43 Rumors

The digital trail left by the suspect behind misleading robocalls to voters in Guelph, Ont., sacoche louis vuitton homme on election day 2011 has sharply narrowed, with Internet records linking the mysterious ”Pierre Poutine” to an account held by a worker from the campaign of local Conservative candidate Marty Burke.

Newly released court documents also show that a Conservative Party staffer told Elections Canada that he been asked by another Burke campaign worker in the days before the vote about making disinformation calls.

The documents strongly suggest links between the Guelph campaign and the phoney calls, which Conservatives seized on to cast the robocalls scandal as the work of rogue elements working at the riding level, not a co-ordinated campaign.

The sworn statement filed by Elections Canada investigator Al Mathews and released Friday makes a crucial link between the calls and the Internet Protocol address (IP) used to arrange the fraudulent calls made through Edmonton voice-broadcasting company RackNine.

The IP address was used both by Burke campaign worker Andrew Prescott to arrange legitimate calls with the company and by whoever placed the fraudulent calls that sent hundreds of electors to the wrong polling stations, sac louis vuitton mode Mathews alleges.

RackNine records provided to Elections Canada showed that Prescott’s account had been accessed from 99.225.28.34, a Rogers IP address in Guelph. He used his account to send out robocalls promoting Burke campaign events.

Most of the IP addresses used by Poutine to log on to RackNine’s website to set up the calls were hidden by a proxy server that masks the originating IP, in an apparent attempt to conceal the user’s identity.

But Poutine — or ”Pierre Jones” as he was known to RackNine and PayPal — slipped up and made contact from the same address used to access Prescott’s account with the company.

The data linking the two RackNine clients, identified by client numbers 45 for Prescott and 93 for sacoche louis vuitton
”Jones,” was captured in session logs not discovered by RackNine owner Matt Meier until March 6, although Mathews first asked for the IP address in November. Meier, who handled a lot of legitimate robocalls for the Conservatives during the campaign, uncovered the link after combing through session logs.

The logs showed that client 93, the Jones account, primarily used an IP that traced back to the proxy server, while client 45, the Prescott account, used the Rogers IP.

But in the two days before the election, both clients used both the proxy server IP and the Rogers IP, Mathews’ statement says, and on election day both accounts connected to RackNine from the Rogers IP within four minutes of each other.

There is no proof that Prescott himself logged onto RackNine using the Jones account — only that the log on came from the same address IP that also had been used by his account.

It is unclear from documents if the Rogers IP address was assigned to Burke’s campaign office or another location. Prescott hung up when reached by a reporter on Friday and his lawyer could not be reached.

Mathews interviewed Prescott in February about his use of RackNine for voter contact calls, and they were scheduled to have an interview on March 8, but the day before, Prescott’s lawyer cancelled the meeting.

The documents released Friday pertain only to the robocalls in Guelph. Elections Canada has said it logged complaints about misleading live or pre-recorded calls from about 200 ridings across the country. In Northern Ontario, Elections Canada investigators have been busy recently trying to obtain incoming call records from complainants who say they received misleading calls.

The parents of Junior Seau made a tearful appearance outside his home Thursday night,sacoche louis vuitton homme thanking the swelling crowd, and all of the San Diego region, for showing such admiration and love for their son.

”Thank you so much,” Tiaina Seau told the crowd of several hundred gathered outside his son’s beachfront home in Oceanside. ”God bless you guys.”

Seau’s mother, Luisa, sobbing uncontrollably, said, ”There’s so much pain. It’s so hard.”

Luisa and Tiaina Seau joined the crowd in singing ”Amazing Grace.”

Meanwhile, plans for memorials for late next week are shaping up, at a local church and at Oceanside High School, which Junior Seau attended before enrolling at USC.

The San Diego County medical examiner concluded Thursday, after a forensic autopsy, that Seau died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest. The medical examiner’s office said it is ”awaiting the family’s decision regarding the study of the brain for repetitive injury by researchers outside of the office.”

Seau, 43, a star football player at USC and for the San Diego Chargers, was found dead in bed at his Oceanside home about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday by his girlfriend. sac louis vuitton mode A gun was found near the body but no note.

The issue of brain injuries among football players has been highlighted by the early death of numerous former players. Although Seau was not known publicly for having had concussions, that does not rule out the possibility that brain injuries incurred during his long career, specialists said.

Researchers at Boston University, sacoche louis vuitton
leaders in the study of brain injury, have reportedly asked to examine Seau’s brain, a decision that is up to the family.

Asked about whether he had suffered concussions during his 20-year career, Seau’s ex-wife, Gina, told ESPN, ”Of course he had. He always bounced back and kept on playing. He’s a warrior. That didn’t stop him. I don’t know what football player hasn’t. It’s not ballet. It’s part of the game.”

It was hot outside the Florida hotel where this year’s annual BlackBerry World conference took place. sacoche louis vuitton Inside, it apparently wasn’t hot enough for some financial analysts.

They were looking for evidence that Research In Motion is about launch products that will hack into the considerable lead in smart phone sales that iPhone and Android devices have built up, particularly in the United States.

Despite the fact that RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said in March that the next-generation BlackBerry 10 operating system and handset that can run it would only be delivered later this year – a clear sign that little of substance would happen here – financial analysts were disappointed at what they heard.

Yes, there was a peek at what maybe is coming, but it wasn’t BB10 that was running on a prototype handset proudly showed off on Tuesday. It was actually the operating system behind the PlayBook tablet, which admittedly has similar framework, displaying what may or may not be a new user interface. And the prototype handset being passed around to developers won’t see the light of day in production. In fact, it’s called an Alpha.

Not only that,sacoche louis vuitton homme RIM [TSX: RIM] still has yet to name a new chief marketing officer. There was a marketing theme conjured up, around BlackBerry helping uses be successful in their jobs and personal life.

But what will the new CMO do with that?

Of course, financial analyst have to deal with hard numbers – declining sales, dropping revenue, plunging share prices. (Or, in the case of Apple, soaring sales, soaring revenue, soaring share prices.)

Meanwhile, late next month or in July RIM will release another quarterly financial statement that even Heins admits won’t be hot.

Industry analysts, on the other hand, can afford to be cooler. That’s not to say they’re right more than the financial analysts, but some have a different perspective.

Carl Howe, vice-president of mobile applications research at Yankee Group is one of them.

In an interview he dismisses financial analyst as people who don’t understand that RIM isn’t dying. It is, he acknowledges, a company in transition, but other IT companies have been in that boat, too. He cites Microsoft and Apple.

“Every time it’s ugly,”sac louis vuitton mode he added. But some survive.

And it’s hard to die when RIM keeps pulling in revenue (although in the last quarter it dipped into the red), he said.

No new finished product here? Why give away secrets? Howe asked. “They know they have one opportunity to make a splash,” he said.

Besides, he adds, the QNX-based operating system behind BB10 is used widely in other industries, giving RIM the opportunity to use it as a multi-device platform. Heins showed off a Porche tricked out with a PlayBook –powered interface to make the point. This is an area Apple won’t got, Howe argues, and could give RIM a field of “uncontested growth.”

The federal government has been mute on human rights issues in Malaysia because it still wants to pursue a people swap deal, sacoche louis vuitton independent Senator Nick Xenophon says.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators swamped the Malaysian capital on Saturday to demand the reforms, ahead of national polls expected soon.

Senator Xenophon had teargas fired in his direction during a demonstration for electoral reforms in central Kuala Lumpur.

He is in Kuala Lumpur on an international fact-finding mission on election processes in Malaysia, and said police had fired teargas and chemical-laced water at demonstrators.

Up until then, it had been a peaceful rally that had included chanting and a speech by Malaysia’s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Senator Xenophon said Australia must rethink its relationship with Malaysia.

”I wonder whether the Australian government has been mute about human rights issues … by virtue of our reliance on the refugee swap deal,” sacoche louis vuitton homme he told ABC Radio.

”This is a country that the Australian government is happy to do refugee swaps with. It raises serious questions over how authoritarian it is.”

Last year the High Court scuttled plans by the federal government to swap 800 asylum seekers with 4000 processed refugees from Malaysia and cast doubt on the legality of offshore processing.

The government has since failed to get the numbers in parliament to pass legislation allowing offshore processing.

Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne said: ”the Malaysia solution is all but dead”.

”It hasn’t even be brought into the parliament for a vote,” he told Sky News on Sunday.

Mr Pyne said it was ”as dead as a dodo”.

”If the government has a better policy they should come out with one,”sac louis vuitton mode he said.

Three hundred boats had arrived since the Howard government’s Pacific Solution was abolished, Mr Pyne said.

”This is one of those carbuncles for the government that won’t go away until they swallow their pride and return to the previous government’s policies.”

Thousands of pro-democracy protesters gathered in Malaysia’s capital Saturday to demand electoral reform, sac louis vuitton mode confronting a police lockdown that left the city a maze of razor wire and barricades.

Large crowds of people, many in the yellow colours of the reform movement, gathered at various points around Kuala Lumpur, intent on defying a ban on holding the rally at Independence Square in the heart of the congested capital.

But a heavy police presence hindered access to the city centre, including about 2,000 armed police deployed around the sealed-off square as a police helicopter buzzed low overhead.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said demonstrators were intent on marching to the square, but admitted the lockdown would make that difficult.

”Yes, the plan by the opposition party leaders is to move to the square. The opposition alliance is committed to this,” sacoche louis vuitton he told AFP.

National police spokesman Ramli Yoosuf said about 20,000 protesters had gathered at various locations around the square.

”Please obey the law and stay away from the square. It is a banned area,” he said.

The mass rally follows one that was crushed by police last July, when 1,600 people were arrested, and marks a major test for Prime Minister Najib Razak, who has sought to portray himself as a reformer ahead of widely expected polls.

Organizers planned to gather at Independence Square from 2:00 pm (0600 GMT) for a sit-in seeking change in a voting system they say is riddled with fraud.

But that looked unlikely as authorities declared the square — sacoche louis vuitton homme where the Malaysian flag was first hoisted in 1957 after independence from Britain — off-limits.

On Friday, it obtained a court order banning public gatherings there, provoking outrage from the opposition and rights groups who say the restrictions violate free speech and assembly.

Crowds were vocal but peaceful on Saturday, with a carnival atmosphere prevailing in some areas as people held balloons while others smiled as they snapped photographs of themselves in front of the razor wire.

”The government is being high handed in denying the people the changes we want. We demand free and fair elections,” said Zainuddin Tahar, 54, a pensioner from central Malaysia, who wore a yellow shirt.

A sign stuck on the razor wire at one point said ”Welcome to Tel Aviv.”

There were no reports of any violence or arrests.

Last July’s rally brought tens of thousands to the streets but was met with police tear gas and water cannon.

A resulting backlash prompted Najib to set up a panel whose eventual report suggested a range of electoral changes, but main rally organizers Bersih 2.0 and the opposition say the recommendations fell far short.

They demand a complete overhaul of a nationwide voter roll they say is packed with phantom or duplicate voter registrations, and reform of an Election Commission viewed as biased in favour of the ruling coalition.

Speculation is rife that Najib could call polls as early as June, and Bersih is demanding elections be postponed until full reforms are implemented.

”People want a clean electoral roll. The government is refusing to do that. Because of this they are getting angry and are out here today,” Anwar said.

Jabati Mambu has lived all his adult life without his right hand.

He was only 15 when rebels of the Revolutionary United Front swept through Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. In their signature, sacoche louis vuitton sinister style, they hacked off Mambu’s hand with a machete.

Mambu, now 28 and a goalkeeper for Sierra Leone’s amputee football (soccer) team, was one of thousands of victims who felt huge relief Thursday after an international tribunal convicted former Liberian President Charles Taylor on 11 counts of aiding and abetting the rebels to carry out war crimes.

Taylor convicted in The Hague

”I think this should send out a very big message to those who want to commit crimes,” Mambu said. ”People will listen, even if they don’t care, and they will know what has happened today is important for us victims.”

Those who suffered in Sierra Leone’s notoriously brutal civil war reveled in the fact that Taylor was finally held to justice for the bloodshed, an act of accountability that had seemed implausible to many.

In the diamond-mining region of Kono, where much of the atrocities took place, almost everyone has a story to tell about the rebels, who the Special Court for Sierra Leone concluded were supported militarily by Taylor.

”Things went bad, but this will let people know that it will not go unpunished,” said the Rev. sacoche louis vuitton homme Sahr Christian Fayai, head of the Human Rights Commission in Kono.

Fayai saw loved ones die, children abducted, women raped and homes burned.

”My experience was very bitter. I lost everything in a heartbeat,” he said.

The verdict, he said, will help heal the wounds. Or at least begin healing.

The court found Taylor guilty of abetting murder, rape, conscripting child soldiers, sexual slavery and mining diamonds to pay for guns in the decade-long war that ultimately left 50,000 dead or missing.

Who is Charles Taylor?

It has been another decade since Sierra Leone emerged from violence. But another Kono resident was still too afraid to speak openly. He had seen hell and lives in fear of retribution for telling the world about it.

During the worst of the war, he and his family walked by the cover of night to escape across the Guinea border. But the rebels caught them and lined them up with others for execution.

One of the rebel fighters recognized the man and called him out. He asked his son to point to all those he knew. The boy picked out his father, mother, sister and grandfather.sac louis vuitton mode Everyone else was shot to death.

”They killed them in front of our faces. My boy was so terrified — he was only 5.”

Thursday, the man watched a judge read out Taylor’s verdict on a television screen in a bank. He stood among amputees and ex-combatants. They felt vindicated: Taylor, they said, had robbed them of their youth and education. They might have been something in life had it not been for him.

Justice took a long time coming, the Kono resident said. But it prevailed.

”Now I am waiting to see what will be the sentence,” he said. ”Will it be a life sentence? We live with the bitterness of war. We can see scars all over.”

Opinion: Who really benefits from these trials?

In Taylor’s homeland, Liberia, the reaction to the court’s historic ruling was mixed. Taylor had just become the first former head of state to be convicted by a war crimes tribunal since the Nuremberg trials after World War II.

In Monrovia, the Liberian capital, a man sported a ”not guilty” T-shirt and advocated for Taylor’s freedom. Others said they want their president back.

”If I want him to come back? Yes. I would be happy,” said Dennis Zomo. ”I’m a Christian. I don’t have any bad mind against him.”

Daniel Rogers said he was angry about the bad reputation the world has attached to Liberia. He said the people of Sierra Leone were hardly innocent.

”We did not chop our people’s arms during our war. We are not … wicked enough to chop up people,” he said. ”We expect that our war crimes court, the court of Liberia, will come here, too, to try people from Sierra Leone.”

Added Ali Kemokei: ”I feel there was an international conspiracy. President Taylor never … went to fight in Sierra Leone.”

But not every Liberian was defending Taylor.

”I feel good for Taylor to be guilty,” said Sekei Duklay, ”because he killed my people, he destroyed this country, so I don’t like him. I want they should (put) him in jail for life imprisonment.”

Back in Freetown, people gathered at the Special Court Thursday to watch the verdict. Taylor’s proceedings were moved to the Netherlands because of fear that the trial might trigger instability in Liberia.

How ’blood diamonds’ fuel conflicts

In Freetown, Taylor still has a following.

”The court says it is trying those who are most responsible,” said Elred Collins, head of the Revolutionary United Front Party and the former spokesman for the rebels.

”Every Sierra Leonean took part in the war. In one way or another, they did take part in the war,” he said. ”So if you would like to bring everyone to justice, I don’t know when the case will end.”

Police in the U.K. sacoche louis vuitton have released a new age progression image of Madeleine McCann, saying it’s possible the girl who vanished while on a family vacation in Portugal’s southern Algarve coast in 2007 may still be alive.

Investigators have not been able to determine what happened to Madeleine, who disappeared a few days before her fourth birthday from a holiday apartment at the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007.

The Metropolitan Police Service has been conducting an investigative review into the disappearance of the young girl, which involves looking at material gathered over the years by police in both the U.K. and Portugal, as well as material gathered by private investigators.

”From the outset we have approached this review with a completely open mind, placing Madeleine McCann at the heart of everything we do,” said Det. Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, who is leading the review.

Redwood said the review was working off two possible situations — that Madeleine is still alive or dead.

”Based on the former, sacoche louis vuitton homme we are releasing the age progression image today with a specific appeal,” Redwood said in a statement that accompanied the image, which was released ahead of the fifth anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance.

Police said the image, which was made public ahead of her ninth birthday on May 12, was created in ”close collaboration” with the family and shows ”how we believe Madeleine would look today.”

In a rare press conference on the case,sac louis vuitton mode Redwood said he is leading a team of 37 police officers reviewing some 40,000 pieces of evidence gathered so far, which equates to about 100,000 pages of material.

The team has identified some 195 possible leads to be followed up on, and police are also developing what investigators believe to be ”genuninely new material,” police said.

A man judged to be insane when he battered his wife with a marble Hindu statue and repeatedly stabbed her can have her death benefit life insurance, sacoche louis vuitton homme an Ontario Court of Appeal judge ruled.

The key ingredient in Justice Marc Rosenberg’s decision, released Tuesday, is that Ved Parkash Dhingra was ruled “not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder” when he murdered Kamlesh Kumari Dhinga, 58, in 2006.

The couple separated in 1992 but he was occasionally living with her in the Richmond Hill bungalow she occupied several weeks before Paul Vikas Dhingra went to the house, found his mother’s body and his father injured in an apparent murder-suicide bid.

In his decision, Rosenberg weighed the case on Canada’s long-standing “public policy” common law rule that a sane person who kills cannot share in the victim’s estate, plus Ontario’s Civil Remedies Act, which bars people keeping property they obtained by crime.

After an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled last June that Ved Dhingra would not receive any of the $51,000 in insurance that he took out on his wife, citing the “public policy” rule, the 69-year-old filed an appeal.

Charged with second degree murder, Dhingra in 2008 was found not criminally responsible due to a long-term “schizo-affective disorder.” Sent to a mental health care centre, he was granted a conditional discharge “and is now living in the community,” Rosenberg wrote.

In May, 2007, sac louis vuitton mode Paul Dhingra asked for his mother’s life insurance to be paid to his father as an accidental death claim. Scotia Life agreed, but later deposited them with the court.

The couple’s son then asked that the proceeds go to his mother’s estate, but later accepted “that the estate is not entitled to the proceeds” and asked the court to forfeit the $51,000 to the Crown.

The judge last June erred in saying Ved Dhingra “committed second degree murder,” Rosenberg found.

He cited Parliament’s insistence that people found not criminally responsible “be treated with the utmost dignity,” plus long-standing policies granting exceptions for such people.

The $51,000, which is held by the Accountant of the Superior Court of Justice, sacoche louis vuitton “along with all interest accrued, is rightfully payable” to Dhingra’s lawyers, to be held “in trust” for his benefit, Rosenberg ruled.

He did not assign court costs to either side.

Rosenberg delayed the payout order, however, giving the Attorney-General 30 days to consider seeking an order to block the money’s release under the Civil Remedies Act.

Danielle Smith says Albertans decided the Wildrose wasn’t ready to lead the province just yet, sacoche louis vuitton thinking twice after the party suffered some ”self-inflicted wounds” in the dying days of the campaign.

But she’s betting voters will be ready when they go to the polls again in 2016.

”I think we were asking Albertans to take a pretty big step and make a pretty big choice to turn down a 41-year government and try something new, and we weren’t able to convince everybody that now was the time,” Smith told reporters after going down in defeat to Progressive Conservative Premier Alison Redford.

”We’re just looking forward to regrouping and looking at 2016 as a time to be able to defeat this government.”

Polls leading up to Monday’s vote seemed to point to a Wildrose majority government. It would have been the first change in government since Peter Lougheed’s Progressive Conservatives swept to power 41 years ago.

The mood was mixed amongst supporters in Smith’s Highwood riding south of Calgary before polls closed.

An ebullient Scot Lane said he was ”100 per cent” sure of a Wildrose win.

”It’s going to be a victory celebration, sacoche louis vuitton homme so we’re all excited about that for sure.”

But Alan Weenink wasn’t so sure, describing his attitude as ”cautiously optimistic.”

”It’s going to be close.”

Speaking to supporters, Smith said her party expected to do better, but she wasn’t giving up.

”Am I surprised? Am I disappointed? Yeah. Am I discouraged? Not a chance,” she said.

The Wildrose began the campaign in a strong position, with its Progressive Conservative opponents on the defensive as they dealt with a string of controversies.

The first week saw the Wildrose make its ”Dani-dollar” pledge, promising to cut a cheque to every man, woman, and child, when energy revenues create a budget surplus — $300 in 2015 if things went according to plan.

But fears that the Wildrose holds hard-line views on thorny social issues began to emerge in the second week of the campaign.

About 10 days in, sac louis vuitton mode so-called conscience rights emerged as an issue. Smith wouldn’t say whether she supported allowing public workers to opt out of tasks, such as marrying gay couples or prescribing birth control, because of moral objections. She said her party would set up a court system to handle complaints when they arise.

A few days later, Smith took flak for refusing to completely rule out whether citizen-initiated referendums could be used to delist the public funding for abortions.

Smith sought to defuse some of the controversy by stating at a candidates’ forum that she is pro-choice and pro-gay marriage, and that her party does not intend to legislate on moral issues.

But the socially conservative perception wasn’t going away.

In the third week, an anti-gay blog post by candidate Allan Hunsperger came to light.

Then comments from another candidate drew fire. Wildrose Calgary candidate Ron Leech told a radio show that, as a Caucasian man, he speaks to the whole community rather than just members of his own ethnic group. He later apologized.

Mayors of Edmonton and Calgary — Alberta’s two biggest cities and home to scores of tightly contested seats — criticized those candidates’ comments. Smith, meanwhile, staunchly stood behind both Hunsperger and Leech.

The leader stoked more controversy by questioning the widely accepted scientific theory that human activity causes global warming, saying that the ”science isn’t settled.”

Smith admitted to reporters that her party suffered some ”self-inflicted wounds” toward the end of the campaign.

”And maybe that was enough to make people pause and say ’hmmm…maybe this group needs a little more seasoning.’ I take that seriously. I know that we do have to do a little more work to be able to earn the trust of Albertans.”

Strategic voting also played a role, she said.

”I think that it’s pretty clear that if you look at the Liberal and the NDP turnout, (Redford) managed to convince people who traditionally vote for the Liberals and the NDs to vote for her party.”

Jim Smith, a supporter at Wildrose headquarters, said he was ”shocked” by the results and that he had been expecting a Wildrose majority government.

While the votes have yet to be counted in the Alberta election, sacoche louis vuitton the Wildrose party appears to have bested the Progressive Conservatives in at least one campaign battle.

Danielle Smith’s party announced Sunday it has raked in nearly $2.4 million in donations during the four-week race, while Alison Redford’s rival Tories claimed a total of $1.8 million over the first 3 1/2 weeks.

It’s believed to be the first time in more than 40 years that any party has raised more money than the PCs. Wildrose organizers said their donation sum is the highest ever collected by an Alberta political party during an election race, and nearly equal to the $2.7 million the Wildrose raised in all of 2011.

The party also released a list of its donors who gave $375 or more, which is the disclosure amount set by Elections Alberta.

The release was done, in part, to show up the Progressive Conservatives, who promised at the start of the race to release an updated list of donors every Friday but did not deliver until late Sunday afternoon.

“We kind of figured we would show them what openness and transparency looks like,” sacoche louis vuitton homme
Wildrose Senate candidate Vitor Marciano told a rally in Calgary.

The Wildrose list shows about three-quarters of its donated funds came from individuals, while 25 per cent was provided by corporations.

Of the $2.4 million, about $1.6 million came from 900 contributors who gave $375 or more. A little less than $800,000 came from smaller donations given by more than 6,000 people.

The Wildrose has been unwilling in the past to publicize its fundraising sources, insisting that many donors were afraid of reprisals from the PC government. Smith, in fact, released the list of donors from her 2009 leadership campaign only a few weeks ago.

“When we first began, we knew there was a lot of bullying and intimidation,” Smith said. “Now I think something has changed. I think people won’t put up with bullying and intimidation anymore.”

PC president Bill Smith said late last week that his party’s delay in publicizing donors was due to staff being “overwhelmed with receiving and processing the contributions that are coming in.”

He said Sunday that donations picked up substantially in the last 10 days as more people became engaged in the campaign. sac louis vuitton mode The PCs received about $1.5 million of their funds from 300 contributors who gave $375 or more. Redford’s party had a higher percentage of corporate donors than the Wildrose.

The Alberta Liberals, who also committed to providing up-to-date information, released a list of 24 donors last Tuesday.

The Wildrose list includes a large number of contributors who also donated to the Tories, including several energy and construction companies.

One who donated only to the Wildrose was former Oilers part-owner Cal Nichols, who gave $26,700. Nichols has campaigned to keep open Edmonton’s City Centre Airport, which Smith has said she might support. Katz Group Canada, run by current Oilers owner Daryl Katz, gave $7,500 to the Wildrose.

The Calgary Flames, along with co-owner N. Murray Edwards, gave to the PCs, while another Flames owner, Allan Markin, gave to both parties.

Another $10,000 to the Wildrose was from developer and liquor store entrepreneur Irv Kipnes, who also gave to the PCs. Kipnes has been a close friend of Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel, who has had a frosty relationship with Smith.

The New Democratic Party is trying to clear the air on leader Tom Mulcair’s position on pot after the Young Liberals,sac louis vuitton mode hoping to score with younger Canadians on a day celebrated in marijuana culture, questioned his commitment to decriminalization.

Mulcair had created confusion about his party’s position on March 18 when he said decriminalization would be ”a mistake” because of the health risks associated with marijuana currently on the market.

But NDP spokesman George Soule said Friday that Mulcair was actually talking about legalization and said the NDP leader doesn’t believe anyone should go to jail for possessing a small amount of marijuana.

Mulcair has also suggested having the issue reviewed by a royal commission.

The Young Liberals said earlier Friday they said would be distributing handouts and putting up posters quoting Mulcair’s earlier comment on decriminalization.
”This is a new NDP, and we are going to tell people about it,” said Samuel Lavoie, president of the Young Liberals of Canada, in a statement issued on April 20, a day widely known in marijuana culture as ”4/20,” when thousands gather for ”smoke-ins” in cities across North America.

”A lot of young Canadians liked Mr. Layton, who was for the decriminalization of marijuana, but we are going to introduce them to Mr. Mulcair now and my guess is they are not going to be happy with his policies,” said Lavoie.

A separate inquiry into the incident has been launched by Pakistan’s Safety Investigation Board, sacoche louis vuitton
and two crisis operation rooms have been set up at airports in both Islamabad and Karachi to provide information to the affected families.

A Boeing spokeswoman, meanwhile, said the American manufacturer ”stands ready to provide technical assistance to the Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan.”

The airliner was originally sold in 1985, said Julie O’Donnell.

”The Boeing Company wishes to extend its profound condolences to the families and friends of those lost today in the Bhoja Air accident in Pakistan, as well as wishes for the recovery of those injured,” said O’Donnell.

Responding to allegations that the aircraft was not in good condition to fly, Defense Secretary Nargis Sethi told a local television station that the government has initiated ”an immediate investigation.”

”Whether it was 10, 8 years old, sacoche louis vuitton homme or not airworthy is something that we can’t confirm yet,” Sethi said.

But Bhoja Air station manager Zahid Bangish told a Pakistani television station later Friday that the ”aircraft was new, not the old one and unairworthy.”

After meeting with rocker Ted Nugent on Thursday, the Secret Service says its probe into what he had to say about President Barack Obama is over.

Last weekend during a National Rifle Association meeting in St. Louis, Nugent rallied support for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and said of the Obama administration: sacoche louis vuitton homme ”We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November.” He also said he would be ”dead or in jail by this time next year” if Obama is re-elected.

That drew the attention of the Secret Service. Nugent said he discussed the matter with two agents on Thursday while in Oklahoma.

”The issue has been resolved,” agency spokesman Brian Leary said in a statement. ”The Secret Service does not anticipate any further action.”

In a statement on his website, Nugent called it a ”good, solid, professional meeting concluding that I have never made any threats of violence towards anyone.”

”The meeting could not have gone better,” he said. ”I thanked them for their service, we shook hands and went about our business. Godbless the good federal agents wherever they may be.”

Nugent said he was just speaking figuratively when he made what some perceived to be threats against Obama and that he didn’t threaten anyone’s life or advocate violence.

”Metaphors needn’t be explained to educated people,” sac louis vuitton mode he said.
Currently, Mr. Sarkozy’s party has a significant majority of 357 out of 577 seats in the lower house of the French Parliament. Mr. Hollande’s party has just 140 seats. If Mr. Hollande’s coattails prove too short to shore up a majority for his party, the Socialists could create a coalition with the Left Front, which has called for the rejection of the Fiscal Compact Treaty. That would be the ”worst outcome from a market perspective,” according to Mr. Newton.

Compounding matters for the markets, sacoche louis vuitton there will be local elections in Italy kicking off the very same day as the planned second round of French presidential voting.

Also on May 6 are parliamentary elections in Greece. Credit Suisse’s Mr. Zanni says there’s a ”non-trivial probability” that parties backing the country’s bailout deal with the EU won’t get a sufficient majority.

Three U.S. Secret Service employees under investigation for alleged misconduct with prostitutes in Colombia before a trip by President Barack Obama are leaving their jobs, sac louis vuitton mode the agency said on Wednesday.

They were among 11 Secret Service agents and 10 U.S. military personnel who allegedly took as many as 21 women back to their hotel virtually on the eve of Obama’s weekend trip to Cartagena for the Summit of the Americas.

“Although the Secret Service’s investigation into allegations of misconduct by its employees in Cartagena, Colombia, is in its early stages, and is still ongoing, three of the individuals involved will separate or are in the process of separating from the agency,” Assistant Director Paul Morrissey said in a statement.

One supervisor was allowed to retire, another supervisor was proposed for removal for cause, and a third employee resigned in what may be the worst scandal in modern times for the agency tasked with protecting the U.S. president and other senior officials and figures.

The remaining eight Secret Service employees under investigation continue to be on administrative leave with their security clearances suspended, and face lie-detector tests about what happened in Colombia, the agency said.

“The Secret Service continues to conduct a full, thorough and fair investigation, utilizing all investigative techniques available to our agency,” the statement said. sacoche louis vuitton “This includes polygraph examinations, interviews with the employees involved, and witness interviews, to include interviews being conducted by our Office of Professional Responsibility in Cartagena, Colombia.”

The U.S. military is conducting its own probe of the incident, which happened overnight from Wednesday to Thursday. It embarrassed the United States and overshadowed Obama’s participation in the summit.

The Americans brought prostitutes to their beachfront hotel before Obama arrived for the summit, according to a local police source in Colombia. They were discovered when one woman complained about money, resulting in the hotel manager and local police getting involved.

The military service members being investigated are two Marine dog handlers, five Army Special Forces members, two Navy explosive-ordnance experts and one Air Force member, a U.S. official said.

The Secret Service and the U.S. military have investigators in Colombia interviewing the women, U.S. officials have said.

U.S. lawmakers are also probing what happened, and on Wednesday a U.S. House of Representatives committee asked the Secret Service to give a detailed description by May 1 of alleged misconduct by its agents.

Although the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requested the information, the panel was likely to have “very few if any” public hearings on the matter, sacoche louis vuitton homme Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, a California Republican, told reporters.

Issa noted that the Secret Service was already investigating and “they are likely to be more harsh to their own people than we would be.”

Much of the information that the House panel might unearth should not be made public because of the nature of the Secret Service’s work, he added.

At least three other congressional committees are looking into the scandal but no one has announced any hearings.

Issa and the ranking Democrat, Elijah Cummings, wrote to Secret Service director Mark Sullivan asking for “a detailed description” of the misconduct, as well as an accounting of all U.S. government personnel who were involved in or knew about the alleged misconduct, and a timeline of the agency’s response.

They also asked for summaries of any disciplinary actions taken against the agents involved since 2002, and what steps the agency intended to take to prevent a recurrence.

The incident in Cartagena “raised questions about the agency’s culture,” lawmakers said in the letter.

It “is troubling because Secret Service agents and officers made a range of bad decisions, from drinking too much, to engaging with prostitutes, to bringing foreign nationals into contact with sensitive security information, to exposing themselves to blackmail and other forms of potential compromise.”

Senator Susan Collins, the ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said she told Sullivan she found it hard to believe the episode was the only one of its kind, because “there were too many people involved.”

“He said they were scrubbing the files and looking at whether there were any hints that there had been previous incidents,” Collins told reporters separately.

Collins, spoke to Sullivan about the episode on Monday and Tuesday, when she pressed him to look into the files.

“Think of all the missions and countries that the Secret Service visits in advance of the president’s trips,” she said.

“I think they should look at disciplinary records, at whether supervisors were – had admonished [them] even informally,” she said. “My instinct is that this was not one-time.”

Israeli officials say European Union-led negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program are giving Tehran more time to develop nuclear weapons. sacoche louis vuitton homme U.S. officials are trying to reassure Israel there is still time for a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff.

U.N. and E.U. nuclear talks with Iran have settled on another round of negotiations next month in Baghdad.

And Israel is not happy about it.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says more time is just what Iran wants. ”Well, my initial impression is that Iran has been given a [free chance]. It’s got five weeks to continue enrichment without any limitation, any inhibition,” he said.

U.S. President Barack Obama says Iran is not getting a free pass and must show it is serious about complying with its international obligations. ”I’ve been very clear to Iran and to our negotiating partners that we’re not going to have these talks just drag out in a stalling process. But so far at least we haven’t given away anything other than the opportunity for us to negotiate and see if Iran comes to the table in good faith,” he said.

With Israel openly considering a military strike to stop Iran’s nuclear program…

Middle East analyst Malou Innocent says the Obama administration is pressing for more time. ”The Israeli government believes that negotiations are worthless, that we should just immediately press forward with more pressure and possible military strikes. So there seems to be some tension between the Israeli and U.S.sac louis vuitton mode governments,” she said.

The United States and European Union are tightening sanctions on Iran’s oil and banking sectors.

President Obama says there will be no let up until the international community is satisfied that Iran’s nuclear program is not for weapons. ”Part of the reason we have been able to build a strong international coalition that isolates Iran around the nuclear issue is because the world has confidence that I’ve been sincere and my administration’s been sincere about giving Iran an opportunity to pursue peaceful nuclear energy while foreclosing the pursuit of a nuclear weapon,” sacoche louis vuitton he said.

With Iranian ally Bashar al-Assad under pressure in Damascus, analyst Malou Innocent says the Obama administration is telling Israel to be patient. ”History is going in Israel’s favor in terms of the international pressure being brought on the Iranian government and now the internal insurrection against Assad’s regime. So many within Washington are trying to pressure Tel Aviv to back down on the pressure and allow events to carry forward,” he said.

Iran insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

U.N. Secretary General Bank Ki-moon says Tehran deserves the chance to demonstrate that to the international community.

Oracle and Google kicked off a high-stakes jury trial in San Francisco on Monday, sacoche louis vuitton
with Oracle arguing that Google ran roughshod over its intellectual property rights because the search giant was scared of getting left behind in the mobile advertising business.

”This case is about Google’s use, in Google’s business, of somebody else’s property without permission,” said Michael Jacobs, an attorney for Oracle, in his opening remarks to the jury.

Oracle sued Google 18 months ago, arguing that its Android operating system infringes Java patents and copyrights that Oracle acquired when it bought Sun Microsystems. Google denies any wrongdoing and says it doesn’t need a license for the parts of Java it used.

Judge William Alsup, who is hearing the case, warned both sides on Monday that they’ll need to show good cause for any evidence submitted at trial to be kept from the public, and that unflattering details about either side might emerge.

”Unless it’s the recipe for Coca-Cola, it’s going to be public,” Alsup said. ”If it reveals something embarrassing about the way one of these companies works, too bad. That’s going to be out there for the public to see.”

Most of the opening day was taken up with jury selection, but Jacobs had time to deliver Oracle’s opening statement before the proceedings wrapped up.sacoche louis vuitton homme Google will give its opening statement Tuesday morning.

Jacobs cited several emails to and from Google executives that he said would show that Google knew it needed a license for Java and that, having failed to negotiate one, it developed Android with Java anyway.

Google’s use of Oracle’s intellectual property wasn’t a mistake or the result of any confusion, Jacobs told the jury.

”The decision to use Oracle’s intellectual property in Android was taken at the highest levels, with a lot of comprehension and awareness about what was going on,” he said.

Google made most of its money from desktop advertising, he said, and the popularity of smartphones made Google realize around 2005 that it needed a mobile software platform to stay competitive.

Google had to develop Android quickly, and it had to attract developers to be successful, he said. sac louis vuitton mode ”How did they meet those requirements? The answer is with components of Java.”

Other companies such as eBay, Cisco Systems and General Electric bought licenses to use Java, but Google ”broke the basic set of rules governing the Java community,” Jacobs said.

Some big Silicon Valley names are expected to be called to testify in the trial. Oracle’s witness list includes its CEO, Larry Ellison, Google CEO Larry Page, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and former Sun CEOs Scott McNealy and Jonathan Schwartz.

Before jury selection took place Monday, Alsup had to settle some last-minute disputes between the two sides.

Google thought it would be unfair if Oracle were allowed to tell the jury it paid $7.4 billion to buy Sun, because it might inflate the value of Java in the minds of the jurors.

”They’ve been dying to throw that number around,” Robert Van Nest, an attorney for Google, told the judge.

Alsup ruled against him but nevertheless cautioned Oracle to be careful how it used such figures. ”The idea that you can throw big numbers around in front of the jury and somehow jack up the damages award if there is one … that’s not going to be allowed,” Alsup said.

The trial will be held in three phases: first to hear the copyright claims, then the patent claims, and then any damages Oracle might be awarded. Oracle is seeking about $1 billion in damages and an injunction to block Google from shipping any infringing code.

The lawsuit is seen by many as a test case for whether software APIs (application programming interfaces) can be subject to copyright.

The trial resumes at 8 a.m. Pacific Time Tuesday morning. It’s being held at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

After a year of sanctions and sabre-rattling over Iran’s nuclear programme,sacoche louis vuitton negotiators from Tehran and six world powers finally resumed talks and found at least enough common ground to agree to meet again next month.

With threats of war hanging over an already unsettled Middle East, U.S. and other Western diplomats welcomed an Iranian willingness in Istanbul on Saturday to discuss their nuclear activities – something they had refused since early last year.

But though they will meet again, in Baghdad on May 23, they remained poles apart. Iran called for a lifting of sanctions and recognition its uranium enrichment is for purely peaceful ends; the United States demanded urgent action to prove the Islamic Republic is not seeking the potential nuclear arsenal which Washington and ally Israel threaten to eliminate by force.

”While the atmosphere today was positive and good enough to merit a second round, we continue to stress … that there is urgency for concrete progress and that the window for a diplomatic resolution is closing,” said a senior U.S. official.

Over the past year, Israeli talk of sacoche louis vuitton homme ”pre-emptive” strikes if Iran does not stop working on some aspects of nuclear technology have stoked fears of war – and lifted oil prices – especially since estimates of how much longer Tehran might need to build an atomic device, should it wish, have shortened to a year or two.

A resumption of dialogue may help dampen anxieties, although hawkish voices in Israel and Western states have long questioned Tehran’s good faith and accuse it of using talks to buy time for its nuclear scientists – some of whom have been killed in what Iran says is a covert campaign by Israeli and Western agencies.

Publicly, negotiators on all sides emphasised the positive.

”We expect that subsequent meetings will lead to concrete steps towards a comprehensive negotiated solution which restores international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear programme,” said Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief who leads negotiations for the six powers.

The group comprises the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – Russia, sac louis vuitton mode the United States, China, France and Britain – along with Germany. It is known as the P5+1.

Calling Saturday’s talks ”constructive and useful”, Ashton said: ”We want now to move to a sustained process of dialogue.”

The Russian delegation called the talks ”business-like”.

For the White House, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes called the talks ”a positive first step”. ”The Iranians came to the table and engaged in a discussion about their nuclear programme,” he said. Meeting again was also ”positive”.

Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad shot dead five protesters after Friday prayers, activists reported, sac louis vuitton mode while the government said an army officer was killed as violence marred a ceasefire brokered by international peace envoy Kofi Annan. At the United Nations, Russia said it was not satisfied with a Western-Arab draft resolution authorising an advance UN team to monitor the fragile ceasefire which aims to end 13 months of bloodshed during the uprising against Assad, an ally of Moscow.

The council is tentatively scheduled to vote on the draft on Saturday if Russia can be persuaded to support it.

Syrians took to the streets across the country in small demonstrations, trusting that the two-day-old truce that is meant to lead to political dialogue would protect them from the army bullets that have frightened off peaceful protesters for months.

Activists said security forces came out in strength in many cities to prevent protesters mounting major rallies against Assad, even though the plan of UN-Arab League envoy Annan says the government should have pulled its troops back.

Protesters questioned Assad’s commitment to the peace plan that he has accepted. In the Qadam district of Damascus,sacoche louis vuitton they held up a placard saying: ”Bashar may be able to laugh at the whole world – except for the Syrian people”.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the anti-Assad Local Coordination Committees said two people were killed as marchers tried to converge on a central square in the city of Hama.

Soldiers also shot one person dead as worshippers left a mosque in Nawa in the southern province of Deraa, where the uprising began in March 2011. Security forces killed a fourth in the town of Salqeen in the northwestern province of Idlib, opposition activists said, and a fifth was killed in Deraya, Damascus province.

However, Syria’s state news agency SANA blamed two of the deaths on the opposition, saying an ”armed terrorist group” shot dead the man in Salqeen and attributing the death of one Hama protester to a shot fired by a fellow demonstrator.

Sana also said ”terrorists” shot an army major dead as he drove to work. Armed groups were seeking to ”destroy any effort to find a political solution to the crisis” in Syria, it said.

The United Nations estimates that Assad’s forces have killed more than 9,000 people since the uprising began. sacoche louis vuitton homme Authorities blame the violence on foreign-backed militants who they say have killed more than 2,500 soldiers and police.

No mass rallies
Assad’s opponents had called for mass rallies on Friday to test whether the authorities would tolerate a return to peaceful protests, as Annan’s six-point plan said they should.

But rallies filmed by activists were far smaller than the huge, chanting crowds seen in major cities at the start of the uprising 13 months ago and on several occasions in 2011.

International pressure has grown for Syria to fulfil all its commitments to the former UN chief by withdrawing troops and heavy weapons, permitting humanitarian and media access, releasing prisoners and discussing a political transition.

At the Security Council, the US-drafted resolution called for an initial deployment of up to 30 unarmed UN observers.

Russia’s UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, told reporters after an inconclusive Security Council meeting on the draft resolution that ”we need to cut off all the things which are not really necessary for this particular purpose.”

With the Florida neighborhood watch volunteer jailed on a charge of second-degree murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black teen, sac louis vuitton mode
the next big question: What now?

Thousands of protesters poured into the suburban Orlando community of Sanford to call for the arrest of George Zimmerman in the weeks following the February 26 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

Their calls for ”Justice for Trayvon” grew more forceful with each day, with Martin’s supporters taking to the Internet and to streets in cities across the nation.

Forty-six days after the shooting, 28-year-old Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder. A Seminole County judge on Thursday found there was sufficient probable cause to move forward with the case and set a May 29 arraignment for Zimmerman.

The next legal step, say Zimmerman’s attorney and the special prosecutor, is to allow the case to work its way through Florida’s judicial system.

Trayvon’s mom: sacoche louis vuitton No hate for Zimmerman

Can Zimmerman’s lawyer get him bond?

Interaction between Zimmerman, Martin key

Trayvon brother: Starting to get justice Their next public step, though, may prove more difficult.

Attorney Mark O’Mara, who represents Zimmerman, told CNN’s Piers Morgan late Thursday that one of his immediate goals is to ”bring down the level of anger, animosity, just frustrations, emotions” that are on the periphery of the case.

O’Mara said there are two sides of the case, a legal one and a human one.

”We have the human tragedy side of it. We are going to try to bridge that if we can,” O’Mara said. ”There are words that need to be said.”

Special prosecutor Angela Corey, who was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott to investigate the case, said she will ensure that the judge or jury deciding the case will get only ”the relevant, admissible evidence on which they can then base their decisions.”

”Let me emphasize that we do not prosecute by pressure or petition,” she said.

Both the defense and prosecution said they had no intention of trying the case in the court of public opinion, sacoche louis vuitton homme though both conceded there is extreme interest.

O’Mara believes it will be at least six months, possibly a year, before the case goes to trial.

”We, of course, have a lot of information to find out. I’m far behind on finding out the information flow,” he said.

There have been more questions than answers about what happened the night that Zimmerman shot Martin.

Zimmerman, a white Hispanic, has said he killed Martin in self-defense after the teen punched him and slammed his head on the sidewalk; Martin’s family said Zimmerman profiled their son.

Immediately after the shooting, Sanford police questioned Zimmerman and released him without charges. They said then that there were no grounds to disprove his account that he’d acted to protect himself.

A second round of major cuts to the public sector is slicing off the hands that serve the public and the heads that serve the federal government.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada said Wednesday that more than 5,500 civil servants have been given notice, sac louis vuitton mode
including more than 250 who provide client services to military veterans.

Hundreds of policy analysts were also among those told that their jobs are on the block as the Conservatives seek to slash spending by $5.2 billion over the next three years.

The tension between the political and policy branches of government has been palpable since the Conservatives were elected in 2006, with perhaps the highest-profile case being the resignation of Canada’s chief statistician over the decision to cancel the long-form census.

”What we’ve seen over the past little while is a change in what’s expected of advisers,” said Claude Danik, executive director of policy for the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, which represents more than 13,000 economists and social scientists who advise the government on public policy.

”In the past they wanted advice that was independent. We don’t feel that’s still what is being asked. It depends on the department but they’re often told to find information that will support particular positions.”

Danik says he doesn’t see the cuts as political but they do raise a serious question: sacoche louis vuitton ”How will departments be able to carry out their mandates with these cuts?”

A spokesperson for Treasury Board President Tony Clement said since the cuts only eliminate four per cent of the public service over the next three years, there will still be plenty of advice and support to go around.

”This government respects and appreciates the hard work that public servants do for this country,” Jennifer Gearey said in an email.

”We have found fair, balanced and moderate savings measures to ensure jobs, economic growth, and long term prosperity for all Canadians.”

According to PSAC, unionized employees in 23 federal departments received notice Wednesday, with 1,137 staff at the Canadian Border Services Agency notified their position could be on the hit list, and 689 such positions at Agriculture Canada.

The number of notifications doesn’t represent the number of actual jobs that could be cut, union officials explained.

The system requires all employees who do a particular job to be notified no matter how many of their positions are being eliminated.

Geographically, Ottawa bore the biggest brunt with 2,224 workers put on notice, according to the union.

Among the analysts told Wednesday that they’ll be affected by the job cuts are those who work at Foreign Affairs, Treasury Board,
sacoche louis vuitton homme and Health Canada.

Danik said it appeared many of the cuts at Health were coming from within the branch of the department that focuses on First Nation and Inuit health.

A spokesperson for the department couldn’t say what programs are being cut because not all employees have been notified.

”We are still continuing to provide core health services to First Nations and Inuit,” Stephane Shank said.

Other departments, including Treasury Board and the Privy Council Office, gave the same response when asked for more details about the cuts, refusing to confirm job numbers or programs under the knife because the notification process is ongoing.

But now that individuals are being told, the departments should come clean with the public on what programs are being affected, said John Gordon, national president for PSAC.

”I think they’ve been muzzled by the government,” he said.

Almost all federal departments were told last month to slash their budgets by five per cent or more, meaning few will be immune from job cuts.

Growing demands for tough UN Security Council action on Syria are putting increasing pressure on Russia’s diplomatic shield around President Bashar al-Assad.

After Assad brushed aside a Tuesday deadline to withdraw troops and guns from cities, sacoche louis vuitton the prospects for international pressure will depend on what UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan requests, and how far Syria has strained the patience of Russia, its main ally, diplomats say.

Annan is now insisting the Syrian leader make a “fundamental change” and keep a Thursday zero hour for a complete halt to hostilities. But the United States, France, Britain and Turkey say Assad has already failed and are demanding sanctions-style action.

Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the UN, warned that the UN Security Council faces a looming “moment of truth” on Syria.

The “logical next step” would be to increase pressure through “collective action,” she said.

France’s Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said he wants “new measures” by the council after Thursday. Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague said the Security Council should refer Assad to the International Criminal Court. Turkey, struggling with a wave of Syrian refugees, has also demanded action.

Russia and China vetoed two resolutions on Syria because they hinted at sanctions. sacoche louis vuitton homme They have however signed up to less weighty statements which backed Annan’s six-point peace plan and his deadlines to Assad.

Annan has been praised for the way he has built up international unity behind his efforts. One step off the diplomatic tightrope could unleash new Security Council hostilities on Syria, diplomats said.

Rice said Russia and China have a special “responsibility to use the influence they have to end the killing of the Assad regime” — more than 9,000 dead according to the UN.

For the moment, Annan is “off-limits” to Russian attacks, said one senior UN envoy. “But if he recommends sanctions, the Russians and Chinese could easily turn on him.”

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov complained publicly on Tuesday to Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem that the regime should be more “decisive” in carrying out the Annan plan.

But he also said Annan should put more pressure on the Syrian opposition.

“At best there is uncertainty now about the Russian attitude,”sac louis vuitton mode said another UN diplomat.

Some analysts say Annan’s plan gave leeway to Assad because he had to weaken it to get Russian agreement.

“It was clear that the regime would use what wriggle room existed, and the Annan mission built consensus around a conceptual roadmap that provided plenty of it,” said Peter Harling, the International Crisis Group think tank’s Middle East specialist.

Annan’s plan was “a non-starter” because it contained no talk of Syria’s president stepping aside, said Murhaf Jouejati, a professor at the U.S. National Defense University and a member of the opposition Syrian National Council.

Others say however that Annan has skillfully managed his showdown with Assad by keeping the support of Russia and China.

“In a very methodical and moderate way he has revealed the extent of the Assad regime’s duplicity,” said Richard Gowan, of the New York University (NYU) Center on International Cooperation, who closely follows Security Council affairs.

“The hope was that because Annan put forward a fairly moderate plan that Russia would really put pressure on Syria to accept it,” he said.

“Either Russia does not have the influence or it did not put full pressure on to get Assad to comply. Either way it looks pretty bad for Moscow.”