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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faces impeachment threat

Saeed Kamali Dehghan
Theguardian.co.uk
Mon, 20 Jun 2011 04:16 UTC
Iranian president under increasing pressure from MPs after supporting foreign minister's controversial appointment of deputy

Image
© Reuters
Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Iranian parliament on Tuesday, where many MPs are said to be ready to begin impeachent proceedings against him.
Ministers in Iran moved a step closer towards impeaching the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, after a series of clashes with supporters of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Impeachment proceedings were launched against foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi for appointing a man close to Ahmadinejad's chief-of-staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, as his deputy.

Supporters of Khamenei, including the overwhelming majority of parliament, say Ahmadinejad is under the spell of Mashaei, who is accused of attempting to undermine clerical power and increase his own political influence.

A power struggle between Ahmadinejad and the establishment, especially the clerics, has come to light after the controversies surrounding Mashaei became public. Muhammad Sharif Malekzadeh, the deputy foreign minister in the middle of the row, was appointed last week but has already resigned. Despite that, Iranian MPs went ahead with their motion to impeach Salehi, signed by 33 deputies, which was officially read out in the parliament.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Self-help guru convicted in Arizona sweat lodge deaths

Nicholas Riccardi
LATimes.com
Wed, 22 Jun 2011 04:06 UTC
A jury finds James Arthur Ray guilty of negligent homicide in the 2009 deaths of three clients. He is acquitted of the more serious manslaughter charges.

Image
© Tom Tingle / Associated Press
James Arthur Ray, left, and his attorney, Thomas Kelly, right, stand in the courtroom of Judge Warren R. Darrow, in the Yavapai County Courthouse in Camp Verde, Arizona on June 22, 2011.
A jury in Arizona on Wednesday convicted a bestselling author and self-help guru in the deaths of three clients during a sweat lodge ceremony in 2009 that was intended to help participants overcome adversity to reach their full potential.

After hearing four months of testimony, the eight-man, four-woman jury deliberated for fewer than 12 hours before finding James Arthur Ray guilty of three counts of negligent homicide. The panel acquitted Ray of the more serious charges of manslaughter.
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Stormtrooper

Belarus Police Break Up Peaceful Protest

James Brooke
Voice of America News
Thu, 23 Jun 2011 02:23 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press
Belarusian policemen detain protesters during the 'Revolution via social network' protest in Minsk, June 22, 2011
Six months after protests against fraudulent elections led to a brutal crackdown against Belarus' political opposition, Belarusians are coming out to protest again - this time against the nation's economic collapse.

This is a protest Belarus-style. The loudest voices are those of the police, telling people to disperse.

Protesters do not chant slogans. They do not carry signs. They do not wear political T-shirts or buttons. They just walk on the sidewalks, mingle and chat on a summer evening.

But that apparently was too much for the government of Belarus - on edge after a 50-percent devaluation of the Belarusian ruble in recent weeks.

To break up what is now a weekly protest, police in Minsk detained scores of people Wednesday night, including Oleg Gruzdilovich, a correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

The arrests came after President Alexander Lukashenko, the long-running dictator of Belarus, threatened to fire his interior minister if another protest took place against his government. In a rambling, five-hour press conference, the president denounced social networks and threatened to shut down the Internet.
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Handcuffs

US: Mother Who Hid 5 Kids for Years Gets Prison Time

Rick Lee
York Daily Record
Wed, 22 Jun 2011 08:46 UTC
Image
© submitted
Louann Bowers
She will be released having served the time once a parole plan is done.

Louann Emma Bowers, the mother who hid her five children from the world, apologized to them in York County Court Wednesday before she was sentenced to 11½ to 23 months in county prison.

She said she kept her children from public life, choosing to live with them "underground" in sometimes squalid conditions because she was "selfish."

She said she ran away at 16 because she had been sexually abused.

She watched her father beat her mother "night after night after night."

She said her father's nickname for her was "My failure."

"No, I'm not a failure," she said. "I have to show my children I'm not a bad mother. I also have to show the world I'm not a bad mother."

Bowers, 34, and her husband, Sinhue Johnson, 46, an uncle by marriage, both were charged with five counts of endangering the welfare of a child in September 2010. Bowers pleaded no contest in May. Johnson's case is still pending.
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Heart - Black

Brazil: Jealous Husband Hits Wife with Pet Poodle Killing Dog


The Associated Press
Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:00 UTC
Police in southern Brazil say a jealous husband hit his wife in the head with a pet poodle.

Insp. Thais Postiglione says the man picked up the dog and swung it into his wife's head twice because he suspected she was having an affair.

The two-kilogram dog died. The inspector says Carla de Camargo Oliveira suffered only minor bruises.

Postiglione says she cannot release the name of the alleged assailant because he was not arrested.

Officers decided the attack was not highly dangerous to the woman and he was not caught in the act.

But Postiglione said Wednesday that police are urging prosecutors to charge him with assault and battery and cruelty to animals.

Source: The Canadian Press
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Evil Rays

US, Alabama: Woman abandons three children along I-65

Melynda Sides
WSFA 12 News
Wed, 22 Jun 2011 21:20 UTC
Shell Station
© Unknown
The Shell Station in Hayden where a mother abandoned two of her children earlier today.
A woman dropped off her three children ages five and under along the side of I-65 in Blount Count this morning, then disappeared into the woods, leaving her car and clothing behind.

The Blount Count Sheriff's Department investigated the bizarre series of events. They discovered the woman, Summer Delane Chaney, around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday after searching for hours in the woods where she was last seen.

State troopers from Mobile County issued a lookout call for Chaney's vehicle this morning. The woman's family members contacted authorities because they were concerned about her and her children's welfare. Mobile state troopers asked other law enforcement agencies to check on the woman and her children if they were found.

Around 9:30 a.m., Blount County deputies responded to the Shell station off of the Hayden/Corner exit on I-65 in Blount County. Chaney pulled off the interstate and into the gas station, where she dropped off two of her children, a five-year-old and two-year-old.
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Info

"Anti-Sec" Group Spreads Message Through Graffiti in Mission Beach


760 KFMB
Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:20 UTC

Mysterious graffiti appearing on the Mission Beach boardwalk belongs to a group protesting computer security practices.

People living near Mission Beach say the unusual "Anti-Sec" graffiti first appeared last week on the boardwalk. It was quickly painted over, but the stenciled words were back Monday morning.

A computer security expert who spoke with News 8 says "Anti-Sec" stands for "Anti-Security Revolution". The organization claims it recently shut down several gamer sites, as well as websites for the CIA and FBI.

According to the group's mission statement, it believes the security industry uses full disclosure to profit and develop scare tactics to manipulate consumers into buying firewalls, then overcharges for products.

The group says it believes in spreading its message through mayhem.
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Pistol

UK: Handgun Owned by Gangster Al Capone's Sells for $110,000 at Auction in London


The Associated Press
Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press / Tim Hales
A handgun once owned by notorious gangster "Al" Capone, is displayed at Christie's auction house, London, Tuesday, June 21, 2011. The Colt .38 revolver will be going up for auction this week, and is expected to sell for between 50,000 pounds ($80,899/56,650 euro) and 70,000 pounds ($113,258/79,315 euro).
A handgun once owned by gangster Al Capone sold for nearly $110,000 Wednesday at an auction in London.

The Colt .38 revolver was manufactured in 1929, the year of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, when seven people were slain during clashes in Chicago between Capone's gang and a rival mob.

Auctioneer Christie's says the gun went for 67,250 pounds ($109,080) to an anonymous online bidder. It was sold by an anonymous private collector along with a letter from Madeleine Capone Morichetti, the widow of Al Capone's brother Ralph, confirming the gun "previously belonged to and was only used by Al Capone while he was alive."

The sale price was at the upper end of the pre-sale estimate of between 50,000 pounds and 70,000 pounds. It includes a buyer's premium.

The New York-born mobster Alphonse "Al" Capone dominated the Chicago underworld during Prohibition until his 1931 arrest for tax evasion. He died in 1947.

Source: The Canadian Press
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Gear

New Japanese Pop Idol Shocks Fans With News - She's Not Real


Singularity Hub
Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:18 UTC
Aimi Eguchi
© Singularity Hub
A star is born! (and she only takes up 150 gigs of memory)

Only 15 seconds in the limelight and she'd already created an overnight buzz. She was the newest member of the very popular all-girl Japanese idol group AKB 48. Upon seeing the new face appear on a candy commercial, the band's faithful took to the message boards: Who is Aimi Eguchi?

This past Sunday, Ezaki Glico, the candy company which aired the commercial, confirmed what many of AKB 48's fans had come to suspect: Aimi Eguchi wasn't real. The new group member, it turns out, was a computer-generated composite of the real band members. Her pretty face was actually made up of the "best features" of six other members: her eyes, nose, mouth, hair/body, face outline and eyebrows were not flesh-and-blood, but cut-and-paste.

Not everyone was so quick to catch on, however, and Aimi had already formed a fan base of her own. "The video shocked fans of Eguchi," reports ChannelNews Asia, "who were convinced that her features were more the result of good genes than the skillful use of computer graphics." Watch this video and see if you can tell which ones are human, and which one is Aimi.

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Heart - Black

US: California mom, Ka Yang, charged with murder after she microwaves baby to death: cops

Aliyah Shahid
New York Daily News
Wed, 22 Jun 2011 07:38 UTC
Image
© Sacramento Police Dept.
Ka Yang, 29, of Sacramento, Calif. Yang is being held without bail in Sacramento County Jail after an investigation found her baby likely died from burns suffered in a microwave oven.

Ka Yang, 29, of Sacramento, Calif. Yang is being held without bail in Sacramento County Jail after an investigation found her baby likely died from burns suffered in a microwave oven.

A California mom was arrested Tuesday on charges that she murdered her 6-week-old daughter by microwaving her to death.

Ka Yang, 29, of Sacramento, is being held without bail

The baby, Mirabelle Thao-Lo, was found dead in her home with "extensive thermal injuries" on March 17.

"She had some really deep tissue burns," Sacramento County coroner's office told the Sacramento Bee. "...It was probably the worst case I've ever seen."
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