Several dead in attack on Kenya casino!

Several people including a policeman were shot dead in gun battles in the early hours Thursday when a gang attacked a Kenyan coastal casino, police said.

"Six of the attackers were shot dead but they also killed one of our police officers," regional police chief Aggrey Adoli told AFP.

Adoli said that a large gang - who he said were members of a coastal separatist group, the Mombasa Republic Council (MRC)- had attacked a casino in Malindi, a popular Indian Ocean tourist resort.

"There was a raid by MRC attackers at Malindi casino earlier this morning at 2.00 am by a gang of about 100," Adoli said, adding that four policemen had been at the casino when the raid took place.

"There was a fierce shoot-out outside the casino, because they wanted to try to get in but they were repulsed," Adoli said. Officers had arrested four people, he added.

"We have a contingent of police officers looking for the attackers, we suspect they are hiding in forests around Malindi."

Malindi, some 95 kilometres north of Kenya's main port city of Mombasa, is home to several top end international tourist resorts.

 

Tourism is a key part of Kenya's economy, and the coastal region is expected to be especially busy over the upcoming Easter weekend

Madiba readmitted!

FORMER South African president Nelson Mandela has been readmitted to hospital with a recurrent lung infection, according to an official statement from the president's office. It urges people to pray for the anti-apartheid hero.

The 94-year-old was hospitalised "due to the recurrence of his lung infection" just before midnight on Wednesday, President Jacob Zuma's office said in a statement.

It is the second time this month that the Nobel peace laureate has spent the night in hospital and follows a nearly three-week stay in December for the lung infection and for surgery to extract gallstones.

Earlier this month, he spent a night in hospital for a "scheduled medical checkup".

"Doctors are attending to him, ensuring that he has the best possible expert medical treatment and comfort," said the presidency.

Zuma wished "Madiba", as South Africa's first black president is fondly known at home, a quick recovery.

"We appeal to the people of South Africa and the world to pray for our beloved Madiba and his family and to keep them in their thoughts," he said.

"We have full confidence in the medical team and know that they will do everything possible to ensure recovery."

NeN Revered at home and abroad, Mandela has grown increasingly frail away from the public eye with several recent health scares.

His December admission was the Nobel Peace Prize winner's longest hospital stay since he walked free from 27 years of apartheid jail in 1990.

In early 2012, he was admitted for a minor exploratory procedure to investigate persistent abdominal pain.

His lungs have also been a longstanding source of health problems.

In 2011, he was hospitalised for two nights for an unnamed acute respiratory infection.

Mandela was diagnosed with early stage tuberculosis in 1988 while imprisoned during apartheid.

In February, Zuma said he had found Mandela "comfortable and relaxed" and watching television after paying him a visit at his Johannesburg home.

"He had the brightest smile," said Zuma.

Earlier this month, friend and renowned human rights lawyer George Bizos, who defended Mandela during his 1960s treason trial, said Mandela was aware of currents political events but had memory lapses.

"Unfortunately he sometimes forgets that one or two of them had passed on and has a blank face when you tell him that Walter Sisulu and some others are no longer with us," Bizos told radio's Eyewitness News.

Sisulu, the former leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) who was Mandela's political mentor, died nearly a decade ago.

At the beginning of last month, two of his granddaughters released a picture of a smiling Mandela sitting with his youngest great-grandson in an armchair.

It was taken to show his recovery after his December hospitalisation, they said while promoting their new reality show, Being Mandela.

Mandela stepped down after one term as president after taking power after 1994 polls that dealt the final death blow to decades of white minority rule.

He is adored in South Africa where he is seen as the symbol of the divided country's peaceful shift into democracy.

He has not appeared in public since South Africa's Football World Cup final in 2010, six years after retiring.

Rumours of his failing health or even death flare up periodically, forcing the government to issue assurances that all is well
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Judge in Sarkozy probe sent bullet in mail

THE judge who charged former president Nicolas Sarkozy with taking financial advantage of France's richest woman has received a bullet and a death threat in the post, say lawyers.

Jean-Michel Gentil, the most prominent of three judges investigating the case, received the threatening letter together with blank cartridges on Wednesday, the magistrate's union SM said in a statement.

One of Gentil's colleagues said the letter, which arrived at the judge's Bordeaux offices, contained threats against other magistrates. Police had been called.

The SM denounced what it called "insulting statements" made by some of Sarkozy's political allies, which it said were designed to undermine the judiciary.

It noted too that Sarkozy's own lawyer, Thierry Herzog, had questioned Gentil's impartiality.

The SM said a number of its members were targeted in the letter.

Sarkozy's lawyers are attempting to overturn last week's decision by three magistrates to charge him in a case that threatens to destroy his hopes of a political comeback.

He has repeatedly denied claims he accepted cash-stuffed envelopes from the world's richest woman Liliane Bettencourt to fund his successful 2007 campaign.

Medical experts say the mental faculties of the L'Oreal heiress began to deteriorate in 2006.

Sarkozy's lawyer questioned Gentil's impartiality in an interview with newspaper Journal du Dimanche.

Gentil last June put his name to a column signed by dozens of legal professionals in the leading newspaper Le Monde, accusing Sarkozy and his predecessor Jacques Chirac of "wishing to protect the corrupt", he pointed out.

Herzog said that five days after the column, Gentil ordered police to search Sarkozy's home, office and his secretary's house.

A number of Sarkozy's political supporters have denounced the judge.

On Monday, Sarkozy used his Facebook page to insist he had not taken advantage of Bettencourt.

Sarkozy had, in recent weeks, hinted that he was considering a return to the frontline of French politics.

Last week's decision by the judges to put him under formal investigation dealt a blow to those hopes.

Sarkozy could face up to three years in jail, a fine of 375,000 euros ($A462,221.13), and a five-year ban from public office if convicted.

Obama shows off some serious skill!

He can run the most powerful nation in the free world and bounce a soccer ball off his head. U.S.




 President Barack Obama showed off some serious skills when he hosted a ceremony honoring players and coaches from Stanley Cup winners, the L.A. Kings, and Major League Soccer champs, the Los Angeles Galaxy. 

Kim Kardashian Wears Three Different Maternity Outfits in One Day:

Kima kardashian had a full day of interviews in NYC on Tuesday, March 26 to promote her new film Temptation, which meant a lot of wardrobe changes for the pregnant star.

Kardashian changed up her look three times on Tuesday.

The 32 year old expectant mom started her day by styling a Valentino top, Ferragamo skirt and Christian Louboutin heels to Good Morning America.

She then changed into a Lanvin dress, Christian Louboutin heels and Lorraine Schwartz jewelry to chat with Michael Strahan and and guest co-host Kristin Chenoweth on Live with Kelly and Michael. "How cute is Kristin Chenoweth!?" Kardashian tweeted after the show. 

Finally, Kardashian wrapped up her work day by changing into a sexy brown leather dress from her boyfriend's collection, a black leather jacket and Gucci heels.

Mexican vigilantes seize town, arrest police

Hundreds of armed vigilantes have taken control of a town on a major highway in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, arresting local police officers and searching homes after a vigilante leader was killed. Several opened fire on a car of Mexican tourists headed to the beach for Easter week.

Members of the area's self-described "community police" say more than 1,500 members of the force were stopping traffic Wednesday at improvised checkpoints in the town of Tierra Colorado, which sits on the highway connecting Mexico City to Acapulco. They arrested 12 police and the former director of public security in the town after a leader of the state's vigilante movement was slain on Monday.

A tourist heading to the beach with relatives was slightly wounded Tuesday after they refused to stop at a roadblock and vigilantes fired shots at their car, officials said.

The vigilantes accuse the ex-security director of participating in the killing of vigilante leader Guadalupe Quinones Carbajal, 28, on behalf of local organized crime groups and dumping his body in a nearby town on Monday. They reported seizing several high-powered rifles from his car, and vigilantes were seen toting a number of sophisticated assault rifles on Wednesday, although it was not clear if all had been taken from the ex-security director's car.

"We have besieged the municipality, because here criminals operate with impunity in broad daylight, in view of municipal authorities. We have detained the director of public security because he is involved with criminals and he knows who killed our commander," said Bruno Placido Valerio, a spokesman for the vigilante group.

Placido said vigilantes had searched a number of homes in the town and seized drugs from some. They turned over the ex-security director and police officers to state prosecutors, who agreed to investigate their alleged ties to organized crime.

The growing movement of "self-defense" vigilante groups has seen masked townspeople throw up checkpoints in several parts of southern and western Mexico, stopping passing motorists to search for weapons or people whose names are on hand-written lists of "suspects" wanted for crimes like theft and extortion.

The vigilantes have opened fire before on motorists who refused to stop, slightly wounding a pair of tourists from Mexico City visiting a local beach in early February.

The groups say they are fighting violence, kidnappings and extortions carried out by drug cartels, but concerns have surfaced that the vigilantes may be violating the law, the human rights of people they detain, or even cooperating with criminals in some cases.

Sensitive over their lack of ability to enforce public safety in rural areas, official have largely tolerated vigilante groups.

PAT HOUSTON Cops Called for SUICIDE SCARE

Whitney Houston's sister-in-law Pat Houston was moments from taking her own life ... or several family members thought when they called 911 -- only to discover it was a huge misunderstanding. 

TMZ has learned cops and paramedics rushed to Pat's home in Alpharetta, GA today -- after receiving calls from people close to her who thought Pat had tried to commit suicide.

Here's what happened ... hours earlier Pat had posted on her Facebook page, "Sometimes you just feel like giving up on life and its many challenges. And for the first time in my life…I’m tired…and I want to finally rest. I love you guys."

Sources tell us several family members saw the post and were immediately concerned ... they began calling and texting Pat but got no answer. Then they went to her house, found her passed out in bed next to a pill bottle ... and decided to call 911. 

We're told as soon as cops arrived, Pat woke up and explained she had simply taken pain medication for her back, turned off her phone and then gone to sleep -- unaware so many people were trying to contact her.

We're told Pat informed everyone ... she was never suicidal, the Facebook post was a result of stress.

Law enforcement tells us, Pat was taken to the hospital -- as a preventative measure -- and released a short time later.