No tribunals, no secret courts, no short-circuiting of process; just charges, trial and verdict within the extant system.

A court in southern Switzerland on Wednesday cleared seven defendants from Yemen, Somalia and Iraq of links to the al-Qaeda terror network in the country’s first ever trial of al-Qaeda suspects, the Swissinfo website reported. The federal criminal court in Lugano rejected the prosecution’s allegations that the defendants belonged to a criminal organisation run by the principal defendant - who admitted having had contact with a known al-Qaeda member Abdullah el Rimi, involved in attacks on the American naval destroyer USS Cole in 2000 and in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh in 2003.

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However, the court did find six of the seven defendants guilty of violating foreign residency laws and handed down conditional sentences of up to 11 months. Article

Keeping up with the kidnappings in Nigeria’s oil region:

A Lebanese man on Wednesday became the latest foreign worker to be kidnapped in southern Nigeria, a police source said.

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A total of 58 foreigners, most but not all of whom had connections to the oil industry, have been abducted since the start of this year. That is almost as many as for the whole of 2006. Article

In deep kimchi — the sunlight of non-insularity and the open marketplace is a powerful disinfectant.

The author of a best-selling comic book series intended to teach children about other countries says he will change a chapter on Jews that has been called anti-Semitic and similar to Nazi propaganda.

Rhie Won-bok maintained, however, that his depiction of Jewish control of American media and politics was based on fact and “commonly believed.”

[snip]

Rhie said the 9/11 attacks occurred because of Arab terrorists’ hatred for the U.S. he blamed on Jews who “move the U.S. in the way they want using money and the media as their weapon.”

The book also says Korean-Americans are diligent and successful in the U.S. “but in the end, always run into the wall called the Jews.” The accompanying picture shows an exasperated man walking up a hill only to be blocked by a brick wall with a Star of David and the word “STOP” in English.

Images from the book “echo classic Nazi canards,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center said. In a letter to the publishers, Cooper urged them to review “the slanders in this book that historically have led to anti-Semitism, violence, hatred and even genocide.”

Rhie asserted he is “not at all anti-Semitic” and that he will remove the parts that have drawn offense or write them differently. “The last thing I want is a conflict between the Koreans and the Jews because of my book,” he said. Article

Craving dynasty: Mayhaps the scariest (not to mention most insipid if not outright stupidest) thing you’ll read this week.

Sounding off (the scale):

…an audiologist visited the Wick Royal British Legion Scotland Pipe Band and recorded their bagpipes at 108 decibels and snare drums at an ear-splitting 122 decibels, a total of 230 decibels.

At take-off, the engine of a jet aircraft generally reaches about 140 decibels. Article