More insanity from Afghanistan

Journalist U.S. Had Detained Is Killed - NYTimes.com

Parwez Kambakhsh was convicted of blasphemy for asking questions in a university class about women's rights under Islam. Prosecutors also said he illegally distributed an article he printed off the Internet that asks why Islam does not modernize to give women equal rights. He also allegedly wrote his own comments on the paper.

The case against the 24-year-old Kambakhsh, whose brother has angered Afghan warlords with his own writings, has come to symbolize Afghanistan's slide toward an ultraconservative view on religious and individual freedoms.

Human Rights Watch said Kambakhsh had not committed a crime and called on President Hamid Karzai to pardon him.

''The Supreme Court represented the last hope that Parwez Kambakhsh would receive a fair hearing, but once again justice was denied,'' said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Another insane story from Saudi Arabia

Saudis order 40 lashes for elderly woman for mingling - CNN.com

Iraq's Unspeakable Crime: Mothers Pimping Daughters

She goes by "Hinda," but that's not her real name. That's what she's called by the many Iraqi sex traffickers and pimps who contact her several times a week from across the country. They think she is one of them, a peddler of sexual slaves. Little do they know that the stocky, auburn-haired woman is an undercover human rights activist who has been quietly mapping out their murky underworld since 2006.
That underworld is a place where nefarious female pimps hold sway, where impoverished mothers sell their teenage daughters into a sex market that believes females who reach the age of 20 are too old to fetch a good price. The youngest victims, some just 11 and 12, are sold for as much as $30,000, others for as little as $2,000. "The buying and selling of girls in Iraq, it's like the trade in cattle," Hinda says. "I've seen mothers haggle with agents over the price of their daughters."

Read the full story here

Pennsylvania rocked by 'jailing kids for cash' scandal

Judges get kickbacks for sending kids to detention camps

At a friend's sleepover more than a year ago, 14-year-old Phillip Swartley pocketed change from unlocked vehicles in the neighborhood to buy chips and soft drinks. The cops caught him.

Hillary Transue was 15 when she appeared before a judge, accused of mocking a principal on MySpace.

There was no need for an attorney, said Phillip's mother, Amy Swartley, who thought at most, the judge would slap her son with a fine or community service.

But she was shocked to find her eighth-grader handcuffed and shackled in the courtroom and sentenced to a youth detention center. Then, he was shipped to a boarding school for troubled teens for nine months.

"Yes, my son made a mistake, but I didn't think he was going to be taken away from me," said Swartley, a 41-year-old single mother raising two boys in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

CNN does not usually identify minors accused of crimes. But Swartley and others agreed to be named to bring public attention to the issue.

As scandals from Wall Street to Washington roil the public trust, the justice system in Luzerne County, in the heart of Pennsylvania's struggling coal country, has also fallen prey to corruption. The county has been rocked by a kickback scandal involving two elected judges who essentially jailed kids for cash. Many of the children had appeared before judges without a lawyer.

The nonprofit Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia said Phillip is one of at least 5,000 children over the past five years who appeared before former Luzerne County President Judge Mark Ciavarella.

McDonald's sucks for not paying this man's medical bills

Daily Kos: McDonald's refuses workers compensation for shooting victim: Be a hero on your own time

Amen - Autobiography of a Nun, by Sister Jesme, alleges sexual abuse and corruption in Kerala’s Catholic Church

Sexual Abuse alleged by former Nun in Kerala, India

The Catholic Church in Kerala, India, which has barely recovered from the Sister Abhaya murder case, allegedly murdered by two priests and a nun, finds itself in another controversy.

52-year-old Sister Jesme, a former nun from Kerala, has blown the
whistle on the alleged sexual abuse that nuns have to face in convents.
Sister Jesme has written a book - Amen - Oru Kanyasthreeyude Atmakatha (Amen  - an autobiography of a nun,) that talks about the sexual harassment that she faced in the convent at the hands of both priests and nuns.

Two-year-old Indian 'marries dog

A two-year-old boy has been "married" to a dog in eastern India to "ward off evil sprits and bad luck".

The "marriage" took place in a village in Jajpur district on Monday.

The "groom", Sagula Munda, was taken to the house of the dog,
called Jyoti, in a highly decorated rickshaw and priests solemnised the
ceremony.

The boy's father said such "marriages" were a tradition and
would help ease the bad omen of the tooth rooted in Sagula's upper gum.

Tribal deity

The "marriage" was in the tribal-dominated Patarpur village.

Like in every Hindu marriage, the priests chanted Sankrit prayers and hymns and there was an accompanying feast.

The boy's father, Sanrumula Munda, said of the wedding: "Tribals not
only in this state but also in neighbouring Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand,
observe such practices to keep the evil spirits away."

Arranging "marriages" with dogs kept children protected from ghosts and bad luck, he said.

The parents of Sagula and other local people consider the biological tooth defect a bad omen both for the family and neighbours.

The "bride's" father, Parakrama Munda, said: "This is just a
ceremony to please the tribal deity - in the great epic Mahabharat a
dog helped the Pandavas reach heaven."

He said it was a superstition, like wearing a stone or a talisman.

One attending resident, Dushmant Rout, said the "bride" had
spent a few hours at the "groom's" house "but not inside the room...
she stayed on the verandah".

New way of using sound--amazing invention

Woody Norris invents amazing things | Video on TED.com

Hidden Shame

Israel learns of a hidden shame in its early years | World news | The Guardian

Soldiers raped and killed Bedouin girl in the Negev

Will You Help Me With My Next Film? ...a request from Michael Moore

Friends,

I am in the middle of shooting my next movie and I am looking for a few
brave people who work on Wall Street or in the financial industry to
come forward and share with me what they know. Based on those who have
already contacted me, I believe there are a number of you who know "the
real deal" about the abuses that have been happening. You have
information that the American people need to hear. I am humbly asking
you for a moment of courage, to be a hero and help me expose the
biggest swindle in American history.

All correspondence with me will be kept confidential. Your identity
will be protected and you will decide to what extent you wish to
participate in telling the greatest crime story ever told.

The important thing here is for you to step up as an American and do
your duty of shedding some light on this financial collapse. A few good
people have already come forward, which leads me to believe there are
many more of you out there who know what's going on. Here's your chance
to let your fellow citizens in on the truth.

If you have any info that would help, please contact me at my private email address: bailout@michaelmoore.com.

For the rest of you on my email list who don't work in the financial
industry, you're probably wondering, "What the heck is this all about?
I thought he said he was making a romantic comedy!"

Well, I just can't say much right now. I'm sure you can understand
why. One thing I can tell you is that you're gonna like this movie when
I'm done with it. Oh, yeah...

So, again, if you work for a bank, a brokerage firm or an insurance
company -- or if you have seen things or heard things that you believe
the American people have a right to know -- please contact me at bailout@michaelmoore.com.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Yours,

Michael Moore

bailout@michaelmoore.com

MichaelMoore.com

Saudi judge sentences pregnant gang-rape victim to 100 lashes for committing adultery

Lashes for gang-rape victim

More insanity from this primitive country.

A Saudi judge has ordered a woman should be jailed for a year and
receive 100 lashes after she was gang-raped, it was claimed last night.

The 23-year-old woman, who became pregnant after her ordeal, was reportedly assaulted after accepting a lift from a man.

He
took her to a house to the east of the city of Jeddah where she was
attacked by him and four of his friends throughout the night.

1709 The Year Europe Froze

1709: The year that Europe froze - environment - 07 February 2009 - New Scientist

n

Shocking photo

Archive.org Public Domain Feature Films--free

http://www.archive.org/details/feature_films

There are hundreds of older movies on this site--some great and some not-so great.  All movies on this site are Public Domain.

Thais Royals a little edgy

A Royal Offence

Australian writer Harry Nicolaides has been sentenced to three years in a Thai prison
for writing a novel that practically nobody has read. Nicolaides'
Verisimilitude had a print run of 50 copies. He sold no more than 10.
But something in the book allegedly insulted Thailand's royal family,
and that was enough to have him chained at the ankles, shaven-headed and snivelling, remorseful to the heavens but too late to avoid some time in jail.

Fair or not (and many Thais will insist that it is not), Nicolaides' pitiable image is the current face of Thailand's lese-majesty law: frivolous and disproportionate, some would say ridiculous, maybe even funny, if it weren't so chilling.

Muslims attack Muslim kids at sporting event

Two brothers were attacked by opposing ball hockey players and spectators
because of their religion, their father said. Ahmed Buksh said his sons, Elijah,
21, and Izaiah, 20, were playing at the B. C. Institute of Technology gym in
Burnaby on Sunday in a tournament put on by the B. C. Muslim Sports Association.
"It was a targeted attack on two boys. I never saw anything like it," Mr. Buksh
said. "It was just disgusting. They believe we are non-Muslim. At the end of the
day, that is the cause." Mr. Buksh said he and his sons are Muslims, but do not
follow the Sunni branch of the religion, which the sports association favours.
"I just believe in being Muslim," he said. According to Mr. Buksh, the
derogatory comments directed toward the men turned to open hostility during the
early stages of their second game of the tournament. Both were attacked by the
opposing players. One was hit in the head by a stick and the other suffered
broken teeth after being hit in the face. "Before you know it, it was just a
massive riot," said Mr. Buksh. "I went in there as a father and tried to help."

Shameful

A Bahamian paramedic pleaded not guilty and was held without bail on Monday
on charges he conspired to extort US$25-million from John Travolta after the
actor's son died in the Bahamas earlier this month. Bahamian police said last
week they were investigating a complaint by Travolta of an extortion plot
against him. Prosecutors allege the paramedic, Tarino Lightbourne, tried to
extort Travolta by means of threats. They also charged him with forgery.
Magistrate Carolita Bethel adjourned his hearing until today, when a former
Bahamian senator, Pleasant Bridgewater, is due in court to face charges of
conspiracy to extort and abetment in connection with the case. Jett Travolta,
16, was found unconscious on Jan. 2 at his family's home in the Old Bahama Bay
resort on Grand Bahama Island. On the death certificate, Bahamian authorities
listed "seizure disorder" as the cause of death.