Government: the death toll of the Damascus mosque blast so 42 people

Beirut (Reuters)-An explosion at a mosque in the capital of Syria, Damascus, Thursday killed at least 42 people, including a senior pro-Government cleric, and wounded 84 others, Syria Ministry of Health said.

State television and the anti-Government activists previously reported 15 dead, reports Reuters.

The television said one suicide blast struck a Mosque in Faith terrorist Center of Damascus, and Mohammed al-Buti, the priest of ancient Ummayyad Mosque, is one of who died.

Buti, a cleric who is reviled by the Government-appointed opposition movement, delivering the prayer sermon Syria Friday every week on television the Government. (AK)

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Fayyad was shocked over the death of the Palestinian prisoners in Israel

Ramallah, Palestinian territories (Reuters)-Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad expressed surprise over the death of a Palestinian in Israel's prison on Saturday and called for the full details of what happened.

Fayyad "expressed his sadness and deep shock over kemartian prisoners in prisons of occupation Jaradat Arafat is Israel," said a statement from his Office, as reported by AFP.

He affirmed the necessity to immediately reveal the real reason that cause them to martyrdom.

Earlier, a spokesman for Israel's Prison Service said Post, Jaradat Sivan (30), a father of two children in the West Bank town of Hebron, died suddenly at the Megiddo detention centre in the North of Israel.

"It's probably a heart attack, I have no additional details at the moment," said the Post.

Issa Qaraqaa, the Palestinian Minister in charge of prisoners Affairs, told AFP that Jaradat was arrested a few days earlier.

"He died during the investigation," added Qaraqaa.

"We demand the establishment of a Commission of inquiry to investigate the circumstances of his death international," he said.

Israel's internal intelligence service Shin Bet said Jaradat was arrested on Monday because of his involvement in the incident of stoning in November that caused an injured Israel.

He fell ill just before his death, the Shin Bet said in a statement.

"After lunch, when he was resting in the Megiddo prison, Arafat Jaradat was brought to the hospital. Paramedics were called to treat him but they were unable to save his life, "he added.

Clashes broke out in Hebron between Palestinian youths and the security forces of Israel after the death of Jaradat's news, said witnesses and security sources.

Relations between Israel and the Palestinian territories have been particularly tense since protests this month in solidarity with four other prisoners detained by Israel conducted a hunger strike action.

The prisoners ' club based in Ramallah announced that seven prisoners had joined the protests that, though there was no immediate confirmation from the prison service.

(H-AK)

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Conrad Murray Found Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter in Michael Jackson’s Death

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Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

A Los Angeles jury found Conrad Murray, the physician accused of involuntary manslaughter in the 2009 death of Michael Jackson, guilty on Monday.

The jury, made up of five men and seven women, deliberated for about eight hours between Friday and Monday after hearing closing arguments from the prosecution and defense throughout the day on Nov. 3 in the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Murray, 58, sat stoically while the verdict was read. His lead attorney, Ed Chernoff, who came to Los Angeles from Houston to defend him, looked sullen and frustrated. After the announcement, dismissal of the jury and queries on sentencing to the defense, Murray was remanded and denied bail. Sentencing was set for Nov. 29.

(MORE: NewsFeed’s Coverage of the Conrad Murray Trial)

The six-week trial hinged largely on scientific demonstrations and the testimonies of two well-regarded anesthesiologists, Dr. Steven Shafer and Dr. Paul White. Both are highly published and sought-after lecturers and experts on the anesthetic propofol. They were on opposite sides when it came to determining whether Murray was negligent by leaving Jackson’s bedside after he gave him an injection of the drug and by failing to immediately call 911 when he returned to discover that Jackson was not breathing.

(PHOTOS: A Post-Michael Guide to the Jackson Family)

An autopsy found that Jackson was killed by an overdose of the drug. Defense lawyers argued that Murray’s carelessness caused a lethal amount of it to seep into Jackson’s system. Murray admitted to giving propofol to Jackson but said he was trying to wean him off it because he feared the pop singer was becoming addicted. Meanwhile, Murray’s defense countered that Jackson could have taken the drug while Murray was out of the bedroom. White himself said on the stand that Jackson, desperate for sleep in preparation for his comeback This Is It tour, may have injected himself with the drug, causing his own death.

Others, including Jackson’s bodyguard, nurse and people involved with the launch of the tour, were also called to the stand. Murray told Judge Michael Pastor that he would not testify in his own defense.

Loyola Law School Los Angeles Professor Stan Goldman, who has been monitoring the trial from the beginning, said the verdict came as no surprise given the strength of the prosecution’s case.

“I think it would have been a shocker if this hadn’t happened,” he explained. “Conrad Murray’s criminal negligence was pretty obvious once the trial got going.”

He continued, “The prosecution’s case was pretty overwhelming. The best argument the defense had was one they couldn’t make: that Michael Jackson wanted this particular doctor to give him this powerful sleep medication. The only chance the defense had was to prove that Jackson caused his own death.”

With the guilty verdict, Murray could face four years behind bars and the loss of his medical license.

MORE: Jackson’s Death: How Dangerous Is Propofol?

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Argentina jails 'Angel of Death'

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27 October 2011 Last updated at 07:11 GMT Crowds cheered as the judge jailed Alfredo Astiz for life

Former Argentine naval officer Alfredo Astiz has been jailed for life for crimes against humanity during military rule in 1976-83.

Astiz - known as the "Blond Angel of Death" - was found guilty of torture, murder and forced disappearance.

Among his victims were two French nuns and the founders of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo human rights group.

Eleven other former military and police officers were also given life sentences for crimes against humanity.

Four others were jailed for between 18 and 25 years.

All worked at the Naval Mechanical School in Buenos Aires - known as Esma - which was the biggest secret torture and killing centre set up by the military during what became known as the "Dirty War".

Of the 5,000 or so prisoners taken to Esma, 90% did not come out alive.

Some were killed by firing squad while others were thrown from planes - drugged but still alive - into the Atlantic Ocean.

More than 70 of those who did make it out were among the witnesses in the 22-month trial.

Symbol of oppression

Astiz looked straight ahead and showed no emotion as the sentence was read out.

Campaigners celebrated the end of a long fight for justice

Among the others given life terms are Jorge Acosta, Antonio Pernias and Ricardo Cavallo.

Human rights groups had campaigned for years to bring the perpetrators to justice, and there were celebrations as the sentences were read out.

"We resisted. We never committed a crime. This is why this is just. They committed crimes. They are imprisoned," said Esma survivor Ricardo Coquet.

Astiz, 59, is one of the most notorious symbols of oppression during military rule in Argentina.

As a young naval intelligence officer he infiltrated the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo human rights group, which was set up to find relatives abducted by the security forces.

He then arranged the kidnap and murder of its three founders - Azucena Villaflor, Esther Ballestrino and Maria Ponce.

He had already been convicted in absentia in France for the murder of the French nuns Alice Domon and Leonie Duquet, who disappeared in Argentina in 1977.

In his defence, Astiz said he had acted to save Argentina from left-wing "terrorism", and he dismissed his trial as an act of political vengeance.

Human rights groups say 30,000 people were killed or made to disappear by the armed forces in their campaign against opposition activists and left-wing guerrillas.

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Short-Lived 1987 Sitcom Foreshadowed Gaddafi's 2011 Death

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“Second Chance” is getting a second look after its absurdly accurate prediction of Gaddafi's death.

It wasn't given a second chance in 1987, but it's getting a second look more than 24 years later as life seems to have imitated art. The show, which aired for just one season in the late 80s, predicted the death of Col. Muammar Gaddafi would occur in 2011.

(PHOTOS: Gaddafi's Crazy Clothes)

Haven't heard of it? We're not surprised. A crash course: “Second Chance” afforded Matthew Perry one of his first starring roles, as the title character. Perry, stuck in purgatory, is given the chance to go back to his teenage years to live a more virtuous life. We're not giving the plot a second chance, but the show's pilot episode is most certainly worth reprising. It takes place, after all, on July 29, 2011.

The show opens in St. Peter's heavenly office, where he receives the newly dead and guides them toward Heaven or Hell after judging the person's life achievements. After first attending to an overly cheesy beauty queen (who manages to make it to heaven), St. Peter – played by a quite commanding Joseph Maher of Sister Act – finds Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in his presence.

“Dead at last,” St. Peter quips after Gaddafi magically materializes. Gaddafi, in his typical outlandish and autocratic fashion, counters with: “But it's impossible for me to be dead.” In the exchange lasting a mere two minutes, Gaddafi is (quite expectedly) ordered to Hell in a process as arbitrary as the Hogwarts Sorting Hat.

(LIST: Top 15 Toppled Dictators)

But really, who's surprised? St. Peter shuts down the surprised Brother Leader, saying: “Oh, come on, you must have known it was coming. Very few parents these days are naming their kids ‘Muammar'.”

According to the show's producers, the Gaddafi gag was put in the pilot episode after the Libyan ruler was blamed for the 1986 bombing of a discotheque in West Berlin, Germany that killed three people and injured more than 200.  There is nary a mention of Gaddafi on “Second Chance” after the door to Hell closes, but the coincidences are striking. A bullet-riddled Muammar is pronounced dead 24 years in advance, on an arbitrary date just 83 days before his actual death.

Perhaps the show contains other wild predictions that will reveal themselves as reality? Who said there are no second chances for a failed TV show?

Nick Carbone is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @nickcarbone. You can also continue the discussion on TIME's Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

PHOTOS: Libya Celebrates the Fall of Gaddafi

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U.N. Human Rights Office Urges Inquiry into Qadhafi's Death

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GENEVA(Reuters)—The United Nations human rights office called on Friday for a full investigation into the death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and voiced concerns that he may have been executed.

Separate cellphone images showed a wounded and bloodied Gaddafi first alive and then later dead amidst a jostling crowd of anti-Gaddafi fighters after his capture in his hometown of Sirte on Thursday.

"There's a lot of uncertainty about what happened exactly. There seem to be four or five different versions of how he died," U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told Reuters Television in an interview.

"If you take these two videos together, they are rather disturbing because you see someone who has been captured alive and then you see the same person dead.

[See photos of Muammar Qadhafi]

"We are not in a position to say what has happened at this point but we feel that it is very important that this is clarified, that there is some sort of serious investigation into what happened and what caused his death," he said.

Asked whether the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay was concerned Gaddafi may have been executed while in captivity, Colville replied:

"It has to be one possibility when you look at these two videos. So that's something that an investigation needs to look into," he said.

ARRESTED ALIVE, KILLED LATER

It is a fundamental principle of international law that people accused of serious crimes should be tried if possible, he said. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants in June for Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and intelligence chief for crimes against humanity.

[See photos of unrest in Libya]

"Summary executions are strictly illegal under any circumstances. It's different if someone is killed in combat. There was a civil war taking place in Libya. So if the person died as part of combat, that is a different issue and that is normally acceptable under the circumstances," Colville said.

"But if something else has happened, if someone is captured and then deliberately killed, then that is a very serious matter," he said.

Gaddafi was fatally wounded by a bullet in his intestines following his capture, according to a doctor who examined his body, amid conflicting accounts of how the fugitive former Libyan leader met his end at the end of an eight-month uprising against his 42-year rule.

"Gaddafi was arrested while he was alive but he was killed later. There was a bullet and that was the primary reason for his death, it penetrated his gut," doctor Ibrahim Tika told Al Arabiya television. "Then there was another bullet in the head that went in and out of his head."

[Read: Qadhafi's Death Won't Mean End for U.S. Role in Libya]

Earlier, Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, reading what he said was a post-mortem report, said Gaddafi was hauled unresisting from a "sewage pipe," shot in the arm and put in a truck which was "caught in crossfire" as it ferried him to hospital.

Jerky footage showed a man with Gaddafi's distinctive long, curly hair, bloodied and staggering under blows from armed men, apparently NTC fighters.

An international commission of inquiry, launched by the U.N. Human Rights Council, is already investigating killings, torture and other crimes in Libya.

Colville said he expected that the team would look into the circumstances of Gaddafi's death and perhaps make recommendations about the need for a full national inquiry or an international investigation.

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Qadhafi's Death Won't Mean End for U.S. Role in Libya

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The United States has been entrenched in Libya since March 19, when the first airstrikes against Col. Muammar Qadhafi's regime began. But seven months later, even with reports of Qadhafi's death, America's work there is not complete. [Read: 7 Challenges for a Post-Qadhafi Libya.]

This morning, as U.S. officials awaited confirmation of Qadhafi's death, Libyans celebrated the news in the streets of Tripoli and Benghazi. According to Reuters, the Transitional National Council, Libya's interim leaders, claimed Qadhafi died due to injuries sustained during NATO airstrikes on his convoy. Reports suggest he may also have been shot. Just before, according to reports from Libya, TNC fighters took control of Sirte, considered the last major holdout of pro-Qadhafi forces.

The news comes just days after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited with Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril in Tripoli to promise America's commitment to the Libyan people. According to Clinton, the international coalition will continue to protect civilians "until the threat from Qadhafi and those who hang to the past is ended." While that day may now be here, the United States also has a role to play to support what's likely to be a long and difficult democratic transition. [Read: Rebel victory in Libya is a vindication for Obama.]

Already, Clinton said in Tripoli, the administration is working to unlock billions of dollars in the previous regime's frozen assets to help with Libya's recovery. The administration, she said, would also provide $40 million to help Libya "secure and destroy dangerous stockpiles of weapons." In addition, the United States will engage in educational and cultural exchanges with Libyans to encourage economic cooperation between the two nations and to help Libya integrate into world markets. [Check out a roundup of political cartoons on the Middle East uprisings.]

Since the start of the Libyan revolution, President Obama and his administration have been careful to remain on the periphery, making sure that the victory remains in the hands of Libyans themselves. So, apart from economic cooperation and foreign aid, the United States may also have a guiding role to play as the country plans its path toward becoming a democratic nation. "The United States knows something about revolution and liberty. That is how our nation was born more than 230 years ago," Clinton told the Libyans. "And we know that democracy takes time; it will not be easy or quick. But we are filled with admiration for what you have already accomplished and confident in your ability to move forward."

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Qadhafi's Death Leaves Libyan Oil Industry Uncertain

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The death of Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi marks the end of an era, both for the nation and its once-booming oil industry, choked off by the turmoil of the revolution. And as with prospects for the liberated Libyans to form a united, democratic government, the post-Qadhafi era begins with a sense of cautious optimism in the petroleum fields so essential to the nation's recovery.

Oil exports accounted for more than 95 percent of Libya's export earnings in 2010, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Since the fall of Tripoli in August, Libya's national oil company has moved quickly to restore output, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), but thus far most production—down to around 300,000 to 400,000 barrels per day from a peak of about 1.6 million barrels daily—has been diverted to satisfy domestic demand.

Projections for the country's oil output have been revised slightly upwards, but questions remain about the extent of infrastructure damage caused by fighting, and power struggles within the nascent National Transitional Council could undermine efforts to get Libya's oil industry back online.

[Read: Qadhafi's Death Won't Mean End for U.S. Role in Libya.]

"If this leads to greater political clarity within Libya, and to a more stable operating and investment environment, then it may result in a more rapid restoration of the Libyan oil sector," David Fyfe, head of the IEA's oil industry and markets division, said in a statement. "However, many logistical, operational, and security-related challenges remain in that country, so we are not changing our underlying assumptions on Libyan production recovery for now. We still believe it could take many months for production to regain pre-crisis levels."

[Read: Politicians, World Leaders React to Qadhafi's Death.]

Most of the current oil production is derived from fields in the western and southern parts of the country, largely unaffected by fighting. While restoring production to pre-war levels may prove more difficult as the dust settles and damage is assessed, Libya has many advantages in its efforts to revitalize its oil industry.

For one, damage to the oilfields as a result of clashes between pro-Qadhafi forces and rebels appear to be relatively localized with the most damage affecting terminals and pipelines in the eastern side of the country. Production facilities in the western and southern regions have already started ramping up, according to Sarah Emerson, president of Energy Security Analysis Inc., who expects output to exceed 450,000 barrels by December.

"Now the question is as [production] continues to ramp up in excess of the refining requirements, then [Libya] can begin to export and that's where the money comes in," Emerson says. "[Qadhafi's death] is really incidental to the process. It starts a clock ticking, which says, 'Can you get the political stability together?'"

Emerson predicts conservatively that the country could see production of 800,000 to 1 million barrels by the end of next year, but full capacity very likely won't return until the end of 2013, she says.

[See photos of Muammar Qadhafi.]

The gradual re-entry of Libya—which holds Africa's largest proven oil reserves, according to the EIA—into global oil markets will likely ease pressure on supply and lower prices for refiners around the world.

"It's good news for the Europeans. It's good news for the East Coast United States," Emerson says.

mhandley@usnews.com

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Libyans urged to unite after death of Gaddafi

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1 of 31. Chairman of the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) Mustafa Abdel Jalil (C) visits fighters, injured during fighting in Sirte, in Benghazi Medical Center October 22, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Esam Al-Fetori

By Brian Rohan and Yasmine Saleh

BENGHAZI, Libya | Sat Oct 22, 2011 8:50pm EDT

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Libya is to declare its bitter eight-month civil war against Muammar Gaddafi's 42 years of eccentric one-man rule over Sunday and embark on building a democracy with the country's first free elections next year.

Tens of thousands are expected to pack into the central square in the second city Benghazi, the cradle of the uprising against Gaddafi, to witness interim government leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil announce the "liberation" of Libya.

With huge oil and gas resources and a relatively small population of some six million, Libya has the potential to become a prosperous country, but regional and tribal rivalries fostered by Gaddafi could erupt into yet more violence.

Libya's new leaders have a "very limited opportunity" to put aside their differences, said interim prime minister Mahmoud Jibril as he announced he was stepping down Saturday.

Jibril said progress for Libya would need great resolution, both by interim leaders on the National Transitional Council and by six million war-weary people: "First," he said, "What kind of resolve the NTC will show in the next few days?

"And the other thing depends mainly on the Libyan people - whether they differentiate between the past and the future."

He added: "I am counting on them to look ahead and remember the kind of agony they went through in the last 42 years.

REGIONAL INFIGHTING

The loosely disciplined militias that sprang up in each town to topple the dictator with the help of NATO airpower are still armed and the places they represent will want a greater say in the country's future, particularly the second and third cities Benghazi and Misrata who were starved of investment by Gaddafi.

It was fighters from Misrata who emerged from a lengthy and bloody siege to play the biggest part in taking Tripoli and they who caught Gaddafi cowering in a drainage pipe outside Sirte.

And it was back to Misrata those fighters brought Gaddafi's body to put it on display for two days in a cold storage container for Libyans to see with their own eyes that the hated leader truly was dead.

"There are other brigades from all over the country who fought to defeat Gaddafi. But it's true the Misrata freedom fighters were mostly responsible for taking Tripoli and for capturing Gaddafi," a Tripoli-based interim government official, who did not want to be named for fear of prejudicing delicate negotiations about posts in the new government, told Reuters.

"The city will have to be rewarded for that and I think that it will be," he said.

But a field commander in Misrata worried that trouble was brewing:

"The fear now is what is going to happen next," he said, speaking to Reuters privately, as ordinary Libyans, some taking pictures for family albums, filed in under armed guard to see for themselves that the man they feared was truly dead.

"There is going to be regional in-fighting. You have Zintan and Misrata on one side and then Benghazi and the east," the guerrilla said. "There is in-fighting even inside the army."

NEW DEMOCRACY

There is some unease abroad over what many believe was a summary execution and UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay has called for an investigation into the killing, but very few Libyans share any of those concerns.

Arguments have arisen though between Libya's factions about what to do with the corpse which has not been accorded the swift burial required by Islamic law and is already beginning to decompose. Those viewing the body Saturday were obliged to cover their faces with surgical masks.

Gaddafi's surviving family, in exile, want his body and that of his son Mo'tassim to be handed over to tribal kinsmen from Sirte. NTC officials said they were trying to arrange a secret resting place to avoid loyalist supporters making it a shrine. Misrata does not want it under its soil.

The disputes within the NTC have delayed the announcement of an end to the war several times.

But such worries are unlikely to be paramount in the minds of many Libyans Sunday as they celebrate the beginning of a new era in their country's history.

It will set a clock ticking on a plan for a new government and constitutional assembly leading to full democracy in 2013.

"We hope we will have an elected democratic government with broad participation," said student Ali Abu Shufa. Gaddafi promoted tribalism to keep the country divided, he said. "But now Gaddafi is dead, all the tribes will be united."

(Additional reporting by Taha Zargoun in Sirte, Barry Malone and Jessica Donati in Tripoli, Rania El Gamal and Tim Gaynor in Misrata, Christian Lowe and Andrew Hammond in Tunis, Samia Nakhoul in Amman, Tom Pfeiffer at Dead Sea, Jordan; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Andrew Roche)

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Death toll in Syria rises to 2,900: U.N.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: FACES BLURRED AT SOURCE. People protest against President Bashar al-Assad on the first day of Eid Al-Fitr in the city of Suqba August 30, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Handout

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA | Thu Oct 6, 2011 12:32pm EDT

GENEVA (Reuters) - The death toll in Syria has risen to more than 2,900 since pro-democracy protests began in March, the United Nations human rights office said on Thursday as activists warned that the country could descend into armed conflict.

"Based on our detailed list of individual names that we have been keeping, the total number of people killed in Syria since protests began now stands at more than 2,900," Rupert Colville, spokesman for U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, told Reuters.

The United Nations' previous death toll was 2,700 from the bloody crackdown by the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which generally denies reports of human rights abuses and says it has no choice but to restore law and order.

Colville noted that the latest figure did not include those who have disappeared and whose fate is unknown.

On Friday, the U.N. Human Rights Council is to review Syria's record, part of its regular examination of all U.N. member states. The United States and other Western countries are expected to denounce what they say are atrocities by Syria.

The Geneva forum last month launched an international commission of inquiry into alleged crimes against humanity which a preliminary U.N. investigation said were being perpetrated by Syrian security forces.

Sergio Pinheiro, a Brazilian heading the new three-member investigation, was to meet a high-level Syrian delegation in Geneva this week to seek permission to enter the country. The team, which plans to gather testimony in the region, is due to issue a report by the end of November.

"DETENTION CENTRES A NIGHTMARE"

Radwan Ziadeh, an exiled Syrian activist, said on Thursday that more than 30,000 Syrians had been imprisoned since protests began, many in schools or soccer fields converted into detention centers.

"Mass killings continue," he told a discussion on torture in Syria. "Detention centers are a nightmare for Syrians now."

His businessman brother Yassin and four other members of his family are among those being detained, Ziadeh said.

His Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies had documented the deaths of 183 children at the hands of Syrian forces, many under torture, as well as 18 cases of rape in Homs, he said.

"Child of Syria," a film produced by the center and shown for the first time in Geneva, told the tale of Thamer al Sharei, a 15-year-old boy from the southern city of Deraa who disappeared during demonstrations on April 29.

His parents, interviewed after fleeing to Jordan, said they retrieved his battered body from a morgue, riddled with 11 bullet holes and a drill hole in his cheek, two months later.

"If it were not for the childhood scar on his forehead, I never would have recognized him," his father Mohammed says in the film. "They have taken torture to a new level."

"If they are doing this to children, what are they doing to grown-ups?," he asks.

Ibrahim al-Jahaman, identified as a former detainee at Bab Touma prison near Damascus at the time, says in the film: "I think he was in a semi-conscious state, I'm not sure he felt the blows he was getting."

Ziadeh said Syrian forces felt immune from any accountability. He voiced dismay at the U.N. Security Council's failure to condemn Syria, after China and Russia vetoed a European-drafted resolution on Tuesday.

It was important for the Security Council to ask the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate crimes by Syrian forces, he said.

"Unfortunately this will encourage more people to radicalize as they see no hope of action by the international community," Ziadeh said.

Jeremie D. Smith, of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, also warned of the situation deteriorating further in Syria if world powers failed to act.

"Syria is bound to become more destabilized, more radicalized, if there isn't any form of hope for these people."

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay)

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Al-Awlaki Death Likely Won't Help Obama Re-Election

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President Obama stands to gain even more credibility for being tough on terrorism because of the U.S. air strike that killed radical Islamic leader Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen today. But the successful mission probably won't do much to help Obama's re-election prospects because Americans are no longer as concerned about terrorism as they used to be.

The American-born Awlaki's death follows by a few months the killing of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Obama's job approval quickly increased to nearly 60 percent after bin Laden's death in May, but dropped back to where it had been, at less than 50 percent, a few weeks later.

[See a slide show of six potential terrorist targets.]

Awlaki's death is considered a big setback for al Qaeda, the international terrorist network. President Obama this morning called it "another significant milestone in the broader effort to defeat al Qaeda and its affiliates." Obama said al-Awlaki "took the lead in planning and directing efforts to murder innocent Americans,'" including an attempt to destroy U.S. cargo planes in 2010. [See photos of reactions to Osama bin Laden's death.]

Republicans joined in praise of the operation. Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, called the death of al-Awlaki "another great step forward in breaking the back of al Qaeda."

Awlaki was apparently killed in a drone strike. Bin Laden was killed in a special operation by Navy SEALS.

[Read: Navy SEALs Reveal Bin Laden Killing Story.]

The success of these missions is expected to reinforce the argument by administration officials that carefully planned special operations are more effective and appropriate in fighting terrorism than big deployments of American troops, as in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In domestic political terms, Obama gets good ratings from voters on fighting terrorism and keeping the country safe. But such issues are not nearly as prominent as they were in the years after the 9/11 attacks, so Obama's standing on national-security issues isn't as much of an asset as it might have been in years past. The focus of Americans has moved to the troubled economy, especially high unemployment, an issue where Obama is not rated highly by voters. A New York Times assessment of the situation is here.

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Ohio governor commutes sentence of death row inmate

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COLUMBUS, Ohio | Mon Sep 26, 2011 8:07pm EDT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - Ohio's Republican Governor John Kasich on Monday commuted the death sentence of convicted killer Joseph Murphy to life without the possibility of parole, his second such action in the past three months.

The application of Ohio's death penalty came under question in July when a federal judge issued a stay of execution for another inmate and called the state's practices haphazard.

In commuting his sentence, Kasich called Murphy's 1987 murder of Ruth Predmore, 72, "heinous and disturbing," but the death penalty inappropriate given a brutal upbringing and relatively young age at the time of the crime.

Murphy was 21 when he stabbed Predmore in the neck during a robbery, severing the carotid arteries and jugular vein. His execution had been scheduled for October 18 and the Ohio Parole Board had recommended that his sentence be commuted.

"Even though as a child and adolescent Murphy suffered uniquely severe and sustained verbal, physical and sexual abuse from those who should have loved him, it does not excuse his crime," Kasich said in a statement.

Kasich commuted another inmate's death sentence to life in June and has delayed other executions. A joint state Supreme Court and bar association task force is planned to review the state's administration of the death penalty.

The task force will not address whether the state should or should not have a death penalty.

Ohio has executed four men in 2011, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Thirty-six people have been executed in the United States so far this year.

(Reporting by Jim Leckrone and David Bailey; Editing by Greg McCune)

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"Dr. Death" faces South Africa fees

26 September 2011 booth 17: 08 GMT Wouter Basson was in 2002 67 charges, including murder, the head of South Africa's germ warfare program during the apartheid era fights continue his licence continue to practice medicine, acquitted.

Wouter Basson pays with manufacturing illegal drugs in the 1980s and early 1990s, of which some allegedly on State prisoners have been used.

The man, or Dr. death escaped a criminal conviction in 2002, argue that he acted on behalf of the South African Defence Force (SADF).

He is now a cardiologist in Cape Town.

"I this chapter 20 years ago closed," he told reporters outside the hearing in the health professional Council South Africa (HPCSA) bureaus in Pretoria. "I want the country as a doctor continues to serve."

Potato blight

Mr Basson is accused Division of the SADF from 1981 to 1993, as head of chemical and biological warfare, the creation of viruses that would attack black people.

He is allegedly provided have, that security forces with cyanide capsules help them commit suicide, "clear" thousands of 120 mm mortar bombs with tear gas, and the drugs that would disorient SADF prisoners.

The charges were brought in 2007, but Mr Basson tried the hearing declared illegal, unreasonable, and an application have unfair - that last year was dismissed by the High Court in Pretoria.

Some of the fees have fallen down again but if guilty unethical as a doctor of HPCSA, Mr Basson faces his licence as a cardiologist practicing behavior to lose.

In 2002 Mr Basson was 67 charges, including murder, by a court in Pretoria acquitted conspiracy, fraud and drug possession.

He said, during the test, he was only following orders, and stood as a scientist, rot and a hepatitis epidemic had sought ways to fight the potato.

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Should killers on death row get a last meal choice?

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26 September 2011 Last updated at 12:05 GMT By Daniel Nasaw BBC News Magazine, Washington The state of Texas has ended the practice of offering death row inmates their choice of last meal before their deaths. What does a killer's choice of food say about his state of mind?

Lawrence Brewer's last request was so extravagant it seemed a mockery.

Just before the acknowledged white supremacist was put to death by lethal injection on Wednesday, he ordered two steaks, a triple-meat cheeseburger, a cheese omelette, a large bowl of fried okra, three fajitas, a pint of ice cream and a pound (0.45kg) of barbecue meat.

It's not clear how much of that he was actually served, or whether his nerves affected his appetite, but he ate none of it.

The following day, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice heeded the request from an outraged Texas state senator to end the tradition of the generous last meal.

Continue reading the main story Carroll Pickett Texas "death house" chaplain, 1982 -1995

I was there for 95 who ate their last meal and died. I was with them when they got there in the morning, I stayed with them all day.

We provided for them whatever they asked for, if it was on the unit. We didn't go out and buy Whataburgers, we didn't go out and buy Mexican food, but if it was on the unit and it could be fixed by the stewards, we gave it to them. If they wanted Dr Pepper I could go next door and get them one.

A lot of them would decline.

They would just say, 'I just don't feel like it', or they would say, 'I'm getting nervous, I'm getting scared'. Very few - I'd say less then 10% - ate all that we brought to them.

Those who had spiritual reasons, they would say 'Jesus didn't get a last meal on the day he was executed'.

When the sun went down after 17:00, they know this is their last sunset, then their whole attitude changes.

From then on, from after the shower and after the meal time, it's a whole different person.

From now on, condemned men in Texas will be offered the same cafeteria chow as other prisoners.

What men and women request for their last meal reflects how they lived their lives and how they choose to face their deaths, and offers Americans a poignant human connection to the people they have decided should die for their crimes, scholars and legal analysts say.

And as a ritual, the last meal is intended not to comfort the condemned but to soften for society the harsh fact that a human is about to be killed with the law's full sanction, says Jon Sheldon, a Virginia death penalty lawyer.

He has sat with three condemned men in the hours before their executions, including infamous Washington sniper John Allen Muhammad.

"I don't know anybody who has eaten the last meal," Mr Sheldon says.

"In my experience, it is unlikely that someone is going to be hungry and is going to want a meal. It's either not ordered, or it's ordered and it's not eaten."

Florida, which has executed 69 convicts since 1976, budgets $40 (£26) per inmate, and the last meal must be purchased locally.

Take-away meals

Oklahoma - 176 men and three women executed since 1915 - is more miserly, giving prisoners only $15 to spend on a last meal, subject to the warden's approval.

Brewer was executed for the murder of an African-American man dragged to death behind a truck

The meal has to be purchased from a restaurant within the town of McAlester, home to the death chamber, says Jerry Massie, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

"The staff doesn't prepare it," he said.

The last man executed there ordered a deep dish meat lover's pizza from Pizza Hut, and deep fried shrimp with cocktail sauce and hushpuppies - fried cornmeal balls - from fast food outlet Long John Silver's, Mr Massie says.

The man before him had a large pepperoni and Italian sausage pizza and a large Dr Pepper soda.

Continue reading the main story John Wheat, 13 June 2001: Liver and onions, mashed potatoes and gravy, whole milkJack Clark, 9 January, 2001: Jar of Polish pickles, wedge of cheese, tossed salad with Italian dressing, cheeseburger, French fries with ketchup, grape juiceOliver Cruz, 9 August 2000: Spicy beef fajitas, beans, rice, flour tortillas, onions, tomatoes, avocado, banana split, orange juiceGlen McGinnis, 25 January 2000: Cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, bacon, onion rings, and ketchupClydell Coleman, 5 May 1999: Salmon croquettes, scrambled eggs, French fries and biscuitsJonathan Nobles, 7 October 1998: "Eucharist - sacrament"Danny Harris, 30 July 1993: "God's saving grace, love, truth, peace and freedom"

Source: Texas Department of Criminal Justice

A review of last meal requests in Texas between 1982 and 2003 shows the most popular requests were grilled or fried foods like burgers, fried chicken or steaks.

This suggests the condemned had sought a last sensual reminder of home before they died, says Phoebe Ellsworth, a professor of law and psychology at the University of Michigan.

"Most of the offenders come from fairly poor backgrounds," says Prof Ellsworth, who has researched capital punishment extensively.

"It's a memory of something about life on the outside. 'When we went out to have a good time, what did we have?'"

A significant number of inmates forgo the last meal, whether in defiance of the ritual or for lack of appetite. Or for spiritual reasons: David Clark, executed in Texas in 1992 at age 32 for a double murder, told prison officials he wanted to fast.

"They have other things on their minds," Mr Sheldon says. "Inmates have gotten tired of co-operating with these rituals of death."

Alcohol is prohibited, and requests for cigarettes and bubble gum have been turned down.

'Christian connotation'

The ritual of the last meal captures the public imagination because the activity of sitting down for dinner is one Americans with no experience of prison life can relate to, says Deborah Denno, a professor at Fordham University School of Law in New York and an expert on capital punishment law.

Troy Davis, executed on Wednesday in Georgia, declined a last meal

"It brings us back to the fact that this is a human being who will not be having any more dinners like we do," she says.

"There's a drama associated with it. This is the Last Supper. Maybe it has that Christian connotation."

In Texas, the state that has executed the most people in the country since modern capital punishment resumed in 1976, with 475, State Senator John Whitmire says his push to end the last meal tradition was made of moral concerns, not financial ones.

And he vehemently disagrees with critics who say it is petty and mean-spirited to withhold from the condemned one last creature comfort.

"If you're fixing to execute someone under the laws of the state because of the hideous crime that someone has committed, I'm not looking to comfort him," he says.

"He didn't give his victim any comfort or a choice of last meal," he says of Brewer.

Rather than reform the last meal, Texas officials should worry about the justice, efficacy and constitutionality of capital punishment there, says Richard Dieter, executive director of research organisation Death Penalty Information Center.

"They take it away, hopefully they're looking to what they should be providing. A last lawyer rather than a last meal is much more important."

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Wangari Maathai: Death of a visionary

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26 September 2011 Last updated at 10:23 GMT Wangari Maathai receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo - the first black African woman to do so Wangari Maathai's compelling life story is inextricably linked with the social and political changes that so much of Africa has been through since the idea of throwing off European colonialism began to gain traction shortly after World War II.

Her unique insight was that the lives of Kenyans - and, by extension, of people in many other developing countries - would be made better if economic and social progress went hand in hand with environmental protection.

The Green Belt Movement, which she founded in 1977, has planted an estimated 45 million trees around Kenya.

The straightforward environmental benefits of that would have been important enough on their own in a country whose population has grown more than 10-fold over the last century, creating huge pressure on land and water.

But what made the movement more remarkable was that it was also conceived as a source of employment in rural areas, and a way to give new skills to women who regularly came second to men in terms of power, education, nutrition and much else.

Now, she has succumbed to a battle with cancer. But if cancer was new to her, battle was definitely not; it was a way of life.

Opposing a major government-backed development in Nairobi, she was labelled a "crazy woman"; it was suggested that she should behave like a good African woman and do as she was told.

Her former husband made similar comments when suing for divorce: she was strong-willed, and could not be controlled.

This alone gives some idea of the battles Dr Maathai fought in the politically active phase of her life, which encompassed and indeed wove together the ideals of helping Kenya develop sustainably and helping Kenyan women achieve equality.

But without the progress of post-colonial reforms, it's doubtful that she would have been able to achieve a fraction of what she did; the times she lived in generated the tides she fought against, but they also provided the means with which to fight.

Dr Maathai highlighted the damage that illegal logging was doing to forests and livelihoods

Post-colonial links with the West offered Africans of great intellect but poor background the chance to study abroad, in the US and Germany.

This brought her the knowledge of biology and the PhD that both opened doors in corridors of influence and gave scientific underpinning to the environmental restoration work on which she embarked.

Another vital strand in her life was the creation of global environmental organisations, in particular the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) in 1972.

These organisations desperately needed to tap into expertise in the developing world, especially because it was in these countries that the vicious circle of environmental degradation, unsustainable population growth and poverty was at its most grinding.

With its headquarters situated in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, Wangari Maathai was one of the first people from the developing world adopted into the Unep "family", which meant global exposure and, relatively, a huge influence.

Among other things, that meant the capacity to spread the Green Belt philosophy to other countries where the ecological and economic need is even more pressing than in Kenya - notably the Congo Basin, where warring factions and deep poverty have put huge pressure on forests and the wildlife they maintain.

Eventually, this would all lead to the award in 2004 of the Nobel Peace Prize - the first time it had gone to an African woman, and arguably the first "green Nobel".

Tourists flock to Lake Nakuru's flamingos - an example of environmental protection bringing revenue

I say "arguably" partly because previous prize-winning work had contained an environmental component, such as that of Paul Crutzen, Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina who deciphered the chemistry of ozone depletion.

And partly because the citation itself does not explicitly mention the word "environment", reading: "for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace".

In other words, it's not just planting trees - it's the reasons why trees are planted, it's the social side of how the tree-planting works, it's the political work that goes alongside tree-planting, and it's the vision that sees loss of forest as translating into loss of prospects for people down the track.

There is, in some parts of the world, a backlash now against these ideas.

Every couple of days an email comes into my inbox asserting that the way to help poorer countries develop is to get them to exploit their natural resources as quickly and deeply as possible with no regard for problems that may cause.

Organisations promoting this viewpoint are not, to my knowledge, based in the developing world but in the Western capitals that might make use of the fruits of such exploitation - cheaper wood, cheaper oil, cheaper metals.

It is the opposite of sustainable.

But the existence of these lobby groups can be seen as a testament to the influence that Wangari Maathai and others like her have had on global debate.

The UN initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (Redd), the linking of biodiversity to livelihoods, moves to strengthen the rule of law as a pre-requisite for environmental health, and the notion that communities should gain when the natural resources they maintain are exploited - all these in part trace their roots back to Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement.

A Facebook page for tributes is laden with short but moving comments that in a way sum up everything she was and achieved.

"If all us who loved her will plant a tree on her hon: she will smile from the windows of heaven seeing green world. I will plant one today".

"You have been a true inspiration to those who love and care for nature".

And perhaps the most moving of all: "You made a difference".

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Drug company CEO denied state review of girlfriend's death

SACRAMENTO, Calif (Reuters) - California's attorney general has declined a request by pharmaceutical mogul Jonah Shacknai for a review of the police investigation that ruled the bizarre hanging death of his girlfriend a suicide.
Shacknai, founder and CEO of Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp, has said he sought a reexamination of the case to quell strong doubts raised by relatives of Rebecca Zahau that she took her own life at his mansion near San Diego in July.
In a letter to state Attorney General Kamala Harris, Shacknai wrote that he had no reason to question the findings of investigators who ruled out foul play in both Zahau's death and the fatal fall of his 6-year-old son Max two days earlier.
The boy had been alone with Zahau at the mansion at the time of his spill down a staircase, which police determined was an accident. He died six days later.
Investigators said Shacknai, whose Arizona-based company makes the popular wrinkle filler Restylane and the acne treatment Solodyn, was never considered a suspect.
Police and medical examiners concluded that Zahau, 32, had committed suicide on July 11 hours after learning in a late-night telephone call that Max, then still hospitalized, had taken a turn for the worse.
They even released an unusual video reenactment of how investigators believe she had managed to tie her own hands behind her back before binding her own legs, slipping a noose around her neck and hurling herself off a second-story balcony.
Her lifeless, nude body was found suspended by the neck from a rope later that morning by Shacknai's brother, a guest at the estate at the time.
Some members of Zahau's family disputed the suicide ruling from the start, and one sister has said publicly she believes her sibling was murdered.
In his September 19 letter to Harris, Shacknai said he was "tormented with these unfounded rumors and accusations."
He said a review of the case would serve the interests of justice by providing confidence, comfort and resolution not just to the families impacted by the deaths, but also to the public.
But Chief Assistant Attorney General Dane Gillette wrote back two days later, in a letter released by Shacknai's public relations consultants, that said circumstances of the case did not warrant review by the state Department of Justice.
Earlier this month, a number of Zahau's relatives and her former husband, Neil Nalepa, set up a website seeking donations to pay for a private investigation of the case.
A Seattle-based lawyer retained by the family has told Reuters she had retained forensic and psychiatric experts to reexamine the official findings.
She has cited bits of previously undisclosed evidence contained in the medical examiner's report that police did not reveal, including that fact that Zahau's body was found with a T-shirt stuffed in her mouth.

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Troy Davis death row appeal fails

Some 300 rallies, vigils and events for Troy Davis have occurred worldwide

  Defence lawyers maintain that Davis is a victim of mistaken identity The US state of Georgia has rejected a final clemency appeal for Troy Davis, due to be executed for the 1989 murder of an off-duty policeman.

The 42-year-old is due to face a lethal injection on Wednesday evening.
He was convicted of shooting of Mark Allen MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia, but has since attracted support for his claim of wrongful conviction.
Davis was sentenced in 1991, but most of the witnesses have since recanted or changed their testimony.
The spokesman for the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles said the panel made their decision after hearing hours of testimony from both supporters and prosecutors.
Davis has been scheduled to be executed four times in the past four years, but defence lawyers have described the appeal to the pardons board as likely to be Davis' last option.
Prosecutors insist they have no doubt that they charged the right person with the crime.
MacPhail's relatives were relieved at the parole board decision.
"Justice was finally served for my father," said Mark MacPhail Jr, the victim's son. "The truth was finally heard."
Amnesty International, which has supported Davis in his wrongful conviction claim, called decision "unconscionable".
"Should Troy Davis be executed, Georgia may well have executed an innocent man and in so doing discredited the justice system," Amnesty International USA director Larry Cox said in a statement.
Amnesty International and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will hold a demonstration in support of Davis on Tuesday evening, while Reverend Al Sharpton plans a midday vigil at the state prison in Jackson on Wednesday.
International support
Over one million people worldwide have signed petitions for clemency in his case.
Pope Benedict XVI, former US President Jimmy Carter and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton are among those who have backed Davis, who has always maintained he is innocent.
On Monday, a vigil took place outside the hearing. Demonstrators held signs that said "I am Troy Davis" and "Save Troy Davis", and chanted for his release.
Davis' conviction has been questioned because seven of nine witnesses who helped convict him during the original trial have either backed off their testimony or recanted.
No murder weapon was ever found and no DNA evidence or fingerprints conclusively linked Davis to the shooting.
Rare hearing
Davis' legal team said in a statement they were "incredibly disappointed" by the board's decision as the prosecution's case "cannot resolve the significant, lingering doubts that exist here".
They called on District Attorney Larry Chisolm to vacate the death warrant and for the Board to reconsider their decision immediately.
At a rare 2010 innocence hearing - ordered by the US Supreme Court - two witnesses said they falsely incriminated Davis, while two others told the court another had confessed to being the actual killer.
US District Court Judge William T Moore Jr said there was not enough evidence to vindicate Davis or grant him a new trial.
Federal appeals courts and the Georgia Supreme Court have upheld Davis' conviction.

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Family: Release photos of whale trainer death

Published September 09, 2011| Associated Press

ORLANDO, Florida - the family of a SeaWorld Orlando trainer, who was killed by a whale during a show asked a federal judge to retain images of the death of the wife to be released.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that of Dawn Brancheau (bran-CHOH') want husband, mother, brother and sister to keep the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration publicly unblock copies of videos or photographs showing the death or efforts to revive her. Also the family does not want images displayed in public at a hearing on September 19.

At the hearing, SeaWorld will challenge the findings of the investigation of six months of the Agency on the death of Brancheau.

When died on February 24, 2010, during a show featuring Tilikum, a killer whale.

Counsel for the family said releasing the images would be without utilities.

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