling yesterday that Las Vegas Sands and Sands China were precluded from raising Macau's personal data privacy law as an objection to disclosing evidence that may bear on whether the Nevada court has jurisdiction over Sands China.
The judge also ordered the companies to pay $25,000 to the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada and to pay the attorneys' fees of Steven Jacobs, the ex-chief executive officer of Sands China, related to those portions of hearings over the past year that were devoted to discussions of the Macau privacy law.
"The repeated nature of defendants and defendants' agents conduct in making inaccurate representations over a several month period is further evidence of the intention to deceive the court," Gonzalez said.
The judge ordered a sanctions hearing after Sands' lawyers disclosed to Jacobs in June that his e-mails and other computer files had been in Las Vegas for more than a year while the lawyers argued to the court that the Macau law prevented them from bringing data to the U.S. from Macau and that all data had to be reviewed first by Sands China lawyers in Macau.
'Illegal Demands'
Jacobs sued in 2010 after he was fired, alleging he was dismissed because he wouldn't give in to "illegal demands" from Sheldon Adelson, the chairman and majority-owner of Las Vegas Sands. Jacobs said Adelson directed him to secretly investigate Macau government officials and use "improper leverage" against them.
Following Jacobs's allegations, the U.S. Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission opened investigations into whether Adelson's company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. That law prohibits companies with U.S. operations and their intermediaries from making improper payments to foreign officials to win or retain business.
Las Vegas Sands has denied Jacobs's allegations and has said it is cooperating with the investigations. Lawyers for the casino company have said in court filings that Jacobs was dismissed for working on unauthorized deals and violating company policy.
Jacobs's lawsuit was put on hold last year by the Nevada Supreme Court while Gonzalez resolves whether claims against Sands China belong in the state's courts. Sands China, a majority-owned unit of Las Vegas Sands that is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, has said in court filings that it doesn't do business in Nevada.
Las Vegas
During a three-day hearing in Las Vegas ending Sept. 12, Las Vegas Sands' lawyers testified that they shipped Jacobs's e- mails and a copy of his hard drive to the U.S. in 2010 to preserve evidence. The lawyers argued that they had disclosed to Jacobs and the judge that there was evidence from Macau in the U.S.
The Las Vegas Sands lawyers also admitted during the hearing that they reviewed Jacobs's e-mails.
Last year Sands China said that evidence that Jacobs requested to determine whether the Nevada court had jurisdiction over the Chinese unit couldn't be brought out of Macau and that all evidence from Macau had to be reviewed in the Chinese territory by Sands China lawyers and cleared with the local government.
Ron Reese, a spokesman for Las Vegas Sands, said in an e- mail that the company was reviewing the ruling and had no immediate comment.
The case is Jacobs v. Las Vegas Sands, 10-A-627691, Clark County, Nevada, District Court (Las Vegas).
-- Editors: Peter Blumberg, Glenn Holdcraft
To contact the reporter on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
Apple Wins Patent Ruling Against Samsung at Trade Agency
Apple Wins Patent Ruling Against Samsung at Trade Agency
Apple Inc. (AAPL) won a round of a U.S. International Trade Commission case brought by Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) over patented technology in the iPhone and iPad tablet computer, its second U.S. legal victory in a month over its largest smartphone competitor.
Apple didn't violate Samsung's patent rights, ITC Judge James Gildea said in a notice posted today on the agency's website. The judge's findings are subject to review by the full commission, which has the power to block imports of products that infringe U.S. patents.
The judge's findings follow a federal jury's ruling in San Jose, California, on Aug. 24 awarding Apple more than $1 billion in damages, after deciding that Samsung copies the look and some features of the iPhone. The California jury rejected claims that Apple infringed other Samsung patents.
"Apple at the ITC is bulletproof," said Rodney Sweetland, a lawyer at Duane Morris in Washington, who specializes in trade cases. "Nobody can get any traction against them there. The lesson is, if you want to get relief against Apple, it's going to have to be in a foreign forum where it doesn't have the clout or the cachet it has at the ITC or the northern district of California."
Four Patents
Gildea said there was no infringement of any of the four patents in the ITC case, and also determined that Samsung had not proven it had a domestic industry that used the patents, a requirement that is unique to the trade agency. The judge didn't provide the reasons behind his findings. The opinion will become public after both sides get a chance to redact confidential information.
"We remain confident that the full commission will ultimately reach a final determination that affirms our position that Apple must be held accountable for free-riding on our technological innovations," Adam Yates, a Samsung spokesman, said. "We are proud of our long history of innovation in the mobile industry and will continue to defend our intellectual property rights."
Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for Apple, said the company had no comment. Apple has previously won cases brought against it at the trade agency by HTC Corp. (2498) and Google Inc.'s Motorola Mobility, two other manufacturers of phones that run on Google's Android operating system. Apple lost its case against Motorola Mobility, and won an order that forced HTC to remove a feature from its phones.
Patent Battles
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, has its own ITC complaint pending against Samsung, and the judge in that case is scheduled to release his findings Oct. 19. The two companies, which together make about half the smartphones sold in the world, are embroiled in more than 30 lawsuits spanning four continents.
"From a corporate perspective, Samsung needs to get an upper hand and they need to bring their A game," said Will Stofega, program director at Framingham, Massachusetts-based researcher IDC. "There are a lot of things that they have going for them. They are a very valid and creative company."
Each company is citing patented inventions to claim its products are better, while labeling its competitor as a copycat. They want to grab a greater share of a market that Bloomberg Industries said grew 62 percent to $219 billion last year. Samsung is the world's largest maker of smartphones; Apple dominates in the U.S.
IPhone Sales
The iPhone generated $16.2 billion in sales for the quarter ended June 30, about 46 percent of Apple's total revenue, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Apple introduced a newer version of the iPhone on Sept. 12 that has a bigger screen, faster chip and access to speedier wireless networks.
The phone is assembled in China by Foxconn Technology Co. The iPad garnered $9.2 billion and the iPod brought in $1 billion.
Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung filed the trade complaint in June 2011, claiming Apple devices -- including the iPhone, iPad tablet computer and iPod touch media player -- have infringed as many as four patents.
Two of the Samsung patents cover technology used in industrywide standards for the transmission of data. The other two are for device features -- one to detect phone numbers in an e-mail or Web page, and another in which the document display page moves with the user's finger.
LEDs, Chips
Samsung has about 140,000 patents worldwide on things like light-emitting diodes, computer-memory chips and televisions. It's been in the mobile-phone market since the 1980s, and is counting on that history to get an upper hand in its global fight with Apple.
The company makes the microprocessor that is the main brain of the iPhone, making it Apple's largest component supplier. Samsung contends that Apple incorporated other, non-licensed features developed by Samsung into the iPhone when it was introduced in 2007.
Apple argued at the trial before Gildea that Samsung never brought up any allegations of infringement until it approached Samsung in 2010 with accusations that Samsung's newest phones running on Google Android operating system were copying the iPhone.
Samsung's case against Apple is In the Matter of Electronic Devices, Including Wireless Communication Devices, 337-794, and Apple's case against Samsung is In the Matter of Electronic Digital Media Devices, 337-796, both U.S. International Trade Commission (Washington).
To contact the reporters on this story: Susan Decker in Washington at sdecker1@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bernard Kohn at bkohn2@bloomberg.net
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
Spain pledges reform timetable, paves way for bailout
I thought you might be interested in this:
http://reut.rs/RRI6gF
I found this using the Thomson Reuters News Pro for iPhone app.
To install News Pro on your iPhone or iPad, visit:
http://reuters.com/mobile
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
http://reut.rs/RRI6gF
I found this using the Thomson Reuters News Pro for iPhone app.
To install News Pro on your iPhone or iPad, visit:
http://reuters.com/mobile
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
France 24 : Téléchargement illégal : Aurélie Filippetti choque la Sacem sur Hadopi
Bonjour,
Un ami vous recommande l'article :
- Téléchargement illégal : Aurélie Filippetti choque la Sacem sur Hadopi
Accédez à l'article : http://www.france24.com/fr/node/4616850
Un ami vous recommande l'article :
- Téléchargement illégal : Aurélie Filippetti choque la Sacem sur Hadopi
Accédez à l'article : http://www.france24.com/fr/node/4616850
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
BBC E-mail: Boxer Hatton 'attacked by father'
I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.
** Boxer Hatton 'attacked by father' **
The father of boxer Ricky Hatton was arrested on suspicion of assaulting his son the day before he announced his comeback, it emerges.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-19609590 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
** Boxer Hatton 'attacked by father' **
The father of boxer Ricky Hatton was arrested on suspicion of assaulting his son the day before he announced his comeback, it emerges.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-19609590 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
BBC E-mail: Irish newspaper prints Kate shots
I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.
** Irish newspaper prints Kate shots **
The Republic of Ireland edition of the Irish Daily Star prints controversial topless pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19611407 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
** Irish newspaper prints Kate shots **
The Republic of Ireland edition of the Irish Daily Star prints controversial topless pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19611407 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
BBC E-mail: Charge over 'bleach' baby bottle
I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.
** Charge over 'bleach' baby bottle **
A woman is charged after a boy was given a bottle feared to contain bleach in a fast food restaurant in south-east London.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19609695 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
** Charge over 'bleach' baby bottle **
A woman is charged after a boy was given a bottle feared to contain bleach in a fast food restaurant in south-east London.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19609695 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
BBC E-mail: Journalist held in payments probe
I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.
** Journalist held in payments probe **
A 43-year-old journalist is arrested by police investigating alleged corrupt payments to public officials.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19610695 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
** Journalist held in payments probe **
A 43-year-old journalist is arrested by police investigating alleged corrupt payments to public officials.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19610695 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
BBC E-mail: 'Queen of Pacific' denies charges
I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.
** 'Queen of Pacific' denies charges **
The woman dubbed "Queen of the Pacific" for the alleged smuggling of cocaine from Latin America to the US pleads not guilty in a US court.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-19607374 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
** 'Queen of Pacific' denies charges **
The woman dubbed "Queen of the Pacific" for the alleged smuggling of cocaine from Latin America to the US pleads not guilty in a US court.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-19607374 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
BBC E-mail: Sweden's rape rate under the spotlight
I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.
** Sweden's rape rate under the spotlight **
Sweden is said to have one of the highest rates of rape. But can such statistics be reliably compared between countries?
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19592372 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
** Sweden's rape rate under the spotlight **
Sweden is said to have one of the highest rates of rape. But can such statistics be reliably compared between countries?
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19592372 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
BBC E-mail: Death slur Facebook man guilty
I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.
** Death slur Facebook man guilty **
A teenager is found guilty of posting an offensive Facebook message about the deaths of six British soldiers in Afghanistan.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-19604735 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
** Death slur Facebook man guilty **
A teenager is found guilty of posting an offensive Facebook message about the deaths of six British soldiers in Afghanistan.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-19604735 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
BBC E-mail: Huawei and ZTE deny US charges
I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.
** Huawei and ZTE deny US charges **
Chinese telecom firms Huawei and ZTE deny US charges that some of their equipment has been installed with codes to help spying.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19595778 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
** Huawei and ZTE deny US charges **
Chinese telecom firms Huawei and ZTE deny US charges that some of their equipment has been installed with codes to help spying.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19595778 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
BBC E-mail: Twitter surrenders Occupy tweets
I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.
** Twitter surrenders Occupy tweets **
Legal pressure and the threat of fines forces Twitter to hand over messages sent by an Occupy Wall Street protester.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19597437 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
** Twitter surrenders Occupy tweets **
Legal pressure and the threat of fines forces Twitter to hand over messages sent by an Occupy Wall Street protester.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19597437 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
BBC E-mail: Wisconsin judge rejects union law
I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.
** Wisconsin judge rejects union law **
A Wisconsin judge strikes down a law stripping most public employees of collective bargaining rights, but Governor Scott Walker vows to appeal.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19608738 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
** Wisconsin judge rejects union law **
A Wisconsin judge strikes down a law stripping most public employees of collective bargaining rights, but Governor Scott Walker vows to appeal.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19608738 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
BBC E-mail: Gambia orders halt to executions
I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.
** Gambia orders halt to executions **
Gambian President Yahya Jemmeh orders that execution of prisoners on death row be suspended, amid an international outcry.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19610206 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
** Gambia orders halt to executions **
Gambian President Yahya Jemmeh orders that execution of prisoners on death row be suspended, amid an international outcry.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19610206 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
BBC E-mail: Anti-Islam film suspect quizzed
I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.
** Anti-Islam film suspect quizzed **
A man suspected of involvement in the making of an anti-Islamic film that has sparked violent protests across the Middle East and north Africa is questioned by US probation officers.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19609051 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
** Anti-Islam film suspect quizzed **
A man suspected of involvement in the making of an anti-Islamic film that has sparked violent protests across the Middle East and north Africa is questioned by US probation officers.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19609051 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
BBC E-mail: Ex-Egypt PM jailed for corruption
I saw this story on the BBC News iPhone App and thought you should see it.
** Ex-Egypt PM jailed for corruption **
A court in Cairo sentences former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif to three years in jail for corruption.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19584262 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone
** Ex-Egypt PM jailed for corruption **
A court in Cairo sentences former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif to three years in jail for corruption.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19584262 >
** Disclaimer **
The BBC is not responsible for the content of this e-mail, and anything written in this e-mail does not necessarily reflect the BBC's views or opinions. Please note that neither the e-mail address nor name of the sender have been verified.
Mohamed E. Shaheen from iphone