Obama Admin Seals Records of Murdered Border Patrol Agent Implicated in Fast and Furious

BY MARK HEMINGWAY

And to think that Attorney General Eric Holder is getting testy about congressional calls for his resignation. After all, the Justice Department has nothing to hide, right?:

The Obama Administration has abruptly sealed court records containing alarming details of how Mexican drug smugglers murdered a U.S. Border patrol agent with a gun connected to a failed federal experiment that allowed firearms to be smuggled into Mexico.

This means information will now be kept from the public as well as the media. Could this be a cover-up on the part of the “most transparent” administration in history? After all, the rifle used to kill the federal agent (Brian Terry) last December in Arizona’s Peck Canyon was part of the now infamous Operation Fast and Furious. Conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the disastrous scheme allowed guns to be smuggled into Mexico so they could eventually be traced to drug cartels.

Link via Judicial Watch. The murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent is related to the Justice Department willingly turning over thousands of guns to Mexican criminal gangs, and Obama administration is hiding information about his death from the public. Amazing. 

Kenny Rogers: On the Road Again

Concert photo's by Ray Tharsldson
all rights reserved 2011

By Brian Mansfield
Kenny Rogers likes his Christmas & Hits tour because it draws a completely different crowd than his concerts do the rest of the year. "Everybody's looking to remember what Christmas was like when they were kids," says the singer of country crossover hits like Lucille and The Gambler.

The 20-city music tour, which also features Billy Dean, kicks off tonight in Columbus, Ohio, and runs through Dec. 23 in Westbury, N.Y. "We try to do a lot of it up North, so we usually run into some snow."

Once upon a Christmas: The Christmas & Hits tour celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. It all started with some guy in the back of Atlanta's Fox Theatre during a mid-December show. "I was singing along, and he yells, 'Are you going to do any Christmas music?' " Rogers says. "I said, 'Well, wait a minute, I think I can.' So without even rehearsing, we did some Christmas piece. And the next year, we did four or five songs. It got bigger and bigger."

A Scholar-ly pursuit: Rogers, 73, got his start in a band called The Scholars. "That name was such a misnomer — we were D students," he says. "But we'd all seen the Four Freshmen and thought, 'Well, that's a cool name.' " The Scholars traveled the region around Houston, playing places like Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. "As 19-year-old kids, you'd sing to your grandmother and be happy about it. We were thrilled we were able to perform as professionals, even though our first job, which I think was a hundred miles away, we made 20 dollars each on."

A Showman's life — and near death: During the late '60s, Rogers joined the New Christy Minstrels, a popular folk group whose skills didn't extend to an understanding of physics. Which is why it made perfect sense for Rogers and drummer Mickey Jones to put the big Fender Dual Showman amplifier on top of the station-wagon rack. "We thought, that's heavy enough," Rogers says. And it was, at 30 miles an hour. It was even OK at 40 miles an hour. "Once you hit 50, it's not OK anymore," he says. "That thing lifted up — thank God there was nobody behind us — and we looked in the rearview mirror and there were sparks flying for half a mile behind us. We hooked it up that night and it played, but it was a little bit scarred up."

A bridge too far: Rogers played upright bass during his year and a half with the New Christy Minstrels. On one tour, the constant shipping and jostling caused the wooden bridge that holds the strings away from the instrument's body to work loose. One night, "that sucker popped off and went flying out into the audience," Rogers recalls. "Then I couldn't play bass. Aside from the fact that we had no bass in the sound, I stood there like an idiot and held this bass that couldn't be played, with four loose strings on it."

Rogers has a theory: "The audience expects 100% entertainment," he says. "If the opening act only gives them 10, I've got to give them 90. But if the opening act gives them 90, I've only got to give them 10!" The audience got a few bonus percentage points during one early-'80s show in Chicago, when Rogers headlined a show that also featured comedian George Burns and R&B great Ray Charles. "It was one of the coolest things, that cross-section of humor and music, and it really worked somehow."

Traveling in style: The days of station wagons and Greyhounds are far behind Rogers, who now travels in a customized Prevost tour bus. "I have a flat-screen, I have a chaise lounge, I have a refrigerator," he says. "What else does a man need?"

For more information visit:

http://www.kennyrogers.com/

Happy Thanksgiving!

Golden Eagle Attacks Cameraman!

by Shamil Zhumatov

OUCH! Sometimes being a cameraman is dangerous work!

Here a Golden Eagle attacks a cameraman during an annual hunting competition in Chengelsy Gorge, Kazakhstan.

When it snows on the steppes of eastern Kazakhstan, hunters saddle up and gallop off with eagles on their arms in search of prey. Many in Kazakhstan see eagle hunting as a symbol of their nation’s nomadic past and a throwback to an oft-romanticised era before these steppes turned into a geopolitical battleground between competing regional powers Russia and China.

You can see the rest of the pictures from the Kazakhstan Eagle Hunt on Stuff.co.nz. Just to let you know, there are a few photos of the eagle capturing a rabbit.

Walt Disney Company: CEO Robert Iger Joins Board of Apple

Robert A. Iger, the president and chief executive officer of the Walt Disney Company, will take on an additional role as a member of the board of Apple Inc.

Arthur D. Levinson becomes Apple’s new chairman, succeeding Apple co-founder Steven P. Jobs, who died in October.

The announcement was made by Apple this afternoon from its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.

“I am honored to be named chairman of Apple’s board and welcome Bob to our team,” Levinson said in a statement. “Apple is always focused on out-innovating itself through the delivery of truly innovative products that simplify and improve our lives, and that is something I am very proud to be a part of.”

Iger, 60, has been the chief executive at Disney since 2005 and before that was the company’s president and chief operating officer starting in 2000. He first came to ABC, Inc., in 1974, rising to become president and chief operating officer of ABC from 1994 to 1999.

Jobs and Iger knew each other for many years. Shortly after Iger became Disney’s chief executive, the two agreed in 2006 for Disney to acquire Pixar Animation Studios — a company that, under Jobs’ aegis, had reimagined the business of animated films. Under the agreement, Jobs joined the Disney board and became the company’s largest stockholder.

Jobs co-founded Apple Computer in 1976 and successfully marketed some of the world’s first successful personal computers. Later, as CEO from 1997 until shortly before his death, he introduced a succession of products, including the iPod, the iTunes online store, the iPhone and the iPad. He has been given credit for reinventing personal computing, recorded music, modern animation and wireless communications.

I

ger has been given credit for nurturing Disney’s core businesses in animation and theme parks and resorts, while expanding its media networks and moving the company into new media.

“Bob and I have gotten to know one another very well over the past few years and on behalf of the entire board, we think he is going to make an extraordinary addition to our already very strong board,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “His strategic vision for Disney is based on three fundamentals: generating the best creative content possible, fostering innovation and utilizing the latest technology, and expanding into new markets around the world which makes him a great fit for Apple.”

“Apple has achieved unprecedented success by consistently creating high quality, truly innovative products, and I am extremely pleased to join the board of such a wonderful company,” said Iger. “Over the years, I have come to know and admire the management team, now ably led by Tim Cook, and I am confident they have the leadership and vision to ensure Apple’s continued momentum and success.”

For more information visit:

http://disney.go.com

Euro on ‘Death Watch’ After Investors Spurn German Bonds

by John Melloy
Investors began to fear the worst for the euro after unusually weak demand at an auction for bonds from Germany, the region’s largest economy. One analyst went so far as to put the currency on a “death watch.”


Germany sold just 60 percent of the 6 billion euros in 10-year bunds it brought to auction, about the weakest demand seen for the country’s debt in the currency’s 16-year history, economists said. The rejection of debt from Europe’s safe harbor marks a new stage for the crisis.

“No bunds wanted equals no Euros wanted equals the Euro death watch,” wrote Mark Steele, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets. “We have seen many poor German auctions. This is not the issue. The issue is how badly the euro is doing after the weak auction.”

The euro [EUR=X  1.3345    0.0002  (+0.01%)   ] fell more than 1 percent against the dollar to a 7-week low against the Greenback. The currency threatened to break through the October lows that came amid the height of turmoil in Italy and Greece. Both countries would go on to install new Technocrat leaders, lifting confidence in the currency briefly.

The European Financial Stability Facility does not give the European Central Bank the same firepower or freedom of the Federal Reserve, which it utilized in the aftermath of the U.S. credit crisis with two rounds of massive purchases of Treasurys (QE)  . Germany has been reluctant to follow the Fed’s lead and buy up other countries bad debt because of fear over inflation.

German Chancellor “Merkel has been opposed to using the ECB as a monetizer of debt,” said Dennis Gartman of The Gartman Letter. “Germany doesn’t even like to think in these terms, but they may not have a choice.”

Recent reports have hinted at different workarounds of the euro treaty being discussed to effectively replicate quantitative easing in Europe. One option discussed was for the ECB to lend money to the IMF, which in turn would buy the toxic debt before it could spread to yet another country.

“It’s too late for a bazooka,” said Mitchell Goldberg, president of ClientFirst Strategy. “Now we need inter-continental ballistic missiles. This is getting worse very quickly.”

Investors had kept buying German bonds as they fled crisis after crisis in the region: first in Ireland, then in Greece and Italy, and now in Spain and Belgium. But Wednesday, 10-year bunds dropped significantly after the failed auction, pushing the yields above 2.05 percent, but perhaps more importantly above the U.S. treasury with the same maturity for the first time since early October.

“We are seeing the end of the euro currency as we know it,” said Brian Stutland of Stutland Volatility Group. “I don't see a single thing that causes the euro to rally other than the Fed announcing a ‘QE3’ in which they buy euro foreign debt.”

Death on the Set of 'G.I. Joe' Sequel

By ANTOINETTE BUENO
November 23, 2011

Mike Huber, a crew member working on G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation, died yesterday on set while working on the film in New Orleans.

"Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the Huber family at this time," Virginia Lam, spokesperson for Paramount Pictures, said in a statement to ET. "The safety of our cast and crew is our top priority and the studio is fully cooperating with all investigating agencies as they examine the circumstances surrounding this unusual accident."

The death comes less than a month after a stuntman was killed on the set of Expendables 2.

MORE: Stuntman Killed On Set of 'Expendables 2'

G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation, the Jon Chu-directed sequel to G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra, stars Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum and Dwayne Johnson, and began shooting in August.

The film is set to be released June 29, 2012.

Reagan's challenge to Soviets honoured

Lech Walesa, the former Polish President and anti-communist leader, unveiled a statue of Ronald Reagan in Warsaw yesterday.
Although the late US President's legacy is mixed at home, many in eastern Europe consider him a great leader for challenging the Soviet Union. AP

Putin greeted with boos and jeers at the big fight

by Shaun Walker

It was not the kind of reception that Vladimir Putin is used to. As the Russian Prime Minister stepped into the ring at Moscow's Olympic Stadium to congratulate Fedor Emelianenko, the winner of a martial arts clash on Sunday evening, boos and whistles rang out in the arena.

A moment of shock flickered across his face as he registered what was happening, before he regained his composure and carried on as normal. Nobody can remember anything like it happening before, and one blogger called it "the end of an era". The frosty reception from thousands of ordinary Russians will raise further alarm that discontent with Russia's ruling elite and Mr Putin himself is growing, ahead of elections in a fortnight's time.

The parliamentary elections on 4 December will set the stage for March presidential elections, in which Mr Putin has said he will stand, ending a four-year break during which he moved to the prime ministerial post but remained the most powerful man in the country. In the absence of a credible opposition and with control of the airwaves, Mr Putin is guaranteed to win, but analysts say his support is sliding, and offer the booing as the latest piece of evidence.

Mr Putin's supporters rushed to offer explanations for the hostile reception. Some said it was meant for the defeated American fighter Jeff Monson, who was leaving the arena just as Mr Putin appeared on the scene.

Others, less plausibly, claimed that the whistling was due to the fact that many of the crowd needed to go to the toilet. But in a telling sign, state-controlled television, which showed the fight and Mr Putin's speech live, edited out the whistling and played a more neutral crowd soundtrack during repeats of the speech. A video of the incident with whistling and booing clearly audible, garnered over half a million hits on YouTube within 24 hours.

Polls show Mr Putin's approval ratings, while still high, have slipped by several percentage points since he announced that he planned to return to the Kremlin two months ago. Experts say that after 12 years in charge, his promise of political stability and his macho image may hold less appeal. There have also been voices of discontent over the preparations for next month's parliamentary elections, with allegations of pressure and fraud to ensure that Mr Putin's United Russia wins a respectable majority.

Another clip doing the rounds on the Russian blogosphere is a speech given in parliament last week by the MP Gennady Gudkov. "Our elections are a mix of abuse of administrative resources and work going ahead at full speed to ensure falsification," Mr Gudkov alleged, in a short but fiery speech that was unusual for Russia's rubber-stamp parliament, once famously described as "not a place for discussion".

Mr Gudkov, an MP from the Just Russia party, continued with accusations that doctors, teachers and other state workers are being forced to vote for Mr Putin's United Russia.

Tasmanians, Kiwis await eclipse treat

TASMANIANS and Kiwis will be among a select global audience treated to a front-row view of a partial solar eclipse this week.

The moon will appear to take a nibble out of the sun on Friday, a spectacle that will be visible from only a small sliver of the world.

It will be the fourth and last partial solar eclipse of the year.

Weather permitting, Tasmanians, Kiwis, people in some parts of South Africa may glimpse the phenomenon.

At its peak, 90 per cent of the sun will be blocked over Antarctica.

If you are not within viewing range, fret not. In May, an annular, or ring-shaped, solar eclipse promises to dazzle a larger audience, since it will be visible from the western US and eastern Asia.

Scientists urge people to wear protective glasses when viewing a solar eclipse.

For more information visit the NASA site at:

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html

Penn State taps former FBI director Louis Freeh in child sex abuse investigation

By Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — Former FBI director Louis Freeh, tapped to lead Penn State’s investigation into the child sex abuse allegations against a former assistant football coach, said his inquiry will go as far back as 1975, a much longer period than a grand jury report issued earlier this month.

Freeh was named Monday to oversee the university board of trustees’ internal investigation into the abuse allegations that ultimately led to the ouster of longtime football coach Joe Paterno and university President Graham Spanier.

Freeh said his goal was to conduct a comprehensive, fair and quick review. His team of former FBI agents, federal prosecutors and others has already begun the process of reading the grand jury report and looking at records.

“We will immediately report any evidence of criminality to law enforcement authorities,” said Freeh, who has no direct connection to Penn State.

Penn State has faced criticism since announcing that its internal investigation would be led by two university trustees, Merck pharmaceutical company CEO Kenneth Frazier and state Education Secretary Ronald Tomalis.

Faculty members on Friday called for an independent investigation of how the university handled abuse allegations, and the faculty senate endorsed a resolution asking for an independent investigation.

In announcing Freeh’s appointment, Frazier stressed the former FBI director’s independence. Freeh will be empowered to investigate employees up to and including the board of trustees itself, Frazier said.

“No one is above scrutiny,” Frazier said. “He has complete rein to follow any lead, to look into every corner of the university to get to the bottom of what happened and then to make recommendations that will help ensure that it never happens again.”

Freeh said he had been assured there would be “no favoritism.” He called that assurance “the main condition of my engagement.”

Former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is accused of molesting eight boys over a 15-year period beginning in the mid-1990s. Authorities say some assaults happened on campus and were reported to administrators but not to police.

Authorities say Sandusky, who retired from Penn State in 1999, met the children through The Second Mile, a youth charity that he started in 1977. By going back as far as 1975, Freeh’s investigation would cover the entire time The Second Mile has existed and 24 of the 30 years that Sandusky worked at Penn State.

Amid the scandal, Penn State’s trustees ousted Spanier and Paterno. The trustees said Spanier and Paterno failed to act after a graduate assistant claimed he saw Sandusky sexually abusing a young boy in a campus shower in 2002.

Paterno, who has the most wins of any major college football coach, has conceded he should have done more. Spanier has said he would have reported a crime if he had suspected one had been committed.

Sandusky has said he is innocent. He has acknowledged he showered with boys but said he never molested them.

Former school administrators Tim Curley — who is on administrative leave — and Gary Schultz are charged with not properly alerting authorities to suspected abuse and with perjury. They maintain their innocence.

UPDATE: Reported Terrorism Arrest

UPDATE: New York (CNN) -- Authorities have arrested a man they claim was plotting to detonate pipe bombs in and around New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sunday night.

The intended targets of Jose Pimentel, 27, were U.S. military personnel who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as U.S. postal facilities and police stations, according to Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

The suspect was described by Bloomberg as an "al Qaeda sympathizer," though he is not believed to have ever made direct contact with anyone in the organization.

"There is no evidence he worked with anyone else," Bloomberg said. "He appears to be ... a lone wolf."

He was arrested at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in an apartment in Washington Heights, a neighborhood in northern Manhattan, as he began to drill holes in the would-be pipe bomb, Kelly said. While authorities had monitored him for over two years, they decided to move quickly for fear that device may soon explode, according to the commissioner.

The suspect allegedly learned how to make a pipe bomb after reading Inspire, the al Qaeda terrorist network's English-language online propaganda, recruiting and training magazine.

"He was a reader of al Qaeda's slick online magazine Inspire -- and inspire him it did," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said. "His stated desire to attack our servicemen and women ... could have come from an al Qaada playbook."


By  NEEWSCORE

NEW YORK - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is scheduled to hold a news conference Sunday evening that is reportedly terrorism-related.

NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly is also expected to attend the news conference, called on short notice, and scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

The suspect was planning to bomb city police facilities and US military sites, where he plotted to target returning war personnel and the families who gathered to welcome them home, The NY Post reported, citing unnamed sources.

The suspect, who lives in Manhattan, was arrested after he actually purchased bomb-making materials, according to The Post.

The Daily News described him as a Dominican with an anti-American grudge.

The Band Perry, Rihanna, Usher added to Grammy Nominations Concert

More stars have been added to the upcoming Grammy Nominations Concert.

photo's by Ray Tharaldson all rights reserved 2011

Rihanna, Usher and The Band Perry are the latest performers added to the lineup for the November 30 concert/TV special.

The three acts join previously announced performers Lady Gaga, Sugarland, Ludacris, Lupe Fiasco and Jason Aldean for the show.

Two-time Grammy winner LL Cool J is, once again, set to host the one-hour special from L.A.’s Nokia Theatre.

The show is set up to announce nominations in several categories for the 54th Grammy Awards, which take place February 12, 2012.

The concert special marks the fourth time nominations for the annual GRAMMY Awards will be announced live on primetime television. 

The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! special airs on CBS on Wednesday, November 30 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

Joe Paterno Beset By Several Health Issues Since 2006

photo's by Ray Tharaldson

all rights reserved 2011

story by Mike Poorman

The revelation by Joe Paterno’s son Scott that the recently fired Penn State football coach has treatable lung cancer is the latest in a spate of ailments that have beset the elder Paterno.

Paterno, who turns 85 on Dec. 21, has been battling a variety of ailments – many of them injuries attained on the football field – over the past six seasons.

Prior to the cancer discovery, the most recent occurred at the start of summer drills in August 2011.

During practice inside Penn State’s Holuba Hall on Aug. 7, Paterno was accidently blindsided by 5-foot-7, 157-pound receiver Devon Smith. He suffered shoulder and pelvis injuries and was hospitalized for a day. No surgery was required.

He returned to practice three days after the accident, but for most of the next several weeks spent practice in a golf cart. He appeared before the media on Aug. 10 with his right arm in a sling and seated in a cart labeled No. 1.

The effects of the injuries lasted through August and into November. For over a month he moved with the aid of a walker and then with a cane. In the nine games Paterno coached in 2011, he spent only six out of a total of 36 quarters on the field during a game.

BEGINNING IN 2006

Dating back to 2006, when he was 79, Paterno’s injuries and maladies included a broken leg, a busted hip and severe intestinal problems. They have caused him to miss a regular-season game following surgery in 2006, and to coach several games from the press box over two different seasons.

In 2006, in an away game in Madison against Wisconsin, Paterno was chopped down along the sideline when Badgers linebacker DeAndre Levy tackled Penn State tight end Andrew Quarless, and then Levy's helmet rolled into Paterno's knee. The top of Paterno's shin was broken and he also sustained two ligament injuries.

Paterno, then 79, missed the next game, a home contest against Temple, following surgery. He was in the Beaver Stadium press box for the 2006 regular season finale against Michigan State.

In 2008, during a preseason practice, Paterno, then 81, was demonstrating to his players how to perform an onside kick and he severely hurt his hip in the process. He spent much of that season coaching from the press box, while conducting practice in a golf cart. Much of the time, he walked with the aid of a cane.

Paterno had hip surgery the day after the final 2008 regular-season game, and coached along the sidelines in Penn State's Rose Bowl appearance 39 days later.

Then came myriad intestinal problems in 2010, which left Paterno looking frail and a bit dazed at the Big Ten Conference's Media Days last summer in Chicago. That came on the heels of a summer where Paterno spent much of his time close to home. He cancelled a number of alumni and booster events due to intestinal problems exacerbated by bad reactions to medication. Although he started the 2010 football season in apparently poor health, his appearance and countenance improved greatly as the year went on.

ROBUST TO START 2011

When on July 29 Paterno returned to Chicago on for the 2011 Big Ten Media Days, what a difference a year made. The Nittany Lion coach was tan and appeared robust: "I feel a lot better than I did a year ago," he told the assembled media, again and again.

He spent much this past summer getting into shape for the 2011 campaign, walking from 30 to 35 miles a week, and was a constant sight on the Penn State campus and around State College.

At that time, Paterno said although he is in the final year of his three-year contract with Penn State, he had no plans to retire after the 2011 season.

"Right now, I'm looking at four-five more years," said Paterno, adding with a shrug: "I may be optimistic; I don't know."

Spain election: Conservatives set to win landslide victory, exit polls show.

By Fiona Govan, Madrid

Spain’s conservative party were set to win an overwhelming victory as the nation went to the polls to choose a government to steer the country through a looming debt crisis.

Initial exit polls suggested the Popular Party had secured between 181 and 185 seats, compared to 154 in the last legislature and that the socialists could only hope to win between 115 and 119 seats. The final results were not expected until late into Sunday night.

Mariano Rajoy, leader of the centre-right Popular Party (PP) was on course to win an absolute majority, as voters punished the ruling Socialists for their perceived mishandling of the economy.

But the 56-year old will have little time to savour his victory as fears grow that the debt laden nation may yet need to seek a bail-out after borrowing costs last week edged towards an unsustainable level.

Monday morning will bring the new Prime Minister the daunting task of winning over financial markets and bring confidence that Spain can swiftly trim its public deficit to save it from becoming the next victim of the Euro crisis.

Mr Rajoy gave little detail of the measures to come during the campaign but pledged major reforms, deeper austerity measures to bring Spain out of the crisis.

Muammar Qaddafi's Son Saif al-Islam Captured in Libya

AP NEWS:

The rebels who captured Muammar Qaddafi's son and one-time heir apparent say they will hold him until a court system is set up in Libya and are demanding that he be tried inside the country.

Rebels from the western mountain town of Zintan captured Saif al-Islam Saturday in the southern Libyan desert, raising questions about whether they will turn him over to the new transitional government in Tripoli that took power after Qaddafi fell or to the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, which wants to try him on charges of crimes against humanity.

The head of Zintan's military council, Col. Mohammed al-Khabash, said Sunday that Saif al-Islam will be held in Zintan until a court system is established in Libya.

Saif al-Islam — the only wanted member of the ousted ruling family to remain at large — was captured as he traveled with aides in a convoy in Libya's southern desert, Libyan officials said Saturday. Thunderous celebratory gunfire shook the Libyan capital as the news spread.

A spokesman for the Libyan fighters who captured him said Saif al-Islam was detained about 30 miles west of the town of Obari with two aides as he was trying to flee to neighboring Niger. But the country's acting justice minister later said the convoy's destination was not confirmed.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo told The Associated Press that he will travel to Libya next week for talks with the country's transitional government on where the trial will take place. Ocampo said that while national governments have the first right to try their own citizens for war crimes, he wants to make sure Saif al-Islam has a fair trial.

"The good news is that Saif al-Islam is arrested, he is alive, and now he will face justice," Ocampo said in an interview in The Hague. "Where and how, we will discuss it."

Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, at 39 the oldest of seven children of Moammar and Safiya Qaddafi, had long drawn Western favor in by touting himself as a liberalizing reformer in the autocratic regime but then staunchly backed his father in his brutal crackdown on rebels in the regime's final days.

He had gone underground after Tripoli fell to revolutionary forces and issued audio recordings to try to rally support for his father.

His capture just over a month after his father was killed leaves only former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi wanted by the ICC, which indicted the three men for in June for unleashing a campaign of murder and torture to suppress the uprising against the Qaddafi regime that broke out in mid-February.

"This is the day of victory, this is the day of liberation, finally the son of the tyrant has been captured," said Mohammed Ali, an engineer, as he celebrated on Tripoli's Martyrs' Square. "Now we are free, now we are free, God is Great."

Libyan state TV posted a photograph purportedly of Saif al-Islam in custody. He is sitting by a bed and holding up three bandaged fingers as a guard looks on, although it could not independently be confirmed where or when the picture was taken or how he was injured.

The murky circumstances surrounding the deaths of Qaddafi and another son Muatassim, and the decision to lay their bodies out for public viewing drew widespread criticism and raised questions about the commitment of Libya's new rulers to respecting human rights.

Marek Marczynski of Amnesty International urged the governing National Transitional Council to transfer Saif al-Islam to the ICC base in the Netherlands as soon as possible.

"The ICC has an arrest warrant out for him and that is the correct thing to do. He must be brought before a judge as soon as possible," he said. "It matters for the victims. What they need to see is true justice. They need to know the truth about what happened."

Interim Justice Minister Mohammed al-Alagi told The Associated Press that Saif al-Islam was detained deep in Libya's desert Friday night by revolutionary forces from the mountain town of Zintan who had been tracking him for days.

Saif al-Islam was being held in Zintan but would be transported to Tripoli soon, according to al-Alagi.

A spokesman for the Zintan brigades, Bashir al-Tlayeb, who first announced the capture at a press conference in Tripoli, said the NTC, which took over governing the country after Qaddafi was ousted, would decide where Saif al-Islam would be tried.

"Saif al-Islam was caught with two aides who were trying to smuggle him into Niger," al-Tlayeb said, adding that he had no information about al-Senoussi's whereabouts.

The justice minister, however, said Saif al-Islam was captured closer to the Algerian border and the convoy's destination was not known.

The White House said it was aware of the reports but had no immediate comment.

The International Criminal Court had earlier said that it was in indirect negotiations with a son of the late Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi about his possible surrender for trial.

ICC prosecutor Ocampo said jurisdiction should not be hard to determine.

"The rules are, primacy for the national authorities, depending on if they have a case," he said.

But he added that judges at the ICC would have to formally approve a transfer of venue, under international law.

Libya's Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam said the NTC had not taken an official position yet, but in his personal view, Saif al-Islam "is an outlaw and should be tried in front of the Libyan Court, by Libyan people and by Libyan justice."

The international community said the treatment of Saif al-Islam would be an important test for the role of rule of law in post-Qaddafi and key to reconciliation efforts, regardless of where he is tried.

"The Libyan authorities should now ensure that Saif al-Islam is brought to justice in accordance with the principles of due process and in full cooperation with the International Criminal Court," the European Union said in a statement.

Brazil takes center stage in UFC's plans

By Chad Dundas

ESPN.com

Buda Mendes/Getty Images

Based on the success of UFC 134, the UFC can't wait to take its act back to Brazil.

The UFC was initially skeptical about taking its brand back to Brazil. 

As recently as mid-2010, Dana White wasn’t thrilled with the idea, saying the fight promotion would focus its international expansion efforts on potential boom markets like India, China and the Middle East instead. There was even some pie-in-the-sky talk of doing a double-secret show in Afghanistan before the UFC mentioned any serious plans of returning to Brazil for the first time since 1998. 

A bit more than a year later, the world looks a whole lot different. 

Junior dos Santos’ first-round victory over Cain Velasquez on Saturday night means three of the UFC’s seven champions are now Brazilian and, according to the company’s early estimates, as many as 60 million of the new champ’s countrymen tuned in to watch him fight. 

If true, that number is simply staggering. You don't have to be one of the world's greatest fight promoters to know what to do next, but it doesn't hurt that the UFC has one of them on the payroll, either. 

“Brazil is becoming our new Canada,” White said at the postfight media conference for UFC on Fox. “We’re going to be doing a lot of stuff in Brazil. Brazil is taking off. It’s crazy down there how popular this is becoming.” 

White says the long-rumored Brazilian incarnation of “The Ultimate Fighter” will be forthcoming “immediately” and the company already had its follow up to August’s UFC 134 booked, in the form of a quick jump back to Rio de Janeiro on Feb. 14 for UFC 142. 

Now it appears those two events will be the first of many happy returns. 

There has been talk of doing future shows in 100,000 seat stadiums in Manaus and Sao Paolo and the company recently inked a broadcast contract with Brazil’s Rede Globo TV, the fourth-largest commercial public television network in the world. That was the deal that made it possible for those 60 million people to watch dos Santos wrap the UFC title around his waist in the first place. 

Another, much smaller indicator of the sport’s success in South America’s largest country? Brazilian fighters scored big in the UFC’s first ever round of Twitter bonuses recently, with Anderson Silva, Paulo Thiago, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Demian Maia and Cristiane Santos making it a clean sweep in awards for most new followers, both in sheer numbers and by percentage. 

“Imagine where we’ll be in two years ...,” White said. “What we’ve seen here in the United States and everywhere else that we go is when we take [MMA] to all the different cities around Brazil, it’ll just get bigger and bigger and bigger.” 

The UFC's Brazilian renaissance isn’t just financial. The country that gave birth to modern MMA’s first champion is asserting itself inside the cage too, not only through fighters like dos Santos and Silva, but with a next wave of young guns like Jose Aldo, Erick Silva, Renan Barao and Charles Oliveira.

“There’s so much talent coming out of Brazil, it’s insane,” White said. “We’ve already done all the leg work for ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ and I’m telling you guys, wait until you see the talent that comes out of this country over the next two years, it’s going to be crazy ... You’re going to see more kids training down there for mixed martial arts than soccer down there pretty soon.” 

Mere hyperbole? Probably. Nonetheless, it appears the UFC may have unexpectedly found a new home away from home. 

And it’s sure been a long time since anyone with the organization has said a word about China.

Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview

by Roger Ebert.

If Steve Jobs was right in 1995 and the computer is the most important tool in the history of the human race, then he was the most important toolmaker. In that year he was in exile from Apple, fired by the company he co-founded, and running his own much smaller company named NeXT. Soon he would sell NeXT to Apple and become Apple's CEO. Ahead lay a new generation of Macs and iPhones, iPods and lots of cool iStuff.

Jobs rarely sat down for interviews. He was highly conscious of message control as a part of marketing; note how tight Apple's security is on new product introductions. 

In 1995 he sat down for a 70-minute interview with Robert X. Cringely, technology writer and blogger. Bites from it were used in "Triumph of the Nerds," Cringely's PBS series. Most of it has never been seen and was thought to be lost en route from London to New York. Recently, Cringely says in his intro to this doc, a copy was found in London. Now, soon after Jobs' death on Oct. 5, it's being shown via HDNet in Landmark Theaters in 19 cities, including Chicago's Landmark Century. Most cities will see it at 7:15 and 9 p. m. on Nov. 16 and 17. In Palo Alto, where he lived and died, it will play for a week.

Jobs was 40 when this interview took place. He recalls with savor the early days when he and Steve Wozniak built the Apple I in a garage, and unknowingly invented cell phones by rigging it to send a telephone call around the world to ring the pay phone next door a minute later. "We realized we two could control billions of dollars in infrastructure!" he smiles. He also remembers them calling the Pope and hanging up when they realized they'd actually gotten through.

He and Cringely (a former Apple employee) were on good terms, and Jobs was unusually open. One of his motives was that he believed Apple was on a slow slide into extinction. He's frank about John Sculley, the executive he hired and who pushed him out: Scully knew little about computers but a great deal about survival.

He tells the story of how he saw a Graphical User Interface in Xerox's PARC lab in Palo Alto, and realized in an instant it represented the future of computing. He tells other hardware and software stories, but seems more interested in the process of running a company in which diamonds in the rough can polish each other by constant friction. He discusses his management theories, which made him arguably the best chief executive of his time, and remembers his first visit, as a 12-year-old nerd, to Hewlett-Packard. "It was the only company I'd ever seen," he tells Cringely. "I thought it was great how they had free coffee and doughnuts."

Steve Jobs has held a special fascination for me since I bought one of the first Macs. And you? It's likely you already know if you want to see this documentary, which isn't really a film; it's raw material for a film, in the form of Jobs speaking in close-up. It's a tribute to the singular popularity of Steve Jobs that he's probably the only talking head people would pay to watch for more than an hour.

For more information visit:http://www.apple.com/