justdanceitoff.com

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography, a biography of actor Tom Cruise written by journalist Andrew Morton, was released in the United States yesterday amidst the potential for a US$100 million lawsuit against its publisher, St. Martin’s Press. The book will not be published in Australia, Britain, and New Zealand due to strict libel laws in those countries. Morton had previously written the biography of Diana, Princess of Wales, Diana: Her True Story. The book has reached number nine on Amazon.com‘s list of top sellers.

The book describes Cruise as the No. 2 leader of the Church of Scientology, blames Scientologists for the breakup of Cruise and actress Nicole Kidman, and states that Cruise’s latest mission is to recruit David Beckham and wife Victoria into Scientology. The book also describes how some Scientology followers thought that Cruise’s wife Katie Holmes was impregnated with frozen sperm from L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, and Morton compares the situation to Rosemary’s Baby “In her more reflective moments, Katie might have felt as if she were in the middle of a real-life version of the horror movie ‘Rosemary’s Baby,’ in which an unsuspecting young woman is impregnated with the devil’s child.”

A 15-page statement released by the Church of Scientology denied Morton’s assertions of Cruise’s No. 2 standing within the organization. In the statement the Church of Scientology claims that Morton did not respond to requests for an interview “The Church of Scientology requested to be interviewed or be presented with any allegations so we could respond. Morton refused despite our insistence in offering our cooperation.” The Church of Scientology also specifically responded to the claims regarding Hubbard’s frozen sperm: “Was Katie impregnated by L. Ron Hubbard’s frozen sperm? … As distasteful as it is to have to say it, Mr. Hubbard’s sperm was never frozen.”

According to the AFP, “the Church of Scientology is reportedly considering legal action against US publishers St Martin’s Press.” The Church of Scientology’s general counsel, Eliot Abelson, discussed the potential for litigation in an interview with the Mail on Sunday “We are seriously considering legal action and will wait to see the public reaction.” Cruise’s attorney Bertram Fields expressed thanks for the strict libel laws in Britain “It’s not being published in England. The American publishers criticised the libel laws in Britain because they require an author to tell the truth. Well, thank God for the British libel laws.” New York’s Daily News has reported that the Church of Scientology and lawyers for Cruise are planning a US$100 million lawsuit over the book’s publication. Rogers & Cowan, the public relations agency that represents Cruise, issued a statement which criticized Morton for not interviewing “one person who has known or worked with Tom” in the past twenty-five years.

The Church of Scientology statement also pointed out that the book is not being published in Australia, Britain and New Zealand due to the countries’ strict libel laws. Australia-based companies Pan Macmillan Australia and retailer Dymocks Booksellers decided not to stock copies of the book on their shelves, due to fears of potential defamation actions against them. A spokesperson for Pan Macmillan Australia stated that they had not received threats from Cruise’s representatives or from Scientologists, but that their attorneys had advised them not to sell the book. Don Grover, chief executive for Dymocks Group stated after legal advice their company had decided to “play it safe” – though neither their lawyers or publishers had read the book itself. A representative of MacMillan stated that the book would not be published in New Zealand, but would make no further comment on the matter. A Dymocks New Zealand representative explained that it was possible that the book could be published by their company in New Zealand, but would have to look into it further “The US has different legislation than New Zealand and Australia. There are some issues with the book having legal questions asked and we would need those tidied up before we stock it.”

Morton spent two years doing research for the book, and spoke with individuals who knew Cruise personally, and executives within the Church of Scientology. Morton stated that some of these executives emailed him, confirming the accuracy of material within the book. Morton described the desire for anonymity by some of the sources in the book “Some people, obviously, will not go on the record to talk about Tom Cruise because they’re scared of him.”

In an interview on The Today Show with Meredith Vieira, Morton defended his work and responded to the statement from the Church of Scientology. Morton stated that it was unusual for a church to respond in such a way if Cruise is simply an ordinary member, asking “How many churches support one parishioner — a lowly parishioner — that way?” Morton described the response as an attack “Their policy is always to attack the attacker. Their tactic is to denigrate those who seek to talk about it.” He told Vieria that he had attempted to contact the head of the Church of Scientology, David Miscavige, but “They refused it. I formally asked for it. I was instructed to ask for it by the publisher’s attorneys, and so what they’re saying is nonsense.”

Morton explained his motivation for writing the book “He’s no longer just an actor or producer, but a powerful advocate for a cult that’s out to expand, especially in Europe.” Morton stated that his interest was piqued after Cruise jumped on Oprah’s couch during a May 23, 2005 appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and got into a heated debate with Matt Lauer about his beliefs regarding psychiatry during a June 24, 2005 appearance on The Today Show.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

A couple from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada has been arrested on charges of public mischief after listing their seven day old baby girl on the popular Internet classified ads website Craigslist.

The listing claimed that the baby was unexpected, “healthy and very cute”. It asked CAN 10 000 for the baby. It also listed a phone number belonging to a stolen cellphone, which was used to find the couple.

It was first noticed by a 62-year old grandmother browsing the website for furniture, who said “I was shaking, and I thought, ‘Come on, how did this even get through?'” The couple claimed that the listing, which has since been removed, was a hoax.

The father, Jeremy Pete, had a history of car thefts and evasion of police, while the mother, 23-year-old Bethany Granholm, had convictions of property theft, fraud and impersonation. The parents have now been released, but charges are still being considered. The baby has been placed in provincial care.

A suspected copycat incident occurred just four days later, also offering a seven-day-old baby girl for CAN 10 000 on Craigslist. This incident turned out to be a hoax, and no child was in danger.

Last week saw a similar incident in Germany, where a couple listed a seven month old baby on eBay. In this case the police have launched a child trafficking investigation, despite the parents’ assertion that the listing was a joke.

A compilation of brief news reports for Tuesday, August 11, 2009.

A series of bombs exploded early on Monday morning has killed at least 49 and wounded 260 more in Iraq.

At 4:30AM local time (01:30 GMT), two truck bombs exploded in Khaznah, a village near Mosul, the capital of the Ninawa Governorate. The village is Shia dominated in a predominantly Sunni area. These bombs killed at least 28, wounded 130, and were so powerful that 30 houses were destroyed.

Later a sequence of bombs exploded in the capital Baghdad targeting, amongst others, construction workers and labourers gathering to find work. The current attacks are the most serious since American troops withdrew from Iraqi cities in late June and a lull in violence in July.

Sources

• Jamal Hashim. “Spate of bombings in Iraq kill 49, fomenting fear for sectarian strife” — Xinhua News Agency, August 11, 2009
• “Bomb attacks in Iraq kill dozens” — BBC News Online, August 10, 2009
• Richard Spencer. “Iraq bombs wrack cities and raise doubts on army” — The Telegraph, August 10, 2009

Japanese pop star Noriko Sakai was arrested on Saturday when she turned herself in after being missing since Monday. Sakai was reported missing by her mother in law after the arrest of her husband for the possession of illegal stimulants. Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department investigators are reported to believe that Sakai did not plan her disappearance, but panicked over the media coverage that followed the authorities request for her to report to the police.

It had been feared that Sakai, who rose to fame as a teenage singer and actress, had harmed herself.

Sources

• “Media frenzy scared Sakai from giving up” — The Japan Times, August 11, 2009
• “Pop star Sakai arrested in Tokyo” — BBC News Online, August 9, 2009

Following the expiry of an anonymity order the identity of the killers of Baby P can now be named by the British mainstream media. Following the notoriety of the case in which Baby P was seen to have been failed by the authorities, a judge ordered that none of the three be named to protect Baby P’s four siblings. However a weakness of the anonymity order was that the identities of the three could be found by anyone who searched for it online.

The nature of Baby P’s death has led to fears for the safety of the three, and it is likely that they will be given new identities once they have served their sentences and then be allowed to disappear from the public gaze.

Sources

• Adam Fresco and Rosemary Bennett. “Baby P’s self-obsessed mother, her sadistic lover and lodger are named” — The Times, August 11, 2009
• “Couple behind Baby P death named” — BBC News Online, August 10, 2009

The Royal Opera House in London will stage a new opera to be written by the public. Set to a score of familiar and popular tunes by composers such as Verdi will be a new libretto comprising entirely of tweets from the micro blogging site Twitter. Act One, Scene One of the opera has been completed, written 140 characters at a time. In the story so far a man called William is imprisoned in a tower by birds, his only companion a talking cat.

The Royal Opera House is conducting the musical experiment to widen public understanding and access to opera and hopes to perform extracts from the work early in September.

Sources

• “London opera house struggles to make tweet music” — Agence France-Presse, August 10, 2009
• Sasjkia Otto. “‘The Twitter Opera’: new Royal Opera House production in ‘tweets’” — The Telegraph, August 10, 2009

Taliban militants have launched an audacious gun and rocket attack in Pul-i-Alam some 45 miles from Kabul, Afghanistan. Six Taliban gunmen, described as wearing explosive vests, managed to gain access to an unfinished tower block in the provincial capital of Logar Province which overlooked several government buildings and compounds, including that of the local chief of police and governor’s residence. From their vantage point the gunmen fired rocket propelled grenades killing at least five and wounding twenty six police officers.

The gunmen continued to engage security forces with small arms fire for several hours, with witnesses to the events claiming that attack helicopters were called in to bring the militants under fire. The authorities claim that at least four of the gunmen were killed at least two by return fire and one who blew himself up.

The attack comes ten days before presidential elections due to be held on the 20th of August.

Sources

• Steve Herman. “Taliban Attack Government Buildings South of Kabul” — Voice of America, August 10, 2009
• “Militants launch Afghan attacks” — BBC News Online, August 10, 2009
• Paul Tait. “Security developments in Afghanistan, Aug 10” — Reuters, August 10, 2009

About a 1000 delegates from 180 countries are meeting in Bonn, Germany for a third round of climate talks. The talks are to negotiate the text of a protocol to succeed Kyoto which will be presented to the Copenhagen Conference later this year.

Speaking at an other conference in Seoul, South Korea UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said “If we fail to act, climate change will intensify droughts, floods and other natural disasters… Malnutrition will engulf large parts of the developing world. Tensions will worsen. Social unrest — even violence — could follow”

The United States climate change sceptics under the Bush administration has now accepted the urgency of a cut in greenhouse gases. However US demands to tie its own cuts to cuts by developing nations especially China and India has been met with derision. “…to describe this country as a large emitter is absurd – there’s no other word for it.” said Chandrashekhar Dasgupta the chief Indian negotiator, pointing out that half the rural population does not have even a light bulb or gas ring.

The current talks are described as being informal, and are aimed at smoothing the progress of the Copenhagen round.

Sources

• Jon Herskovitz and Alister Doyle. “UN chief warns of dire future without climate deal” — Reuters, Aug 11, 2009
• David Shukman. “Time ‘runs short’ on climate deal” — BBC News Online, August 10, 2009

June 24, 2005

In a major decision, the Supreme Court of the United States has expanded the right of government to seize private property for public good by allowing the city of New London, Connecticut to invoke eminent domain and seize homeowners’ property for economic development reasons.

In a closely-divided decision, 5-4, the court determined that the city’s economic development plan constituted a “public use”, and therefore qualified under the U.S. Constitution’s fifth amendment’s Eminent Domain clause.

Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the majority decision, and was joined by Justices David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer and Anthony Kennedy. “Promoting economic development is a traditional and long accepted function of government,” Stevens wrote, and justified the decision further by saying municipal authorities are better positioned to make decisions regarding a community’s best interests than judges.

Writing the dissenting opinion, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor rejected the economic justification as a public use, pointing out that wealthy individuals are more capable of defending themselves and so are less at risk. But the greatest issue was the liklihood of abuse of eminent domain:

“The specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall or any farm with a factory.” A separate dissent was also included written by Justice Clarence Thomas.

[edit]

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Strathclyde Police have arrested a 19-year-old man in relation to a reported incident of a boy, aged four, being sexually assaulted in the toilet of an Asda supermarket in the town of Clydebank in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. The suspect is being held in police custody and has an appearance scheduled for Tuesday at Dumbarton Sheriff Court.

Police were initially alerted to the incident at 31 Britannia Way in Clydebank approximately 1355 BST (1255 UTC) Tuesday. According to Sky News, the boy’s mother had given him permission to enter the toilet by himself as she waited outside. Police said the incident took place in the minutes following the boy’s entrance into the toilet; upon his departure, the boy raised the alert.

“This is an isolated incident, nevertheless, one that has caused significant stress to the young child and his family,” said Detective Inspector Graham Cordner, who said the child was not injured and is at home with his family.

Police said that they had taken one whole day to interview the child and an additional day to have initial investigations into the incident. All supermarket staff have been questioned and CCTV video has been examined.

“We have taken this report very seriously”, said a spokeswoman for Asda. “We alerted the police and are supporting them fully in their investigation.”