De Nederlander Willem Gerard Knoppien krijgt levenslang in Thailand

BANGKOK - A THAI criminal court in Bangkok on Thursday sentenced a Dutch man to 37 years in prison for illegal detention and sexual abuse of a Thai boy, a court official said.

Willem Gerard Knoppien was sentenced alongside Thai national Thanes Bualuang, 35, who was convicted of procurement and handed a jail term of 26 years and eight months.

The court ruling said Knoppien, thought to be 52-years-old, had taken a 12-year-old boy from his parents for sexual abuse in the Thai Gulf town of Hua Hin on several occasions between March and December 2007, before his arrest.

'The pair were found guilty of taking the young boy from his parents and sexually abusing him.... Knoppien was sentenced to 37 years, while the Thai procurer was sentenced to 26 years and eight months,' an official reading the court verdict said.

Knoppien now has 30 days to lodge an appeal against the sentence. -- AFP

NY African-Americans Hit Harder by Recession

he current financial recession has been more damaging for African-American communities in New York at an alarming rate, confirmed a report released Monday by a city comptroller.

According to CNN, while unemployment in the city spiked to 72 percent from the first quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009, it surged to more than 160 percent in the black communities specifically. The unemployment rate increased 14.7 percent, rising four times the speed than any other ethnic group.

National figures, however, did not show such a crippling difference.

Comptroller William C. Thompson said the imbalance is cause by the astronomical number of blacks in the retail and service industries, which have been seen the worst of times resulting from the recession. He also blasted New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for the condition of the city's economy labeling him "out of touch." Thompson, a democrat, plans to run against Bloomberg, and independent, in the next mayoral race.

"I'm calling on the mayor to reconsider the raises he's agreed to shower on his top managers and nonunion employees," Thompson said. "To hand out these raises while on the other hand repeatedly calling for cuts to the rank-and-file is bad policy, it's bad government, and it is simply wrong."

Thompson said he was making reference to raises for the state's non-union employees who make more than $90,000 a year.

The comptroller's report predicts the city's unemployment rate could potentially reach 400,000 by 2010.

On a New York City block, Reverend Al Sharpton held his own news conference on July 13, calling for a city summit to address the unemployment gap.

"This is a crisis in the black community," Sharpton said at the steps of City Hall in lower Manhattan. "The numbers speak for themselves and the numbers are devastating.

O.J. Makes Bail Request

Former football Hall of Famer, O.J. Simpson, has promised not to disappear or endanger the community if he's freed from prison as a result of his pending appeal. Simpson was imprisoned for nine to 33 years for an armed hotel room heist, in which he stole his own autographed sports memorabilia and relics. "Simpson recognizes that he has a heavy burden in demonstrating that his release will pose no danger to the community and that he is not a flight risk," attorneys Yale Galanter and Malcolm LaVergne said in a follow-up document filed Monday with the state's only appellate court. "Simpson will strictly adhere to whatever conditions this court sets for bond." According to the Associated Press, a three-member panel of Nevada Supreme Court Justices plan to sit for appeal arguments on Aug. 3 in Las Vegas as per the former athlete's request to post bond while a seven-member court decides upon his appeal. The new papers include an affidavit from one of the two memorabilia dealers robbed in the September 2007 encounter, renewing his allegation that Clark County District Attorney David Roger wouldn't let him drop the charges against Simpson. "I wanted all of the charges against O.J. Simpson dropped," Alfred Beardsley said in the document. "After I testified, the Clark County district attorney's office fabricated the idea that the reason I was a reluctant witness was because Mr. Simpson had intimidated, threatened or promised me something of value." The two-page affidavit also referenced Beardsley's denial before a judge that he received Simpson's NFL Hall of Fame ring in exchange for a testimony in his favor in the Las Vegas case. "Mr. Simpson has never promised me anything for me to testify the way I did," Beardsley said. Simpson, 61, is in prison for kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon in the gunpoint robbery of Beardsley and memorabilia broker Bruce Fromong in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2007. Roger has filed documents asking the state high court to keep Simpson jailed referencing the length of his sentence and Simpson's admission in 2008 that he violated a court order by trying to communicate with a co-defendant before trial.

Taliban Buys Children for Suicide Missions

The Taliban's top terror criminal, Baitullah Mehsud, is buying children to carry out suicide missions, according to Pakistani officials. Spokesman of the Pakistani army, General Akhtar Abbas said, "he has been admitting he hold a training center for young boys, for preparing them for suicide bombing." He added, "So he is on record saying all this, accepting these crimes," reports CNN. Pakistani's military released a video showing children as young as 11 training for suicide bomb missions. Mehsud is an Al Qaeda ally and is the supposed mastermind behind the 2007 attack left the Pakistani Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, dead. U.S. and Pakistani militia have been collaborating and targeting Taliban strongholds that are believed to be organized and controlled by Mehsud. On July 7, a U.S. drone fired a missile into a Taliban training camp near the Afghan border. U.S. officials do not confirm missions or drone attacks on Pakistani soil, and Islamabad as complained in the past about such military action, but it is believed are working in close cooperation to hunt the Taliban leader. According to official reports, U.S. drones killed 17 people.

Malia Obama Backs Her Father

Barack Obama's oldest daughter, 11-year-old Malia, made her own anti-nuclear statement when she rocked two peacenik t-shirts in Rome. Malia wore the t-shirt with the logo famous for Nuclear Disarmament as her father, President Obama, preps for three days os G8 talk in Italy. Her fashion/political statement came just two days after President Obama signed agreements with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to reduce nuclear weapons storage. First, she wore a grey T-shirt bearing the CND logo to visit the Colosseum in Rome with her mother, Michelle, and seven-year-old sister Sasha. During the visit, she swapped it for a white and grey top also donning the logo, reports The Daily Mail. The symbol, designed for the CND in 1958, is now widely recognized as a sign for peace and is also an international sign for anti-war protesters. President Obama spent two days in Moscow ealier this week meeting president Medvedev and prime minister and former president Vladimir Putin. In the meeting, the U.S. and Russia signed a deal to reduce their stockpiles of nuclear weapons. The 'joint understanding' would see the two countries - which between them have 95 per cent of the world's nuclear firepower - cut the number of nuclear warheads to around 1,500 from current levels above 2,200. At the height of the Cold War both sides had some 40,000. Mr Medvedev agreed to the weapon reduction targets despite the lack of a U.S. promise to scrap plans - vehemently criticised by the Kremlin - to deploy missile defence facilities in former Soviet satellite states. Malia is apparently a fan of her father's work, though the deal is simply a 'guide' for negotiators as the nations work toward a replacement pact for the START arms control agreement, which expires in December. The CND, a British campaign, aims to rid the world of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction. In April, Obama made a speech in Prague committing to nuclear disarmament which was 'warmly welcomed' by the CND. It has also welcomed this week's agreement between Russia and the U.S., claiming the 'first step has been taken' in abolishing nuclear weapons.