The government of Zanzibar has passed a law banning homosexuality and imposing strict punishement for anyone caught.
The bill imposes stiff penalties which include up to 25 years imprisonment for those in gay relationships.
The overwhelmingly Muslim Indian Ocean island is a key tourist destination on the East African coast.
The attorney-general said they were determined to prevent Zanzibari culture from being corrupted. The president is expected to approve the bill into law.
I propose a tourist boycott to solve that problem.
Tragic decision for a country whose most famous son ever was known to be homosexual (or bisexual), Queen's singer Freddie Mercury.
PS updated: Zanzibar is actually a part of Tanzania. Mea Culpa and promise to look up next time.
Newsflash: Milosevic trial will last until the end of time
The war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague (Den Haag) has been a self-parody for quite some time, but now it has truly turned into a farce.
First, the judge presiding over the case, Judge Richard May, has resigned due to ill health and need to be replaced. His replacement is the well-respected Scottish judge Lord Bonomy, who will have to catch up with the case through reading documents, not actually having seen all the witness testimonies and cross examinations first hand. He will take his seat at the court on June 1, when the court case has had a three month (!) recess.
The court case started in 2002. The prosecution finally finished presenting its case in February. There were a number of delays due to Milosevic's ill health (why not move the trial to a hospital?). And, this is a punchline if not the punchline, the case was actually cut short.
This new appointment to the court in the middle of the trial is actually grounds for Milosevic to demand a retrial.
Second, we are only half way through the case. The defence will have the right to use as much time and present as much material as the prosecution. Milosevic has now presented his list of - hold on - 1,631 witnesses he will demand the right to question in the case. The list is apparently not complete yet. The list contains names like Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Madeleine Albright. And probably everybody's uncle and babysitter when they were little. Milosevic is not, as he has proven in this court case, a beaten man, and he is not at all stupid. Before this is over, the court and this particular case will have zero credibility in the eyes of ordinary Serbs, and not much more in the rest of the world either.
The court will of course edit the witness list heavily by ruling that some names are irrelevant, but there is no doubt this will take a very long time. Probably enough for a few other judges to retire, and the Serbian dictator to die from old age.
World Court, anyone? I'm out.
I know I shouldn't say this, but I am beginning to understand why the Romanians just shot Ceausescu and got it over with.
The US Marines want help to equip and set up independently owned Iraqi TV stations as a counterweight to the massively anti-American propaganda of al-Jazeera and other Arab media.
The donated equipment will be the property of the Iraqi stations. The stations can create their own news and choose their own programming with the agreement that they will prohibit airing of anti-coalition messages that incite the local population. The stations also agree to sell airtime at a fair market price so that the Marines can communicate their information efficiently and quickly when needed.
For example, images were recently broadcast of a mosque in Fallujah damaged during fighting. With these stations the Marines could have provided the full picture by airing video of combatants firing on them from the mosque grounds. These stations would have enabled Iraqis to understand the complete picture. News of reconstruction projects and humanitarian assistance that balances the news of conflict will also be provided on these stations. The stations will be free to criticize the Coalition.
A man in China has paid a whooping nine million yuan - $1.1m - for the mobile number 135 8585 8585 on an online auction. It is believed to be the most expensive mobile number ever.
What is special about this number is that when read, it is supposedly pronounced like "let me be rich, be rich, be rich, be rich" in Chinese.
Trade in so-called "lucky numbers" have been soaring in China.
Eh, I have a mobile number ending in 100. Any takers? Let's be reasonable and start at, say, $100K.
Bush made a nice dollar last year, paying around 28% federal income tax on his $822,126 income. Well, you can survive on that. What caught my attention, however, was this:
Bush overpaid his 2003 taxes by $61,451, and elected to apply the entire amount to their 2004 tax bill.
I should have hoped that the President of the United States is able to get someone to do the taxes for him, properly!
The war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic in 
