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A key witness in the 26/11 attacks case who had deposed against accused Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed at the trial failed to appear before the court on Friday with the prosecution saying that he was “missing.”

The witness, Nurudin Shaikh, on Thursday told the court that the accused — Faheem and Sabauddin — had met him in Nepal and in his presence they discussed about the maps of some locations in Mumbai, which were later targeted by militants during the November 26 attacks last year.

The court had called the witness on Friday for cross-examination at 11 am but he failed to turn up.

Special public prosecutor Ujjawal Nikam told the court that crime branch officials had gone to the Goregaon residence of the witness to fetch him but his wife had said that Mr. Shaikh had left home early morning, saying that he has to go to the court.

“This is a serious matter,” judge M.L. Tahaliyani observed and said he would decide later on what steps the court should take in the matter.

Mr. Nikam also said that the identity of the witness had been kept secret earlier and was disclosed to the defence lawyer only on Thursday for cross-examination.

According to crime branch, the witness is a childhood friend of Faheem and is staying in the same locality where Faheem stayed in the city.

Faheem and Sabauddin, both Indian nationals, are facing trial along with Pakistani national Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab.

Mr. Shaikh on Thursday had told the court that maps of some locations in Mumbai were made by the duo at the instance of wanted accused Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.

Source: The Hindu (PTI)

NEW YORK: Forty-one members of the US House of Representatives have written to defense secretary Robert Gates to permit Sikhs wearing their religious symbols to join the military.

Sikh organisations have been lobbying with US lawmakers after the refusal by the army to let two Sikhs with turbans join active duty a few months ago.

Captain Kamaljit Singh Kalsi, a doctor, and Second Lieutenant Tejdeep Singh Rattan, a dentist, were told to remove their turbans by the military when they were about to enter active duty after completing their preliminary programme.

In their letter to Gates, the lawmakers say: "We do not believe that any American should have to choose between his religion and service to our country, and urge you to take all necessary steps to ensure that these two officers - and other Sikhs that may wish to serve - are able to maintain their articles of faith.

"Including Sikh Americans will enrich the military's understanding of diverse cultures, languages, and religions, thereby allowing us to fully appreciate not only the rich fabric of our own country but also the lands where we send our soldiers into harm's way."

Citing the example of Canada, Sweden and other countries where Sikhs are allowed to wear their symbols in the armed forces, Sikh organisations led by Sikh Coalition have urged Secretary Gates to end this discrimination by the US army.

The coalition said they will continue their 'Sikh right to serve' campaign till the US military changes its "exclusionary policy" against Sikhs.

(CNN) -- Michael Jackson couldn't sleep.Maybe it was anxiety over his upcoming comeback concert series in London, England. Perhaps his body was trying to process too many different medications.

The reason may never be known, but a sworn affidavit makes clear that the King of Pop couldn't get rest the night before he died on June 25.

The affidavit, from Detective Orlando Martinez of the Los Angeles Police Department, outlines probable cause for search warrants on the offices of doctors who are thought to have treated Jackson.

Yet it also opens a window into Jackson's final hours, revealing information about the singer's treatment and the drugs given him by Dr. Conrad Murray, his personal physician, before his death. Based on interviews, visits to Jackson's home as well as records and documents gathered during the investigation, the affidavit provides the following account of Jackson's last days:

In May, Jackson hired Murray, a cardiologist. The singer was spending long days rehearsing for concerts that he saw as crucial to reviving his career.

For six weeks, Murray told police that he treated Jackson for insomnia. He said he had been giving the singer an intravenous drip with 50 milligrams of propofol, diluted with lidocaine, every night to help him sleep.

Jackson was already familiar with propofol, a powerful anesthetic, Murray said. The singer even called it his "milk" because of its milky appearance, he said.

With the concerts approaching, Jackson started to need these drugs every night, Murray said -- and the doctor said he worried that Jackson was becoming addicted to propofol. He wanted to wean Jackson off the drug.

Three days before Jackson's death -- on June 22 -- Murray gave the singer a combination of drugs that he hoped gradually would move the singer off propofol.

That mixture involved propofol, the anti-anxiety drug lorazepam (known by its brand name, Ativan) and midazolam (known as Versed). It succeeded in helping Jackson to sleep for that night and the next, Murray said.

But by the night of June 24, Jackson again apparently was unable to sleep.

At 1:30 a.m. on June 25, Murray decided to forgo the propofol in favor of 10 milligrams of Valium. Half an hour later, with Jackson still awake in bed, Murray injected the singer with two milligrams of lorazepam.

It still wasn't working.

At 3 a.m., Murray gave the singer two milligrams of midazolam, pushed slowly into his IV. And two hours later, with Jackson still awake, Murray administered another two milligrams of lorazepam through Jackson's IV.

The drugs did nothing to help Jackson sleep.

At 7:30 a.m., Murray gave the singer another two milligrams of midazolam in his IV.

By that point, Murray wasn't even leaving Jackson's room anymore, let alone his bedside. The doctor told police he sat next to the singer in his bedroom, monitoring Jackson's pulse and oxygen levels.

More than three hours later, despite a night of medication and doctor's care, Jackson remained awake.

Jackson was repeatedly asking -- even demanding -- that Murray give him more propofol to help him sleep, the doctor told police. So Murray finally administered 25 milligrams of propofol diluted with lidocaine via Jackson's IV drip.

The singer now had his "milk," and it worked. After a restless night, Jackson was finally able to close his eyes and go to sleep.

Murray told police he watched Jackson sleep for about 10 minutes before going to the bathroom. It had been a long night for both of them.

The trip to the bathroom took less than two minutes, Murray told police. But when he came back, he said, he saw Jackson wasn't breathing.

He started cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but it didn't work.

Jackson was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead later that afternoon.

According to court documents released Monday, Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, the chief medical examiner-coroner for Los Angeles County, concluded Jackson died of an overdose of propofol.

Sathyavagiswaran reached that preliminary conclusion after reviewing toxicology results carried out on Jackson's blood, according to a search warrant and affidavit unsealed in Houston, Texas.

The coroner's office would not comment on the statements in the affidavit. But Ed Chernoff, Murray's attorney, took issue with some of the information included in the court documents."Much of what was in the search warrant affidavit is factual. However, unfortunately, much is police theory," Chernoff said, specifically referring to media reports the coroner would rule Jackson's death a homicide.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office said it has not yet seen a police report on the case, and no criminal charges have been filed.

(CNN) -- They were there for the view -- spectators awed by a vista of massive waves smashing against the rocky shore.

But then one wave struck violently, sweeping three people into the churning ocean, one of them a 7-year-old girl.

What spectator Mary Ellen Martel saw next were bodies bobbing along in the frothy waters.

And in a heartbeat, a day of spectacular surf turned tragic.

Thousands of people flocked to the jagged shoreline of Maine's Acadia National Park on Sunday as Hurricane Bill weakened offshore on its trajectory north and delivered dramatic waves to the New England seaboard.

"People were clapping and laughing when the wind would bring the spray over. It was a very festive atmosphere," Martel told CNN in a telephone interview. "It was a warm, sunny day, and everyone was just enjoying the show that Mother Nature was offering, but not everybody knows to stay away from the edge -- or way away from the edge."

A section of the shore is known as Thunder Hole, a popular tourist attraction where waves crashing against the shore mimic the sound of thunder. But Sunday, conditions were such that even the walkway to Thunder Hole was closed for the safety of spectators.

On a rock cliff about 20 feet above the sea, a wave struck about 11:50 a.m., pushing water onto the ankles of some of the people standing on "top of what we think would be a safe area," Acadia Chief Ranger Stuart West told CNN.

People started to turn back, to get farther away from the edge, and then a second, monstrous wave hit them.

The unrelenting sea dragged in seven onlookers, forcing four to claw their way back to shore but sweeping three others out into the chilly waters. Two were rescued, but 7-year-old Clio Axlerod of New York perished, West said.

Martel, a resident of Maine's Southwest Harbor for more than 35 years and a frequent park visitor, had come there with her husband, and she said she feels "pretty certain" she had been on the same ledge as the three victims swept out to sea.

Martel had stood far enough back that the first wave did not affect her much, but when she saw the second coming, she turned her back to protect the camera she used to photograph the surf. She was doused from her shoulders down, she said. She said she knew then she had to get back to the road that led to the area.

"When I looked [back], everybody was scrambling to get off the ledge," she said.

Her husband, a volunteer firefighter, ran back to offer his help and overheard a woman say that her husband and daughter were swept away from the spot where the Martels and maybe 30 others had been, she said.

U.S. Coast Guard rescuers arrived about 20 minutes after the first call and had the tough task of finding the three drifting in the rough seas.

"Of course, trying to locate a head in frothy, agitated water like it was is a very difficult operation," West said. "But the rangers on the shore could still spot them."

Martel saw bobbing buoys out in the distance, but not until she used a zoom lens on her camera could she tell the buoys from the bodies, she said.

At 12:52 p.m., the Coast Guard picked up Simone Pelletier, 12, of Belfast, Maine, and Peter Axlerod, 55, Clio's father. The 7-year-old was found at 3:32 p.m., West said in a statement.

Petty Officer Dayton Trubee of the Coast Guard said he was not present during the rescue effort, but heard from his colleagues what happened when they grabbed Peter Axlerod out of the sea's grip.

"They told me when they pulled them on board he was exhausted," Trubee said. "He really didn't have any idea what happened to his daughter. He was totally worn out from just struggling."

Six others at Acadia suffered broken bones and cuts from the effects of the intense waves, West said.

Park officials had warned visitors of the dangers of the surf, West said, but he was not sure whether those seven pulled out by the massive wave got the warning.

West said that people ask why rangers didn't just close off the park's shoreline.

"The reality is we have so many miles of boundary that if we close up one section people just go to the other section," he said. Instead they concentrate rangers in the areas they know people want to visit, he said.

But nature can't be managed. The second wave has been reported by some as a rogue wave, because it was unexpected and "monstrous," said Chief Christopher Wheeler of the Coast Guard's field office for Northern New England.

Martel said she did not initially think the waves would be an injurious, "imminent" threat.

"It's kind of like a false sense of security, and then out of nowhere comes this monstrous wave that's like, holy moly," Wheeler said.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Her identity revealed, a blogger who posted rants about model Liskula Cohen said she was the real victim in the case and plans to sue Google for violating her privacy. Rosemary Port and her lawyer said Monday that they will file a $15 million lawsuit against the search engine giant for not doing enough to protect her identity.

"I not only feel my client was wronged, but I feel now it sets precedent that anyone with money and power can get the identity of anyone that decides to be an anonymous blogger," said Salvator Strazzullo, Port's lawyer.

A New York Supreme Court judge ordered Google to reveal Port's identity after Cohen sued the company to acquire information about the anonymous blogger.

"I wanted it gone," Cohen said. "I didn't want it to be there for the rest of my life. And I knew the only way for it to be gone was to call my lawyer."In August 2008, Port, a user of Google-owned Blogger.com, created "Skanks in NYC." The site assailed Cohen, 37, a cover girl who has appeared in Vogue and other fashion magazines. The blog featured photos of Cohen accompanied by derogatory terms.

The judge rejected Port's argument that blogs on the Internet "serve as a modern-day forum for conveying personal opinions" and should not be regarded as fact.

Cohen's attorney, Steve Wagner, said he couldn't believe Port's nerve in suing Google.

"Her being a victim here? I have trouble understanding that in its entirety," he said.

Legal experts said Port is not likely to win her case.

Jeffrey Toobin, CNN's senior legal analyst, said Google was complying with a court order and that disclosing Port's name cannot be viewed as violating her rights.

"Google never promises anyone absolute anonymity," Toobin said. "There are all sorts of circumstances when Google cooperates with law enforcement."

Blogger.com requires only a valid e-mail address to register for a blog. After the court demanded Port's identity, Google handed over her e-mail address to Cohen's lawyers so they could track her down.

In response to CNN's request for an interview, Google issued a statement:

"Google does comply with valid legal processes, such as court orders and subpoenas, and these same processes apply to all law-abiding companies. At the same time, we have a legal team whose job is to scrutinize these requests and make sure they meet not only the letter but the spirit of the law."

Online activists have closely followed the model blogger's case.

Nick Thompson of Wired magazine said the case will force people to recognize that the blogosphere, however anonymous, is not above the law. On the other hand, it could deter some bloggers who fear the cloak of anonymity could be lifted at any moment.

"There will be people who won't publish things that maybe they should publish or that would be good for society," Thompson said.

Source CNN

Matt Hartley, National Post

Punch the name Liskula Cohen into Google and the search engine turns up more than 130,000 hits.

Unfortunately for the Canadian-born fashion model, thousands of those results relate to offensive postings made about her by an anonymous cyber bully on a now defunct blog called "Skanks of NYC."

Now, after emerging victorious from a high-profile lawsuit against Google Inc., she knows the identity of that formerly anonymous blogger, and can begin planning her next move.

On Tuesday, New York Supreme Court Judge Joan Madden ordered Google to hand over the computer IP address and email address of the blogger to Ms. Cohen's lawyers.

Judge Madden said Ms. Cohen was entitled to confront the person who posted the defamatory comments.

In January, the 37-year-old Ms. Cohen sued Google after the search engine giant declined to provide her with the identity of the blogger who made five posts on the "Skanks of NYC" blog in August of 2008.

Among the posts were photos of the 5-foot-10 blonde Ms. Cohen in sexually suggestive positions with an unidentified male, as well as other entries which described her as a "skanky ho."

During an appearance on Good Morning America yesterday, Ms. Cohen said she now knows the blogger is a female acquaintance she had met at parties in New York. However, she has not publicly revealed the blogger's identity.

Ms. Cohen, who appeared on the cover of such magazines as Australian Vogue, W and Flare in the early 1990s, told the U. S. television show she contacted the woman and has forgiven her.

Ms. Cohen's lawyer, Steven Wagner, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Although Ms. Cohen's lawsuit received widespread global attention because of its connection to Google, such cases are not uncommon online, where users will often push the boundaries of free speech behind a perceived curtain of anonymity.

"Requiring an intermediary, whether it's an ISP [Internet service provider] or a search engine, to disclose the information they have off of an IP address or an email address is pretty common," said Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa professor who holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and e-commerce law.

"But I think it happens a bit behind the scenes ... and sometimes it takes these higher-profile cases for people to better understand that, where required, intermediaries will disclose whatever information they have and that veil of anonymity that some people think they have isn't quite as strong as they think."

Mr. Geist said both Canadian and U. S. courts have the power to order Web companies to disclose information about their users in certain cases involving copyright, defamation and regulatory issues. However, a judge may choose not to force a Web company to disclose a user's information when doing so would violate privacy laws.

Google declined to comment directly on the lawsuit, opting instead to issue a brief statement saying the company sympathizes with anyone who winds up the victim of cyber bullying.

"We also take great care to respect privacy concerns and will only provide information about a user in response to a subpoena or other court order," the company said. "If content is found by a court to be defamatory, we will of course remove it immediately."

Google will only remove defamatory material from Blogger when "the material has been found to be defamatory by a court, as evidenced by a court order," according to Blogger's terms of service.

Google purchased Blogger's parent company Pyra Labs for an undisclosed amount in 2003.

Source: Nationalpost

(CNN) -- A Scottish court has formally allowed Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi to abandon his second appeal against his conviction over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, in which 270 people were killed when an airliner was blown out of the sky.

Last week, al Megrahi lodged a "minute of abandonment" with the Scottish Court Service, which is a legal move to drop an appeal. The Scottish Court of Appeal in Edinburgh confirmed Tuesday it had accepted the request.

Analysts say the move may be part of a deal al Megrahi is seeking with Scottish authorities to be released on compassionate grounds.

A compassionate release could allow al Megrahi, who has maintained his innocence, to return to his native Libya.

Megrahi, 57, who is suffering from terminal prostate cancer, is currently serving a life sentence for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 which killed 189 U.S. citizens and 270 people in total.

The court announcement follows increasing pressure from the U.S. for Al Megrahi to remain imprisoned in Scotland.

On Monday, seven U.S. senators wrote to the Scottish government urging that al Megrahi be kept in prison indefinitely.The letter, which includes the signatures of John Kerry, the current chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and veteran Edward Kennedy, has expressed concern about reports that Al Megrahi is about to be released.

The letter states: "We believe he (Al Megrahi) should remain in Scotland to complete his sentence in prison."

"Recognizing the gravity of this heinous crime, the international community demanded that the government of Libya turn the perpetrators over for prosecution and accept responsibility for the crime."

In their letter the senators also remind Scotland's Justice Secretary, Kenny Macaskill -- who is considering an application to release the Libyan national on compassionate grounds -- that "until the tragic events of September 11, 2001, no terrorist act had killed more American civilians."

The letter continues: "Our international agreement called for his sentence to be served in Scotland and we believe strongly there should be no deviation from this sentence."

The senators' letter follows opposition to Megrahi's release from victims' families in the U.S. and U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton last week.