Las Vegas (ASSOCIATED PRESS) – A broken O.J. Simpson was sentenced Friday to as much as 33 years in prison for a hotel armed robbery after a judge rejected his apology and said, “It was much more than stupidity.”
The 61-year-old football Hall of Famer stood shackled and stone-faced as Judge Jackie Glass rattled off the punishment. Moments before, Simpson made a rambling, five-minute plea for leniency, simultaneously apologizing for the holdup as a foolish mistake and trying to justify his actions.
He choked back tears as he told her: “I didn’t want to steal anything from anyone. … I’m sorry, sorry.”
Simpson said he was simply trying to retrieve sports memorabilia and other mementos, including his first wife’s wedding ring, from two dealers when he stormed a Las Vegas hotel room on Sept. 13, 2007.
But the judge emphasized that it was a violent confrontation in which at least one gun was drawn, and she said someone could have been shot. She said the evidence was overwhelming, with the planning, the confrontation itself and the aftermath all recorded on audio or videotape.
Glass, a no-nonsense judge known for her tough sentences, imposed such a complex series of consecutive and concurrent sentences that even many attorneys watching the case were confused as to how much time Simpson got.
Simpson could serve up to 33 years but could be eligible for parole after nine years, according to Elana Roberto, the judge’s clerk.
The judge said several times that her sentence in the Las Vegas case had nothing to do with Simpson’s 1995 acquittal in the slaying of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
“I’m not here to try and cause any retribution or any payback for anything else,” Glass said.
Simpson was immediately led away to prison after the judge refused to permit him to go free on bail while he appeals.
Simpson’s co-defendant and former golfing buddy, Clarence “C.J. Stewart, also was sentenced to at least 15 years.
‘A bittersweet moment’
Outside court, Goldman’s father, Fred Goldman, and sister, Kim, said they were delighted with the sentence.
“We are thrilled, and it’s a bittersweet moment,” Fred Goldman said. “It was satisfying seeing him in shackles like he belongs.”
The Goldmans took a measure of credit for Simpson’s fate, saying their relentless pursuit of his assets to satisfy a $33.5 million wrongful-death judgment “pushed him over the edge” and led him to commit the robbery to recover some of his sports memorabilia.
Simpson and Stewart were both brought to the courtroom in dark blue jail uniforms, their hands shackled to their waists with chains. Simpson, who looked weary and had not been expected to speak, delivered a somber statement to the judge.
As he spoke in a hoarse voice, the courtroom was hushed. His two sisters, Shirley Baker and Carmelita Durio, sat in the front row of the courtroom, along with his adult daughter.
‘Not bright, not smart’
Both men were convicted Oct. 3 of 12 criminal charges, including kidnapping and armed robbery.
“As stupid and as ill-conceived as it was, it wasn’t something that was from this evil mind they teach us about,” Simpson attorney Yale Galanter said before sentencing.
“Not bright, not smart, not well thought out, but certainly not from an evil mind,” Galanter said.
Most of the 63 seats in the courtroom were taken by media, lawyers and family members of the defendants. Fifteen members of the public were also allowed.
After sentencing was over, the Goldmans left the courtroom and Kim threw her arms around her father and wept.
Simpson’s sisters declined to comment, but Shirley Baker said on her way out: “It’s not over.”
Jurors who heard 13 days of testimony said after the verdict that they were convinced of Simpson’s guilt because of audio recordings that were secretly made of the Sept. 13, 2007, robbery at the Palace Station casino hotel.
The confrontation involved sports memorabilia brokers Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong. It was recorded by collectibles dealer Thomas Riccio, who was acting as middleman.
“Don’t let nobody out of this room!” Simpson commands on the recordings, and instructs other men to scoop up items he insists had been stolen from him.
On Tuesday, Glass is scheduled to sentence four former co-defendants who took plea deals and testified against Simpson and Stewart.
Michael McClinton, Charles Cashmore, Walter Alexander and Charles Ehrlich could receive probation or prison time. McClinton could get up to 11 years; the others face less.
(Aljazeera.net) – At least 16 people have been killed and dozens injured from suspected shelling by Ethiopian Woyanne troops in the north of Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, witnesses say.
Residents said they believed Friday’s shelling had been aimed at a stronghold for anti-government fighters but instead fell on a crowded market.
Omar Mohamed, a Mogadishu resident, said: “A shell landed in the market killing five women and two men.
“We are shocked and collecting their scattered flesh. I could see 10 injured people.”
Halima Bare, another resident, said two mortar shells killed four people and a baby in a restaurant and that she saw three more bodies at a bus stop.
Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow, the spokesman for the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), said: “We have great sympathy for the innocent civilians who are being killed.”
There was no immediate comment from the Ethiopians Woyannes.
The ICU, a group which had taken control of large areas of the country in opposition to the interim government, was driven out of Mogadishu in 2006 when the government brought in Ethiopian forces to help them fight.
The ICU and several other anti-government groups and splinter groups still remain in the Horn of Africa nation.
Pressure and urgency
Anti-government fighters, who now control most of southern Somalia, mount daily attacks on the Western-backed government and its Ethiopian Woyanne supporters.
Analysts say it will be hard for them to take control of Mogadishu while heavily armed Ethiopian Woyanne forces remain stationed there.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia Woyanne has said its troops will withdraw from the country by the end of 2008.
The announcement puts pressure on Somalia’s interim government and adds urgency to its long-standing request for international peacekeepers.
Fighting in Somalia has killed 10,000 civilians since early 2007, driven more than a million from their homes and left more than three million Somalis in need of emergency food aid.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Reuters) – Ethiopia’s best-known pop star, Teddy Afro, was sentenced to six years in jail on Friday for killing a homeless man when driving his BMW in the capital Addis Ababa.
The 31-year-old singer, whose real name is Tewodros Kassahun, was found guilty of manslaughter earlier this week for the death of 18-year-old Degu Yibelte in a hit-and-run incident late last year.
Afro denied the charge and said he was out with friends on the night the man died.
Many Ethiopians believe the charges were politically motivated. Last month’s Great Ethiopian Run — a road race for more than 30,000 people through the capital — was marked by constant shouts from the crowd of “Free Teddy”.
The singer is hugely popular among young Ethiopians and sings mainly in the local Amharic language. Hundreds protested outside the court when Afro’s trial began in April — an unusual event in a country where dissent is extremely rare.
Afro’s last album, Yasteseryal (Redemption), coincided with Ethiopia’s 2005 election that led to violent protests and the jailing of opposition leaders.
Some of his lyrics were construed as critical of the government and his songs were used as protest anthems by opposition supporters who took to the streets.
“This court will not hand out a sentence based on a vendetta but based on fairness and justice,” Judge Leul Gebremariam said before sending Afro to jail and fining him $1,800.
On streets nearby young Ethiopians gathered in small groups to discuss the sentencing.
“All Ethiopians will be sad today,” said Mikias Sisay, a 23-year-old student. “Many people have accidents but are not sent to prison like this. It is because of politics.”
A defiant Afro — wearing his trademark black sunglasses — raised one finger in the air to a smattering of applause from friends and family when he walked from the courtroom.
“I feel free,” he said to reporters as he was led away by police.
US Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen thought she was being hoaxed when a man who sounded a lot like Barack Obama called her – so she hung up on him.
In fact, the man at the other end of the line was indeed President-elect Obama himself.
It took two further phone-calls before Ms Ros-Lehtinen was convinced that the telephone call was genuine.
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was recently fooled by a DJ pretending to be French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
‘I won’t be punked’
“I thought it was one of the radio stations in South Florida playing an incredible, elaborate, terrific prank on me,” Ms Ros-Lehtinen told the Miami Herald newspaper.
“They’ve gotten Hugo Chavez and others to fall for their tricks. I said, ‘Oh, no, I won’t be punked’.”
Mr Obama was calling to congratulate her on her re-election, and to say that he looked forward to working with her in her role as the most senior Republican on the House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee.
After a minute or so, Ms Ros-Lehtinen cut Mr Obama off, telling him she was not fooled by the hoax and that he was a better Obama impersonator than Fred Armisen, the man who does an impression of Mr Obama on the TV comedy show Saturday Night Live.
Shortly afterwards, Mr Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel called Ms Ros-Lehtinen back to persuade her to take the call, but she hung up on him as well.
It was only when Howard Berman, a fellow member of her committee, called her that she was persuaded to take the call.
“I asked Howard to tell me a private joke we share about colleagues in the House to make sure it really was him,” Ms Ros-Lehtinen said.
“When he did, I realised it was the real deal.”
Mr Obama then called her back, and was amused by the incident, according to Ms Ros-Lehtinen.
“He laughed a lot, saying ‘in Chicago they do it all the time – I don’t blame you for being sceptical’.”
The pair then had a constructive discussion about foreign affairs, according to the congresswoman.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, 4 December 2008 – At the crack of dawn, 32,000 registered participants came together in Maskal Square to participate in Africa’s biggest 10 km road race – the Great Ethiopian Run. UNICEF and the Great Ethiopian Run have been partners for the past three years, committed to fighting HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia.
Jamilla, age 16, winner of the ‘Dream Campaign’ girls’ Mobility Cycle race greeting Swedish athlete Carolina Kluft after at the Great Ethiopian Run in Maskal Square.
The race continued its tradition of fundraising for orphans and vulnerable children through the ‘Dream Campaign’ by raising about 11,000 dollars for four charity homes for children affected by HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia.
The race kicked-off with a display of Ethio-Japanese dancing introduced by delegates from the Government of Japan.
The Great Run received international media coverage by Super Sport, CNN, BBC World, Trans-World Sport, Gillette World of Sport, EuroSport and others.
Aberra, age 19, showing his trophy after successful finish of the 1.5 km Mobility Cycle race at the Great Ethiopian Run.
The guests attending this year’s race include Sweden’s 2004 Olympic Heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft and Britain’s 5000m specialist Mo Farah, alongside a number of renowned Kenyan athletes.
2008 AIMS Children Series
In addition to the mass race on Sunday, around 3,000 youngsters aged 11 and under took part in the 2008 AIMS Children Series, which promote running for children in the developing world.
As part of the Dream Campaign, a 1.5 km Mobility Cycle race for children living with disabilities was organized by UNICEF in collaboration with the Mobility Without Barriers Foundation.
The organizer of the race, Haile Gebreselassie personally greeted each of the contestants.
Jamilla, 16, won the girls’ event and Aberra, 19, won the boy’s event. Awards were given by UNICEF Representative Bjorn Ljungqvist, accompanied by Ethiopian distance runner Haile Gebreselassie and Swedish athlete Carolina Kluft after a successful finish.
“It is inspiring to see young people affected by disability given so much hope by something as simple as a Mobility Bicycle. Accessing schools and generating income as a result of these bikes is a cost effective and a humane response,” said Mr. Ljungqvist.
About Mobility Cycles
In Ethiopia, 98 per cent of young people with disabilities do not attend school, in part because of the dangers associated with using wheelchairs for long distances, or over rough ground.
Over the past two years, UNICEF has helped introduced the Mobility Cycle, a safer, more effective means of assisted mobility. As of November 2008, more than 600 young people in Ethiopia have been participating in UNICEF-supported Mobility for Education programme.
Over the next two years, 4000 more children in Ethiopia will receive a Mobility Cycle through a national intervention that will be launched in February 2009.
The initial concept and design for the high performance mobility cycle for landmine victims was introduced by Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman during the ‘Long Way Down’ trip through Africa in 2006.
UNITED NATIONS — Members of the Security Council generally expressed support on Wednesday for the International Criminal Court’s moving ahead with the possible indictment of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan for war crimes in Darfur, although several voiced reservations that it would slow attempts to reach a peace settlement.
The discussion came after testimony to the council by Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the court’s prosecutor, who warned that members should prepare in advance to enforce the indictment. The three-judge panel in The Hague is expected to reach a decision on the case presented by Mr. Moreno-Ocampo in either January or February.
The strongest opposition to the possible indictment came from Libya and South Africa, which called for suspending the proceedings for at least a year, while Russia and China called the timing poor.
“Starting legal proceedings in a hurried manner while the conflict is still going on will make unavoidable interference in the relevant political processes,” the Chinese ambassador, Zhang Yesui, told the council.
The United States, not a party to the court, voiced support. “The international community cannot ignore the atrocities and massive human suffering that have occurred during the ongoing conflict in Darfur,” said Rosemary DiCarlo, an American envoy.
The Sudanese ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, said his country had improved its cooperation with the peacekeeping operations in Sudan, humanitarian groups and its estranged neighbor, Chad. “Are we to bring people back to square one by indicting the president who is the custodian of the whole peace process?” he said in an interview.
But the Darfuri Leaders Network, a coalition of academics and others in exile in the United States, said the government was just making “empty gestures” while the threat of the indictment loomed. The group said in a statement that the indictment presented the best chance for accountability for crimes in Darfur.
