By 560 to 4 Nepalese lawmakers voted to abolish the nation’s 240-year-old monarchy. It was a stunning victory for the Maoists who fought a 10-year insurgency before disarming under a November 2006 peace accord to become part of Nepal’s interim government. They won the most seats in elections held last month and plan to form a coalition government.
The 61-year-old King Gyanendra has been given 15 days to vacate the palace. The royal flag was lowered at the Narayanhiti palace in the capital, Kathmandu, and replaced by the national flag.
King Gyanendra’s security can’t be guaranteed if he refuses to leave the palace and live as a “common citizen,” the Communist Party of Nepal said.
The Constituent Assembly has directed the government to “take necessary measures” to vacate the king from the palace in 15 days, Jhala Nath Khanal, general secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) said in an interview from Kathmandu. “I hope he has made up his mind to do so.”
The interim administration said he must pay taxes, place the army under civilian control and remove his image from the 500-rupee note, replacing it with Mount Everest.
King Gyanendra is the last king in the Shah dynasty which began in 1768 when King Prithivi Narayan Shah unified the country that was divided into principalities. He took control of Kathmandu city and drove the Malla rulers from the surrounding valley.
Gyanendra became king in June 2001, after his brother Birendra and close relatives were killed by Crown Prince Dipendra, who then shot himself. The king lost most of his powers in 2006 when he was forced by nationwide strikes to end more than a year of absolute rule and allow the return of a civilian government.
“My dream has come true,” Nepal’s interim Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala told lawmakers as the assembly met for the first time, according to the UN. “Nepal is entering a new era by overcoming all the difficulties and we have to maintain unity and collaboration between the parties.”
Nepal, the world’s newest republic, is among the world’s poorest countries, according to the U.S. government. One-third of its citizens live below the poverty line and per capita gross domestic product is about $1,100. About 80 percent of Nepal’s population of 26.4 million people is Hindu.
Nepal’s three biggest political parties, holding 433 seats in the 601- member parliament, and four other smaller parties agreed to replace the monarchy with a ceremonial president, with most authority concentrated in the prime minister’s office. There is still much work that has to be done. Talks are going on amongst the political parties to choose a candidate for president and prime minister.
Jhala Nath Khanal, general secretary of the CPN-UML said:
“The Maoists will lead the coalition government as they are the single largest party. The powers or the rights for the president are yet to be decided”. He also added “I do not think the president and prime minister will be from the same party. The method for electing the president has also to be agreed upon by the parties. The process will be completed within two weeks.”
The Maoists won 220 seats in the April 10 ballot. The Nepali Congress, the nation’s oldest political party, won 110 seats, while the CPN-UML secured 103 and the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, representing the Tarai region bordering India, won 52. Maoist leader Prachanda says he wants all parties that won seats, including ethnic groups, to join a “consensus government.”
It may be a surprise to learn that there are many communities which have never been contacted by the “civilized” world. One such group has been photographed by Survival International, a human rights organization formed in 1969 that campaigns for the rights of indigenous tribal peoples.
Aerial pictures were taken from a low-flying aircraft during several flights over one of the remotest parts of the Amazon rain forest. It is a remote region in the Terra Indigena Kampa e Isolados do Envira, Acre state, Brazil, close to the border with Peru. The photos show a group of native Indians and their dwellings. These are people who have never had any contact with the outside world. In one of the pictures two men, covered in red paint, are pointing their bow and arrows at the overhead aircraft while another person, painted in black, looks on behind them.
José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Junior, who works for FUNAI, the Brazilian government’s Indian affairs department, said they first encountered the group on a morning flight earlier this month and saw dozens of people dotted around a clearing with two communal huts. When they returned later the same day, the impact of the earlier flight was clear. Most of the women and children had fled into the forest, he said, and those that were left had painted their bodies, taken up arms and appeared to be on a “war footing”.
“We did the overflight to show their houses, to show they are there, to show they exist,” said Meirelles, an expert on the remote tribal people who live beyond the boundaries of the modern world. “This is very important because there are some who doubt their existence.”
Peru’s President, Alan Garcia, has openly questioned the existence of uncontacted tribes. In Peru similar tribes are being driven from their lands by aggressive oil and mining interests and illegal loggers.
“What is happening in this region [of Peru] is a monumental crime against the natural world, the tribes, the fauna, and is further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the ‘civilized’ ones, treat the world,” said Mr Meirelles.
After a decades-long political battle, indigenous groups now have their land rights protected under Brazilian law. Survival International is leading calls for Peru to act in accordance with international law and protect the tribes on its territory. Survival’s Fiona Watson, who recently returned from the region, said that Indians fleeing over the border into Brazil could be driven into conflict with uncontacted tribes already living there. “It is clear from this photograph that they want to be left alone,” she said.
Nothing is known about these people.Their extraordinary body paint, precisely what they eat, how they construct their tent-like camp, their language, how their society operates, how they wear their hair, how they adorn their bodies, how they live their lives - it is all a mystery. Uncontacted tribes, which are located in the jungles of South America, New Guinea and North Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean (the inhabitants of which have also responded to attempts at contact with extreme aggression) all have one thing in common - they want to be left alone.
The history of contact, between indigenous tribes and the outside world, has always been an unhappy one. They have always been threatened by outsiders who, for various reasons, want to control their land and are often willing to kill for what they want. Even just coming into contact can be deadly. Many tribes have been wiped out by diseases, like the common cold, for which they have no resistance.
According to Miriam Ross of Survival International:
“These tribes represent the incredible diversity of humankind. Unless we want to condemn yet more of the earth’s peoples to extinction, we must respect their choice. Any contact they have with outsiders must happen in their own time and on their own terms.” Ms Ross added, “These pictures are further evidence that uncontacted tribes really do exist. The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct.”
Gov. David A. Paterson has directed all state agencies to begin to revise their policies and regulations to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions, like Massachusetts, California and Canada. In a directive issued on May 14, the governor’s legal counsel, David Nocenti, instructed the agencies that gay couples married elsewhere “should be afforded the same recognition as any other legally performed union.”
The directive makes New York state the only state that recognizes gay marriages performed elsewhere, while it is still illegal in New York. It has fueled speculation that Gov. Paterson may soon push for gay marriage. In a videotaped message given to gay community leaders, Mr. Paterson described the move as “a strong step toward marriage equality.” And people on both sides of the issue said it moved the state closer to fully legalizing same-sex unions in this state.
“Very shortly, there will be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, and probably thousands and thousands and thousands of gay people who have their marriages recognized by the state,” said Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell, a Democrat who represents the Upper West Side and has pushed for legalization of gay unions.
This is expected to cause revision to as many as 1,300 statutes and regulations in New York governing everything from joint filing of income tax returns to transferring fishing licenses between spouses. Agency heads were directed to identify a list of state regulations and statutes that were likely to need overhaul, including measures affecting a spouse’s ability to collect a deceased spouse’s pension and to continue to use public housing. Mr. Nocenti wrote that state agencies should review all rules and regulations to determine whether they conflict with recognition of same-sex marriages and report back to him by June 30. He said that state agencies that did not provide “full faith and credit to same-sex marriages” could be subject to liability.
Opponents of gay marriage accuse the governor of trying to circumvent the state legislature and say the issue should be decided by the voters and not by executive directive.
“It’s a perfect example of a governor overstepping his authority and sidestepping the democratic process,” said Brian Raum, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a national organization opposed to same-sex marriage. “It’s an issue of public policy that should be decided by the voters.”
Forty-one states are currently limiting marriages to that between a man and a woman; Massachusetts and California remain the only states that legalize gay marriage while others only allow civil unions. The previous governor of New York, Elliott Spitzer, had introduced a bill last year that would have legalized gay marriage. The Democratic-dominated Assembly passed the measure, but the Republican-led Senate has refused to call a vote on it.
The Paterson directive cited the case of Patricia Martinez, who works at Monroe Community College and who married her partner, Lisa Golden, in Canada. The State Appellate Court in Rochester ruled that she could not be denied health benefits by the college because her marriage was legal and New York state had a longstanding policy of recognizing marriages performed elsewhere, even if they are not explicitly allowed under New York law.
While gay rights advocates widely praised the spirit of Mr. Paterson’s policy, some saw more than a little irony in the fact that New York has yet to allow gays to marry.
“If you’re going to treat us as equals, why don’t you just give us the marriage license?” said Alan Van Capelle, executive director of Empire State Pride Agenda. “So this is a temporary but necessary fix for a longer-term problem, which is marriage equality in New York State.”
Japanese Customs officials at Tokyo-Narita airport made the embarrassing admission that they lost 142g (5 ounces) of the marijuana derivative hashish. In an unauthorized test involving drug-sniffing dogs, the hash was stored in a metal container stuffed into the pocket of a soft, black suitcase belonging to one of 283 passengers traveling on Cathay Pacific Flight 520 from Hong Kong to Narita, which arrived at 3:31 p.m. on Sunday. The 142g of hash had a reported street value of $10,000 (about 1 million yen)
The customs agent who hid the hash could not remember which suitcase he had put it in, and the drug-sniffing dogs were unable to locate the container. The agent had conducted the test on a passenger’s bag against regulations. Normally a training suitcase is used. Customs regulations require customs officials to prepare luggage for training exercises like the one carried out on Sunday and specifically ban travelers’ baggage from being used. Customs officials said four customs officials had two sniffer dogs working a luggage conveyor at Narita, but neither was able to find the drugs. Manpei Tanaka, head of Customs’ Narita branch, apologized for the incident.
“It’s extremely regrettable that we have invited this sort of situation on ourselves. We will investigate the facts behind the case, provide thorough training and deal strictly with those involved,” Tanaka said.
The 38-year-old officer responsible for the incident was quoted by the spokeswoman as saying:
“I knew that using passengers’ bags is prohibited, but I did it because I wanted to improve the sniffer dog’s ability,” the officer was quoted as saying. “The dogs have always been able to find it before… I became overconfident that it would work,” he said.
Police began to contact passengers who were on the flight and issued an appeal to the public:
“If by some chance passengers find it in their suitcase, we’re asking them to return it.”
Fortunately, a shocked passenger found the drugs. Japan Today reports that the passenger discovered a small metal box containing the hashish tucked in a side compartment of his suitcase when he got to his hotel. “The man called police who returned the cannabis to Narita airport“, Japan Today said.
Kevin Lewis Waits, 25, of Hillsboro, Texas could be described as tenacious. He could also be described as hard-headed, obstinate and a host of other uncomplimentary adjectives. However I think the most appropriate characterization would simply be: Stupid.
Kevin was having a hard time getting a taxi, so he decided to call 911 instead. In fact he called 911 a total of 15 times in a row! Each time Kevin called, the emergency dispatcher told him he had to call a taxi service and that the police could not help him, said Waco police officer Steve Anderson.
Kevin did however manage to get the attention of the police. They eventually went to his apartment complex and found a taxicab waiting for him. The only problem was that Kevin did not have the $26 to pay for the fare. He was trying to get to a friend’s house in town.
Kevin was arrested after being taken to the hospital because he told an officer that he had used methamphetamine, officer Anderson said. He remained in custody awaiting bond on charges of harassment and theft of service, according to the McLennan County Jail.
A group of up to 300 young men killed 11 people, aged between 80 and 96, who were accused of being witches and wizards in the western Kenya villages of Kekoro and Matembe. The gang moved from home to home through the two villages, using a list of suspected witches and wizards and the kind of spells they were believed to have cast on the community, said Ben Makori, a local councilor.
“The villagers are complaining that the (suspected) wizards and witches are making the bright children in the community dumb … These (suspected) witches are not doing good things to us,” Makori told The Associated Press.
In some cases the gang slit their throats or clubbed them to death before burning their bodies. The victims were then thrown back into the homes that the gang already had set on fire. About 30 houses were torched.
Ndirangu, the commissioner in charge of Kisii Central district where one of the villages is located, said that residents are superstitious and have often targeted suspected witches and wizards. But this week’s attack was the most shocking in recent years, Ndirangu said.
Police chief Kibuchi, said the villagers had recounted holding a meeting in Nyakeo earlier on Tuesday to try and dissuade those who wanted to go ahead with the killing. Five of the victims had supposedly “confessed” at this meeting to practicing witchcraft and had begged for mercy, he said.
Police said on Thursday they had jailed 19 people suspected of burning to death the 11 people. A police spokesman, Charles Owino, told the BBC that those arrested may not have been involved in the killings but possibly incited the attacks.
“You may find that they could not have been involved directly in the killing, but if you have evidence that they were involved in war cries, then they will have another offence of inciting,” he said, adding that those proven to have been involved in the attack would be charged with murder.
Despite the peaceful co-existence of traditional African beliefs, Christians and Muslims in Kenya, there is widespread suspicion of sorcery, particularly in the west, which has a long history of witch doctors and faith healers. Residents have been ambivalent about condemning the attacks because the belief in witchcraft is so widespread in the area. Kenyan Lecturer Ken Ouko discusses the murders and talks about the place of witchcraft in Kenyan culture in the following video.
To learn more about the people and culture of the Kisii Central District in southwestern Kenya,check out their website here.
Blake Dwyer, 17, of Shady Shores, had an epileptic seizure while at a friend’s house in Corinth, Texas last July 18. He doesn’t remember it. He doesn’t remember fighting to keep from being tied to a stretcher or hitting a paramedic. What he does remember is: Pain, the agonizing burn of electrical shock, shouting and fear.
“I thought a swarm of wasps was after me,” the 17-year-old Guyer High School athlete said. “I was trying to fight them off.”
What Blake Dwyer does remember is the result of being Tasered 12 times by the Corinth police and he has the burn marks to prove it.
His brother, Travis Baker, 17, remembers all of it. He remembers the epileptic seizure his brother suffered. He remembers paramedics trying to tie his brother to a stretcher. He remembers screaming at Corinth police to stop shocking Blake with a Taser. He remembers crying on the phone, telling his mother, Deana Dwyer, what was happening to his brother.
It all began the previous day when the two brothers spent the night over at a friend’s house. They were getting ready for football practice about 10:30 a.m. the next morning when Travis said he saw Blake bend over to tie his tennis shoes.
“He looked up, and his eyes rolled back in his head,” Travis said. “He fell over and started frothing at the mouth and jerking. I knew he was having a seizure. I was there when he had the others, and I knew what to do.”
Blake Dwyer had been experiencing grand mal epileptic seizures for about a year, possibly brought on, his mother said, by a concussion. Travis said he had learned to calm Blake, who comes out of the seizures with postictal psychosis, a condition that accompanies seizures in some patients to varying degrees. Blake becomes disoriented and frightened, he said. He panics and tries to fight, especially if someone tries to restrain him.
According to information from the Epilepsy Foundation, epilepsy is a neurological condition that sometimes produces brief disturbances in the normal electrical functions of the brain with intermittent bursts of much more intense electrical energy. The resulting seizure may affect a person’s consciousness, movements or sensations for a short time. A person suffering a seizure will fall down, froth at the mouth and jerk uncontrollably.
While Travis was attempting to calm his brother down someone called an ambulance. When the paramedics arrived they took over and told Travis to step back while they attempted to tie Blake down on a stretcher. Travis tried to tell them that his brother was claustrophobic and he couldn’t stand to be strapped down. They ignored him.
According to the paramedic report, Blake was combative. He was making incoherent sounds and fighting against the restraints. He freed his arms and, still strapped to the gurney by the lower part of his body, he began flailing his arms. He struck a firefighter in the face.
A paramedic found a marijuana pipe in Blake’s pocket. This led them to believe that Blake may have been overdosing on narcotics. They called the police for assistance. According to the police report on the incident, Blake was Tasered twice to calm him down.
“[Reporting officer] issued a ‘drive stun’ with the Taser to Dwyer’s upper back to gain compliance so he would stop fighting with the fireman. … Once inside the ambulance Dwyer was once again issued a ‘drive stun’ to gain compliance,” the report states.
However, photographs taken the next day show 24 post burns, representing 12 separate instances of the posts of the Taser being applied to Blake Dwyer’s back and underarm.
Tasers can work in two different ways:
A Taser has a cartridge that sends two prongs out on wires. When the trigger is pulled, the probes burst out of the cartridge and can travel up to 21 feet to reach the target. Then electricity travels though the wires and arcs between the probes. That affects the sensory nerves, and the electricity overrides the central nervous system, which means the muscles can’t move. The person falls to the ground, briefly immobilized.
Or, the officer has the option of pulling off the cartridge and simply pressing the Taser against the skin. That causes electrical pain but does not immobilize and is called a “drive stun.” It is a way to control someone using pain. This was the method used on Blake.
The boys admit they smoked marijuana from a pipe provided by one of the other boys but insist they used no other illegal substances. Blake’s blood workup the next morning showed only traces of marijuana in his system. There were no traces of any other opiates or psychedelic drugs.
Deana Dwyer said she was mad at Blake for using marijuana “But smoking marijuana the night before had nothing to do with his seizure. He had them before, and he’s had three since.”
No lawsuit has been filed yet. Deana Dwyer sought the advice of Denton lawyer Rocky Haire, who said he has been trying to work with Corinth police for an out-of-court resolution with no luck so far.
“Deana just wants them to acknowledge they did it wrong,” Haire said. “She tried to tell them their officers needed some training on what to do with epileptic seizures and postictal psychosis, but they just blew her off.”
The budding criminal careers of Edmon Shahikian, 23, of 13 Cobbling Rock Road, Katonah, and Ian Frias, 20, of 1609 E. 174th St., the Bronx, were cut short by a program on one of the laptop computers they stole. Shahikian and Frias are charged with second-degree burglary and fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, both felonies. In a separate incident, the pair were also arrested last year on felony charges of criminal possession of marijuana.
When Kait Duplaga returned home with her two roommates on April 27 at about 10pm, they discovered that their Ridgeview Avenue apartment had been burglarized. Among the items stolen were: Two laptop computers, two flat-screen televisions, two iPods, gaming consoles, DVDs, computer games, a box of liquor and a set of car rims. One of the stolen laptops was a Macintosh belonging to Kait, who works at the Apple store in the Westchester mall. One of the programs installed on her computer was “Back to My Mac”, which allows users to access their laptops from remote locations.
Shortly after the burglary one of Kait’s friends contacted her and congratulated her on the recovery of her stolen computer. Kait told her: ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ and her friend said, ‘Well, you popped up as being online.’
After hearing this Kait Duplaga immediately signed on to another Macintosh computer and, using the “Back to My Mac” feature was able to gain access to her missing laptop remotely. She could see that the person who had her computer was doing some online shopping. Then it occurred to her that she could activate a camera on her laptop and watch the thief live. At first all she saw was an empty room but eventually a man came and sat down. Using the same program Kait was able to get the computer to take a picture.
“When you take a picture with that computer, it shows a countdown, and when it does, this guy figures out what’s going on. It all clicks for him, and he puts his hand up to cover the lens, but it was too late. The picture had already been taken.”
When Kait showed the picture of the thief to one of her roommates, the roommate replied: “Oh, I know exactly who that is — it’s Ian,” referring to Ian Frias. Ian Frias and Edmon Shahikian had been among the guests at a party at the apartment weeks before, and were friends of friends of the victims. Kait was able to find a picture of Shahikian on the computer. She took the pictures to the police who were able to arrest the two men. Virtually all of the property stolen from the apartment, valued at more than $5,000, was recovered at the two men’s homes.
Edmon Shahikian was released on $3,500 bail, while Ian Frias was freed on $7,500 bail. At their arraignments both men were warned by City Judge Barbara Leak, who signed an order of protection, not to contact the victims. After making bail, Frias called Kait Duplagawho reported the incident to the police. He was again arrested and charged with criminal contempt, a misdemeanor, police said.
In court Judge Leak sent Frias back to jail on $3,500 bail on the new charge, telling his lawyer, Judith Berger, “I told your client no phone calling, e-mailing or text-messaging. Within seven days, a call was made. That’s not acceptable.”
Frias and Shahikian also are due in Yonkers City Court on June 9 in a marijuana case. They were arrested last year after 3 pounds of pot was found in the Jeep they were in, Yonkers police said. Both were charged with a felony count of marijuana possession. Frias accepted a plea bargain and is to be sentenced on a misdemeanor possession charge; the felony charge against Shahikian is still pending.
Gokhan Mutlu, of Manhattan is suing the airline JetBlue for $2 million. He claims the pilot forced him to give up his seat and sit on the toilet seat in the bathroom for over three hours while on a flight from California to New York.
On Feb. 23 2008 Gokhan Mutlu was returning from San Diego to New York on a “buddy pass” ticket. This is a free voucher that JetBlue employees give to friends and family who are willing to fly on a stand-b y basis. Initially, Mutlu was told a flight attendant had taken the last available seat on the plane, but she had agreed to sit in the “jump seat” which is a seat reserved for JetBlue employees only. This meant that Mutlu could catch the flight and use the seat the flight attendant had given up.
About 90 mins into the 5 hour flight the pilot approached Mutlu and told him that the attendant was uncomfortable in the “jump seat” and he would have to relinquish his seat to her. He also told Mutlu that he could not use the “jump seat” because it was only for JetBlue employees. The pilot suggested that Mutlu “go hang out” in the bathroom.
When Mutlu objected to having to sit in the bathroom the pilot said:
“He was the pilot, that this was his plane, under his command that (Mutlu) should be grateful for being on board,”
When the aircraft hit turbulence passengers were directed to return to their seats and Gokhan Mutlu had no choice but to sit on the toilet seat, with no seat belts to use. It was hours later when a male attendant knocked on the toilet door and informed Mutlu that he could return to his original seat.
Mutlu’s lawsuit, filed in Manhattan’s State Supreme Court, says JetBlue negligently endangered him by not providing him with a seat with a safety belt or harness, in violation of federal law.
P.S.
I would like to know if anyone tried to use the bathroom during the three hours Gokhan Mutlu was in there!!
Lori Drew,49, of Dardenne Prairie, Mo. has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles in connection with the suicide death of Megan Meier,13. She has been charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress. If convicted on all 4 counts, she could receive a 20-year sentence.
In a case of cyberbullying, Lori Drew is accused of helping to create a fictitious MySpace account under the name of Josh Evans. The character “Josh” was used to first befriend Megan Meier and then torment her, eventually causing the 13-year-old girl to commit suicide. Read the entire story here.
Ever since her daughter’s death, Tina Meier has been battling to have Drew charged with a crime, but local prosecutors in St. Charles County, where Meier and Drew live, determined that Missouri had no laws that could be applied to the situation. Federal prosecutors in Missouri also declined to indict Drew.
In reacting to the indictment of Lori Drew, Tina Meier said she was very pleased that charges had finally been filed but that the maximum 20-year sentence, if found guilty on all counts, was insufficient.
“Twenty years to me is just a small piece of cake,” Meier told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira on Friday. “Lori Drew should truly be given a life sentence.”
“I’m hoping she gets the maximum penalty,” Meier told Vieira. “That’s what she deserves. Lori Drew played a ridiculous, childish game, and that’s exactly what it was. She probably didn’t know the outcome of what exactly happened with Meghan, but when you play games on the Internet — an adult playing with a child, playing with her mind — these are the things that can happen, and she needs to face the consequences.”
The indictment alleges that Lori Drew provided false information when she registered for the MySpace account and violated various aspects of the company’s terms of service, including prohibitions on soliciting information from anyone under 18 and using information obtained from MySpace to “harass, abuse or harm” other people. The federal statute under which Drew is charged is more often used to prosecute defendants who have hacked into computers with the intent of causing damage or improperly accessed computers for financial gain.
In other developments, Missouri legislators gave final approval to a bill that would make cyber harassment illegal. It was approved 106-23 in the House and 34-0 in the Senate and now goes to the governor. Gov. Matt Blunt issued a statement praising lawmakers for passing the measure.
“Social networking sites and technology have opened a new door for criminals and bullies to prey on their victims,” he said. “These protections ensure that our laws now have the protections and penalties needed to safeguard Missourians from Internet harassment.”
