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JAKARTA: The Indonesian Ulamas Council (MUI) has issued an edict forbidding children, pregnant women and MUI members from smoking. The edict, which was issued in a meeting here last Sunday, also bans smoking in public places. Antara News Agency quoted the council’s Edict Commission chairman Amin Suma in West Sumatera Monday as saying that MUI decided in the meeting that smoking for Muslims was between haram (forbidden) and makruh (objectionable). He said that MUI would later formulate the form of sanctions against council members who smoked. Suma said that the MUI meeting agreed on two rulings, namely one which banned...

Authorities on Monday arrested the chief executive of a private New York financing firm on suspicion of running a purported Ponzi scheme that attracted $400 million in investments, U.S. law enforcement officials said. They said Nicholas Cosmo, head of Agape World on New York's Long Island, was said to provide commercial bridge loans, but was instead operating a traditional Ponzi scheme in which early investors are paid with the money of new clients.

Government watchdogs who assailed President Obama for setting aside his restrictions against lobbyists joining his administration for a Pentagon appointee say the same criticisms do not apply to an anti-tobacco lobbyist in line for a top health job. Obama plans to nominate William Corr, who had been executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and a registered lobbyist since 2000, to be deputy secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). But nominating Corr would require the White House to waive Obama’s Jan. 21 executive order against lobbyists serving in his administration. The order says a person may not “seek...

After reading today's article at American Thinker on the impending doom of the New York Times, I thought I'd check out the dying paper's website while it still existed. How often does one get the opportunity to study a dinosaur just before it goes extinct? The following headline grabbed my eye: Speaker of Massachusetts House Resigns Over Friendship That sounds innocuous enough, I thought. The guy must have friend in need, and he's resigning to help the friend out, right? How thoughtful. And boring enough to make most people not even bother to read the story. So of course I...

The Oakland Police Department Thursday notified 11 officers, including two sergeants, that they will be terminated for their involvement in the falsification of search warrant affidavits over the past several months, according to the city attorney's office. An internal investigation found that the officers knew or should have known that information in their affidavits about the testing of drugs was false. Officers were also found to have made untruthful statements in response to questions from Internal Affairs investigators, who did determine that allegations against one officer were unfounded, according to the city attorney's office.

A New York man has pleaded guilty to a series of racist assaults allegedly meant to protest the election of President Barack Obama, authorities say. "Brian Carranza pled guilty this morning ... to conspiring to assault African-American residents in Staten Island, New York, in retaliation for President Barack Obama's election victory," the prosecutor's office for the eastern district of New York said on Monday. Carranza is charged with hate crimes along with two others over a series of incidents on election day. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years, although entering a guilty plea in court usually leads to...

January 26, 2009 Ex-Lehman chief sold $13m home to wife for $100 (Susan Walsh/AP) Christine Seib in New York Richard Fuld, the disgraced former chief executive of Lehman Brothers, sold his $13.3 million (£9.6 million) Florida mansion to his wife in November for $100, according to real estate records. Mr Fuld, who is widely blamed for the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September last year, bought the house with his wife, Kathleen, in March 2004 for $13.75 million. On November 10, the 62-year-old banker transferred the seaside mansion into Mrs Fuld's name in return for $100. Mr Fuld is expected...

BART officials said Saturday that they will investigate the actions of one of the transit agency's police officers after a video surfaced showing the officer striking a passenger - apparently Oscar Grant - minutes before the unarmed young man was fatally shot by another officer early on New Year's Day. The cell phone video, one of a handful that have surfaced, aired Friday night on KTVU-TV. It shows a male BART police officer walking over to three men lined up against a wall near a female officer, and then striking one in the face. The victim of the punch -...

January 26, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/January/09-nsd-064.html Former Oak Ridge Complex Employee Pleads Guilty to Unlawful Disclosure of Restricted Atomic Energy Data WASHINGTON – Roy Lynn Oakley, 67, a resident of Harriman, Tenn., pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Knoxville, to count one of an indictment charging him with unlawful disclosure of Restricted Data under the Atomic Energy Act, in violation of 42 U.S.C., Section 2274(b). The guilty plea was announced today by Matthew G. Olsen, Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and James R. Dedrick, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of...

January 26, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/January/09-nsd-065.html Defendant Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Export Military Aircraft Parts to Iran WASHINGTON – Hassan Saied Keshari and his corporation, Kesh Air International, pleaded guilty this morning in the Southern District of Florida to charges of conspiring to illegally export military and commercial aircraft parts to Iran. The guilty pleas were announced by Matt Olsen, Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security; R. Alexander Acosta, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Michael Johnson, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Commerce; Office of Export Enforcement; Anthony V....

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Federal agents raided a medical marijuana dispensary in South Lake Tahoe on Thursday. At about 11 a.m., five agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency — joined by members of the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, the South Lake Tahoe-El Dorado County Narcotics Enforcement Team and the South Lake Tahoe Police — served a federal search warrant on Patient to Patient Collective, located at 2314 Lake Tahoe Boulevard. Agents seized between five and 10 pounds of processed marijuana and a “small amount” of U.S. currency from the collective, said DEA Special Agent Gordon Taylor. Police made...

TAMPA, Florida (AFP) — Thieves are increasingly targeting Hispanic illegal immigrants who are reluctant to report robberies to the police for fear of deportation, US activists and law enforcement agencies say. The victims of the robberies in Florida and other Southern states are often farm workers paid in cash because they have no bank accounts due to a lack of official identification. "Many robberies (of illegal immigrant workers) are committed but not reported," said Cheryl Little, executive director for the Florida Immigration Advocacy Center. "Because many of these workers originally come from countries where the police can't be trusted, they're...

The right to bear arms is more than a Constitutional right: every human being has the natural unalienable right to self-defense. Cicero said 2,000 years ago, “If our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.” The U.S. Constitution, the constitutions of 44 states, common law, and the laws of all 50 states recognize the right to use arms in self-defense. Right to carry laws respect the right to self-defense by allowing individuals to carry concealed firearms for their own protection. So many liberal politicians and...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC), one of the country's foremost Latino media advocacy and civil rights organizations, announced today that it will host a press conference in Washington, D.C. on January 28th at the National Press Club to discuss three important elements related to hate speech in the media.

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<p>Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Monday called the state Senate's impeachment proceedings against him a "kangaroo court," telling FOX News' Geraldo Rivera that "What's happening to me is unimaginable."</p> <p>Blagojevich called on Illinois lawmakers to allow him to call witnesses to clear him of any wrongdoing.</p>

Well, take a look at this from the White House web site. And we thought only the Clintons were so arrogant. I'd love an explanation of Michelle and Jill's roles in this administration.Link * THE ADMINISTRATION o President Barack Obama o Vice President Joe Biden o First Lady Michelle Obama o Dr. Jill Biden o The Cabinet o White House Staff o Executive Office of the President

SCRANTON - Luzerne County judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan have agreed to plead guilty in connection to concealing $2.6 million from January 2003 to April 2007, and have agreed to serve 87 months - 7.25 years - in federal prison, Martin Carlson, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, said. Ciavarella and Conahan also agreed to resign as judges within 10 days of federal court approval of their plea agreements, Carlson said during a Monday afternoon news conference. Carlson called the acts, "A scheme to defraud the citizens of Luzerne County and the people of...

Two Luzerne County judges were indicted this morning on charges relating to the operation of two juvenile detention centers. President Judge Mark A. Ciavarella, 58, and former President Judge Michael T. Conahan are accused of collecting more than $2 million from the construction, expansion and operation of juvenile detention facilities, and for placing juveniles in those facilities in Luzerne County and Western Pennsylvania. The indictment charges both judges with engaging in a scheme to defraud the public of their honest services and with conspiring to defraud the IRS. Ciavarella and Conahan have filed a plea agreement, signed by both judges....