The Daily Blog

Harry Reid Dislocates Shoulder In Fall.

WASHINGTON — An aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the lawmaker dislocated his right shoulder and has a bump over his left eye after he fell on Wednesday.

Spokesman Jon Summers said Reid went outside to exercise on a rainy day, put his hand on a wet surface and slipped. The Nevada Democrat was treated at George Washington Hospital and released.

Summers said the 71-year-old Reid planned to go to work as usual on Wednesday. Reid was absent at the start of Senate proceedings, with Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, taking his place.

Saif Al-Arab Gaddafi, Libya Leader’s Son, Killed By NATO Airstrike: Spokesman.

(Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi survived a NATO airstrike on Saturday night that killed his youngest son Saif al-Arab and three of his grandchildren, a Libyan government spokesman said.

Mussa Ibrahim said Saif al-Arab was a civilian and a student who had studied in Germany. He was 29 years old.

Libyan officials took journalists to the house, which had been hit by at least three missiles. The roof had completely caved in in some areas, leaving strings of reinforcing steel hanging down among chunks of concrete.

A table football machine stood outside in the garden of the house, which was in a wealthy residential area of Tripoli.

Envoy Says Gadhafi Seeking End to Libya Crisis.

BENGHAZI, Libya - An envoy of Moammar Gadhafi told Greece’s prime minister Sunday that the Libyan leader was seeking a way out of his country’s crisis two weeks after his government’s attacks to put down a rebellion drew international airstrikes, Greek officials said.

Abdul-Ati al-Obeidi, a former Libyan prime minister who has served as a Gadhafi envoy during the crisis, will travel next to Turkey and Malta in a sign that Gadhafi’s regime may be softening its hard line in the face of the sustained attacks.”From the Libyan envoy’s comments it appears that the regime is seeking a solution,” Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas said in a statement after the meeting in Athens.

The foreign minister said the Greek side stressed the international community’s call for Libya to comply with the U.N. resolution that authorized the airstrikes and demanded Gadhafi and the rebels end hostilities.

The message, Droutsas said, was: “Full respect and implementation of the United Nations decisions, an immediate cease-fire, an end to violence and hostilities, particularly against the civilian population of Libya.”

Gadhafi’s government has declared several cease-fires but has not abided by them.

Few other details of the Athens talks were released publicly.On Friday, the Libyan envoy had said Gadhafi’s government was attempting to hold talks with the U.S., Britain and France in an effort to halt the international airstrikes that began March 19 and which have pounded Libya’s troops and armor and grounded its air force.

Gadhafi’s superior forces had been close to taking the rebel capital of Benghazi in eastern Libya before the international military campaign.

Rebel forces made up of defected army units and armed civilians have since seized much of Libya’s eastern coast, but have been unable to push westward toward the capital, Tripoli.

On Sunday, Gadhafi’s forces pressed on with attacks against Misrata, the last key city in the western half of the country still largely under rebel control despite a weeks-long assault.

Government troops besieged civilian areas for around two hours Sunday morning with Grad rockets and mortar shells and lined a main street with snipers, said a doctor in the city.

Two shells landed on a field hospital, killing one person and injuring 11, he said. The attacks, including tank fire, began again after nightfall, he said. He did not want to be identified by name out of fear for his security.

A Turkish ship carrying 250 wounded from Misrata docked in Benghazi Sunday. The boat, which carried medical supplies, was also expected to pick up around 60 wounded people being treated in various hospitals in Benghazi, as well as 30 Turks and 40 people from Greece, Ukraine, Britain, Uzbekistan, Germany and Finland.

A leader of the rebel movement, meanwhile, sought to ease concerns from Western governments about its character and goals, emphasizing in an interview that the rebels will not allow Islamic extremists to hijack their plans to install a parliamentary democracy in place of Gadhafi’s four-decade rule.

The issue takes on added importance as Western officials debate whether to send the rebels weaponry in an attempt to help them gain the upper hand over Gadhafi’s superior troops.

“Libyans as a whole - and I am one of them - want a civilian democracy, not dictatorship, not tribalism and not one based on violence or terrorism,” said Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga, vice chairman of the opposition’s National Provisional Council.

The council, based in Benghazi, was formed to represent the opposition in the eastern Libyan cities that shook off control of the central government in a series of popular uprisings that began Feb. 15.

In Washington, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee in the House of Representatives was among several key lawmakers cautioning that the U.S. and its allies needed to know much more about the rebel forces before providing them with weapons.

Mike Rogers, a Republican from Michigan, said on NBC television’s “Meet the Press” that there may be strains of al-Qaida within the rebel ranks and the NATO-led coalition in the campaign against Gadhafi should proceed with caution before arming them.

Libya’s opposition has said any extremists among their ranks would be few in number, and Gadhafi’s own punishing campaigns crushed Islamic militants in the country years ago.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Sunday that his country would neither arm the rebels nor send ground troops to Libya.

“We have taken no decision to arm the rebels, the opposition, the pro-democracy people - whatever one wants to call them,” he told the BBC.

A British diplomatic team arrived Saturday in the rebels’ de facto capital of Benghazi to speak to members of the opposition council to learn more about their aims, British officials said Sunday.

Other fighting Sunday was concentrated around the strategic oil town of Brega, as it has been repeatedly during weeks of back-and-forth battling along Libya’s eastern coast. The rebels, backed by airstrikes, made incremental advances.

Rebels fired truck-mounted rocket launchers, then moved to avoid government counter-strikes, suggesting improving tactics and training.In Tripoli, an opposition supporter said Sunday that anxiety was spreading in areas of the capital as dozens of people disappear in pre-dawn raids, apparently carried out by Gadhafi’s security apparatus.

“They pick them up from their houses and they disappear. We don’t know if they’re still alive or dead,” said the activist who spoke on condition he not be identified to avoid arrest.

He also described the city as being locked down, saying many people were staying at home, shops were closed and hundreds of cars were lining up for hours at gas stations as people hoard supplies.

The U.S. was to have stopped flying strike missions in Libya as of Sunday after it passed control of the air operation to NATO last week. But alliance spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said the U.S. approved a request to extend that role until Monday because of “poor weather conditions over the last few days.” She did not elaborate.

Sudan Arrests Opposition Leader Amid Tunisia Uprising.

Sudan arrested a prominent Islamic opposition leader early today in a wave of arrests coinciding with neighboring Tunisia’s popular revolt, suggesting that other North African dictators may be seeking to tamp down similar uprisings before they happen.

Tunisia’s longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled his country Friday after weeks of violent unrest that began with protests over food prices and other social grievances. Similar economic woes simmer under the surface in Sudan and other North African countries like Egypt, where authoritarian regimes rule with a strong fist over a mostly poor populace.In Sudan, the Tunisian events come at a particularly sensitive time, after south Sudanese went to the polls to decide whether to break away from the country’s mostly Muslim north and form their own nation. Vote counting is still under way, but the results are widely expected to support Sudan’s split. Independence for south Sudan would mean President Omar al-Bashir would lose control over up to a third of the territory he currently rules.
His main political rival in the north, Hassan al-Turabi, was arrested overnight at his home in the capital Khartoum. Al-Turabi has encouraged student protests in recent weeks over cuts to government subsidies, hiking up the prices of fuel and food. Over the weekend, he called for a Tunisia-style revolt in Sudan.

“What happened in Tunisia is a reminder. This is likely to happen in Sudan,” al-Turabi told Agence France-Presse in an interview just hours before his arrest. “If it doesn’t, then there will be a lot of bloodshed.”

Al-Turabi was arrested after midnight along with his bodyguard, his son and eight other allies from his Islamic Popular Congress Party, his wife told Reuters. “This is criminal. How can they arrest a man who is 78 years old and put him in prison? We are scared for him,” Wisal al-Mahdi was quoted as saying.

Al-Turabi used to be a strong ally of al-Bashir, and helped him plan the 1989 military coup that landed him in power. But the two broke ties a decade later, and al-Turabi formed his own Islamist political party. He’s repeatedly called for al-Bashir’s ouster and has been in and out of police custody.”Al-Turabi has been arrested before, and I think (al-Bashir) is following a strategy to make sure popular groups are unable to capitalize on southern secession,” Roger Middleton, a Sudan expert at London’s Chatham House think tank, told AOL News. “The government intermittently arrests him when they get worried.”

Al-Turabi’s wife told The Associated Press that her husband’s bodyguard was released later today, but with bruises on his face, and claims to have been beaten while in custody. Al-Turabi still remains jailed.

His arrest comes at a low point for his former ally-turned-rival al-Bashir, who is wanted on an international indictment for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. Besides the southern secession vote and al-Turabi’s opposition in the north, al-Bashir also faces revolts by rebel groups in Darfur and in eastern Sudan, near the Ethiopian border.

Sudan Arrests Opposition Leader Amid Tunisia Uprising.

Sudan arrested a prominent Islamic opposition leader early today in a wave of arrests coinciding with neighboring Tunisia’s popular revolt, suggesting that other North African dictators may be seeking to tamp down similar uprisings before they happen.

Tunisia’s longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled his country Friday after weeks of violent unrest that began with protests over food prices and other social grievances. Similar economic woes simmer under the surface in Sudan and other North African countries like Egypt, where authoritarian regimes rule with a strong fist over a mostly poor populace.In Sudan, the Tunisian events come at a particularly sensitive time, after south Sudanese went to the polls to decide whether to break away from the country’s mostly Muslim north and form their own nation. Vote counting is still under way, but the results are widely expected to support Sudan’s split. Independence for south Sudan would mean President Omar al-Bashir would lose control over up to a third of the territory he currently rules.
His main political rival in the north, Hassan al-Turabi, was arrested overnight at his home in the capital Khartoum. Al-Turabi has encouraged student protests in recent weeks over cuts to government subsidies, hiking up the prices of fuel and food. Over the weekend, he called for a Tunisia-style revolt in Sudan.

“What happened in Tunisia is a reminder. This is likely to happen in Sudan,” al-Turabi told Agence France-Presse in an interview just hours before his arrest. “If it doesn’t, then there will be a lot of bloodshed.”

Al-Turabi was arrested after midnight along with his bodyguard, his son and eight other allies from his Islamic Popular Congress Party, his wife told Reuters. “This is criminal. How can they arrest a man who is 78 years old and put him in prison? We are scared for him,” Wisal al-Mahdi was quoted as saying.

Al-Turabi used to be a strong ally of al-Bashir, and helped him plan the 1989 military coup that landed him in power. But the two broke ties a decade later, and al-Turabi formed his own Islamist political party. He’s repeatedly called for al-Bashir’s ouster and has been in and out of police custody.”Al-Turabi has been arrested before, and I think (al-Bashir) is following a strategy to make sure popular groups are unable to capitalize on southern secession,” Roger Middleton, a Sudan expert at London’s Chatham House think tank, told AOL News. “The government intermittently arrests him when they get worried.”

Al-Turabi’s wife told The Associated Press that her husband’s bodyguard was released later today, but with bruises on his face, and claims to have been beaten while in custody. Al-Turabi still remains jailed.

His arrest comes at a low point for his former ally-turned-rival al-Bashir, who is wanted on an international indictment for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. Besides the southern secession vote and al-Turabi’s opposition in the north, al-Bashir also faces revolts by rebel groups in Darfur and in eastern Sudan, near the Ethiopian border.

British tour company criticized for offering ‘Hitler tour’ around Germany.

Would you spend $3100 to tour sites only associated with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler? One British tour group put together a trip that does just that, and is under fire by critics over the distasteful offering.

The tour takes 30 tourists on a luxury $3100 trip through Germany to visit sites associated with Hitler, according to a report in The Australian. The articles says the eight-day trip in June - titled “Face of Evil: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” - has been sanctioned by German authorities.

The tour includes more than just visiting a few concentration camps, which is common on many other tour groups through Germany. The concentration camps, which for many are a must-see when in Germany, are a significant part of history. But can you say the same for Hitler’s lakeside villa where he planned the Sachsenhausen concentration camp? That’s one stop on the Hitler tour, along with the spot where Hitler committed suicide.

Tour leaders say the trip is for those with a true interest in the history of the Holocaust era and will prevent any Neo-Nazi members from taking the tour; critics say the trip is a “perverse pilgrimage” to honor Hitler.

Pastor’s Ex-Wife Charged Abuse in Divorce Papers.

The ex-wife of the Atlanta megachurch leader accused of coercing young men into having sex with him claimed in divorce papers that the pastor was physically abusive.

Bishop Eddie Long’s ex-wife, Dabara Houston, said she was 7½ months pregnant when Long beat her with his fists. She accused her husband of having a “vicious and violent temper,” according to a 1985 divorce filing obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Long and Houston married in 1981 and have one child, a son. They divorced in 1985. Houston said she endured “cruel treatment” and “had to flee [the couple’s home] in order to ensure their safety,” according to the court papers from Fulton County Superior Court in Georgia.

Craig Gillen, an attorney for Long, did not immediately respond to a request for comment today. But he told the Journal-Constitution that it was “disappointing” that the media would focus on a divorce proceeding that happened so long ago. “The allegations of a divorce pleading that is nearly 30 years old are absolutely ‘not true,’ ” he told the paper. “It’s offensive and disappointing that the media would drag up these outrageous allegations and make them a part of their reporting.”Houston could not be reached for comment. Her brother, Lonnie Houston, told ABC that his sister “stays pretty much to herself” and said he didn’t know anything about her claims of abuse. “That’s been a long time ago,” he said. “[Long] was a fine fellow.”

Four men in Long’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church have filed civil lawsuits against the prominent pastor accusing him of using cash and cars to seduce them into sexual relationships with him as teenagers.

Long has denied the claims through surrogates and has publicly vowed to fight the charges against him

Missing Sect Members Found Alive, Leader Hospitalized.

(Sept. 19) — The leader of a religious sect was hospitalized for a psychiatric evaluation today after members of the group left farewell messages for relatives saying they were going to heaven to meet Jesus.

The messages frightened relatives and police, thinking the group might be planning a mass suicide, and a massive search was launched for the 13 sect members. The five adults and eight children were found safe late this morning, praying in a Los Angeles-area park, police said.Reyna Marisol Chicas, 32, identified by group members as their leader, was questioned by police and then hospitalized under a mandatory 72-hour hold for a mental evaluation, The Associated Press reported, citing the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Police said Chicas gave them a false name during questioning and began rambling, the AP and the Times said.

Authorities had earlier issued a public plea for members of the sect to contact them.

They are members are part of a “religious off-shoot group” that’s “cult-like” and “fundamentalist in nature,” Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore told KTLA, a local TV station, earlier. “If you’re watching this, come home,” he said in a plea on live TV. “Come home alive to the people who care for you.”In addition to Chicas, the group included three sisters, Salvadoran immigrants ages 30, 32 and 40, an 18-year-old son and eight children aged 3 to 17.

The search began Saturday afternoon when two husbands went to a sheriff’s station to report their wives missing, and told authorities they suspected the women had joined a cult that broke off from a mainstream Christian church in northern Los Angeles County, San Diego’s Channel 6 TV station reported.

One of the men told investigators he was ordered to guard and pray over a purse, but after several hours he got suspicious and looked inside. He found five cell phones, ID cards, deeds and letters in English and Spanish, the Los Angeles Times reported. “The letters essentially state that they are all going to heaven shortly to meet Jesus and their deceased relatives,” the California governor’s office said, according to CNN. “Numerous letters found say goodbye to their relatives. It is believed, through further investigation, that the missing persons’ intentions are to commit mass suicide.”One of the husbands told investigators that he believes his wife and the other missing people were brainwashed by Chicas, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Police put out an APB for three vehicles and used helicopters to scan Antelope Valley, a nearby area mentioned in some of the letters left behind. They also searching Vasquez Rocks, another wilderness spot where authorities believe the group had planned to go six months ago to wait then for the apocalypse or other catastrophic event. That previous trip was called off after a cult member told relatives about their plans.All 13 members of the sect were spotted late this morning at Jackie Robinson Park in Palmdale, Whitmore said.

Sheriff’s Capt. Mike Parker told the Los Angeles Times the group members were cooperative with authorities. They told police they were praying to end school violence and sexual immorality.

Paker said the group were surprised to learn there there fears they might commit suicide. “They seemed shocked,” Parker told the Times. “They said we are Christians, and we would never harm ourselves.”