Let me say this – being that is a new up-and-running business there was a couple glitches, ya know, with the credit card machine, ya know what I’m saying. Right now we’ve got that fixed and there’s nothing else that’s going to bounce ever… I’m not worried about that (the claims) because it’s not true information… Maybe these are people that’s (sic) probably just jealous of me being here and probably wanting to see me out… but yes, we do have money in our accounts…

Link: Flavor Flav denies chicken restaurant is in trouble : SFGate: Daily Dish

We have all seen the footage, the web galleries and YouTube videos of the tragic events unfolding in Japan. Below is an ongoing list of photographers and photojournalists selling prints to raise money for relief efforts.

Link: In Effort to Aid Japan, Photographers Sell Prints | Nathan Armes

For eight years, government officials turned to Dennis Montgomery, a California computer programmer, for eye-popping technology that he said could catch terrorists. Now, federal officials want nothing to do with him and are going to extraordinary lengths to ensure that his dealings with Washington stay secret.

Link: Government Tries to Keep Secret What Many Consider a Fraud – NYTimes.com

Across town, a firebrand imam named Habibullah was even more blunt. “Let these jackals leave this country,” the preacher, who uses only one name, declared of foreign troops. “Let these brothers of monkeys, gorillas and pigs leave this country. The people of Afghanistan should determine their own fate.”

Link: Afghan imams wage political battle against U.S.

Last August, in the wake of rape allegations against Assange as well as criticism that the site had mishandled the names of informants in Afghan documents the site published with media partners, Domscheit-Berg and two WikiLeaks programmers fed up with the way things were being run, staged a half-hearted mutiny. They disabled the WikiLeaks wiki and changed the passwords to the Twitter and e-mail accounts. In response, Assange shut down the whole system, causing the mutineers to cave in. But within weeks, Domscheit-Berg and one of the programmers had left WikiLeaks for good and taken the submission system with them. They seized the system because they had doubts Assange would handle the documents securely, due to lack of care he had allegedly shown for submissions in the past.

Link: WikiLeaks Defector Slams Assange In Tell-All Book | Threat Level | Wired.com

Among the men at large in the world who have been credibly accused of war crimes, Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, occupies an almost otherworldly place. The document that is the subject of Friday’s post, “LRA Religious Beliefs,” shows many of the reasons why.

Link: An Insiders’ Portrait of Joseph Kony – NYTimes.com

On Saturday, several thousand young men clashed with police at Manezh Square, just outside the Kremlin. Eighty were briefly detained, but riot police chased most of the crowd into the subway, where they rampaged through the cars threatening non-Russians. Three natives of the Caucasus were stabbed and hospitalized, police said. On Sunday, crowds appeared at Pushkin Square and at Sokolniki Park, northeast of the center. Web sites promised more to come.

Link: Moscow clashes put authorities in a quandary

on Sept. 21, the kidnappings stopped. That was the day a gang of kidnappers with AK-47s burst into Lolo’s seafood restaurant and tried to abduct the 17-year-old cashier. A mob of enraged residents chased down two of the teenage attackers and lynched them in a cotton field on the edge of town.

Link: In Mexico, a legal breakdown invites brutal justice

CLICK NOTE: News from Nigeria, where the Daily Sun has a photo of the named suspect, handcuffed but holding a knife, but his eyes are blurred out to, what? protect his identity?

You might not believe this, but it’s true. In a desperate bid to become rich, a young man in Calabar, popularly known as Udo Mbakara, has sliced off the heads of two young girls who are his nieces.

Link: The Sun News On-line | I wanted to sell their heads for N2m

Now it turns out that some police agencies are storing the controversial images after all. The U.S. Marshals Service admitted this week that it had surreptitiously saved tens of thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of a single Florida courthouse.

Link: Surprise! Feds stored thousands of checkpoint body scan images after all – Boing Boing

“It’s a huge relief to know that Tony Tormenta has been eliminated, His gangsters were everywhere,” said a supermarket worker in Reynosa who gave his name as Oscar. “But we’re still worried, because they’ll find another boss, and who knows what the Zetas will do?”

Link: Mexican drug lord’s killing sparks roadblocks, threatening banners

The Iraqi Interior Ministry inspector general recently determined that wands used by police as the frontline defense in the country’s fight against bombs are worthless.

Link: Iraq confirms bomb-sniffing devices don’t work

His mouth is pursed. He is wearing a black Maoist-style track suit. His hair, parted in the middle, flows up on both sides, giving his hairline the profile of an “M.” Dozens of delegates stand behind him. Two seats to the left of the Young General sits Kim Jong Il.

Link: North Korea reveals photo of Kim Jong Eun, presumed successor

many metal health plans no longer cover rudimentary procedures such as girls rocking their boys

Link: Quiet Riot Speaks Out Against Nation’s Poor Metal Health Care | America’s Finest News Source

authorities are receiving key assistance from an unexpected partner: Microsoft itself. In politically tinged inquiries across Russia, lawyers retained by Microsoft have staunchly backed the police.

Link: Above the Law – Russia Uses Microsoft to Suppress Dissent – NYTimes.com

Maria was drifting off to sleep on the bedroom floor. She could hear women getting raped in the next room. But she didn’t hear screams — she heard the laughter of male guards. The women had been drugged, as had Maria when she walked into the house. The guards forced her to swallow a red liquid and handed her some chalky white pills. She drank the liquid and tucked the pills in the side of her mouth, but they were slowly dissolving.

Link: Seized – Page 1 – News – Los Angeles – LA Weekly