Al-Qaida releases video of American hostage

In a video released Sunday by al-Qaida, American hostage Warren Weinstein said he will be killed unless President Barack Obama agrees to the militant group's demands.

"My life is in your hands, Mr. President," Weinstein said in the video. "If you accept the demands, I live; if you don't accept the demands, then I die."

He encourages Obama to act quickly, saying any delay "will just make things more difficult."

In the video, Weinstein appeals to Obama as a father, saying he hopes to resume spending time with his two daughters.

Weinstein was abducted last August in Lahore, Pakistan, after gunmen tricked his guards and broke into his home. The 70-year-old from Rockville, Md., is the country director in Pakistan for J.E. Austin Associates, a Virginia-based firm that advises a range of Pakistani business and government sectors.

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri said he would be released if the United States stopped airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. He also demanded the release of all Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects around the world.

The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant messages, said Al-Sahab, al-Qaida's media arm, posted the Weinstein video on jihadist forums Sunday.

"It's important you accept the demands and act quickly and don't delay," Weinstein said in the video, addressing Obama. "There'll be no benefit in delaying, it will just make things more difficult for me."

He also appealed to Obama as a father. If the president responds to the militants' demands, Weinstein said, "then I will live and hopefully rejoin my family and also enjoy my children, my two daughters, like you enjoy your two daughters."

After his kidnapping, Weinstein's company said he was in poor health and provided a detailed list of medications, many of them for heart problems, that it implored the kidnappers to give him.

In the video released Sunday, Weinstein said he would like his wife, Elaine, to know "I'm fine, I'm well, I'm getting all my medications, I'm being taken care of."

Blagojevich washing dishes in prison

Two of Rod Blagojevich's former attorneys say the former Illinois governor is washing pots and pans in prison.

Attorneys Sam Adam Sr. and Sam Adam Jr. visited their former client for 90 minutes on Sunday in Littleton, Colo., WFLD-TV in Chicago reports.

The attorneys say Blagojevich has three cellmates. New inmates are assigned to kitchen duty for 90 days and Blagojevich has been washing dishes six days a week.

The attorneys said Blagojevich has three cellmates and gets along with all of them.

"The guy that he is bunking with, he likes very, very much," Sam Adam Jr. said. "They've bonded."

New inmates are assigned to kitchen duty for 90 days and Blagojevich has been washing dishes six days a week, the attorneys said.

Blagojevich told the attorneys the hardest thing is missing his wife and two daughters. The attorneys say Blagojevich told them his family visited and he was upset rules only allowed his younger daughter to sit on his lap and his teenage daughter to give him a hug.

Blagojevich has been told that when the 90-day period ends he will be teaching either Shakespeare or ancient Greek philosophy and mythology, they said. The ex-governor is known for citing poems by Lord Alfred Tennyson and Rudyard Kipling.

"He is so affable, you forget how educated and well-read he is," Sam Adam Sr. said. "He knows a great deal about Shakespeare."

Blagojevich reported to prison March 15 to begin serving a 14-year sentence on corruption charges.

Parents accused of raping daughters in Turkey

A Turkish court in the southern province of Antalya has begun hearing a mother and father accused of sexually case in which a couple is accused of raping their teenage daughters and threatening their daughters' friends into having group sex. 
The couple is also accused of forcing their daughters' friends to have group sex, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

Two female lawyers assigned by the Antalya Bar to defend the couple fainted while the court listened to two sisters' testimonials, daily Milliyet reported today.
Sixteen-year-old B.Ö. alleged that her father, 39-year-old A.Ö., put his gun to her head and sodomized her while her mother and 15-year-old sister, H.Ö., were not at home. B.Ö. said her father raped her another time after saying there were "demons in the house" and that the two sisters were "possessed."
I learned that my father had done the same thing to my sister," B.Ö. said in court. "I told my mother about it but she dragged me in a room and stripped me and put her finger in my vagina. She said she was checking to see if I was a virgin. My father then joined her and they sexually harassed me with the excuse of checking my virginity.
A.Ö. and his 34-year-old wife, Z.Ö., were also accused of raping their daughters' friend, E.E., as well as Ç.K., another girl who is 50 percent mentally disabled, after forcing them into having group sex at gunpoint.
The prosecution demanded that A.Ö. and Z.Ö. be jailed for 15 years for the rape of each victim for a total of 60 years for each of the accused.

India ready for a Slut Walk?

Is India ready for a Slut Walk?

Indian daughters imbibe from their parents, even in a new India where years of economic boom have thrown up a trendy, affluent youth with a kind of freedom unknown to many of their parents. Dress appropriately, don’t make eye contact with strangers (especially men) and be at home before sunset.

India had its first Slut Walk in Bhopal city in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday to denounce the idea that women entice men and invite trouble with their attire, a belief seemingly held by many Indian judges as well.

The first Slut Walk was initiated by Canadians in April in response to a comment made by a Toronto police official.

“I’ve been told I’m not supposed to say this — however, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised,” said Michael Sanguinetti to a personal safety class at York University.