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Not guilty pleas for Detroit mayor, ex-aide

DETROIT, Michigan (CNN) — Not guilty pleas were entered Tuesday for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff in a scandal in which they are accused of lying under oath about an affair.

Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, face felony charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office.

Kilpatrick has been at the center of a scandal since January when the Detroit Free Press reported he exchanged romantic text messages with Beatty, contradicting testimony the pair had given in a whistle-blower trial.

Both Kilpatrick and Beatty declined to enter pleas Tuesday before 36th District Court Chief Magistrate Steven Lockhart. Lockhart entered the pleas on their behalf.

Lockhart set a $75,000 personal bond for both defendants. If convicted on all charges, Kilpatrick could face 80 years in prison and/or $40,000 in fines. Beatty could face 75 years and/or $30,000 in fines.

Both are free to leave Michigan but are due back in court June 9.

This is a historic moment, a sad moment. No sitting mayor of Detroit has ever been charged with a crime, Detroit Free Press reporter Jim Schaefer told CNN on Tuesday

The case is about much more than sexually explicit text messages, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said earlier Tuesday.

Text messages are just part of the case, Worthy said on CNN’s American Morning. We have much more evidence than that.

It is not just about the sexual affair. It is about lying under oath. It is about betraying the public trust. It is about using $8.4 million of the taxpayers’ money to cover up that information from coming out. Watch Worthy explain why she brought charges

The Detroit City Council and Free Press have called for Kilpatrick’s resignation. But at a press conference Monday, the mayor defiantly said that he would stay on the job and fight the charges.

This has been a very flawed process from the beginning, he said. I look forward to complete exoneration. Watch Kilpatrick defend himself

Kilpatrick’s attorney, Dan Webb, has said the thousands of text messages that might be used as evidence against the mayor were obtained illegally.

Worthy denied that allegation.

I can’t speak to how anybody else obtained those messages, she said Tuesday. But I know that we obtained them lawfully.

Webb also contended Monday that Kilpatrick may be the only person ever charged by the Wayne County prosecutor’s office with perjury based on statements made in a civil case.

It is always reserved for criminal cases, Webb said. But out of all the allegations over the years, they have only decided to bring charges against one person. That brings up an issue called selective prosecution, an issue I intend to bring up with the trial judge.

Last week, the City Council voted 7-1 to ask Kilpatrick to resign, a city clerk said. The vote was nonbinding, and Kilpatrick has continued on the job amid the fallout from the scandal.

In January, the Free Press reported that in an analysis of nearly 14,000 text messages on Beatty’s city-issued pager it found some from 2002 and 2003 that indicated she and the mayor were having an affair.

Allegations of an affair arose last summer during the whistle-blower trial in which two officers sued Kilpatrick and the city. The officers alleged Kilpatrick had retaliated against them for their roles in an internal investigation involving possible misconduct in Kilpatrick’s security unit, according to court documents.

In testimony in August, Kilpatrick and Beatty both denied having a romantic relationship.

The lawsuit, brought by Deputy Chief Gary Brown and Officer Harold Nelthrope, ended with the jury awarding judgment against the city for $7.9 million, including interest, according to the officers’ attorney, Michael L. Stefani. The city then agreed to a settlement involving Brown, Nelthrope and another related case for about $8 million.

Kilpatrick and Beatty were not personally liable for the settlement amount because the suit was related to their roles as city officials.
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Sarkozy refuses to rule out Olympic boycott

PARIS, France (AP) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that he cannot rule out the possibility he might boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics if China continues its crackdown in Tibet.

Sarkozy has come under increasing pressure to take a stance on the unrest. He said he had not yet made a decision on what to do, but the mere suggestion of a boycott represented a clear threat to Chinese authorities.

A French boycott of the August 8 opening ceremony would have added resonance because France will hold the rotating EU presidency during the August 8-24 Olympic Games.

Asked whether he supported a boycott, Sarkozy said he could not close the door to any possibility. A spokesman for the president confirmed that Sarkozy was referring to a possible snub of the August 8 opening ceremony.

Our Chinese friends must understand the worldwide concern that there is about the question of Tibet, and I will adapt my response to the evolutions in the situation that will come, I hope, as rapidly as possible, the president said during a visit with a military regiment in Tarbes in southwest France.

Violent protests in Tibet, the most serious challenge in almost two decades to China’s rule in the region, are forcing human rights campaigners and governments to re-examine their approach to the Olympic Games.

A Paris-based media freedom group, Reporters Without Borders, last week appealed for an opening ceremony boycott by heads of state and government, as well as royalty — an idea that has gained the support of many French. The issue of athletes boycotting the opening ceremony or the games is not being talked about in France.

In a CSA poll for Liberation newspaper, 53 percent of respondents said they were rather favorable to the idea of Sarkozy staying away from the opening ceremonies. The poll of 959 people by CSA agency for the daily paper was conducted Thursday and Friday. No margin of error was given.

Reporters Without Borders made headlines again Monday when three high-ranking members were arrested at the Olympic flame-lighting ceremony after unfurling a black banner showing the Olympic rings as handcuffs. Jean-Francois Julliard, the group’s research director, welcomed Sarkozy’s comments.

We feel that things are starting to get moving, that political leaders are starting to change their attitudes, Julliard said in a telephone interview Tuesday. He was one of the three arrested in Greece and charged with insulting national symbols.

He said that to his knowledge, Sarkozy was the first world leader to go so far in the boycott discussion. Prince Charles has said he would skip the Olympics.

France has wobbled on how to handle the sensitive issue. Pierre Moscovici, a leader of the opposition Socialists, was quoted in a French newspaper over the weekend as criticizing Sarkozy for a deafening silence about the situation in Tibet.

France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, suggested last week he was open to a boycott of the Beijing Olympics’ opening ceremonies, calling it an interesting idea. Later he backtracked, calling it unrealistic and saying, We’re not in favor of it.

France’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that EU countries are to discuss the crackdown in Tibet at an informal meeting of foreign ministers starting Friday in Slovenia.

Sarkozy said he has told Chinese President Hu Jintao of his concern, asking for restraint and the end of violence through dialogue in Tibet. Sarkozy also disclosed contacts between his office and that of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader.

I have an envoy who spoke to the authorities who are closest to the Dalai Lama, Sarkozy said. I want dialogue to begin, and I will gauge my response based on the response that the Chinese authorities give.

The Dalai Lama will be in France while the games are under way in Beijing. He is coming from Aug. 15-20, principally to deliver Buddhist lectures in the western French city of Nantes, said Wangpo Bashi, secretary of the exiled Tibetan government’s office in Paris. He said no meetings between the Tibetan leader and French government officials are currently planned. It will be the Dalai Lama’s first visit to France since 2003, Bashi said.

Also Tuesday, the sports director at France’s main television company suggested it could consider a boycott if the Chinese government censors the footage.

For the moment, we don’t intend to boycott the games, Daniel Bilalian said on RTL Belgium radio. But, he added, if the games are in any way censored or sanitized by the Chinese authorities … that would obviously put our position in question.

At that point, the president of France Televisions … would without a doubt decide not to cover the Olympic Games, he said. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Iraqi militias protest over raids

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have called for a nationwide campaign of civil disobedience to protest raids and detentions.

The call on Tuesday came as fighting between Iraqi security forces and members of Sadr’s Mehdi Army in Baghdad and the southern oil port city of Basra threatened to unravel a much-lauded militia cease-fire.

At least 12 people were killed and 32 wounded in the clashes, according to the Interior Ministry.

Sadr imposed a suspension of the Mehdi Army’s activities last summer. That move was hailed by the U.S. military as a major factor in the decrease of violence across Iraq.

But the lull in violence has been threatened lately by military operations targeting militia members, such as recent operations in the southeastern city of Kut, and the arrests of Sadrist movement senior leaders. Watch as Basra violence continues

And that dissatisfaction is threatening the cease-fire. The U.S. military says it and the Iraqi military have been conducting raids against rogue members of the militia that have ignored the cease-fire.

In Baghdad, clashes erupted between militia members and Iraqi soldiers in al-Hamza Square at the edge of Sadr City, the sprawling slum in eastern Baghdad that is a Mehdi Army stronghold. Fighting then spread to other neighborhoods including Shaab and Amin.

In the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Abu Disher, al-Sadr’s office called for citizens to engage in civil disobedience. Stores closed and people took to the streets to protest military operations and arrests. The Interior Ministry said civil disobedience tactics were seen in five Baghdad neighboroods.

The Mehdi Army members appeared on the streets of Mahmoudiya and Yusufiya, towns of south of Baghdad, in a show of force. And in Kut, local authorities imposed a curfew in light of the fighting in Baghdad and Basra.

There were no immediate details about casualties in Baghdad, and officials and clerics issued calls for calm.

In southern Iraq, security forces were battling Shiite militia members in the oil-rich city of Basra — and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was directing the operation, officials said.

Ali Hadi, an official in the al-Maliki’s office, said the prime minister met high-ranking Iraqi security officers before the operation, launched in the early morning hours of Tuesday.

A Basra city council official said the fighting erupted when security forces entered strongholds of the Mehdi Army militia.

Al-Sadr, a powerful and popular figure in Iraq’s Shiite communities, in August announced a six-month suspension of Mehdi Army activity that was renewed last month. Many fighters have heeded the cease-fire, which the U.S. military says has helped reduce violence.

Followers of al-Sadr have also been in the middle of intra-Shiite power struggles in southern Iraqi towns. In Basra, the Sadrists, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, and the Fadhila party have power and influence.

Residents of Basra earlier this month demonstrated for better security in the city, an area where kidnappings, murders and thefts have risen since British troops in December handed over responsibility for the province to Iraqi soldiers and police.
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One ‘Barbie Bandit’ gets jail, the other probation

MARIETTA, Georgia (CNN) — A judge Monday sentenced two women dubbed the Barbie Bandits and a teller who helped them rob the bank where he worked.

Ashley Miller, convicted of theft and drug distribution, was sentenced to the maximum of 10 years. She has to serve two years behind bars, with the remainder on probation.

She also has to pay at least $2,500 in restitution.

Her co-defendant, Heather Lyn Johnston, who pleaded guilty to robbery and drug use charges in August, was sentenced to 10 years probation with community service, a minimum $2,000 fine and $2,500 in restitution.

Benny Herman Allen III, who at the time of the February 27, 2007, robbery was a teller at the Bank of America in Acworth, Georgia, also was sentenced to the 10-year maximum. He’s required to serve five years behind bars and pay $2,500 in restitution. Watch footage from court

Miller and Johnston earned the Barbie Bandits nickname after police released bank video they said showed them laughing and joking behind fashionable sunglasses before handing a holdup note to the teller.

Investigators said Johnston and Miller, who worked as dancers at an Atlanta-area strip club, planned to split the $10,000 they stole with Allen, the teller who accepted their demand and handed over the money, and another defendant.

Herman met the young women through convicted felon Michael Darrell Chastang, who faces sentencing Tuesday for his role in the heist.

On March 2, 2007, Chastang, Miller and Johnston led police on a short car chase not far from the Six Flags Over Georgia theme park outside Atlanta and were apprehended. According to arrest warrants, police found marijuana in the car and ecstasy pills on Miller.
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Royalists sweep landmark Bhutan vote

(CNN) — Voters in the secluded Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan became the world’s newest democracy Monday when the nation held its first elections and ended more than 100 years of royal rule.

Voters had a choice of two political parties from which to pick 47 members of a lower house. According to preliminary results, the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa party trounced its opponents, the People’s Democratic Party, winning all but three seats, state media said.

Elections officials estimated about 80 percent of the country’s 318,000 registered voters cast ballots — a surprisingly large turnout for a populace that had largely said they preferred to remain under the rule of their revered king.

Bhutanese had seen the sometimes disastrous results of the democratic experiment in neighboring Bangladesh and Nepal, where elected governments have been ousted by force.

When pot is not broken, why it is mended? That’s what I mean, one citizen, Dorji Rinchen, said. Meaning, there was nothing wrong when we lived with king. We are happy, everybody is happy and country was prospering.

Both parties had offered similar promises, analysts said. Foremost among them was the allegiance to continue the king’s blueprint for Gross National Happiness — to maintain development, protect the environment, preserve the culture and ensure good government.

The parliamentary elections are intended to transform Bhutan from an absolute monarchy into a country where people can exercise newfound power at the ballot box. Watch commentary on the elections

The road toward transition was paved in December 2006 when King Jigme Singye Wangchuck abdicated the throne to his son and promised to usher in democracy.

He told them that there is no guarantee you will always have a good king, said Tashi Dorji, editor of the privately run Bhutan Observer. He said that this is the right time to embrace democracy — when the country has no problems, when it’s in a period of peace and tranquility.

The former king’s son, the Oxford-educated Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, will remain head of state and will likely retain much influence. But the National Assembly will be able to remove him with a two-thirds majority.

It’s not that the people of Bhutan don’t want democracy. They want monarchy more, Dorji said. Monarchy has been a success story in this country. We’ve always had very good kings.

Bhutan, wedged between China and India, is a Buddhist kingdom about half the size of the U.S. state of Indiana. For centuries, the landlocked country remained isolated from the rest of the world — both due to its geography and deliberate policy.

The country had no electricity, paved roads, cars, telephones or postal service until the 1960s. It allowed access to television and the Internet only in 1999.

Two years later, the country began its move toward democracy when the former king handed over day-to-day operations to a council of ministers.

Because election rules stipulate that voters could only cast ballots in the place of their birth, the capital Thimphu was deserted. The city, which is home to about 70,000, had been reduced to less than 10,000 voters. Wearing their traditional national robes, many lined up in orderly gender-segregated lines outside polling stations before voting began at 9 am.

Elsewhere in the country, the election commission allowed private cars to operate as taxis to shuttle voters back and forth.

Officials said they expected turnout of more than 70 percent, but all is not harmonious in Shangri-La, however.

To create a homogeneous culture and retain its unique identity, Bhutan stripped minority ethnic Nepalis of Bhutanese citizenship and forced them into exile, according to the independent non-governmental group Human Rights Watch.

More than 100,000 ethnic Nepalese, expelled from Bhutan, have been warehoused in seven overcrowded camps in southeastern Nepal since 1991.

Many have taken up arms and joined a violent Maoist rebellion, the group said. Bhutan and Nepal are separated by a strip of land belonging to India.

A series of four blasts ripped through Bhutan just days after the country announced plans for its general elections in January. Police blamed militant groups operating out of Nepal for the explosions.

I.P. Adhikari, president of the Association of Press Freedom Activists - Bhutan, said he did not regard Monday’s vote as being truly democratic. The exile group says it is working for freedom of speech in Bhutan.

There are many people who were arrested or not allowed to take part in the election due to their link with the people living in exile, Adhikari said from Kathmandu, Nepal. Many people have been denied voter ID cards because Bhutan regards them as anti-national because of their links with those in exile.

Change will continue to sweep the nation as it continues its slow engagement with the world. Next, the country plans to join the World Trade Organization.

As long as the beloved king gives his blessings to the transformations, some said, Bhutanese will embrace them with open arms.

I feel happy, said Ugyen Tenzin, who owns a restaurant and a tourism business in the capital city. The king has never been wrong. He’s always taken us in the right direction.
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