World News Today

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Ex-Afghan Leader's Assassin Waited Days To See Him

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? The suicide bomber who assassinated former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani insisted on meeting face-to-face with the ex-president and waited in Kabul for days to talk with him about brokering peace with the Taliban, an associate of Rabbani's said Wednesday.

Mohammad Ismail Qasemyar, the international relations adviser for the peace council, said the bomber, identified as Esmatullah, had approached several council officials, telling them that he was an important figure in the Taliban insurgency and would only speak directly with Rabbani.

"He wanted to talk about peace with Professor Rabbani," Qasemyar said.

Qasemyar said the bomber stayed at a house used for guests of the peace council while waiting for Rabbani to return from a trip to Iran.

On Tuesday, the two met and the attacker went to shake hands with Rabbani at his home, bowing his head near the former president's chest and detonating a bomb hidden in his turban, Qasemyar said.

The U.S.-led coalition said another attacker was also involved, but that could not be confirmed by Afghan officials. A Western official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the killing is still being investigated, said one person has been detained in connection with Rabbani's death.

The assassination dashed hopes for reconciling with the Taliban and raised fears about deteriorating security in Afghanistan just as foreign combat troops are starting to pull out. Some U.S. and Canadian troops have left in recent months and all foreign combat forces are to go home or move into support roles by the end of 2014 when Afghan forces are to be in charge of protecting and defending the nation.

"Today is a sad day," said Mohammad Egris, a 25-year-old Kabul University student who was one of dozens of people and top Afghan officials who went to Rabbani's house on Wednesday morning to pay their respects. "The enemies of Afghanistan ? the terrorists ? continue killing our leaders and our people. The people being killed are working for peace and prosperity."

Egris called on the Afghan government and the international community to do something to root out militants planning attacks in Afghanistan from hideouts in Pakistan. Karzai has repeatedly called for the fight against militants to be waged in Pakistan instead of Afghanistan.

The Pakistani government and leaders across the world condemned the killing. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Afghan President Hamid Karzai as he rushed back to Kabul from the United States.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Gen. Mohammad Ayub Salangi, police chief in Kabul, said the Taliban were behind it.

When contacted by The Associated Press, Taliban spokesmen declined to discuss the killing.

In Washington, John Kerry, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Rabbani's assassination a "great setback" for the cause of peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan.

"Former President Rabbani was a historic figure who fought the Taliban in the 1990s and who continued to work for peace and stability as the head of the High Peace Council," Kerry said in a statement. "Afghanistan's enemies want to use his death along with other previous attacks to destabilize the region. We cannot let that happen. Too much is at stake for the people of Afghanistan and the country's future."

Afghans at Rabbani's home blamed the Haqqani network, a militant organization based in Pakistan and affiliated with the Taliban and al-Qaida that has conducted several attacks in the capital.

Rabbani, whose death came just days after insurgents attacked the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, was the latest high-ranking official close to Karzai to be killed by militants in recent months. Outnumbered on the battlefield, insurgents are conducting targeted attacks against officials aligned with the Afghan government and U.S.-led coalition, lowering hopes that Afghan forces can secure the country.

"Every day they are killing," said Mirza Mohammad, a 50-year-old former Afghan Army officer from Parwan province. "The killing of Rabbani has brought chaos to Afghanistan."

Mohammad, who was among those paying respects Wednesday at Rabbani's home in Kabul, called for a national uprising. "We will soon get revenge," he said. "Pakistan is behind this attack."

Meanwhile, in the Waghaz district of eastern Ghazni province, nine Afghan policemen were killed Tuesday evening while they were trying to defuse a roadside bomb, said Gen. Zirawer Zahid, provincial police chief.

And in the south, two NATO service members were killed in an insurgent attack, the alliance said in a statement Wednesday. NATO did not provide further details.

Including the latest deaths, at least 28 international troops have been killed so far this month in Afghanistan.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=140627530&ft=1&f=

info more news bbc news fox news national news

Full Feeds Service Discontinued

Unfortunatly the time has come for this scraper to come down (seemingly it may come as a shock to some that this is not provided by the BBC). I wrote this back in 2005 and have modified it a couple of times since mainly so that I could more easily consume RSS on the move. In short, I no longer use it, I find consuming live news is not actually something an RSS reader does very well and I face a constant battle against sites trying to use these feeds to monetize BBC content and failing to pay any attention to etag or last modified headers (hello palin-pedia.com et al). Please update your RSS subscription as the last remenants of this will be removed soon , the official BBC RSS feed you are looking for is: http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_uk_edition/front_page/rss.xml

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10628494

more now this resources info more news

Full Feeds Service Discontinued

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10628494

fox news national news state news financial news Europe news

Europeans Urge US To Halt Davis Execution

Enlarge Associated Press

FILE - This Aug. 22, 1991 file photo shows Troy Anthony Davis entering Chatham County Superior Court in Savannah, Ga., during his trail in the shooting death of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail. Georgia's pardons board on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011, rejected clemency for Davis despite high-profile support for his claim that he was wrongly convicted of killing MacPhail in 1989. Davis is set to die on Wednesday, Sept. 21. It is the fourth time in four years his execution has been scheduled by Georgia officials. (AP Photo/The Savannah Morning News, File)

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=140649840&ft=1&f=

state news financial news Europe news read more news

No Respect For The Women On The Sidelines

Enlarge Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Pam Oliver, sideline reporter for Fox Sports, interviews head coach Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers as he leads his team against the Denver Broncos.

Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Pam Oliver, sideline reporter for Fox Sports, interviews head coach Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers as he leads his team against the Denver Broncos.

Football season has hardly started and fans are already grousing about sideline reporters. To be sure, sideliners now exist in most all sports, and a handful of them ?? notably Craig Sager of Turner, who was apparently in town the day the clown died, and thus got all his clothes ?? are downright famous. While Sager is best known for basketball, it is football sideline reporters who are most identified with the sport.

That is because, just as football offensive linemen are supposed to be fat, football sideline reporters are supposed to be women ?? attractive women. Who can ever forget a drunken Joe Namath mumbling to one of the poor sideliners that he wanted to kiss her? But, evidently, it is the television version of the laws of the Medes and the Persians that football sideline reporters must be female. There's even a website: sidelinehotties.com. Presumably, TV believes that a touch of pulchritude at the mic improves ratings ?? affirmative attraction action.

And so the sideliners are delegated to freeze down on the tundra while the male play-by-play announcer and his hefty old gridiron warrior expert babble on comfortably up in the heated booth. The sideline reporter is sort of like the scroll at the bottom of the screen, which, especially on ESPN, rolls on endlessly, even when it doesn't have anything of consequence to say. Likewise, the sideliner. If you've got the technology for a scroll or a live body on the field, use it.

The most asinine task sideliners are required to carry out is to ask coaches, before the second half, what plans they have for the rest of the game. The coach who's ahead says he wants to keep up the intensity and avoid turnovers. The coach who's behind says he wants to get more physical and avoid turnovers. Back to the booth. And all the guys watching with their buddies laugh at the ditzy babes who ask such obvious stupid questions.

But the irony is that most sideline reporters ?? whatever sport, whichever gender ?? really have done their homework and really do know their stuff. Most of them are terribly overqualified for the assignment of being a human scroll. But, of course, whereas it has not been uncommon for years for newspapers to have women on the football beat, television wouldn't dare allow a female up into the booth to actually call the game.

The funny thing is ?? as I was reminded when I heard Mary Carillo doing tennis commentary during the U.S. Open ?? is that when you hear a female voice in tandem with a male voice, the contrast sets off both advantageously ?? as TV stations always pair male and female anchors on the local news.

But in sports television, sideline reporters can only go side to side, never up. Their place is down on the field, with the cheerleaders.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/09/21/140591732/no-respect-for-the-women-on-the-sidelines?ft=1&f=

more now this resources info more news

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

2 Officers Indicted In Md. College Student Beating

Associated Press

An image made from a March 3, 2010, videotape taken by a student from a dorm room window and provided by Roberts and Wood Law Firm shows One Prince Georges County police allegedly beating University of Maryland student John McKenna in College Park, Md. Two police officers were indicted Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011, in the beating of the student during a rowdy celebration that was caught on video after the school's basketball win over Duke last year, prosecutors said. (AP Photo/Roberts and Wood Law Firm)

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (AP) ? Two police officers were indicted Tuesday in the beating of a University of Maryland student during a rowdy celebration that was caught on video after the school's basketball win over Duke last year, prosecutors said.

Prince George's County Officers Reginald Baker and James Harrison, both of the department's special operations division, were indicted on charges of first- and second-degree assault and misconduct in office, said County State's Attorney Angela Alsobrooks.

Police arrested more than two dozen students who took to the streets to celebrate Maryland's 79-72 win over Duke on March 3, 2010. A video, taken from a dorm room window, later surfaced showing officers in riot gear beating student John McKenna with batons. Charges were later dropped against many of those arrested that night, including McKenna.

The video shows McKenna half-dancing, half-jogging down the sidewalk in celebration. He stops when he is cornered by two officers on horseback. Then, three officers in riot gear approach McKenna, and he is slammed into a wall and struck repeatedly with batons. McKenna suffered a concussion, cuts and other injuries, his attorney has said.

Harrison and Baker were placed on administrative leave soon after the beating. The names of their attorneys were not immediately known, and Vince Canales, the leader of the county police officers' union, said he had no immediate comment.

Alsobrooks said the decision to charge the officers was not made lightly.

"But when there is evidence of potential wrongdoing by a police officer, it would never be appropriate for me to look the other way," she said in a statement. "If I did so, the residents of Prince George's County would be right to question my ability to be fair and impartial no matter the type of job or the standing a suspect or defendant may have in our community."

Terrell Roberts III, a lawyer representing McKenna, said his client was gratified by the indictments and hoped the officers would be held accountable. Alsobrooks said the investigation was continuing, and Roberts said he hoped to see charges against additional officers.

"We feel that there are other individuals that are culpable and potentially chargeable, but I have no control over that," Roberts said.

He said McKenna was still contemplating a lawsuit, but had not yet filed one.

FBI agents had interviewed dozens of county police officers last year, and the Justice Department had said its Civil Rights Division was investigating. It was not immediately clear why the charges were brought by the State's Attorney's office instead of by the federal government, though an FBI spokesman in Maryland, Rich Wolf, said the FBI had always been assisting with the investigation but had never taken it over.

Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Maryland, declined to comment on why the federal government was not bringing the case.

County Police Chief Mark Magaw said in a statement that the department was "committed to constitutional, professional and ethical policing" and to maintaining the community's trust, but he did not address the specific allegations.

To prevent a similar riot after this year's Maryland-Duke game in College Park, police added extra officers, and the university publicly encouraged students to avoid profanity and to show good sportsmanship. No major disturbances were reported.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=140654307&ft=1&f=

more news bbc news fox news national news state news

Condemned Ga. Inmate Has Much Support, Little Hope

Enlarge Associated Press

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Georgia Department of Corrections shows death row inmate Troy Davis. Georgia's pardons board on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011, rejected clemency for Davis despite high-profile support for his claim that he was wrongly convicted of killing MacPhail in 1989. Davis is set to die on Wednesday, Sept. 21. It is the fourth time in four years his execution has been scheduled by Georgia officials. (AP Photo/Georgia Department of Corrections, File)

Associated Press

Anneliese MacPhail, left to right, mother of slain off-duty Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail, MacPhail's son Mark MacPhail, Jr., wife Joan MacPhail and daughter Madison MacPhail, react after a Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles hearing for convicted killer Troy Davis in Atlanta, on Monday, Sept. 19, 2011. MacPhail's family said they urged the board to deny his clemency petition and carry out the jury's verdict. (AP Photo/David Tulis)

Associated Press

The sister of murder victim Mark MacPhail, left, leaves a meeting room at the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles office after the defense presented their case for death row inmate Troy Davis in Atlanta, on Monday, Sept. 19, 2011. Davis is scheduled to die on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011, for the 1989 slaying of MacPhail, an off-duty Savannah police officer. (AP Photo/David Tulis)

Associated Press

Protesters hold signs in support of death row inmate Troy Davis outside the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles hearing in Atlanta, on Monday, Sept. 19, 2011. Davis is scheduled to die for the 1989 slaying of off-duty Savannah, Ga., police officer Mark MacPhail. (AP Photo/David Tulis)

Associated Press

Madison MacPhail, daughter of slain off-duty Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail, reacts as she speaks about her late father, with mother Joan MacPhail at her side, after a Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles hearing for convicted killer Troy Davis in Atlanta, on Monday, Sept. 19, 2011. MacPhail's family said they urged the board to deny his clemency petition and carry out the jury's verdict. (AP Photo/David Tulis)

Enlarge Associated Press

FILE - In this Jan. 16, 1991 file photo, Troy Anthony Davis enters a courtroom for a hearing while on trail for the shooting death of off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail. Georgia's pardons board on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011, rejected clemency for Davis despite high-profile support for his claim that he was wrongly convicted of killing MacPhail in 1989. Davis is set to die on Wednesday, Sept. 21. It is the fourth time in four years his execution has been scheduled by Georgia officials. (AP Photo/The Savannah Morning News, File)

Associated Press

Protesters gather outside the building where Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles members are holding a hearing for death row inmate Troy Davis, in Atlanta, on Monday, Sept. 19, 2011. Davis is scheduled to die Wednesday for the 1989 slaying of off-duty Savannah, Ga., police officer Mark MacPhail. (AP Photo/David Tulis)

Enlarge Associated Press

Associated Press

Gail Crouch plays a fiddle as protesters gather outside a clemency hearing for Troy Anthony Davis across from the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta on Monday, Sept. 19, 2011. Davis, 42, has long claimed he's innocent of killing Mark MacPhail, and the questions surrounding his case have attracted a host of high-profile supporters. After decades of legal wrangling, Davis is set to be put to death by lethal injection Wednesday, the fourth time in four years the state has tried to execute him. (AP Photo/Atlanta Journal & Constitution, Curtis Compton) MARIETTA DAILY OUT; GWINNETT DAILY POST OUT

ATLANTA (AP) ? Yet another appeal denied, Troy Davis was left with little to do Tuesday but wait to be executed for a murder he insists he did not commit.

He lost his most realistic chance to avoid lethal injection on Tuesday, when Georgia's pardons board rejected his appeal for clemency. As his scheduled 7 p.m. Wednesday execution neared, his backers resorted to far-fetched measures: urging prison workers to strike or call in sick, asking prosecutors to block the execution ? even considering a desperate appeal for White House intervention.

He has gotten support from hundreds of thousands of people, including a former FBI director, former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI, and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling gave him an unusual opportunity to prove his innocence last year. State and federal courts, however, repeatedly upheld his conviction for the 1989 killing of Mark MacPhail, an off-duty police officer who was working as a security guard in Savannah when he was shot dead rushing to help a homeless man who was being attacked.

Davis' attorneys say he was convicted based on flawed testimony that has been largely recanted by witnesses, but prosecutors and MacPhail's relatives say they have no doubt the right man is being punished.

"Justice was finally served for my father," said Mark MacPhail Jr., who was an infant when his father was gunned down. "The truth was finally heard."

As Davis' attorneys considered filing another appeal, his supporters planned vigils and rallies around the world. Nearly 1 million signed a petition seeking clemency, according to Amnesty International.

"Allowing a man to be sent to death under an enormous cloud of doubt about his guilt is an outrageous affront to justice," said Larry Cox, who heads Amnesty International USA.

Georgia initially planned to execute Davis in July 2007, but the pardons board granted him a stay less than 24 hours before he was to die. The U.S. Supreme Court stepped in a year later and halted the lethal injection just two hours before he was to be executed. And a federal appeals court halted another planned execution a few months later.

This time, state officials are confident this lethal injection will be carried out. Georgia's governor does not have the power to grant condemned inmates clemency. Davis supporters are calling on Chatham County District Attorney Larry Chisolm to block the execution. But the prosecutor said in a statement Tuesday he's powerless to withdraw an execution order for Davis issued by a state Superior Court judge.

"We appreciate the outpouring of interest in this case; however, this matter is beyond our control," Chisolm said.

Spencer Lawton, the prosecutor who secured Davis' conviction in 1991, said he has no doubt he is guilty.

"What we have had is a manufactured appearance of doubt which has taken on the quality of legitimate doubt itself. And all of it is exquisitely unfair," Lawton said.

MacPhail was shot to death Aug. 19, 1989, after coming to the aid of Larry Young, a homeless man who was pistol-whipped in a Burger King parking lot. Prosecutors say Davis was with another man who was demanding that Young give him a beer when Davis pulled out a handgun and bashed Young with it. When MacPhail arrived to help, prosecutors say Davis had a smirk on his face when he shot the officer to death.

Witnesses placed Davis at the crime scene and identified him as the shooter. Shell casings were linked to a shooting hours earlier that Davis was convicted of. There was no other physical evidence. No blood or DNA tied Davis to the crime and the weapon was never located.

Davis' attorneys say seven of nine key witnesses who testified at his trial have disputed all or parts of their testimony.

Quiana Glover, who did not testify at the original trial, said one of the witnesses who did not recant told her he was the real shooter. That man, who was with Davis that night, could not be reached for comment on Monday and Tuesday, and did not answer his door this week when a reporter visited.

"Justice should be served, but it should be served to the right man," said Glover, who urged the pardons board to grant clemency Monday. "There's no evidence against this young man."

As advocacy groups highlighted the case, a growing number of dignitaries became involved. A host of conservative figures are among those who have advocated on his behalf, including former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, ex-Justice Department official Larry Thompson and one-time FBI Director William Sessions.

Their concerns helped prod the U.S. Supreme Court to grant Davis a hearing in Savannah to prove his innocence, a nearly unprecedented move. Two witnesses at the June 2010 hearing testified that they falsely incriminated Davis at his trial, and two others told the judge that the man with Davis that night later said he shot MacPhail.

Prosecutors, though, argued that Davis' lawyers were simply rehashing old testimony that had already been rejected by a jury. And they said no trial court could ever consider the hearsay from the other witnesses who blamed the other man for the crime.

U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. sided with prosecutors and rejected Davis' request for a new trial. He said that while "new evidence casts some additional, minimal doubt on his conviction, it is largely smoke and mirrors."

On Tuesday, Davis was spending his last quiet hours with friends, family and supporters, said Wende Gozan Brown, an Amnesty International staffer who visited him.

"He said he's in good spirits, he's prayerful and he's at peace. But he said he will not stop fighting until he's taken his last breath. And he said Georgia is about to snuff out the life of an innocent man," she said.

His supporters are exploring other options. State Sen. Vincent Fort called on all but a skeleton staff of prison workers to strike on Wednesday.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said it was considering asking President Barack Obama to intervene, a move that legal experts considered unlikely.

MacPhail's family, which urged the pardons board on Monday to reject Davis' clemency bid, said his execution will bring them peace.

"That's what we wanted, and that's what we got," said MacPhail's mother, Anneliese MacPhail. "We wanted to get it over with, and for him to get his punishment."

___

Follow Bluestein at http://www.twitter.com/bluestein . Associated Press writers Kate Brumback in Atlanta and Russ Bynum in Savannah contributed to this story.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=140649840&ft=1&f=

bbc news fox news national news state news financial news