Husband in Hot Water: Man Faces Five Years in Prison for Snooping Through Wife's E-Mails

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that a Michigan resident could face five years in prison for reading his wife’s e-mail. 33 year old computer technician Leon Walker had been snooping through wife Clara Walker’s Gmail account after finding her password written in a book next to their shared laptop, and by doing so discovered that she had been having an affair with an ex-husband. In response, Clara filed for divorce and had her now ex-husband arrested. Leon Walker argues that he was concerned for the safety of Clara Walker’s son from her previous marriage, as his father was allegedly arrested for abusing Clara in front of their son. But his claims seem to be falling on deaf ears: prosecutor Jessica Cooper states that, “The guy is a hacker. It was password protected, he had wonderful skills and was highly trained. Then he downloaded them [the e-mails] and used them in a very contentious way.”
Leon is being charged with a felony under Michigan statute 755.795. The law is most often used in cases concerning identify theft, but will be applied to Leon when he goes to court February 7 – the first time it’s ever been used in a domestic case. And experts are saying that the “gray area” surrounding the circumstances of the situation could make it difficult for the prosecution. At the time, Leon and Clara were living together and sharing the computer in question. The defense attorney, Leon Weiss, argues that the statute is being used incorrectly. “This is a hacking statute, the kind of statute they use if you try to break into a government system or private business for some nerfarious purpose. It’s to protect against identity fraud, to keep somebody from taking somebody’s intellectual property.”
Many legal professionals are shocked by the lawsuit, but a jury will ultimately decide whether or not Leon Walker does time.

Slovenia city elects Ghanaian its first black mayor

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Slovenia elected its first black mayor on Sunday, an immigrant from Africa known as the “Obama of Piran,” the town where he lives.

In fact, Peter Bossman, a Ghana-born physician, could be the first black mayor elected anywhere in his region of Europe.
Bossman, who settled in this tiny Alpine nation in the 1970s to study medicine in what was then known as Yugoslavia, won a runoff election in the coastal town of Piran with 51.4 percent of votes, defeating Dr. Tomaz Gantar, the outgoing mayor.

The 54-year-old Bossman is a member of Slovenia's governing Social Democrats. He runs a private practice and was previously a member of the Piran City Council.

Following the vote, he said he was “happy and proud.”

“I based my campaign on a dialogue and I think the dialogue has won,” he said.

Slovenia, a country of 2 million people, is located near Italy, Austria and Croatia and is a member of European Union and NATO. The vast majority of Slovenians are white and there are few immigrants. The few blacks who are seen in the country tend to be tourists.

Vlado Miheljak, a political analyst, said the vote in Piran was a test about whether Slovenia was “mature enough to elect a nonwhite political representative.”

No racial issues were raised during the campaign in Piran, where Bossman was nicknamed after President Barack Obama, the first African American to hold that office in the U.S. But he was criticized for not speaking fluent Slovene, the nation's official language.

In an interview with Delo, a leading daily newspaper, Bossman said he has a friend who is a professor of Slovenian “and she offered to give me additional lessons.”

Piran is a picturesque town of about 17,000 people surrounding the tiny Gulf of Piran in the Adriatic Sea. Its main revenue comes from tourism.

During the campaign, Bossman offered to introduce electric cars to the town and boost Internet shopping to overcome a problem of too few stores.

He also said he will try to get an airport in Piran and a golf course to boost its tourism.

Stolen Benin City Mask To Be Auctioned In London For N1.25b

The admiralty confiscated most of the booty and auctioned it off to defray the costs of the expedition, although a sizeable group ended up in the British Museum. Among them is another of the same group of ivory masks. The technical skill of these cast bronze and ivory ritual sculptures astounded western audiences, and the dispersal of the Benin treasures paved the way for a reassessment of African art by artists and scholars. When Jacob Epstein saw this piece in an exhibition in London in 1947, he asked the family if he could exchange it for one of his sculptures. Its whereabouts remained unknown until the family contacted Sotheby’s last year. Jean Fritts, director of African and Oceanic art at Sotheby’s, said: “It has an amazing, untouched surface which collectors love. Its honey colour attests to years of rubbing with palm oil.” From the same collection, and offered alongside, are a carved altar tusk, two ivory armlets, a rare bronze armlet cast with Portuguese figures and a bronze sculpture usually described as a tusk stand. A bronze head of an Oba of around 1575-1625 was sold for a record $4.7m in 2007. The auction record for any African work of art is €5.9m.

Oba Ovonramwen’s £4.5m mask for auction in UK

Quote

By Agency Reporter 
Wednesday, 22 Dec 2010 
 16th Century Benin Ivory pendant mask put at £4.5m is to be offered for sale at Sotheby’s in London, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
The mask, according to the Financial Times of London, is to be auctioned in February. It said it was one of the last great masterpieces of Benin sculpture remaining in private hands and was believed to have been worn by Oba Ovonranmwen before the British punitive expedition to Benin Kingdom in 1897.
Standing at 22cm high, the mask is being sold by the descendants of Lt.-Col. Sir Henry Lionel Gallwey, whow as the deputy commissioner and vice-consul in the Oil Rivers Protectorate in 1891.
Galleway took part in the infamous expedition.
Meanwhile, the Director of African Oceanic Arts at Sotheby’s, Mr. Jean Fritts, has said the mask has an amazing, untouched surface which collectors love.
“Its honey colour attests to years of rubbing with palm oil,” he stated.
A bronze head of an Oba who ruled around 1575-1625 was sold for a record £44.7m in 2007.
There have been several calls for the return of artefacts stolen from the Benin Kingdom and kept in various art galleries around the world.

Ja Rule gets two years in prison

Ja Rule was arrested sometime in 2007 on gun charges. And after trying unsuccessfully to have his case dismissed, today he plead guilty to attempted criminal possession of a weapon and will be sentenced to two years in prison sometime in February.

Nigerian Parents Paid Rick Ross $100,000 To Attend Son's Birthday

US rapper Rick Ross got paid $100,000 (US) in a deal that was brokered on the night (11th Dec) of the 2010 MAMAs in Lagos, to perform at a 10 year old’s birthday party in Abuja.



100,000 big ones! Who are his parents?! The news was tweeted by his official DJ – DJ Sam Sneak, who accompanied him to Lagos for his MAMAs performance. Rick & his entourage were flown to Abuja Sunday afternoon to surprise little Igho. I hope MTV cameras were on hand to capture it all go down…this is definitely one for Sweet 16 10 – Naija Edition!

I will not bother calculating the Naira equivalent. It’s Monday morning & I don’t want to add to the depression I’m feeling about being broke (again!).

And they say there is no money in Nigeria…this is a country were 70% of the population lives below the poverty line, living on less than a $1 a day.

Actor Wesley Snipes Begins Serving Sentence At Pa. Prison (ap)

LEWIS RUN, Pa. - Actor Wesley Snipes began serving a three-year sentence at a federal prison in Pennsylvania on Thursday for failure to file income tax returns.

Snipes, 48, arrived shortly before noon at the Federal Correctional Institution McKean in the tiny northwestern Pennsylvania town of Lewis Run, federal prisons spokesman Ed Ross said. He had been ordered to surrender by noon.

The minimum security prison camp is worlds away from the harsh prison fortresses depicted in the Snipes' films "Undisputed" and "Brooklyn's Finest." The minimum-security camp doesn't have fences around its perimeter.

The 300 nonviolent inmates live in barracks that feature two-man rooms, daily showers and double-feature movie showings Friday through Sunday. Alas, no NC-17, R or X ratings allowed, which knocks out much of Snipes' action-heavy repertoire.

The most jarring aspect of the celebrity's stay might be the five daily head counts, three during the overnight hours. And Snipes, who earned a reported $13 million for the "Blade: Trinity" sequel, will have to adjust to earning just pennies an hour handling kitchen, laundry or other campus chores. He can spend just $290 a month at the prison commissary.

Snipes has appeared in dozens of studio films, from "White Men Can't Jump" and "Demolition Man" in the early 1990s to the blockbuster Blade trilogy.

None of which will score him any points at McKean, officials insist.

"We recognize that he is high profile, but we treat all our inmates the same," spokeswoman Shirley White told The Associated Press last week.

According to U.S. prosecutors, the actor failed to file any tax returns for at least a decade, and owed $2.7 million in taxes on $13.8 million in income from 1999 to 2001 alone.

Snipes, a dues-paying member of a tax-protest group that challenges the government's right to collect taxes, described himself at his 2008 sentencing as a naive truth-seeker.

"I am an idealistic, naive, passionate, truth-seeking, spiritually motivated artist, unschooled in the science of law and finance," said Snipes, who had pursued theater and dance from an early age, attending the vaunted High School for the Performing Arts in New York City.

Tuesday night, he told CNN's "Larry King Live" that he was not nervous about reporting to prison.

Star of the "Blade" trilogy, Snipes was convicted in 2008 on three misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file income tax returns.

On Wednesday, he made a last-minute request for a new trial, but on Thursday a judge in Florida rejected the emergency motion. Snipes had argued said that a judge erred by not allowing defense attorneys to interview jurors about misconduct allegations, but U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges said the motion merely re-argues issues that have already been decided.

At McKean, he can pursue his spirituality at weekly meetings of nearly any religious group imaginable, from Wiccans to Jehovah's Witnesses to Spanish-speaking Evangelical Catholics.

The martial-arts enthusiast can get his exercise playing sand volleyball or indoor basketball, or work out on an elliptical machine or stair climber. And he can tap into his fun side through badminton, bocci or bridge.

Should he pull a muscle in a pickup game, the infirmary copay is just $2.

But it's not all fun and games.

The daily wake-up call is at 6:35 a.m. The mundane jobs run seven hours a day. There's little fashion flair to the prison-issued khakis. And contact in the visitors room is limited to "a kiss," according to the prison handbook.

Snipes has tried to delay his arrival while he takes his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. But the trial judge said he had gotten a fair trial.

Hodges saw in Snipes "a history of contempt" for U.S. tax laws, the judge said at sentencing.

Never mind that the actor, changing course, had delivered $5 million in checks to the IRS that day. Hodges imposed consecutive one-year terms for the three misdemeanor convictions.

"Someday, every fighter loses," says the prison boxer Monroe Hutchens, played by Snipes, in 2002's "Undisputed." "In the end, everybody gets beaten. The most you can hope for is that you stay on top a while."

FIFA's choices of Russia and Qatar show its desire to leave a Legacy

Angry about the World Cup host vote? Can't understand how Russia and Qatar -- despite generally substandard technical reports filed by FIFA itself -- are getting to host the biggest sporting event in the universe in 2018 and 2002, respectively?
Maybe this will help. Consider what the point of hosting a World Cup is. If it's to give the biggest number of fans the best possible experience in terms of stadiums, facilities, infrastructure and safeties all at (relatively) affordable prices, while honoring those nations that have passionate fans and venerable traditions, then it would only ever really rotate between the same three or four countries. Or, in fact, you could just have it in Germany every four years.
But if you believe there's an evangelizing element to it and that as many as possible should get a chance to experience it to some degree, then you're going to employ different criteria. You'll push the boat out, you'll take risks, you'll test boundaries.
In case you had not figured it out, Sepp Blatter, the FIFA supremo, leans far more toward the latter camp. And he can afford to lean that way because -- here's a dirty little secret -- it really doesn't matter that much to the bottom line what the actual traveling fans think or experience. The vast majority live the World Cup through the magic of television and, via the tube, seen one stadium, seen them all. It really doesn't make much of a difference. Just as -- when you're sitting on your couch at home or standing in a bar with fellow supporters around the corner from your house -- it matters little whether human rights are being broken in a World Cup host country, whether women and sexual minorities are being discriminated against, whether there's a free press, whether there's crime or disease or 120-degree weather. None of it matters.
Nor does it really matter that much to the other stakeholders. Teams stay in five-star hotels with lavish training facilities. The sponsors and their corporate guests occupy similar cookie-cutter hotels. The media stay in slightly less nice surroundings, but they're still pretty much equivalent, whether it's South Africa or Germany or, indeed, Qatar.
Grant Wahl: FIFA needs complete overhaul in its leadership
Blatter knows this, which is why he can prioritize his evangelizing agenda. South Africa 2010 was, of course, an important first step. Now Russia, the first World Cup in a former Communist country, the first one in Eastern Europe (the Russian bid committee cleverly flashed the message "Western Europe 10, Eastern Europe 0" during its presentation). And, of course, Qatar: the first World Cup in an Arab nation and the first in a Muslim country. Lots of firsts for Mr. Blatter.
Which, evidently, is what matters most to him. And, while he is not omnipotent within FIFA (in fact, he didn't even have a vote, except for a tiebreaking one, if necessary), his preference was pretty much an open secret. And there are enough people on the Executive Committee who either share his world view, fear him personally or are happy to do his bidding to stay in his good graces. That, ladies and gentleman, is why we'll be going to Russia and Qatar.
So what will it be like? Having watched games in both countries, I have a little bit of experience here. Russia has an important and underappreciated soccer history that, sadly, sort of fell by the wayside after the fall of Communism (though Russian clubs are performing better of late), simply because putting money into soccer wasn't much of a priority in the years immediately after the breakup.
You'll probably hear plenty about the negatives: crime, lack of a fully free press, drug use, high prices, etc. Those are the ones that will be difficult to exorcise between now and 2018. With the other drawbacks, it depends how much faith you put into the Russian government's ability to deliver on its promises. Infrastructure needs massive upgrading across the board, both in terms of stadiums and transportation. Eight years is enough time to do that, provided the cash and political will are there.
Qatar, with its projected budget of at least $50 billion, is, of course, an even more ambitious project, one that some might say borders on folly. You've heard about the outdoor air conditioning, the new stadiums built ex novo (some of which will -- supposedly -- be dismantled brick-by-brick and shipped to some needy developing nation), the tiny population and the nonexistent public transportation, among other things. It's an absurdity, but it's also a statement. It says: FIFA is so powerful that it can make an entire country grind to a halt and turn itself into a gigantic soccer amusement park. Which is, possibly, the most charitable way of looking at it.
When I was there, the Qataris had spent heavily to lure a glut of foreign stars -- including Stefan Effenberg, Pep Guardiola, Gabriel Batistuta and Claudio Caniggia -- to the Emirate in the hopes of kick-starting the local league. It didn't really work. Games were held in new stadiums with several hundred people rattling around grounds that could hold 30,000. To improve attendance, they held doubleheaders and prize draws at halftime where you could walk away with a million dollars. And still, nobody was really interested. Within a year or two, all the superstars left to be replaced by cheap imports from Africa and South America.
This is not about evangelizing Qatar to the joys of soccer. (Why would you? The population encompasses about 400,000 native-born citizens, and the rest are expats, mostly from Pakistan, who probably get more excited about cricket anyway.) It's about breaking the initial barrier of a World Cup in an Arab (and a Muslim) country and showing that, when it comes to FIFA, nothing is beyond the realm of imagination.
Blatter calls this kind of stuff "legacy." And, to him, it's extremely important. Rather than complaining, if you feel differently, there is something you can do. Vote him out of office the next time you get a chance. But don't hold your breath. Last time FIFA's members tried to do that, they failed. In its own, slightly twisted way, FIFA is a democracy. National associations can complain all they like, but if Blatter and his vision are dictating the path of the game over the next decades, it's because a majority of voters thought keeping him in power was the right thing to do.