Raw Story

Feds say 6.5 earthquake strikes off California coast

Associated Press — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 02:07:27 +0000

FRESNO, Calif (AP) — A 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Northern California Saturday afternoon, shaking buildings south of the Oregon border and knocking out power in several coastal communities.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at about 4:27 p.m. about 27 miles from Eureka, a city of about 26,000.

The state’s warning center had received no reports of injuries or major damage, California Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Lori Newquist said.

Sandra Hall, owner of Antiques and Goodies in Eureka, said furniture fell over, nearly all her lamps broke and the handful of customers in her store got a big scare. She said it was the most dramatic quake in the 30 years the store has been open.

"It was shaking for a very long time," Hall said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said there was no threat of the quake generating a tsunami. In November 2006, an 8.3-magnitude temblor in Japan sent waves that hit the region for eight hours, causing $9 million damage.

The quake was felt as far south as Capitola in central California, and as far north as Roseburg in central Oregon, USGS geophysicist Richard Buckmaster said.

The earthquake knocked out the power in Arcata, a small town that’s home to Humboldt State University, and one resident said many people had objects knocked off walls and televisions tumble.

"It was huge — one of the biggest earthquakes we’ve had up here in 20 years," said Judd Starks, the kitchen manager at a bar and restaurant known as The Alibi. "The whole town is kind of freaked out right now. All the power is out, people are out walking around.

Italians evacuate migrants, bring in police after clashes

Agence France-Presse — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 01:39:21 +0000

ROSARNO, Italy (AFP) - – More than 900 immigrants fled a southern Italian town on Saturday after residents violently attacked African farm workers.The clashes which began late Thursday left 67 people injured in the Calabrian town of Rosarno, but calm was generally restored Saturday, with barricades erected by locals dismantled and shops open.

The injured included 31 foreigners, the latest of whom was fired at with a shotgun on Saturday, as well as 19 police officers and 17 locals, police said.

Locals applauded as buses with police escorts left, taking immigrants from Rosarno to the towns of Crotone, 170 kilometres (105 miles) away, and Bari, around 400 kilometres (260 kilometers) to the northeast.

"Around 910 foreigners have been evacuated to Crotone and Bari," local police chief Mario Morcone told AFP.

A further 210 immigrants were expected to depart during the evening and night, taking the total to leave the area past 1,100, Morcone said, adding that the situation in Rosarno was slowly returning to normal.

The Italian authorities have said immigrants taking the special buses will not be arrested, even if they arrived in the country illegally.

Some of the immigrants who came to the region in their thousands to work on the fruit harvest are fleeing despite being owed wages by their employers.

Francis, a 25-year-old from Ghana, said he was owed 200 euros (290 dollars) but was too frightened to stay. "If we don’t leave, we will die," he said, "We came here to work and now people are shooting at us."

The violence broke out Thursday when hundreds of immigrants, most of them Africans employed illegally, demonstrated after some of them had been shot at with air rifles, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

Demonstrators set fire to cars and smashed windscreens before police intervened, leading to a scuffle that left several of the demonstrators injured.

On Friday, local residents set up roadblocks and occupied the town hall, before violence erupted once more.

In separate incidents on Friday, two immigrants were beaten and seriously wounded with iron bars, media and officials said. One of the wounded was admitted to hospital for brain surgery.

Two other immigrants were hit in the legs with shotgun pellets and five more were deliberately run over by vehicles driven by locals, they said. They suffered minor injuries.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, a member of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, said the tensions were a result of "too much tolerance towards clandestine immigration".

The right-wing newspaper Il Giornale, owned by the family of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, agreed that illegal immigrants should be kept out.

The majority of workers in Rosarno lived in a disused factory just outside the town of 15,000 inhabitants, with just eight chemical toilets and three showers for 1,000 people.

Compared to other immigrants camping out in freezing conditions in old farm buildings, those living among the factory’s old machines and pipes were the lucky ones.

According to Italy’s main trade union CGIL, about 50,000 immigrant workers in Italy live in poor conditions similar to those in Rosarno, being housed in insalubrious huts without running water.

It said immigrants employed as farm labourers earned low wages of around 25 euro (36 dollars) a day.

One employer, Pasquale Giovinazzo, 60, justified the low wages, saying the African workers were less experienced than Italians.

The union also accused the mafia of controlling the sector and criticised Maroni’s statement, saying immigrants were paid "miserable salaries and have terrible hours, similar to slavery".

UK police charge 2 men after Heathrow bomb threat

Associated Press — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:53:13 +0000

LONDON, United Kingdom (AP) –

Two men have been charged with making a false bomb threat and being drunk aboard a passenger plane following a security scare at London’s Heathrow Airport, British police said Saturday.

Armed police officers pulled Robert George Fowles and Alexander Bain McGinn from an Emirates plane preparing for take-off to Dubai late Friday, after crew members reported that verbal threats were made to staff.

Police said Fowles, 58, will appear in custody at court on Monday. McGinn, 48, has been bailed and is due to appear at court on Jan.22.

A third man who was arrested along with the other two suspects was released, police said. He was not identified.

Police removed all passengers from the plane, but said a search found nothing suspicious aboard.

The arrests came amid heightened concern over airline security following an alleged Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines plane. In a separate incident Friday, fighter jets were launched to catch up with an AirTran Airways to San Francisco after a report that an intoxicated passenger had locked himself in a bathroom.

The Emirates flight, which had 331 passengers on board, was grounded in London overnight but had taken off Saturday afternoon.

US drone strike kills four in NW Pakistan: officials

Agence France-Presse — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:39:46 +0000

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) - – A US missile strike on Saturday killed at least four militants in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt, Pakistani security and intelligence officials said.

The missile struck a compound in Ismail Khel village, 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal region on the Afghan border.

“A US drone fired two missiles, which hit a compound used by militants as a training centre,” a senior security official told AFP.

He said that the identity of the militants was not immediately known, adding it was also not clear whether any high-value target was present in the area at the time of the strike.

An intelligence official in the area also confirmed the strike and casualties.

“The latest death toll is four now,” he said.

Residents said that the compound belonged to a local tribesman named Rasta Barkhan who had links with Taliban militants.

A local resident on condition of anonymity told AFP that five drone aircraft made very low-altitude flights before the missile strike.

Officials say the attack took place in the stronghold of Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a militant who fought with the Taliban when US-led troops invaded Afghanistan.

Bahadur is reputed to control up to 2,000 fighters whom he sends across the border but who do not attack in Pakistan.

The United States does not confirm drone attacks, but its military is the only force that deploys combat drones in the region.

It was the sixth missile strike by an unmanned US spy plane so far this year, as the administration of US President Barack Obama puts Pakistan at the heart of its fight against Al-Qaeda and Islamist extremists.

Suspected US drones have increasingly targeted North Waziristan, a bastion of Al-Qaeda fighters, the Taliban and the Haqqani network who attack the 113,000 US and NATO troops fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Washington is increasing pressure on Pakistan to tackle militants who use its soil to launch attacks in Afghanistan and American officials have said that the highly secretive drone programme has eliminated some top fighters.

But the attacks on Pakistani territory fuel anti-American sentiment in the nuclear-armed Muslim nation and the government publicly condemns the strikes.

Speaking during a visit to Islamabad on Friday, US Republican Senator John McCain defended the attacks, saying “friends don’t always agree on every issue”, and admitting that it was an issue of tension between the nations.

“We will continue to try to find common ground with the Pakistani government as we have to do everything we can… to protect Americans from the attacks of terrorists who may be based here and operate out of Pakistan,” he said.

His comments came a day after Al-Qaeda reportedly said an attack on a US military base in eastern Afghanistan which killed seven CIA agents last month was carried out to avenge drone strikes that have killed prominent militants.

North Waziristan neighbours South Waziristan, where Pakistan has been focusing its most ambitious military offensive yet against homegrown Taliban militants. It sent about 30,000 troops into the region on October 17.

Schwarzenegger: Congress ‘buying’ votes for health care reform

Raw Story — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:24:20 +0000

Members of Congress have been “buying” votes for health care reform, claimed California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an interview to be aired Sunday.

Talking with David Gregory on NBC News’ Meet the Press, Schwarzenegger said the pivotal 60th vote needed for Senate Democrats to pass health care reform was gained by promising Sen. Nelson (D-Nebraska) federal funding to cover Nebraska’s entire cost of a Medicaid expansion included in the bill.

Schwarzenegger told Meet the Press host David Gregory this was tantamount to saying “I’m holding out my vote, unless I get some extra kind of benefits here.” The governor went on: “I mean if you do that in Sacramento, you know, you’ll be sued. It is illegal to do that, to buy votes.”

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Justices asked to bar taping of gay marriage trial

Associated Press — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:53:27 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — Gay marriage opponents are asking the Supreme Court to block the broadcast of the upcoming trial on California’s same-sex marriage ban.

At issue in the federal trial beginning Monday in San Francisco is whether the Proposition 8 gay marriage ban approved by California voters in November 2008 is legal.

The presiding judge has agreed to allow video of the trial to posted on YouTube.com several hours later.

Late Friday, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request to block the broadcasts. Now, Proposition 8 supporters have asked Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who handles requests from that appeals court, to step in.

He’s given the other side until noon Sunday to file a response. Kennedy can rule himself or send the request to the full court.

Opponents of the recording say they fear witnesses’ testimony may be affected if cameras are present.

Palestinians demand full settlement freeze

Agence France-Presse — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 21:46:23 +0000

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - – The Palestinians on Saturday insisted on a full Israeli settlement freeze before renewing peace efforts, putting a damper on a US call to revive talks with no preconditions.

“A resumption of peace talks requires the complete halt of settlements” in the occupied West Bank, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.

Erakat also demanded that Israel comply with its commitment under the 2003 international roadmap for peace that calls for a “halt to all settlement activity including natural growth and Jerusalem.”

Negotiations should be picked up from the point they were left when they broke down in December 2008, he said.

So far, there has been no reaction from the Israeli government.

On Friday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Israelis and Palestinians to resume the peace talks without preconditions, in Washington’s latest bid to return the sides to the negotiations table.

Clinton backed the key Palestinian aim of creating a state along the borders that existed before the 1967 Israeli-Arab war, but said the lines would be modified through mutually agreed land swaps, presumably to account for some Israeli settlements that would remain.

The Palestinian stand was backed by the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Germany who met in Riyadh on Saturday.

“The illegal settlements … constitute a major obstacle to peace talks,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said in a joint news conference with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle.

Westerwelle said a settlement freeze was part of the roadmap. “This is … also the position expressed by the European Union as a whole,” he said.

The Palestinians have insisted the borders of their promised state encompass all of their land Israel occupied in 1967, including mostly Arab east Jerusalem — which Israel later annexed in a move not recognised by the international community — as their capital.

“Resolving borders resolves settlements. Resolving Jerusalem resolves settlements,” the chief US diplomat told reporters after meeting Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh in Washington.

“We are working with the Israelis, the (Palestinian Authority), and the Arab states to take the steps needed to relaunch the negotiations as soon as possible and without preconditions,” Clinton said.

The parties can reach a solution that “reconciles the Palestinian goal of an independent and viable state based on the 1967 lines, with agreed swaps and the Israeli goal of a Jewish state with secure and recognised borders,” she said.

President Barack Obama administration’s efforts to revive the peace talks have so far been frustrated despite heavy pressure on Israel, the Palestinians and Arab states to make positive gestures.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in November a partial suspension of settlement activity in the West Bank but not in occupied east Jerusalem as a gesture ahead of the resumption of talks.

The Palestinians have nevertheless repeatedly insisted on a full suspension of settlement construction in all land occupied in 1967.

Obama’s special Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who said earlier this week that peace talks should not last more than two years, is expected to return to the region later this month to push the latest US initiative.

Conservative lawmaker calls GOP congresswoman ‘crazy’

Raw Story — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:02:48 +0000

Michelle Marston, an aide to Republican lawmaker Michelle Bachman, wanted to leave quietly.

But her decision to “jump ship” while her boss engaged in perhaps her boldest media moment yet has some on Capitol Hill scratching their heads.

Including a conservative lawmaker in Bachmann’s own party.

“When your captain’s crazy, it’s time to find a new ship,” an anonymous conservative Republican House member told Politico Wednesday.

Marston had tried to warn the reporter off, to no avail.

“I’m just not talking about it, and frankly I don’t think there’s a story here,” Marston wrote in an email. “Now, the thousands of people calling our office to tell us [they’re] coming to Capitol Hill tomorrow — that’s a story.”

Today, conservative activists are planning to storm the Capitol to tell members of Congress that they don’t want “government” to take away their healthcare, part of a scare tactic engineered by Bachmann’s aides. The Minnesota Republican has garnered national attention for her sometimes outrageous quips — including one in which she said conservatives should slit their wrists to defeat Democrats’ healthcare plans. Marston appears to have soured on Bachmann over time. In a statement last year, she said of her boss: “She looks like the type of person who you would invite in to have a cup of coffee at your table. There are a lot of people who are good, smart, well-meaning, well-intentioned members of Congress, but they speak to the people like they are members of Congress. Rep. Bachmann talks to people like they are people.” But this fall, when she said President Barack Obama held “anti-American views,” her tune changed. “You either love Michele Bachmann or you don’t love Michele Bachmann at all,” Marston told a reporter. When your captain’s crazy, it’s time to find a new ship.

Nurses will sue New York over mandated vaccinations

Joe Byrne — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:50:08 +0000

The elderly, the young, and the frequently exposed are being advised to get vaccinated against H1N1 flu virus this year, due to predictions of a possible influenza epidemic. A new law in New York requires nurses and doctors to receive the vaccination by the end of November. A band of four nurses in Albany, however, is taking a stand against mandated vaccination.

“I have had more staff that have become ill after the flu vaccines this year than coworkers that have actually come down with the illness,” says Lorna Patterson, a nurse at Albany Medical Center’s emergency room. Patterson is one of the nurses who is filing a lawsuit this week against the state. She and her coworkers hope that they can stop the state from enforcing the mandatory vaccinations. Currently, New York is telling health care workers that if they aren’t vaccinated by October 27th , they face a week’s suspension without pay; any employee not vaccinated by the state deadline, November 30th, will be terminated.

“Receiving the vaccine doesn’t mean you’re not going to get the flu,” Patterson adds. She claims that she has only received an influenza vaccination once in 28 years of nursing and for the most part prefers ‘proper hygiene’ over a vaccine. A coworker, Katheryn Dupuis, feels the same way about the H1N1 vaccine. “We’re going to lose our jobs if we do not get this vaccine,” Dupuis says. “There are hundreds of coworkers of ours that feel just as strongly against the vaccine.”

The resistance to mandated vaccination stems from the speedy discovery, research, and approval process that the H1N1 vaccine passed through after this past year’s swine flu scare. The nurses filing suit claimed that the vaccine was “rushed”. Many vaccines face a year of testing and research before they are available to the public, but the H1N1 vaccine was put into massive production more quickly than most. One of the only vaccines to be required for health care workers is also one of the least tested.

So far, the nurses count 466 signatures on their circulating petitions against the state mandate. A rally on Wednesday on the steps of the state capitol is expected to grab more signatures and the attentions of lawmakers. More information on the mandated vaccination law and the nurses’ protest can be found here.

Corpus delicti number one phrase in Google search Thursday

Raw Story — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:19:59 +0000

Google searchers made corpus delicti the number on prhase in Google search on Thursday morning. Here’s the definition:

Wikipedia: “Corpus delicti (plural: corpora delicti) (Latin: “body of crime“) is a term from Western jurisprudence which refers to the principle that it must be proven that a crime has occurred before a person can be convicted of committing the crime. For example, a person cannot be tried for larceny unless it can be proven that property has been stolen. Likewise, in order for a person to be tried for arson it must be proven that a criminal act resulted in the burning of a property. Black’s Law Dictionary (6th ed.) defines “corpus delicti” as: “the fact of a crime having been actually committed.”

“In the Anglo-American legal system, the concept has its outgrowth in several principles. Many jurisdictions hold as a legal rule that a defendant’s out-of-court confession, alone, is not sufficient evidence to prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. See, e.g., Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 497 n.14, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963)(citing to corpus delicti rule and stating: “For the history and development of the corroboration requirement, see 7 Wigmore, Evidence [3d ed. 1940], §§ 2070-2071; Note, Proof of the Corpus Delicti Aliunde the Defendant’s Confession, 103 U. of Pa. L. Rev. 638-649 [1955]. For the present scope and application of the rule, see 2 Underhill, Criminal Evidence [5th ed. 1956], §§ 402-403. For a comprehensive collection of cases, see Annot., 45 A. L. R.2d 1316 [1956].”) A corollary to this rule is that an accused cannot be convicted solely upon the testimony of an accomplice. Some jurisdictions also hold that without first showing independent corroboration that a crime happened, the prosecution may not introduce evidence of the defendant’s statement.