Gaddafi still a threat, says Libya council chief

DOHA: Muammar Gaddafi, who has not been seen since rebels took over the Libyan capital of Tripoli a week ago, is still a threat to the country and the world, the chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC) said on Monday. 

Speaking at a meeting in Doha, Qatar, of defence ministers from countries supporting the insurgency against Gaddafi’s rule, NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil called on NATO to keep supporting the movement.

“I call for continued protection from NATO and its allies from this tyrant,” Abdel Jalil said.

The NTC, which is hunting Libya’s deposed leader and pushing to take over his hometown of Sirte east of Tripoli, said on Saturday it had no firm information on his whereabouts. It has offered a $1.3 million reward and amnesty from prosecution for anyone who kills or captures Gaddafi. AGENCIES

Egypt’s fallen dictator Mubarak back in the dock

CAIRO: The murder and corruption trial of Egypt’s fallen dictator Hosni Mubarak resumes on Monday in what lawyers say will be a lengthy process that he may successfully appeal.

Mubarak, 83, is accused of involvement in the killings of anti-regime activists during a January and February revolt that ended his three decades in power.

He also faces corruption charges with his two sons, Gamal and Alaa, and shares the murder charges with his former interior minister Habib al-Adly and six former police commanders, who are being tried by the same judge in separate hearings.

Mubarak is being held in a military hospital on the outskirts of Cairo.

In the first session on August 3, Mubarak was wheeled in on a stretcher after being flown by military plane from a hospital in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, where he was receiving treatment for a heart condition.

His appearance in court, penned in a black metal cage, came as a shock to Egyptians who watched the proceedings on live television. Few believed he would ever be seen in court.

But as the first hearing progressed, the difficult task facing judge Ahmed Refaat became clear, as dozens of lawyers representing victims’ families jostled to make their demands of the court.

Mubarak’s lawyer Farid al-Deeb, who told an Egyptian newspaper that Mubarak will be present for the second hearing, asked the judge to call 1,600 witnesses, including top military officials.

The military was called out on January 28, after protesters torched police stations across the country, and took charge on February 11 when Mubarak resigned.

Ahmed Mekki, a recently retired deputy head of Cairo’s appeals court, said the trial will now move to investigating the evidence and calling witnesses, first for the prosecution and then for the defence.

But the court will probably cull the list of witnesses demanded by Deeb, which would provide him with solid ground for appealing a possible guilty verdict, said one of the lawyers representing victims in civil suits.

“If the court does not listen to all the witnesses, it will give grounds for appeal,” said Taher Abu Nasr, whose Front for the Defence of Egyptian Protesters represents 35 plaintiffs.

“There will be an appeal, and the appeal will be successful,” Abu Nasr said.

Most of the lawyers have yet to review the thousands of documents of evidence that have been provided by the court, some say belatedly.

But judging by the cases of dozens of police commanders who face charges or are on trial over alleged crimes during the revolt, they fear the evidence against Mubarak to be patchy and ill-prepared.

Legal experts say that a thorough investigation into Mubarak’s alleged crimes should have taken several more months, but the military and the government expedited the process to mollify protesters.

“The prosecution (filed the case) perhaps before questioning people they should have questioned,” said Abu Nasr.

“The case was filed under street pressure,” said Mekki, adding that he believed the court would still conduct the trial fairly.

“The prosecution may be amenable to pressure, but the court will not rule unjustly,” he said.

More than 850 people were killed in the 18 days that led to Mubarak’s ouster, and thousands more were wounded. AGENCIES

Arizona shooting accused pleads not guilty

ARIZONA: Jared Lee Loughner, the young assailant in the deadly January 8 mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder related to the attempt on the life of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and two of her aides, reports said on Monday.

As many as six people were killed and 13 injured including Giffords when Loughner went berserk during an open-invitation meeting at a Safeway grocery store in Tucson, arranged by Giffords. Loughner is believed to have nursed a grudge against Giffords after she had apparently failed to satisfactorily answer a question put to her by the youngman earlier.

Among those killed in cold blood were a Federal Judge and nine-year old Christina Taylor Green, who was born on 9/11, when the World Trade Center in New York was targeted.

Loughner appeared in the court of U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns of San Diego accompanied by his counsel Judy Clarke. The defense did not raise any objection when prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Wallace Kleindienst, requested that court proceedings be moved to Tucson.

According to reports, the defendant clad in a bright orange prison jumpsuit and wearing glasses barely uttered a word during the hearing but remained smiling throughout the entire hearing process. He could be arraigned in both state and federal courts which could invite the death penalty if found guilty.

On being asked by the trial judge whether she had any real concerns regarding Loughner”s ability to grasp the trial proceedings, Clarke said she was not raising any issues at the moment. Also, some 25 tapes containing data downloaded from the defendant”s personal computer were handed over to the defense counsel by the prosecution.

Giffords, 40, has since been moved to a rehabilitation center in Houston as she proceeds on the path to recovery.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrested in UK

Julian Assange, founder of a whistleblower website, has reportedly been arrested by Londons Scotland Yard Tuesday.

Police said that he would soon be presented before Westminster magistrate in rape case. Earlier, Julian surrendered himself as part of a Swedish sex-crimes investigation — one of a host of international legal, financial, and security challenges closing in on the secret-spilling website.

The 39-year-old Australian’s legal troubles stem from allegations leveled against him by two women he met while in Sweden over the summer.Assange is accused of rape and sexual molestation in one case and of sexual molestation and unlawful coercion in another.Assange denies the allegations, which Stephens has said stem from a dispute over consensual but unprotected sex. Stephens said the two women involved made the allegations only after they became aware of each other’s relationships with Assange.The Internet-based organization’s room for maneuver is narrowing by the day. It’s been battered by web attacks, cut off by Internet service providers and been subjected to a barrage of muscular rhetoric out of the United States. In the latest development, Swiss authorities closed Assange’s bank account, depriving him of a key fundraising tool. MasterCard has also pulled the plug on payments to the site, according to technology news website CNET. A European representative for the credit card company didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment. The attacks appeared to have been at least partially successful in stanching the flow of secrets — WikiLeaks has not published any new cables to the Internet in more than 24 hours, although stories about them have continued to appear in the New York Times and The Guardian, two of the papers given advance access to all 250,000 documents.WikiLeaks Twitter feed, generally packed with updates, appeals, and pithy comments, has been silent since Monday night, when the group warned that Assange’s arrest might be imminent. Although unrelated to WikiLeaks’ mass disclosures, which have infuriated U.S. officials, Assange and his lawyers have suggested that the prosecution is being manipulated for political reasons.

Mumbai attacks gunman begins death sentence appeal

MUMBAI: Lawyers for the only surviving gunman of the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks began a high court appeal on Monday against his death sentence, amid tight security.

Advocates representing Pakistani national Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab are seeking to overturn the penalty imposed by a lower court earlier this year for waging war on India, murder, attempted murder and terrorism offences.

They will open their arguments after the prosecution outlines why the verdict should be upheld. Confirmation of a death sentence by the state high court is required under Indian law.

Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told the Bombay High Court that the attacks were “a classic case of sponsored terrorism, born out of deep hatred against India”, according to television news channel NDTV.

A heavy security presence was evident around the court, with only those with police-issued

‘Friendship with Sharif bros never obstruct justice’

HAFIZABAD: Chief Justice Lahore High Court Khwaja Mohammed Sharif has said he has been having friendly terms with Sharif Brothers for last 37 years but this companionship never saw me obstruct justice to dispense, Geo news reported.

He was addressing a huge gathering of lawyers in Hafizabad. “I and my son are being victimized of a baseless propaganda”, he said offering a challenge that he was ready to get execution if proved guilty of corruption.

Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif placed Rana Maqbool – an accused of Zardari case – in Prosecution Department, if someone cannot digest that, he should part ways with PML-N government in Punjab.

People have now pinned all their hopes with judiciary after witnessing failure of governments, he added.

Four NATO troops killed amid CIA warning on Afghan war

KABUL: Four Norwegian soldiers were killed by a bomb as the record monthly death toll for NATO forces in Afghanistan continued to rise and the CIA warned the war was turning out tougher than expected.

The Norwegians died Sunday when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in the northern province of Faryab, bringing to 98 the number of NATO soldiers killed in June and 318 for the whole year.

“Norway has been hit hard. The loss deeply affects us all. It”s hard and it reminds us of the risk we”re taking,” said Defence Minister Grete Faremo in Oslo.

NATO says the dramatic upswing in casualty numbers in June has been caused by the alliance stepping up military operations and taking the fight to the Taliban in areas where they have previously been unchallenged.

The heavy toll can be largely attributed to the Taliban”s use of homemade bombs, or improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which are cheap and easy to make and account for the majority of foreign troops deaths.

McChrystal was forced to step down as commander of the NATO-led force after disparaging remarks about US administration officials, including President Barack Obama, in an explosive article carried by Rolling Stone magazine.

The article raised questions about whether McChrystal”s counter-insurgency strategy, under which an extra 30,000 US troops were scheduled for deployment in Afghanistan, was working and fully supported by the US administration.

A British newspaper reported Sunday that McChrystal also issued a highly critical assessment of the war days before he was fired in a briefing note to allies that warned them to expect little progress in the next six months.

In Washington the head of the CIA, Leon Panetta, acknowledged there were “serious problems” with the prosecution of the war in Afghanistan.

“We”re dealing with a country that has problems with governance, problems with corruption, problems with narcotics trafficking, problems with a Taliban insurgency,” Panetta told ABC”s “This Week.”

“We are making progress. But it”s harder and slower than anyone anticipated,” he said.

Noting that Al-Qaeda”s leadership was now apparently weaker than ever before, he insisted Obama”s surge strategy, which will see the number of international troops on the ground peak at 150,000 in August, is the right one.

But he said the success or failure of NATO”s mission depended on whether the Afghan government, police and military could step up alongside NATO to help bring security and stability to the country.

Much of southern Afghanistan is blighted by the Taliban insurgency, now in its deadliest phase since the US-led invasion ousted the hardline regime and installed a Western-backed administration led by Hamid Karzai.

McChrystal”s counter-insurgency strategy, which brought sweeping changes aimed at cutting civilian casualties and winning over the population, had been credited with bringing some order to the spiralling conflict.

He has been replaced in Afghanistan by General David Petraeus, the architect of the successful surge strategy in Iraq that is credited with bringing the country back from the brink of civil war.

Hijratullah acquitted in Mawan facility attack

LAHORE: The Anti-terrorism court of Lahore acquitted Hijratullah, the accused of Manawan Police training center, for lack of sufficient evidence.

The ATC court acquitted Hijratullah after declaring the evidence presented by the prosecution against him as insufficient.

It is pertinent to mention here that the law enforcement agencies arrested Hijratullah in the case of attack on Manawan Police Training facility in Lahore.

The jail trial of the accused also went on after his arrest.

Hijratullah said he knew nothing except picking up garbage to earn livelihood.

amber frey

Amber Dawn Frey is the daughter of Ron and Brenda Frey. Her date of birth is 10th of February, 1975. Started off her life in Los Angeles Amber’s parents, Ron. Amber Frey’s life story is not too different from many other innocent women who were deceived by males with charismatic and alluring personas. This time. I think Amber Frey is still Allred’s most important client.

She was Scott Peterson’s mistress. She was a massage therapist. Because she was Peterson’s mistress, she became a key witness in the Scott Peterson murder trial.

Their affair began on November 20, 2002. Scott Peterson actually told Amber Frey that he had lost his wife. He also told her that he didn’t want to have children. On December 24, 2002, Scott Peterson reported his wife Laci Peterson missing. She was 8 months pregnant.

After a long investigation and trial in which Amber Frey played a key role, Scott Peterson was convicted of murdering his wife Lacy and their unborn child. He is currently in a California jail.

‘Amber Frey: Witness for the Prosecution’ is a 2005 movie starring Janel Maloney and Nathan Anders. It was on LIFE at 8 pm last night. The movie is a pedestrian account of the Scott Peterson murder case
Peterson had numerous extramarital affairs, most recently with a massage therapist named Amber Frey. She had requested police assistance when she became suspicious that the man she had just begun to date had not been honest with her after she learned that he was actually married to a missing woman. At this point, Laci’s family announced that they withdrew their support of Peterson. They later said that they were angered not by the affair, but that Peterson had told Frey that he’d “lost” his wife and that he would be spending his first Christmas without his wife–15 days before Laci disappeared.
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Frey told the police that two weeks before Laci’s disappearance, Peterson had implied to her that he was a widower by saying that he had “lost his wife.” During the trial, the audio recordings of Peterson and Frey’s telephone conversations were played, and the transcripts were publicized. Their contents proved to be both revealing and, ultimately, damning to Peterson’s character. For example, they revealed that in the days after Laci went missing, Peterson claimed to Amber that he had traveled to Paris to celebrate the holidays, in part with his new companions Pasqual and François. In reality, Peterson made one of these phone calls while attending the New Year’s Eve candlelight vigil in Modesto for his missing wife.

Detained US citizens refute terror allegations

SARGODHA: Anti-Terrorism Court special judge Mian Anwar Nazir has ordered the prosecution and police officials to present evidence against arrested American citizens on May 21.

The hearing of five American suspects started at the district jail under strict security. Earlier, an American consulate delegation, led by Hillary Andre, had a meeting with American suspects Ramzi Zam Zam, Waqar Hussain, Umer Farooq, Aman and Abdullah at the district jail.

It has been learnt the American accused rejected all allegations against them levelled by police.

The judge put off the hearing until June 9 and ordered Hassan Dastagir advocate to produce witnesses.

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