Scotland Yard drops Official Secrets Act bid against Guardian

 

Scotland Yard had intended to take the Guardian newspaper to court on Friday in an attempt to force the newspaper into revealing how it obtained information that missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s mobile phone had been hacked. However, following discussions with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the force has abandoned its application for production orders against the newspaper. The decision comes following heavy criticism of the force’s attempt to make the Guardian, and one of its journalists, hand over information which would have revealed the source of many of the newspaper’s phone hacking stories. Various MPs, including the shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis, questioned the Yard’s attempt. While many national newspapers carried leading articles condemning the Metropolitan Police’s apparent attack on press freedom. And today the former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith told the Daily Telegraph that the force’s decision to invoke the Official Secrets Act was “unusual” and could threaten press freedom.

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Briton dies in Cannes after brawl 'over cost of drinks at lapdancing club'

 

Thirty-seven-year-old Lee Elton Fischer, a trade delegate from London, was visiting the French Riviera city, home of the world-famous Cannes Film Festival, with two friends. It has been claimed that Mr Fischer sparked a fight in the belief that he had been 'ripped off' during a night out with colleagues on Sunday. A spokesperson for the local police confirmed that Mr Fischer appeared to have been hit several times in the face, before dying after his head struck the pavement. Police have arrested three French nationals in connection with the incident and the men, all aged between 25 and 30, are now being questioned on suspicion of manslaughter. Officers investigating his death said Mr Fischer and three friends drank five or six pints at a bar before they arrived at the lap-dancing club. But Mr Fischer left after just one drink, apparently outraged by the price. 'He believed he had been ripped off so he left the bar,' a police source said. 'Outside he saw a guy who was handing out fliers for another lap-dancing club. 'He was very angry so he started to shout at the man.' A fight broke out, which drew in friends of both men, and Mr Fischer was dealt a blow which knocked him to the ground. He died at the scene around 3.30am. A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'We can confirm the death of a British national in Cannes on September 18th. 'Next of kin are aware and we are providing consular assistance.' An investigation has been launched into exactly what happened to Mr Fischer and a post-mortem examination will now be held

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Pakistan bus attack kills dozens

 

25 Shia Muslim pilgrims have been killed after gunmen opened fire on a bus in western Pakistan, officials said. The pilgrims were going through Mastung district in Baluchistan province, en route to the Iranian border, when the attack occurred, said a senior district official, Saeed Umrani. Two motorcycles blocked the path of the bus and three gunmen stormed the vehicle, opening fire on the roughly 40 pilgrims inside, said a local tribal police officer, Dadullah Baluch, after interviewing survivors and eyewitnesses. At least 25 people were killed and more than a dozen injured in the attack on Tuesday, he added. The dead and wounded were being taken to a hospital in Quetta, about 35 miles to the north, he said. Pakistan is a majority Sunni Muslim state. Although most Sunnis and Shias live there relatively peacefully, extremists on both sides often target each other's leaders and activists. The Sunni-Shia schism over the true heir to the prophet Muhammad dates back to the seventh century.

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Taliban turban bomber kills Afghan ex-president

 

A Taliban suicide bomber with concealed explosives in a turban on Tuesday assassinated former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was leading government peace efforts, police said. The bomber struck during a meeting at the Kabul home of Rabbani, who was last year appointed chief of the Afghan High Peace Council that President Hamid Karzai tasked with negotiating with the Taliban. His death is the most high-profile political assassination since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Taliban from power and comes just two months after Karzai's brother Ahmed Wali Karzai was also killed. The attackers arrived at Rabbani's house with Mohammad Massom Stanikzai, Rabbani's deputy, for a meeting before the turban bomber detonated his explosives, according to one source amid conflicting reports of the incident. A member of the High Peace Council, Fazel Karim Aymaq, said the men had come with "special messages" from the Taliban and were "very trusted." Kabul criminal investigations chief Mohammad Zaher said two men "negotiating with Rabbani on behalf of the Taliban" arrived at his house, one with explosives hidden in his turban. "He approached Rabbani and detonated his explosives. Rabbani was martyred and four others including Massom Stanikzai (his deputy) were injured." The bomber struck close to the US embassy, making it the the second attack within a week in Kabul's supposedly secure diplomatic zone. The killing prompted Afghan President Hamid Karzai to cut short his visit to the United States, his spokesman said, adding he was still expected to meet US President Barack Obama as scheduled before leaving. An AFP reporter saw an ambulance at the scene and said police had blocked off surrounding roads. The reporter also heard guards at the house shouting for an ambulance for Rabbani's deputy. Two of the former president's political allies, who did not want to be named and speaking before police confirmed Rabbani's death, wept as they told AFP he had been killed. "Yes, he is dead," said one of the two sources by telephone. The Taliban were not immediately reachable for comment, but the insurgency led by its militia has hit Kabul increasingly hard in recent months. The Pakistani government swiftly condemned the assassination, describing Rabbani as a "friend" with whom Islamabad was working closely on peace efforts. "The people of Pakistan stand by their Afghan brothers and sisters in this moment of grief," a joint statement released by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said, just days after the United States accused the Pakistani government of having ties to Taliban faction the Haqqani network. Among the most high-profile attacks was last week's 20-hour siege of the US embassy and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters which left 14 people dead. Rabbani was president of Afghanistan from 1992 until the Taliban took power in 1996 and headed a country wracked by civil war. Karzai's brainchild, the High Peace Council was intended to open a dialogue with insurgents who have been trying to bring down his government since the US-led invasion overthrew their regime. The 68-member council, hand-picked by the president, was inaugurated on October 7, 2010, amid mounting reports of secret peace talks with Taliban leaders and key insurgent groups. Delivering his acceptance speech, Rabbani said he was "confident" that peace was possible, according to a statement from the palace. "I hope we are able to take major steps in bringing peace and fulfil our duties with tireless effort and help from God," he was quoted as saying. According to Human Rights Watch, Rabbani is among prominent Afghans implicated in war crimes during the brutal fighting that killed or displaced hundreds of thousands of Afghans in the early 1990s.

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Jonathan Dimbleby has admitted he tried cocaine and marijuana in his 20s.

 Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

Veteran broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby has admitted that he tried cocaine once and called on middle-class people dabbling in drugs to think again about the misery they are causing in south America.

 

The host of long-running BBC Radio 4 show Any Questions? said he has a "contempt for cocaine sniffers in this country who are intelligent middle-class people but do not realise that they are fuelling a drugs war that is leading to misery for millions".

 

He revealed he took the drug when he was in his early 20s and also tried marijuana but did not enjoy either.

 

"I had cannabis twice in my early 20s. And once, in America [at around the same age], I did a line of cocaine. I sneezed it all over the place much to the dismay of people around who saw it as this precious substance," Dimbleby said. "It tickled my nose, and then it blocked my nose. And I had no experience from it at all."

 

Dimbleby, 67, made his remarks in an interview with the Daily Telegraphto publicise his new BBC2 series A South American Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby.

 

He was shocked by the effects of the cocaine trade in Colombia. "By our criminalising the use of cocaine, of people stuffing their noses with coke, we are causing mayhem to the lives of millions of people in South America," he said.

 

He did not go as far as calling for the decriminalisation of the drug but said "we should take the matter more seriously".

 

He added: "I think the criminalisation of drugs globally has produced far greater trouble for everyone than it if were not criminal."

 

He said it was "ridiculous" to attack public figures such as politicians for having taken drugs when they were at university.

 

"I think it is ridiculous to lay into adults who happen to have responsibility on the basis of what they did or didn't do at university," Dimbleby said.

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Gadhafi spotted as rebels capture parts of south Libya town

 

Fugitive Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi was spotted in the southern city of Sabha a few days ago, the regional daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on Tuesday, citing an eyewitness. The witness claimed that Gadhafi was living in the city, located around 750 kilometers south of the capital Tripoli. Anti-Gadhafi fighters firing a cannon near Sirte, the hometown of deposed leader Muammar Gadhafi, September 17, 2011. Photo by: Reuters Gadhafi's whereabouts have been unknown since rebels took over Tripoli in August. However, he continues to send statements and voice messages through the Syria-based al-Rai channel. The report comes after the anti-Gadhafi rebels said they took over parts of Sabha city as well as its airport. "The airport of Sabha has been liberated by our fighters," a military spokesman, Colonel Ahmed Bani, said in Tripoli on Monday. "Also two villages near Sabha have been liberated." For around a week the rebels have been fighting pro-Gadhafi fighters, who have put up stiff resistance in his birthplace of Sirte and the desert town of Bani Walid, south-east of Tripoli. Almost a month after they overran Tripoli, the rebels are at pains to take control of the two strongholds before their leaders can declare all of the North African country "liberated."

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Iran arrests six 'BBC Persian film-makers'

 

The Iranian authorities have arrested a group of film-makers and accused them of working for the BBC Persian service, which is banned in the country. State TV reports that the group of six were paid to make secret reports for the Farsi-language service. The BBC says no-one works for the Persian service inside the country - either formally or informally. The arrests came a day after the service showed a documentary on Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The BBC's James Reynolds says the channel's signal, which is sometimes accessible inside Iran, was disrupted during the broadcast. Increasing pressure The corporation said the documentary on the ayatollah was an in-house production and none of the six film-makers had been involved with it. "The individuals in question are independent documentary film-makers whose films have been screened in festivals and other venues internationally," said the statement. "As is common practice for the channel's documentary showcase programme, BBC Persian television bought the rights to broadcast these films." The BBC's language service chief Liliane Landor said BBC Persian had done nothing unusual in buying the rights to independent films. She said the arrests were part of the "ongoing efforts by the Iranian government to put pressure on the BBC" to influence its impartial and balanced coverage of its Farsi-language TV broadcasts. The corporation said BBC Persian has been subject to increasing and aggressive jamming from within Iran. The channel has suffered deliberate attempts to interfere with its signal intermittently since its launch in 2009.

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Tony Blair 'visited Libya to lobby for JP Morgan'

 

A senior executive with the Libyan Investment Authority, the $70 billion fund used to invest the country's oil money abroad, said Mr Blair was one of three prominent western businessmen who regularly dealt with Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the former leader. Saif al-Islam and his close aides oversaw the activities of the fund, and often directed its officials on where they should make its investments, he said. The executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said officials were told the "ideas" they were ordered to pursue came from Mr Blair as well as one other British businessman and a former American diplomat. "Tony Blair's visits were purely lobby visits for banking deals with JP Morgan," he said. He said that unlike some other deals - notably some investments run by the US bank Goldman Sachs - JP Morgan's had never turned "bad".

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11 of the 54 prisoners in Menorca jail are British

 

11 of the 54 prisoners being held in prison on Menorca are British, according to the prison authorities, who says their presence on the island is dependent on the air connections to the UK, which allows family visits to the inmates. The same sources, quoted by Menorca.info, say that none of the Britons have a ‘conflictive’ profile. The jail on the Carretera de Sant Lluís also currently holds 23 prisoners who are of Menorcan origin or who have links to the island. Another 20 are being held ahead of their appearance in court.

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Brazil judge's murder points to vigilante power

 

Judge Patricia Acioli was known for wielding a "heavy hammer," especially against rogue police who have formed illegal vigilante gangs. She had put more than 60 officers behind bars, most of them for murder. The Rio de Janeiro state judge paid for that fearlessness: Acioli was shot to death in front of her house last month. And all of the 21 bullets that hit her came from a lot issued to police, including some in Sao Goncalo, the city where she worked. While violence and impunity are common in Brazil, the brazen murder of Acioli was an especially heavy blow, a message of intimidation from the vigilante militias. The slaying was "a wound to the lawful state, to democracy; the figure of the judge is a symbol of justice," said Denise Frossard, a retired judge who presided over some of Rio's first cases against the militias in the 1990s. "If she is a judge and can be killed, how can a citizen feel secure enough to be a witness?" Acioli's death was the first murder of a judge in the state's history, though Frossard herself survived three assassination attempts and had eight security guards ensuring her safety while she was on the bench. Violent militias have grown in power and scope in recent years, taking over poor communities formerly controlled by drug dealers and coercing residents to pay for illegal utility hookups, transportation, and security. Their members include former and current police, firefighters and jail guards. Investigators say they have elected members as state and city legislators. They also have been praised by politicians, including Rio de Janeiro's mayor, for taking back swaths of territory from drug gangs. A probe by the state legislature in 2008 found militias were connected to execution-style killings, far-reaching extortion schemes, and the kidnapping and torture of a group of journalists investigating the gangs' activities. Acioli had been repeatedly threatened for taking on the police officers who were part of the gangs, and she had written letters to her superiors requesting protection. One week before her murder, she went to Rio police's internal affairs office and said she was being threatened by officers from Sao Goncalo, where she worked, and Niteroi, where she lived. The last case on her docket on Aug. 11, the day she died, involved policemen charged with executing an 18-year-old man in a slum. One of her last acts as a judge was to authorize their arrest. A month later, three of the same Sao Goncalo police officers were charged with her murder. The suspects knew the judge would ask for their arrest, and wanted to stop her, said Felipe Ettore, the head of Rio's homicide division, in a press conference this week. They didn't know she'd already issued the order. "Their way of stopping her was to kill her," Ettore said. "They went to court and followed Patricia to her front door." Nationwide, the lives of 134 judges are currently under threat, according to the National Council for Justice, which oversees the judiciary branch in Brazil. Requests for protection from magistrates jumped 400 percent in the month since Acioli's death, according to the Brazilian Association of Judges. The killing prompted the United Nations special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Gabriela Knaul, to urge Brazilian authorities to protect those charged with enforcing the law. "The assassination of Judge Acioli is evidence of the existence of a pervasive and serious problem regarding the protection of judges in Brazil," said Knaul, a Brazilian judge herself. Acioli's caseload was taken on by three other judges. Seven prosecutors are now working with them. "Her death did bring on a fear among prosecutors and judges; they're human, and it's natural to think, 'That could be me tomorrow,'" said Claudio Lopes, Rio state's attorney general. "But if this was done to intimidate justice, it is backfiring. We will be more rigorous than ever." The work is not only dangerous, it's difficult. Militias infiltrate the state from local police departments to state legislatures. They have a particularly nefarious effect on the legal system because they blur the boundaries between legitimate agents of the law and criminals, Lopes said. "They're often composed of people credentialed by the state to promote public safety, and they turn against the state, against the public," he said. "They usurp the authority of the state. In this way, they are a danger that goes deeper than drug traffickers." Even a few years ago, some politicians still praised militias for doing what the state couldn't do: take on drug dealers entrenched in the city's shantytowns. Former Rio Mayor Cesar Maia welcomed them as a "lesser evil" and a form of "community self-defense" against drug gangs, according to the newspaper O Globo in 2006. Current Mayor Eduardo Paes praised militias in a July 2008 interview on Globo television, saying they "brought peace to the population" in areas where the state had lost sovereignty to drug lords. Such views are changing as the body count rises. The 2008 investigation led by Marcelo Freixo, head of the state legislature's human rights commission, led to the arrest of one state representative and six city council members for militia activity. Hundreds were arrested on other charges because of information detailed in the report. One of those arrested, Rio City Councilman Luiz Andre Ferreira da Silva, is accused of plotting to kill the city's police chief and Freixo. In Sao Goncalo, 34 officers were put on leave after Acioli's death because they face serious criminal charges such as murder, according to Rio state's Supreme Court. Arrest warrants have been issued for 28 of them. In spite of the threats to Acioli, court officials had cut her security detail from four to one in 2007, said Tecio Lins e Silva, an attorney representing her family. "This is a matter involving my life, and it is very important," Acioli wrote in a letter appealing the decision. "I don't understand the treatment being given to the case." But the security officers were not reinstated. At the moment she was shot, no one was there to protect her.

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Moroccan maids may ‘spell’ trouble, warn some women

 

Saudi women have voiced reservations against recruiting domestic helpers from Morocco as suggested by the chairman of the Saudi recruitment committee. This is due to an old belief that Moroccan women use black magic to lure men to marry them. Some Saudi women urged the Shoura Council to intervene, while others threatened to quit their jobs to look after their homes if housemaids from the country were brought in. Najla, a 32-year-old teacher at a private school, said she felt threatened by the news, pointing out that Moroccan women are known for being pliant and willing to adjust to varying situations, and this posed a threat to a working wife who is not at home most of the day. Raja is a housewife who hopes the move falls through. She said Moroccan women are known for their black magic and could use it in Saudi homes. “It is better to be safe than sorry,” Raja said. “It all depends on the upbringing of the man,” said Nuha, a physician and mother of three young children. She expressed support for the initiative to bring in Moroccan workers and pointed out that any threat can come from workers of any nationality and not only one. Sawsan, a 40-year-old housewife, sees no harm in the initiative as she believes Saudi women should have confidence in themselves. “If a woman knows how to keep her husband satisfied, nothing can threaten her home.” Sameer, a divorced businessman, believes that “black magic” is the key phrase frightening people. “However, other nationalities, as we have experienced in the Kingdom, use black magic to control families.” “I am against having a live-in domestic helper in general,” said Majed, a single lawyer, adding that having a stranger live in anyone’s home is not healthy and can cause many problems, especially in marriages. “It is like bringing in an alien seed and planting it in your garden. No one can predict the outcome.” Umm Fahad, a 27-year-old mother of three, has worked with a Moroccan maid for seven years, and she thought it was the best experience. “She was so clean, quiet and kind, and since she left I have been suffering with workers of other nationalities,” she said, adding that at least the maid spoke the same language and understood Saudi traditions. On the other hand, PR manager Abdullah saw no harm in recruiting from Morocco provided that a minimum age for workers is set and that watchdogs control visa allocations closely to prevent any foul play. Moneera, a single journalist, saw no point to the fuss surrounding this issue. “Many families have recruited Moroccan domestic workers for many years now and there might have been minor complaints about them, like any other nationality.” “It is a ridiculous fear that is without base,” said marriage counselor and psychoanalyst Hany Al-Ghamdi, pointing out that if a man has no respect for his family, nothing will stop him from having an affair and that any concerns about nationality are invalid.  It is a misconception, Al-Ghamdi points out, to stereotype in this way based on nationality. “If there is to be a reasonable analysis, we should ask why Moroccan women know how to attract and keep their men,” said Al-Ghamdi, suggesting that Saudi women who feel threatened should take a closer look at themselves. “There is no black magic in a relationship between a man and woman. But there is the magic of love, caring and tolerance,” said Al-Ghamdi, adding that some women do not know how to understand their men and show tolerance toward them. Tolerance, according to Al-Ghamdi, means being able to overcome problems and disputes and show love and femininity. Moroccan women, in his opinion, are feminine by default. “They feel and express their femininity and surrender to their husbands, which is in their nature, while other women might look at it as degrading,” said Al-Ghamdi, adding that marriages involving Moroccan women in the Kingdom are not a trend that could threaten Saudi women. Teaching love, Al-Ghamdi believes, is one way to reduce Saudi women’s fear of being threatened by other women. “Aisha, the wife of Prophet (peace be upon him), was the first to open a ‘school for women.’ She was teaching women about even the most intimate details of their lives with their husbands. We need more of this teaching, instead of the rigid curriculum we are teaching girls in schools,” said Al-Ghamdi, stressing that even Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said “there is no alternative for love but to marry.” In his opinion this is a clear sign that there is love before marriage or at least strong admiration and desire, on which homes should be built to dispel any such threats.

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At least two die in fire on Norwegian cruise ship

 

Two crew members have died in a fire on a cruise ship off the coast of Norway. At least a dozen people were injured, two seriously, as the blaze forced rescuers to evacuate more than 200 passengers from the ship, the Nordlys. The ship was sailing close to the port of Aalesund in western Norway when a fire broke out in the engine room. Police believe there was an explosion, but do not know what caused the blast. Some people were taken hospital for treatment for smoke inhalation. Television pictures showed clouds of thick black smoke rising from the ship after it was taken to Aalesund. The Nordlys, which belongs to the Hurtigruten company, was sailing northwards from Bergen to the Arctic circle when it caught fire. All 207 passengers were rescued. The ship can carry nearly 700 passengers. Some of the 55 crew members remained on board to help firefighters battle the blaze. "The fire is under control now but we have a problem with the ship taking on water so right now they are working on stabilising the vessel," a spokeswoman for the rescue services in southern Norway, Borghild Eldoeen, said. The nationalities of the passengers were not known, but most of the tourists on Hurtigruten ships are from Norway.

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Holloway lawyer smuggled drugs into Pentonville Prison in oversized shoes

 

Five people are facing years behind bars after smuggling drugs and mobile phones into Pentonville Prison – including a lawyer who stuffed illicit goods into his oversized shoes. Ritesh Brahmbhatt, 31, took phones, high-strength cannabis and the stimulant mephedrone into the prison in Caledonian Road, Holloway, in a pair of size-12 slip-ons bought from menswear store High and Mighty. The revelations come within a month of a scathing report by the prison’s independent monitoring board, which revealed a drug problem is stoking gang trouble and violence in the jail. It also emerged that a drugs counsellor from Canonbury is to stand trial next year accused of smuggling cannabis into the prison in an unrelated case. Dismissed Brahmbhatt, who was dismissed from law firm Mordi and Co in Holloway Road, Holloway, when caught, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle drugs, mobile phones and other prohibited items into Pentonville in July – but details have just emerged after his four accomplices were convicted on Friday after denying the charge. David Sterling, 28, of Mallory Close, Bromley-by-Bow, Desmond Brown, 27, of Montague Road, Leytonstone, Brown’s girlfriend Danielle Porter, 24, of Saltern Court, Barking, and Calvin Chance, 26, of Birch Grove, Leytonstone, were convicted at Blackfriars Crown Court following a trial. Rufuz D’Cruz, prosecuting, said: “Ritesh Brahmbhatt entered into a crude criminal conspiracy to smuggle prohibited items into prison with his clients, Sterling and Brown, who at that time were serving prisoners, and Chance and Porter.” Mr D’Cruz said he abused his position of trust and “chose to routinely undermine the rule of law”. The gang was snared after a prison officer spotted his suspiciously high number of legal visits – 15 between February and September in 2009. He was caught with a mobile phone, earphones, a pair of electronic scales and a small quantity of mephedrone, or “meow meow”, in his right shoe and 25g of high-strength “skunk” cannabis in his left, while a further 80g of cannabis was stuffed down his trousers. The lawyer intended to pass the contraband to inmate Sterling, who was wearing a full-length Muslim robe. Two more mobile phones – which can fetch up to £1,000 each inside – were discovered in his jail locker and an envelope with £300 of cash. Police found text messages and financial information linking the five, while several phone calls and visits were known to have taken place. Nearly £20,000 passed through bank accounts belonging to Brahmbhatt, Porter and two others. The five defendants have been remanded in custody awaiting sentencing. A Prison Service spokesman said: “We are working hard to keep contraband out of prison, using a range of security measures to reduce drug supply, including working closely with police forces and carrying out random mandatory drug tests.”

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Aussie Poker Pro David Saab Gaoled For Drug Smuggling

 

Professional poker player David Saab from Victoria in Australia faces a lengthy period away from the game after being convicted of smuggling 14.6kg of cocaine into the country.  The drugs, which had an estimated street value of AU$6.5 million (£4.22m) were hidden inside agricultural machinery imported from Canada.  Saab was convicted alongside fellow players Darren Francis Hughes and Robert Alan Remeeus; he faces 14 years in prison while his accomplices both received 8-year sentences. The highlight of Saab’s poker career was his victory in the Manila leg of the Asian Poker Tour in 2008, a win which netted him $280,000.  He has also appeared on tv screens in Britain, when he participated in a heat of the UK Open.  He came 46th in the Main Event at the 2008 World Series of Poker.  His total live tournament earnings amount to more than $550,000. Sentencing Saab, Judge Liz Gaynor said: “It is clear that you were the principal organiser in Australia of this importation and would derive the most benefit from it.”

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Briton arrested for drug smuggling

 

Customs and Excise officers at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport have foiled an attempt to smuggle 6.5 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine (shabu-shabu) worth Rp 13 billion and arrested a British national. The head of the Customs Office, Oza Olivia, said the suspect was identified as Gareth G.D, 32, who flew from Istanbul, Turkey and arrived at the airport with Turkish Airlines on Tuesday evening. “Members of our tactical unit conducted profile analyses of passengers at Terminal II-D and began to suspect him of carrying illegal items,” she told reporters on Wednesday. Oza said officers were suspicious and decided to search the suspect’s luggage. They found the drugs hidden inside the luggage. The suspect, a construction worker in his home country, later confessed that he received an order from a Turkish man, whom he identified as A, to transport the drug to Jakarta and was promised US$1,000 when the delivery was made. Oza claimed that by intercepting the drug delivery, her agency managed to prevent thousands of youths becoming drug addicts. She also said that in collaboration with the National Narcotics Agency, the Customs Office is still investigating the case. Drug smuggling attempts through the country’s main international gate continues to rise despite the threat of the death penalty. Drug smugglers can be charged under Article 113 of the 2009 Law on Narcotics, which carries a possible death sentence.

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Madeleine Cops In Portugal

 

They may not have welcomed the order from Downing Street to launch an investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance, but at least Scotland Yard detectives have made a first visit to Portugual. I can't imagine they were given a warm welcome by their Portuguese colleagues whose work (failure to solve the mystery) the Met team is reviewing. Still, it's a step in the right direction and officially the two groups met "with very good co-operation and liaison will continue." There are 30 Met officers - the equivalent of a murder squad - working on the review and I'm told that a senior officer is having to give regular spending updates to the Home Office which is funding an operation that will cost several millions and last many months. It's four months since the review was launched with great fanfare by the Prime Minister after a plea from Kate and Gerry McCann. The couple had long felt abandoned by the British and Portuguese authorities to hunt alone for their missing daughter. But it's difficult to get much information about the operation from the cops, No 10 or the Home Office. A recent Freedom of Information request for answers to a dozen of so questions has been held up by the Yard's FOI man while he considers if the info sought is in the public interest.

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Traces of Gaddafi's gilded life

• Image Credit: AFP/EPA
• Tent commandments: A picture combo shows revolutionaries taking souvenir pictures inside the tent where Libyan leader Gaddafi used to receive foreign dignitaries at the Bab Al Aziziya compound in Tripoli and Gaddafi meeting with Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila in the same tent on July 17, 2008 (top and bottom). Top right: A man plays the piano in the ransacked seaside summer house of Hannibal Gaddafi, son of Muammar Gaddafi.

Tripoli: His name of choice was the Brother Leader, though his nearly 42 years of rule were rarely brotherly, and his leadership left one of the world’s most richly endowed countries in shambles.

Now, as the former subjects of Muammar Gaddafi comb through his family’s mansions, farms and seaside villas, the properties are revealing the details of lives lived far removed from the people, ones filled with the signs of their peccadilloes and rivalries.
At one farm, horses wandered by marble statues of lions, tigers and bears, and reindeers grazed by the wood deck of an empty pool. At the home of one son, Sa’adi, there were signs of a life mundane in its seeming frustration. A man who drifted through stints as an athlete, soldier and Hollywood movie producer, Sa’adi kept the English language self-help book Success Intelligence in his master bedroom. Given Gaddafi’s noted flamboyance, the residences of the House of Gaddafi were not quite as grand as people might minor have supposed.

Faux grandeur

They lacked the faux grandeur of Saddam Hussain’s marbled palaces. There are no columns that bear the Gaddafi’s initials, or fists cast in replica of his hands, or river-fed moats with voracious carp.

“For somebody who’s very rich, he was very cheap,” said resident Fuad Gritli, as he drove through a sprawling parcel near the airport known as the Farm, where Gaddafi lived.

In the sanctum of the Farm, there are rolling, irrigated fields. Camels wandered unattended. Still standing was a tent where he met foreign dignitaries, its canvas decorated in pictures of camels and palm trees. “We weren’t allowed to get anywhere near, not even the gate,” Gritli said. “Gaddafi was not living like a rich man, I admit that, said Malek Al Bakouri, a 27-year-old doctor from Tripoli, as he drove past a guest house where water cascaded from a broken pipe in a city suffering from a shortage of it. “But his sons, all the people in his tribe, and all the families around him lived good, and they lived good for 40 years.”

Gaddafi's sons’ behaviour would have made a reality show proud — Sa’adi was a professional soccer player, and Hannibal repeatedly had brushes with the law in Europe. But the sons’ villas on a sand bluff overlooking the Mediterranean had a distinctly 1970s feel. They were not lavish; the brown paint on the patio decks was peeling. But to the young fighters roaming through Hannibal’s quarters — furnished overwhelmingly in whites and blacks, and ringed with plastic grass — there was just enough luxury to inspire envy. “We’ve got to take this over!” said Bahaeddin Zintani, a 23-year-old revolutionary who took turns with his brother lying in bed and posing for pictures before a home gym fitted with a mirror. “This is the first time I’ve even seen anything like this.”

On a black granite bar, there were cases for Johnnie Walker Blue Label and Dom Perignon Rose, all empty.

Muatassim, the fourth-eldest Gaddafi son and the country’s national security adviser, surrounded himself with more luxury. He regularly arrived in a convoy of cars to a farmhouse in the Ain Zara neighbourhood of Tripoli protected by high walls and gates on four sides that were made to look like cinder-block walls. A driveway with a fountain featuring four-horse drawn carriages, and then, an ostentatious pool bungalow, with Roman columns at the entrance and topped by gold domes that looked like Hershey Kisses.

Amid the scattered shards of gilded furniture were relics of Sa’adi’s mundane if coddled life: directions for a battery-powered Barbie doll, mermaid floats that children must have played with in the swimming pool out back, a phrase book of English vocabulary for the finance business. Through his long reign, Gaddafi posed as an ever-struggling revolutionary, his ideas encapsulated in The Green Book. (In one memorable passage, he defended freedom of expression, even if a person chooses “to express his or her insanity.”) But the avowed simplicity never matched his lifestyle, prone as he was to epaulets, billowing robes and shirts emblazoned with green maps of Africa. His all-female contingent of guards was supposedly sworn to celibacy.

At Muammar Gaddafi’s residence in Bab Al Aziziya, his fortress-like preserve in the heart of Tripoli, there was a white binder with hundreds of pages of clippings about him. Graffiti on a wall nearby taunted the Brother Leader, now nicknamed for another distinguishing trait: unmanageable grooming. “Where’s the guy with the crazy hair?” it said.

 

 

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Millions of Hotmail users cut off by Microsoft 'cloud' failure

 

As well as Hotmail, the outage affected Office 365 and the Skydrive online storage service. Microsoft said the cause appeared to be related to the Domain Name System, the computer network that ensures that web addresses are connected to websites. “Preliminary root cause suggests a DNS issue,” the firm said on its office 365 Twitter feed. The problems lasted for at least two-and-a-half hours, beginning at around 4AM British Summer Time. On a company blog, Microsoft said it had fixed the problem at 5.45AM, but the repairs took some time to “propagate” through the DNS network.  "We are working on propagating the DNS configuration changes and so it will take some time to restore service to everyone. Again we appreciate your patience," the firm said. For Office 365, Microsoft’s subscription-only competitor to Google Apps, which went live earlier this year, it was the second major technical failure in less than a month. Such incidents are likely to give pause to organisations considering migration to online “cloud” services, whereby software is delivered from vast data centres, over the internet.

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Corruption scandal plunges Kuwait into deep crisis

 

The wealthy Gulf state of Kuwait appeared headed Thursday for a major political crisis over allegations of corruption involving several members of Parliament and former ministers. Media reported that a number of banks planned to refer as many as 15 MPs and possibly former ministers to the public prosecution to investigate "suspicious" huge cash deposits into their accounts. Citing informed sources, Al-Rai daily said local banks are likely to refer between 15-20 MPs in the 50-member parliament to public prosecution to probe money-laundering suspicions. It said a number of former ministers could be involved in the scam. State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Ali al-Rashed denied late Wednesday reports that incumbent ministers were involved in the alleged scandal. The government has instructed the central bank and the finance ministry to "take all necessary legal measures" to deal with the allegations. The scandal, as opposition MPs describe it, was exposed by Al-Qabas newspaper in an unsourced report two weeks ago that cash funds totaling 25 million dinars ($92 million/65.4 million euros) had been deposited into the accounts of two MPs. The report claimed the deposits were linked to domestic political events including grillings, indicating that the deposits were used to buy the support of the lawmakers in crucial voting in parliament. Independent Shiite MP Hassan Jowhar expected the issue to develop into a major political crisis that will lead to dissolving parliament and calling for snap polls, the fourth since May 2006. Youth activists campaigning to oust Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, a senior member of the ruling family, plan to stage a new rally on September 16 and the corruption charges could energize them. Kuwaiti opposition MPs demanded recalling parliament from summer recess for an emergency session on September 22 to review government measures on the allegations and debate and pass a number of anti-corruption laws.

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Shameful phone hacking scandal forces change inside the Murdoch bunker

 

A community with a voracious appetite for scandal, it does appear we are experiencing Murdoch news fatigue. Like frogs in boiling water, we are losing sensitivity to the barrage of sensational News Corp instalments flowing from the phone hacking affair. On Tuesday, two former News International managers - head of legal affairs Tom Crone and News of the World editor Colin Myler - told a British parliamentary committee that James Murdoch had been made aware of widespread phone hacking despite his written statement to the contrary. The testimony was another milestone in the series of explosive revelations of systemic criminal phone hacking which had been going on for years but allegedly covered up by a corporate and police conspiracy. Advertisement: Story continues below Since the hacking affair was blown open, there has been a myriad of developments from the company, government and police - many of them astonishing. Much of this is highly significant to the Murdoch empire, and the ramifications have been difficult to digest. This shameful episode has changed the News Corp organisation and Rupert Murdoch's management style. In a corporate sense, the decision by Murdoch to undertake a $US5 billion ($4.7 billion) share buyback is, on its own, momentous. Aggressive expansion of the News Corp empire has been a hallmark of Murdoch's modus operandi. The decision to undertake a capital management program that allocated cash to shareholders rather than to acquisitions marks a major departure. The focus of News Corp's strategy in the past has been on raising funds and using available cash to expand, and avoiding the dilution of Murdoch family control. This was never more evident than in the creation of News Corp non-voting stock and the move to domicile the company in the lax regulatory jurisdiction of Delaware. The only other incidence of Rupert Murdoch bowing to outside pressure was in the early 1990s, when the Pittsburgh Bank famously forced News Corp to the brink of bankruptcy by threatening to block the rollover to a new debt package. News Corp has otherwise been run by Rupert Murdoch and in his way. The notion of appeasing minority shareholders is new to Murdoch, as is divorcing the hard-wired nepotism.

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