Saudi female lawyers to practice in KSA: report

DUBAI:  Saudi judiciary officials have announced that female lawyers would soon be allowed to represent their clients in the courtroom, reported the Saudi Arabic daily al-Madina.

The Ministry of Justice said that women will be issued a restrictive form of license which will give them access to certain areas of the courts and in cases in which they are representing female clients only.

A study has already been prepared by the ministry which recommends that the best way of protecting women’s rights in various cases would be by being represented in the court by a female lawyer, the daily quoted Sheikh Abdullah al-Guwair, director of the department of lawyers at the Saudi Ministry of Justice.

"The Ministry decided to go on with such a move after noticing that a large number of women give often give up their rights just because they are too shy to talks about the details of their personal issues to male lawyers," he said.

Guwair predicted that there would be opposition over the decision to grant license to Saudi female lawyers citing conservatism.

"A female lawyer would not be working side by side with male lawyers, but there would be certain rules controlling the access to the different courtrooms," he explained.

Women will have a certain section within the courts that will be solely allocated for their cases and their representative female lawyers, if the proposal is passed by the concerned authorities, the newspaper quoted Guwair.

Soldiers, Family Come Together To Grieve at Fort Hood

Texas: President Obama spoke at a memorial ceremony at Fort Hood, Texas, Tuesday for the 13 people who died there last week when a gunman opened fire at the large military base. The alleged attacker, who was wounded by police, is an army psychiatrist. The attack on a domestic base, allegedly by a fellow soldier has saddened and shocked many servicemen and their families.

The signs of grief are not hard to miss at Fort Hood. Flowers and messages are displayed around the sign at the main entrance and there is a subdued tone on base. But the soldiers carry on and the military family pulls together.

Among the visitors Tuesday was a group of women who all have sons serving overseas in different branches of the military. They came from various parts of Texas to offer support to soldiers and families here.

Rhonda Lyn Anderson has two sons in the armed forces at other posts, but she came here to do what she could.

"The only thing we can do is offer them hugs and prayers and just let them know that we know how they feel," said Rhonda Lyn Anderson. "But for the grace of God that could be one of mine."

Katy Canfield has a son in the Marines overseas and she says the attack on this army base has affected men and women from all branches of the military.

"They are trained to think about what the enemy outside is going to do to you, but they are really not looking at one of their own attacking them and killing them," said Katy Canfield.

Soldiers here expressed appreciation for the president's visit and the support of civilians who have sent donations to the families of the shooting victims. The 70,000 some people who call Fort Hood home are used to memorial events; some 545 soldiers from this base have died in recent years in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Twenty-one-year-old specialist Chris Love has seen action in Afghanistan, but he says he never expected to confront it here.

"It is a real shock because when we come back from deployment we are expecting nice quiet surroundings where we feel safe again and we can get over what happened when we were overseas and something like this, especially on the base, it really shakes a lot of people, especially new people to the Army," said Chris Love.

But Sergeant Perry Osburn says soldiers remain comfortable on this base and do not worry about another attack.

"We cannot let this make us afraid, you know what I am saying? You just got to keep moving on," said Sergeant Osburn.

This was a day to reflect and to remember those who died, but it was also a day for the army family to come together and to carry on. Flags remain at half staff, but the routine at this large base is back to normal and many soldiers say that is the best tribute they can give to the fallen, to carry on the mission and carry out their duty to the nation.

Drones scour the sea for pirates

Sleek and sinister-looking, the latest weapon against piracy could have flown directly out of a science fiction film.

The US military has deployed its Reaper unmanned drones to scour the Indian Ocean with their all-seeing, infra-red eye.

Somali pirates are attacking farther and farther from home; previously safe areas are now very much within range.

The farthest attack from shore has just taken place - an oil tanker managed to evade two skiffs some 1,000 nautical miles (1,850km) off Somalia - 400 nautical miles (741km) north-east of the Seychelles.

In total, close to 200 crew members are being held hostage for ransom and hardly a day passes without news of another attack.

The drone is controlled remotely and can fly up to 18 hours at a time.

Its camera is capable of zooming in on suspected pirates from heights of up to 15,200m (50,000ft).

"It has multiple zooms and is very good for the mission for scanning very large areas," said Cdr Gregory Hand of the US military, as he watched one of the three grey drones taxi along the runway besides the turquoise waters of the Seychelles.

"These aircraft have the capability of carrying weapons, but there are currently no plans to place weapons on them," he says.  more

AK-47 designer's birthday marked

MOSCOW:  Russia marked the 90th birthday of the legendary automatic rifle designer Mikhail Kalashnikov, presenting him with the country's highest award.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev bestowed him with the Hero of Russia medal in the Kremlin. Medvedev, says his contribution gives Russians a feeling of pride.

He designed the Kalashnikov, also known as the AK-47 toward the end of World War II. The rifle was adopted by the Soviet army in 1947, and became the mainstay of the country's troops during the Cold War.

It also gained popularity among gangsters and guerrillas. Kalashnikov, says he would have liked to invent something more peaceful.

He insists it was made only for national defence. The inventor made no money from the weapon and lives on a meagre pension in the town of Izhe-vsk, where his rifle is manufactured.

Pakistanis defy terrorism with Pakistan fashion week and dance parties

ISLAMABAD: Pakistanis defy terrorism with Pakistan fashion week and dance parties. Suicide bombings, militant arrests and high security checks and alerts have become a routine in Pakistan, but this surging violence and the bleak security and economic situation of the country has failed to deter the people from enjoying the happy moments of their lives.

Fatima, a young enthusiastic graduate student with western thinking, along with her friends celebrated her birthday at a local restaurant in the posh Defense area of Lahore city Monday night. The celebration also included a dance party.

Security was on high alert as Peshawar witnessed two suicide blasts in two days and there were intelligence reports of possible terrorist acts in Lahore as well.

Michael Jackson's funeral cost more than $1 million, court documents show

The Forest Lawn crypt cost $590,000, and $35,000 was spent on the pop star's clothing. On Tuesday, his mother dropped her objection to two associates of her son being named executors of his estate.

The cost of Michael Jackson's private funeral topped $1 million, with more than half that amount going to buy a crypt in a celebrity-studded Glendale mausoleum and $35,000 spent on clothes for the singer, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday.

Jackson, who died in June, was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in September in a nighttime ceremony arranged by his family and paid for by his estate. The probate judge who signed off on those expenses made public the funeral costs at a hearing in which he also appointed two longtime Jackson associates, entertainment attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain, as executors of his estate.

As described in the filing, the estate paid, among other expenses, $590,000 for Jackson's crypt in Forest Lawn's Great Mausoleum, a vast granite- and marble-filled palazzo that is the final resting place of Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and other stars. Guest invitations, which went out to Jackson friends Elizabeth Taylor, Macaulay Culkin, Quincy Jones and others, cost $11,716. The bill for security, including the fleet of luxury cars that delivered Jackson's children, parents and siblings to the ceremony, came to $30,000. The florist's bill was $16,000, and the funeral planner charged $15,000. An Italian restaurant in Pasadena billed $21,455 for a "funeral repast" after the service.

A lawyer for the estate executors noted that Jackson's family decided on the details of the ceremony, but said a lavish funeral fit the life the singer lived.

"It was Michael Jackson. He was bigger than life when he was alive," attorney Howard Weitzman said.

Details of the funeral expenses came amid a flurry of developments in the legal wrangling between Jackson's parents, Katherine and Joe, and the men whom the entertainer willed to run his affairs. In his will, Jackson placed all his assets in a trust benefiting his children, charities and his mother -- his closest confidant -- but left nothing to his father, whom he had criticized as violent and bullying.

Katherine Jackson announced Tuesday through a lawyer that she was withdrawing her objections to Branca and McClain overseeing her son's posthumous interests and would work with them to enhance the value of his estate.

"She wants the fighting to end, and she wants it to end now," said Adam Streisand, an attorney recently hired by the family matriarch.

Her change of heart came as a shock to her husband, whose attorney appeared in court to make a last-minute attempt to derail the appointment of the executors. Joe Jackson's lawyer said the patriarch believed there had been a backroom deal between the executors and Katherine Jackson to buy her compliance.

"She has reneged on her obligation to her family," lawyer Brian Oxman said. Weitzman, the executors' lawyer, denied the allegations, which he termed "outrageously spurious."

Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff set a December hearing for Joe Jackson to seek a monthly allowance for living expenses that he says his son had covered for decades, but the judge said the singer's father had no legal standing to object to the executors because he wasn't a beneficiary.

"Joe Jackson ultimately takes none of this estate and that was a decision his son made," the judge said.

Power back to Brazil after mass blackout

Brazil:  Power has been largely restored to much of southern Brazil after a four-hour blackout plunged the country's biggest cities into darkness.

According to officials and witnesses, the blackout triggered a crime alert in the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, where authorities launched a major police mobilization.

The power outage originated in the Itai-pu hydroelectric plant that straddles the border between Brazil and Paraguay and generates much of the electricity used by the two nations, Energy Minister Edison Lobao said.

The blackout which hit at 10:15 pm Tuesday (0015 GMT Wednesday) left at least 40 million people in about 800 cities in the dark.

Large parts of neighboring Paraguay were also plunged into darkness which lasted for only 20 minutes.

The exact cause of the power outage is yet to be determined.

Houthis release footage of seized Saudi army vehicles, troops

Yemeni Shia Houthi fighters have released recent footage of clashes with the Saudi military at the two countries' joint border.

The video shows the seizure of Saudi army vehicles by the fighters. It also shows Saudi soldiers fleeing the scene of battles as Houthi fighters open fire on them.

The Saudi Arabian air force launched a deadly offensive against Houthis eight days ago, accusing the Shia resistance fighters of killing two Saudi soldiers on the border.

While Riyadh says that its offensive targeted Houthi positions on 'Saudi territory', the fighters say Yemeni villages, far from the battlefield, were being bombarded.

On several occasions, the Saudi air force has also attacked the areas of al-Malahaid and the border region of Jabal al-Dukhan with white phosphorous bombs, the fighters say.

Their attacks have killed and wounded several people.

The Houthis say they've captured an unspecified number of Saudi troops inside the Yemeni territory in response to Saudi attacks on their positions and villages.

They have also posted footage of a man they identified as one of several Saudi soldiers in their custody. The video showed a man in military uniform with facial wounds and an apparent leg injury receiving medical attention. It identified him as Staff Sergeant Ahmad Abdullah al-Omari.

Houthi fighters accuse Riyadh of supporting the Yemeni government in launching attacks against them.

The Yemeni government accuses Houthi fighters of seeking to reinstate the imamate rule, which ended in a 1962 coup. The Houthis, however, say they are defending themselves against religious oppression as well as social, economic and political 'discrimination' against them in the country.

North and South Korean Warships Exchange Fire

SEOUL: South Korean officials say a North Korean patrol boat crossed the countries' disputed sea border, prompting a naval vessel from the South to fire warning shots. The North Korean ship then opened fire.

The brief encounter left the South Korean patrol boat peppered with holes, and the North's vessel ablaze and apparently badly damaged.

Officials in Seoul say the incident was unusual in that the North's boat persisted in sailing deeper into Southern-controlled waters, even after the South Koreans fired warning shots.

"We sent warning messages to them twice before they crossed [the demarcation line] and three times after they crossed it," Brigadier General Lee Ki-sik of the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff explained at a news briefing in Seoul.

The Northern boat replied by firing directly at the other boat, and the battle ensued. Seoul says none of its sailors was injured, but it's not clear whether there were casualties on the other side.

After being set afire, the Northern vessel turned away and headed toward home.

This was the first incident between naval vessels of the two Koreas in the Yellow Sea for seven years.

The last clash, in 2002, involved bigger ships and cost the lives of six crewmen of a South Korean frigate, which was sunk, and an estimated 13 North Koreans.