A man convicted of sexually assaulting an Indonesian housekeeper and keeping her virtually as a slave was sentenced Thursday to 27 years to life in prison. Homaidan Al-Turki, 37, denied the charges and blamed anti-Muslim prejudice for the case against him. He said prosecutors persuaded the housekeeper to accuse him after they failed to build a case that he was a terrorist. Al-Turki, a citizen of Saudi Arabia who lived in the Denver suburb of Aurora, was convicted June 30 of unlawful sexual contact by use of force, theft and extortion, all felonies, and misdemeanor counts of false imprisonment and conspiracy to commit false imprisonment. Prosecutors and FBI agents said Al-Turki and his wife, Sarah Khonaizan, brought the now 24-year-old woman to Colorado to care for their five children and to cook and clean for the family. An affidavit said she spent four years with the family, sleeping on a mattress on the basement floor and getting paid less than $2 a day....
http://abcnews.go.com
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Editor - 09:58:00 08-31-06
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 Iraq attacks kill at least 43. Iraq's ongoing bloodletting has also hit the U.S. military, with 15 service members killed since Sunday |
Insurgents in Iraq killed at least 43 people and wounded 160 others in seven near simultaneous attacks Thursday shortly before the dusk-to-dawn curfew in the Iraqi capital, security officials said. Attacks in the predominantly Shiite area of the capital included two car bombs — one at a popular market and one on a street about 1.5 miles away. The area also was hit by four mortar rounds, two rockets, a roadside bomb and a bomb in a building, police said. The dead and wounded were taken to four hospitals, and it was not immediately clear how many casualties each attack had caused, police and hospital officials said. Insurgents, mainly Sunni extremists, often target markets to kill civilians who venture out to buy household goods before the dusk-to-dawn curfew begins. Earlier in the day, another 18 people were killed in a series of attacks, as the war-torn country's latest round of bloodletting claimed more than 250 lives in five chaotic days...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-08-31-iraq-security_x.htm?csp=34
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Editor - 09:44:00 08-31-06
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| Nice tip! Bartender gets $10,000 on $26 tab |
The regular customer eating dinner at the end of the bar always tipped well -- $15 or so on $30 tabs. The $100 tip two weeks ago was a nice surprise, but the amount he left bartender Cindy Kienow this week left her stunned. On the check, the tip read: $10,000."I couldn't move," said Kienow, who tends bar at Applebee's. "I didn't know what to say. He said, `This will buy you something kind of nice, huh?' And I said, `Yeah, it will."'Kienow said the man, whom restaurant officials have declined to identify, comes in several times a month."He usually signs his ticket and flips it upside down," said Kienow, 35, who has worked at the restaurant for eight years. "But this time, he had it right-side up and said `I want you to know this is not a joke."'The restaurant is in the final stages of verifying that the tip is a valid charge, said Rhodri McNee, vice president of operations for JS Enterprises, owner of the Hutchinson Applebee's....
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/31/bigtip.ap/index.html?section=cnn_us
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Editor - 09:37:00 08-31-06
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| Iran Continues Nuclear Work, Risking UN Sanctions |
Iran has continued uranium enrichment in the past month, a signal the Islamic Republic will ignore today's United Nations Security Council deadline to suspend the nuclear work and trigger a debate on sanctions. The Islamic Republic resumed production of the nuclear fuel on Aug. 24, following a pause in July, the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency said today in a report seen by Bloomberg News. IAEA inspectors were blocked from entering Iran's Natanz nuclear facility Aug. 11-16, the agency said. The IAEA said it can't conclude Iran's nuclear program isn't intended for military purposes. The IAEA report was requested on July 31 by the Security Council, which gave Iran until today to halt all processing of nuclear material or face economic and diplomatic sanctions. The UN deadline is midnight Iran time. European Union and Iranian officials still plan to hold talks on the dispute next week. ...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aKU0pHYPpHcI&refer=worldwide_news
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Editor - 09:35:00 08-31-06
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| Carolinas Under Hurricane Watch As Ernesto Approaches a Region Already Soaked by Storms |
A hurricane watch was issued for the Carolina coast Thursday as Tropical Storm Ernesto gained strength over the Atlantic. The watch, stretching from South Carolina's Santee River to Cape Lookout in North Carolina, means hurricane conditions, with sustained winds of at least 74 mph, are possible within 12 hours. For residents who have long weathered hurricanes in this vulnerable region, Ernesto's wind was of less concern than the threat of flooding from its heavy rain arriving on the heels of a storm system that had been drenching North Carolina for more than a day. "We need some rain around here just not all at once," said Jean Evans, a convenience store worker along North Carolina's Holden Beach, part of the lengthy strip of coastline under the National Weather Center's tropical storm warning....
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2379147
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Editor - 09:30:00 08-31-06
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| AFGHANISTAN'S POPPY PROBLEM Karzai's Brother Under Drug Suspicion |
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai is facing hard times. As his brother fights accusations that he's involved in the country's rampant drug trade, an increasing number of Afghans are disappointed by their government. Many are starting to think about potential presidential successors. Afghan leader Hamid Karzai is facing increasing criticism in Kabul. Indeed, the talk these days is not of an additional term for the 48-year-old president, but rather who will succeed him. His time in office has been a sobering one: Afghans are deeply disappointed by the slow pace of reconstruction, an abysmal security situation, rampant corruption and a flourishing drug trade. Many chastise Karzai for being too docile in his dealings with corrupt governors and police chiefs and for maintaining ties for the country's former warlords. But Karzai's latest troubles are closer to home in nature: They center around allegations that one of his brothers is involved in drug trafficking. ...
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,434523,00.html
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Editor - 09:23:00 08-31-06
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