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US: Woman Gets Life Sentence in Maryland Yoga Shop Murder

Eric Tucker
The Associated Press
Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:15 UTC
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© unknown
A woman convicted of killing her co-worker at an upscale yoga clothing shop in the Washington suburbs, then spinning an elaborate lie about being attacked by two masked men, was ordered Friday to spend the rest of her life behind bars.

Brittany Norwood tearfully apologized to the family of her victim in her first public statements since her arrest in March. A jury two months ago convicted Norwood of first-degree murder for bludgeoning and stabbing 30-year-old Jayna Murray, a co-worker at the Lululemon Athletica shop in Bethesda. Murray had more than 330 distinct wounds on her body, and investigators believe she was alive for the duration of the attack.

The judge was unmoved by Norwood's tears, telling the 29-year-old that her crime "exemplified the worst of human nature" and that she was "one hell of a liar." He rejected defense pleas that she was capable of rehabilitation and deserved an eventual shot at freedom.

"You mutilated this woman. And with every blow, you had a chance to think about what you were doing," said Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Robert Greenberg in imposing a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

The violent nature of the crime, and the initial accounts by Norwood of two murderers and rapists on the run, rattled the community northwest of Washington.
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House

Ireland: Jobless Man Builds a House Out of $1.82 Billion Worth of Shredded Money

Tecca
Y! Tech
Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC

What would you do with $1.82 billion worth of shredded money? In Ireland, people build houses out of it - at least that's what Dublin-based artist Frank Buckley did. The unemployed artist originally wanted to create a gallery for his series of mixed-media artworks called "Expressions of Recession," but he ended up building a house instead.
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Bizarro Earth

Right-Wing Official Pushes Bible Death Message at Obama

Frederick Clarkson
AlterNet
Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:43 UTC
hand & Bible
© n/a
A prominent Kansas elected official has made news in recent weeks after an email he passed around seemed to pray for the death of President Obama.

As president Obama made his way to the podium before his State of the Union address on Tuesday night there was a poignant reminder of the culture of hate and violence that has marked our public life in recent years. Obama paused for a sustained greeting and hug with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) who had just announced her resignation from Congress to complete her recovery from an assassination attempt.

The shooting of Giffords and others outside a supermarket in Tucson was widely seen as the inevitable result of the era of hate radio and partisan invective in which political differences are vilified as treason, Nazism and even terrorism. The likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and the overt race-baiting rhetoric of the Tea Party have fallen out of the news, but the effects have lingered. Indeed, a death prayer against the president by a prominent Kansas elected official has been in the news in recent weeks -- and has been brushed off by many as a joke -- as if the last three years had not happened.
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Light Sabers

UK Riots: Paratroopers Being Trained in Riot Control

Sean Rayment
The Telegraph, UK
Sat, 28 Jan 2012 20:43 UTC
teams armed with body-length shields
© Ki Price/AFP/GettyTroops were trained into how to work as teams armed with body-length shields in driving back hostile crowds.
British troops are being trained in riot control tactics amid fears that violence and looting will return to Britain's streets this summer.

Hundreds of soldiers from 3rd battalion The Parachute Regiment spent last week learning how to contain and arrest "rioters" in a series of exercises mirroring last summers violence.

Defence sources have confirmed that if violence were to return to British cities, especially during the Olympic Games, the Paras would be "ideally placed" to provide "short-term" support to police forces around the UK.

Such a request would have to be made by the Home Office and would have to have Prime Ministerial approval, according to the source.

During the exercises at the Lydd training base in Kent, the elite troops were pelted with petrol bombs and missiles and "fought" running battles with gangs of protesters as part of the battalion's "public order training".

The battalion is the lead unit in the Airborne Task Force - the Army's premier rapid response unit and can be called on to deal with a wide range of emergency situations - from hostage rescue to riot control - around the world.
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Vader

Flash-Grenades & Tear-Gas: 300 Arrested at Occupy Oakland


RT.com
Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:40 UTC
Occupy Oakland demonstrators
© Reuters / Stephen LamOccupy Oakland demonstrators confront a line of police officers during a demonstration in attempt to occupy a vacant building near Laney College in Oakland, California January 28, 2012
Police in Oakland, California, have used tear-gas and flash-grenades as a 2,000-strong Occupy Oakland march turned violent, with some protesters claiming that rubber bullets were also fired into the crowd. At least 300 people were arrested.

The demonstrators had attempted to take over vacant buildings to use as their headquarters, they also broke into City Hall and tried to occupy a YMCA. Police spokesman Jeff Thomason told media most of the arrests came around 8 pm local time. Police took many protesters into custody as they marched through the city's downtown area, with some entering a YMCA building.

Officials say, at one point protesters began tearing down perimeter fences around the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, as some attacked police officers, throwing rocks, bottles and other objects. Police declared an unlawful assembly and used force, according to the Oakland Tribune newspaper.

While police were taking people into custody near the YMCA, about 100 officers surrounded City Hall, while others swept the inside of the building for protesters who had broken in. Inside the building, protesters burned flags, broke into an electrical box and damaged several art structures, according to Oakland Mayor Jean Quan.
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Che Guevara

"Poor Because of you": Topless FEMEN protesters detained at World Economic Forum in Davos

David Trifunov
Global Post
Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
Police detained and later released three topless protesters today after they stripped to the waist outside a World Economic Forum event in Davos, Switzerland.

The trio, from the Ukrainian group FEMEN, carried banners that read "Gangsters party in Davos" and "Crisis made in Davos" while shouting "Poor because of you."

Police stopped them at the gates of a complex as world economic and business leaders met inside.

"We came here to Switzerland to Davos to explain the position of all poor people of the world, to explain that we are poor because of these rich people who now sit in the building," FEMEN representative Inna Schewcenko told Associated Press.

Police detained them only after the attempted to climb a fence into the compound.
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Eye 1

"Bush Lied to FBI to Spy on Americans"


PressTV
Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:19 UTC
Bush & Muller
© presstvUS Ex-President George W Bush (L) talks to FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Former US president George Bush has lied to FBI Director Robert Mueller to protect White house programs that spied on the American citizens, a new book reveals.

In his book, Enemies, former New York Times reporter, Tim Weiner reveals the extent of the FBI long-war against terrorists, spies and anyone considered as subversive, including American presidents.

After the 9/11 attacks in its so called war on terror, the Bush anti-terror program included warrant less eavesdropping of the phones and emails of the Americans, which is now known by its code name "Stellar Wind."

However, FBI director Mueller, who felt the White house was "trying to do an end run" around the law, was opposed to the program.

In March 2004, US Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft ruled that the program was illegal.
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MIB

UK: Light to be Shed on Mystery of MI6 Spy Gareth Williams' Death

Patrick Sawer
The Telegraph, UK
Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:00 UTC
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© Associated PressBritish intelligence official Gareth Williams
An inquest into the death of the spy whose body was found in a locked holdall is set to go ahead this spring, casting light on one of the most baffling mysteries in the recent history of the secret services.

It remains one of the most baffling mysteries in the history of the British secret services.

When the body of an MI6 spy was found locked in a holdall in the bath of his flat, in August 2010, it led to a rash of conspiracy theories, from the disturbing to the downright bizarre.

Nearly 18 months on, police have been unable to establish what led to the death of Gareth Williams, despite a battery of toxicology tests and an exhaustive investigation into his background and his movements.

But Dr Fiona Wilcox, the recently-appointed coroner for Westminster, has decided the time is now right to attempt to record the first official account of what happened to the 31-year-old spy.

She will hold a Pre Inquest Review (PIR) on March 29 at Horseferry Road Coroners Court. A full inquest will begin three weeks later, probably at a larger venue, and is expected to last three to four days.
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Red Flag

Off The Record: A Quest For De-Baptism In France

Eleanor Beardsley
npr.org
Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
de-partism
© iStockphoto.comThough marginal, the de-baptism movement is growing, observers say.
Link to Audio

In France, an elderly man is fighting to make a formal break with the Catholic Church. He's taken the church to court over its refusal to let him nullify his baptism, in a case that could have far-reaching effects.

Seventy-one-year-old Rene LeBouvier's parents and his brother are buried in a churchyard in the tiny village of Fleury in northwest France. He himself was baptized in the Romanesque stone church and attended mass here as a boy.

LeBouvier says this rural area is still conservative and very Catholic, but nothing like it used to be. Back then, he says, you couldn't even get credit at the bakery if you didn't go to mass every Sunday.

LeBouvier grew up in that world and says his mother once hoped he'd become a priest. But his views began to change in the 1970s, when he was introduced to free thinkers. As he didn't believe in God anymore, he thought it would be more honest to leave the church. So he wrote to his diocese and asked to be un-baptized.

"They sent me a copy of my records, and in the margins next to my name, they wrote that I had chosen to leave the church," he says.
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Stormtrooper

Fukushima mothers and activists face eviction


Beyond Nuclear
Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:34 UTC
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On Friday, January 27th, the tent occupation in front of METI in Tokyo faces eviction by order of minister Yukio Edano. The eviction order follows a controversial public meeting where government officials met with nuclear industry personnel to discuss nuclear power plant restarts, while attempting to exclude the public from the meeting. Concerned citizens who registered to attend the meeting were forcefully removed and the meeting took place behind closed doors.

The tent occupation in front of METI has lasted over 4 months through the support of women from Fukushima, and many others around Japan who oppose nuclear power. People from all over the world have visited the occupation to show their support and learn about issues surrounding nuclear power post March 11th, including the severe conditions that people in Fukushima continue to face. Currently, women of Fukushima are in the process of a "10 month 10 day" 24-hour sit-in to protest against nuclear power and the government's mismanagement of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster that continues today.

An emergency press conference will be held on January 27th at 1pm at the Japan Federation of Bar Associations' Building, Room 1006. (Access: This will be followed by a demonstration at the tent occupation from 4pm to 6pm, the hours of the eviction deadline. Please email, telephone fax minister Edano and METI ( the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) to retract the eviction order. METI (TEL) +81-3-3501-1609 METI Public Relations (FAX) +81-3-3501-6942. METI Minister Yukio Edano, (TEL) +81-3-3508-7448, (FAX) +81-3-3591-2249. (E-mail) omiya@edano.gr.jp
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