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Alaska senator on charges: ‘I am innocent’

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Ted Stevens declared his innocence Tuesday after his indictment on charges that he concealed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts and services from a company in his home state.

My public service began when I served in World War II. It saddens me to learn that these charges have been brought against me. … I am innocent of these charges and intend to prove that, Stevens said in a statement released by his office.

In the indictment, Stevens is charged with lying about receiving gifts worth more than $250,000 from Veco, an Alaska-based energy company on whose behalf he intervened in Washington.

The indictment, returned Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Washington, says the veteran lawmaker schemed to conceal the fact that Veco paid for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of work on his home.

The indictment follows a wide-ranging investigation into ties between the company and lawmakers in Alaska.

The indictment does not accuse Stevens of accepting bribes, Matt Friedrich, the acting assistant attorney general, emphasized in a news conference announcing the charges.

Bribery is not charged in this case, he said, adding that such a charge requires proof of a specific quid pro quo. This indictment does not allege that.

found here.

Tension mounts ahead of Karadzic rally

BELGRADE, Serbia (CNN) — Riot police were deployed across Belgrade on Tuesday as thousands of demonstrators from across Serbia arrived for a rally in support of former Bosnian Serb president and alleged war criminal Radovan Karadzic

The radicals and ultra-nationalists view Karadzic as a hero even though an international tribunal has charged him with genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the law of war.

By early evening, demonstrators were filling up the Belgrade public square where the protest was starting.

Riot police were at the square and the court building where Karadzic is being held.

President Boris Tadic said: There is no sense protesting against the fact that in this country we are obeying the law.

The charges relate to Karadzic’s actions during the 1992-1995 civil war that followed Bosnia-Herzegovina’s secession from Yugoslavia.

Investigators arrested Karadzic — one of Europe’s most-wanted men — last week, ending his 12 years as a fugitive.

A judge has ruled that conditions have been met for his extradition to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague, but Karadzic’s lawyer, Svetozar Vujacic, has the right to appeal.

The lawyer declined to say Monday whether he had filed an appeal. Court officials said Tuesday that they had still to receive the appeal.

If in fact no appeal has been lodged, Serb authorities could transfer Karadzic to The Hague at any time. Watch how Karadzic will be dealt with

Serbian authorities have deployed thousands of riot police throughout Belgrade to guard against possible trouble from demonstrators.

The Associated Press reported that rally organizer — the right-wing Serbian Radical Party — said it was busing in Karadzic supporters from all over Serbia and Bosnia, where Karadzic is still revered as a wartime hero for helping to create the Bosnian Serb ministate.

AP quoted Radical Party leader Aleksandar Vucic as saying the protest is against the treacherous and dictatorial regime of Serbia’s pro-Western President Boris Tadic. Karadzic extradition imminent

The U.S. embassy in Belgrade issued a warning to its citizens Tuesday to take care in the city.

The embassy said it would be closing at 3pm because of the rally. In February one person died and 90 were injured after a peaceful protest against Kosovo’s independence turned ugly, with rioters setting fire to the U.S. embassy building. Other embassies, including the UK’s, were also attacked. Watch more on the delay attempts

However, analysts said the political parties sympathetic to the nationalist cause have faced setbacks at the polls. In May, for example, Tadic’s pro-Western coalition received 38 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections, compared with 29 percent for the ultra-nationalists.

They [the ultra-nationalists] are unsuccessful, so since they have lost their chance, they have lost hope for their political future, said Stevan Niksic, a Serb journalist. They are now marginalized.

A one-time psychiatrist and self-styled poet, Karadzic declared himself president of a Bosnian Serb republic when Bosnia-Herzegovina seceded from Yugoslavia in 1992. See how the former Yugoslavia broke into separate countries

The Serbs, backed by Yugoslav troops and paramilitary forces, quickly seized control of most of the country and laid siege to Sarajevo.

During the conflict that followed, Serb forces launched what they called the ethnic cleansing of the territories under their control — the forced displacement and killings of Muslims and Croats in territories under their control.

found here.

Getting kids of divorce talking about secret thoughts

(OPRAH.com) — If you’re a parent in the midst of a divorce — or even if you have been divorced for years –we have an urgent message for you: If you talk to your children about divorce the wrong way, they could internalize their pain and blame themselves for the divorce.

M. Gary Neuman — founder and director of the Sandcastles Program and author of Helping Your Kids Cope with Divorce the Sandcastles Way –says he’s seen a lot of bad divorces.

The cardinal rule that all divorcing parents need to follow, Gary says, is to never criticize each other in front of their children.

When they bad-mouth each other, it causes [the children] to question if they can love both, he says. Kids should be able to love both parents. And if you say something bad about the other person, they feel disloyal to you if they actually love the other person. And they should never have to make that kind of choice.

Many families unravel after an affair has taken place in the marriage. Gary spent time with 11-year-old Daisy and her 7-year-old brother, Kris, who have a lot of feelings about their family’s breakup.

Daisy says she’s very angry with her mom. I don’t really want to have anything to do with my mom, she says. And then my dad said if I don’t talk about stuff like this that I [might] explode one day and everything.

Kris says he’s feeling really sad and very mad about the divorce. I don’t want her to have a boyfriend because she was already married, he says.

found here.

U.S. economic growth forecast downgraded

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Monday lowered its forecast for economic growth this year and next and said unemployment is likely to rise as housing and financial debacles along with high energy prices take their toll.

Under the Bush administration’s new forecasts, gross domestic product is estimated to grow by only 1.6 percent this year. That’s down from a 2.7 percent growth projection made in February.

Growth next year is expected to clock in at 2.2 percent, also lower than the 3 percent growth rate previously estimated by the White House’s budget office.

The U.S. economy has continued to expand, but growth has slowed as a result of the sharp housing decline, disruptions in financial markets and high energy prices, the administration said.

With economic growth slowing, the unemployment rate is projected to move up to 5.3 percent this year and to 5.6 percent in 2009. The administration’s old forecast called for the jobless rate to climb to 4.9 percent this year and next. The unemployment rate averaged 4.6 percent in 2007.

Because of the recent slower economic growth, the labor market is likely to remain sluggish for a period of time before returning to better performance, the White House budget office said.

The administration believes the jobless rate will drop back to 5.3 percent in 2010 and continue to dip in subsequent years, falling to 4.8 percent in 2012 and 2013.

found here.

Carlin gets last laugh on death

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Just months before he died, George Carlin was looking into the face of death — and making it the butt of his jokes.

You know what I’ve been doing? Going through my address book and crossing out the dead people. It gives you a feeling of power, of superiority, to have outlasted another old friend, Carlin says on what turned out to be his final comedy album. The recording, It’s Bad For Ya, comes out Tuesday on Eardrum Records.

Carlin died June 22 of a heart attack at 71.

In an interview four months before his death, he told The Associated Press he was particularly pleased with the material he was working up for the album and an HBO show that aired last March.

Definitely some people who are close to me who have seen this show, and have seen a lot of the others, feel this is my best stuff yet, he said.

Among them was his daughter, Kelly Carlin McCall, who said she was delighted to see the album mark a return to what she called her father’s playful goofiness. In recent years, she noted, his routines had seemed to get darker and angrier. Watch how comedians recall Carlin after his death

Not so this time, with Carlin waxing on — with four-letter words in abundance — about the advantages of getting older.

It’s a great time of life, you get to take advantage of people and you’re not responsible for anything, he says on the album. He adds that he discovered a popular pastime could be had gathering family members around and pretending to have Alzheimer’s.

You say, ‘Who are you people and where’s my horse?

Although there will be no more new routines, Carlin is still around, thanks to his daughter and brother, Patrick, who spent a weekend earlier this month scattering his ashes at his favorite haunts around the country. They stopped in front of the nightclubs he played in New York City’s Greenwich Village and at a summer camp in New Hampshire where, as a child, he received a necklace for winning the drama competition. He was wearing it the day he died.

found here.