Wyclef Jean reportedly excluded from list of Haiti presidential candidates
Posted in Celeb, Entertainment, News on August 20th, 2010 by admin – Comments Off
Haitian American hip-hop star Wyclef Jean is not on the list of approved candidates who satisfy legal requirements to run in Haiti’s Nov. 28 presidential election, an electoral official said Thursday.
The presidential bid by the 39-year-old singer-songwriter and international celebrity had triggered widespread enthusiasm in his poor, earthquake-ravaged Caribbean homeland. But it had been challenged on the grounds that Jean, whose primary residence is in New Jersey, did not fully meet the requirements, including a key one on Haitian residency.
Working for Grandma Waters on Capitol Hill
Posted in Health, News, Politics, what on August 13th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffMany people who encounter Mikael Moore, the chief of staff for Rep. Maxine Waters, see a typical Capitol Hill aide: a young, serious, BlackBerry-toting workaholic in a business suit with an intense belief in the importance of his work.
If they know he is also Waters’ grandson, making him a rarity in Congress, it is not because he talks about it much, if at all.
Colleagues say Moore rarely offers information about his family connection, and that they have instead come to know him as a talented, politically gifted peer who has brought order to a sometimes tangled office and quickly grasped the intricacies of Washington.
Naomi Campbell testifies at Liberian’s war crimes trial
Posted in Crime, News, what on August 5th, 2010 by admin – Comments Off
Naomi Campbell testified before a war crimes tribunal Thursday that she had received some “dirty-looking stones” after a 1997 dinner party with former Liberian ruler Charles Taylor. Still, the supermodel said she didn’t know if the stones were actually diamonds or if the gift came from Taylor himself.
Campbell, an extremely reluctant witness at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, was being questioned in Taylor’s war crimes trial about claims made by actress Mia Farrow. Farrow had said Taylor gave the model an uncut diamond or diamonds after an event hosted by then-South African President Nelson Mandela at his presidential mansion in Pretoria.
Prosecutors had hoped Campbell would provide evidence that Taylor traded guns to neighboring Sierra Leone rebels in exchange for uncut diamonds — sometimes known as “blood diamonds” for their role in financing conflicts — during Sierra Leone’s 1992-2002 civil war.
Jewish banker’s heirs sue Hungary for return of looted art
Posted in News, Politics, what on July 29th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffThe heirs of the Budapest-based Jewish banker Mor Lipot Herzog have filed a lawsuit in U.S. courts against Hungary and its leading national museums, seeking the return of what they have identified as more than 40 works of art looted from Herzog’s collection during the Holocaust. The lawsuit values the artworks, including well-known paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder, El Greco, Francisco de Zurbaran and Gustave Courbet, at more than $100 million.
“This is one of the largest — if not the largest — restitution claims ever filed in U.S. courts by a single family against another nation,” says Michael S. Shuster, the New York attorney representing the family.
Shuster, who says the lawsuit will be translated and delivered to Hungarian authorities according to the Hague Service Convention, calls it a last resort “to get the Hungarian government, which has been much less cooperative and consensual than Germany or Austria on these issues, to do the right thing.”
In campaign mode, Obama slams GOP as obstructionist
Posted in Health, News, Politics, economy, what on July 18th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffMoving into campaign mode, President Obama on Saturday cast the Republicans as an obstructionist force bent on impeding the nation’s economic recovery for political purposes.
Obama used his weekly radio address to deliver a message that Senate Republicans are also blocking an extension of jobless benefits to millions of unemployed Americans suffering in a tough economy.
Nuclear scientist on way home, Iran says
Posted in Islam, News, Tech, Video on July 14th, 2010 by admin – Comments Off– An Iranian nuclear scientist involved in a murky and clandestine tug-of-war between Tehran and Washington is on his way back to the Islamic Republic, a government spokesman said Wednesday morning.
Shahram Amiri, a 32- or 33-year-old scientist who was in the United States as a result of a defection or a kidnapping, has left America and is en route to Tehran, said the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry.
“Shahram Amiri left America with a convoy from the interest section of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Washington a few minutes ago,” Ramin Mehmanparast said in comments reported by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
Openly bearing arms, beachgoers cite their rights
Posted in Crime, News on July 11th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffIt was clear this was no ordinary community cleanup.
Trash bags? Check.
Gloves? Check.
Glock .45-caliber handgun? Check.
Serena Williams keeps her Wimbledon crown
Posted in News, what on July 3rd, 2010 by admin – Comments OffIt wasn’t one thing that Vera Zvonareva did wrong. It was only that Serena Williams did everything right.
Williams measured her forehands and didn’t try to make extravagant winners, just precise ones. Williams corralled her serve, placing it on the lines so much that Zvonareva tried several times to challenge the results via the electronic lines system, but usually Zvonareva didn’t really have hope. She’d be standing on the other service line as if she just needed to see what she couldn’t believe.
It took Williams only 63 minutes to win her fourth Wimbledon title Saturday on Centre Court and her 13th major career title to pass Billie Jean King in overall majors won.
Serena Williams keeps her Wimbledon crown
Posted in News, what on July 3rd, 2010 by admin – Comments OffIt wasn’t one thing that Vera Zvonareva did wrong. It was only that Serena Williams did everything right.
Williams measured her forehands and didn’t try to make extravagant winners, just precise ones. Williams corralled her serve, placing it on the lines so much that Zvonareva tried several times to challenge the results via the electronic lines system, but usually Zvonareva didn’t really have hope. She’d be standing on the other service line as if she just needed to see what she couldn’t believe.
It took Williams only 63 minutes to win her fourth Wimbledon title Saturday on Centre Court and her 13th major career title to pass Billie Jean King in overall majors won.
Child’s death illustrates L.A. County’s growing problem resolving backlog of abuse cases
Posted in News, what on June 30th, 2010 by admin – Comments OffThe tip that abuse was taking place in the Long Beach home where 2-year-old Joseph Byrd lived came to Los Angeles County child welfare officials nearly two months ago.
But 57 days after opening an investigation into the allegations, social workers had yet to determine if Joseph was at risk when the toddler was pronounced dead Saturday. Coroner’s officials have listed the case as a homicide.
At the time of Joseph’s death, social workers were still looking into allegations of abuse and neglect in a family that already had been investigated five times, according to sources familiar with their history. Three of those cases were substantiated, sources told The Times.
