Times Square Bomber Sentenced To Life
the 31-year-old Pakistani-American defiantly warned in court to "brace yourself, the war with Muslims has just begun."
"The defeat of the U.S. is imminent, inshallah," Shahzad said during the sentencing. Inshallah means "if God is willing."
Speaking in a 14th-floor courtroom with a view of Lower Manhattan and the area where the World Trade Center towers once stood, Shahzad said Muslims have been defending their people and their lands. If that makes them terrorists, "then we will terrorize you," he said, imploring people to embrace Islam.
U.S. District Judge Miriam Cedarbaum, who sentenced Shahzad to the mandatory sentence of life in prison, noted that he failed to show remorse for his actions.
The 31 year old Pakistani American warned the court today during his sentencing that Americans should "brace yourself, the ward with Muslims has just begun." and "The defeat of the U.S. is imminent, inshallah," He continued to ask people to embrace Islam, and terror would stop. The judge who sentenced him, Judge Miriam Cedarbaum, noted that he failed to show regret for any of his actions. "Hopefully such a steep penalty will deter others from following in his footsteps."
| |
Police Storm Yale Party, 5 arrested, 1 tasered
Police stormed a Yale party with what witnesses described as assault rifles and riot gear, at about 12:50am, forcing students to get on the ground, be quiet, and hand over their IDs. Once it was all over dozens of students still had no idea what had occurred. Five were arrested, and one tasered, who had to be taken to the hospital and was later was released, under unknown charges. The police said it was part of their "Operation Nightlife" and gave no further details. The dean of Yale said in a statement: "This is a serious situation and we do not yet know all the facts," Gentry said. "I have asked Assistant Chief Ronnell Higgins of the Yale Police to assist us in gathering information."
| |
Miami federal prosecutor arrested after swimming in his boxers
A Miami federal prosecutor was arrested Sunday afternoon after swimming in his boxers at a Miami after a young girl and her mom accused him of indecency. When an officer came to arrest him, he jumped multiple fences in a ditch to escape. The prosecutor has tried many federal narcotics cases. Charges have yet to be filed. | |
China offers to buy Greek Debt
Prime minister Wen Jiabao says his country will buy the Greek debt to help out Europe. The prime minister also said China would work on regulating copyright infringement if the EU would relax trade negotiations. This is all seen as a power play, and as of late China has been flexing it's economic and political muscles. In September China held shipments of rare earth minerals back from Japanese manufactures, minerals needed to make hybrid batteries, until the Japanese government returned a fishing boat they had seized. | |
Verizon Refunding over $90m to Overcharged Data Users
Today Verizon announced it would be crediting over 15 million customers with $90m in refunds for overcharging for data use. Most customers should see a $2-$4 refund on their bill by November, Verizon explains: "As we reviewed customer accounts, we discovered that over the past several years approximately 15 million customers who did not have data plans were billed for data sessions on their phones that they did not initiate. These customers would normally have been billed at the standard rate of $1.99 per megabyte for any data they chose to access from their phones. The majority of the data sessions involved minor data exchanges caused by software built into their phones; others involved accessing the web, which should not have incurred charges. We have addressed these issues to avoid unintended data charges in the future."
| |
Panama Court Overturns Tycoon's WillHis family was left nothing from his side, and his wife is a famous media heiress. He wanted to leave something behind to help the country that gave him "so much", and the legal battle over his will has left many wondering about the justice system in Panama and his widow's greed. "That money could have helped a lot of children. If that family keeps it God will not forgive them," said Hector Avila, head of a children's charity. "In this country political and economic forces weigh more than justice." Lucom wasn't someone you'd expect to be the champion of poor third world children, a former diplomat who married well twice, he had no children of his own. It's said that he didn't care too much for his adult stepchildren, and after his death everyone was surprised he would rather leave the money to strangers. Lucom's widow, who's son is the ambassador of Panama to Britain, pulled strings with Interpol to get her husband's lawyer Richard Lehman arrested, had him charged with the death of her husband, forgery, among other things. His lawyer was left as the head of the trust for the charity on his death, and he's surprised and outraged that Lucom's widow cared if he left them anything or not. "It's a joke. They stole that money, it's that simple," said Lehman. "I'm sad and disgusted. Kids are starving and a few individuals have walked away with everything." | |
LA School District to Use Fingerprints to Identify Schoolchildren
LA Unified School District says plan will improve efficiency and speed up lunch lines, and eliminate the headaches of lost of forgotten money or lunch passes. They're already facing opposition by parents and privacy groups over the system, which has been banned in several states, citing "Making school children submit to fingerprinting, and risking the misuse of biometric information before they are old enough to drive a car seems like an absurdly risky and invasive way to get slightly faster lunch lines," said Peter Bibring, a lawyer with the Southern California American Civil Liberties Union. LAUSD says it will go along with the program despite opinions. Dennis Barrett, LAUSD's director of food services refutes any of the privacy issues, saying, "We carefully vetted this process... No one would be able to generate a fingerprint from this database." | |
State Department Issues Travel Alert
"U.S. citizens should take every precaution to be aware of their surroundings and to adopt appropriate safety measures to protect themselves when traveling," the notice from the U.S. State Department said. "We continue to work closely with our European allies on the threat from international terrorism, including al Qaeda."
The advisory is not meant to tell Americans to avoid travel, but to take "common-sense precautions" in case of trouble, Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy told reporters Sunday.
"If they see unattended packages or hear loud noises or see something beginning to happen that they should quickly move away from them," he said. The warning urges them to be cautious in public places like tourist sites and airports or while riding public transportation, and Americans should know how to contact the U.S. Embassy and consider registering their travel plans there, he said.
"U.S. citizens should take every precaution to be aware of their surroundings and to adopt appropriate safety measures to protect themselves when traveling," the notice from the U.S. State Department said. "We continue to work closely with our European allies on the threat from international terrorism, including al Qaeda." This warning is not to deter Americans from travel, but just to take common sense precautions. "If they see unattended packages or hear loud noises or see something beginning to happen that they should quickly move away from them," he said. The warning urges them to be cautious in public places like tourist sites and airports or while riding public transportation, and Americans should know how to contact the U.S. Embassy and consider registering their travel plans there, he said.
| |
Drug Smugglers Burrowing Under the Border
US aircraft drones patrol the skies, while border police guard the land routes. It's hard these days to get your drug payload into the United States! What's a smuggler to do? Apparently, they've returned to the golden days of smuggling via tunnel. On Thursday, police discovered the first underground tunnel, right under the checkpoint in Nogales. Before they could even get the first tunnel filled, in they found a second one a block away. Both tunnels led to a storm drain on the opposite side of the border. It's still unsure if there are other tunnels, but both will be filled in to prevent use by drug and people smugglers. | |
Net Neutrality Deal Collapses
A lack of support by the Republicans killed Net Neutrality legislation this week. The legislation was to be a quick fix to protect net neutrality while Congress was trying to find a more permanent solution. The bill would have prohibited wireless broadband providers from blocking Websites, as well as applications that compete with voice or video conferencing and restore for two years the FCC’s authority to prevent blocking of Internet content, applications and services. “If our efforts to find bipartisan consensus fail, the FCC should move forward under Title II,” Waxman said. “The bottom line is that we must protect the open Internet. If Congress can’t act, the FCC must.” | |
