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Abbas and his brother Tarek Abbas were the subject of a June 2012 article in Foreign Policy by Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. The article, "The Brothers Abbas," posed the question of whether the two men were "growing rich off their father's system."
In a complaint (PDF) filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on September 20, Yasser Abbas argued that the question behind Schanzer's article – whether Abbas had profited because of his father's position and "at the expense " of the Palestinian people and U.S. taxpayers – rose to the level of libe...
In a statement provided by Abbas' counsel at New York's Melito & Adolfsen, Abbas said that Schanzer's article used "deliberate entailments and fabricated exposures" to mix politics with Abbas' private life. Schanzer and a spokeswoman for Foreign Policy declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
The one thing Abbas agreed with in Schanzer's article, according to the complaint, is that he's had financial success as a businessman for a number of years. But Abbas asserted that it had nothing to do with his father's leadership of the Palestinian government and that any contracts he received were justly earned.
Abbas accused Schanzer of not contacting him for comment and of relying on untrustworthy sources of information. Abbas accused Schanzer of acting with malice and pursuing an agenda against the brothers, even though he also contended that he's a private citizen and not a public figure, so we wouldn't need to prove actua...
"The [Foreign Policy] article has caused, is causing, and will cause Plaintiff to suffer injury to his standing, to his reputation and good name; and will continue to hold Plaintiff up to public scorn, hatred and ridicule," Abbas argued in his complaint. "Plaintiff worked hard his entire life to build his reputation lo...
As of press time, the Foreign Policy Group, which is a division of The Washington Post Company, and Schanzer didn't have counsel listed. The case is before U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan.
This morning, NBC News has a breathless claim that it is in possession of statements from four people who “corroborate” the increasingly non-credible allegations of Christine Ford, the California woman who claims that she was groped by a drunken Brett Kavanaugh some 37 years ago. I say non-credible for several reasons.
Ford can’t remember a year, a month, or a place where the alleged assault took place and she can’t remember how she got there or how she got home. That is a helluva lot of forgetting.
Ford named four people who were allegedly at the “party” where this took place. One of them is a life-long friend of hers. None of them recall such a party.
Ford never mentioned this event to anyone for 30 years, until she was in marriage counseling.
Ford wanted to delay the Senate hearing because she said she has a fear of flying.
Ford has reportedly told friends she is uncomfortable in confined spaces, indicating a physical difficulty in making the trip by plane.
Yet she received her PhD in Hawaii and she, in this letter, apparently flew to and from the “mid-Atlantic” (have no idea whether this means MD-DE-NJ-NY or Bermuda) in August…after she made the complaint to Feinstein but before she knew she would have to testify.
Anyway, this is the new evidence.
Her husband who says he first heard the story in marriage counseling in 2012.
A friend who says Ford first mentioned the alleged assault in 2016 and attributed it to an unnamed ‘federal judge’ and on June 29, 2018, said it was Kavanaugh.
Charitably, this is not “corroboration,” this is gossip. All it substantiates is that she mentioned an alleged assault by Kavanaugh twice, however, we know from previous reports that the Kavanaugh story appeared about the same time as he was being touted for a Supreme Court seat in a Romney administration. We can belie...
NBC can call this “corroboration” until the cows come home. It isn’t. But I do have four letters corroborating Trump’s claim that Ted Cruz’s father shot JFK and I’m going to make a fortune off them.
A girl who said she was being bullied at school wrote RIP on her heel, posted about it on social media and then took her own life, an inquest heard.
Jessica Scatterson was found after friends called police when she started posting worrying messages about death and suicide online in the middle of the night.
The police woke up her father, who then found Jessica dead surrounded by cuddly toys, notes and drawings, in her bedroom.
The inquest was told Jessica had spoken to teachers in the lead up to her death about her dad, Christopher Scatterson, who she said would ‘sometimes come home, go to his room and cry’.
Sergeant Ross Dryden, of Cheshire Police, said Mr Scatterson, 41, spoke to him from an upstairs window at his home in Warrington after being woken up at 3.45am on April 22 last year, days before her 13th birthday.
Shortly after, he heard a ‘loud scream’ from inside.
According to Mail Online, the sergeant tried to resuscitate Jessica until paramedics arrived but she was pronounced dead a short time later.
Paramedic Joanne Newton told the hearing at Warrington Town Hall that she noticed cuts to Jessica’s legs and ‘RIP’ written in pen on her right heel.
Police found a series of handwritten notes in her bedroom which referenced suicide and death, as well as ‘a hand-drawn picture of someone being hanged’.
Messages sent between Jessica and her friends and a photograph in which one of the girls’ faces had been scratched out were also discovered on her iPad.
Jessica’s friends told police they were aware she had previously self-harmed, but never told her parents or teachers at Penketh High School.
Inspector Friend said that, during their inquiry, she became aware of an incident ‘relating to Jessica being bullied at school’ in April 2016.
Jessica had come home with scratches to her face and a swollen eye after arguing with another girl.
The matter was reported to the police but it was unclear who had started the fight so no action was taken.
The name of the girl, whose identity was not revealed, was included in Jessica’s suicide notes.
When quizzed by police, Jessica’s friends denied she was bullied and said she ‘gave as good as she got’.
Teacher Sarah Baron said the Year 8 pupil had been worried about her father’s wellbeing and as such had taken on most of the chores at home, including cooking and cleaning.
‘She just seemed like a child that was taking too much on for her age,’ she said.
Wendy Walsh, a pastoral adviser at the school, added: ‘Jessica felt a great deal of responsibility, not just at home but with her friends.
Senior Coroner for Cheshire, Alan Moore, asked each staff member if they ‘had been made aware of an incident in 2016, where Jessica had seemingly been bullied at school’.
All admitted there had been incidents of name-calling and fallouts with friends, but denied it had amounted to bullying.
They also said Jessica had never spoken to them about self-harming or having suicidal thoughts.
In an effort to quell a crescendo of protest, the governing board of the University of Virginia issued its first public response Wednesday regarding the removal of Teresa Sullivan as president, explaining that it had engaged in an “extended period” of dialogue with her over the university’s health before seeking her re...
University Rector Helen E. Dragas addressed her comments to leaders of the Faculty Senate and to other faculty members who had publicly criticized the board for asking Sullivan to resign, noting that the board “understands the serious concern and anxiety” raised by Sullivan’s exit. She acknowledged what appeared “an ab...
But colleagues insist that Sullivan was utterly surprised by her ouster and say that she had shared with the board a frank, 12-page Academic Strategy memo in May that expressed both her strategic concerns about the university’s academic performance and her vision for how best to respond.
The Board of Visitors accepted Sullivan’s resignation Sunday after telling her that they had the votes to force her out, according to multiple sources inside and outside the state’s flagship university. The move has triggered an unusual and growing chorus of dissent, including a protest Wednesday by 33 academic leaders...
The Board of Visitors has called a special meeting for Monday to discuss interim candidates to replace Sullivan. Sullivan, a sociologist and former University of Michigan provost, will have the briefest term of any U-Va. president.
Sullivan’s Academic Strategy memo, obtained by The Washington Post, was written in comparatively candid terms and identified five areas of broad concern.
First, a siloed budgeting model that frustrates innovation and collaboration. Second, a projection that fully half of the U-Va. faculty will depart by 2020, mainly because of retirement. Third, a “reputation gap”: In many academic areas, Sullivan suggests, the university is “reputed to be better than we actually are.” ...
Lastly, Sullivan suggested overhauling the curriculum to lavish far more attention on upper-level classes and to convert many lower-level courses to a “hybrid” model, partly delivered online. Her reasoning: Many U-Va. students arrive already having taken many introductory courses as Advanced Placement or International ...
Many of Sullivan’s themes are the same ones invoked by Dragas as areas the board claimed she had failed to properly address.
Opposition to Sullivan’s ouster appears to be spreading. Thirty-three department chairs and program directors signed a letter, released Wednesday, that protests her removal and urges the panel to “reopen discussion” with the sidelined leader.
On Monday, the 16-member Executive Council of the university’s Faculty Senate released a statement opposing Sullivan’s removal. Others, including Provost John Simon, former U-Va. president Robert O’Neil and former chief operating officer Leonard Sandridge have spoken in strenuous defense of Sullivan’s abilities.
Many educators at U-Va. contend that there were no signs of organizational weakness at the university or of shortcomings in Sullivan’s leadership.
Two legislators who represent the Charlottesville area — Sen. R. Creigh Deeds and House Minority Leader David J. Toscano, both Democrats — are waiting for some answers.
Toscano said he has been hearing from faculty members for days. He met with Sullivan last Thursday to talk policy and there was no sign of problems. The two made a future appointment for lunch.
A hairy situation. Ozzy Osbourne was having an affair with celebrity hairstylist Michelle Pugh, a source tells Us Weekly. As previously reported, the rock star’s rumored indiscretions may have led to his wife, Sharon Osbourne, calling it quits on their relationship after nearly 34 years of marriage.
A source claims to Us that Pugh “was one of Ozzy’s mistresses” and is a colorist at the posh Meche Salon in Beverly Hills.
"I've been avoiding looking at any pictures or reading anything. I know what's going on," Sharon explained. "I don't need to read about it and see about it because it's like putting salt in a wound. So I don't need to."
The mom of three also revealed that she kicked Ozzy out of the couple’s Beverly Hills home. “It’s true,” she said with a laugh, but then admitted that the musician has returned, forcing Sharon to find refuge away from the couple’s mansion. "He's back and I'm out of the house," she noted.
Ozzy has cheated before. Back in March, Sharon said on The Talk that she once caught him in bed with two nannies.
The pair wed in 1982 and share two daughters Aimee, 32, and Kelly, 31, and son Jack, 30. The family — with the exception of Aimee — appeared on MTV’s hit reality series The Osbournes, which aired for four seasons from 2002 until 2005.
Us Weekly has reached out to Ozzy’s rep and to Pugh for comment.
Correction: A previous version of this story reported that a source claimed Pugh had been fired from Meche Salon. However, Pugh is still employed there.
Medina, 31, is charged with first-degree murder. His arraignment is set for Aug. 29.
On Aug. 8, Medina stunned South Florida when he posted a photo of Alfonso’s bloody body, bent backwards, lying on the tile kitchen floor. Her 10-year-old daughter from a previous relationship was upstairs at the time and was not physically harmed.
Medina admitted posting the admission and photo on his page — which was public — before ever calling police, the warrant said. He later walked into the South Miami police station and surrendered.
“I’m going to prison or death sentence for killing my wife. Love you guys. Miss you guys. Take care. Facebook people you’ll see me in the news,” he wrote, claiming he was tired of Alfonso’s physical abuse.
Medina and Alfonso’s Facebook pages have since been removed at the request of police.
But a self-defense claim, legal experts say, will be tough.
In his confession, Medina admits that during their argument he grabbed his Bersa Thunder .380-caliber pistol from his upstairs bedroom and pointed it at Alfonso. When she threatened to leave him, he followed her downstairs.
She grabbed a knife, but he disarmed her and put the utensil back in the kitchen drawer, according to the warrant penned by Miami-Dade Detective Terry Goldston.
“Mr. Medina then shot the victim six or eight times because she began to punch him,” the warrant said.
Miami defense lawyer Andrew Rier, who is not involved in the case, said that even if Alfonso was indeed punching or kicking him, it will be tough to prove to a jury that the physically bigger man feared for his life or imminent “great bodily harm” after disarming her.
“He was armed. She wasn’t armed, so why did he have to kill her?” Rier said.
The sheer number of bullets fired — publicly unknown until the release of the search warrant — also hampers a self-defense claim, former Miami-Dade prosecutor Matthew Baldwin said.
Any self-defense claim also is hurt by a Youtube video he posted days before the shooting in which he is kicking a boxing punching bag — showing he was capable of using less-than-lethal force to protect himself, experts say.
His lawyers on Friday nevertheless appeared in court asking a judge to ensure that detectives preserved all photos taken of Medina, presumably ones that might show any bruises or cuts inflicted during the episode. His lawyers were also allowed to take their own photos of him.
Medina also told police that the episode was captured on an interior surveillance video system. Police seized the video, although it is unclear how much of the confrontation was actually captured.
From the warrant, it is clear that Miami-Dade detectives were intent on investigating the self-defense claim.
They swabbed Alfonso’s hands for gunshot residue, noted blood on her hands and swabbed her knuckles for DNA. Results of any tests won’t be known for some time.
Detectives also seized a Taser stun gun, two other pistols, ammunition, a holster, as well as a large Chicago Cutlery knife from the top kitchen drawer. Crime-scene technicians also noted eight bullet casings on the kitchen floor near where Alfonso’s body was found.
Investigators also took from the townhome copies of Medina’s self-published books, a journal and other documents.
Belfast Giants player coach Derrick Walser says squad changes will be necessary after his team's failure to win any silverware this season.
The Giants' season ended on Monday night with a 3-1 home defeat by Nottingham in the play-offs quarter-final second leg at the SSE Arena as the Panthers completed a 7-4 aggregate success.
"I don't care if you have two-year or three-year deals. That does not matter to me," said Walser.
"I'm going to put the best team that is possible to fill the holes that I believe are lacking.
"I'm happy with a lot of the guys but we are missing something."
LONDON -- Three British soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan on Sunday by a man dressed in the uniform of the country's police force, Britain's defense ministry said in a statement Monday.
The ministry said two soldiers from the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards and one from the Royal Corps of Signals were killed in an incident at Checkpoint Kamparack Pul in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province.
The soldiers were part of a police advisory team that had visited the checkpoint to conduct a shura -- a meeting of village elders. Defense officials said in a statement that a man wearing the uniform of the Afghan National Civil Order Police opened fire as the soldiers were leaving the checkpoint. They received first ...
They have not yet been named by officials. A total of 422 British troops have now died in Afghanistan since 2001.
The attack brings the total number of so called "Green-on-Blue" killings involving Afghan security officials attacking NATO allies to 26 in 18 incidents so far this year.
The last Britons to die in such an incident were on May 12 when two soldiers were shot and killed by two men wearing Afghan Police uniforms who turned their weapons against them.
One of the individuals who opened fire was killed when coalition forces returned fire, the second individual fled into Lashkar Gah, the capital city in Helmand province.
Patients' first contact with the NHS in 20 years time will be via interactive "cyber-physicians" accessed through domestic television sets, according to a government-sponsored study.
Patients will be able to electronically access their medical records from home using a swipe card, and monitor their illness recovery programmes without visiting a hospital or GP surgery.
This and other developments in information technology, science and genetics will revolutionise healthcare, says the report, published today by Foresight, a Department of Trade and Industry sponsored research body, tasked with looking at how developments in science and industry will affect the UK society in the future.
It predicts that many traditional forms of hospital-based, face-to face care delivered by health professionals will disappear as new technologies transform the way healthcare is provided.
But the report admits that NHS is not currently geared up to properly exploit the possibilities of technology. "It is widely recognised that the organisation is at least a decade behind the commercial sector in information technology and its uses."
The panel was chaired by Sir Michael Peckham, of University College London's school of public policy. Sir Michael is a former head of NHS research and development.

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