ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents said on Tuesday that the Pakistani schoolgirl its gunmen shot in the head deserved to die because she had spoken out against the group and praised U.S. President Barack Obama.
Malala Yousufzai, 14, was flown to Britain on Monday, where doctors said she has every chance of making a "good recovery".
The legend grows "the 14 yr old girl who fights the taliban"!
The attack on Yousufzai, who had been advocating education for girls, drew widespread condemnation.
Pakistani surgeons removed a bullet from near her spinal cord during a three-hour operation the day after the attack last week, but she now needs intensive specialist follow-up care.
Authorities have said they have made several arrests in connection with the case but have given no details.
Pakistan's Taliban described Yousufzai as a "spy of the West".
"For this espionage, infidels gave her awards and rewards. And Islam orders killing of those who are spying for enemies," the group said in a statement.
"She used to propagate against mujahideen (holy warriors) to defame (the) Taliban. The Quran says that people propagating against Islam and Islamic forces would be killed
A politician who went to prison 20 years ago in one of Arizona’s most notorious public-corruption cases has apparently been practicing real estate in San Diego County for almost 14 years, using his son’s clean record to get a license.
Donald James Kenney, 73, was a real estate broker at Coldwell Banker in Encinitas until last month, after The Watchdog inquired about his past.
Don Kenney on Facebook, where his profile shows college affiliations that match with his background in Arizona
The Department of Real Estate began an investigation after The Watchdog inquiry and ordered Kenney on Wednesday to stop practicing real estate. The state concluded that Kenney deceitfully used the identity of his son John Kenney, 44, to obtain a license.
The elder Kenney, who lives in Carlsbad, denies any wrongdoing and denies that he is the lawmaker convicted in Arizona. He declined to meet in person to go over documents gathered by The Watchdog showing he is the former politician.
The elder Kenney and the convicted legislator share the same date of birth and the same three colleges on their résumé. They look the same in photographs. And a letter sent to Kenney as part of his recent effort to restore civil rights lost after his conviction in Arizona was addressed to his Carlsbad home.
Kenney, when he was a legislator, took $55,000 in a gym bag from a Phoenix police operative in a sting operation in 1990 and was sentenced to five years in prison.
Donald James Kenney, left, is pictured at his readiness hearing in San Diego Superior Court on Wednesday with public defender Nancy Song. — Nelvin C. Cepeda / U-T San Diego staff
A former Arizona legislator who served time in prison and came to San Diego County for a new life more than ten years ago was sentenced Monday for stealing his son's clean record to help him pursue a real estate career locally.
Donald James Kenney, 74, the self-proclaimed "quarterback" in one of Arizona's most well-known political scandals, admitted he used the personal details of his 44-year-old attorney son, Donald John Kenney, without his knowledge to obtain a California identification card and broker's license.
Kenney, once the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in Arizona, went to prison 20 years ago for bribery and money laundering in an effort to legalize casino gambling in Arizona, which was initiated by Phoenix police conducting a sting. When he applied for a broker's license in California in 1998, he not only failed to disclose any misdemeanor or felony convictions to the California Department of Real Estate, which is required, he also used his son's information to obtain the license.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Laura Halgren sentenced Kenney to 240 hours of community service at a non-profit organization, required to be completed by Oct. 31, 2013. Kenney was not sentenced to physical public work because of his medical conditions including severe arthritis and a military injury that damaged his knee, said public defender Nancy Song.
Kenney was granted probation on condition he avoids forging documents, taking controlled substances, and representing himself as a real estate agent or broker in any real estate transactions, unless he is the seller. The court also required Kenney to obtain a driver's license using his own personal information.
School officials say the concern is their nutritional value, or lack thereof. Each bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos contains 26 grams of fat and a quarter of the amount of salt that's recommended for the entire day.
One school district in Illinois, which used to sell about 150,000 bags each year, has already taken the snack off its menu.
"If children were to bring in snacks that are high in fat, high in calories, that's their choice," Rockford School District Interim Superintendent Robert Willis said. "We're not going to be providing those kinds of foods."
On top of the artificial coloring and flavoring, some experts say the Cheetos are "hyperpalatable," meaning they're highly addictive.
"Our brain is really hardwired to find things like fat and salt really rewarding and now we have foods that have them in such high levels that it can trigger an addictive process," said Ashley Gearhardt, a clinical psychologist at the University of Michigan.
Frito Lay, which makes and sells Cheetos, says it is "committed to responsible and ethical practices, which includes not marketing our products to children ages 12 and under."
While Flamin' Hot Cheetos are under fire in schools, kids can't get enough of them. So much so that there is a YouTube video featuring kids rapping about their love of the snack.
"Got my fingers stained red and I can't get them off me. You can catch me and my crew eating hot Cheetos and takis," one boy raps in the video.
Takis are a chili pepper- and lime-flavored corn snack.
The video has already been viewed more than 3.3 million times and there are even Facebook fan pages dedicated to the snack.
One fan page has more than 49,000 "likes," with many fans posting photos and videos with the snack.
"Don't feel like leaving to get food," one person writes. "So I'm eating Flamin' Hot Cheetos."
BOUNTY FOR TALIBAN LEADER (who had malala shot) KARACHI: Interior Minister Rehman Malik has offered a $1 million bounty for Ehsanullah Eshan, the central spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the attack on 14-year-old activist Malala Yousufzai’s life.
Speaking to CNN in an interview late Monday, Malik said that security agencies were investigating the attack and hunting down those whose involvement had been ascertained.
“All our law enforcers, intelligence agencies are hunting all those who were involved. I have got some other names which I would not like to mention on record because it may damage the investigation. But let me (as)sure my Pakistani nation, and the entire world, that we will get them very soon,” the interior minister told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
Malik said that according to details unearthed in the probe, the assassination attempt on Malala was planned in Afghanistan.
“Four people came from there. … One of the guys, we have identified and (a) few of his associates have been arrested. One of – the fiancee of one of the terrorists has been detained, and all possible leads which we have developed … we are following it,” said Malik, vowing to hold all those responsible to account “very soon.”
Moreover, the interior minister affirmed that the government was providing security to Malala’s family and to two other girls also wounded in the same attack. Malik says ‘Radio Mullah’ new Pakistani Taliban chief
Later on Tuesday, the interior minister said that intelligence reports suggested that powerful militant commander “Radio Mullah” Fazlullah was being made the central leader of the militant umbrella group the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
“We have reports that Mullah Fazlullah was being made the chief of the TTP,” Malik told reporters in Mingora, Swat. He said that the reason Fazlullah was being made leader was that current chief Hakimullah Mehsud had been ‘underground’ and inactive, and had not been commanding most of the operations of the TTP.
Fazlullah is the chief of the Swat Taliban, which previously had control over the Swat region and is believed to have melted away across the border following a Pakistani military offensive in 2009. Fazlullah is now believed to be based in Afghanistan’s Kunar province.
A spokesman for the Swat Taliban had claimed that two killers from Fazlullah’s special hit squad had been sent to target young schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai. The spokesman had further threatened to kill the girl’s father following the failed assassination attempt on the girl’s life.
Malik visited the house of Kainat, one of the girls injured during the attack on Malala in Swat. The interior minister added that three platoons of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) would be named after the three girls – Malala, Kainat and Shazia.
He also said that the government would confer a Sitara-i-Shujaat (Medal of Courage) award on Malala for her activism for girls’ education and peace despite dangers to her life.
Gunman sought in violent mugging outside Tucson Walmart
UPDATE : WOMAN IN HOSPITAL WITH LIFE THREATENING INJURIES.
Photos courtesy of Tucson Police Department
Police are looking for a gunman who beat a woman outside a north-side shopping center and stole her purse. Security photos show the woman being attacked just before 8 p.m. Sunday as she walked toward the entrance to Walmart at 455 E. Wetmore Road between First and Stone avenues.
2012-10-15T14:17:00Z2012-10-15T14:29:18ZGunman sought in violent mugging outside Tucson WalmartKimberly Matas, Arizona Daily StarArizona Daily Star
Police are looking for a gunman who beat a woman outside a north-side shopping center and stole her purse.
Security photos show the woman just before 8 p.m. Sunday walking toward the entrance to Walmart at 455 E. Wetmore Road between First and Stone avenues, when a man attacks her from behind, repeatedly hitting her in the head with a handgun. When a witness tried to intervene, the robber pointed the gun at him.
The robber took the woman’s purse and got into the passenger seat of a waiting silver Chevrolet Impala that had chrome wheels and a sunroof.
The woman who was attacked confronted the driver of the car and was dragged for several hundred feet through the parking lot. She was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.
The robber is described as in his 20s, standing 5-feet-6 and weighing about 160 pounds. He was wearing a white T-shirt with a logo on the front and baggy shorts with dark stripes on the sides. The getaway driver is described as a thin man wearing a dark shirt and dark pants.
Sgt. Costaki C. Manoleas with the Pima County Sheriff's Department, stands over the wreckage of a plane that crashed near Waterman Peak southwest Avra Valley Road and Johnson Mine Road.
A small plane crashed in the Tucson Mountain District northwest of Avra Valley last night, killing the pilot, said Deputy Tom Peine, spokesman for the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.
No one else was on the plane.
Between 7:30 and 8:30 Sunday night the Federal Aviation Administration lost radar contact with the plane and contacted Customs and Border Protection to start a search via Black Hawk helicopter. The plane was found in a rugged area about 45 miles outside of Tucson, Peine said. He does not know what time the wreckage was spotted.
“That plane hit the ground hard,” Peine said. “It shattered into about a million pieces.”
Investigators, so far, have been unable to identify the pilot
