Anti-drugs agents raid clinic of Jackson’s doctor
NDTV
Federal drug agents searched the Houston clinic of Michael Jackson’s doctor on Wednesday, according to a news report, even as investigators in California sought more information from the man.
A television channel reported that officials with the Drug Enforcement Administration were at Dr Conrad Murray’s clinic in north Houston.
Video footage showed two Houston police officers guarding the front door.
Murray was Michael Jackson’s personal physician, and was with Jackson when he died.
Murray, who is based in Las Vegas and is licensed in California, Nevada and Texas, has been interviewed by police but he has not been considered a suspect in the singer’s death.
Meanwhile, investigators in California are also seeking more information from Murray, according to his attorney, Edward Chernoff.
The attorney posted a statement on his law firm’s website late on Tuesday saying investigators from the Los Angeles County coroner’s office have asked for medical records in addition to those already provided by Murray.
“The coroner wants to clear up the cause of death; we share that goal”, Chernoff said in his statement.
“Based on Dr Murray’s minute-by-minute and item-by-item description of Michael Jackson’s last days, he should not be a target of criminal charges.”
Murray has emerged as a central figure in the investigation into Jackson’s death.
The doctor, who had been recently hired by Jackson, was with him in his mansion and tried to revive him.
Although Chernoff has said the doctor didn’t give the pop star any drugs that contributed to his death, Murray has nonetheless received attention from those angry over the singer’s death.
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Altantuya murder: Case against Abdul Razak delayed
FROM MALAYSIAKINI
The family of murdered Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu will have to wait for their day in court, to compel the attorney-general (AG) to appeal against Abdul Razak Baginda’s acquittal.
The hearing of their judicial application will only continue after further written submissions are made.
The matter came up in the Shah Alam High Court today before Judicial Commissioner Noraini Abdul Rahman, but another mention date was set on July 8.
This is to allow lawyer Karpal Singh (right), acting for Altantuya’s family, to submit his submission in reply.
The case will be mentioned before a deputy registrar on that day. Counsel Sangeet Kaur mentioned the case on behalf of Karpal this morning.
Senior federal counsel Kamaluddin Mohd Said represented the AG’s Chambers, while KK Wong appeared for Abdul Razak.
Mongolian honorary consul to Malaysia, Syed Abdul Rahman Al Habshi, was also present to monitor the progress of the case.
The case was filed on Dec 24 last year by Karpal on behalf of Altantuya’s father Dr Setev Shaariibuu (left).
In the application, they asked the court to quash the AG’s decision not to appeal Abdul Razak’s acquittal on an abetment charge in the murder.
They also want the court to direct the AG to use his discretionary powers under Article 145 (3) of the federal constitution to apply for leave to file an appeal.
Abdul Razak was acquitted and discharged on Oct 31 last year without his defence being called.
Shah Alam High Court judge Mohd Zaki Md Yasin had ruled that the prosecution had not proven a prima facie case, as a sworn affidavit by Abdul Razak was not rebutted.
AG’s discretionary power
Lead prosecutor Tun Abdul Majid Tun Hamzah announced two weeks later that the prosecution would not appeal, as the court had made a finding of fact in its decision.
AG Abdul Gani Patail (right) has since filed an affidavit, stating that the matter is non-justiciable based on Article 145 (3) of the constitution, which states that no one can question the chamber’s decision to prosecute or not file an appeal.
The article reads that the AG shall have power, exercisable at his discretion, to institute, conduct or discontinue any proceedings for an offence, other than proceedings before a Syariah court, a native court or a court-martial.
Abdul Gani had also submitted that Shaariibuu does not have locus standii (legal standing) in the case as the AG has represented the public interest.
Two special action squad members – Azilah Hadri, 33, and Sirul Azhar Umar, 37, – have been found guilty of the murder and sentenced to death. They have filed separate appeals.
Kamaluddin also stated that Shaariibuu’s RM100 million civil suit against the two policemen, Abdul Razak and the government is fixed for mention next month.
The AG’s chambers have requested Shaariibuu to deposit RM1 million in security to cover possible costs in the suit.
Camp disappearances reach alarming levels – Rights advocate
FROM THE WEBSITE OF TAMIL NET
Sunila Abeysekera, a human rights activist and executive director of INFORM human rights documentation center in Sri Lanka, in an interview to Real News Network in Toronto, accused the Sri Lanka Government authorities of not providing enough attention to the welfare of the nearly 300,000 people in the internment camps who have come to these camps after months of deprivation, and said that the lack of proper registration procedures for the people inside the camp is providing Colombo a free hand in facilitating the Paramilitaries to take youths out of the camps in large numbers without any accountability.
“Many of the people are dehydrated and have infected wounds,” Abeysekara said, and pointed to the April 11th statement by the High Court Judge in Vavuniyaa that fourteen elderly people died of starvation in one day.
Abeysekara said that she cannot accept Sri Lanka Government’s stand that they will screen the 300,000 people before giving access to independent NGOs including ICRC, and UNHCR, and that independent observers should be allowed to monitor the screening process.
She also said that more than 200 youths between the ages of 11 and 17 were taken from the Manik farm camp in Vavuniyaa last week, and the Government has not disclosed the list of the youths taken. “The parents of these youths are desparate,” Ms Abeysekera said.
Government admits that they have 10,000 LTTE surrendees and captives in who have surrendered, Ms Abeysekera said. “We don’t know where they are. We don’t have a list of who they are. There are families of senior LTTE cadres are in Government custody. For example, Soosai’s wife and children are captured by the Sri Lanka Navy. We are trying to find where these people are. And it is impossible,” Ms Abeysekara added.
Ms Abeysekera was honored as a Human Rights Watch Defender at the 2007, Voices for Justice Dinner Worldview.
Bodies of Air France victims returned to land
FERNANDO DE NORONHA, Brazil (CNN) — The first bodies to be recovered from the crash of Air France 447 returned to land Tuesday, as helicopters landed on the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, according to a CNN reporter on the scene.
Brazilian military personnel on Tuesday carry the remains of one of the passengers of the Air France crash.
Two Brazilian helicopters, each able to carry up to eight bodies, took off earlier to rendezvous with the Brazilian Navy ship carrying the recovered bodies.
Meanwhile, four more bodies were recovered Tuesday, according to the Brazilian air force, bringing the total to 28.
Air France 447 crashed in the Atlantic Ocean last week en route from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to Paris, France, with 228 passengers and crew on board. It was the deadliest plane crash ever for Air France.
The cause of the crash is not yet known, but investigators are looking at the role of airspeed sensors known as pitot tubes, among other factors. Air France has agreed to replace the sensors within days on all its Airbus A330 and A340 airplanes, a pilots’ union said Tuesday.
The airline said Saturday that it had begun replacing the sensors throughout its fleet in April. An Air France representative told CNN that the pilots’ union SNPL is meeting with company officials Tuesday afternoon and that the airline would not comment until after the meeting ended.
A smaller Air France pilots’ union, ALTER, has advised its pilots not to fly planes until their pitot tubes are replaced. Alter is the smallest of three pilots’ unions. It would not say what percentage of Air France pilots it represents.
The biggest union, SNPL, said Tuesday it accepted Air France’s assurances that no Airbus A330 or A340 will take off without at least two of the three pitot tubes replaced.
Union spokesman Eric Derivry added that there is no indication at this point that the pitot tubes were the cause of the accident.
Air France began to notice in May of 2009 year that pitot tubes sometimes briefly iced up at high altitude on A330s and A340s, the airline said in a statement Saturday. That caused “a loss of airspeed data,” according to the airline — that is, the pilot didn’t know how fast the plane was flying.
“Air France decided to replace all its probes” starting April 27, following laboratory tests earlier in the year, the airline said. The replacements are ongoing, and it is that program that the pilots say the airline has promised to complete within days.
France is sending a submarine to the suspected crash site to search for wreckage of the Airbus A330, including the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder — commonly known as black boxes. The United States is also sending equipment to help with the search, which aims to find the cause of the crash.
The exact location of the crash has not been determined, since ocean currents likely have moved the bodies and debris.
The ocean depth where the debris and bodies have been found varies dramatically, but in general is about nearly 9,900 feet (3000 meters) deep, according to the University of New Hampshire/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association Joint Hydrographic Center. The search area covers 77,220 square miles (200,000 square km), nearly the size of Romania, Brazilian officials said.
The ocean depth where the debris and bodies have been found is 6,000 to 8,000 meters (about 19,700 to 26,250 feet) deep, Brazilian military officials said. The search area covers 200,000 square km (77,220 square miles), nearly the size of Romania.
Brazilian officials emphasized Monday that finding bodies was their main priority. The French are in charge of finding the voice and data recorders.
Fourteen aircraft — 12 Brazilian and two French — were participating, along with five Brazilian ships and one French frigate. The U.S. Navy will contribute two high-tech acoustic devices to listen underwater for the emergency beacons that are attached to the voice and data recorders.
The “towed pinger locators” — which help search for emergency beacons on downed aircraft to a maximum depth of 20,000 feet — will be placed aboard two French tugs that are part of the search efforts, a U.S. defense official said.
Recovery of bodies and debris is significant not only for families, but also for crash investigators, said Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“Even if they don’t find anything else they can get some very important clues from the pieces that they do find and from the human remains,” she told CNN Saturday. She said investigators could determine whether there was an explosion by inspecting any residue on the bodies or other items. Or, if water is found in the lungs of victims, investigators would know the plane went down intact, she said.
17 bodies found from lost Air France plane
CNN.COM
RECIFE, Brazil (CNN) — Seventeen bodies have been recovered from last week’s crash of an Air France jetliner off the South American coast, Brazil’s military said Sunday.
A boat from the Brazilian navy picks up debris in the Atlantic on Sunday.
The Brazilian navy and air force said they found nine bodies in the Atlantic Ocean, where the Airbus A330-200 went down. The crew of a French vessel taking part in the search has found eight, military officials told reporters Sunday evening.
Air France 447 disappeared over the Atlantic early Monday. The jet was en route to Paris, France, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with 228 passengers and crew aboard.
The bodies were found floating about 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) from the Brazilian coast. Items found in the same area Saturday were confirmed to have come from the jet, including pieces of the aircraft’s wing section, luggage and a leather briefcase containing an airplane ticket with a reservation code for the doomed flight, Brazilian air force spokesman Jorge Amaral told CNN.
The exact location of the crash has not been determined, since ocean currents likely caused the bodies and debris to drift in the six days since the crash. And two key pieces of evidence — the flight data and cockpit voice recorders — remain missing, and could lay on the ocean floor.
The part of the ocean where the debris and bodies have been found ranges between 19,685 and 26,247 feet (6,000 and 8,000 meters) deep. The search area covers 77,220 square miles (200,000 square km), an area nearly as big as the country of Romania.
Fourteen aircraft — 12 Brazilian and two French — were participating in the recovery efforts, along with five Brazilian ships and one French frigate. In Washington, a U.S. defense official told CNN the U.S. Navy will contribute two high-tech acoustic devices to listen for emergency beacons still operating in deep water.
The “towed pinger locators” help search for emergency beacons on downed aircraft to a maximum depth of 20,000 feet, and will be placed aboard two French tugs that are part of the search efforts, the official said.
Recovery of bodies and debris is significant not only for families, but for crash investigators, said Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“Even if they don’t find anything else they can get some very important clues from the pieces that they do find and from the human remains,” Schiavo told CNN Saturday.
She said investigators would be able to discern if there was an explosion from possible residue on the bodies or other items. Or, if water is found in the lungs of victims, investigators would know the plane went down intact, she said.
Investigators in Paris said Saturday that the Air France flight sent out 24 automated error messages lasting about four minutes before it crashed. The error messages suggest the plane may have been flying too fast or too slow through severe thunderstorms it encountered before the crash, officials said.
Schiavo said the four minutes of automated signals sent from the plane “was a very long time.”
Investigators also reported the airline failed to replace a part on the aircraft, as recommended by the manufacturer, Airbus.
Airbus had advised airlines to update equipment that monitors speed, known as Pitot tubes. The recommendation was a result of technological developments and improvements, an Airbus spokesman told CNN. The change was not mandatory, and the spokesman would not comment on Air France’s failure to follow the advice
Debris ‘not from Air France jet’
BBC NEWS
Brazilian and French planes have been searching over the area of the crash
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Debris recovered from the Atlantic by Brazilian search teams does not come from a lost Air France jet, a Brazilian air force official has said.
Brig Ramon Borges Cardoso contradicted earlier reports that debris had been found, saying “no material from the plane has been recovered”.
A wooden cargo pallet was taken from the sea, but the Airbus A330 had no wooden pallets on board.
Relatives have been told that there is no hope of survivors being found.
Air France chief executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon and chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta briefed the passengers’ relatives in a hotel near Paris Charles de Gaulle airport where they have been waiting for news.
Mr Gourgeon said the jet, which was carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, broke apart either in the air or when it hit the sea.
Friends and relatives gathered for a memorial service in Rio de Janeiro
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“What is clear is that there was no landing,” said a support group representative who was at the meeting, Guillaume Denoix de Saint-Marc. “There’s no chance the escape slides came out.”
In Rio de Janeiro, hundreds of people gathered at a memorial service attended by the French and Brazilian foreign ministers.
“Those who are missing are here in our hearts and in our memories,” said the French minister, Bernard Kouchner.
A memorial service was held in Paris on Wednesday.
Oil slick
Brazilian navy vessels have been combing the area, about 1,100km (690 miles) north-east of Brazil’s coast.
Three more Brazilian boats and a French ship equipped with small submarines are expected to arrive in the area in the next few days.
Brig Cardoso said that fuel found in the sea probably did come from the plane, because it was not of a type used in ships.
However he said a large oil slick photographed in the area was more likely to have come from a ship.
He said the search effort would continue, with the main focus on finding bodies, but bad weather is forecast for the region on Friday.
‘Clock ticking’
French military spokesman Christophe Prazuck said the priority was looking for wreckage from the plane, before turning the search to flight data recorders.
“The clock is ticking on finding debris before they spread out and before they sink or disappear,” he said.
French officials have said the recorders, which could be deep under water, may never be found.
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FLIGHT AF 447 TIMELINE
Plane left Rio de Janeiro at 1900 local time (2200 GMT) on 31 May
Contact lost 0130 GMT
Had been due to land at 1110 local time (0910 GMT) in Paris
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Officials have warned that they are far from working out the cause of the crash.
Investigators are reported to be relying on a stream of automated messages sent out just before the crash, which suggested the plane’s systems shut down as it flew through high thunderstorms.
Investigators have suggested that speed sensors failed or iced over, causing erroneous data to be fed to onboard computers. This might have caused the plane to fly too fast or too slowly through the storm, leading it either to break apart or stall and fall out of the sky.
A Spanish pilot flying in the area at the time of the crash was quoted by his airline, Air Comet, as saying he had seen an “intense flash of white light, which followed a descending and vertical trajectory and which broke up in six seconds”.
The paper said Airbus, the maker of the plane, would issue A330 jets with new advice on flying in storms.
Airbus declined to comment on the report, though an unnamed official told AFP news agency that it was normal to update airlines following an accident.
Ocean search finds plane debris
BBC NEWS
Debris spotted by planes in waters 650km (400 miles) off Brazil’s coast belongs to a missing French airliner, the Brazilian government has confirmed.
A Brazilian search plane saw a band of wreckage along a 5km (3m) strip, said Defence Minister Nelson Jobim.
A Brazilian navy ship is expected to arrive in the area shortly to begin the task of recovering wreckage.
Flight AF 447 was heading from Rio to Paris with 228 people on board when it was lost early on Monday.
France is to hold religious ceremonies to remember the missing, while three days of national mourning have been declared in Brazil.
Late on Tuesday, Mr Jobim told reporters in Rio de Janeiro he had no doubt the debris was from the Air France jet.
He gave few details of the wreckage, saying only that it included metallic and non-metallic pieces.
Earlier, Brazil’s air force said it had spotted an airplane seat, an orange buoy and signs of fuel.
‘No hope’
Mr Jobim’s words will come as grim confirmation of the worst for the families waiting for news both in Paris and Rio, the BBC’s Gary Duffy reports from Brazil.
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TIMELINE
 Flight AF 447 left Rio at 1900 local time (2200 GMT) on Sunday
Airbus A330-200 carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew
Contact lost 0130 GMT
Missed scheduled landing at 1110 local time (0910 GMT) in Paris
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Jean-Louis Borloo, the French minister for transport, said chances of finding anyone alive were now “very, very small – even nonexistent”.
If it is confirmed that all 228 people on Flight AF 447 are dead, it will be the worst loss of life in Air France’s history.
“The last bit of hope that we had no longer exists,” said Aldair Gomes, whose son was a passenger on the plane.
“Before, a lot of us were hoping that the plane could have landed on an island or something like that, but no more.”
The first Brazilian navy boat is due to arrive in the zone where the debris was found on Wednesday morning.
It is hoped that the ship will be able to recover wreckage which will give some clue as to why the plane fell from the sky.
Three merchant vessels are already in the area after being diverted to help with the operation.
Search teams are hoping to locate the plane’s cockpit voice and data recorders, which will give the clearest information about what happened.
But Mr Jobim warned that recovering the devices could be difficult because of the depth of the ocean.
“It could be at a depth of 2,000m or 3,000m [6,500ft-9,800ft] in that area of the ocean,” he said.
The US has despatched specialist radar equipment to the area to hunt for the recorder, and France is also sending a research ship equipped with two mini-submarines to the disaster area.
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 Our only certainty is that the plane did not send out any distress call  Francois Fillon
French prime minister |
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the teams were “in a race against the clock in extremely difficult weather conditions”.
He told parliament that the cause of the plane’s loss had still to be established.
“Our only certainty is that the plane did not send out any distress call but regular automatic alerts for three minutes indicating the failure of all systems,” he said.
Experts remain puzzled that there were no radio reports from the Airbus and they say that such a modern aircraft would have had to suffer multiple traumas to plunge into the sea, the BBC’s Adam Mynott reports from Paris.
Most of the missing people are Brazilian or French but they include a total of 32 nationalities. Five Britons and three Irish citizens are among them.
Air France flight vanishes over Atlantic
MALAYSIAKINI
An Air France plane with 228 people on board disappeared over the Atlantic yesterday after suffering multiple breakdowns in a fierce storm on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
Spotter planes were dispatched in a bid to locate the jet in a vast area of ocean between Brazil and Africa, but officials said there was little hope of survivors from what appears to be the worst air accident in over a decade.
“The prospects of finding any survivors are very slim,” a grim-faced French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after talking to stunned relatives of missing passengers. “It’s a catastrophe the likes of which Air France has never seen.”
Although the exact cause of the crash remained a mystery, Air France’s chief executive said the Airbus A330 had sent a series of error messages shortly after crossing an area of major turbulence.
“A succession of a dozen technical messages” sent by the aircraft around 0215 GMT (10.15am Malaysian time) showed that “several electrical systems had broken down” which caused a “totally unprecedented situation in the plane,” said Pierre-Henry Gourgeon.
“It is probable that it was shortly after these messages that the impact in the Atlantic came,” he told reporters at Charles de Gaulle airport, where the flight was meant to have landed on Monday morning.
Airline officials had earlier said the plane was probably hit by lightning, but Gourgeon declined to make a direct link between weather conditions and the error messages.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he held out hope for survivors, but added that earlier he had spoken with French President Nicolas Sarkozy by telephone “and really it was an exchange of condolences.”
European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso sent a message of solidarity to both presidents, and expressed his “deepest sympathies” to the loved ones of those on board.
If it is confirmed that all 228 people on Flight AF 447 are dead, it would mark the worst loss of life in Air France’s history and civil aviation’s worst accident for more than a decade.
The Brazilian, Spanish and French air forces sent out search planes to scour a vast area of ocean between Brazil and Africa. Paris also asked Washington to use its spy satellites and listening posts to help.
Stunned relatives at Paris airport
At Charles de Gaulle airport, tearful relatives were ushered into a private area to await developments and get counselling from a team of psychologists.
At Rio’s Tom Jobim International Airport stunned relatives were shown into a closed lounge, away from the news media and into the care of psychologists and doctors.
One woman, Vasti Ester van Sluijs, told AFP she had jumped into a taxi as soon as she heard the overnight Air France flight had disappeared.
“My daughter Adriana Francesca was on the plane,” she said.
Air France said the 216 passengers included 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby. There were 12 French crew members.
The passengers hailed from 32 countries, including 61 from France, 58 from Brazil and 26 from Germany.
French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, whose portfolio includes transport, said hijacking had been ruled out.
Airbus said the A330 has a good safety record, with no fatalities ever on a commercial flight. One did crash in 1994 during a test flight in southern France, however, killing seven people on board.
Last week Air France announced its first net loss since it merged with Dutch airline KLM in 2003 to create Europe’s biggest airline.
In July 2000 all 109 passengers and crew plus four people on the ground were killed when a supersonic Air France Concorde crashed during takeoff from Charles de Gaulle airport. All Concordes were eventually taken out of service.
On Aug 3, 2005, an Air France A340 with 309 on board skidded off the runway after landing in a thunderstorm at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. Fourteen people suffered minor injuries.
– AFP
Taj Mahal The True Story
FROM ARJUNPUR’S BLOG
NEVER SAY TAJ MAHAL IS A TOMB – SAYS BBC
One of my old colleagues, Sudarshan Bharatiya sent me a mail today on Taj Mahal. Indeed, it was an interesting revelation and the pictures with the text made it much more worth to save and share the mail.
IS HISTORY JUSTIFIED??? ??
BBC says about Taj Mahal — Hidden Truth – Never say it is a Tomb.
Aerial view of the Taj Mahal
The interior water well
Frontal view of the Taj Mahal and dome
Close up of the dome with pinnacle
TO READ FURTHER THIS AMAZING REVELATION GO TO :
http://arjunpuri.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/never-say-taj-mahal-is-a-tomb-says-bbc/
MALAYSIAN LAND GIVEN TO 5-YEAR OLDS AND POLITICIANS
From The Might of the Pen Website
PETALING JAYA: The saga, that has been ongoing for over two decades now, has seen five Mentris 
Besar taking charge of the state, including the current administration of Khalid Ibrahim. Ahmad Razali Ali was Mentri Besar in 1985, followed by Muhammad Muhammad Taib (1986-1997), Abu Hassan Omar (1997-2000) and Khir Toyo (2000-2008).
A special committee formed under Selangor Housing, Building Management and Squatters Committee chairman Iskandar Abdul Samad revealed that 81 of the landowners were under 18 years old. Of that number, 37 were below 12 when they were assigned the plots. As the state government investigates how these people were given approval to own land in the scheme since 1985, allegations are being made that the names of the genuine squatters are missing from the original list of people to be compensated with land.
At least two five-year-olds are among 81 youngsters who were allocated plots of land in a squatter resettlement area in Taman Selayang Mutiara, Selangor, in a land scam which began more than 20 years ago.Hundreds of names of eligible original squatters in the Bukit Botak resettlement project, meanwhile, were deleted and replaced with those of people, some of whom are now only in their 20s.These landowners were born between 1978 and 1980 — meaning they would have been between just five and seven when they were assigned the lots in 1985.
To read more please go to : http://sjsandteam.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/malaysian-land-given-to-5-year-olds-and-politicians/
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