Kenya police Killed thousands

Kenyan police 'killed thousands'
A human-rights organisation has claimed that Kenyan police killed as many as 8,040 people by execution or torture during a crackdown on a banned sect.

The group said a further 4,070 people had gone missing as security forces tried to wipe out the Mungiki sect.

The deaths and disappearances occurred over five years up to August 2007, said the Oscar Foundation Free Legal Aid Clinic-Kenya.

A Kenyan police spokesman has dismissed the report as "fictitious".

"The people disseminating it have a questionable character and motive," Eric Kiraithe told the Associated Press news agency.

The report said Kenya's General Service Unit carried out the killings during operations in slum areas.

The document was based on interviews with relatives, autopsy reports, and police and other records.

It comes shortly after the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights linked police to the execution-style deaths of nearly 500 Mungiki in a crackdown on the sect carried out over the last five months.

The police have said criminals are responsible.

The allegations of extrajudicial killings are being made at a politically sensitive time, just weeks before Kenya's presidential elections.

Police moved against the Mungiki after they terrorised parts of the Kenyan capital Nairobi and the centre of the country earlier this year.

Child killer's delayed execution means agony for family - CNN.com

Child killer's delayed execution means agony for family

When Junny Rios-Martinez's cell phone rang Thursday afternoon, he and his wife were in their car, getting the family together on their way to witness the execution of their son's killer scheduled for that night.

"It was a woman from the governor's office. She told me there was a stay."

"I told her thank you, that I was disappointed, but not terribly surprised."

Mark Dean Schwab, 38, won a stay from the Supreme Court hours before he was scheduled to be put to death.

When Rios-Martinez hung up, no one said a word.

"There was a silence in the car that lasted several minutes. Everyone knew by the tone of my voice what happened," Rios-Martinez said.

Junny and Vicki Rios-Martinez had been waiting for more than 16 years to see their son's killer executed. Now, they'll have to wait even longer.

The supreme court is reviewing whether executions by injection violate the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. At issue is whether the drug mix used in more than 35 states can cause pain that can't be detected.

In April 1991, Schwab posed as a reporter and told the family he wanted to do a surfing story about 11-year-old Junny Rios-Martinez Jr.

When Schwab showed up at their home, the family said he was wearing a fake newspaper ID. Junny's parents had no idea Schwab was just out of prison. He'd served three years for sexual assault and was released early.

For three weeks, Schwab courted the family. The boy's mother said he brought him McDonald's coupons and an Easter card.

At one point, she said her husband got suspicious and she told him not to worry. "I said you watch too many crime shows on TV."

Junny's parents said Schwab wanted to act as the boy's agent and take him to interviews with surfing magazines out of town. Each time Junny's mom would insist on going along, she said Schwab would agree, and then come up with an excuse to cancel the trip.

Finally, Junny's parents said, Schwab called the boy's school and pretended to be his father. He left a message to have Junny meet him and the school passed it along.

According to state records, on April 18, 1991, a schoolmate of Junny reported the boy got into a U-Haul truck with a man. Days later, Junny's body was found in a footlocker. Authorities said he'd been raped and asphyxiated.

The family's emotional wounds remain raw after all these years.

When they got the call that Schwab's execution was stayed, the family drove to a relative's home and debated what to do next.

Should they get back in their cars and keep heading to the prison -- if nothing else, to meet with waiting reporters?

"The family was split. Some wanted to go, others didn't," said Rios-Martinez.

"I left the room to meditate and asked Junny what he wanted me to do. He told me we shouldn't go. He told me he wanted us to celebrate his life." The family agreed.

Rios-Martinez tried to remain positive and upbeat, but he was seething. He was counting on seeing Schwab again in person, this time strapped to a gurney.

He remembered an encounter with his son's killer years earlier after his conviction. Rios-Martinez went to the jail where Schwab was being held and said he asked a jailer to allow him to see Schwab.

Junny's father said a clear Plexiglass partition separated the men.

Schwab was lying down with a piece of paper hiding his face. Junny's father said Schwab then stood up.

Rios-Martinez said he found himself staring into the eyes of the man who took his son's life.

"I asked the officer to open the door, but he wouldn't, Rios-Martinez said.

If he had, Rios-Martinez said, he would have "grabbed Schwab by the throat and made him visualize the last moments of my son's life...his bewilderment and anguish."

The boy's father said he often imagines how his son must have suffered.

He said he told Schwab: "I'm looking at a dead man. I told him I would be the first and last face he saw before he died."

The victim's family is convinced it's just a matter of time before Schwab's execution is rescheduled.

"I promised him [Schwab] I would be there in the front seat."

But, for now, he prefers to put Schwab out of his mind.

"As far as I'm concerned, he no longer exists. It's over. It's over."

On Saturday, Junny's family and friends will hold what they're calling a celebration of his short life at the Junny Rios-Martinez Park in Cocoa, Florida.

"We decided to accentuate the positive," Rios-Martinez said.

They plan on showing a video about Junny's life. He would have been 28 years old

"The family is more united than ever. My son's spirit lives in all of us."

ROONEY'S PRIDE

Tevez impresses Wayne

Wayne Rooney heaped praise on strike partner Carlos Tevez after United's summer signing notched twice in the Reds' 4-1 win over Middlesbrough.

Nani and Rooney found the net before half-time before Tevez rocked the visitors with a further two goals in the second half.

"Playing with Carlos is brilliant," Rooney told MUTV. "He's a clever player, very intelligent, and I think we both work well together. We've both been scoring a few goals lately so we're pleased with that."

Rooney and Tevez shone throughout the match, with the crowning moment arriving in the 55th minute when Tevez fired home after collecting a sumptuous return pass from the England international.

"The best way to play football is pass and move and as soon as Carlos gave me the ball I could see him starting his run out of the corner of my eye. He got on the end of my backheel and I'm delighted for him to have scored two today. He's worked very hard over the last two games and he deserves those goals."

Rooney's also been among the goals recently and has scored six in the Reds' last five matches.

"I know it's my job to score goals and I try and score in every game I play. I'm happy with how things are going and I'm hoping that can continue.

"To play in this team is an honour. We're playing fast, attacking football and that's the football I want to be involved in."

news

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Beyonce Knowles joined the millennium celebrations in Ethiopia with a spirited concert in the capital of the Horn of Africa nation.

Some 5,000 adoring fans in Ethiopia -- a country normally unimpressed by Western music -- turned out to see Beyonce. In this country, even teens tend to be loyal to music in the national language, Amharic. But Beyonce got a hysterical welcome when she came onstage.

"I want to thank you," the R&B star told the screaming crowd Saturday evening in return. "You have been one of the best audiences of my lifetime."

In a country where many women wear simple white, cotton dresses, Beyonce wore costumes covered in sequins or shiny, space-age material, from a modern interpretation of a hula girl with shiny black tendrils replacing the grass skirt to a high-necked Victorian-style top paired with sequined hot pants.

Beyonce's concert was part of Ethiopia's yearlong celebration of its 2,000th birthday according to its ancient calendar.

In September, at the start of the year 2000, Addis Ababa hosted Los Angeles-based hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas in a new, multimillion-dollar but temporary concert hall. But the reception for the internationally popular group was tepid, if respectful.

Quiet Admiration

My soul forms the words,
My heart ensnares them,
Locking them in its warm chambers,
My mind knows these words,
And my fingers write these words,
Yet my lips,
The dastardly things
They find no valor,
And can not form the words.

How is it that I can feel these words,
With so much hope and admiration
Just for you,
Yet my lips can not speak them
To tell you
Of your shy smile
And your crystal eyes?
I am enamored by you,
By your words and your laughter.

You leave me breathless,
As the air leaps out of my mouth,
Twirling and bowing to your charms,
Enchanted by your congeniality.
Your face is imprinted in my mind
Never leaving,
Never fading.
Your smile warming my heart,
And your eyes entrancing my soul.

I wish I could form my feelings
Into articulate words
Of love and wonder
And tell you of my feelings,
Let you know of my aspiration
To be held securely in your arms,
Where I long to be,
Sitting serenely with you,
Basking in the sweet resonance of stillness.

But I know that wish is unattainable,
Far out of my reach,
Yet I admire you still,
Yearning that one day you'll notice me
As more than just a girl
But as a young woman
Whose heart you've whisked away
Into the perpetual sky,
Floating along the clouds.

And everyday I linger
Hoping for some acknowledgment,
A fleeting look or a petite hello.
Perhaps to even hear you speak my name
Would bring warmth to my heart
And joy to my days
As I wait for you to discern
That I, quietly,
Admire you.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHT
By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent

The expansion of intellectual property (IP) rights is unlikely to help most developing countries, an independent report says.

Instead, it will increase their costs, by making them pay more for medicines and seeds.

The report says the same arguments apply to the real benefits the internet can bring to the developing world.

It says rich and poor countries have differing interests, and expanding IP rights makes poverty reduction more difficult.

The report is the work of the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights (CIPR), set up by the UK Government but independent of it. The members are from the US, UK, Argentina and India.

The commission urges developed countries, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Intellectual Property Organiszation (WIPO) to take poor countries' circumstances and needs into account when developing IP systems.

INFORMATION ACCURACY

U.S. Sues Illinois for Passing Law Demanding Accuracy in Employment Eligibility System
The federal government has file suited (pdf) in a federal district court seeking to block a New Illinois law, claiming it preempts federal law. However, the state law does not ban outright employer use of the voluntary employment eligibility verification system called E-Verify. Instead the Illinois law prohibits employers from using the system until the federal databases it uses can be certified as 99 percent accurate. Federal reviews have deened (pdf) the system "seriously flawed in content and accuracy"; for example, the Social Security Administration database is estimated (pdf) to include 18 million incorrect records. See EPIC's SSN page and Spotlight on Surveilance on E-Verify. (Sept. 25)