Omran Shaaban
One of the men who pulled former Libyan leader Colonel Moammar Gadhafi from a drainpipe last year has been buried after he was kidnapped by Gadhafi supporters and tortured, later dying of his injuries.
Omran Ben Shabaan’s funeral
Omran Ben Shaaban’s body was flown back to Libya by private jet on Tuesday from France, where he’d been receiving medical attention.
Video posted online showed thousands of mourners at a Misrata sports stadium Tuesday night. The Libyan government said it would give the 22-year-old a funeral fit for a hero. A photo was also posted of Shaaban in wooden casket, his face visible through a glass window.
Prayers for Omran Ben Shabaan
Shaaban and three friends were attacked and kidnapped by Gadhafi loyalists in July near the southern town of Bani Walid, where many Gadhafi supporters still live. Relatives told the Associated Press Shaaban was shot twice and paralyzed from the waist down. When Libya’s president Mohammed el-Megarif managed to get Shaaban and two of his friends released this month, Shaaban was “skin and bones.”
“It was clear he was beaten a lot,” his brother Abdullah Shaaban told the AP. “His entire chest was sliced with razors. His face had changed. It wasn’t my brother that I knew.”
~ 908 Nigerian female pilgrims held in Saudi Arabia
The detention of hundreds of female Nigerian pilgrims heading to Mecca atSaudi Arabia’s busiest airport over a rule requiring them to travel with a husband or male relative is threatening to bring a diplomatic dispute between the two nations.
Saudi authorities are holding 908 Nigerian women in poor conditions “with some needing urgent medical attention” at King Abdulaziz Airport in Jeddah and threatened to deport them, the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria said in a report submitted to Nigerian lawmakers Wednesday.
The report said female pilgrims who had landed in a smaller airport in Medina had been unaffected.
However, Fuwaiba Muhammad, a pilgrim, told an Associated Press reporter at Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in the northern Nigerian city of Kano that she had been deported Wednesday from the Saudi Arabian city of Medina, along with dozens of others.
# Nigeria says Saudi deports 150 female pilgrims, holding 1,000
Suspects Nonso, Okechukwu and Ezeaka
~ Cynthia: Court grants two suspects bail, remands driver
A Yaba Chief Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday granted bail to two suspects arrested in connection with the alleged murder of Cynthia Osokogu, But the driver who was accused of driving the prime suspect to Cosmilla Hotel, FESTAC, was remanded in prison custody.
The suspects granted bail – Nonso Ezike (22), who is the younger brother to Olisaeloka, one of the alleged killers, and Ezeaka Chinonso (27) – were arrested by policemen at Area E for receiving and selling Cynthia’s BlackBerry phone. He granted Nonso and Ezeaka bail in the sum of N500,000 each with two sureties in like sum, adding that the sureties must not be teachers or local government employees. He added that the sureties could be bank tellers.
He said, “The court observes that the matter at hand is a bailable offence but in order to deter the defendants from flight, I hereby subject them to bail of N500, 000 each with two sureties in like sum.” The third accused person, Gideon Okechukwu, a driver, was however charged with eight counts of murder, rape, robbery, conspiracy, administering a harmful substance to the deceased among others.
19yr old dog with owner John Unger
~ Viral photo helps 19-year-old arthritic dog recover
A photograph of a man wading in Lake Superior with his 19-year-old arthritic dog captured the hearts of millions when it was posted online last month–an outpouring that inspired the dog’s owner to launch a foundation to help low-income families care for their aging canines.
John Unger says Schoep’s Legacy Foundation has raised more than $25,000 since Unger and his dog, Schoep, were photographed by a friend, who posted the image to Facebook.
Before the photo was taken, Unger and his veterinarian had been considering putting Schoep down.
“Without treatment, John and I were talking about euthanasia at the end of July,” Erik Haukass, the vet, told the Daily Mail. But through the unsolicited donations from people who saw the photo, Unger was able to treat Schoep and extend his life.
“Schoep is doing incredible right now,” Unger said. ‘The therapies that the people have donated–it’s like turning back the clock a year and a half.”
Crooner Andy Williams
~ Publicist: ‘Moon River’ singer Andy Williams dies
With a string of gold albums, a hit TV series and the signature “Moon River,” Andy Williams was a voice of the 1960s, although not the ’60s we usually hear about.
“The old cliche says that if you can remember the 1960s, you weren’t there,” the singer once recalled. “Well, I was there all right, but my memory of them is blurred — not by any drugs I took but by the relentless pace of the schedule I set myself.”
Williams’ plaintive tenor, boyish features and easy demeanor helped him outlast many of the rock stars who had displaced him and such fellow crooners as Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. He remained on the charts into the 1970s, and continued to perform in his 80s at the Moon River Theatre he built in Branson, Mo. In November 2011, when Williams announced that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer, he vowed to return to performing the following year: His 75th in show business.
Williams died Tuesday night at his home in Branson following a yearlong battle with the disease, his Los Angeles-based publicist, Paul Shefrin, said Wednesday. He was 84.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
~ Ahmadinejad pushes new world order – an AP Interview
After an hour of fielding questions about Syria, sanctions and nuclear weapons, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had enough. Now, he said, it was his turn to choose the topic — his “new order” which will inevitably replace the current era of what he called U.S. bullying.
Continuing his hectic pace of media appearances and diplomatic meetings, Ahmadinejad presented an air of boredom when it came to the hot topic on everyone’s mind — Iran’s nuclear program and the possibility of impending war. Whether it was feigned or sincere, he said he would much rather be talking about his vision of what the next world order might be.
Conveniently, it would be an order in which the U.S. and the traditional powers play a smaller role and every country has equal standing (though the state of Israel, he often predicts, will soon become a historical footnote).
“God willing, a new order will come and will do away with … everything that distances us,” Ahmadinejad told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday, speaking through a translator. “All of the animosity, all of the lack of sincerity will come to an end. It will institute fairness and justice.”
LEGENDS – Michael Phelps meets his hero Michael Jordan
~ Michael Phelps finally meets his idol
Who does Michael Phelps look up to?
That bar has to be set pretty high for the all-time leader in Olympic medals. And so, sitting with David Feherty during a special Ryder Cup edition of Feherty Live, the Golf Channel’s version of a late-night talk show, Phelps talked about the man who inspires him most.
Michael Jordan and Michael Phelps on Feherty Live. (Getty Images)Michael Jordan.
Feherty’s show had come to the grand old Tivoli Theater in suburban Chicago, where it was only fitting that No. 23 would come up in conversation. For it was only 20 miles to the east where Jordan led the Bulls to six NBA championships. Feherty joked that his low-budget show couldn’t afford the real Michael Jordan, only a blowup one, and with that out stepped the five-time MVP, drawing the capacity crowd inside the Tivoli Theater to its feet and an adoring smile across Phelps’ face.
Of all the famous people Phelps has rubbed elbows with over the years, Jordan hasn’t been one of them. Until Monday night.
Already shy whenever a camera is shoved in his face, Phelps could barely muster a sentence sitting next to MJ. Feherty wondered why a kid from Baltimore would grow up idolizing a guy playing in Chicago.
“He’s the greatest,” Phelps muttered as he stared at his shoes.
And then, in a moment as refreshing as an early-morning swim, Phelps let everyone know just how he felt: “I’m at a loss for words.”
Phelps said he has been in the pool since announcing his official retirement following the London Olympics, but only for a little exercise. He insisted on more than one occasion Monday night that he’s “not coming back.” Golf, it appears, is where at least some of his focus is now, though he says he’s not very good at it. (His swing, which Feherty broke down on video, showed otherwise.)
The dedication to swim seven days a week for at least the last 12 years took its toll on Phelps, who called retirement “the best thing to ever happen.”
