Rihanna had been wearing the jewellery to a pre-Grammys party

Singer Rihanna has asked the LA police to return jewellery taken as evidence the night she was allegedly attacked by her boyfriend Chris Brown.

Police took earrings and three rings from the singer hours before the Grammy Awards ceremony in February.

The items, which were on loan from a shop, are worth over $1.4m (£1m).

Lawyer Donald Etra, who represents the 21-year-old star, said the detective overseeing the case did not object to the return of the items.

The shop which owns the jewellery has asked Rihanna to give the goods back as soon as possible.

‘Photographs’

Mr Etra told the BBC: “Apparently, initially, the police felt that it would be needed as evidence. Now the belief is that photographs would be more than sufficient.

“That being the case, we’re asking the District Attorney to return the pieces.”

The request for the return of the jewellery states that lawyers for Mr Brown are also happy for the pieces to be released.

Mr Brown, 19, was arrested after rowing with Rihanna in a parked car. Both singers cancelled their scheduled appearances at that evening’s Grammy awards.

Later Mr Brown said he was “sorry and saddened” by the incident and had already sought counselling.

He also withdrew his name from Nickelodeon’s Kid’s Choice Awards after coverage of the events “shifted the focus from the music”.

Last month Mr Brown was charged with assault and making criminal threats and is next due to appear in court on 29 April. He denies the charges.

Photos purporting to show prisoner abuse in Iraq were published in 2004

The Pentagon is about to release “hundreds” of photographs showing the alleged abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, US officials say.

The alleged abuses by US personnel are said to relate to President George W Bush’s time in office.

The photos are being made public in response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) five years ago.

The court order had been contested by the Bush administration.

The US defence department said the Pentagon had agreed to release a “substantial” number of previously unseen photographs by May 28.

“I think it will be in the hundreds,” added a Pentagon official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity.

‘Visual proof’

The images relate to around 60 criminal investigations of US military personnel suspected of abusing detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2001 to 2006.

The ACLU says the photos show that the much-publicised abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq amounted to a specific policy.

“These photographs provide visual proof that prisoner abuse by US personnel was not aberrational but widespread, reaching far beyond the walls of Abu Ghraib,” said ACLU lawyer Amrit Singh.

But a Pentagon spokesman downplayed allegations of widespread abuse, saying it had acted swiftly to discipline some 400 personnel found to be involved in abuses.

The release of the photos will increase pressure on the Obama administration to consider prosecuting Bush-era officials for alleged complicity in torture and maltreatment of terrorist suspects, says the BBC’s North America Editor Justin Webb.

It follows the publication last week by the Obama administration of four sensitive memos outlining harsh interrogation techniques approved for use by the CIA by the Bush government.

Rights groups have called for CIA personnel involved in any torture cases to be prosecuted, while critics say the move would endanger national security.

This Woman in the white is a Mother who’s son was murdered by the Police in Barbados. so if you think the Islands are so nice, read this story of how they treat their own citizens. and look at how long it took to come out with this absolutely ridiculous decision. Please Judge,

Marguerita Maloney (right) with a friend before the verdict was announced. This scene changed dramatically after the verdict was announced as Marguerita fell to the ground and wailed.

Coroner’s verdict into death of I’Akobi Maloney: Death by misadventure

4/25/2009

TO screams of “Murderer”, “You kill my son”, “Dis is just de beginning”, was how the Coroner’s verdict of “death by misadventure” was greeted yesterday by Marguerita Maloney, mother of I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney, and other relatives and friends.

It was minutes before 5 o’clock when Coroner Faith Marshall-Harris delivered her verdict at the Coroner’s Court, Roebuck Street, St. Michael, packed with Maloney’s relatives and friends including his mother and brother, Mandela.

After the Coroner left the courtroom and returned to her chambers, Maloney’s mother and others re-joined the Rastafarian brethren in the courtyard which included his father, David. Dozens had earlier lined the courtyard but had to remain outside during the verdict for lack of space.

Pointing and calling the names of the two officers who were first on the scene at Landlock, St. Lucy, where the 23-year-old chemical engineer died on June 17, 2008, Marguerita told Sergeant Wingrove Headley and Police Constable Wendell Walkes… “De inquest end, but dis is just de beginning. De Rasta brethren gine get you.”

Dressed in white, in stark contrast to the others who wore red shirts and black pants, Marguerita fell to the ground and wailed her son’s name, as well as those of Sojourner Truth, Marcus Garvey, and Malcolm X and the Rastafarian community.

She was eventually lifted up and left with the group, some of whom carried flags and placards.

Barbados: What happened to I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney?

I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney, by any standard, was a high achiever .

The 23-year-old, a devout Rastafari, was a recent graduate of the University of the West Indies, with a degree in engineering. Before that, he was valedictorian at his high school, where his classmates voted him “most likely to succeed.” He won a scholarship from the Barbados government that paid for his university education, and he was chosen by the Barbados Ministry of Social Transformation as a youth delegate at the 5th Ministerial Meeting on Children and Social Policy in the Americas. He had a black belt in martial arts and was an accomplished public speaker. He had just joined the Barbados Association of Professional Engineers, and was a summer intern at a cement factory. He seemed to be on a clear path to success.

On 17 June, 2008, everything changed. In circumstances that have not yet been fully explained, Maloney died in an encounter with the Barbados police. According to a police statement , at 5.30 that afternoon officers responded to a report of a “drug landing” at Cove Bay , near the northern tip of the island of Barbados. There they saw Maloney wandering near the top of a steep cliff overlooking the sea. They approached and interviewed him.

“Initial investigations reveal that Maloney suddenly ran and jumped off a cliff, landing on a ledge below. Shortly after this he was washed off this ledge by the pounding waves, which took him out into the sea,” public relations officer inspector Barry Hunte said.

Later, the assistant commissioner of police suggested that Maloney was “depressed” at the time of the incident:

According to the crime chief, police also discovered a note entered in his personal diary which suggested he could have been contemplating suicide.

But Maloney’s family was immediately suspicious of this version of events. His mother pointed out that the police claimed Maloney landed face down on rocks at the foot of the cliff, yet there was a prominent wound at the back of his head. Further, Maloney was reported to have jumped with his haversack on his back, and his body was in the sea for eight hours before it was retrieved — yet when the haversack was returned to his mother, there was no sign of water damage to its contents.

Within two days of the incident, the Ichirouganaim Council for the Advancement of Rastafari (ICAR) , a Barbadian Rastafari advocacy group, had set up a blog, AfriKa CRY BLOOD , to “promote, protect and defend the Ras Tacuma case.” ICAR began collecting evidence of possible foul play, disputed police allegations of Maloney’s involvement in drug smuggling, and made an urgent call for a full investigation of his death. The blog documented a protest held in Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados, as well as questions raised by members of the Barbados parliament.

The police responded that an investigation was under way , but some Barbados bloggers were unconvinced. “There will be no public inquest into his death,” said Barbados Free Press .

There will be no public process to examine the circumstances of how he died while “in the company of” Barbados police. Eventually, the local news media will quietly let the story fade into the past, and people will say “Well, there was some sort of inquiry and it showed…” BUT THAT WILL BE A LIE.

BFP went on to remind its readers of a previous case in which a young man mysteriously died after an encounter with police. Meanwhile, Barbados Underground posted the full text of a statement by the People’s Democratic Congress, a political party.

… we in PDC ask that NOT ONLY must there be a Coroner’s Inquest into the circumstances of this death as soon as possible , BUT that ALSO the Attorney General allow his department to carry out their own fair and impartial investigations into this grievous affair.

“This case frightens me,” wrote Caribbean Lionesse :

I’Akobi was just like me. Young, intellectual, UWI graduate, ambitious, good job and with locks. You want to think that our society has advanced to such a point that all your other accomplishments mean something….

She linked to a thread at the Rastafari Speaks forum, in which Sis Ali suggested Maloney was the victim of police profiling: “someone saw Rasta up there and called the police.”

With Maloney’s family and the Barbadian Rastafari community still waiting for answers, ICAR has organised another protest march on Friday 1 August — the day when the end of slavery is commemorated across the Anglophone Caribbean — and launched an online petition calling for justice.

Much of New Orleans was flooded by Hurricane Katrina

Building bigger, stronger levees in New Orleans will not be enough to save the US city from another Hurricane Katrina, a report has said.

The risks of severe flooding in the city could “never be fully eliminated”, said an independent panel of experts.

The report said the authorities should consider raising the level of buildings and even abandoning flood-prone areas.

More than 1,800 people died in the devastating 2005 hurricane, and about 80% of the city was flooded.

New Orleans has about 563 km (350 miles) of barriers, levees and other structures intended to protect the city.

But in August 2005, large sections of this system failed and much of the city was inundated by the storm surges brought by Katrina.

The report, from the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the National Research Council (NRC), said the disaster had exposed the “many weaknesses in the hurricane protection and preparedness systems” for New Orleans and surrounding areas.

It said there had been “undue optimism” about the ability of the protection systems to withstand the impact of a storm on the scale of Katrina.

Voluntary relocation

FLASHBACK TO KATRINA Katrina struck US Gulf Coast in August 2005 as a Category Three storm, killing more than 1,800 people New Orleans was 80% flooded after storm surge breached protective levees US government was blamed for slow, botched response that exacerbated disaster Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced Flashback: Hurricane Katrina

The report said improvements made to the flood protection system since Katrina had “reduced some vulnerabilities”.

But, it said that “the risks of inundation and flooding never can be fully eliminated by protective structures, no matter how large or sturdy those structures may be”.

The authors advised that as there can be no absolute protection against storm surges and flooding, the authorities should consider encouraging people to move away from areas at risk.

Where this is not possible, “significant improvements in flood-proofing measures will be essential”.

This would include raising the standard height for ground floors of properties, strengthening critical infrastructure such as power and telecommunications and improving evacuation plans.

The report also found that there had been “limited understanding and appreciation of the risks of living behind levees”.

It advised that these risks needed to be communicated more clearly and consistently to those in affected areas.

Hurricane Katrina was one of the deadliest storms in US history, causing billions of dollar of damage and leaving tens of thousands of people homeless.

The US government was heavily criticised for the extent of the damage and for what was perceived to be a slow response to the disaster.

Duke once held a seat for Louisiana in the House of Representatives

Czech authorities have ordered a former Ku Klux Klan leader, David Duke, to leave the country.

The 59-year-old American was invited to the Czech Republic by a local far-right group and had planned to give lectures and promote a book.

But on Friday he was arrested and questioned by police on suspicion of denying the Holocaust, an offence under Czech law.

Mr Duke has not been charged, but was ordered to leave the country.

He has reportedly been given a deadline of midnight on Saturday.

His lawyer was quoted in local media as saying she would lodge a complaint against the police on his behalf.

The Czech interim prime minister-designate, Jan Fischer, appeared on Czech television to say the opinions expressed in Mr Duke’s book were “simply unacceptable, incomprehensible”.

David Duke is a former Grand Wizard of the notorious white supremacist Ku Klux Klan group. He once held a seat for the Louisiana state House of Representatives, and made an unsuccessful bid for the US presidency.

The IWF was set up in 1996 to police access to images of child abuse.

The BBC goes behind the scenes at the Internet Watch Foundation to see how its researchers cope with the psychologically demanding job of policing sites peddling images of child abuse.

The watchdog that blocked a Wikipedia page last year over a rock album cover says it still believes that the image at the heart of that controversy was illegal.

But the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) says it has moved on after the row in December 2008, and claims its quest to eradicate child abuse images from the web is now having real success.

Critics have accused the organisation of being both unaccountable and ineffective. This week the BBC was given unique access to the work of the IWF, as the watchdog tries to fight back.

It’s in a house in a quiet village north of Cambridge that the Internet Watch Foundation runs a hotline for reports of child abuse images. It’s a job the self-regulatory body was given in 1996, as the internet industry sought to avoid direct control by the police or government.

Upstairs at its HQ there is a door marked “IWF staff only – image viewing in progress”. I was allowed in, to find four analysts at work, sifting through reports that have arrived overnight from members of the public.

The analysts, who mostly have backgrounds in IT, prefer to remain anonymous, but one of them, Karen, agreed to tell me about her work.

She showed me a list of the reports she had to deal with that day, some from members of the public who said they had been looking for adult sites but had been shocked to come across child abuse images.

Some callers fear they may be accused of downloading illegal images.

Her first task is to try to determine whether the images are in fact illegal under UK law. “My next step would be to chase that image or website to the country where it is located,” she said.

In almost all cases, the offending sites are abroad, and Karen contacts one of the IWF’s 35 sister organisations – if there is one in the country concerned – and informs the UK police.

I put it to Karen that it must be difficult to do such emotionally draining work, especially when some feel that it’s not even worthwhile. “There are times when I questioned my own sanity for doing this,” she admitted.

“However, I’m a mother with two children, I feel that it’s an important job and someone needs to do it. That’s how I get through the day.”

Karen sees some sites cropping up time and again, with the criminals moving them from country to country, trying to stay one step ahead.

She said: “We’re also finding a trend towards sexual abuse images of younger and younger children, and more severe forms of abuse.”

She explains that most of the sites operate a pay-per-view system, charging $80-100 (£55-68) per month for access to images and videos.

The offending sites are also added to the blacklist compiled by the IWF for internet service providers, which then block access.

There are times when I questioned my own sanity for doing this Karen, IWF researcher

It was this process which led to the blocking of a Wikipedia page about a 1970s album cover featuring an image of a naked young girl. That ruling, reversed within days, threw a spotlight on the IWF, and the transparency of its procedures.

David Gerard of the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia and other similar projects, says the incident showed the IWF to be “ham-fisted and incompetent at every level”.

He maintains that there is no way to block illegal content “without massive collateral damage to speech, communication, learning and society”.

Dr Richard Clayton , a computer scientist at Cambridge University, has a different criticism – that the watchdog suffers from confusion about its aims.

Browse The Internet In Privacy using Vidalia Tools

His research shows that, while banks manage to get phishing sites taken down within hours, the IWF takes an average of 28 days to get child abuse sites removed. “‘Are they trying to get sites removed from the internet?’ he asks, if so they’re doing a poor job.

“Alternatively, if they think their aim is to catch the criminals putting up this material, then they should become part of the police.”

The IWF censored an image that appeared on a Wikipedia page

Peter Robbins, chief executive of the IWF, says the various critics are ignoring the fact that the watchdog’s mission is proving a success.

He says the IWF has learned from the Wikipedia controversy, though he still believes the image on the album cover was illegal. “Was that an image of a pre-pubescent girl? Yes. In our view it’s not OK,” he says.

But he accepts that it was not realistic to ban an image that was widely available in shops and on the internet. “I don’t want to dwell on this incident. The fact is that we are dealing with some horrendous content on a daily basis and we’re working really hard with hotlines and law enforcement bodies to try to stop the distributors of these images.”

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This entry was posted on Sunday, April 26th, 2009 at 12:00 AM and is filed under Bad Ish, BadGalsRadio, Jesus Take The Wheel, Politics, SMH, WTF ?, Women, blog4action, busta, genocide watch, video, why ?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.