- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! Kuwait is small in size but big in its rage
and Kuwaitis proved it Sunday when tens of thousands of them flooded the street
to protest against changes to the electoral law that the opposition has called a
constitutional coup by the government. These rioters brawled with riot police
who responded with tear gas, stun grenades and baton charges to disperse the
enraged masses. Opposition groups estimated that up to 50,000 people had
gathered in different locations across the capital, Kuwait City, for a massive
march toward the government's headquarters. Riot police retaliated by
surrounding pockets of rioters and unleashing tear gas and stun grenades to
disorient and disperse them. Reports from local media place the number of
rioters hospitalized at 29, most suffering from tear gas inhalation or baton
bruises. Fifteen more people were detained, including two former MPs and a
reporter. The spark for the uprising came after the government -- which is
dominated by the ruling Al-Sabah family -- announced last week it was calling
elections for Dec. 1 and would change the electoral law "to preserve
national unity." Under the new rules, voters would be able to choose only
one candidate per electoral district. The opposition has broken out the heavy
rhetoric for the fight, calling the changes "a coup against the
constitution." They believe the reform would prevent their candidates from
winning the majority they won in the last vote. Without question, the bitter power
struggle between the ruling establishment and parliament that has seen eight
governments come and go since the emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, came to
power in 2006, is getting steadily worse. After the 83-year-old dissolved parliament on Oct. 7, the sh*t really
hit the fan. Yes, it was the sixth time the oil-rich state had disbanded its
legislature since early 2006, but six appears to have been one time too many.
Even after authorities promised to "decisively confront"
demonstrators, more than 50,000 people turned out to riot. It was truly a
beautiful sight………
- No team in the NFL has been able to pull itself together in pressure
situations and when its season is on the line in the past five years more than
Tom Coughlin’s New York Giants. Their poise under pressure and ability to
overcome adversity has netted them two Super Bowl wins in the past four
seasons, but that doesn’t mean the G-Men are immune to the normal drama a
football team goes through over the course of a 16-game season. Some of that
drama occurred on the sidelines during Sunday’s 27-23 home with over the
Washington Redskins, when Giants running back Ahmad Bradshaw and
Coughlin shouted at each other as the Giants' offense was going back on the
field at the end of the third quarter. Bradshaw, one of the team’s emotional
leaders, was on edge throughout the contest and at one point strongly slapped teammate
Victor Cruz on the back of the helmet. Asked Monday about his exchange with his
head coach, Bradshaw explained that he was unhappy with his role in the offense
at the time. "I was just saying, 'Run the ball,' going onto the
field," Bradshaw said. "A lot of my emotions kicking in. I just
want to help my team win as much as possible." Coughlin, known as a disciplinarian and a hard-ass on an
elite level, said he has addressed the issue with Bradshaw and doesn’t believe
there will be problems moving forward. "There's never been any question
about Ahmad Bradshaw's toughness, his intensity level," Coughlin said.
"He plays the game hard. You know, you like to have everybody play as hard
as he does.” At the time of the slap on Cruz’s helmet, Bradshaw had just rushed
to his left and was tackled by Redskins safety Madieu Williams and cornerback
Cedric Griffin. Cruz was supposed to block Williams and if he had, the run may
have gained more than the 15 yards it earned. Cruz admitted that he felt his
teammate’s forceful love tap to his bonnet. "Yeah, it didn't tickle, to
say the least," Cruz said. "But it's all fine. On that specific play,
he felt like I could've done more. I agree with him, and we hugged it out later
on." Hugging it out and winning despite the bumps in the road just seems
to be the Giant way……….
- A lockout is rocking a key entertainment option for the people of
Minnesota. No, not the Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League because
even in the frigid wasteland that is Minnesota, next to no one gives a damn
about hockey. This lockout is impacting members of the Minnesota Orchestra, who
are unable to work and have been forced to traverse the country seeking temporary
gigs with other orchestras. Men and women like clarinetist Tim Zavadil are
visiting cities like Cleveland, Philadelphia and New York to see if they can
snag a freelance job playing while their primary gig is unavailable. The
lockout began Oct. 1, the day after their five-year contract expired without a
new one in place. Since that point, they have been locked out of Orchestra Hall
without pay or benefits. Their reputation as a world-class ensemble is
languishing with their dormant instruments and let’s face it, convincing anyone
who has left Minnesota to return during their eight-month nightmare of a winter
is going to be difficult. Orchestra members contend that they are a “destination
orchestra” that draws top talent from around the world, brings entertainment to
the community and boosts the economy by creating jobs within the orchestral
organization and stimulating local businesses around the hall. "What an
orchestra brings to the community is a whole other dimension to the quality of
life, another amenity," Zavadil said. To keep themselves sharp and on the
minds of local music fans, on Thursday night a group of Minnesota Orchestra
musicians pooled their own resources so they could rent the Minneapolis
Convention Center and stage their own concert as the "Locked Out Musicians
of the Minnesota Orchestra." The show took place on what would have been
the opening night of the orchestra’s 110th season and 2,100 patrons attended. Unfortunately,
that support has not been enough to generate progress toward a new contract………
- Even the hip-hop empire of Jay-Z and the juggernaut-esque power he and
wife Beyonce Knowles boast isn't enough to guarantee music’s biggest power
couple everything they want – even if what they want is to cash in on the name
and growing celebrity of their first-born child. Jay-Z, a.k.a. Sean Carter, and
his better half Beyonce and Jay-Z have lost a court battle to trademark
their daughter's name and will not be able to trademark the name Blue Ivy to
launch a line of baby products. The initially sought to launch the line shortly
after the birth of their first child in January, but the owner of the Blue Ivy
Events company based in Boston trademark c*ck-blocked them and took the case to
court. The case wound its way through the legal process over the past nine
months and in a decision handed down last week, a judge sided with the owner in
defending her trademark, meaning Jay-Z and Beyonce have no legal rights to the
name. They’ll have to find some other way – and Lord knows it will be tough for
those two up-and-comers – to make money. It should help that Beyonce has been
selected as the latest poppy, middle-of-the-road, mainstream act to headline the
Super Bowl halftime show in New Orleans in February. The couple are also busy
campaigning for their pal Barack Obama, hosting a $40,000 per ticket fundraiser
at Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club in Manhattan, which raised more than $4 million for the
Obama campaign. Maybe in the future, the Carters can run decisions like trying
to trademark and cash in on their daughter’s name by Obama, who recently
revealed that he has been providing parenting advice to the couple.……
- Predicting earthquakes is a tricky science and for six scientists
and one government official in Italy, it was also a criminal one. Seismologists
attempt to monitor seismic conditions and predict when and where an earthquake
may occur, but like the weatherman at your local TV affiliate, their
predictions aren't ironclad. According to a court in the Italian city of
L’Aquila, they should be. A judge convicted seven individuals of manslaughter
for failing to give sufficient warning of a fatal earthquake that hit in 2009.
Each of the seven was sentenced to six years in jail and ordered to pay
compensation and legal fees. The prosecution focused on a meeting the seven
defendants, members of a commission on natural disasters, held in L’Aquila on
March 31, 2009. In the meeting, the commission told residents there was no
cause for concern after a series of minor shocks had rocked the city in the
preceding six months. Had they merely kept their opinions to themselves or told
everyone to take precautions, they probably could have ducked responsibility for
what happened less than a week later, in the early hours of April 6. A 6.3-magnitude quake reduced much
of the medieval city to rubble and 309 people died in the quake, with 60,000
more left homeless. Following the March 31 meeting, the commission concluded
that it was "improbable" that there would be a major quake but did
not rule out the possibility entirely. Public prosecutor Fabio Picuti accused
the defendants of giving "inexact, incomplete and contradictory
information" about whether the smaller tremors constituted grounds for an
official quake warning. Although he admitted that predicting the specifics of
an earthquake is scientifically impossible, he made it clear that in this case,
the warning signs were not taken seriously enough. “The key word in this trial
is the word analysis. How do you proceed with an analysis of risk, or an
analysis of seismic risk? Do you proceed in a manner that the defendants have
shown us?” Picuti said to the court on Monday. Defense lawyer Franco Coppi
contended that it was “impossible to speak about how a risk has not been
foreseen." The judge disagreed and commission members Enzo Boschi, Franco Barberi, Mauro
Dolce, Claudio Eva, Giulio Selvaggi, Gian Michele Calvi and government
official Bernardo De Bernardinis
will now pay the price………
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