“One point, One demand: Atheists must be hanged”, chanted the demonstrators as they marched along at least six highways, blocking transport between Dhaka and other cities and towns.The demonstrators gathered in the capital’s Motijheel commercial district, amounting to between 150,000 to 200,000 people according to AFP. On their way, they set shops and vehicles on fire, according to police accounts.Police used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the protesters after they reportedly set off homemade explosives and threw stones at security. Local authorities had to deploy more than 15,000 security forces to the area.The protesters are reportedly the activists from the Hefajat-e-Islam group, which blames some Internet users for blasphemy; accusing people of using their blogs to spread atheism and apparent lies about Islam.The members of the radical Islamist group demanded the death penalty for those who they think defame Islam. The 13-point list of demands also included a ban on the right of women to work outside the household and the prohibition for women to mix with men. The Islamists also demanded the release of those accused of war crimes during country’s liberation war in 1971, which established the sovereign nation of Bangladesh.The government of Bangladesh has declined the group’s demands to enact an anti-blasphemy law saying that the country lives by secular liberal laws. The leaders of Hefajat-e-Islam promised to launch a campaign to dethrone the government unless their demands are met.The radical Islamist group was formed in 2010 to protest the government’s secular policies in education and politics. Last month it organized a general strike as well as a gathering attended by hundreds of thousands of activists, during three people died and more than 50 were injured. … Read More
Unabomber lawyer to defend suspected Boston terrorist Tsarnaev
United States Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler approved on Monday a request made by public defender Miriam Conrad to add a high-profile name to the roster of attorneys representing the 19-year-old accused bomber. Judy Clarke will now join the legal counsel that will defend the surviving suspect of the Boston bombing when Tsarnaev is put on trial for using a weapon of mass destruction, a felony terrorism count that comes with a possible death sentence if convicted.Clarke, a San Diego, California-based attorney with decades of federal experience under her belt, previously represented “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, convicted Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph and the Arizona man who shot former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in 2011. In those three cases as well as others, Clarke succeeded in having her clients receive only life imprisonment sentences in lieu of the death penalty.Authorities say Tsarnaev killed three people and injured more than 200 others when he and his brother Tamerlan, 26, detonated a pair of homemade bombs during the Boston Marathon two weeks ago. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died days later after a gunfight with police, but his brother survived and is now accused of crimes not dissimilar to those of clients Clarke worked with in the past: Kaczynski was convicted of killing three people and injuring nearly two dozen others with a series of homemade explosives and is considered a domestic terrorist by the FBI; Rudolph earned that distinction as well after being convicted of killing two and injuring 150 others in the 1996 Olympic blast.In approving the defense’s request to enlist Clarke as a representative for Tsarnaev, Judge Bowler said the accused bomber required an attorney with experience in a case where prosecutors will likely seek the death penalty.“In light of the circumstances in this case, the defendant requires an attorney with more background, knowledge and experience in federal death penalty cases than that possessed by current counsel,” Bowler said. The appointment will “provide the defendant with adequate and proper representation.”Northampton, Massachusetts lawyer David Hoose has gone toe-to-toe with Clarke in court, and speaking to Fox News he described her as “simply the best.”"She has an ability to relate to people who are charged with these horrific, horrific crimes and to humanize them, to portray them as human beings to the government and to a jury,” Hoose said.Just last week, Clarke told attendees at a legal conference in Los Angeles about being “sucked into the black hole, the vortex” of death penalty cases nearly two decades ago when she represented Susan Smith, a South Carolina woman convicted in in 1995 of drowning her two young children.”I got a dose of understanding human behavior, and I learned what the death penalty does to us,” she said, according to the Associated Press. “I don’t think it’s a secret that I oppose the death penalty.”Conrad also asked the court to appoint a second death penalty lawyer, Washington and Lee University School of Law Professor David Bruck, but that request was rejected for the time being. … Read More
Tsarnaev mother faces jail time in US
The mother and father of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have been cooperating with US authorities from their native Russia in the days since a pair of homemade bombs blew up in Boston last Monday, killing three and injuring more than 200 others. Now according to the latest reports, Anzor and Zubeidat Tsarnaev are slated to soon come stateside in order to answer more questions about their children as authorities search for answers.Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died as a result of the injuries he incurred during a firefight with police last week in Watertown, Massachusetts. He left behind a wife, Katherine Russell, and a 3-year-old daughter. An attorney for Russell told the media earlier this week that “She is doing everything she can to assist with the investigation,” and that “The reports of involvement by her husband and brother-in-law came as an absolute shock to them all.”The younger of the two brothers, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, remains hospitalized in fair condition after being captured late Friday in Watertown and has been limited in his ability to communicate with investigators.Now as authorities hope to learn more suspects’ past, sources say the parents are scheduled to come stateside in the coming days to aid in the investigation.The father of the suspects, Anzor Tsarnaev, previously told the media that he hoped to travel to the US “as soon as possible.” He currently residents in the Republic of Dagestan, North Caucasus territory sandwiched between the west coast of the Caspian Sea and the country of Georgia.RIA Novosti says the suspects’ mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, arrived in Dagestan late Tuesday to meet a team of American officials who traveled there earlier in the day from the US Embassy in Moscow.“During the talks it was decided to take the Tsarnaev parents to the United States, the parents have given their consent to this, they will be involved in the US investigation,” a police source told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.Traveling to the US may be a risky maneuver for the mother, though: the clerk of the Natick District Court in Massachusetts confirmed to ABC News that Zubeidat Tsarnaeva failed to appear at a court hearing last year to resolve charges that she stole $1,600 worth of merchandise from a Lord & Taylor department store. Authorities may chose to arrest her if she enters the US due to an outstanding warrant for shoplifting.Meanwhile, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva maintains her sons’ innocence. Speaking to RT after her children were named as suspects last week, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva said that the FBI has been conducting surveillance on Tamerlan for over a year and would have been aware of any suspicious activity.“They told me whatever information he is getting, he gets from these extremist sites… they were controlling him, they were controlling his every step…and now they say that this is a terrorist act! Never ever is this true, my sons are innocent,” she told RT.“What happened is a terrible thing. But I know that my kids have nothing to do with this. I know it. I am mother. You know, I know my kids. I know my kids. Really my kids would never get involved into anything like that,” she added to ABC News. … Read More
How the Tsarnaevs might effect gun control debate
What began with two homemade bombs planted at the Boston Marathon ended after an extended shootout, when bombing suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev used handguns and a rifle to fight a running battle with police across several Massachusetts towns, leaving one officer dead and another severely wounded.But police in the state tell Reuters and the AP that neither brother had the permits required to carry a firearm in Massachusetts, which has some of the strictest gun laws in the country.This isn’t particularly surprising, since both brothers may have had trouble buying a gun from a federally licensed firearms dealer. Younger brother Dzhokhar is 19, but federal law prohibits dealers from selling handguns to someone under the age of 21. Older brother Tamerlan was arrested for domestic violence in 2009 and if he was convicted (reports conflict at the moment), he would be prohibited from purchasing any kind of firearm from a dealer.Continue Reading… … Read More
Some 40 arrested, 115 injured after Egypt clashes
Over 100 of the injuries occurred in Cairo after violence flared up near a Muslim Brotherhood protest.A further six people were injured after clashes in Alexandria and another four were injured in Daqahleya, Egypt’s Daily News reported.The clashes erupted after opposition activists confronted Islamists who were holding a rally outside the Supreme Court to demand judges, they say are opposed to Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, be sacked.They are demanding an overhaul of the country’s judiciary, which they believe is hostile to Morsi.Last month a court overturned a decree by Morsi to sack prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmud, who had been appointed by Egypt’s former President Mubarak, and replace him with Talaat Abdallah.A court also overturned Morsi’s demand for parliamentary polls this month. They ruled that the president had passed a new electoral law without consulting the constitutional court first. Morsi accepted the court’s ruling.The violence erupted around Tahir Square, the epicenter of mass protests in early 2011 which toppled the long serving president Hosni Mubarak. Opposition activists fired bird shot at Islamists and riot police. Riot police from the Central Security Forces intervened, firing tear gas at protesters.An amateur video on Youtube also showed Islamists firing what appeared to be homemade guns, according to AFP.The Muslim Brotherhood accused masked Black Bloc members of attacking and setting on fire one of its buses. Black Bloc is a term used when protesters use black clothing, such as scarves and ski masks, to conceal their identity.“Those who masterminded attacks against peaceful demonstrators today are people who are afraid of their legitimate demands. The Egyptian people know well who calls for violence and who calls for achieving the goals and demands of the revolution. All attempts to drag us into violence will not succeed,” a Muslim Brotherhood media spokesman said on the group’s website.A senior member of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), Mohamed Al-Beltagy, described the clashes as “contrived” and initiated by “paid thugs”.Egypt has been plagued by political instability and violence since Morsi took office in June last year. There have been deadly clashes between protesters and police, sectarian violence, a revolt in the cities on the Suez Canal and a devastating economic crisis. Some fear that Egypt is teetering on the brink of chaos. … Read More
California man blows himself up after refusing medical help
A Costa Mesa, California neighborhood had to be evacuated Sunday night after a resident allegedly killed himself with a homemade bomb. KTLA-TV reported on Monday that authorities found the unidentified man laying on his front lawn earlier in the evening, but refused medical attention and went back…
Flaunt it while you got it?
Former “Teen Mom” Farrah Abraham has come out to confirm that, yes, she filmed a “sex tape” with James Deen, the world’s most famous male porn star — but she says she intended it for personal consumption only. (Unless someone wants to pay at least $2 million for the right to distribute it, she clarified.) Her story conflicts with that of her costar, who implied that the original plan was to professionally film a porno and then pretend that it was a homemade sex tape that had gotten leaked — but whatever. What’s more interesting is how she chose to explain her motivation for allegedly commissioning the film: “I wanted my own personal video made and photos taken for myself. When I am older I will have my best year to look back on.” She added, “This is just something I personally needed for me.”Ah, the old “flaunt it while you’ve got it” rationale.Continue Reading… … Read More
