One of five U.S. soldiers accused of murdering Afghan civilians for sport and posing for photographs with their mutilated bodies has confessed to investigators, according to video of the confession obtained by ABC News and CNN.
Spc. Jeremy Morlock, 22, was arrested in June on charges of murdering three innocent civilians near Kandahar, where his 5th Stryker Brigade was stationed. In a taped interview with Army investigators, Morlock claimed that his superior, Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, coldly selected innocent Afghans to kill for sport and then instructed his men to help make it look like they were insurgents.
"We'd identify the guy, and Gibbs would make a comment like, 'Hey, you guys wanna wax this guy or what?'" Morlock told investigators. "He'd set up the whole scenario."
Watch:
Morlock is the first of a total of a dozen soldiers to face court-martial in the case: five on suspicion of murdering three Afghans, seven on suspicion of participating in a cover-up. Testimony and evidence unearthed so far indicates that the "kill team" was using hashish. Prosecutors say the men mutilated the bodies of the Afghans they killed, taking fingers and bones as "souvenirs," and posed for photographs with the corpses. Prosecutors have kept those images sealed for fear their release might incite violence in the Muslim world.
Morlock's attorney told the Los Angeles Times that his client participated in the killings under the threat of discipline or worse from Gibbs: "Everybody in the unit was threatened, from the beginning of this to the end, that if they were not on board, if they were a snitch … they'd get what's coming to them."
One of the charged men, Spc. Adam Winfield, alerted his parents to the violence via Facebook messages. Winfield's father reportedly went to the Army with his son's concerns and was told that the safest thing he could do would be to wait until his tour was over before reporting the crimes.
Two more civilians were killed after Winfield's father sought help from the Army.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
US envoy to try to salvage Mideast peace talks
JERUSALEM – Washington's special Mideast envoy, using a slim lifeline from the Palestinians, rushed to the region on Tuesday on an emergency mission to keep peace talks from collapsing just weeks after they began.
Israel's decision to resume new West Bank settlement construction after a 10-month moratorium expired on midnight Sunday has provoked Palestinian threats to walk out of the talks. It has also caused new friction between Israel and its powerful U.S. patron, which said it was "disappointed" with Israel's refusal to relent.
On Monday night, Washington dispatched special envoy George Mitchell to the region to try to bridge gaps that Palestinian, Israel and American officials failed to close in a frenetic round of meetings in the U.S. last week.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gave U.S. mediation more time to work when he announced Monday he wouldn't decide whether to abandon the talks before consulting senior Arab officials in Cairo next week. An Arab League official has told The Associated Press that Arab foreign ministers were expected to endorse whatever position Abbas took.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley praised Abbas for not immediately walking out of the talks and chided Israel for resisting international pressure to halt new housing starts in the West Bank — territory that Palestinians claim as part of their future state.
"We are disappointed but we remain focused on our long-term objective and will be talking to the parties about the implications of the Israeli decision," Crowley said Monday, adding that Mitchell would "sort through with the parties where we go from here."
In Paris on Tuesday, the Palestinian leader urged Israel to halt new West Bank settlement construction as long as Mideast peace talks continue, saying he feared the two sides might miss a "historic opportunity" if Israel refuses to renew a just-expired freeze on the building.
"If settlement stops, we will continue the negotiations. If not, we will stop," Abbas said. "We cannot destroy this hope (for peace) with things that are secondary, like settlements," he said.
Palestinian leaders, he added, hope Israel will halt settlement building "as long as there are negotiations."
Immediately after the restrictions expired, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed to Abbas to keep negotiating. Netanyahu has indicated he would be prepared to limit new building, but has refused to agree to a complete halt.
Netanyahu, a settlement champion who agreed under duress to impose the moratorium in late November, has told the U.S. that he cannot extend it because his partners in Israel's pro-settlement government oppose such a move. But he has indicated he would be willing to impose some limitations on construction.
Israeli defense officials have suggested there might be an undeclared freeze, with Defense Minister Ehud Barak quietly exercising his authority to quash any new building projects.
Abbas told the French radio that Netanyahu "should know that peace is more important than settlements."
In Gaza violence late Monday, three Palestinian militants were killed in a clash with Israeli soldiers, both sides said. The Israelis said their forces fired at militants near the border of central Gaza as they were about to launch rockets at Israel. A small, al-Qaida-inspired group claimed responsibility on Tuesday.
Monday, September 20, 2010
India MPs meet Kashmir separatist leaders
Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (2nd left) was told secession was out of the question
The three main separatist leaders in Indian-administered Kashmir have met members of an all-party delegation of Indian politicians from Delhi.
The separatists had earlier refused to meet the delegation, which is visiting after months of violent protests that have claimed more than 100 lives.
Moderate separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was told there was no chance of Kashmiri secession from India.
But he was told that all other issues could be discussed.
Different groups of MPs from the delegation met Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik at their residences.
The BBC's Altaf Hussain in Indian-administered Kashmir's main city of Srinagar says the Indian government is trying to build a consensus among the country's major parties on how to deal with the situation.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the leader of the moderate faction of the separatist alliance the Hurriyat Conference (HC), was told by the MPs who visited him that while the idea of Kashmiri succession from India would not be entertained, all other options were on the table.
Mr Farooq, who is under house arrest, told India's NDTV that a private call from the five MPs was not the same as talks with the government
Before the meeting, he told the BBC the delegation's visit to Kashmir was of limited value.
"The Kashmir issue is not about sending delegations from Delhi with no mandate, it's very clear that they have come to Kashmir to assess the situation."
He added: "I mean what is there to assess? A hundred people have been killed in the last three months, young children, from 80-year-old to 60-year-old people have been shot dead."
Another group of MPs from the Indian delegation had earlier visited Syed Ali Shah Geelani at his residence, where he too is under house arrest.
Mr Geelani leads the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference.
Our correspondent says Mr Geelani's decision to talk to the MPs is unexpected because he has been a strident critic of Delhi's policy in the region.
The leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Yasin Malik, was also visited by a group from the delegation.
The delegation is led by Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram and includes lawmakers from all major national parties.
The government announced the all-party fact-finding mission last week after an emergency meeting in the capital, Delhi.
During their two-day visit, the delegation plans to consult members of the public and Kashmiri politicians in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley.
But there is resentment among many people who want to meet the visitors, but have so far been unable to do so because the valley remains under curfew.
Until now the delegation has only met pro-India politicians and business leaders.
In the latest violence in the valley, five people were injured on Monday in clashes with the army outside of the town of Sopore.
A 22-year-old woman was killed in Sopore at the weekend during clashes between police and protesters, as residents continued to defy the curfew.
Anti-India sentiment is high in the region, which has been under an almost round-the-clock curfew for the last nine days.
Kashmir has been on the boil since June, with tens of thousands of protesters taking to the streets.
Protesters in the mainly Muslim valley have been hurling stones at troops and demanding independence from India.
Many analysts see the recent unrest as the biggest challenge to Indian rule in Kashmir for 20 years.
France sends soldiers to Niger to hunt for hostages
France has dispatched 80 military personnel to Niamey
France has sent dozens of soldiers to Niger's capital Niamey to hunt for seven hostages kidnapped by suspected Islamist militants, officials said.
The troops are using reconnaissance planes to search the Sahara Desert for the captives who were seized last week from their homes at Arlit.
The French government believes they were probably abducted by gunmen from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
Five of the hostages are French. The other two are from Madagascar and Togo.
The hostages are employees of French construction company Vinci and nuclear energy firm Areva, which operates a uranium mine near Arlit.
Sophisticated equipment
The captors and their hostages were last seen heading north-west toward Mali and Algeria.
France has dispatched 80 military personnel to Niamey to begin scouring the desert from the air, French government sources told AFP news agency.
The soldiers are using a long-range Breguet Atlantique aircraft and a Mirage jet, equipped with sophisticated monitoring equipment, AFP reports.
"Their mission is to help Niger's military find the seven kidnapped people," said Niger government spokesman Mahamane Laouali Dan Dah.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. But French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner has said he suspects AQIM was responsible.
Al-Qaeda's North African wing emerged in early 2007, after an Algerian militant group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), aligned itself with Osama Bin Laden's international terror network.
It has waged a campaign of suicide bomb attacks and ambushes in Algeria, and in recent years has become more active in the Sahara, where governments struggle to impose their authority and gangs of smugglers, bandits and rebels operate alongside the militants.
Officials: US drones kill 6 militants in Pakistan
MIR ALI, Pakistan – Suspected U.S. drones fired missiles at militant targets in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing six people in the 15th such attack this month, said intelligence officials.
U.S. officials do not publicly acknowledge firing the missiles, much less comment on who they are targeting. It is unclear why the attacks have spiked.
They target Pakistan's border regions with Afghanistan — home to al-Qaida terrorists plotting attacks on the West, insurgents battling the Pakistani government as well as militants behind attacks on NATO troops in Afghanistan.
On Monday, three missiles struck a house and vehicle linked to militants in a village near Mir Ali, a town in the North Waziristan tribal area that is under effective militant control, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Noor Khan, a resident in the village, said he saw drones in the sky before the strike.
Pakistani intelligence officials have said most of this month's strikes have targeted forces led by Jalaluddin Haqqani, an Afghan commander whose forces are one of the greatest threats to foreign troops in Afghanistan.
The U.S. has pressured Pakistan to launch a military offensive against the network, but Pakistan has not done so.
Many analysts believe the Pakistan army tolerates militants fighting in Afghanistan because they want to have a proxy group to maintain influence there after U.S.-led foreign forces withdraw.
Monday's strike was the 15th drone strike this month — the most intense barrage since the strikes began in 2004. They have killed more than 71 people since Sept. 2, according to an Associated Press tally based on accounts by intelligence officials.
Pakistani officials often criticize the strikes as a violation of the country's sovereignty, but the government is widely believed to help the U.S. carry out the attacks. Allegations of civilian casualties in the attacks are not publicly investigated.
U.S. officials do not publicly acknowledge firing the missiles, much less comment on who they are targeting. It is unclear why the attacks have spiked.
They target Pakistan's border regions with Afghanistan — home to al-Qaida terrorists plotting attacks on the West, insurgents battling the Pakistani government as well as militants behind attacks on NATO troops in Afghanistan.
On Monday, three missiles struck a house and vehicle linked to militants in a village near Mir Ali, a town in the North Waziristan tribal area that is under effective militant control, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Noor Khan, a resident in the village, said he saw drones in the sky before the strike.
Pakistani intelligence officials have said most of this month's strikes have targeted forces led by Jalaluddin Haqqani, an Afghan commander whose forces are one of the greatest threats to foreign troops in Afghanistan.
The U.S. has pressured Pakistan to launch a military offensive against the network, but Pakistan has not done so.
Many analysts believe the Pakistan army tolerates militants fighting in Afghanistan because they want to have a proxy group to maintain influence there after U.S.-led foreign forces withdraw.
Monday's strike was the 15th drone strike this month — the most intense barrage since the strikes began in 2004. They have killed more than 71 people since Sept. 2, according to an Associated Press tally based on accounts by intelligence officials.
Pakistani officials often criticize the strikes as a violation of the country's sovereignty, but the government is widely believed to help the U.S. carry out the attacks. Allegations of civilian casualties in the attacks are not publicly investigated.
Israel to allow first import of cars to Gaza since 2007
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel will allow the import of private vehicles into the Gaza Strip for the first time since 2007, the military said Sunday.
The "transfer of vehicles for the Palestinian private sector is expected to take place for the first time since the Hamas violent takeover," the military said in a statement.
The cars were expected to cross Monday morning into the besieged strip, but it was not immediately clear how many cars would go into Gaza.
Israel began quietly easing its blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory in the spring and started allowing all purely civilian goods to enter after its deadly May 31 seizure of an aid flotilla sparked international outrage.
In the wake of that tragedy which left nine Turkish activists dead, Israel significantly eased its blockade of Gaza, barring only arms and goods that could be used to create weapons or build fortifications, but it has maintained a naval blockade of the Strip.
Israel and neighbouring Egypt first imposed the closures when an Israeli soldier was captured in June 2006 and tightened them when the Islamist Hamas movement -- sworn to Israel's destruction -- seized power a year later.
The "transfer of vehicles for the Palestinian private sector is expected to take place for the first time since the Hamas violent takeover," the military said in a statement.
The cars were expected to cross Monday morning into the besieged strip, but it was not immediately clear how many cars would go into Gaza.
Israel began quietly easing its blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory in the spring and started allowing all purely civilian goods to enter after its deadly May 31 seizure of an aid flotilla sparked international outrage.
In the wake of that tragedy which left nine Turkish activists dead, Israel significantly eased its blockade of Gaza, barring only arms and goods that could be used to create weapons or build fortifications, but it has maintained a naval blockade of the Strip.
Israel and neighbouring Egypt first imposed the closures when an Israeli soldier was captured in June 2006 and tightened them when the Islamist Hamas movement -- sworn to Israel's destruction -- seized power a year later.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Famed civil rights photographer doubled as FBI informant
Ernest Withers, a revered civil rights photographer who captured iconic images of Martin Luther King Jr. on the night King was shot in Memphis, actually played a different role the day before: FBI informant.
The Commercial Appeal, a newspaper in Memphis, just completed a two-year investigation that reveals how Withers provided the FBI with details about where King was staying and information on his meeting with black militants on April 3, 1968 — the day before the assassination.
Withers' spying, however, extends far beyond the slain civil rights leader.
The Commercial Appeal found FBI reports indicating that Withers collaborated for years with FBI agents monitoring the civil rights movement. Those FBI reports, the paper's Marc Perrusquia writes, "reveal a covert, previously unknown side of the beloved photographer."
Withers is certainly beloved in Memphis, where a namesake museum is scheduled to open next month. It remains to be seen how these new revelations may affect Withers' legacy.
The Memphis paper reports how Withers' spying assisted J. Edgar Hoover, the controversial FBI director who long covertly monitored King and others considered radicals. Withers, the paper notes, gave the bureau a "front-row seat to the civil rights and anti-war movements in Memphis." In the 1960s, he provided information on everyone from the Invaders — a militant black power group — to church leaders, politicians and business owners. Experts believe the FBI paid Withers for spying.
D'Army Bailey, a retired Memphis judge and former activist once watched by the FBI, told the paper that such covert tactics are "something you would expect in the most ruthless, totalitarian regimes."
[Related: White House defends MLK quote on rug]
Digging into the late Withers' past wasn't easy. The Commercial Appeal's scoop proved to be the result of shoe-leather reporting, determination and a bit of luck.
The newspaper tried unsuccessfully to obtain Withers' informant file, with the Justice Department rejecting Freedom of Information Act requests and refusing to acknowledge that such a file even exists. However, as Perrusquia writes, the government did release "369 pages related to a 1970s public corruption probe that targeted Withers -- by then a state employee who was taking payoffs -- carefully redacting references to informants -- with one notable exception."
And in those documents, the Commercial Appeal notes, the government inadvertently left a single reference to Withers' informant number, which "unlocked the secret of the photographer's 1960s political spying when the newspaper located repeated references to the number in other FBI reports released under FOIA 30 years ago."
French Senate passes ban on full Muslim veils
PARIS – The French Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill banning the burqa-style Islamic veil in public, but the leaders of both parliamentary houses said they had asked a special council to first ensure the measure passes constitutional muster amid concerns its tramples on religious freedoms.
The Senate voted 246 to 1 Tuesday in favor of the bill, which has already passed in the lower chamber, the National Assembly. It will need President Nicolas Sarkozy's signature.
Legislative leaders said they wanted the Constitutional Council to examine it.
"This law was the object of long and complex debates," the Senate president, Gerard Larcher, and National Assembly head Bernard Accoyer said in a joint statement explaining their move. They said in a joint statement that they want to be certain there is "no uncertainty" about it conforming to the constitution.
The measure effects less than 2,000 women.
Many Muslims believe the legislation is one more blow to France's second religion, and risks raising the level of Islamophobia in a country where mosques, like synagogues, are sporadic targets of hate. However, the vast majority behind the measure say it will preserve the nation's singular values, including its secular foundation and a notion of fraternity that is contrary to those who hide their faces.
France would be the first European country to pass such a law though others, notably neighboring Belgium, are considering laws against face-covering veils, seen as anathema to the local culture.
"Our duty concerning such fundamental principles of our society is to speak with one voice," said Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, opening a less than 5-hour-long debate ahead of the vote.
The measure, carried by Sarkozy's conservative party, was passed overwhelmingly by the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, on July 13.
....Read More
Libya apologises for firing at Italian boat
AfricaNews Monitoring Team Credit: Reuters
Libya has apologised for opening fire on an Italian fishing boat off its coast using a vessel supplied by Rome, Italy's
interior minister said, promising an investigation into the incident. The shooting has embarrassed Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi's government, who has cultivated close ties with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and struck a deal with
Tripoli to curb the arrival of African migrants into Italy.
The incident occurred on Sunday, when a Libyan motor boat -- one of six Italy donated to Tripoli as part of the deal and with at least one Italian aboard -- fired with machine guns on a Sicilian boat with 10 men on board about 30 miles off the Libyan coast, according to Italian officials.
None of the fishermen was wounded, but the boat's captain recounted to Italian newspapers moments of terror as bullets ricocheted around the crew and said they were lucky to be alive.
Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni acknowledged the shooting should have been avoided and called it a "serious accident", but blamed it on a mistake.
"What happened the other day is something that should not have happened and Libya has apologised," he told Italian TV.
"Apparently there was an error of interpretation. Perhaps they mistook the fishing boat for a boat with illegal migrants."
He said he had ordered an investigation into the incident.
Italian officials have confirmed that there was at least one Italian aboard the Libyan boat when the shooting took place, but Maroni said they were there only as maintenance technicians and were not part of the boat crew.
Italian opposition politicians seized on the incident to attack Berlusconi's close relationship with Gaddafi, calling it the latest Libyan affront to Italy and demanded the government address the issue in parliament.
Gaddafi caused outrage among many in Italy last month when, during a trip to Rome, he urged hundreds of young Italian women to convert to Islam.
...Read More
Uganda: Journalist beaten to death
Ugandan freelance journalist Paul Kiggundu has been beaten to death by motorcycle taxi drivers, local journalists told
the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The drivers accused Kiggundu of working for the police, even though he had identified himself as a journalist, and attacked him while filming some of them demolishing a house of another driver, Frank Kagayi, who they accused of committing murder and robbery, a bystander told the Ugandan Human Rights Journalist Network.
Kiggundu received treatment at Kalisizo Government Hospital but later died of internal bleeding and was buried on Sunday in a town outside of Kalisizio, southwest Uganda leaving behind a wife and two children, aged 3 years and 18 months.
"CPJ has sent its deepest condolences to the family and colleagues of Paul Kiggundu, and called on the Ugandan police to do their utmost to bring these perpetrators to justice. No journalist should be killed simply for carrying out their profession," said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes.
Kiggundu has been working as a contributor to the private press, Christian-faith based TOP (Tower of Praise) Radio and TV. The station broadcasts 24 hours in Lugandan across the country for the past eight months.
Police are investigating the murder, although no arrests have been made.
...Read More
Ghana: GFA search for new coach
Glorea Bentil,
AfricaNews reporter in Accra, Ghana
The Ghana Football Association is on the search for a new coach for the Black Stars following the departure of Serbian Milovan Rajevac. The 56-year-old has communicated his decision to take on a new challenge following the expiration of his two-year contract with the FA.
"The Ghana Football Association has officially been notified by Mr Milovan Rajevac of his desire to take up a fresh challenge elsewhere.
"Mr Rajevac relinquishes his position as Head Coach of the Black Stars after two years and the Ghana Football Association would like to place on record our gratitude for his services and wish him all the best in his future career.
"Though we find his departure unfortunate after two years of great strides, we confirm that the search for a new coach has begun," an FA statement released to www.ghanafa.org stated.
No timescale has been placed on the process.
Rajevac joined the Black Stars in 2008 and guided the local side to silver at the maiden African Nations Championship in 2009, a competition reserved exclusively for local players.
He followed it up with a another final berth as Ghana were the losing finalist at the 2010 African Cup of Nations and five months later, led the Black Stars to the quarter-finals of the World Cup in South Africa.
..Read More
George Michael gets 8 weeks jail for drug driving
LONDON –
A British judge has sentenced George Michael to eight weeks in jail for driving while under the influence of drugs after the singer crashed his car into a London photo shop.
The singer pleaded guilty last month to driving under the influence and possession of cannabis following a July 4 collision between his Range Rover and a Snappy Snaps store.
Michael was sentenced Tuesday at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court, which also fined him 1,250 pounds ($1,930). He is likely to serve half the time before being considered for parole.
Police said Michael appeared "spaced out" when they found him sitting in the car, whose engine was still running. He acknowledged smoking marijuana and taking a prescription sedative, prosecutors said.
It was the latest in a string of automotive and drug-related mishaps for the 47-year-old star, who has often spoken of his fondness for marijuana.
In February 2006, he was found slumped at the wheel of his car at London's busy Hyde Park Corner. That April, he hit three parked cars while trying to maneuver out of a parking space, and admitted being "a terrible driver."
In October 2006, he was found slumped over the wheel of his car as it blocked an intersection. He pleaded guilty to driving while unfit through drugs and was sentenced to community service.
Last year, he was involved in a late-night crash with a truck outside London. Michael released a statement stressing he was "stone cold sober" at the time.
Michael gained mega-stardom in his early 20s as half of Wham! and went on to have a successful solo career. His first solo album, 1987's "Faith," sold 20 million copies.
...Read More
Philippines says plane baby may be up for adoption
MANILA, Philippines –
The baby boy born on a flight from the Middle East to the Philippines and abandoned in an airplane trash bag will be put up for adoption if the mother is not found or declared unfit, a government official said Tuesday.
The baby, named George Francis after Gulf Air's flight code GF, was doing fine, watched closely by nurses and social workers while authorities searched for his mother.
Officials have identified a person who occupied a bloodstained seat on the plane but are still verifying if she is the boy's mother, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman told The Associated Press.
"He is well. He takes a lot of milk, but he is being observed because there was a bump found on his head. But as far as the report from his checkup goes, his condition is good," she said.
The six pound, nine ounce (three kilogram) boy was discovered Sunday when a security officer on the tarmac spied something moving in one of the trash bags that were carried from the plane. He opened it, sifted through the rubbish and found the newborn wrapped with tissue paper and covered in blood.
The story evoked pity and outrage around the world. The infant — still attached to the placenta — was taken to an airport clinic, where doctors and nurses cleaned him, gave him a checkup, wrapped him in cloth and mittens and warmed him under a light bulb, airport doctor Maria Teresa Agores said.
Gulf Air spokeswoman Katherine Kaczynska told the AP that no one on the plane reported anything unusual during the flight. The Bahrain-based airline said the baby was discovered in an airplane toilet trash can, suggesting the mother gave birth in the bathroom during the flight.
Doctors who attended to the baby said he looked Filipino, fueling speculation in the local media that the boy's mother could be a domestic worker in the Middle East. About one in 10 Filipinos works abroad, many as maids and laborers in the Middle East, to escape crushing poverty and unemployment at home.
According to the law, it takes at least three months to declare a baby abandoned and start the adoption process. In this case, even if the mother is identified, she will have to be assessed to see if she is a suitable parent, Soliman said. What she did is "an indication of her inability to take care of the child," she said.
Soliman also said that although the baby looks Filipino, he may be given a Bahraini nationality if it is confirmed he was born on the Gulf Air aircraft. Children born during a flight are entitled to citizenship of a country where the plane is registered, she said.
There was no shortage of prospective parents for the little George Francis.
Soliman said at least 10 couples had contacted her office offering to adopt him.
"There are many. We're getting it from the e-mail, we're getting it from the website," she said of the adoption request.
The baby boy born on a flight from the Middle East to the Philippines and abandoned in an airplane trash bag will be put up for adoption if the mother is not found or declared unfit, a government official said Tuesday.
The baby, named George Francis after Gulf Air's flight code GF, was doing fine, watched closely by nurses and social workers while authorities searched for his mother.
Officials have identified a person who occupied a bloodstained seat on the plane but are still verifying if she is the boy's mother, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman told The Associated Press.
"He is well. He takes a lot of milk, but he is being observed because there was a bump found on his head. But as far as the report from his checkup goes, his condition is good," she said.
The six pound, nine ounce (three kilogram) boy was discovered Sunday when a security officer on the tarmac spied something moving in one of the trash bags that were carried from the plane. He opened it, sifted through the rubbish and found the newborn wrapped with tissue paper and covered in blood.
The story evoked pity and outrage around the world. The infant — still attached to the placenta — was taken to an airport clinic, where doctors and nurses cleaned him, gave him a checkup, wrapped him in cloth and mittens and warmed him under a light bulb, airport doctor Maria Teresa Agores said.
Gulf Air spokeswoman Katherine Kaczynska told the AP that no one on the plane reported anything unusual during the flight. The Bahrain-based airline said the baby was discovered in an airplane toilet trash can, suggesting the mother gave birth in the bathroom during the flight.
Doctors who attended to the baby said he looked Filipino, fueling speculation in the local media that the boy's mother could be a domestic worker in the Middle East. About one in 10 Filipinos works abroad, many as maids and laborers in the Middle East, to escape crushing poverty and unemployment at home.
According to the law, it takes at least three months to declare a baby abandoned and start the adoption process. In this case, even if the mother is identified, she will have to be assessed to see if she is a suitable parent, Soliman said. What she did is "an indication of her inability to take care of the child," she said.
Soliman also said that although the baby looks Filipino, he may be given a Bahraini nationality if it is confirmed he was born on the Gulf Air aircraft. Children born during a flight are entitled to citizenship of a country where the plane is registered, she said.
There was no shortage of prospective parents for the little George Francis.
Soliman said at least 10 couples had contacted her office offering to adopt him.
"There are many. We're getting it from the e-mail, we're getting it from the website," she said of the adoption request.
EU calls France's Gypsy expulsions 'a disgrace'
BRUSSELS –
France's deportations of Gypsies are "a disgrace" and probably break EU law, the European Union's executive body declared Tuesday in a stinging rebuke that set up a showdown with French President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative government.
In recent weeks, French authorities have dismantled over 100 illegal camps and deported more than 1,000 Gypsies, also known as Roma, mainly back to Romania, in a crackdown that has drawn international condemnation.
EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said she was appalled by the expulsions, "which gave that impression that people are being removed from a member state of the European Union just because they belong to an ethnic minority."
"(This) is a situation that I had thought that Europe would not have to witness again after the second World War," she told a news conference, adding "the commission will have no choice but to initiate infringement procedures against France."
France could ultimately be slapped with a fine by the European Court of Justice if its expulsions are found to have breached EU law.
The crackdown continued Tuesday, as dozens of Roma arrived at Marseille airport in southern France prior to being expelled.
In Paris, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero expressed "astonishment — that's the least you can say" at the announcement by the European Commission.
"We don't think that with this type of statement, that we can improve the situation of the Roma, who are at the heart of our concerns and our action," Valero told reporters. "It's not time for polemic ... it's time for work in favor of the Roma population."
Roma face widespread discrimination in housing, jobs and education across Europe. As EU citizens, they have a right to travel to France, but must get papers to work or live there in the long term.
The advocacy group Romeurope estimates that up to 15,000 Roma live in France. French authorities have no official estimate.
Sarkozy has linked Roma to crime, calling their camps sources of prostitution and child exploitation. He has insisted that France does not want to stigmatize Roma, but the deportation policy is being criticized as discriminatory because it singles out one community.
Reding at times appeared angry as she read out her statement at the European Commission's Brussels headquarters, once pounding the desk in front of her and saying: "Enough is enough."
"After 11 years of experience on the commission, I even go further: This is a disgrace," she said. "Discrimination on the basis or ethnic origin or race has no place in Europe."
She also harshly criticized French authorities for telling the EU commission that it was not discriminating against Gypsies — a claim apparently contradicted by news reports of a government letter ordering regional officials to speed up a crackdown on illegal Gypsy camps.
"It is my deepest regret that political assurances given by two French ministers is now openly contradicted," Reding said.
She was speaking about France's immigration minister, Eric Besson, and its European affairs minister, Pierre Lellouche. Besson on Monday denied any knowledge of the reported Interior Ministry letter and did not speak to reporters Tuesday at a Brussels meeting on asylum issues.
Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux issued a new letter late Monday about dismantling illegal camps that had no reference to Roma, the ministry said, but it would not provide a copy of the new letter to The Associated Press.
Some critics said the apparent flip-flop was part of a bald effort to erase any suggestion that Roma were being targeted by ethnicity.
Stephane Maugendre, the head of an immigrant support group in France, said the move "will not take anything away from the discriminatory character of the practices of regional governments and police regarding the Roma."
Reding said she was "looking into the legal implications" of the new wording.
"it is important that not only the words change, but also the behavior of the French authorities," Reding said, adding she was asking French authorities for swift explanation of the matter.
France's deportations of Gypsies are "a disgrace" and probably break EU law, the European Union's executive body declared Tuesday in a stinging rebuke that set up a showdown with French President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative government.
In recent weeks, French authorities have dismantled over 100 illegal camps and deported more than 1,000 Gypsies, also known as Roma, mainly back to Romania, in a crackdown that has drawn international condemnation.
EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said she was appalled by the expulsions, "which gave that impression that people are being removed from a member state of the European Union just because they belong to an ethnic minority."
"(This) is a situation that I had thought that Europe would not have to witness again after the second World War," she told a news conference, adding "the commission will have no choice but to initiate infringement procedures against France."
France could ultimately be slapped with a fine by the European Court of Justice if its expulsions are found to have breached EU law.
The crackdown continued Tuesday, as dozens of Roma arrived at Marseille airport in southern France prior to being expelled.
In Paris, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero expressed "astonishment — that's the least you can say" at the announcement by the European Commission.
"We don't think that with this type of statement, that we can improve the situation of the Roma, who are at the heart of our concerns and our action," Valero told reporters. "It's not time for polemic ... it's time for work in favor of the Roma population."
Roma face widespread discrimination in housing, jobs and education across Europe. As EU citizens, they have a right to travel to France, but must get papers to work or live there in the long term.
The advocacy group Romeurope estimates that up to 15,000 Roma live in France. French authorities have no official estimate.
Sarkozy has linked Roma to crime, calling their camps sources of prostitution and child exploitation. He has insisted that France does not want to stigmatize Roma, but the deportation policy is being criticized as discriminatory because it singles out one community.
Reding at times appeared angry as she read out her statement at the European Commission's Brussels headquarters, once pounding the desk in front of her and saying: "Enough is enough."
"After 11 years of experience on the commission, I even go further: This is a disgrace," she said. "Discrimination on the basis or ethnic origin or race has no place in Europe."
She also harshly criticized French authorities for telling the EU commission that it was not discriminating against Gypsies — a claim apparently contradicted by news reports of a government letter ordering regional officials to speed up a crackdown on illegal Gypsy camps.
"It is my deepest regret that political assurances given by two French ministers is now openly contradicted," Reding said.
She was speaking about France's immigration minister, Eric Besson, and its European affairs minister, Pierre Lellouche. Besson on Monday denied any knowledge of the reported Interior Ministry letter and did not speak to reporters Tuesday at a Brussels meeting on asylum issues.
Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux issued a new letter late Monday about dismantling illegal camps that had no reference to Roma, the ministry said, but it would not provide a copy of the new letter to The Associated Press.
Some critics said the apparent flip-flop was part of a bald effort to erase any suggestion that Roma were being targeted by ethnicity.
Stephane Maugendre, the head of an immigrant support group in France, said the move "will not take anything away from the discriminatory character of the practices of regional governments and police regarding the Roma."
Reding said she was "looking into the legal implications" of the new wording.
"it is important that not only the words change, but also the behavior of the French authorities," Reding said, adding she was asking French authorities for swift explanation of the matter.
Iran frees detained US woman on $500,000 bail
TEHRAN, Iran –
Iran released an American woman on a bail of $500,000 Tuesday more than a year after she was detained, but authorities said they were not considering the immediate release of two companions arrested with her.
The announcement came days after conflicting statements by Iranian authorities on whether Sarah Shourd would be freed as the process was complicated by political feuds among the leadership and questions over how a payment could be made for her freedom without violating international sanctions.
The English-language Press TV reported that Shourd, 32, had been released "on a bail of $500,000" but did not give more details. Iran's judiciary, meanwhile, issued a statement saying the "pretrial detention" of the two American men — Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal — has been extended for two more months.
Her family had said it was having difficulty raising the money. However, Tehran's chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said later that the bail had been paid to an Iranian bank in Muscat, Oman.
"The judge issued the release order and Ms. Shourd was simply set free and she can leave Iran if she wants to," he told Press TV. He said the cases of the two American men, both 28, will be sent to the revolutionary court and "there is no talk of releasing those two right now."
Shourd's lawyer, Masoud Shafiei, said she had been released but was still undergoing formalities inside the Evin Prison, where she has been held in solitary confinement. He said he had no information about her departure route or any details about bail.
He later was quoted by the state news agency IRNA as saying Shourd planned to travel to Oman where her mother already was waiting for her, but that could not be confirmed and there were conflicting reports that she would go to the Qatari capital of Doha.
A spokesman for the Swiss Foreign Ministry, Lars Knuchel said the release had not been formally confirmed but "we are very confident that things are moving into the right direction."
The U.S. broke off ties with Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and Switzerland handles U.S. interests in Iran.
Iran released an American woman on a bail of $500,000 Tuesday more than a year after she was detained, but authorities said they were not considering the immediate release of two companions arrested with her.
The announcement came days after conflicting statements by Iranian authorities on whether Sarah Shourd would be freed as the process was complicated by political feuds among the leadership and questions over how a payment could be made for her freedom without violating international sanctions.
The English-language Press TV reported that Shourd, 32, had been released "on a bail of $500,000" but did not give more details. Iran's judiciary, meanwhile, issued a statement saying the "pretrial detention" of the two American men — Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal — has been extended for two more months.
Her family had said it was having difficulty raising the money. However, Tehran's chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said later that the bail had been paid to an Iranian bank in Muscat, Oman.
"The judge issued the release order and Ms. Shourd was simply set free and she can leave Iran if she wants to," he told Press TV. He said the cases of the two American men, both 28, will be sent to the revolutionary court and "there is no talk of releasing those two right now."
Shourd's lawyer, Masoud Shafiei, said she had been released but was still undergoing formalities inside the Evin Prison, where she has been held in solitary confinement. He said he had no information about her departure route or any details about bail.
He later was quoted by the state news agency IRNA as saying Shourd planned to travel to Oman where her mother already was waiting for her, but that could not be confirmed and there were conflicting reports that she would go to the Qatari capital of Doha.
A spokesman for the Swiss Foreign Ministry, Lars Knuchel said the release had not been formally confirmed but "we are very confident that things are moving into the right direction."
The U.S. broke off ties with Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and Switzerland handles U.S. interests in Iran.
Sex-trade traffickers exploit Canadian visa rules
VANCOUVER (Reuters)
– Human trafficking groups have exploited Canada's visa rules to bring victims from Europe and Asia to work in the illegal sex trade, according to a police study released on Monday.
Canada is also used as a transit route for victims, mostly women, who are transported to the United States for work as prostitutes, according to a threat assessment released by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The RCMP report says there is also sex-trade trafficking within Canada, and recent convictions have mostly involved victims who were Canadian citizens or had permanent resident status.
The report, which studied Canadian police investigations from 2005 to 2009, acknowledged that authorities are hampered by a lack of intelligence information and poor public awareness about the issue.
Identifying victims as they enter the country is difficult because many do not realize they will be exploited after they arrive, even if they know they are coming to work in the sex trade, the report said.
Traffickers use businesses such as escort services as fronts to hide their activities. Prostitution per se is not illegal in Canada, but it is illegal to live off the earnings of prostitution.
Human trafficking, which involves the transporting of people for the purpose of exploiting them, is illegal and the Canadian government announced last week it was planning to crack down on the crime.
The Internet is sometimes used to lure victims who are then kept under the trafficker's control by fears of reprisal or the victim's own drug addictions, investigators said.
Traffickers from Eastern Europe have taken advantage of the visa exemptions Canada has granted some countries, and will use fraudulent documents from them to ease transporting women across the border.
Israel, Estonia, Latvia and Korea are among the countries whose passports have been exploited by traffickers bringing foreign nationals into Canada for sex-trade work, according to the RCMP's analysis.
"The different visa requirements for entry into Canada and the U.S. may result in migrants legally entering Canada with visa-exempt status and then seeking to illegally enter the U.S.," the report also said.
Sex-trade traffickers also recruit women within Canada.
A majority of Asian sex-trade workers found in Canadian bawdy houses raided by the police had entered the country using visitor or student visas, some of which had expired, the report said.
Investigators said they have evidence of Canadian women being trafficked to U.S. cities such as Las Vegas, but have not determined yet if a specific criminal network is responsible
– Human trafficking groups have exploited Canada's visa rules to bring victims from Europe and Asia to work in the illegal sex trade, according to a police study released on Monday.
Canada is also used as a transit route for victims, mostly women, who are transported to the United States for work as prostitutes, according to a threat assessment released by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The RCMP report says there is also sex-trade trafficking within Canada, and recent convictions have mostly involved victims who were Canadian citizens or had permanent resident status.
The report, which studied Canadian police investigations from 2005 to 2009, acknowledged that authorities are hampered by a lack of intelligence information and poor public awareness about the issue.
Identifying victims as they enter the country is difficult because many do not realize they will be exploited after they arrive, even if they know they are coming to work in the sex trade, the report said.
Traffickers use businesses such as escort services as fronts to hide their activities. Prostitution per se is not illegal in Canada, but it is illegal to live off the earnings of prostitution.
Human trafficking, which involves the transporting of people for the purpose of exploiting them, is illegal and the Canadian government announced last week it was planning to crack down on the crime.
The Internet is sometimes used to lure victims who are then kept under the trafficker's control by fears of reprisal or the victim's own drug addictions, investigators said.
Traffickers from Eastern Europe have taken advantage of the visa exemptions Canada has granted some countries, and will use fraudulent documents from them to ease transporting women across the border.
Israel, Estonia, Latvia and Korea are among the countries whose passports have been exploited by traffickers bringing foreign nationals into Canada for sex-trade work, according to the RCMP's analysis.
"The different visa requirements for entry into Canada and the U.S. may result in migrants legally entering Canada with visa-exempt status and then seeking to illegally enter the U.S.," the report also said.
Sex-trade traffickers also recruit women within Canada.
A majority of Asian sex-trade workers found in Canadian bawdy houses raided by the police had entered the country using visitor or student visas, some of which had expired, the report said.
Investigators said they have evidence of Canadian women being trafficked to U.S. cities such as Las Vegas, but have not determined yet if a specific criminal network is responsible
Iran: UN watchdog in error over nuclear program
TEHRAN, Iran –
Iran's nuclear chief said Tuesday the head of a U.N. watchdog agency made a dangerous mistake by criticizing Tehran for not fully cooperating.
Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Monday he cannot confirm that all of Iran's nuclear activities are peaceful, as Tehran claims, because the country has offered only selective cooperation to the U.N. nuclear watchdog and has rejected several inspectors.
"If Mr. Amano has expressed the remarks knowingly, he has committed a big mistake and it is very dangerous," said Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's nuclear program. He said this would amount to outside pressure on Iran.
In blunt remarks, Amano suggested that it is still not clear whether Iran is developing nuclear weapons because the country continues to stonewall an IAEA probe.
Salehi reiterated Iran's right to choose inspectors. Iran has rejected two inspectors, accusing them of leaking information on the country's nuclear program. The IAEA, however, has insisted on reinstating them.
Iran is under increasing pressure by the West, including four rounds of U.N. sanctions, over allegations it is using its nuclear program as a cover for weapons development.
Also on Tuesday, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president and head of a powerful council within Iran, warned about the rising number of international sanctions against Iran.
"We have never had so many resolutions against our governments by the international community including the U.N. Security Council and the IAEA," he said.
The U.N. Security Council imposed a fourth set of sanctions on Iran in June after Tehran refused to halt is nuclear enrichment activities. Uranium enriched to more than 90 percent can be used for weapon. Iran says it currently enriches uranium up to 20 percent for medical radio isotopes and up to 3.5 percent to fuel a nuclear power plant. It says its program is only for peaceful purposes
Iran's nuclear chief said Tuesday the head of a U.N. watchdog agency made a dangerous mistake by criticizing Tehran for not fully cooperating.
Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Monday he cannot confirm that all of Iran's nuclear activities are peaceful, as Tehran claims, because the country has offered only selective cooperation to the U.N. nuclear watchdog and has rejected several inspectors.
"If Mr. Amano has expressed the remarks knowingly, he has committed a big mistake and it is very dangerous," said Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's nuclear program. He said this would amount to outside pressure on Iran.
In blunt remarks, Amano suggested that it is still not clear whether Iran is developing nuclear weapons because the country continues to stonewall an IAEA probe.
Salehi reiterated Iran's right to choose inspectors. Iran has rejected two inspectors, accusing them of leaking information on the country's nuclear program. The IAEA, however, has insisted on reinstating them.
Iran is under increasing pressure by the West, including four rounds of U.N. sanctions, over allegations it is using its nuclear program as a cover for weapons development.
Also on Tuesday, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president and head of a powerful council within Iran, warned about the rising number of international sanctions against Iran.
"We have never had so many resolutions against our governments by the international community including the U.N. Security Council and the IAEA," he said.
The U.N. Security Council imposed a fourth set of sanctions on Iran in June after Tehran refused to halt is nuclear enrichment activities. Uranium enriched to more than 90 percent can be used for weapon. Iran says it currently enriches uranium up to 20 percent for medical radio isotopes and up to 3.5 percent to fuel a nuclear power plant. It says its program is only for peaceful purposes
3 embassies in Israel receive suspicious letters
JERUSALEM –
Israeli police say envelopes containing a suspicious white powder have been discovered at the American, Spanish and Swedish embassies in Tel Aviv.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said workers at the three embassies alerted police after opening the envelopes Tuesday.
Rosenfeld said it is still unclear what the substance is. But he said police have said the substance was not poisonous since no one was hurt.
Police are trying to find who sent the envelopes and determine whether the incidents were connected
Israeli police say envelopes containing a suspicious white powder have been discovered at the American, Spanish and Swedish embassies in Tel Aviv.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said workers at the three embassies alerted police after opening the envelopes Tuesday.
Rosenfeld said it is still unclear what the substance is. But he said police have said the substance was not poisonous since no one was hurt.
Police are trying to find who sent the envelopes and determine whether the incidents were connected
Inside Palin's Life in Alaska
NEW YORK –
Could Sarah Palin's glamorous new life in Wasilla derail a presidential run? Shushannah Walshe spoke exclusively to Palin's parents; friends who recount her nasty streak; and explores how life has dramatically changed for her.
· Talks to Sarah Palin’s parents, Chuck and Sally Heath about their daughter’s life in Alaska and her mom’s opinion that a possible run for the White House would be difficult.
· Gets exclusive on-the-record interviews with family, friends, and foes with insight on how her life has changed from a mom-about-town to rarely seen Republican rock star—and friends explain why she gave up the governorship for the lure of money.
· Looks inside her life in Wasilla now that she’s so famous and how she’s adjusted her lifestyle, from the Jetta she drives around town to who actually does the household shopping.
· Speaks to the victim of the “Troopergate” investigation who recounts how Palin ruined his life--and to her former close aide, who accuses her of “taking a nuclear bomb when a fly swatter would have dealt with the issue.”
· Hears from friends on her early ambitions for the White House and how she was looking towards Pennsylvania Avenue in her early Wasilla days—even before she McCain’s VP.
· Reveals new information on her upcoming reality show on TLC, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” Family and friends tells stories of caribou hunting, gold-mining, and dog-mushing for the show.
The first thing you notice, upon pulling up to Chuck and Sally Heath’s house in Wasilla, Alaska, is the Christmas tree of moose antlers piled up next to the driveway. Step inside the ranch-style home, and you get another unmistakable sign that you’re not in blue-state America anymore: Chuck’s prized collection of skinned and stuffed animals, the spoils of his many hunting trips—a cougar, a mountain goat, foxes, birds, and snake skins spilling over the banister. Outside, a picnic table offers dramatic views of the Chugach Mountain range. It was in this setting that the Heaths, putting aside their natural wariness of press from the Lower 48, agreed to meet a reporter, feed her fresh snap peas from their garden—and share their thoughts about their world-famous daughter, Sarah Palin.
Should she run for president in 2012? Sarah’s mom, Sally, doesn’t hesitate. “It would be a tough thing to do,” she starts to say, until Chuck interrupts: “It’s up to her, whatever she wants to do.” Sally, dressed in a green zip-up sweatshirt, continues. “I love what she’s doing now: scouting around for who would be good candidates. Who honestly could stand up and speak and not be afraid to tell it like it is?”
They don’t know her plans, the Heaths are quick to add, in their first national interview in over a year. But “it would be fun to find out some day,” Sally says, with a contagious laugh.
In other words, Sarah's parents seem to feel the way a lot of Alaskans feel about the state's best-known export, next to oil and salmon: torn over the wisdom of her trying to make the White House her home.
Some friends expressed caution about Palin’s future. A former adviser in DC who remains friends with Palin said he doesn’t want to see her run. “I think she’s got a great life. She’s got the world by the tail right now,” this friend says. “I mean, she’s earning a lot of money, which she never had before. She is speaking to adoring crowds wherever she goes. She’s greatly appreciated by those she supports and she doesn’t have to take all the grief that you have to take when you are either running for or holding office.”
Others who are less favorably disposed point out that Palin’s aborted tenure as governor left a lot of bad blood in Alaska; they worry that her baggage would be dragged back onstage in another national campaign, and hurt the state.
But fans and foes alike warn against the dangers of selling Palin short.
“Four years ago, right after she was elected, I was quoted as saying, ‘The graveyards of Alaska are covered with the bones of people crossed by Sarah Palin.’ While I said crossed, what I meant was underestimated,” said Alaska Republican pollster David Dittman. “And that’s still true. Consistently, whether it’s the local city council in Wasilla, no matter where she’s gone—say, on the cusp of achieving something—there’ve always been detractors that say it can’t happen, it won’t happen, this is why she won’t be successful. That’s why I will say, to this day, the political graveyards of Alaska—and other places—are filled with the bones of people who underestimated Sarah. And it’s still happening.”
Adele Morgan, one of Palin’s oldest friends in Alaska, can attest to that. She recalls approaching Palin in 2005, when she first heard that her childhood pal and basketball buddy was running for governor.
“I had heard that just from the grapevine so I went and asked her,” Morgan recalls. “I thought that was quite the feat at the time. And I said, ‘What are your plans?’ I was just kidding around and I said, ‘So do you want to be president?’ And that was way back then and she said, ‘Well maybe.’ And I was like, ‘Wow you got some goals there, girl!”
“If I was advising her on one thing: Never forget your roots, never forget where you come from,” says Eddie Burke, a Palin family friend.
The ambition doesn’t always sit well with Alaskans, who have a saying: “We don’t care how they do it on the Outside.” But they clearly care when the Outside suddenly lands on their doorstep. Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright refers to the town as “Hollywood North” because of the media focus and the parade of tourists from the Lower 48 that now visits hoping to get a glimpse of Sarah’s backyard.
She doesn’t spend nearly as much time there as she used to amid her speaking engagements, book tours, and appearances for midterm candidates across the country. (Indeed, until her endorsement of insurgent candidate Joe Miller in the state’s GOP Senate primary, who nosed out incumbent Lisa Murkowski, Palin’s influence had not been felt much at all since she resigned the governorship in 2009.)
Friends in Wasilla say she doesn’t drive the family’s Escalade SUV anymore and instead has gone back to the VW Jetta she used when governor to avoid being spotted.
“Every time I drive it, people know who it is and I can just drive the Jetta and nobody pays any attention,” Palin told friend and Wasilla neighbor Bev Perdew.
When she is in-state, she spends most of her time secluded in her Wasilla home on Lake Lucille. She’s alleviated the need to pop out to do TV, having recently added a studio as an extension to her house. In the past, she was often spotted shopping at Target and Walmart; these days, she sends Bristol to the store, to avoid being mobbed by friends and well-wishers.
On one hand, “you can’t do anything because everybody’s watching when you go to the bathroom,” says Eddie Burke, a Palin family friend who says he lost his job as a radio talk-show host after skirmishing with a Palin critic who worked at the same station. On the other, Burke says, she’s facing the allure of big-money book deals. “So did she leave for money? Probably so.”
Burke says he still chats with Todd about snow machining (Alaskan for snowmobiling) and was even involved in preparations with Palin for her rally with Glenn Beck. “If I was advising her on one thing: Never forget your roots, never forget where you come from. I think there was a part of her that kind of got caught up. If I was to advise her, she should not forget where she came from.”
He says he told this to Todd, creating some “friction.”
Walt Monegan knows what it’s like to have friction with the Palins on the grand scale. His firing as Palin’s public safety commissioner led to the Troopergate investigation. Monegan is still struggling with the fallout years later. The former Anchorage police chief still breaks down in tears when reminiscing about his time on the beat. If Palin does make a bid for the presidency, Monegan is sure to be held up by opponents as a case study in how she can wield power vindictively. He strongly cautioned against a future President Palin.
“I think it’d be a train wreck. You need to have a thick skin in public service, especially if you’re going to be a boss of any sort. People are very opinionated; they will go up and tell you what they think about you, where you’ve gone wrong. You have to listen to them. You don’t shut them off, you don’t turn your back on them, and you certainly don’t attack,” Monegan said. “In her case, she is not mature enough or doesn’t understand that or she has such a large goal that she feels she knows what’s best for everybody, doesn’t really need any other input.”
Palin’s foray this summer into the Alaska Senate race left similarly bruised feelings, exacerbating a long-running feud with the Murkowski family, which has divided the state’s Republican ranks. It all started when former Sen. Frank Murkowski bypassed Palin when, upon election as governor, he decided to appoint his daughter to fill out the remainder of his term in Congress. Palin returned the favor by ousting Murkowski in the GOP 2006 gubernatorial primary. The fighting continued this summer, when Palin’s decision to back Joe Miller helped propel him past Lisa Murkowski for the GOP Senate nomination.
Murkowski and her allies thought the move was personal. But SarahPAC staffer Rebecca Mansour (perhaps the aide closest to Palin) said she did not endorse Miller to get back at the family. "She did not endorse Joe Miller to get back at Lisa. Endorsing someone everyone thought would lose would not be a way to get back at Lisa. Her endorsement of Joe Miller was about principles, not personalities,” Mansour said. “It was about Alaska and her belief that Alaska should have the freedom to develop its natural resources under federal control so that it can become more of a giver to the nation through resource development instead of a taker of federal pork."
Murkowski’s campaign manager was John Bitney, who, until recently, was a Palin ally. A high-school friend who ran her 2006 campaign for governor, Bitney had a falling out with Palin when she discovered Bitney was having an affair with a family friend, a woman to whom he is now married. Bitney is skewered in Palin’s book, Going Rogue, and says she sometimes uses her power to intimidate—“taking a nuclear bomb when a fly swatter would have dealt with the issue,” as he puts it.
“If you are perceived having been someone who has criticized her or been on the other side of her or someone that she’s gone after, [there’s a feeling] that somehow she can hurt you,” Bitney says. [People] “are scared of her.” Bitney said. “That would really concern me to have that kind of power.” Bitney today says “I would love to have peace. I’m asking for a truce.” (Says Mansour: “I’ve worked for her for over a year, and I have not seen any mean side to her. She’s not mean like that. I don’t get that criticism. She's always been very kind and considerate with me.”)
In smoothing over some of these rifts, Palin’s parents are a great asset. Monegan, the ex-public safety commissioner, says he hasn’t had any contact with Palin or her inner circle. But last winter, he ran into Chuck Heath at a dinner celebrating Alaskan seafood. Heath ran over to Monegan and gave him a handshake and hug, telling him, “That’s just politics. I still like you.” Heath even went over to Monegan’s table to meet his family and regale them with stories of his daughter’s book tour.
Nobody knows the kind of sacrifices a new national campaign would entail quite like Palin’s parents, who hit the trail from time to time in 2008. The night before the balloting, Chuck told an audience in Nevada that he was one who taught Sarah “how to field-dress a moose;” on Election Day, he joked, she was going to “field-dress a donkey,” much to the crowd’s delight. These days, Sally often accompanies her daughter on trips outside Alaska, helping out with the grandkids, traveling to Washington for the Glenn Beck rally last month. (Chuck, for the time being, stays put: “I don’t like to go during hunting season,” he says).
Has their daughter’s fame affected them? “I still run with the same derelicts I did 30, 40 years ago and buy whatever beer’s on sale,” says Chuck with a smirk. “Hasn’t changed me a bit.”
They both said they don’t see their daughter much (Chuck saying he keeps track of where she travels by watching Fox News) because she is on the road so often, but when they do they don’t talk with their daughter about work.
“We don’t talk politics. We talk hunting, fishing, sports, and family. Just normal family, none of the political stuff,” her father said. “She hears enough advice from everyone and criticism from everyone and she doesn’t need to hear my bad advice. We hunt together, fish together, travel together and we don’t socialize out in the limelight anymore because she’s mobbed. She can’t walk into a store anymore. We go to a lot of gatherings together, but she has to sneak in.”
Chuck Heath says his daughter has been busy this summer working on her show for TLC, Sarah Palin’s Alaska, and gave a glimpse into what it will look like. He went caribou hunting with Palin and the TLC team and his favorite episode was their gold-mining adventure, “The people in Nome treated us so well and we found not a lot of gold. But enough gold to make it interesting.”
Shushannah Walshe is the co-author of Sarah From Alaska: The Sudden Rise and Brutal Education of a New Conservative Superstar. She was a reporter and producer at the Fox News Channel from August 2001 until the end of the 2008 presidential campaign.
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Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Detroit assesses damage after fires sweep city
DETROIT — A thick odor of smoke filled Detroit's air Wednesday morning after roaring fires, fanned by winds of up to 50 mph, swept through at least three Detroit neighborhoods Tuesday night, destroying dozens of homes.
No injuries have been reported.
"Between roughly 4 o'clock and about 8:30 we responded to about 85 fires," and about 140 downed power lines, fire commissioner James Mack told WXYZ-TV Tuesday night.
Detroit fire Capt. Steve Varnas told the Free Press that some fires may have been caused by dead tree limbs being blown onto power lines.
At least one electric company launched an investigation into possible ties between the blazes and its lines.
Arson also was being looked at as a cause for some of the fires, according to the Detroit News.
"It was like blankets of smoke everywhere and the next thing I know everybody's house was in fire," Louvenia Wallace, 31, a hair stylist and mother of three, told the Detroit Free Press Wednesday outside the duplex she rents.
Hulk Hogan Hospitalized with Back Pain
Hulk Hogan has been hospitalized with back pain, his rep tells TVGuide.com.
The 57-year-old wrestling legend (real name: Terry Bollea) was taken Monday to the Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, Fla.
See photos of Hogan through the years
Hogan, who recently appeared on Comedy Central's Roast of David Hasselhoff and starred on the reality series Hogan Knows Best, posted a twitvid of himself in the emergency room Monday, telling his fans: "My back went into a major spasm from hip all the way to the middle of my back — it just totally overwhelmed me."
On Tuesday, Hogan posted another twitvid saying he was feeling better and had several tests scheduled for the day.
Report: Castro says Cuban model doesn't work
HAVANA – Fidel Castro told a visiting American journalist that Cuba's communist economic model doesn't work, a rare comment on domestic affairs from a man who has conspicuously steered clear of local issues since stepping down four years ago.
The fact that things are not working efficiently on this cash-strapped Caribbean island is hardly news. Fidel's brother Raul, the country's president, has said the same thing repeatedly. But the blunt assessment by the father of Cuba's 1959 revolution is sure to raise eyebrows.
Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, asked if Cuba's economic system was still worth exporting to other countries, and Castro replied: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore" Goldberg wrote Wednesday in a post on his Atlantic blog.
He said Castro made the comment casually over lunch following a long talk about the Middle East, and did not elaborate. The Cuban government had no immediate comment on Goldberg's account.
Since stepping down from power in 2006, the ex-president has focused almost entirely on international affairs and said very little about Cuba and its politics, perhaps to limit the perception he is stepping on his brother's toes.
Goldberg, who traveled to Cuba at Castro's invitation last week to discuss a recent Atlantic article he wrote about Iran's nuclear program, also reported on Tuesday that Castro questioned his own actions during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, including his recommendation to Soviet leaders that they use nuclear weapons against the United States.
Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba has clung to its communist system.
The state controls well over 90 percent of the economy, paying workers salaries of about $20 a month in return for free health care and education, and nearly free transportation and housing. At least a portion of every citizen's food needs are sold to them through ration books at heavily subsidized prices.
President Raul Castro and others have instituted a series of limited economic reforms, and have warned Cubans that they need to start working harder and expecting less from the government. But the president has also made it clear he has no desire to depart from Cuba's socialist system or embrace capitalism.
Fidel Castro stepped down temporarily in July 2006 due to a serious illness that nearly killed him.
He resigned permanently two years later, but remains head of the Communist Party. After staying almost entirely out of the spotlight for four years, he re-emerged in July and now speaks frequently about international affairs. He has been warning for weeks of the threat of a nuclear war over Iran.
Castro's interview with Goldberg is the only one he has given to an American journalist since he left office.
The fact that things are not working efficiently on this cash-strapped Caribbean island is hardly news. Fidel's brother Raul, the country's president, has said the same thing repeatedly. But the blunt assessment by the father of Cuba's 1959 revolution is sure to raise eyebrows.
Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, asked if Cuba's economic system was still worth exporting to other countries, and Castro replied: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore" Goldberg wrote Wednesday in a post on his Atlantic blog.
He said Castro made the comment casually over lunch following a long talk about the Middle East, and did not elaborate. The Cuban government had no immediate comment on Goldberg's account.
Since stepping down from power in 2006, the ex-president has focused almost entirely on international affairs and said very little about Cuba and its politics, perhaps to limit the perception he is stepping on his brother's toes.
Goldberg, who traveled to Cuba at Castro's invitation last week to discuss a recent Atlantic article he wrote about Iran's nuclear program, also reported on Tuesday that Castro questioned his own actions during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, including his recommendation to Soviet leaders that they use nuclear weapons against the United States.
Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba has clung to its communist system.
The state controls well over 90 percent of the economy, paying workers salaries of about $20 a month in return for free health care and education, and nearly free transportation and housing. At least a portion of every citizen's food needs are sold to them through ration books at heavily subsidized prices.
President Raul Castro and others have instituted a series of limited economic reforms, and have warned Cubans that they need to start working harder and expecting less from the government. But the president has also made it clear he has no desire to depart from Cuba's socialist system or embrace capitalism.
Fidel Castro stepped down temporarily in July 2006 due to a serious illness that nearly killed him.
He resigned permanently two years later, but remains head of the Communist Party. After staying almost entirely out of the spotlight for four years, he re-emerged in July and now speaks frequently about international affairs. He has been warning for weeks of the threat of a nuclear war over Iran.
Castro's interview with Goldberg is the only one he has given to an American journalist since he left office.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Kidnapped Russian air crew 'freed' in Darfur
KHARTOUM (AFP) – Three Russian helicopter crew members kidnapped in Sudan's restive Darfur region have been freed, officials said Tuesday, with one report indicating force was used to secure their release.
Sudanese army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad and the Kremlin's special envoy to Khartoum Mikhail Margelov both said the trio were released after intensive negotiations with the abductors but did not say if a ransom was paid.
"The three Russian pilots were freed last night (Monday)," following negotiations with the abductors, the army spokesman said.
Russian envoy Margelov confirmed the release in statements carried by the Russian news agency Interfax.
"The negotiations lasted several hours and were crowned with success. The group that was holding our pilots released them," Margelov said. He did not say if any ransom was paid.
Abdel Hamid Kasha, the governor of South Darfur state, where the men were abducted Sunday at gunpoint, however, gave a different version of events.
"Border guards freed the Russians after clashes with the kidnappers," Kasha told the Sudanese Media Centre, which is close to Sudan's intelligence services.
The news outlet had earlier said "specialised services" fought with the abductors and suggested there had been casualties. "The toll (from the fighting) has not yet been announced," the report said.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Khartoum authorities as to whether force had been used to end the kidnapping.
A diplomat at the Sudan consulate, Evgeni Arjantsev, meanwhile said that the three men were Tuesday back in Nyala, capital of South Darfur state, from where they were seized by a small group of armed men on Sunday.
Interfax had earlier quoted Margelov as identifying the three as the captain of a Mi-8 helicopter and two crew members, who worked for private aviation company Badr.
"The helicopter was carrying food and other civilian supplies for the United Nations mission to Darfur," Margelov said.
Darfur has been gripped by civil war since 2003 that has left 300,000 people dead and 2.7 million displaced, according to the United Nations. Khartoum says 10,000 have been killed in the conflict.
The strife-torn region has seen a wave of kidnappings since March 2009, when the International Criminal Court indicted Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir for alleged war crimes there, with 23 foreigners seized.
With the release of the Russians, no foreigners remain in captivity.
On Monday, a US aid worker who had been held for more than 100 days was finally released by her abductors after negotiations with the authorities, Sudan foreign ministry spokesman Moawiya Osman said, stressing however that no ransom had been paid.
Flavia Wagner, 35, who works for US aid group Samaritan's Purse was released after a 105-day ordeal, officials said.
Colleagues had seen her "and report that she is well. She said she is looking forward to being reunited with her family in the United States," Samaritan's Purse said in a statement on Monday.
"We thank God that Flavia is safe and free," said Franklin Graham, president of the American aid group. "We appreciate the help of the government of Sudan and the United States government."
Wagner -- who was seized on May 18 along with two Sudanese colleagues who were freed within days -- was the first Western woman to have been held alone in Darfur.
All foreigners kidnapped since March 2009 have since been freed unharmed.
In July, a Russian helicopter pilot was taken prisoner after landing in South Darfur to pick up a group of rebels and transport them to Chad for peace talks. He was freed four days later.
Sudanese army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad and the Kremlin's special envoy to Khartoum Mikhail Margelov both said the trio were released after intensive negotiations with the abductors but did not say if a ransom was paid.
"The three Russian pilots were freed last night (Monday)," following negotiations with the abductors, the army spokesman said.
Russian envoy Margelov confirmed the release in statements carried by the Russian news agency Interfax.
"The negotiations lasted several hours and were crowned with success. The group that was holding our pilots released them," Margelov said. He did not say if any ransom was paid.
Abdel Hamid Kasha, the governor of South Darfur state, where the men were abducted Sunday at gunpoint, however, gave a different version of events.
"Border guards freed the Russians after clashes with the kidnappers," Kasha told the Sudanese Media Centre, which is close to Sudan's intelligence services.
The news outlet had earlier said "specialised services" fought with the abductors and suggested there had been casualties. "The toll (from the fighting) has not yet been announced," the report said.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Khartoum authorities as to whether force had been used to end the kidnapping.
A diplomat at the Sudan consulate, Evgeni Arjantsev, meanwhile said that the three men were Tuesday back in Nyala, capital of South Darfur state, from where they were seized by a small group of armed men on Sunday.
Interfax had earlier quoted Margelov as identifying the three as the captain of a Mi-8 helicopter and two crew members, who worked for private aviation company Badr.
"The helicopter was carrying food and other civilian supplies for the United Nations mission to Darfur," Margelov said.
Darfur has been gripped by civil war since 2003 that has left 300,000 people dead and 2.7 million displaced, according to the United Nations. Khartoum says 10,000 have been killed in the conflict.
The strife-torn region has seen a wave of kidnappings since March 2009, when the International Criminal Court indicted Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir for alleged war crimes there, with 23 foreigners seized.
With the release of the Russians, no foreigners remain in captivity.
On Monday, a US aid worker who had been held for more than 100 days was finally released by her abductors after negotiations with the authorities, Sudan foreign ministry spokesman Moawiya Osman said, stressing however that no ransom had been paid.
Flavia Wagner, 35, who works for US aid group Samaritan's Purse was released after a 105-day ordeal, officials said.
Colleagues had seen her "and report that she is well. She said she is looking forward to being reunited with her family in the United States," Samaritan's Purse said in a statement on Monday.
"We thank God that Flavia is safe and free," said Franklin Graham, president of the American aid group. "We appreciate the help of the government of Sudan and the United States government."
Wagner -- who was seized on May 18 along with two Sudanese colleagues who were freed within days -- was the first Western woman to have been held alone in Darfur.
All foreigners kidnapped since March 2009 have since been freed unharmed.
In July, a Russian helicopter pilot was taken prisoner after landing in South Darfur to pick up a group of rebels and transport them to Chad for peace talks. He was freed four days later.
Four dead in Mozambique after police fire on protest
Four people died and dozens were wounded on Wednesday when police opened fire on demonstrators protesting rising prices in and around the Mozambique capital Maputo, officials said.
One of the dead was a 12-year-old boy who was shot in the head. He was found with a school textbook resting beside him and empty bullet casings nearby, an AFP correspondent said.
"Four people died, 142 were arrested and 27 were wounded, including two police officers," police spokesman Pedro Cossa said.
"Police will continue to patrol the streets," he added.
He also denied that police had used live rounds, saying "our officers always use rubber bullets."
The country's main opposition party Renamo said six people had died in the protests and condemned the government's response.
"For a crime one would never be shot as happened with the six that are dead," party spokesman Fernando Mazanga told AFP.
"The government never allows protests. They always respond to protests with violence."
A witness said the dead boy had been walking toward demonstrators when police opened fire on the crowd and hit him.
"We all saw it, all of us participating in the strike. We want justice here," said 18-year-old Eunici Antonia Kiove.
Six Red Cross rescue teams working around the capital and the suburb of Matola said the demonstrators were killed during separate protests over rising fuel and food prices.
Maputo Central Hospital reported 42 patients were admitted after being wounded during the protests. One, a student, died from her injuries, the hospital said.
"We have had 42 cases at the hospital. Twenty-three were wounded by gunshots. Two are being operated on at the moment. Nineteen have wounds from physical attacks. One died," Antonio Assis da Costa, director of emergency services, told AFP.
Demonstrators chanted slogans against President Armando Guebuza, whose ruling Frelimo party won a 75-percent landslide in elections last year but who has faced mounting criticism over soaring prices in the impoverished southern African country.
"Guebuza only wants us for our votes, where is he now?" an angry protester shouted, as the crowd chanted "Down with Guebuza!"
Interior Minister Jose Pacheco called the demonstrators "outlaws and criminals" in an interview on state television.
The unrest broke out as thousands took to the streets in poor neighbourhoods in and around the city to protest against the rising prices of fuel, wheat, bread, water and electricity.
They burned tyres to block major roads to the airport and the city's largest suburb, Matola, as mini-bus taxi drivers went on strike and some schools closed.
State-owned Radio Mozambique reported three dead in the town of Benfica, about 15 minutes' drive from the capital.
The broadcaster said rioters had set alight cars outside a branch of the national energy company Electricidade de Mocambique. Looters were also ransacking businesses, the radio station said.
"We are monitoring the situation, we sent out police," Maputo police spokeswoman Silvia Mahumane told AFP without further comment.
Mozambique has seen prices climb in recent months as the value of its currency, the metical, slumped against the South African rand.
The exchange rate is currently five meticals to the rand, down from a rate of 3.5 this time last year, according to data from South Africa's Standard Bank.
The currency slide has taken a toll on import-dependent Mozambique.
Electricidade de Mocambique on Wednesday implemented a 13.4 percent rate increase, while the state water supplier has also raised prices in and around the capital, state newspaper Noticias said.
In 2008, six people were killed in protests against a public transport fare increase.
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