Category: News

‘I am the scapegoat that spent 11 years and three months in a prison grave,’ said Girgis Khoury upon his release from the Defense Ministry prison in Yarze Thursday. My 3-floor underground prison cell throughout my incarceration was a grave, not only a dungeon without sunshine or fresh air.’ Khoury, 37, walked out of prison a free man at sundown Thursday at the orders of State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza. Girgis was held on charge of blowing up the Maronite church of Notre Dame de la Deliverance on March 14. 1994, in which 10 worshippers were killed.

The first thing he did was to go to the church at suburban Zouk Mekayel to pray. ‘I told the Virgin Mary that Girgis Khoury is innocent. Girgis Khoury can not possibly blow up a church or even think of harming any church,’ he said.

Khoury, an activist of Samir Geagea’s Lebanese Forces, then was driven from Zouk Mekayel to his home in Dbayeh. His father and sister leaped to hug him and kiss him with a Geagea portrait hanging the background. Tumultuous LF well-wishers ringed the house.

“Is it true that your prison cell was a grave with lights,” one reporter asked. “In fact it was worse because I was breathing in it. I would have been much better off dead,” Khoury said.

That’s according to sources close to the company who requested anonymity. They said that Microsoft unveiled the name in Atlanta on Thursday at the company’s internal sales event, known as the Microsoft Global Sales Briefing, or MGB.

Word of Longhorn’s new name began leaking to the Web on Thursday evening. One Windows site discovered that Microsoft registered the WindowsVista.US domain name. Microsoft is expected to make the official announcement of the new name on Friday morning.

Microsoft has relied primarily on date-oriented names for many of its products, although it has shied away from those on occasion.

The last major version of Windows, code-named “Whistler,” eventually was christened Windows XP.

Microsoft officials declined to comment on the specifics of a “Longhorn-related” news announcement slated for Friday morning.

Longhorn Beta 1 is widely expected to be unveiled next week. Beta 2 is due in the first half of 2006. Microsoft officials confirmed on Thursday the final release is still on track for the latter half of 2006.

[Source]

Comments made by Rep. Tom Tancredo on Friday during an on-air interview on radio station WFLA in Orlando, Fla. Host Pat Campbell and the congressman were discussing the possibility of future terrorist attacks inside the United States.

Campbell: Worst case scenario, if they do have these nukes inside the borders and they were to use something like that — what would our response be?

Tancredo: What would be the response? You know, there are things that you could threaten to do before something like that happens and then you may have to do afterwards that are quite draconian.

Campbell: Such as…

Tancredo: Well, what if you said something like — if this happens in the United States, and we determine that it is the result of extremist, fundamentalist Muslims, um, you know, you could take out their holy sites . . .

Campbell: You’re talking about bombing Mecca.

Tancredo: Yeah. What if you said — what if you said that we recognize that this is the ultimate threat to the United States — therefore this is the ultimate threat, this is the ultimate response.

I mean, I don’t know, I’m just throwing out there some ideas because it seems to me . . . at that point in time you would be talking about taking the most draconian measures you could possibly imagine and because other than that all you could do is once again tighten up internally.

[Source]

Parliament unanimously passed Geagea’s parole bill and the Lebanese Forces leader is expected to be taken straight from jail to Beirut airport this weekend for a trip with his wife to a European capital, probably London or Paris, for extensive medical tests. Samir Geagea the Lebanese Forces leader was wrongfully imprisoned for over 11 years. He spent the 11 years locked up in a 2×1 meter cell 2 floors underground with no access to the outside world. [Link]

Pictures from LF members celebrating [Here]

Joseph Hachem won $7.5 million US Dollars at the World Series Poker Tournament which was held in Las Vegas 2 days ago. [Link]

This is really cool, to celievrate their 10 year anniversary, Amazon will thank customers with surprise special deliveries by celebrities.

“Among the celebrities scheduled to make special deliveries are actor Harrison Ford who may deliver the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” DVD, Grammy-award winning musician Moby hand-delivering his recently released CD “Hotel,” Anna Kournikova will deliver something from Adidas, and Jason Alexander with a “Seinfeld” DVD.”

[Link]

The first of Billy Corgan’s former bandmates has rejoined the fold following the surprise announcement that Corgan intends to reunite his platinum-selling alternative-rock group the Smashing Pumpkins. Jimmy Chamberlin said on Friday that he is eager to make music with Corgan again. His position is no surprise, since he drummed with Corgan in the short-lived band Zwan, as well as performing on several tracks for the Great Pumpkin’s first solo album, “The Future Embrace,” released last Tuesday.

But the status of former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha and bassist D’Arcy Wretzky remains a mystery.

“All I can say is that the Smashing Pumpkins are Billy, James, myself and D’Arcy,” Chamberlin said. “In an ideal world, that’s what it will end up being. The hope is that everybody will come to the table, but I can only speak for myself in saying that I’m in, and I’m excited.”

Chamberlin said he has not spoken to Wretzky since she left the band in August 1999. He communicates with Iha by e-mail, and though they have not discussed the Pumpkins reunion, “I intend to reach out to him.”

The drummer said he and Corgan have been talking about reforming the band “for some time,” but he doesn’t know whether the singer and songwriter has spoken to Iha and Wretzky, or if Corgan simply “opened the door” for them to return when he placed two full-page advertisements last week in the Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune.

“It’s still all very new, and I don’t know if anybody really knows what’s going on,” Chamberlin said. “We really haven’t sat down at the table and figured out the nuts and bolts.”

Pop star Michael Jackson began a vacation at a prince’s palace in the tiny Gulf kingdom of Bahrain, his first trip overseas after being acquitted of child molestation charges, an official close to the royal circle said Thursday.

Jackson arrived with his three children on a private plane from Europe on Wednesday night for an indefinite stay, said an official. Jackson was found not guilty of child molestation in a California court on June 13.

He chose Bahrain because of his brother Jermaine’s first hand experience visiting the kingdom, the official said. “He’s come here to retreat and relax and enjoy the calmness of Bahrain,” the official said, adding that no other member of the Jackson family accompanied the pop star.

Another official said Jackson was a guest of Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the king’s son, in one of the royal palaces. Sheikh Abdullah, believed to be in his early 30s, is a friend of Jackson’s brother Jermaine. He described the visit as “very very private.” Jermaine Jackson has close links with Bahrain’s royal circle. In January, he and Sheikh Abdullah announced plans to launch a charity theme song written by the royal.

[Source]

Update: Michael Jackson + Video Game fans, check this out.

I just read this article below and I think its ridiculous, how could David Beckham not have the rights to a tattoo located on his own body??

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David Beckham is facing a legal battle over who owns the right to his tattoos, because body artist Louis Malloy fears the British soccer star is making money from his designs.

Malloy designed and inked nine of Beckham’s tattoos, including the famous guardian angel on his upper back, and is determined to sue should the Real Madrid ace use the images in an advertising campaign.

The 42-year-old claims Beckham, who is married to ex-Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, tried to force him to sign a confidentiality agreement, but he refused.

Malloy says, “I was contacted recently and told they wanted to use some of them in a campaign. I said we’d have to draw up a license agreement but then it got too complicated. So I said, ‘I own the copyright, they are my intellectual property, I drew them, I didn’t copy them from other sources.’

“They still think they’re the owners of the images but if they use them without my permission I’d sue. There’s no doubt about it.” [Source]

Interesting F1 race today in the States, only 6 cars competed because the other 14 cars boycotted the race. CNN has the full details. [Link]

In a last minute decision, Roger, Dave, Richard, and Nick have put their differences aside and will re-form in support of Sir Bob’s Live8 concerts. Thats going to be one crazy concert! [Link]

Me and Nat are up now watching Michael Jacksons four SUV’s convoy head towards the courthouse. The jury has reached a verdict and they will be reading it as soon as Michael arrives. Watching the convoy heading towards the courthouse reminded me a lot of when I watched OJ Simpsons chase on TV back in Canada. I love this live stuff and I hope he turns out not guilty.

Update: Michael is NOT guilty of any of the 10 counts.

Dortmund, one of 12 host cities for the 2006 World Cup, is hurriedly building wooden sex huts with the aim of encouraging discretion among prostitutes and their clients. According to Reuters, “experts estimate as many as 40,000 prostitutes may travel to Germany to offer their services to fans during the tournament.” To make them comfortable, “Dortmund plans to arrange the Dutch-designed huts … in an area with condom machines and snack bar.” Like a highway rest stop, but cooler. “We don’t want a situation where prostitutes and their clients disturb residential areas,” says an official. [Link]

We are in The Onion!

KUWAIT CITY—In light of the country’s recent decision to allow women to vote and hold public office, observers around the world have noted that Kuwait appears to have discovered the fairer sex. “The boys in Kuwait are really taking notice of how much the girls have changed over the country’s long political winter,” said Fouad Ajami, an expert in Arab affairs. “They’re no longer shyly avoiding women they’re not related to or clumsily shooting them for not wearing veils in public.” Ajami added that he was not entirely surprised by Kuwait’s discovery, given its long history of teasing women, calling them names, and stoning them to death for being unclean.

[via]

It’s official… [Link]