U.S. moves WikiLeaks soldier Manning to Kansas jail
April 23, 2011 by Trend PK
Filed under Breaking News
WASHINGTON: The Obama administration, under criticism for its treatment of the U.S. soldier accused of leaking secret documents that appeared on the WikiLeaks website, is transferring the detainee to a Kansas jail.
Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s general counsel, said on Tuesday that Bradley Manning was being moved from a Marine base in Quantico, Virginia, to a detention facility at the Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas military base.
“Given the length of time he’s been in pretrial confinement at Quantico … and given what the likely period of pretrial confinement in the future … we reached the judgment this would be the right facility for him,” Johnson told reporters in a hastily announced briefing at the Pentagon.
Officials declined to say when the transfer would take place but suggested it would be soon.
Manning is being held during the investigation of charges involving reams of sensitive diplomatic and military documents he is accused of leaking while posted as an intelligence analyst in Iraq.
The documents’ publication on the WikiLeaks website was a blow to U.S. diplomacy as allies and adversaries saw themselves mocked or second-guessed in secret diplomatic cables.
U.S. military officials did not say when Manning’s trial might begin. “We are probably months off from a trial,” Johnson said.
Manning’s lawyers have complained that the 23-year-old soldier was mistreated at the Virginia Marine brig.
Kept alone in his cell 23 hours per day, the Pentagon said he had been forced to sleep naked and woken repeatedly during the night to ensure he is safe. The Pentagon said this had happened only a few times.
Last month, President Barack Obama said he had been assured by the Pentagon that Manning’s treatment was appropriate.
Manning will be placed in a single cell in Ft. Leavenworth, officials said, but said he would not receive abusive treatment.
lakeview gusher
June 8, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
USA has been several weeks trying to deal with the problem of BP’s Oil spill, and today it seems people have remembered the largest US oil spill, Lakeview Gusher. Comparisons are starting to emerge on the Web.
Lakeview Gusher oil spill took place in 1910, but this wasn’t like today’s spill, it took place on land. Back then an oil derrick exploded after withstanding heavy pressure, over 9 million barrels of oil were thrown away in a radius of 30 miles, and 18 months were necessary to recover from this oil spill disaster.
The BP oil spill is of course worse because it happened in the Sea and our capacity to control things down there is pretty limited. If Lakeview Gusher took 18 months, how long will this oil spill recovery take? The big difference – aside from the fact Lakeview was on land and Horizon is a mile deep in the ocean – is the damage.
Lakeview quickly spread over sagebrush dotted land.
It undoubtedly wreaked havoc with critters in its path – rabbits, lizards, snakes and the like.
It did threaten to push into the Buena Vista Lake a few miles to the east, but the valiant efforts of a horde of oil workers and volunteers building dikes in the gusher’s path.
rush limbaugh wedding photos
June 8, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
On Saturday Rush Limbaugh and Kathryn Rogers married in front of 400 guests. Both of them have married three times before. A report says that Rush Limbaugh, 59, spend $1 million for the celebration. He also requested for extra security arrangements in the Ponce de Leon ballroom of Florida’s fabled Breakers hotel in Palm Beach.
Many celebrities attended their marriage and wished them. Former Bush adviser Karl Rove; former Kansas City Royals slugger and actor-politician Fred Thompson, Sean Hannity, Rudolph Giuliani, Mary Matalin, George Brett and golfer Tom Watson also attended the ceremony.
The couple met each other six years ago at a celebrity golf tournament and have supposedly been a couple ever since. Rush Limbaugh was in the midst of divorcing his third wife that time.
It seems like quite the odd choice for a conservative radio host considering that Elton John is gay and in a civil partnership with David Furnish. Limbaugh is actively speaking out against gay marriage. Anyway, congratulations to the newly weds!
Singing at the wedding was reportedly Elton John who was paid $1 million dollars for this special performance! Who would have thought that of all singers in the World he would pick an openly-gay one, giving all Limbaugh’s comments against homosexuality.
Among the famous attendees on the wedding were: Karl Rove, Sean Hannity, Rudolph Giuliani, James Carville, and Mary Matalin.
The Wedding took place at Palm Florida on Saturday’s evening.
detroit tigers
June 3, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
Mulligans aren’t normally awarded in sports. Bill Buckner cannot get that Mookie grounder back, Scott Norwood cannot get wide right back, and Greg Norman cannot get a hundred Sunday putts back.
But Bud, this one’s for you. Remember that shrug at the 2002 All-Star Game in your very own Milwaukee backyard, where you threw those bony hands in the air, slapped on your best Willy Loman expression, and told the finest baseball players in the world their spirited 11-inning contest would end in a 7-7 tie?
You’re getting a do-over, Bud, and here’s a little unsolicited advice: Don’t shrug this second time around.
Invoke your best-interests-of-the-game powers to make Armando Galarraga and Jim Joyce and Jason Donald and the rest of baseball whole.
The imperfect man pitched the perfect game, Bud, just like the old newspaper story said. The offending umpire, Jim Joyce, is in full agreement even as he picks through the rubble and ash of a distinguished baseball life.
[+] EnlargeBud Selig
Andy Lyons/Getty Images Bud Selig, we still remember the 2002 All-Star Game. Make us forget it.
“It was the biggest call of my career,” Joyce conceded as he reportedly paced in his dressing room, “and I kicked the [stuff] out of it. I just cost that kid a perfect game.”
So this isn’t only about granting Detroit’s Galarraga his rightful corner of history, or about acknowledging that Galarraga caught Miguel Cabrera’s throw and put his foot on the first-base bag before Cleveland’s Donald did the same.
This is about freeing Joyce from the grim prison cell that will hold him for the rest of his professional days.
Don Denkinger can fill you in. He once told me on the phone about his infamous blown call that turned the 1985 World Series, when he ruled Kansas City’s Jorge Orta safe at first before replays showed that the Cardinals’ Todd Worrell had beaten him to the bag.
“It’s a crushing feeling,” said Denkinger, who received death threats and a never-ending stream of hate mail from gamblers and fans. “You can’t imagine what a person feels when you’re written about, talked about, and then they show 13 different angles of the call in slow motion.”
perkins
May 27, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
The first sentence out of Lew Perkins’ mouth included the words I accept responsibility and he probably wishes he could’ve just stopped there. It would’ve saved him aggravation, humiliation, and, most strikingly, attacks of ammunition.
This may have been his worst day as Kansas athletic director.
Without question, it is the day his image turns in the eyes of many.
There are so many things to take out of a tenuous and fascinating press conference on Kansas’ campus Wednesday that announced the findings of an internal investigation into a scandal involving up to $3 million in tickets and six former employees.
The takeaway is that the university is shamed, again, another in a long line of foul-ups during Perkins’ seven years as athletic director. There was the Moon Bar stabbing and the point plankn fights and the Mark Mangino mess, and now we have white-collar fraud gone rampant.
Kansas fans move to the back of the line in position for the high ground, by now buried with far more — and recent — embarrassment than secret buyouts at Kansas State or jailhouse tapes at Missouri.
The NBA has rescinded Perkins’ second technical, which means the very call that banished from the second half of the game last night was a mistake, for which the Celtics have already been punished mightily.
It just doesn’t have to be that way. Video review, insight from the players and the referees about the things that might not have been obvious on video … these things can be done in a during the game, even in a timeout. Whoever weighed in on this decision at the league offices in New York today, where were they last night? If they couldn’t have been in Orlando, at the very least they could have been in front of an HD screen with a feed of multiple video angles, and a phone connected to the sideline to run questions by referees
Perkins has always inspired an effective blend of fear and respect, which he’s been able to use as part of his power. What matters now is whether and how much that’s impacted by an embarrassing, seven-figure scandal that he should’ve been able to prevent.
miss usa
May 10, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
She was the Miss USA contestant last year who was attacked first for her views on gay marriage and then again weeks later for a series of sexy photos that were deemed so racy, they almost cost the reigning Miss California her crown.
Well, times sure have changed at Miss USA under the tutelage of its owner, real estate tycoon and media personality Donald Trump.
Last week, the 51 Miss USA hopefuls convened in Las Vegas and shot their official contestant photos with photographer Fadil Berisha.
The look?
Lacy lingerie, fishnets, smudged black eyeliner, knee-high boots, ample cleavage and plenty of bare skin, all while positioned in seductive poses on a large bed.
SNEAK PEEK: The 51 New Pageants Photos: Are They Too Much?
Miss Virginia and Miss Kansas are even braless, donning only open shirts and panties.
For some Miss USA hopefuls, participating in such a sexy shoot caused quite a bit of apprehension. Paula Miles, the state director for South Carolina, North Carolina and Louisiana, told Pop Tarts she received a distressing call from two of her pageant contestants just prior to having had their pictures taken.
“They happened to have gone up in the room and they saw what was taking place, and they called concerned, and my best advice to them was just to not compromise yourself,” Miles told Pop Tarts. “They made sure their breasts were covered and that they weren’t in provocative attire. They knew that their family was going to see these. They were concerned, knowing that they had to participate in order to be competitive.”
Miles said the theme of the Miss USA shoot went against how she ran her state pageants.
“We’re from the South, we have a business, and we have to be broad-based and have an open mind, but we run our business as a wholesome, family, basic experience,” she explained. “Once it gets to the national level, it takes on a different feel.”
VOTE: Do the New Miss USA Photos Go Too Far?
Miles did add that the final photographs were better than she expected, and for the most part artistic and beautiful. California’s state director, Keith Lewis, who was involved in a lawsuit with Prejean after she was stripped of her Miss California crown, had no problem with them at all.
It seems some folks are getting their panties in a twist over a bunch of photos showing this year’s Miss USA contestants wearing not much more than…their bra and panties.
Take Rima Fakih, aka Miss Michigan. She, like all the ladies who will be strutting their stuff during the May 16 pageant in Las Vegas, posed provocatively for her promo pics.
Pak successfully fires two missiles: ISPR
RAWALPINDI: Pakistan successfully test fired two missiles Ghaznavi and Shaheen I on Saturday.
Pakistan successfully test-fires two missiles
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has successfully test-fired two ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
According to ISPR, Shaheen-1 missile has range of about 400 miles (650kilometers), while the second Ghaznavi missile could hit target at a distance of 180 miles (290 kilometers).
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, General Tariq Pervaiz and Admital Nauman Bashir witnessed Saturday’s launch.
US says wants more from Pakistan
KANSAS CITY: The United States wants and expects more from Pakistan in the fight against insurgents and is ready to offer additional assistance if Islamabad asks, two senior Obama administration officials said on Friday.
“We”ve gotten more cooperation and it”s been a real sea change in the commitment we”ve seen from the Pakistan government. (But) we want more. We expect more,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told CBS” “60 Minutes” in an interview, excerpts of which were released on Friday.
She added that Washington had also warned of “severe consequences” if a successful attack in America were traced back to Pakistan. She did not elaborate.
Investigations into the Pakistani-American suspect in last Saturday”s failed bombing attempt in New York”s Times Square have uncovered possible links to the Pakistani Taliban and a Kashmiri Islamist group.
That has prompted speculation the United States, Pakistan”s top provider of aid, could press Islamabad to open risky new fronts against Islamic militants.
But Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking to reporters on a trip to Kansas, appeared to play down the chances of an expanded Pakistani crackdown on insurgents.
He pointed to the strain on security forces already battling militants in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
“With their military operations in the west, they”ve started to be pretty thinly stretched themselves, as well as taking a substantial number of casualties,” Gates said.
The United States was ready to step up assistance to Pakistan, he said.
“We”re willing to do as much … as they are willing to accept,” Gates said. “We are prepared to do training, and exercise with them. How big that operation becomes is really up to them.”
Citing anti-American sentiment in Pakistan, Gates added, “They (Pakistani leaders) are also very interested in keeping our footprints as small as possible, at least for now.”
President Barack Obama”s administration has repeatedly praised Pakistani military operations over the past year, including the recent capture in Pakistan of the Afghan Taliban”s No. 2, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
Clinton said it marked an improvement from the “double game going on in the previous years, where we got a lot of lip service but very little produced.”
“We have seen the killing or capturing of a great number of the leadership of significant terrorist groups and we”re going (to) continue that,” she said.
The United States, which sees Pakistan”s effort against militants as crucial to its fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan, has about 200 military personnel in Pakistan, including Special Operations forces on a training mission.
The CIA is also waging a covert war using pilotless drone aircraft to target insurgents in Pakistan.
“I think cooperation has continued to (improve), the relationship is continuing to improve, and I think we just keep moving in that direction,” Gates said.
A White House official said the United States had been working with Pakistan and would keep assisting a Pakistani offensive to root out the Taliban.
“We”ve been working on the other side of the border, of course, with Pakistan in developing a strong partnership in which they have gone on the offensive — the largest offensive they”ve undertaken in some years — in order to root out extremists within their borders, including the Taliban,” deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters.
new york jets
April 24, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
New York Jets trade RB Leon Washington to Seattle for fifth-round pick
The New York Jets added another flashy and versatile option for Mark Sanchez and their suddenly high-powered offense, and then dealt the popular Leon Washington.
The Jets selected Southern California running back Joe McKnight, Sanchez’s former college teammate, after moving up and acquiring Carolina’s fourth-round pick Saturday. New York traded its fourth-rounder (No. 124) and sixth-rounder (No. 198) to the Panthers to move up to No. 112.
Shortly after drafting McKnight, the Jets traded Washington to Seattle, along with a seventh-rounder, for the Seahawks’ fifth-rounder. New York selected Kentucky fullback John Conner with the pick.
McKnight is regarded as an excellent multipurpose player who can be a change-of-pace back and punt returner. Rex Ryan also has Shonn Greene, LaDainian Tomlinson and Chauncey Washington, another former Trojan, on the roster.
“Whatever Coach Ryan wants me to play, I’ll play whatever,” McKnight said by phone from his home in River Ridge, La. “Whatever role he has for me in the package or whatever he wants me to do on the field, I’m going to do whatever.”
Add in recently acquired wide receiver Santonio Holmes, Braylon Edwards, Jerricho Cotchery and Brad Smith, and Sanchez should have plenty of targets in his second season.
New York drafted Boise State cornerback Kyle Wilson in the first round, 29th overall, and Massachusetts offensive lineman Vladimir Ducasse in the second round.
The 5-foot-11, 198-pound McKnight, who made himself eligible for the draft after his junior season, is an elusive player who shows some good power for his size, along with good vision and patience. He was often compared to former USC star Reggie Bush because of his versatility.
“I’ve got some toughness to my game and I think I showed people this past year that I can work between the tackles somewhat,” McKnight said. “I did a decent job with that.”
Washington signed his tender contract offer last week and is recovering from a broken right leg, but became expendable when the Jets drafted McKnight. The former Pro Bowl kick returner suffered a compound fracture of the tibia and fibula at Oakland on Oct. 25, and missed the rest of the season.
The Jets have done well in the fourth round lately. Washington (2006), Cotchery (2004), Dwight Lowery (2008) and Kerry Rhodes (2005) are all recent fourth-rounders who have been significant contributors for New York.
McKnight doesn’t come without concerns. He had a few injuries at USC that limited his production at times, and he sat out the Trojans’ Emerald Bowl victory against Boston College while the school investigated whether he violated NCAA rules.
