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Strauss-Kahn Seeks at Least $1 Million from Maid

Sebastian Smith
Agence France-Presse
Tue, 15 May 2012 00:00 UTC
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Nafissatou Diallo
© Reuters / Todd Heisler/Pool (L) and Shannon Stapleton (R)
Former International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn (L) and Nafissatou Diallo are seen in this combination photo.
Disgraced ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is seeking more than $1 million in a countersuit against the New York hotel maid whose accusation of sexual assault last year brought down his glittering political career.

The countersuit, signed Monday and made public Tuesday, seeks a minimum of $1 million, plus legal costs and undetermined punitive damages from the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, who is accused of "falsely and maliciously asserting" she was attacked.

The 18-page document accuses Diallo of malicious prosecution, abuse of process, false imprisonment, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

"Ms Diallo participated in the commencement and maintenance of a baseless criminal prosecution," the suit said, "and in doing so intended to injure Mr Strauss-Kahn."

The suit was the French politician's latest attempt to turn the tables on Diallo and recover from a scandal that started a year ago Monday when Diallo accused him of forcing her into oral sex when she went to clean his luxury hotel room.

An initial criminal case against Strauss-Kahn collapsed because Diallo lied to Manhattan prosecutors on certain aspects of the story.
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Cult

China Rebuts Dalai Lama's Alleged Poison Plot

Jeff Stacklin
The Lookout
Mon, 14 May 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press/Lenny Ignelzi
The Dalai Lama at a news conference in April 2012.
After the Dalai Lama accused China of trying to poison him, the Chinese government rebutted his claims and said that if it wanted the Tibetan spiritual leader dead, it could have done so without waiting until he was 76 years old.

The Dalai Lama told the Sunday Telegraph that he believed the Chinese government had trained women to put poison in their hair and scarves for him to touch when he blessed them. The newspaper said that he and his aides have not been able to confirm the plots.

It's common practice for the Dalai Lama to place his hands on devotees heads when he blesses them, reported the Associated Press. He's usually surrounded by crowds of followers when he travels outside of the northern Indian town of Dharmsala, where he lives.
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Pharoah

Meet France's new power couple

Angelique Chrisafis
The Guardian
Mon, 14 May 2012 05:37 UTC
Image
© KeystoneUSA-ZUMA/Rex Features
François Hollande kisses his partner Valérie Trierweiler after winning the presidential election.
French president François Hollande and his partner Valérie Trierweiler are now France's first family. So how will they differ from the Sarkozys?

On a stage in a country town square, the accordion band struck up Edith Piaf's bitter-sweet love song, La Vie en Rose. François Hollande, just elected France's first Socialist president in 17 years, attempted a few steps of a waltz with his partner Valérie Trierweiler before she stepped back, perhaps realising they might look a little ridiculous on TV. "Kiss! Kiss!" demanded the crowd gathered in Tulle in Hollande's rural powerbase of Corrèze. It was Trierweiler who had chosen the Piaf song, stock soundtrack of France, and who had asked the mayor to play it.

The music marked the return of the accordion to French politics, not seen since the faux-rustic former president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing played it in the 1970s - an important message about Hollande's rural, Mr Normal image. But it also showed the subtle importance of Trierweiler behind the scenes. Moments earlier, the political journalist - who began a relationship with Hollande after years covering the Socialist party for Paris Match magazine - had sat with him as he put the last touches to his victory speech. Hollande might have won the election by styling himself as the Ordinary Guy, a powerful political branding exercise, but it was Trierweiler who appeared to have coined the term, having described him as "the Normal Man" in a profile she wrote in 2004.
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Airplane

Met Police London City Airport Guard Shoots Himself Dead Inside Police Station

Simon Freeman and Emer Martin
London Evening Standard
Tue, 15 May 2012 05:18 UTC
North Woolwich Police Station
© Google
Airport guard dies after being found with serious gunshot wounds

An investigation has been launched after an armed Met police airport guard shot himself dead at a Docklands police station.

The constable, in his 30s, was a member of London City Airport's SO18 security team. He was found by a colleague with serious gunshot wounds at North Woolwich station, in Newham, at 2.30pm on Sunday.

Paramedics battled to save his life but he was pronounced dead 22 minutes later. Scotland Yard today said no-one else was being sought in connection with the tragedy.

The station is used as a base by armed officers on the nearby airport's Aviation Security Command.
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Footprints

European leaders and financial markets braced for Greece exit from euro

Larry Elliott & Ian Traynor
The Guardian
Tue, 15 May 2012 04:57 UTC
Image
Return to drachma nears amid political impasse in Athens and open discussion in Brussels of possible end of single currency

Financial markets are hastily making preparations for a Greek exit from the euro after a day of political and economic turmoil ended with Europe's policy elite admitting for the first time that it may prove impossible to keep the single currency intact.

With attempts in Athens to form a government after last week's election looking increasingly doomed, European leaders abandoned their taboo on talking about the possibility that Greece might have to leave the euro.

Shares, oil, and the euro were all sold heavily on Monday in anticipation that anti-austerity parties would garner support in a second Greek election likely to be held next month, bringing the row between Greece and its European creditors to a climax.
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Stormtrooper

Oakland Cop Shoots, Kills High School Senior; Nothing to See Here

Ed Krayewski
reason.com
Mon, 14 May 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© unknown
US, California - An Oakland cop shot a fleeing high school senior three times, killing the teenager while shooting himself in the foot. Oakland police claim they saw a hidden gun on 18-year-old Alan Blueford's person shortly after midnight, causing them to pursue him. That's when cops say Blueford pointed a gun at one of the officers (they also say "several independent witnesses" corroborate the claim), compelling him to shoot.

Police are not releasing the name of the officer, who is on paid administrative leave, though the San Francisco Chronicle identified him as Officer Miguel Masso. A police spokesperson, meanwhile, offered to the media that Alan Blueford had been convicted of felony burglary and was on probation when shot. His father says his son was completing the community service portion of his sentencing, and speculated that his son ran away from cops because he didn't want to get into any more trouble. He says his son was in the Oakland neighborhood for the Floyd Mayweather match.

Blueford's family has retained counsel, civil rights attorney James Burris, who points out all the shots were fired by cops. The family also claimed in a statement that their son was left to bleed to death, and that Blueford's friends were detained for six hours following the incident. The family says it was informed of their son's death at the hands of cops not by the police department but from one of Blueford's friends after he was released. The family also points out that the original police version claimed an exchange of gunfire. Investigators say the gun recovered at the scene had not been shot.
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Heart - Black

49 Headless Bodies Dumped on North Mexico Highway

Olga R. Rodriguez and Porfirio Ibarra Ramirez
ABC 9 - KTRE
Sun, 13 May 2012 09:57 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press/Christian Palma
A federal policeman guards the area where dozens of bodies were found on a highway connecting the northern Mexican metropolis of Monterrey to the U.S. border near the city of Monterrey, Mexico on May 13.
Monterrey, Mexico - Forty-nine bodies with their heads, hands and feet hacked off were found Sunday dumped on a northern Mexico highway leading to the Texas border in what appeared to be the latest carnage in an escalating war between Mexico's two dominant drug cartels.

Local and federal authorities discovered the bodies before dawn scattered in a pool of blood at the entrance to the town of San Juan, on a highway leading from the metropolis of Monterrey to the border city of Reynosa. A white stone arch welcoming visitors was spray-painted with black letters: "100% Zeta."

Nuevo Leon state security spokesman Jorge Domene said at a news conference that the 43 men and six women would be hard to identify because of the lack of heads, hands and feet. The bodies were being taken to a Monterrey auditorium for DNA tests.

The victims could have been killed as long as two days ago at another location, then transported to San Juan, a town in the municipality of Cadereyta, about 105 miles (175 kilometers) west-southwest of McAllen, Texas, and 75 miles (125 kilometers) southwest of the Roma, Texas, border crossing, state Attorney General Adrian de la Garza said.
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Light Saber

Paul Rusconi, Malibu Artist, Cleared Of Allegations Of Raping His Twin Daughters


Huff Post Los Angeles
Mon, 14 May 2012 19:03 UTC
Paul Rusconi
© KTLA
Famed Malibu photographer Paul Rusconi was cleared Friday of allegations that he raped his 20-month-old twin daughters.
After being cleared Friday of allegations that he raped his 20-month-old twin daughters, famed Malibu photographer Paul Rusconi cried.(Video here)

It's been almost a year since distant family members, the nanny who took care of Rusconi's two girls, and her husband, accused him of raping his daughters after seeing photos that he had taken of himself with his girls in a bathtub, KTLA reports.

Rusconi believes that the couple targeted him because he is a gay single father. "They all called me a sexual deviant and a pervert," Rusconi told KTLA. "That's all stemming from my sexuality."
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Airplane

Nepal Plane Crash: 13 Indians Die; 2 Girls & Dad Rescued


The Times of India
Mon, 14 May 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© unknown
Kathmandu - Two Indian children aged nine and six were pulled out alive along with their father and three others from the wreckage of a small plane that crashed near a tricky airport around 2,600m above sea level in northern Nepal on Monday, killing 15 of the 21 people on board, mostly Indians.

Officials said 13 Indians killed in the crash included the mother of the two. Seven of them were from Mumbai and one from Hyderabad. It was unclear where the rest were from and the airline didn't identify the dead.

Kathmandu's Indian embassy identified three Indian survivors as Tirumala Kidambi Sreekanth, Tirumala Kidambi Sreevardhini (9) and Tirumala Kidambi Sreepada (6). They were airlifted to the tourist town of Pokhara for treatment along with other survivors - two Danes and a Nepalese air hostess. Officials said Sreekanth was admitted to Pokhara's Manipal Teaching Hospital ICU, while the two children were in a post-operative ward. B L Karna of Tribhuvan airport said the pilot aborted landing at Jomsom airport at the last moment and tried to return to Pokhara, 60km away, due to a technical problem.
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Bizarro Earth

Selective Empathy: Obama's, Cheney's, and Ours

Jon Reinsch
Common Dreams
Mon, 14 May 2012 21:55 UTC
funeral prayers for the victims of a drone strike
© Getty Images
Locals offer funeral prayers for the victims of a drone strike in Miranshah, North Waziristan February 15, 2009.
"Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it's an issue our family is very familiar with. ...With the respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone. ... People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to." --Dick Cheney

"But I have to tell you that over the course of-- several years, as I talk to friends and family and neighbors. When I think about-- members of my own staff who are incredibly committed, in monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together....At a certain point, I've just concluded that-- for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that-- I think same-sex couples should be able to get married." --Barack Obama

Every positive development has a negative side (and leave it to me to find it). How fortunate for the cause of marriage equality that there are gay people on the White House staff, and that Dick Cheney has a lesbian daughter. Perhaps if the president had some staffers from Yemen, or the former vice president's daughter married a Pakistani, they would awaken to the humanity of people in those places too.

But Obama's recognition of the right of gay Americans to marry is not matched by an awareness of the right of Afghans to live free of airstrikes. Instead, we have an endless succession of horrors like this, sometimes (but not always) followed by apologies that would mean something if only they were followed by the complete abandonment of a strategy that leads inevitably to parents weeping over the lifeless bodies of their children. I doubt Obama would be so cavalier about civilian casualties if they happened in Chicago.
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