Worldwide Hippie News Briefs Tuesday
Thousands protest at US Afghan base after Quran desecration
KABUL, Afghanistan — A crowd of Afghans protesting outside the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan swelled to more than 2,000 Tuesday over a report that foreign troops had improperly disposed of copies of the Quran, Afghan officials said.
General John Allen, commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), earlier offered his “sincere apologies” for the actions in an apparent bid to prevent anti-Western anger from spreading across Afghanistan.
“When we learned of these actions, we immediately intervened and stopped them. The materials recovered will be properly handled by appropriate religious authorities,” he wrote in a statement. More…
Strauss-Kahn held by police in French prostitution probe
LILLE, France (Reuters) – Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was taken in for questioning on Tuesday by police investigating an alleged prostitution ring run out of the northern French city of Lille.
Strauss-Kahn can be held for up to 48 hours and may then be placed under formal investigation for benefitting from misappropriated company funds. Investigators are trying to find out whether French executives used corporate expense accounts to fund sex parties with prostitutes.
A former finance minister once seen as a strong contender for France’s 2012 presidential election, Strauss-Kahn’s career and political ambitions came to an abrupt end last May after he was accused of sexually assaulting a New York hotel maid.
He made no comment to waiting reporters as he arrived for questioning at a Lille police station. More…
Every February Yosemite waterfall turns to lava
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — A window of time just opened in Yosemite National Park when nature photographers wait, as if for an eclipse, until the moment when the sun and earth align to create a fleeting phenomenon.
This marvel of celestial configuration happens in a flash at sunset in mid-February — if the winter weather cooperates. On those days the setting sun illuminates one of the park’s lesser-known waterfalls so precisely that it resembles molten lava as it flows over the sheer granite face of the imposing El Capitan.
Every year growing numbers of photographers converge on the park, their necks craned toward the ephemeral Horsetail Fall, hoping the sky will be clear so they can duplicate the spectacle first recorded in color in 1973 by the late renowned outdoors photographer Galen Rowell. More…
