Nigeria: US Applauds Yar'Adua On Rule of Law - AllAfrica.com

Habu DawakiAbuja

US deputy sheriff secretary of state, Toilet D. Negroponte, have paid a courtesy phone call to Federal Republic Of Nigeria to re-affirm the United States, committedness to promoting democracy, good administration and partnership with the nation.

He applauded President Yar'Adua's committedness to strengthening the regulation of law and fighting corruption. He encouraged him to prosecute vigorously, electoral reforms to rectify the flaws revealed in the last April polls.

Negroponte made this known at a fourth estate briefing where he assured President Yar'Adua and the foreign personal business minister, Head Ojo Maduekwe, of their support for reforms, increased transparence and rules of good governance.

The secretary of state in a meeting with the EFCC executive director chairman, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, discussed the challenges facing the EFCC, and commended the agency's attempt in promoting good administration and democracy in Nigeria.

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Mr. Negroponte, also discussed with the national security adviser, Malam Sarki Mukhtar, on government's attempt to turn to long-standing issues in the Niger River River River Delta.

"We back up Nigeria's attempt to stabilise and better administration in Niger Delta, I guarantee both the national security advisor and the defense mechanism curate that the United States would make what it can to assist Federal Republic Of Federal Republic Of Nigeria postage out criminalism in the Niger Basin", he stated.

Mr. Negroponte expressed his understanding over the death of seven Nigerian peacekeepers in Darfur earlier this year. He also showed grasp for Nigeria's committedness to peace keeping in the troubled country.

Nigeria: Ndlea Decries Drug Addiction Among Youth - AllAfrica.com

Emmanuel UgwuUmuahia

National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have alerted the authorities of Abia State and parents on the growth figure of immature people getting involved in the concern of difficult drugs, attributing the ugly tendency to the "alarming law-breaking wave" in Abia.

Commander of NDLEA Abia State Command, Mr. Justice Arinze, sounded the dismay bell at Aba while parading 19 suspected drug barons, pedlars and nuts including a 13 twelvemonth old male child named Ebuka Ekwualor.

"The maltreatment of narcotic drugs have got led to an rush in violent law-breakings such as as as armed robbery and societal law-breakings such as snatch and harlotry in Aba and Abia State," he said.

Arinze explained that the drug merchandisers and nuts were arrested during a joint NDLEA/military trading operations launched "to dislodge drug Barons and their cohorts from highly volatile achromatic musca volitans in Aba and its environs."

He specifically named the commercial metropolis of Aba as the Centre of difficult drugs in Abia, pointing out that the volatile achromatic musca volitans for difficult drugs in Enyimba City include Bakassi Ariaria, Ariaria Old Express, Black Shit, House Of York Street, among others.

"In these countries criminal elements garner to mistreat drugs and thereafter plan, perfect and carry their criminal activities," Arinze said.

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To exemplify the rise engagement of people in difficult drugs, the NDLEA Commanding Officer said that in a batch of here calendar months 147 suspects were arrested and 82 kgs of narcotic drugs comprising Cocaine, heroine, Cannabis and psychotropic matters were seized from them.

He said that 22 drug traders have got so far been convicted within the same period, adding that the Command was worried at the charge per unit adolescents were being lured into drug dealing and consumption.

"The merchandisers of decease work these legal tender age bracket to transport out their trade while paying them a meagre N300 per day," Arinze lamented.

Groups urging support for lawyer

An anti-war communal and Moslem arrangement have got backed a lawyer facing a disdain of tribunal hearing followers a terrorism trial.

Glasgow lawyer Aamer Anwar criticised the trial of his client Muhammad Atif Siddique, from Clackmannanshire, who was convicted of a series of offences.

The Glasgow Stop the War Alliance and Moslem Action Committee said Mister Anwar had been made a "scapegoat."

The groupings have got urged Glasgow Muslims to retrieve him at Friday prayers.

Last calendar month Siddique, 21, from Alva, was jailed for eight old age for possessing and collecting terror-related items and information.

In a statement read out on the stairway of the High Court in Glasgow proceedings after the jury's verdict, Mister Anwar said he believed the determination was a "tragedy for justness and for freedom of speech".

'Disparaging

He claimed the computer science pupil did not have a just trial and it was heard in an "atmosphere of hostility."

The trial judge, Godhead Carloway, accused Mister Anwar of making "disparaging remarks" about him, the jury, and the prosecution.

A day of the month have yet to be fixed for the High Court disdain hearing.

A spokesman for the Moslem Action Committee said: "It have been decided that Aamer's lawsuit will be raised at Friday supplications at all masjids across Glasgow.

"This is a new development in the Moslem community and shows the depth of misgiving for the functionary response to the warfare on panic as well as the growth support for Aamer Anwar."

Art Dealer Files for Bankruptcy, Delaying Suits Against Him

Lawrence B. Salander, the embattled Manhattan fine art trader whose gallery was ordered locked by a State Supreme Court justness last month, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday.

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Mr. Salander and his Salander-O’Reilly Galleries — which operated from a town house on East 71st Street, around the corner from the — had been facing a outpouring of lawsuits alleging that clients or concern spouses had been defrauded. Some people or their estates also said they consigned plant to Salander-O’Reilly that the gallery sold without their permission.

Lawyers involved in the lawsuits said the bankruptcy filing would detain the other lawsuits while the bankruptcy tribunal trades with which creditors are owed what, and how much each is to be paid.

Mr. Salander, who filed for bankruptcy in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., listed his wife, Julie, as a joint debtor. The filing was reported on yesterday. Lawyers familiar with the Salanders’ concern traffic state it was separate from a request to coerce the gallery into involuntary bankruptcy that was filed last hebdomad by three other creditors in federal tribunal in Manhattan.

John W. Moscow, a lawyer representing the Salanders in the Chapter 11 legal proceeding , said, “They’re doing everything they can to do certain that the people with valid claims acquire fully paid.” .

Documents filed with the Chapter 11 request state the Salanders themselves had no more than than 49 creditors. The Salanders said they owed money to at least two Banks and to William O’Reilly, World Health Organization started Salander-O’Reilly Galleries with Mr. Salander in the 1970s. They parted ways in the 1990s.

The Salanders said they also owed money to everyone from a former landlord to the lawn tennis star , who said he gave Salander-O’Reilly $162,500 to purchase and resell fine art at a profit. In a lawsuit in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, he said the gallery had not paid him the $325,000 it had promised. A lawyer representing Salander-O’Reilly inch that lawsuit said last calendar month that the gallery had paid Mr. McEnroe $200,000.

With the Chapter 11 filing, the Salanders filed a listing of the creditors with the 20 biggest unbarred claims. All the claims were marked “disputed.” Among them was $2.9 million to Earl Davis, the boy of the creative person Gilbert Stuart Davis, whom the gallery represented. Earl Davys filed lawsuit against Salander-O’Reilly inch federal tribunal in Manhattan in June.

Another creditor the Salanders listed in their bankruptcy filing was Sotheby’s. Its fiscal arm lent Mr. Salander more than $800,000 over the summer, using as collateral more than 20 plant of fine art that he said he owned. Sotheby’s filed lawsuit against Mr. Salander last month, claiming that its traffic with Mr. Salander should not be subject to the opinion by State Supreme Court Justice Richard B. Lowe three blocking the sale of pictures and sculpture inside the Salander-O’Reilly town house.

Texas cities see few changes with sex offender restrictions

DALLAS — City regulations restricting where registered sexual activity wrongdoers can dwell haven't led to important alterations in how many known wrongdoers dwell in North Lone-Star State towns.

Almost two twelve North Lone-Star State metropolises have got laws prohibiting sexual activity wrongdoers from life within 1,000 or 2,000 feet of schools, day-care centers, Parks and other topographic points frequented by children. Respective North Lone-Star State metropolises began adopting the limitations more than twelvemonth ago, with Katherine Mansfield and Little Elm becoming the up-to-the-minute to see such as measures.

But the figure of sexual activity wrongdoers living in metropolises where the regulations were passed haven't changed much, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday. And experts warn sexual maltreatment of children can't be stopped by just enacting an ordinance.

• Plano currently have 115 registered sexual activity offenders, 15 more than than when the flush suburbia passed its limitations in July 2005, said police force force military officer Crick McDonald.• Carrollton listings 93 registered sexual activity wrongdoers on its police section Web site. The Numbers haven't changed much since the metropolis approved its regulation in May 2006, said research worker Sir Alexander Robertus Todd Burnside, who supervises wrongdoer registration.• Rowlett had 25 to 30 sexual activity wrongdoers before adopting its regulations in June 2006. The Numbers haven't changed since."We don't have got got a great turnover," Detective Pam Mauri said. "There have got got been maybe four that have tried to travel in and were not able to because of the ordinance."

One account for seeing small change: The regulations typically don't necessitate wrongdoers to travel if they were already living within kid safety zones.

In Arlington, such as ordinances use only to sexual activity wrongdoers with more than than one conviction.

"That's a very little per centum of our sexual activity offenders," Detective Bill Landolt said.

Sex wrongdoer residence regulations also cover some zones but not the full city. For example, Plano's kid safety zones cover 59 percentage of the city.

Richardson may have got the strongest regulation on sexual activity wrongdoer residency. Its 2,000-foot kid safety zone do 98 percentage of Henry Hobson Richardson off-limits to convicted sexual activity offenders. The metropolis listings 37 sexual activity wrongdoers currently, five fewer than when its regulation was enacted a twelvemonth ago.

Experts warn that limitations don't necessarily protect children, since few are abused by strangers.

About 90 percentage of sexual assaults against children are committed by a household member or person stopping point to the family, said Allison Taylor, executive manager director of the Council on Sexual Activity Wrongdoer Treatment of the Lone-Star State Department of State Health Services.

Also, sexual activity wrongdoers registered with law enforcement stand for only a little part of those who perpetrate sexual activity crimes. Only 12 percentage of sexual activity discourtesies are reported and of those, only 1 percentage consequence in convictions, Deems Taylor said.

"The bulk (of sexual activity offenders) will never be affected by these ordinances," she said.

Man in court on Pc murder charge

A 27-year-old man have appeared in tribunal charged with the homicide of Personal Computer Sharon Beshenivsky in William Bradford two old age ago.

Mustaf Jama, who was extradited from Somalia, appeared at Leeds Magistrates' Court. He was remanded in detention until a crown tribunal hearing on 9 November.

He also confronts complaints of robbery, ownership of pieces and possessing prohibited weapons.

Pc Beshenivsky, 38, was shot dead and a co-worker was wounded during a robbery at a traveling federal agency in November 2005.

Brother jailed

Mustaf Jama was flanked by two police force military officers throughout the five-minute hearing.

He was initially handcuffed but they were removed at the petition of District Judge Roy Anderson.

There was no application for bail.

Five people, including Mustaf Jama's blood brother Yusuf Jama, have got been jailed over the case.

Personal Computer Beshenivsky was killed after responding to an armed robbery

Pc Beshenivsky was killed on 18 November - her daughter's 4th birthday - as she arrived at the scene of a robbery at the Universal Joint Express traveling agency.

Pc Mother Teresa Milburn, 37, was also shot but survived.

Yusuf Jama and Muzzaker Shah were both captive for a lower limit of 35 old age at Newcastle Crown Court last December.

Faisal Razzaq and his blood brother Hassan Razzaq were jailed for 11 old age and 20 old age respectively for manslaughter, robbery and pieces offences.

Earlier this year, Raza ul Haq Aslam was jailed for eight old age for taking portion in the robbery.

Another pack member believed to have got been involved in the shooting, Piran Ditta Khan, have still not been traced.

Mustaf Jama was extradited from Somalia on Thursday and taken from Heathrow Airport to a police force station in Leeds, where he was charged with homicide on Thursday night.

Houston Law Firm Sues Kerik for $200,000 in Legal Fees

, the former police force commissioner of New House Of York who pleaded guilty last twelvemonth to state misdemeanour complaints and will probably confront federal bill of indictment this month, was sued last hebdomad by his former lawyers for more than than $200,000.

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The lawsuit was filed on Oct. Twenty-Two in State Supreme Court in Manhattan by the Houston-based law house of William Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P., which until April represented Mr. Kerik. It impeaches him of failing to pay $202,384.04 in legal fees.

Mr. Kerik was appointed to the police force station by , the former city manager and Republican presidential candidate. Mr. Giuliani later backed Mr. Kerik’s failed nomination to be secretary of the federal . Mr. Kerik have been under probe by state or federal government since his nomination collapsed a hebdomad after it was announced in 2004 amid accusals of financial, ethical and personal improprieties.

In 2006, he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanour charges, admitting that he accepted $165,000 in redevelopments to his The Bronx flat in 1999 and 2000 from a company suspected of neckties to organized law-breaking that was seeking a metropolis license. Mr. Kerik, who was commissioner of the city’s Department of Correction when the work was done, also admitted speech production to metropolis functionaries on behalf of the company, the Interstate Industrial Corporation, or its subsidiaries. Interstate have denied neckties to organized crime.

The lawsuit, which was reported yesterday on a Web site, , said that a spouse at William Fulbright & Jaworski, Kenneth M. Breen, began representing Mr. Kerik in 2005. But Mr. Breen left the house in April, and Mr. Kerik chose to remain with him. Mr. Breen goes on to stand for him in connexion with what the lawsuit phone calls “a pending indictment,” and Mr. Kerik have got got ended his human relationship with the William William Fulbright firm.

The house began sending measures to Mr. Kerik in April and made repeated demands for payment, according to the suit.

A lawyer who is representing Mr. Kerik in the lawsuit, Chad D. Seigel, declined to discourse it yesterday except to state that it was without virtue and “the consequence of an obvious miscommunication, which we are seeking to address.”

Mr. Seigel, in an e-mail message on Oct. Twenty-One to Glen Banks, the Fulbright lawyer who filed the lawsuit the adjacent day, said that the firm’s bill “appears to be inflated” and suggested that the law house had billed Mr. Kerik for work he had not, and never would have, authorized.

The e-mail message was attached as an exhibit to the lawsuit.

A legal defence trust for Mr. Kerik have been established to assist defray the costs he have incurred as a consequence of the investigations, associates have said.