Friday, January 26, 2007
Friday, January 12, 2007
Diaz- Timberlake Split
YAHOO -- For Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake, it was all over but the press release.
Cue the publicists.
In a joint statement issued on behalf of the celebrity couple Thursday, Diaz and Timberlake confirmed the biggest non-secret in Hollywood: They're no longer a celebrity couple.
"We have, in fact, ended our romantic relationship, and have done so mutually and as friends, with continued love and respect for one another," the statement said.
Diaz and Timberlake said they would have preferred to avoid the press-release route—"out of respect for the time we've spent together."
The ex-twosome chalked up their confirmation letter as a response to "recent speculation" and "inaccurate stories that are being reported by the media."
Diaz, 34, and Timberlake, 25, didn't note why or when they broke up, leaving "recent speculation" to do the job.
According to the buzz, Diaz and Timberlake uncoupled last month. The Jan. 22 Us Weekly narrows the split to some time after Timberlake hosted Saturday Night Live on Dec. 16 to sometime before a Diaz Christmas getaway to Vail, Colorado.
Diaz and Timberlake were a couple for more than three years, having begun dating in 2003.
No strangers to breakup rumors or when-will-they-marry speculation, Diaz and Timberlake were unusually tight-lipped when the New Year brought new reports that they were kaput.
The ex-couple watch intensified when Timberlake attended the Jan. 3 premiere of his new movie, Alpha Dog, minus Diaz. Even Tuesday's People's Choice Awards couldn't bring the pair together: Diaz attended the Los Angeles gala in person; Timberlake appeared via satellite—from nearby Anaheim.
Timberlake, who friends insist to Us Weekly was a one-star man while dating Diaz, seemingly has wasted no time getting his sexy back.
Last week, E! Online columnist Ted Casablanca reported Timberlake was spotted at the Alpha Dog post-premiere party in the company of Scarlett Johansson, with whom he shot a video, "What Goes Around," right after Christmas.
The music-video casting of Johansson, 22, was cited by Us Weekly as the "final straw" for the Diaz-Timberlake tandem, with Diaz said to be jealous of the younger actress and Timberlake said to be tired of Diaz's jealousy.
Timberlake and Johansson, recently uncoupled from Josh Hartnett, have copped to no more than a friendship.
Timberlake is likewise "friends, nothing more," his rep recently told E! Online senior editor Marc Malkin, with Kate Hudson, recently divorced from rocker Chris Robinson, and recently uncoupled from reputed beau Owen Wilson. Timberlake was among the New Year's revelers who rang in 2007 at the Los Angeles home of Hudson, 27.
Diaz, meanwhile, is said by Us Weekly to be commiserating with Charlie's Angels costar Drew Barrymore, recently uncoupled from Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti.
Removing himself from the breakup vortex that is currently Hollywood, Timberlake is scheduled to be some 340 miles north on Thursday night for the San Jose, California, date of his arena tour.
Diaz, who appeared in only three movies during her Timberlake era, won't appear in another one this year, per the Internet Movie Database, though she'll be heard as the voice of Princess Fiona in Shrek the Third, due out this summer.
During their run as a couple, Diaz and Timberlake never appeared more united than when they banded together against paparazzi, with whom they occasionally legally tangled. The most recent incident came last September, when Diaz accused a photog of trying to hit her and Timberlake with a car.
Diaz and Timberlake also sounded as if they were on the same page about marriage: Neither wanted one.
"I'm a commitment phobe," Diaz said on the Ellen DeGeneres Show last November. "Don't want to do it."
And now she won't have to. Not with Timberlake, anyway.
Hobbit Hostilities Escalate
YAHOO -- Thu Jan 11, 9:46 AM ET
Los Angeles (E! Online) - One ring might rule them all, but one lawsuit's threatening the future of one of Hollywood's biggest franchises.
New Line Cinema cohead Bob Shaye has lashed out at The Lord of the Rings ringmaster
Peter Jackson, calling the Oscar winner greedy for suing the studio over disputed profits from the first film in the trilogy. He also left little doubt that New Line considers the director persona non grata when it comes to future projects, including the highly anticipated big-screen adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.
"I do not want to make a movie with somebody who is suing me," the studio chief told Sci Fi Wire while making the publicity rounds for his own directing effort, the family-friendly fantasy film The Last Mimzy. "It will never happen during my watch."
Shaye, who made the gutsy decision to greenlight simultaneous production on all three Lord of the Rings films, took particular offense at what he said was the New Zealander's "arrogance" and ungrateful attitude in the wake of his success.
Click here to read more.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
SINULOG 2007
CEBU -- It's hard to get a decent hotel at this time of year in Cebu. Foreigners and tourist from all over the world travel to Philippine's Queen City of the South to witness and experience the most colorful and grandest fiesta celebration in Asia -- the Sinulog fiesta celebration.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
MAD FOR PRINCESS HOURS
i'M so hooked with this Korean TV series! I've actually spent nights downloading it from YouTube.
YAHOO ---Love denied. Arranged marriages. Scheming power struggles between women with lots of hair spray. And in the middle of it all, a Cinderella and her Crown Prince who just wants—let's say it together—to direct.
Those who hallyu know of what we speak. Soaps have been the latest tsunami in the South Korean pop culture wave, and searchers have been intimate with past telenovelas like "My Name is Kim Sam Soon," "Princess Lulu," "Winter Sonata" and "Jewel in the Palace."
Now, a year after after its original airing, TV dramedy "Princess Hours," based on the ongoing comic "Goong," has returned to swamp the Buzz, with enraptured fans in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago pushing the show into the top 350 searches. Lasting a mere 24 episodes, the drama reimagines a present in which royal line didn't end with Japanese colonization. Not everyone may be a fan, but most agree that the dramedy reeks of cutesy stars and big-budget glam opulence.
The show was made to appeal to Japanese audiences, according to Yonhap News, but "Princess Hours" has been a global phenom. DVD/VCD sales have blown past the quarter-million mark, even as it airs in wider Asian and American markets. With its availability in an American-compatible DVD format (a first for a Korean telenovela), English-speakers can now understand the Crown Prince's pain when he tells Chae-kyeong, "Watching you sit and ask for forgiveness there, it'd make me want to puke."
Anticipation and searches are already up for the sequel—another first for a Korean soap —called "Prince Hours." Meanwhile, some of us are just waiting for the MadTV spoof.
Sunday, January 7, 2007
NEW SUPER MARIO BROTHERS
New, honest-to-goodness sequels to the greatest platformer series in the history of video games don't come along too often. We tend to get one every console generation, but Nintendo only saw fit to bring remastered classics to its handheld platforms over the last few years -- which we snatched up hungrily and chewed happily, of course. New Super Mario Bros. is just as the name describes; it's a brand-new addition to the side-scrolling platformer series that got the majority of us wild about gaming.
'Peace mom' turns attention to Guantanamo
"Peace Mom", Cindy Sheehan, is not afraid of the possibility of US sanctions for travelling to Cuba. According to Sheehan, she is not afraid of anything. She added, "What is more important is the inhumanity that my government is perpetrating at Guantanamo," she told reporters.
WHITE WATER RAFTING IN CAGAYAN DE ORO
ZEROING IN talks about the thrill and the excitement of whitewater rafting in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines.
"...the entire run is replete with moderate to wild rapids coming in 10 to 15 minute intervals. scream in delight as you are tossed on 2-3 foot long waves, bounced and bumped on rocks and boulders, and get dizzy as the power of the churning river makes you feel like you’re in a washing machine..."
Saturday, January 6, 2007
Daddy, why did we attack Iraq?
Daddy, why did we attack Iraq?
Simple Questions and Answers about
Foreign Policy (and the U.S. Invasion
of Iraq ) (c) 2003 anarchie bunker
Q: Daddy, why did we have to attack
Iraq ?
A: Because they had weapons of mass
destruction.
Q: But the inspectors didn't find any
weapons of mass destruction.
A: That's because the Iraqis were
hiding them.
Q: And that's why we invaded Iraq ?
A: Yep. Invasions always work better
than inspections. Q: But after we
invaded them, we STILL didn't find any
weapons of mass destruction, did we?
A: That's because the weapons are so
well hidden. Don't worry, we'll find
something, probably right before the
2004 election.
Q: Why did Iraq want all those weapons
of mass destruction?
A: To use them in a war, silly.
Q: I'm confused. If they had all those
weapons that they planned to use in a
war, then why didn't they use any of
those weapons when we went to war with
them?
A: Well, obviously they didn't want
anyone to know they had those weapons,
so they chose to die by the thousands
rather than defend themselves.
Q: That doesn't make sense. Why would
they choose to die if they had all
those big weapons with which they
could have fought back?
A: It's a different culture. It's not
supposed to make sense.
Q: I don't know about you, but I don't
think they had any of those weapons
our government said they did.
A: Well, you know, it doesn't matter
whether or not they had those weapons.
We had another good reason to invade
them anyway.
Q: And what was that?
A: Even if Iraq didn't have weapons of
mass destruction, Saddam Hussein was a
cruel dictator, which is another good
reason to invade another country.
Q: Why? What does a cruel dictator do
that makes it OK to invade his
country?
A: Well, for one thing, he tortured
his own people.
Q: Kind of like what they do in
China ?
A: Don't go comparing China to Iraq .
China is a good economic competitor,
where millions of people work for
slave wages in sweatshops to make U.S.
corporations richer.
Q: So if a country lets its people be
exploited for American corporate gain,
it's a good country, even if that
country tortures people?
A: Right.
Q: Why were people in Iraq being
tortured?
A: For political crimes, mostly, like
criticizing the government. People who
criticized the government in Iraq were
sent to prison and tortured.
Q: Isn't that exactly what happens in
China ?
A: I told you, China is different.
Q: What's the difference between China
and Iraq ?
A: Well, for one thing, Iraq was ruled
by the Ba'ath party, while China is
Communist.
Q: Didn't you once tell me Communists
were bad?
A: No, just Cuban Communists are bad.
Q: How are the Cuban Communists bad?
A: Well, for one thing, people who
criticize the government in Cuba are
sent to prison and tortured.
Q: Like in Iraq ?
A: Exactly.
Q: And like in China , too?
A: I told you, China 's a good
economic competitor. Cuba, on the
other hand, is not.
Q: How come Cuba isn't a good economic
competitor?
A: Well, you see, back in the early
1960s, our government passed some laws
that made it illegal for Americans to
trade or do any business with Cuba
until they stopped being Communists
and started being capitalists like us.
Q: But if we got rid of those laws,
opened up trade with Cuba , and
started doing business with them,
wouldn't that help the Cubans become
capitalists?
A: Don't be a smart-ass.
Q: I didn't think I was being one.
A: Well, anyway, they also don't have
freedom of religion in Cuba .
Q: Kind of like China and the Falun
Gong movement?
A: I told you, stop saying bad things
about China . Anyway, Saddam Hussein
came to power through a military coup,
so he's not really a legitimate leader
anyway.
Q: What's a military coup?
A: That's when a military general
takes over the government of a country
by force, instead of holding free
elections like we do in the United
States .
Q: Didn't the ruler of Pakistan come
to power by a military coup?
A: You mean General Pervez Musharraf?
Uh, yeah, he did, but Pakistan is our
friend.
Q: Why is Pakistan our friend if their
leader is illegitimate?
A: I never said Pervez Musharraf was
illegitimate.
Q: Didn't you just say a military
general who comes to power by forcibly
overthrowing the legitimate government
of a nation is an illegitimate leader?
A: Only Saddam Hussein. Pervez
Musharraf is our friend, because he
helped us invade Afghanistan .
Q: Why did we invade Afghanistan ?
A: Because of what they did to us on
September 11th.
Q: What did Afghanistan do to us on
September 11th?
A: Well, on September 11th, nineteen
men - fifteen of them Saudi Arabians -
hijacked four airplanes and flew three
of them into buildings in New York and
Washington , killing 3,000 innocent
people.
Q: So how did Afghanistan figure into
all that?
A: Afghanistan was where those bad men
trained, under the oppressive rule of
the Taliban.
Q: Aren't the Taliban those bad
radical Islamics who chopped off
people's heads and hands?
A: Yes, that's exactly who they were.
Not only did they chop off people's
heads and hands, but they oppressed
women, too.
Q: Didn't the Bush administration give
the Taliban 43 million dollars back in
May of 2001?
A: Yes, but that money was a reward
because they did such a good job
fighting drugs.
Q: Fighting drugs?
A: Yes, the Taliban were very helpful
in stopping people from growing opium
poppies.
Q: How did they do such a good job?
A: Simple. If people were caught
growing opium poppies, the Taliban
would have their hands and heads cut
off.
Q: So, when the Taliban cut off
people's heads and hands for growing
flowers, that was OK, but not if they
cut people's heads and hands off for
other reasons?
A: Yes. It's OK with us if radical
Islamic fundamentalists cut off
people's hands for growing flowers,
but it's cruel if they cut off
people's hands for stealing bread.
Q: Don't they also cut off people's
hands and heads in Saudi Arabia ?
A: That's different. Afghanistan was
ruled by a tyrannical patriarchy that
oppressed women and forced them to
wear burqas whenever they were in
public, with death by stoning as the
penalty for women who did not comply.
Q: Don't Saudi women have to wear
burqas in public, too?
A: No, Saudi women merely wear a
traditional Islamic body covering.
Q: What's the difference?
A: The traditional Islamic covering
worn by Saudi women is a modest yet
fashionable garment that covers all of
a woman's body except for her eyes and
fingers. The burqa, on the other hand,
is an evil tool of patriarchal
oppression that covers all of a
woman's body except for her eyes and
fingers.
Q: It sounds like the same thing with
a different name.
A: Now, don't go comparing Afghanistan
and Saudi Arabia . The Saudis are our
friends.
Q: But I thought you said 15 of the 19
hijackers on September 11th were from
Saudi Arabia .
A: Yes, but they trained in
Afghanistan .
Q: Who trained them?
A: A very bad man named Osama bin
Laden.
Q: Was he from Afghanistan ?
A: Uh, no, he was from Saudi Arabia
too. But he was a bad man, a very bad
man.
Q: I seem to recall he was our friend
once.
A: Only when we helped him and the
mujahadeen repel the Soviet invasion
of Afghanistan back in the 1980s.
Q: Who are the Soviets? Was that the
Evil Communist Empire Ronald Reagan
talked about?
A: There are no more Soviets. The
Soviet Union broke up in 1990 or
thereabouts, and now they have
elections and capitalism like us. We
call them Russians now.
Q: So the Soviets - I mean, the
Russians - are now our friends?
A: Well, not really. You see, they
were our friends for many years after
they stopped being Soviets, but then
they decided not to support our
invasion of Iraq , so we're mad at
them now. We're also mad at the French
and the Germans because they didn't
help us invade Iraq either.
Q: So the French and Germans are evil,
too?
A: Not exactly evil, but just bad
enough that we had to rename French
fries and French toast to Freedom
Fries and Freedom Toast.
Q: Do we always rename foods whenever
another country doesn't do what we
want them to do?
A: No, we just do that to our friends.
Our enemies, we invade.
Q: But wasn't Iraq one of our friends
back in the 1980s?
A: Well, yeah. For a while.
Q: Was Saddam Hussein ruler of Iraq
back then?
A: Yes, but at the time he was
fighting against Iran , which made him
our friend, temporarily.
Q: Why did that make him our friend?
A: Because at that time, Iran was our
enemy.
Q: Isn't that when he gassed the
Kurds?
A: Yeah, but since he was fighting
against Iran at the time, we looked
the other way, to show him we were his
friend.
Q: So anyone who fights against one of
our enemies automatically becomes our
friend?
A: Most of the time, yes.
Q: And anyone who fights against one
of our friends is automatically an
enemy?
A: Sometimes that's true, too.
However, if American corporations can
profit by selling weapons to both
sides at the same time, all the
better.
Q: Why?
A: Because war is good for the
economy, which means war is good for
America . Also, since God is on
America 's side, anyone who opposes
war is a godless unAmerican Communist.
Do you understand now why we attacked
Iraq ?
Q: I think so. We attacked them
because God wanted us to, right?
A: Yes.
Q: But how did we know God wanted us
to attack Iraq ?
A: Well, you see, God personally
speaks to George W. Bush and tells him
what to do.
Q: So basically, what you're saying is
that we attacked Iraq because George
W. Bush hears voices in his head?
A: Yes! You finally understand how the
world works. Now close your eyes, make
yourself comfortable, and go to sleep.
Good night.
Q: Good night, Daddy.
Permission is freely granted to copy,
print, and distribute this material by
any means, so long as the author is
given proper credit and so long as
this statement is included in any and
all copies made for distribution.
Woman Swallows Spoon
SYDNEY - A young Australian woman got more than she bargained for during a dinner conversation when she laughed so hard she accidentally swallowed a spoon.
The 26-year-old ingested a teaspoon when she was overcome by the giggles while eating spaghetti, The Sunday Telegraph newspaper said.
The 15-centimetre (six-inch) spoon stuck in her throat at the top of her stomach.
Doctors at Canterbury Hospital sedated the woman and removed it "with great difficulty" during a 90-minute operation.
Mannequin Fetishist
A man who has a history of smashing windows to indulge his fetish for female mannequins could draw a long prison term for his latest arrest. Ronald A. Dotson, 39, of Detroit faces up to life in prison if convicted of a charge of attempted breaking and entering at a cleaning-supply company in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale. The potential life sentence is because prosecutors charged him as a habitual offender. Authorities say he has at least six convictions for breaking and entering and a stint in state prison over the last 13 years. Ferndale District Judge Joseph Longo ordered Dotson to stand trial following a preliminary examination on Thursday, The Daily Tribune of Royal Oak reported. The judge ordered him jailed unless he posts a $15,000 bond. Dotson was arrested Oct. 9 after police say he smashed a window at a cleaning-supply company to get at a female mannequin dressed in a black and white French maid's uniform. He had been out of prison for less than a week. Dotson was arrested in Ferndale in July 2000 and later convicted for breaking and entering at a women's clothing shop to get at a mannequin in a pink dress with bobbed hair. Ferndale police also arrested Dotson in 1993 after finding him in an alley behind a woman's store with three lingerie-clad mannequins. He also has similar convictions in Detroit and suburban Oak Park.
14 Things You Really Should Have Done Before Getting Married
1. Watch yourself eating in front of a mirror. If you're put off, that's the view your future partner will have...
2. Live on your own. It's important that you find out what a hopeless slob you are before your beloved tells you. And then leaves you...
3. Go out with your friends for a "quick drink" and stagger home three days later...
4. Have a holiday romance with someone who doesn't speak a word of English. Who needs conversation?
5. Women: Take the soft toys off your bed. Nothing turns a man off more than performing in front of an audience of beady-eyed teddies...
6. Men: Get rid of those "How to Get Girls Even Though You're Poor and Ugly' books. They never work anyway...
7. Gobble the last slice of pizza without having to go through the 'No you have it, no really... Are you sure you don't mind...?
8. Walk about the house naked, without having to hold any bits in...
9. Have friends of the opposite sex. After marriage, it's too much effort to keep saying: "No, I really don't fancy them"...
10. Men: Enjoy that wardrobe space while you can! You will not believe the vast number of shoes that one woman needs...
11. Women: Fill in silly magazine quizzes with titles like 'Are You Seductive', without having to listen to loud laughter from your partner (who then runs off with the magazine)...
12. Men: Get rid of anything inflatable and female-shaped...
13. Relish clipping your toenails straight onto the carpet...
14. Remember that your best option with in-laws is to marry an orphan...
The Battle for MIddle Earth
NULLVOID-FIXED POSTS: I recently visited gamespot.com to see what are the new games in pc now to keep me updated a little bit about my favorite subject in college and in high school, which is playing computer games.
This upcoming expansion to The Battle for Middle-earth II will let you battle as an evil faction centuries before Frodo, Aragorn, and all the rest.
Skype Klonie or Weemee, Anyone?
Zeroing In posts: there is this personalise option in Skype where you can “create your skype identity” by making your own avatar. you have 2 options: Create a Klonie or Build your Weemee. seemed kewl. tried it.
i built a Weemee first. this one has lots of options to customize your Weemee. from hair color, facial expression, down to shoes. but after everything was done, i was taken to a “purchase authorization” page where (you can already guess why) i have to pay about 1.50 Euros for the Weemee! weeee.. .are you kidding me?! pay for this? so i’m a thrift. sue me! –>
kickoff season
have you already seen the new KDE main menu codenamed “Kickoff?”
openSUSE 10.2 beta 1 has recently been released and one of the highlights of this release is Kickoff – the revolutionary and redesigned KDE menu for openSUSE 10.2.
How to build SUSE Kickoff menu
how to build SUSE Kickoff menu in 7 steps
a lot of the steps in this how-to is taken from the Building KDE From Source Step By Step tutorial. i would suggest that you thoroughly read that tutorial if you find some aspects ambiguous...
Friday, January 5, 2007
Bride's joke Breaks off Wedding
VIENNA, Austria - Wedding jokes aren't always funny. When a bride in Austria jokingly answered "no" instead of "yes" when asked if she wanted to marry her husband-to-be, the official performing the civil wedding promptly broke off the ceremony.
Not even the bride's sobs could reverse the decision and the couple had to wait two and a half months before they could give it another - successful - try, the Austrian newspaper Oberoesterreichischen Nachrichten reported.
Officials at the registry office in the city of Steyr where the mishap occurred declined to comment directly but noted the incident was highly unusual, according to the newspaper.
SADDAM Executed with Fear In His Eyes
Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator who spent his last years in captivity after his ruthless regime was toppled by the U.S.-led coalition in 2003, was hanged before dawn Saturday for crimes committed in a brutal crackdown during his reign.
The execution took place shortly after 6 a.m. (10 p.m. Friday ET), Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, told Iraqi television.
"This dark page has been turned over," Rubaie said. "Saddam is gone. Today Iraq is an Iraq for all the Iraqis, and all the Iraqis are looking forward. ... The [Hussein] era has gone forever."Al-Iraqiya state television aired videotape of Hussein's last moments several hours after the execution.
The video showed Hussein, dressed in a black overcoat, being led into a room by three masked guards.
The broadcast only showed the execution to the point where the noose was placed over Hussein's head and tightened around his neck. No audio was heard.
Rubaie, who witnessed the execution, said the former leader was "strangely submissive" to the process.
"He was a broken man," he said. "He was afraid. You could see fear in his face."
Rubaie said that Hussein carried with him a copy of the Quran and asked that it be given to "a certain person." Rubaie did not identify that person.
On Al-Arabiya television, Rubaie said the execution took place at the 5th Division intelligence office in Qadhimiya. He said Hussein refused to wear a black hood over his head before execution and told him "don't be afraid."White House deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel said President Bush was asleep when the execution took place and was not awakened. The president had been briefed by national security adviser Stephen Hadley before retiring and was aware the hanging was imminent, Stanzel said.
The White House issued a statement praising the Iraqi people for giving Hussein a fair trial.
"Fair trials were unimaginable under Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule," Bush's statement read. "It is a testament to the Iraqi people's resolve to move forward after decades of oppression that, despite his terrible crimes against his own people, Saddam Hussein received a fair trial."The execution took place outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, Rubaie said, and no Americans were present.
"It was an Iraqi operation from A to Z," he said. "The Americans were not present during the hour of the execution. They weren't even in the building."
He added that "there were no Shiite or Sunni clerics present, only the witnesses and those who carried out the actual execution were present."
Hussein was hanged for his role in the 1982 Dujail massacre, in which 148 Iraqis were killed after a failed assassination attempt against the then-Iraqi president.Two other co-defendants -- Barzan Hassan, Hussein's half-brother, and Awwad Bandar, the former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court -- were also found guilty and had been expected to face execution with Hussein, but Rubaie said their executions were postponed.
"We chose to postpone Barzan and Awwad's execution to a later date because we wanted to have this day to have an historic distinction," he said. "We wanted to have one specific date for Saddam so people remember this date to be linked to Saddam's execution and nothing else."
Rubaie said the execution was videotaped and photographed extensively from the time Hussein was transferred from U.S. to Iraqi custody until he was dead.
Many of those who witnessed the execution celebrated in the aftermath. (Full story)
"Saddam's body is in front me," said an official in the prime minister's office when CNN telephoned. "It's over."
In the background, Shiite chanting could be heard. When asked about the chanting, the official said, "These are employees of the prime minister's office and government chanting in celebration."He said that celebrations broke out after Hussein was dead, and that there was "dancing around the body."
Iraqi-Americans celebrated in the street in Dearborn, Michigan, home to the largest concentration of Iraqis in the United StatesPrime Minister Nuri al-Maliki did not attend the execution, according to an adviser to the prime minister who was interviewed on state television.
"It's a very solemn moment for me," Feisal Istrabadi, Iraq's U.N. ambassador, said on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360." "I can understand why some of my compatriots may be cheering. I have friends whose particular people I can think of who have lost 10, 15, 20 members of their family, more.
"But for me, it's a moment really of remembrance of the victims of Saddam Hussein."
Friday evening, a U.S. district judge refused a request to stay the execution.
Attorney Nicholas Gilman said in an application for a restraining order, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington, that a stay would allow Hussein "to be informed of his rights and take whatever action he can and may wish to pursue."
Munir Haddad, a judge on the appeals court that upheld the former dictator's death sentence, called Gilman's filing "rubbish," and said, "It will not delay carrying out the sentence," which he called "final."
Throughout the day, there were conflicting reports about who had custody of Hussein. Giovanni di Stefano, one of Hussein's defense attorneys, told CNN the U.S. military officially informed him that the former Iraqi dictator had been transferred to Iraqi custody, but that the move in U.S. court could have meant that Hussein was back in U.S. custody.
There had been speculation that Hussein would be executed before Eid Al-Adha -- a holiday period that means Feast of the Sacrifice, celebrated by Muslims around the world at the climax of the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. The law does not permit executions to be carried out during religious holidays.
Eid began Saturday for Sunnis and begins Sunday for Shiites. It lasts for four days. Hussein was a Sunni Muslim.
Meeting with half-brothers
Another defense lawyer, Badie Aref, told CNN that Hussein met with two of his half-brothers in his cell on Thursday and passed on messages and instructions to his family."President Saddam was just bracing for the worst, so he wanted to see his brothers and pass on some messages and instructions to his family," Aref said. The half brothers who visited were Sabawi and Wathban Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, he said.
He never asked to see anyone else -- not even his wife, said his lawyers. She was the mother of his five children.
Aref said the U.S. soldiers guarding Hussein on Tuesday took away a radio he kept in his cell so he could not hear news reports about his death sentence, which was confirmed that day.
"They did not want him to hear the news from the appeals court upholding the sentence," he said. "They gave him back the radio on Wednesday."
Aref said Saddam found out about the appeals court verdict "a few hours after it was announced."
Crimes against humanity
Hussein was convicted on November 5 of crimes against humanity in connection with the killings of 148 people in the town of Dujail after an attempt on his life.
The dictator was found guilty of murder, torture and forced deportation.
The Dujail episode falls within 12 of the worst cases out of 500 documented "baskets of crimes" during the Hussein regime.
The U.S. State Department says torture and extrajudicial killings followed the Dujail killings and that 550 men, women and children were arrested without warrants.
Lost Lakes of Titan Found
Lakes of methane have been spotted on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, boosting the theory that this strange, distant world bears beguiling similarities to Earth, according to a new study.
Given that Titan is billions of years old, the question is how this atmospheric methane gets to be renewed. Without replenishment, it should have disappeared long ago.
A popular hypothesis is that it comes from a vast ocean of hydrocarbons.
Britney Spears Album Allegedly Dropped
Following reports of executive dissatisfaction with Britney's new album, Jive records insiders now confirm the label is all set to drop the album and end its relationship with Britney...
Paris Hilton 'stubs out' Britney Spears' orgasm!
'Oh my God! Don't you know that lighting a cigarette the wrong way and inhaling stops the blood flow to your private parts, and doing it more than once means you may never experience orgasm again!'
Lindsay Lohan stalls Britney's K-Fed
“She couldn’t believe he was so pathetic. She doesn’t want him using her to make Britney jealous,” said a source.
What World Leaders Say on Saddam's Death
- Dec. 30, 2006 - "Saddam Hussein's execution comes at the end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops. Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain and defend itself, and be an ally in the war on terror." President George W. Bush
- "I welcome the fact that Saddam Hussein has been tried by an Iraqi court for at least some of the appalling crimes he committed against the Iraqi people. He has now been held to account. The British government does not support the use of the death penalty, in Iraq or anywhere else. We advocate an end to the death penalty worldwide, regardless of the individual or the crime. We have made our position very clear to the Iraqi authorities, but we respect their decision as that of a sovereign nation." Margaret Beckett, foreign secretary, on behalf of the British government
- "We wanted him to be executed on a special day." Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie
- "The timing of this execution [during the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha] is an affront to all Arabs and Muslims. It is an act of scorn against a great religion by the United States and the Iraqi government. Arab public opinion wonders who deserves to be tried and executed: Saddam Hussein who preserved the unity of Iraq, its Arab and Islamic identity and the coexistence of its different communities such as Shias and Sunnis ... or those who engulfed the country into this bloody civil war." Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper
- "The test of a government's commitment to human rights is measured by the way it treats its worst offenders. History will judge these actions harshly." Richard Dicker of Human Rights Watch
- "The people of Iraq are the victors in the issue of Saddam's hanging, just as they were the main victor in his fall." Hamid Reza Asefi, deputy Iranian foreign minister
- "We wish to say that Eid is a day for happiness and reconciliation. It is not a day for revenge." President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan
"We have no sympathy with Saddam Hussein, but we will also say that he did not get justice." Liaquat Baluch, a leader of the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, a coalition of six religious parties in Pakistan
- "A capital punishment is always tragic news, a reason for sadness, even if it deals with a person who was guilty of grave crimes. The position of the Church [against capital punishment] has been restated often. The killing of the guilty party is not the way to reconstruct justice and reconcile society. On the contrary, there is a risk that it will feed a spirit of vendetta and sow new violence. In these dark times for the Iraqi people, one can only hope that all responsible parties truly make every effort so that glimmers of reconciliation and peace can be found in such a dramatic situation." Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi
- "The world will know that Saddam Hussein lived honestly, died honestly, and maintained his principles. He did not lie when he declared his trial null." Saddam's lawyers
"The political consequences of this step should have been taken into account ... The execution of Saddam Hussein may lead to the further aggravation of the military-political atmosphere and an increase in ethnic and religious tension." Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin
"The European Union has a very consistent stand . . . on opposing the death penalty and it should not have been applied in this case either—even though there is no doubt about Saddam Hussein's guilt over serious violations against human rights." Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja of Finland, which holds the rotating EU presidency
"I believe there is something quite heroic about a country that is going through the pain and the suffering that Iraq is going through, yet still extends due process to somebody who was a tyrant and brutal suppressor and murderer of his people. That is the mark of a country that is trying against fearful odds to embrace democracy." John Howard, Australian prime minister
"This is what should happen. People will be relieved. I hope that it will bring good to Iraq." Suad Shakir, 52, a Christian resident of the Karrada district in Baghdad
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