| Sajha.com Archives | |
| Username | Post |
| Koko | Posted
on 09-Jan-03 11:13 AM
MOBY - ATTACKERS THOUGHT I WAS GAY MOBY claims the reason he was attacked in BOSTON was because the men thought he was gay. The dance star was playing a show at the Boston Paradise Club in the US (December 11), as part of his ongoing tour in support of his new album '18'. On leaving the show he was attacked by three men, and beaten to the ground. Now, the star has said he thinks his alleged assailants picked on him because they thought he was gay - even though he isn't. "I'm kind of a simpleton, but could someone please explain homophobia to me?" he wrote onwww.moby.com. "Apparently when I was attacked in Boston it was a 'gay bashing' (which is kind of ironic seeing as I'm straight). What in the world do people find so offensive about homosexuality? What about homosexuality is so upsetting to so many people? Prejudicial hate and violence are always despicable and offensive, it's as simple as that." |
| Koko | Posted
on 09-Jan-03 11:15 AM
That's Just a Burglar Alarm -- Ignore It! Thu Jan 9, 7:45 AM ET Add Oddly Enough - Reuters to My Yahoo! LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Police in Los Angeles have settled on a new way of handling those pesky burglar alarms that take up so much of their time. They will now ignore them -- unless someone can prove that there is a genuine emergency. The change was approved by the Los Angeles police commissioners at the request of chief William Bratton, who said that 92 percent of the alarms are false -- wasting time and money in a city struggling with gang violence, a spike in violent crime and a shortage of officers. The new policy allows officers to largely ignore alarms from automated systems that are not verified as genuine by a homeowner or security company -- calls which formerly required them to respond within an hour. They would respond immediately to alarms triggered by a human being and within 15 minutes if the automated calls were verified as genuine. Bratton, New York's former top cop who was named to the L.A. post in October, said the new policy would free his officers to deal with serious crime and that other cities had taken a similar approach with success. But security companies have vowed to challenge the move, saying that burglars would be emboldened if they discovered that police would ignore alarms and that the costs of verifying automated calls with guards or video cameras were too great to be practical. |
| Koko | Posted
on 09-Jan-03 11:17 AM
U.N. probing reports of cannibalism of Pygmies in Congo by rebel troops Wed Jan 8, 2:19 PM ET By RODRIQUE NGOWI, Associated Press Writer NAIROBI, Kenya - U.N. investigators have found credible evidence to support reports that Congolese rebel troops have killed and eaten Pygmies in northeastern Congo, U.N. officials said Wednesday. During the past week, U.N. human rights investigators have been looking into reports of cannibalism in Congo's northeastern Ituri province, where forces of the rebel Congolese Liberation Movement, or MLC, and its allied Congolese Rally for Democracy-National, or RCD-N, are accused of killing and eating Pygmies living in its dense tropical forests, said Manodje Mounoubai, spokesman for the U.N. mission in Congo. "The U.N. is taking these accusations very seriously and has sent a team of six officials to investigate the accusations and other human rights abuses in the region," Mounoubai said in a telephone interview from the Congolese capital, Kinshasa. He said he preferred to wait until the investigators had left the area before providing further information. However, other U.N. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said investigators have established that the charges are credible. MLC and RCD-N troops often hire Pygmies to hunt food for them in the forests as they concentrate on fighting to oust the rival rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation, or RCD-ML, from mineral-rich areas of Ituri province, a U.N. official familiar with the investigation said on condition of anonymity. But if the expert hunters return empty-handed, rebel troops kill and eat them, the official said. Sudi Alimasi, an official with the rebel RCD-ML, said the group began receiving reports of cannibalism more than a week ago from people displaced by fighting. "We hear reports of MLC and RCD-N commanders feeding on sexual organs of Pygmies, apparently believing this would give them strength," Alimasi said by telephone from Kinshasa. "We also have reports of Pygmies being forced to feed on cooked remains of their colleagues." The Program for Aid to Pygmies in Beni, a Congolese advocacy group, called on the international community not to abandon the Pygmies — "a minority race already threatened with extinction." It is unacceptable that the international community focuses on protecting endangered animals like the okapi, the mountain gorilla and the rhinoceros and pays no attention to the fate of human beings like ... the Pygmies, who are nevertheless every bit as much in danger of extinction," the group said in a statement. Nearly all the foreign troops involved in the war in Congo that broke out in August 1998 have withdrawn, but fighting has intensified among the country's main rebel factions, splinter groups and tribal fighters after the pullout in the east. |
| Koko | Posted
on 09-Jan-03 11:19 AM
HOUSE-CRASH 'DWI': I WAS CARJACKED By KIERAN CROWLEY January 9, 2003 -- EXCLUSIVE The DWI Long Island man who launched his sports car into the air and crashed into the second-floor bedroom of a sleeping couple blamed a non-existent carjacker - whom he described with a racial epithet - officials said yesterday. Authorities said Louis Tirella, 56, of Ronkonkoma, a former state Transportation Department employee, was caught red-handed on Dec. 9 with an empty bottle of Jack Daniel's whiskey and a .21 blood-alcohol level after his car hit the Medford home. "I was stopped at 7-Eleven, getting coffee," Tirella allegedly told cops after the crash. "[I] got into my car, a n - - - - - opened my door, put a gun to my head, pushed me into the passenger seat and drove off. Next thing I know, I was sitting next to the guy's house." Police say no such carjacker exists. The cop who busted Tirella in his red 1987 Corvette reported that when he found him in the wreckage, his "breath smelled strongly" of alcohol. Tirella was treated at a local hospital for minor injuries and, since neither Kathleen and Robert Liardi, the stunned couple who got the most bizarre wakeup call of their lives, had been hurt, the driver was issued a "field appearance ticket" for arraignment Jan. 1. Timothy Mazzei, Tirella's lawyer, said, "Whether that statement was made or not really has nothing to do with the case itself." He said his client, who's estranged from his wife and children, was "going through a very difficult emotional time." |
| Koko | Posted
on 09-Jan-03 11:21 AM
Napoleon goes on trial for theft Last Updated: 09 Jan 2003 10:31 GMT By Estelle Shirbon ROME (Reuters) - Some 200 years after conquering Venice, Napoleon Bonaparte will face trial in the lagoon city accused of stealing some of its artistic treasures and worse. A group of Venetians is mounting a mock trial as part of a campaign to stop a statue of the French emperor going on display in a museum on St Mark's Square, the heart of Venice. "Yes, Napoleon played a part in the city's history. So did (fascist dictator Benito) Mussolini. Should we have a statue of him in a museum too?" lawyer Mario d'Elia, who is organising the trial, told Reuters in a telephone interview. The 2.5-metre (8-feet) white marble statue by Domenico Banti represents Napoleon bare-chested and muscular, extending his right hand imperiously and holding a globe in his left hand. Commissioned by Venetian merchants to thank Napoleon for making the city a tax-free port, it stood on St Mark's Square from 1811 to 1814, when Venice fell to the Austrians and it was removed to the nearby island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Historians then lost track of the statue until it resurfaced at Sotheby's auction house in New York last year, where it was jointly bought by a French association that raises funds for Venice and by the cultural foundation of a Venetian bank. Their intention, approved by Venice's municipality, was to display the work at the Correr Museum, which is dedicated to the city's history and housed in the "Napoleonic Wing", a structure built on St Mark's Square on Napoleon's orders. "The return of this statue to Venice is justified by the fact that it is a Venetian work and that Napoleon is part of Venetian history," said French historian Jerome Zieseniss, who heads the association that jointly bought it. D'Elia and his partners will put Napoleon on trial in March, hoping to galvanise Venetians against the statue. Some Venetians see Napoleon as a tyrant who robbed the city of its independence before looting it and destroying some of its architectural gems. "It would be like putting a statue to the glory of Nelson in the Louvre Museum in Paris," D'Elia said. English Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated the French navy in several major battles during Napoleon's time. Zieseniss, however, said D'Elia's views on Napoleon were shared by only a small minority of Venetians. Napoleon did end the Republic of Venice, Zieseniss said, but it was an archaic, authoritarian city-state where only aristocrats could have a say. In its place, he introduced modern ideas such as the equality of citizens before state and law. Yes, his troops looted artworks. But many went to museums, not private collections, in line with the ideas of the French Revolution, and most were returned later anyway, he said. Yes, Napoleon had churches and other historic buildings destroyed. But in their place he built other structures that at the time were seen as improvements. None of that has made an impression on D'Elia, who also has artistic objections to the statue, branding it a monstrosity. Zieseniss defended it as "an important Venetian work" but conceded it gave too flattering a image of the ageing Napoleon. "It is a Napoleon who has done quite a bit of body-building and who is walking determinedly towards the beach with his towel," he said, referring to a toga the marble Napoleon wears draped around his loins and over his left arm. |
| Koko | Posted
on 09-Jan-03 11:23 AM
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=583&ncid=583&e=9&u=/nm/20030109/od_nm/japan_economy_crime_dc Japan's Shadow Economy Booms on Cheap Sex and Drugs Thu Jan 9, 7:36 AM ET |
| Koko | Posted
on 09-Jan-03 11:25 AM
Thursday, 9 January, 2003, 12:23 GMT Dancing with Neptune It is the first such body to be discovered near Neptune By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor Astronomers have discovered an object orbiting the Sun on a similar path to the planet Neptune. The rare body is a type of asteroid known as a Trojan. Clusters of Trojans are known to share the same orbit as Jupiter. Projections of its trajectory into the future reveal that it can co-orbit with Neptune for at least billions of years The object, known as 2001 QR322, is the first to be found in association with Neptune. "Neptunian Trojans were long suspected to exist and it is gratifying to finally know that they do," said US team member Eugene Chiang of the University of California at Berkeley. The first Trojan associated with Jupiter was discovered in 1906 and about 1,600 such objects are now known. However, until the discovery of 2001 QR322, Trojan-like objects associated with other giant planets had not been confirmed. It was found during a survey of the outer Solar System using telescopes in the US and Chile funded by the US space agency (Nasa). It is estimated to be about 230 km (140 miles) in diameter and, like Neptune, requires about 166 years to orbit the Sun. Researchers originally found it on 21 August 2001 in deep digital images taken with the 4-metre Blanco Telescope at Cerro Tololo. However, it took over a year of observations along with orbital calculations to prove that 2001 QR322 is a Neptune Trojan. Astronomer Eugene Chiang said: "The orbit of 2001 QR322 is remarkably stable; projections of its trajectory into the future reveal that it can co-orbit with Neptune for at least billions of years. "It is likely that 2001 QR322 is a dynamically pristine object whose orbital eccentricity and inclination have been largely unaltered by processes that afflicted the majority of bodies in the outer Solar System." |
| Koko | Posted
on 09-Jan-03 11:29 AM
Cruise and Cruz Wedding Postponed Amid Fears of Infidelity? Spanish actress Penelope Cruz has sensationally postponed her wedding to Minority Report star Tom Cruise because she fears he may be unfaithful. The ceremony, due to take place on Valentine's Day, has been halted while the Spanish star prepares to confront Cruise over his friendship with another Latino beauty Sofia Vergara, according to British newspaper The Daily Record. The model has already been linked to another star this year after she was spotted kissing What's Your Flava? singer Craig David at a New Year's bash. But Cruz is more concerned about the rumours of her fiance's relationship with Vergara. Cruz's sister Monica says, "Pene is steaming." 'Tomb Raider 2': Lara Gets Sexier Hollywood beauty Angelina Jolie has made a mouthwatering promise to male fans of her character Lara Croft - in the next Tomb Raider film she will be much sexier. Jolie, who is currently divorcing second husband Billy Bob Thornton, has changed the way she prepared for reprising the role of the intrepid archeologist in The Cradle Of Life - and the results have been pleasing on the eye. She says, "I think we see more sides to her. This feels more like a real film than the last one - it's a little less silly and Lara's more of a woman. The funny thing is, I realized I was almost doing too much training the last time. And I was on too many protein powder things - it made me curvier. This time I just ate normal food and lots of it: stuff like beans and eggs on toast. Then I trained as much as possible. This time Lara's leaner and stronger, sexier and sharper." Britney and Justin Get Back Together Pop superstars Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake have rekindled their failed romance - celebrating the event with a steamy night of passion. 'N Sync hunk Timberlake, 22, who many times in the past reportedly rejected his ex-girlfriend's wishes to get back together, decided to reach out to the singer while they were both in New York last month. The two were spotted getting into a chauffeur-driven black Suv at around midnight in Manhattan's trendy NoHo district. They later dashed into a building where Spears recently bought and renovated a plush condominium apartment. A source says, "They walked into Britney's building hand in hand. And once the were inside the lobby, they started making out and sucked face all the way to the elevators. They had their arms wrapped around each other. You'd never know that they'd ever broken up. Justin left alone three hours later, looking rumpled and happy. You do the math. Brit was thrilled about what happened. Her night with Justin was hot. But she's keeping the details very close to her heart." But Timberlake and Spears have yet to decide on the fate of their rekindled love - and may even continue dating others. The source tells American tabloid the Star, "Justin is not yet convinced that they're back together for good. He wants to take things very, very slow this time. As much as they love each other, they may see other people while they're dating. They're just gonna have fun getting to know each other all over again." |
| Koko | Posted
on 09-Jan-03 11:31 AM
Jan. 9, 2003, 6:27AM Woman bursts into apartment, tries to choke toddler She fends off 2-year-old boy's family, fights ambulance crew By PEGGY O'HARE Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle A woman who had smashed into a southeast Houston apartment and tried to choke a small boy -- fending off his frantic family with a shard of glass -- was being examined in a hospital Wednesday after police finally subdued her, officers said. Even after being restrained and loaded into an ambulance, the 29-year-old woman broke free and fought with the ambulance crew on the way to Ben Taub Hospital, police said. The 2-year-old child who was attacked, David Nguyen, was treated and released from Ben Taub, along with his grandfather, Tai Nguyen, 54, who was bitten on the arm while trying to rescue the boy, officers said. Hospital officials would not release any information about the woman's condition. Police said she appeared to have been under the influence of some type of drugs, but no charges had been filed late Wednesday. The incident occurred shortly before 9 a.m. at an apartment in the 3700 block of Southlawn, where the grandfather was with his 20-year-old daughter and her 2-year-old son, police said. The man said he heard his front door crash open and his front window shatter before the woman walked in and grabbed the boy. She tried to choke the child, police were told, and held his relatives at bay with a large piece of glass when they tried to rescue him. The grandfather tried to grab the glass, but the woman bit his right forearm, police spokesman Alvin Wright said. Several people outside the apartment witnessed the incident, but refused to get involved, Wright said. Bystanders flagged down a police officer, who investigated and was met by a badly frightened, bloody woman who was holding the toddler, Wright said. The child had small cuts on his head, possibly from pieces of glass, Wright said. While the officer talked with the family, another woman covered in blood, holding a large piece of glass, came around the corner. When the officer stepped out of his car, the woman started screaming at him and ran toward him with the glass, Wright said. The officer, backing up, called for other officers to help and ordered the woman to drop the glass. She then got on the ground and took off her clothes, Wright said. Other officers arrived and subdued the woman until an ambulance arrived. She was bleeding from her left wrist, police said. As police followed the woman's ambulance to the hospital, the ambulance's rear doors swung open, and officers saw the woman fighting with the crew inside the vehicle, Wright said. Officers stepped in to assist the ambulance crew, but the woman continued fighting at Ben Taub Hospital, police reports said. |
| Koko | Posted
on 09-Jan-03 11:33 AM
Clerk Just Says 'No' to Robber HENDERSON, NE-January 8, 2003 — Just say no. That's what a convenience store clerk did when a masked man tried to pull a stick-up. Click Here for More WPVI.com Bizarre News Authorities in Henderson, Nebraska, say the clerk at the local Fuel Mart near I-80 refused to cooperate with a would-be robber who demanded money. The guy even had a concealed weapon. The astonished bandit just turned around and walked back out the door. The weapon turned out to be a screw driver. Investigators say the crook -- quote -- "wasn't too intelligent" and was high on speed. The man now faces charges of attempted robbery. |
| Koko | Posted
on 09-Jan-03 11:36 AM
By JOHN GEROME Associated Press Writer COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP)--A family has filed multiple complaints after police mistakenly pulled them over as robbery suspects, then shot and killed their dog as it bounded from the car. A tape released by authorities Wednesday documents the incident, which began when a Tennessee state trooper and three Cookeville police cars pulled over James Smoak and his family as they drove home Jan. 1 from a vacation. The trooper suspected the Smoaks' dark green station wagon was connected to a robbery, Tennessee Highway Patrol officials said. Troopers ordered the family out of the car, and the video shows James and Pamela Smoak and their 17-year-old son, Brandon, obeying. They came out with their hands up, got down and were handcuffed. About a minute after the traffic stop, one of the dogs--a bulldog-boxer mix named Patton--jumped from the car and raced toward Cookeville police officer Eric Hall, who was holding a shotgun. The tape shows that Hall stepped back and fired just before Patton reached him. The dog appeared to be wagging its tail as it ran toward the officer, the tape shows. Patton died from the shotgun blast. And as it turns out, the Smoaks had not committed a crime at all. Police had suspected them based on a report of money flying from their car as it sped down Interstate 40. They later discovered Smoak had simply left his wallet on the car while pumping gas. Smoak, of Saluda, N.C., declined comment Wednesday. He said he is pursuing legal action and has been advised not to discuss the case. The Smoaks have filed complaints with all agencies involved in the stop. Hall, the officer who shot the dog, has contended he had no choice when the animal charged him. He has been reassigned to administrative duties pending an independent review. But the Cookeville Police Department's internal investigation found that Hall did not use excessive force. |
| Koko | Posted
on 09-Jan-03 12:07 PM
Act the way you'd like to be and soon you'll be the way you act. --George W. Crane |
| Koko | Posted
on 09-Jan-03 12:08 PM
One advantage of marriage It seems to me Is that when you fall out of love with him Or he falls out of love with you It keeps you together until maybe you fall in again. --Judith Viorst Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius. --Mozart Love teaches even asses to dance. --French Proverb Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand. --Margery Williams The Velveteen Rabbit Love your enemies. It really pisses them off! --Unknown To infinite, ever present Love, all is Love, and there is no error, no sin sickness, nor death. --Mary Baker Eddy Love is a perky elf dancing a merry little jig and then suddenly he turns on you with a miniature machine gun. --Matt Groening For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of our tasks; the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation. --Rainer Maria Rilke |
| Koko | Posted
on 09-Jan-03 12:12 PM
Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship--never --Charles Caleb Colton Falling in love consists merely in uncorking the imagination and bottling the common sense. --Helen Rowland If you judge people, you have no time to love them. --Mother Teresa He who wants to do good knocks at the gate: he who loves finds the door open. --Rabrindranath Tagore Sometimes I find myself making love to my own misfortune. --Norma O. Abrego Put love first. Entertain thoughts that give life And when a thought or resentment, or hurt, or fear comes your way, have another thought that is more powerful -- a thought that is love. --Mary Manin Morrissey We must love one another or die --W.H. Auden poem - September 1, 1939 To love means not to impose your own powers on your fellow man but offer him your help. And if he refuses it, to be proud that he can do it on his own strength. --Elizabeth Kubler-Ross Age does not protect you from love. But love, to some extent, protects you from age. --Jeanne Moreau, French Actress We are never so helplessly unhappy as when we lose love. --Sigmund Freud The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother. --Theodore M. Hesburgh But there are moments which he calls his own, Then, never less alone than when alone, Those whom he loved so long and sees no more, Loved and still loves - not dead - but gone before, He gathers round him. --Samuel Rogers Not all of us have to possess earthshaking talent Just common sense and love will do. --Myrtle Auvil Love is like a butterfly, hold it too tight, it'll crush, hold it too loose, it'll fly --Unknown If you can't be with the one you love love the one you're with --Stephen Stills If you love something, set it free; if it comes backs it's yours, if it doesn't, it never was --Richard Bach |
| Koko | Posted
on 09-Jan-03 12:43 PM
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/business/DailyNews/suingweightwatchers_030109.html • Woman Wants to Sue Weight Watchers for Pounds Put Back On |