Move political way by Hugo Chavez

Hugo Chavez of Venezuela said Wednesday that the three hostages by Colombian rebels, which can be shared with hours.
Art.hugo.chavez.afp.gi.jpg

Mr. Chavez said he decided to launch a military operation to free hostages.

Mr. Chavez said his troops had airplanes and helicopters, to facilitate the hostages at a time to terminate the contract.

His government provided a letter to the head of Colombia detailed proposal, he said. Shortly after, CNN, the Government of Colombia has agreed to the transaction.

The hostages were several years by the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC known as the Spanish acronym.

On Wednesday, Chavez standing in front of a map, Venezuela and Colombia and has stressed several airports on the side of the border with Venezuela, where the hostages come voluntarily.

He said he had as options for a covert operation, but decided it would be too risky.

Hostages, which may be released as Clara Rojas, who was abducted, while the year 2002 she managed the campaign of Senator Ingrid Betancourt, a candidate for the presidency of Colombia, "said Chavez. They also include Rojas' son, Emmanuel, born in captivity, and Consuelo Gonzalez, a former member of the Colombian Congress, he said.
Not to be missed

CNN Karl Penhaul in Bogota said Chavez spoke of hostages at the house of tomorrow, but perhaps he added Penhaul a number of points of contention in the next few hours.
Advertising

Mr. Chavez said he had Wednesday with the leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba and Ecuador on the hostages. The leaders of these countries, like Chavez, hand in the political philosophy of the left towards the center-left, while the president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, a political party of the right.

Manc city boss his politic supporter win election

BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- The Thai political party that backs the country's ousted prime minister won nearly half the seats in parliamentary elections Sunday with 96 percent of the vote counted -- allowing it to form a coalition government, a Thai election official told CNN on Monday.
art.thai.vote.afp.gi.jpg

An elephant puts a vote in a ballot box in Bangkok during a promotion for the general election.

The People Power Party, supported by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, is on pace to win 232 seats in the 480-seat chamber, according to Secretary General of the Election Commission of Thailand Suthiphon Thaveechayagarn,.

"We now extend it -- (an) invitation, politically speaking, to all parties," PPP official Jakrapob Penkair said in opening up negotiations for coalition partners.

"There is no party in particular which is discriminated against in this process of forming the government and it depends on each party to respond now. The PPP is listening."

Jakrapob said he expects it to take a couple of weeks to put together a coaltion government.

The results have been a rebuke to the country's military, which toppled Thaksin in a bloodless coup 15 months ago, banning his Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party.

The Democrat party, the movement backed by the military, was second with a projected 165 seats in parliament.

"The people spoke out and the military should listen to it very carefully," Jakrapob said.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a Thai political scientist, told CNN that the result reflects a polarized Thai electorate and presentcccccs a "predicament" for the military.

"It's a snub to the coup and the post-coup period. The coup has failed to uproot Mr Thaskin and now the military will be under pressure to try to protect itself, protect its interests. One hopes that it doesn't do anything hasty," said Thitinan, who stressed that if there is to be reconciliation, the old order that overthrew Thaksin needs to represent the new voices that have emerged.

Since its transition from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one 75 years ago, Thailand has seen its government overthrown by coups 18 times. The U.S. State Department welcomed reports that the election was conducted freely and fairly and congratulated the Thais on "taking this crucial step toward a return to elected government. "
report by cnn

what blair do today?Blair joins Catholic Church

Blair joins Catholic Church
Tony Blair
Tony Blair visited Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in June
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has left the Anglican Church to become a Roman Catholic.

His wife and children are already Catholic and there had been speculation he would convert after leaving office.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, who led the service to welcome Mr Blair, said he was "very glad" to do so.

But ex-Tory minister Ann Widdecombe - herself a Catholic convert - said Mr Blair's voting record as an MP had often "gone against church teaching".

Last year, Mr Blair, who is now a Middle East peace envoy, said he had prayed to God when deciding whether or not to send UK troops into Iraq.

And one of Mr Blair's final official trips while prime minister was a visit to the Vatican in June where he met Pope Benedict XVI.

'Regular worshipper'

Mr Blair was received into full communion with the Catholic Church during Mass at Archbishop's House, Westminster, on Friday.


If you look at Tony Blair's voting record in the House of Commons, he's gone against church teaching on more than one occasion
Ann Widdecombe

Cardinal Murphy O'Connor, who is the head of Catholics in England and Wales, said: "I am very glad to welcome Tony Blair into the Catholic Church.

"For a long time he has been a regular worshipper at Mass with his family and in recent months he has been following a programme of formation to prepare for his reception into full communion.

"My prayers are with him, his wife and family at this joyful moment in their journey of faith together."

Chief Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the Catholic church in Rome shared Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor's "satisfaction".

"The choice of joining the Catholic church made by such an authoritative personality can only arouse joy and respect," Fr Lombardi added.

BBC correspondent David Willey said it had been no secret in Rome that Mr Blair had been taking instruction from a Catholic priest as a prelude to conversion.

He added that the Pope was informed of Mr Blair's intentions prior to his visit to the Vatican in June 2007, shortly before he left office.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, leader of the Anglican church, wished the former prime minister well in his spiritual journey.

He said: "Tony Blair has my prayers and good wishes as he takes this step in his Christian pilgrimage."

Northern Ireland

Downing Street confirmed the former prime minister had converted, but said it was a private matter and it would not comment further.


In the end, there is a judgement that, I think if you have faith about these things, you realise that judgement is made by other people... and if you believe in God, it's made by God as well
Tony Blair

But Miss Widdecombe, who became a Catholic in 1993, told the BBC Mr Blair's move raised some questions.

"If you look at Tony Blair's voting record in the House of Commons, he's gone against Church teaching on more than one occasion. On things, for example, like abortion," she said.

"My question would be, 'has he changed his mind on that?'"

But Mr Blair's biographer, Anthony Seldon, said the former prime minister's faith had always been a major influence on his politics.

Mr Seldon said: "He's a profoundly religious figure. Religion brought him into politics in the first place, not reading Labour Party history.

"Catholicism has been the religion of his wife - Cherie Blair has been incredibly important to him throughout his political life, encouraging him to go into politics and adopting many of his positions, so I think it was the obvious part of the Christian faith for him to come into."

Northern Ireland

Fujimori come in jail

Fujimori 'regrets' rights abuses
Alberto Fujimori in court on 21/12/2007
Fujimori has already been jailed for abuse of power
Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has expressed regret over human-rights abuses committed during his decade in power.

He is on trial in Lima, accused of ordering an army death squad to kill 25 people and kidnap two others in the early 1990's.

Fujimori said the killings had hurt him deeply, but he denied authorising them as part of his campaign against rebels.

He was earlier jailed for six years on separate abuse of power charges.

'Pained'

Fujimori said he did not apologise - but extended his "deep regrets" to both victims of the government forces and those of rebel groups.

Any abuses committed during his presidency pained his soul, he said.


THE FUJIMORI ERA
1990: Wins a surprise victory at polls
1992: Dissolves Peru's congress with military backing, assuming greater control
1995: Restores congress and overwhelmingly wins a second term
2000: Re-elected for a third term amid allegations of ballot rigging
2000: Flees to Japan after Montesinos scandal breaks
2001-4: Japan refuses repeated attempts to extradite Fujimori
2005: Fujimori arrested on arrival in Chile on Peru's request
2007: Extradited from Chile to Peru

Fujimori also denied giving orders for the killings.

Activists and relatives of some of the victims accused Fujimori of being insincere.

"He had more than 15 years to ask the relatives' forgiveness... but he didn't do it," said Gisela Ortiz, whose brother was among those killed.

Fujimori, who was in power from 1990 to 2000, is accused of murder and kidnapping.

The charges relate to the activities of a death squad operating during the early 1990s, when the government was fighting a Maoist guerrilla group known as the Shining Path.

If found guilty in this trial he could face up to a further 30 years in prison.

Journalist

Fujimori's demeanour was in sharp contrast to the fiery outburst he made on the trial's opening day on 10 December.

Then, after shouting for several minutes that he declared himself innocent and that he had "never ordered the death of anybody", he was asked to calm down by the judge.

He argued that Peru was in a terrible state when he was president and under his governance it was dragged out of economic collapse and liberated from the terror of the Shining Path Maoist rebellion.

Denying that he was responsible for human rights abuses, he said on the contrary he was trying to protect the population.

"As a result of my government the human rights of 25 million Peruvians are respected," he said.

Fujimori's trial relates to two massacres carried out by a death squad known as La Colina, in which a total of 25 people died.

It is alleged the death squad was under the direct command of the Peruvian president.

Fujimori is also charged with ordering the illegal detention and interrogation of a prominent journalist, Gustavo Gorriti, and businessman Samuel Dyer, also in 1992.

The trial is taking place at a police base on the outskirts of Lima, where Fujimori has been held since being extradited from Chile in September.

It is believed the proceedings could last for several months at least.

funy national issue at Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Kenyan security agents seized and erased a video showing the first lady slapping a government official, apparently angered because he introduced her by the name of a woman widely believed to be the president's second wife, officials said Friday.

President Mwai Kibaki and Lucy Kibaki during Independence Day celebrations on Wednesday.

Kenya's media regulator gave President Mwai Kibaki's office two weeks to explain the incident, which happened at the president's official residence during Wednesday's Independence Day celebration.

The deadline means no response is due until after the December 27 presidential election, in which polls show Mwai Kibaki is trailing and which is shaping up to be the closest in Kenyan history.

"We don't want to pre-empt anything but the complaint is a gross violation of press freedom," said Wachira Waruru, the chairman of the Media Council of Kenya.

The complaint was lodged by Kenya's largest media house, the Nation Media Group. The Nation said security agents erased photo and television images of Lucy Kibaki slapping the government official after he called her "Wambui" -- the name of a woman many Kenyans believe has been Kibaki's second wife for 30 years. Kibaki has denied he has a second wife.

In a newspaper interview later, the official said he had slipped, introducing Lucy Kibaki as "Lucy Wambui."

In May 2005, Lucy Kibaki stormed into the newsroom of the Daily Nation, Kenya's largest newspaper, with her security detail demanding journalists be arrested for what she considered biased coverage. A journalist sued her for assault, but a court dropped the charges because Attorney General Amos Wako said the police nor prosecutors had had time to investigate whether she had slapped the journalist.

uniqu Fashion show Japanese monks and nuns held a fashion show

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Japanese monks and nuns held a fashion show - with rap music and a catwalk - at a major Tokyo temple Saturday to promote Buddhism.
art.japanmonks.ap.jpg

Nearly 40 monks and nuns joined in the event.

In the "Tokyo Bouz (monk) Collection" held at Tsukiji Honganji, nearly 40 monks and nuns from eight major Buddhist sects joined in the event aimed at winning back believers.

Following a rap version of a Buddhist sutra, five monks from each school walked on the runway, then chanted prayers and wrapped up in a grand finale with confetti resembling lotus petals.

"We wanted to show the young people that Buddhism is cool, and temples are not a place just for funerals," said Koji Matsubara, a chief monk at Tsukiji.

More than 1,200 years after it first arrived from mainland Asia, Buddhism in Japan is in crisis, priests say.

Almost three-quarters of Japan's population of 120 million are registered as Buddhist, but for many, the only time they enter a temple is to attend a funeral. That has sent many of the country's 75,000 temples into financial trouble.

"Many of us priests share the sense of crisis, and a need to do something to reach out to people," said priest Kosuke Kikkawa, 37, one of the organisers of today's event. "We won't change Buddha's teachings, but perhaps we need a different presentation that can touch the feelings of the people today."

The Tsukiji Honganji offers theological seminars in English for foreign visitors, and has fitted its main hall with a pipe organ for Western-style weddings to attract young couples. Some other temples have also introduced cafes, art galleries and other innovations to reach out to young people who are interested in a different lifestyle.

Japan's ageing population has meant more funerals, but the declining population and birth rate means fewer young people to share the bill to keep temples afloat.

Buddhist monks traditionally wear simple black robes.

But to appeal to more fashion-conscious youth, the monks wore green and yellow clothes, some with gold embroidery. Others wore elaborate, multilayered robes.

"Their robes were gorgeous," said Sayaka Anma, one of the audience in her 20s, after the monks' show. "I was a bit surprised in the beginning, but it was very moving

Love letters read at Diana inquest

LONDON, England (AP) -- Princess Diana's letters to "Darling Dodi" were read Friday at the British inquest into the deaths of the couple, giving a glimpse of the passion of a new romance that ended in a car crash in Paris.

Dodi Fayed's previous girlfriend, who once thought she would be his bride, told the inquest about the abrupt ending of her affair with Fayed, when she was kicked out of her Los Angeles home and learned from a friend of his involvement with the princess.

In a letter thanking Fayed for a six-day holiday on his yacht in the summer of 1997, Diana wrote: "This comes with all the love in the world and as always a million heartfelt thanks for bringing such joy into this chick's life."

Don't Miss

• Web site: Diana Inquest

Michael Mansfield, a lawyer for Fayed's father, Mohamed Al Fayed, also produced a letter which the princess sent with a gift of cufflinks.

"Darling Dodi, these cufflinks were the very last gift from the man I loved most in the world, my father," she wrote.

"They are given to you as I know how much joy it would give him to know they were in such safe and special hands. Fondest love, Diana."

Diana and Dodi Fayed died from a car crash in the early hours of August 31, 1997. French and British police say driver Henri Paul was well over the legal alcohol limit.

Mohamed Al Fayed alleges the two were about to become engaged and were murdered in a plot directed by Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II's husband, in part to keep a Muslim out of the royal circle. Fayed's lawyers have also suggested that the security services may have wanted to stop Diana's campaign against land mines.

Mansfield introduced the letters on Friday as he questioned Diana's friend Rosa Monckton, who had said on Thursday that she believed Diana was still recovering from a previous relationship when her romance with Fayed bloomed.

"She was treating this relationship with Dodi as a serious matter wasn't she? It doesn't suggest it was little more than a fling after a couple of days," Mansfield said.

"She tended to speak and write in an extravagant way," Monckton replied, but agreed that the sentiment was genuine.

Fayed's previous girlfriend, Kelly Fisher, testified that Fayed had lavished gifts on her, including a ring that she regarded as a sign of their engagement.

By July 1997, Fisher said, the relationship was not going well, although she still hoped for a wedding in August. She said they had already bought a house in Malibu to share after their marriage, with money Fayed said he inherited from his mother.

But when she returned to California in August, Fisher said she was told by a man there to leave, as it was Mohamed Al Fayed's house.

A friend later telephoned, Fisher said, to alert her to the publication of a picture showing Fayed and Diana kissing.

"I said 'they are just friends' and she said. 'no, they are seeing each other, it's in all the papers'. I didn't believe it so I called Dodi," Fisher said.

She could not reach him, so she said she called his father.

"It was horrible because of the things he said to me and called me," she said. Previously, she said, Al Fayed "was always really, really nice to me."

Fisher said Dodi had wanted her to stop work as a model, and said he would deposit $400,000 to $500,000 in her bank account.

After some delay, he put in a check for $200,000 in June 1997, which bounced, she said

beatyfull country with quake rattles Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- A strong earthquake shook eastern Indonesia on Saturday, sending panicked residents running out of their homes.

The tremor struck with a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 at a depth of about 60 miles in Maluku province, about 1,700 miles east of the capital, Jakarta, according to the Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency. The U.S. Geological Survey put the quake at a magnitude 6.3.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries and no tsunami alert was issued, said Suharjono, an agency spokesman who like many Indonesians goes by a single name.

"The TV, chairs, everything in my house fell down, I saw utility poles shaking," Gulman, a resident of Saumlaki town on the island of Tanimbar, told El-shinta radio.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago with 17,500 islands, is prone to seismic upheavals because of its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

finaly usa accepted a compromise to set the stage for intense negotiations in the next two years aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions worldwide.

BALI, Indonesia (CNN) -- In a dramatic reversal Saturday, the United States rejected and then accepted a compromise to set the stage for intense negotiations in the next two years aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions worldwide.
art.balikids.jpg

Protesters gather outside the conference center in Bali as delegates discuss climate change.

The White House, however, said in a statement that it still has "serious concerns" about the agreement.

"The negotiations must proceed on the view that the problem of climate change cannot be adequately addressed through commitments for emissions cuts by developed countries alone. Major developing economies must likewise act," the White House said.

Under the global warming pact, negotiating rounds would end in 2009.

The head of the U.S. delegation, Paula Dobriansky, undersecretary of state for democracy and global affairs, announced the United States was rejecting the plan. Her comments were met by booing from other delegations.

The White House said the negotiations must "clearly differentiate" and link responsibility with the level of emissions, size of the economy and energy use among developing countries.

"In our view, such smaller and less developed countries are entitled to receive more differentiated treatment so as to more truly reflect their special needs and circumstances," the statement said.

Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Massachusetts, chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, called the compromise "a modest but important road map," and said the House committee would meet Wednesday to review the agreement.

The Saturday session, unpredictable and charged with emotion, was a roller coaster ride for delegates and the media.

After Dobriansky's announcement, a delegate from the developing country of Papua New Guinea challenged the United States to "either lead, follow or get out of the way."

Five minutes later, when it appeared the conference was on the brink of collapse, Dobriansky took the floor again to say the United States was willing to accept the arrangement. Applause erupted in the hall and a relative level of success for the conference appeared certain. Video Watch as emotional conference declared a success »

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the pact "a good beginning."

"This is just a beginning and not an ending," Ban said. "We'll have to engage in many complex, difficult and long negotiations."

The U.N. climate change conference was to end Friday, but delegates returned to the negotiating table early Saturday after talks went well into the night before. The new pact is meant as a guide for more climate talks, which will culminate in Copenhagen in 2009.

Humberto Rosa, a Portuguese environmental official, said a standoff had come to an end when specific guidelines were removed from wording about future emission cuts.
Don't Miss

* 2007 on pace to be fifth warmest year on record
* U.N. chief: Gas cuts too ambitious
* EcoSolutions: The U.N. answers your climate questions
* Special Report: Planet in Peril

The United States objected to the specific guidelines, saying including them was moving the process too quickly and would preempt any future negotiations.

The European Union wanted an agreement to require developed countries to cut their emissions by 25 to 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2020. The United States, Japan and Canada oppose those targets.

The latest draft of the agreement removes the specific figures and instead, in a footnote, refers to the scientific study that supports them. Markey lambasted the Bush administration for initially opposing the guidelines, saying it was operating on "basis of denial and obfuscation."

"Not since Emperor Nero tried footnoting firefighting through more fervent fiddling have we seen such a transparently vain effort to avoid the inevitable," he said.

While the EU and the United States appeared to have ended their impasse, India raised objections to other parts of the agreement, notably the contributions developed nations would make to help developing nations clean up their emissions problems.

Environmental groups said the new pact makes the agreement less forceful than it might have been, but agreed that it is probably the best that could be had given the Bush administration's staunch objections.

Ban, who attended the conference earlier this week, but left for a visit to East Timor, announced Saturday he was unexpectedly returning to Bali to help shepherd the talks to a conclusion.

At one point Saturday, Ban took the podium to urge compromise.

"Frankly, I'm disappointed at the level of progress," he said.

Without specifics, however, some believed the final agreement would amount to failure.

"Let me underline once again that the Bali road map must have a clear destination," said Stavros Dimas, the EU environment commissioner.

But Rajendra Pachauri, who heads the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said such a stance would ignore the other progress being made at the conference. He said simply having a strong statement paving the way for future action would suffice.

"I wouldn't term that a failure at all," Pachauri said. "I think what would be a failure is not to provide a strong road map by which the world can move on, and I think that road map has to be specified with or without numbers. If we can come up with numbers, that's certainly substantial progress, and I hope that happens."
advertisement

The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change passed the Kyoto Protocol 10 years ago, with the goal of limiting greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.

The United States was the only one among 175 parties -- including the European Union -- to reject it.

oh my god US military deaths in Iraq at 3,891

US military deaths in Iraq at 3,891
Fri Dec 14, 7:21 PM ET

As of Friday, Dec. 14, 2007, at least 3,891 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,168 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
ADVERTISEMENT

The AP count is two higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EST.

The British military has reported 173 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, one death each.


The latest deaths reported by the military:

soldier was killed Thursday by small arms fire in southern Baghdad.

soldier died of wounds sustained Thursday from an explosive south of Baghdad.



The latest identifications reported by the military:

No identifications reported.

Do you know mike tyson?

category news:entertainment and game

Mike Tyson (Mike Tyson's Punch Out!!)

Given Iron Mike's new-found status as a repeat criminal and tabloid train wreck, it's hard to believe he was once a feared opponent. But he was, and about the only place where he still is in Mike Tyson's Punch Out!!, one of the NES's most critically-acclaimed titles. Punch Out!! is available on the Wii's Virtual Console service, although Mikie is named Mr. Dream thanks to some contractual shenanigans or other. The name's been changed, but the right hook is still as potent. If you fancy a taste of his knuckles as much as he probably fancies a taste of your ear, what's stopping you?

she said loved Meredith - and I didn't kill her'

A suspect in the murder of Meredith Kercher spoke from her prison cell today, insisting she was not the killer.

Amanda Knox said that although she had "an exaggerated lifestyle" she was not involved in the death.

In her first interview since her arrest, she also said she fears she could have been killed if she had been in the house that night.

Miss Kercher was found semi-naked with her throat slashed on 2 November in the bedroom of the flat she shared with Knox in Perugia.

In a written response to questions from journalists, the American student said: "Meredith was such a sweet and sensible girl. It's not true that we were always arguing. I liked living with her.

"We were friends even if we had our own lives. She was a gentle girl who loved life. It hurts me to think about what happened to her. I often think that I could be dead if I had been at the house that night."

She added: "I am just a 20-year-old girl who came to Perugia to learn Italian after having studied Japanese. I have had boyfriends like others my age and I remember them all. Some were important to me, others not. In Italy I got drunk on freedom, sometimes exaggerating, getting involved in things that today I know are wrong.

"It's all down to my youthfulness and my love for life. I don't have a dark side or an evil side to my personality."

Knox is in custody with her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 24, on suspicion of murdering Kercher. She was due to be questioned today by Perugia's public prosecutor and a judge but her lawyer Luciano Ghirga was unable to attend the meeting and it has been postponed until Monday.

Knox said: "I will answer the judge's questions. I will try to explain the contradictions that have emerged. More than anything above all I hope to be at last believed."

Since her arrest on 6 November, Knox has changed her story several times. First she said she was not at the house, then she said she was and that she remembered another suspect, Diya Lumumba, killing Miss Kercher, then she was not at the house but at her boyfriend's.

She also suggested that Sollecito may have raped and murdered Meredith and then returned to his flat while she slept and placed the murder weapon in her hands to get her fingerprints on it.

Police remain convinced she was at the scene.

83-Yr Old Anti-Gay Mugabe Endorsed For Re-Election

83-Yr Old Anti-Gay Mugabe Endorsed For Re-Election
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: December 13, 2007 - 5:00 pm ET

(Harare) Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe received the endorsement of his ruling party Thursday for re-election next year as President despite the country's economic collapse.

Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980.

The 83-year old has cracked down on political opponents, imprisoning many, and has overseen a government that has brought the country to ruin - something he blames on foreign powers.

There are frequent power outages, water shortages, empty store shelves and record-setting inflation. With one of Africa's highest rates of HIV/AIDS counterfeit drugs with no medicinal value are sold openly and Mugabe promotes an abstinence only policy while limiting imports of condoms.

Gays are regularly harassed and arrested by police. Sodomy is illegal, punishable by long prison sentences.

Mugabe regularly calls gays "enemies of the state".

In a 2006 speech he said same-sex marriage is a threat to mankind and condemned churches that bless gay unions. He added that his government would jail and clergy who performed a blessing ceremony for gay couples in Zimbabwe.

British LGBT civil rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has on several occasions attempted citizen’s arrests of Mugabe.

In 1999, he and other activists from the gay activist group OutRage! ambushed Mugabe’s motorcade and attempted to seize him in a London street. In 2001, he swooped on the President as he was leaving the Hilton Hotel in Brussels. Tachell was beaten unconscious by Mugabe’s bodyguards.

In 2004 a British court refused to issue an arrest warrant for the Zimbabwean leader.

Tatchell presented a 52 page brief that outlined a regime of brutality, homophobia, and repression of civil rights. It detailed accounts of political opponents being rounded up and imprisoned and quoted extensively from reports made by more than a half dozen international human rights groups and contains interviews with victims of the regime. (story)

The judge ruled that Mugabe is immune from foreign arrest since he is a head of state.

Bhutto vs Musharraf

Bhutto, Sharif May Hurt Pro-Musharraf Group in Ballot

By Khaleeq Ahmed and Farhan Sharif

Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The parties of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif contesting Pakistan's parliamentary elections in January may make it harder for the group backing President Pervez Musharraf to win a majority if the ballot is fair, analysts said.

``If there is no rigging, the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam has the least chance of winning a majority,'' said Moonis Ahmer, professor of international relations at the University of Karachi. ``In a fair election, it will be a close fight between Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.''

Musharraf, who imposed emergency rule last month, has promised to restore the constitution on Dec. 15, meeting a key opposition demand. Sharif and Bhutto, former prime ministers, said their parties will contest the Jan. 8 ballot under protest so that the field is not left open to pro-Musharraf parties.

Musharraf banned public gatherings, detained lawyers and political workers and imposed media curbs on Nov. 3. As many as 6,000 people detained under emergency have been freed while lawyers such as Aitzaz Ahsan, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, remain under house arrest.

``To be credible, the elections must be held in an environment where the 1973 constitution has been reinstated, politicians are free to campaign, the media is free to report, and all activists, lawyers and party workers are freed from detention,'' the Heritage Foundation in Washington said in a Dec. 10 report.

Lawyers Boycott

Lawyers plan to boycott the election to pressure the government to reinstate deposed judges, Rasheed Razvi, vice chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council said in a phone interview today. As many as 25 lawyers, including Ahsan, have withdrawn their applications to contest the election, he said.

Sharif and Bhutto dropped a threat to boycott the ballot after they failed to agree on a strategy to oppose Musharraf.

``The participation of all major parties will give greater legitimacy to the election,'' said Talat Masood, a retired general in Islamabad ``It also puts greater pressure on the regime to ensure fair elections.''

The Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal, a coalition of six religious parties, was the biggest opposition group in the previous 342- seat Parliament that completed its term on Nov. 15. The alliance collapsed because Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, the biggest party in the alliance, plans to contest January's elections, while Jamaat-e- Islami, the second-largest, decided to boycott the ballot.

Illegal Ballot

Cricket captain turned lawmaker Imran Khan says his Tehrik- e-Insaaf party will boycott the elections because they are illegal under Musharraf. Khan won the sole seat for his party in the 2002 elections.

``Chances are that no party will get a clear majority,'' said Khalid Mahmud, a research analyst at the Institute of Regional Studies in Islamabad. ``Since all the major parties are contesting, the likelihood is we will see a hung Parliament.''

Bhutto's PPP had 56 seats in the previous Parliament, after 22 lawmakers defected to other parties following the 2002 election. The MMA was the largest opposition party with 57 seats.

Bhutto, 54, who returned to Pakistan in October, ending eight years in self-imposed exile, has said she has evidence the pro-Musharraf party plans to rig voting. She survived an assassination attempt on her homecoming procession when suicide bombers killed 136 people in Karachi.

Sharif, 57, who was barred by the Election Commission from contesting the ballot on the grounds that he was convicted of hijacking in 2000, returned to Pakistan last month.

`Energized Nation'

The return of Bhutto and Sharif has ``energized the nation,'' said the Heritage report. ``The two leaders have expressed concern about the credibility of the election process. The U.S. should work closely with the Election Commission to ensure the allegations of vote-rigging are dealt with in a transparent fashion.''

The Election Commission is taking ``concrete steps'' to ensure free voting, Secretary Kanwar Dilshad told Dawn News television in an interview yesterday. As many as 500,000 election officers are being trained and transparent ballot boxes have been imported, he said.

The U.S. plans to send as many as 65 observers to monitor voting, the Dawn newspaper also reported yesterday.

Retaliation Tool

``Since the major parties are already saying that elections will be rigged, they will use this as a tool of retaliation if the result is not in accordance to their expectations,'' said Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, assistant professor of international relations at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. ``We can expect to see a reaction the day after the election.''

European Union observers ``cast serious doubt'' over the independence of the Election Commission during the 2002 ballot. Musharraf lifted a three-year state of emergency before the vote.

In 2002, tribal leaders instructed followers how to vote and there were instances where women were prevented from voting without any action bring taken by authorities to counter the practice, the Commonwealth Observer Group said in its report.

The EU observers said the accuracy of the voters' register was in doubt before the elections.

To contact the reporters on this story: Khaleeq Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan on paknews@bloomberg.net ; Farhan Sharif in Karachi, Pakistan on fsharif2@bloomberg.net

Finaly After 45 years

After 45 years, woman gets haircut

BY BRENDAN BROSH and TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Thursday, December 13th 2007, 4:00 AM

Bates for News

Before haircut

Bates for News

After haircut

For 45 years, Darka Jakymchuk refused to cut her hair, growing the auburn tresses down to her ankles and pinning them up in an enormous bun each morning.

That all changed yesterday with one snip of the shears when the 59-year-old Queens woman walked into a salon and left with a giant braid in a gold box.

She wept and trembled as the stylist chopped off her crowning glory - but was grinning ear to ear minutes later at her bouncy, chin-length do.

"It feels so much lighter," the modern-day Rapunzel marveled. "I'm glad it's so curly."

Jakymchuk, who was born to Ukrainian parents in a German camp but raised in the United States, had her last serious haircut in 1962 when her father lopped several inches off a waist-skimming shank.

The longer it grew, the more attached to it she became, even though it took hours to dry and caused some embarrassments.

There was the time she set off a metal detector at the airport because of all the bobby pins, and the time the hair got caught in the wheel of her office chair and the maintenance man had to free her.

At least she never had to wear a hat; the hair kept her warm in winter. For years, friends and family urged Jakymchuk to cut it off, but she always rebuffed them.

"It was like trying to take Linus' blanket away from him," she explained.

Then about a year ago, she started to give it some thought, even though she couldn't find the words to explain why.

In February, she made an appointment at a salon in Westchester County, but a snowstorm kept her home in Kew Gardens. She was secretly relieved. Still, she toyed with the idea. After a few false starts, she finally called her friend Oksana Andersen, 58, on Tuesday and said she was ready.

The next day the two women walked into the Micciche Salon on Austin St. in Forest Hills, Queens. Andersen pulled out a tape measure and estimated the hair at 65 inches.

She twisted it into a long braid and clutched Jakymchuk's hand as Lorenzo Micciche held the scissors at the base of her neck.

"I promise I'm not going to sue you if it's too short," Jakymchuk said, tears welling in her eyes. "I can't change my mind now."

A moment later, the braid was off, and as Micciche clipped away, he discovered Jakymchuk had wonderfully curly hair.

"She looks 20 years younger," he declared when he was done.

Jakymchuk took the braid and carefully placed it in a gift box to take home. She hasn't decided what to do with it but seemed glad to have it off her head.

"I think I like it," she said of her new look. "But it feels strange."

miss Princess Diana's

Princess Diana's letters read at inquest

LONDON, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- Letters read at a London inquest into
Princess Diana'seath show a warm relationship with Prince Philip and a close one to Dodi Fayed.

Rosa Monckton, a friend of the princess, told the court Friday that the letters to Fayed, including phrases like "all the love in the world," did not necessarily mean that Diana was planning marriage, The Sun reported. She said that Diana tended to speak extravagantly with her friends.

But Monckton, questioned by a lawyer working for Dodi's father, Mohammed al-Fayed, said that they did show Diana was not just having a fling. One letter accompanied a gift, cufflinks, Diana had been given by her father shortly before his death.

Mohammed al-Fayed says that the car crash that killed his son and the princess in Paris in 1997 was engineered by British intelligence.

Letters to and from Prince Philip were read Thursday. Philip's secretary said that the prince released them to counter Mohammed al-Fayed's claim that he and Diana had a bad relationship, The Independent reported.

In the letters, Diana addressed her father-in-law as "Pa" and asked his advice during the summer of 1992 when her marriage to Prince Charles was foundering. She praises his "understanding and tact."

Again shoots gun at campus teritory Two Indian students shot dead in Louisiana university

14 Dec 2007

LOUISIANA: Two students of Indian-origin were shot dead inside an apartment at a university in the US state of Louisiana.

Authorities said on Friday that the men were likely slain during a home invasion.

The victims, Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam, both international Ph.D students at Louisiana State University, were found dead inside an apartment at the Edward Gay complex, police said.

The bodies were discovered after a call to campus police on Thursday night seeking medical attention.

No suspects had been identified. An emergency text message was sent to students registered for an emergency alert system, but not all students received it, the university said in a news release. The problem was being investigated.

Officials also sent out an e-mail, voice mail message and posted a message to the LSU website. Many campuses implemented such emergency alert measures following the mass shooting of 32 people at Virginia Tech earlier this year by a gunman who killed himself.
by google news