For a mere $138 million, you can own a cozy 103-room English country home, with a panic room, marble driveways and helipads -- a property that tops the 2007 Forbes annual list of the world's priciest homes for sale. Updown Court in Windlesham, Surrey, has 58 acres of gardens and woodlands, five pools, 22 marble bathrooms and more than 50,000 square feet of living space, according to the list posted on Forbes.com, which did not say who the seller was.Oh, and a bowling alley, too.Coming a close second is The Hala Ranch (welcome in Arabic), a 95-acre property in Aspen, Colorado, owned by Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the former Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States -- a job that must pay well as the asking price is $135 million. The 56,000-square-foot mansion has 15 bedrooms and 16 baths.Who are the prospective buyers?...
http://news.yahoo.com
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Editor - 20:58:00 02-22-07
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 Rights Group Blasts Saudi Beheadings Human Rights Watch Says Display Of Executed Sri Lankans Violates International Law |
A human rights group said Thursday that Saudi Arabia violated international law when it ordered the beheadings earlier this week of four Sri Lankan robbers and then left their headless bodies on public display in the capital of Riyadh. Human Rights Watch said the four men had no lawyers during their trial and sentencing, and were denied other basic legal rights. The group called on Saudi Arabia to halt all pending executions and retry those remaining on death row. "The execution of these four migrants, who had been badly beaten and locked up for years without access to lawyers, is a travesty of justice," Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a report. "International law only allows states to use the death penalty for the most serious crimes and in the most stringent of circumstances — and neither condition was met in this case," Whitson said....
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/22/world/main2505445.shtml?source=RSSattr=World_2505445
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Editor - 18:44:00 02-22-07
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| Audio Porn Darkens Mood At Mass CD Players Planted Under Church Pews Blare Foul Language, Interrupting Holiday Services |
The noon Ash Wednesday Mass at the Roman Catholic Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi was disrupted when three CD players duct-taped to the bottom of pews began blaring sexually explicit language. The players were set to turn on at 12:22 p.m. as parishioners were in the middle of Mass, police Capt. Gary Johnson said. The recordings were filled with people using foul language and "pornographic messages," Johnson said. He would not elaborate because of the ongoing investigation. Cathedral staff members removed the CD players, took them to the basement and called police, who sent a bomb squad, Johnson said. Church officials say churchgoers were not evacuated. The bomb squad blew up two of the players on a grassy area near the church, then kept the third one for analysis after determining the players were not dangerous. ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/22/national/main2504605.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._2504605
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Editor - 18:37:00 02-22-07
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| Efforts to curb Iran's influence may be doomed |
Even as the U.S. works to crack down on Iran's role here, it's becoming clear that the U.S.-backed Iraqi government holds a vision of Iraq's future that is closer in key ways to Tehran than Washington. It's also increasingly apparent that Tehran is backing some of the same Iraqi groups the United States favors. That means America may be doomed to fail in its efforts to curb Iran's influence in Iraq, simply because its own allies here both Shiite and Kurdish are warm toward Tehran's role. Iran's role could benefit from Britain's decision to begin drawing down its troops in southern Iraq, leaving a power vacuum likely to be filled by Shiite militias. "In both countries, there is now a desire to move away from what was seen as an artificial iron curtain during the time of Saddam Hussein," said Reidar Visser, a Middle East expert at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs....
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-02-22-iran-iraq_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 18:33:00 02-22-07
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| Oily truth emerges in Iraq |
Throughout nearly 4 years of the daily mayhem and carnage in Iraq, President Bush and his aides in the White House have scoffed at even the slightest suggestion that the U.S. military occupation has anything to do with oil.The President presumably would have us all believe that if Iraq had the world's second-largest supply of bananas instead of petroleum, American troops would still be there. Now comes new evidence of the big prize in Iraq that rarely gets mentioned at White House briefings. A proposed new Iraqi oil and gas law began circulating last week among that country's top government leaders and was quickly leaked to various Internet sites - before it has even been presented to the Iraqi parliament. Under the proposed law, Iraq's immense oil reserves would not simply be opened to foreign oil exploration, as many had expected. Amazingly, executives from those companies would actually be given seats on a new Federal Oil and Gas Council that would control all of Iraq's reserves....
http://www.nydailynews.com/02-21-2007/news/story/499341p-421044c.html
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Editor - 18:23:00 02-22-07
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| UK armed forces 'face cash crisis' |
The UK's armed forces face a cash crisis unless the Chancellor substantially increases funds in next month's budget, defence analysts have warned. At a time when the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has major plans for new aircraft carriers, submarines, planes and other major replacement programmes - and ongoing commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan - analysts warn that something will have to give without a major increase in funds. Charles Heyman, director of R&F International Defence & Security Consultancy, says that the Ministry of Defence needs at least another £10bn a year on top of its current £33.4bn for 2007/08. "The UK's level of military spending is just not in balance with our current operational commitments, and our service men and women are being dreadfully let down," he says. While the main UK defence budget has continued to increase in strict financial terms, from £29.7bn in 2004/05 to £33.4bn for the forthcoming financial year, ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6378469.stm
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Editor - 18:05:00 02-22-07
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