CAIRO – An 8-year-old Saudi girl has divorced her middle-aged husband after her father forced her to marry him last year in exchange for about $13,000, her lawyer said Thursday.
Saudi Arabia has come under increasing criticism at home and abroad for permitting child marriages. The United States, a close ally of the conservative Muslim kingdom, has called child marriage a "clear and unacceptable" violation of human rights.
The girl was allowed to divorce the 50-year-old man who she married in August after an out-of-court settlement had been reached in the case, said her lawyer, Abdulla al-Jeteli. The exact date of the divorce was not immediately known.
A court in the central Oneiza region previously rejected a request by the girl's mother for a divorce and ruled that the girl would have to wait until she reached puberty to file a petition then.
There are no laws in Saudi Arabia defining the minimum age for marriage. Though a woman's consent is legally required, some marriage officials don't seek it.
But there has been a push by Saudi human rights groups to define the age of marriage and put an end to the phenomenon.
One Saudi human rights activist Sohaila Zain al-Abdeen was optimistic that the girl's divorce would help efforts to get a law passed enforcing a minimum marriage age of 18.
"Unfortunately, some fathers trade their daughters," she told The Associated Press. "They are weak people who are sometimes in need of money and forget their roles as parents."
It was not clear if the man received money for the divorce settlement. The man had given the girl's father 50,000 riyals, or about $13,350, as a marriage gift in return for his daughter, the lawyer said.
The 8-year-old girl's marriage was not the only one in the kingdom to receive attention in recent months. Saudi newspapers have highlighted several cases in which young girls were married off to much older men or young boys including a 15-year-old girl whose father, a death-row inmate, married her off to a cell mate.
Saudi Arabia's conservative Muslim clergy have opposed the drive to end child marriages. In January, the kingdom's most senior cleric said it was permissible for 10-year-old girls to marry and those who believe they are too young are doing the girls an injustice.
But some in the government appear to support the movement to set a minimum age for marriage. The kingdom's new justice minister was quoted in mid-April as saying the government was doing a study on underage marriage that would include regulations.
There are no statistics to show how many marriages involving children are performed in Saudi Arabia every year. Activists say the girls are given away in return for hefty marriage gifts or as a result of long-standing custom in which a father promises his infant daughters and sons to cousins out of a belief that marriage will protect them from illicit relationships.
Jailed rapper DMX is about to get some more bad news -- he's just been ordered to pay nearly a quarter of a million bucks to a man he assaulted at JFK airport.
It all started 5 years ago, when Port Authority officers arrested X for posing as an FBI agent and using a fake police siren to pull Sergei Priporin and his family over at the airport.
X -- who claims he pulled them over for making him late for a flight -- was in possession of crack, Oxycodone, Diazepam and a billy club at the time.
The plaintiffs, who originally sued for $4 million each, are getting a total of $240,000 in damages.
X's lawyer, Richard Corde, told us: "Mr. Simmons still feels justified in pulling them over when they didn't get out of his way... he's not apologizing for that. He still believes the gentleman driving should have gotten out of his way. At the same time, he plead guilty to the charges and therefore paid for his behavior."
It looks like Linda Hogan isn't the only thing her 19-year-old boyfriend is allowed to ride -- a judge just blocked the Hulkster's attempt to keep the youngster from driving his cars too.
Hulk had asked the judge in Pinellas County to keep Charley Hill out of the driver's seat because he feared his marital estate would be liable if the kid got into a wreck.
Hogan tried, the judge denied -- but the judge didn't necessarily disagree with Hulk's plight. In the papers, the judge wrote that it "would appear to be exceedingly imprudent" to keep Charlie from getting behind the wheel.
Hulk's attorney told us, "This issue certainly isn't over... clearly from [the judge's] statement from this hearing that in principal he agrees with our position but legally does not feel he is able to grant an injunction."
WASHINGTON – Virulent swine flu spread to 10 U.S. states from coast to coast Wednesday and swept deeper into Europe, extending its global reach as President Barack Obama mourned the first U.S. death, a Mexican toddler who had traveled with his family to Texas. Total American cases surged to nearly 100, and Obama said wider school closings might be necessary.
The World Health Organization said the outbreak is moving closer to becoming a full-scale pandemic.
Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the organization's top flu expert, told reporters in Geneva that the latest developments are moving the agency closer to raising its pandemic alert to phase 5, indicating widespread human-to-human transmission. That's just one step below level 6, a full-fledged pandemic.
In Washington, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was questioned closely by senators about whether the U.S. should close its border with Mexico, where the outbreak apparently began and the casualties have been the greatest. She repeated the administration's position that questioning of people at borders and ports of entry was sufficient for now and said closing borders "has not been merited by the facts."
Dr. Richard Besser, the acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control, said in Atlanta that there are confirmed cases now in ten states, with 51 in New York, 14 in California and 16 in Texas. Two cases have been confirmed in Kansas, Massachusetts and Michigan, while a single cases have been reported in Arizona, Indiana, Nevada and Ohio.
In a possible outbreak north of the Mexican border, the commandant of the Marine Corps said a Marine in southern California might have the illness and 39 Marines were being confined on their California base until tests come back.
Marine General James Conway told a Pentagon briefing an initial test indicated the sick Marine — who was not identified — might have swine flu but his illness did not appear life-threatening.
Obama said he wanted to extend "my thoughts and prayers" to the family of a nearly two-year-old Mexican boy who died in Houston, the first confirmed U.S. fatality among more than five dozen infections. Health officials in Texas said the child had traveled with his family from Mexico, to Brownsville on April 4 and was brought to Houston after becoming ill. He died Monday night.
"This is obviously a serious situation," and "we are closely and continuously monitoring" it, Obama said of the spreading illness.
Those sentiments were echoed by the Senate's top Republican. "This is a very worrisome situation and we're all following it very closely," said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "We stand ready to closely work with the administration to protect the American people as this situation unfolds."
Meanwhile, Egypt's government ordered the slaughter of all pigs in the country as a precaution, though no swine flu cases have been reported there. Egypt's overwhelmingly Muslim population does not eat pork, but farmers raise some 300,000-350,000 pigs for the Christian minority.
The disease is not spread by eating pork, and farmers were to be allowed to sell the meat from the slaughtered animals.
In fact, officials appeared to go out of their way on Wednesday to not call the strain "swine flu." Obama called the bug the "H1N1 virus."
"The disease is not a food-borne illness," Rear Adm. Anne Schuchat, CDC's interim science and public health deputy direct, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
She said the strain is particularly worrisome because "it's a virus that hasn't been around before. The general population doesn't have immunity from it."
People have various levels of protection against other more common types of flu because they are exposed to it over time, and that protection accumulates. She suggested that some older people might have more resistance to this particular strain than younger people because its traits might resemble outbreaks of decades ago.
Germany became the latest country to report swine flu infections. It reported four cases on Wednesday.
New Zealand's total rose to 14. Britain had earlier reported five cases, Spain four. There were 13 cases in Canada, two in Israel and one in Austria.
Obama said it is the recommendation of public health officials that authorities at schools with confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu "should strongly consider temporarily closing so that we can be as safe as possible."
He was underscoring advice that the CDC provided earlier to cities and states, and that some schools — most prominently in New York City — already have followed.
"If the situation becomes more serious and we have to take more extensive steps, then parents should also think about contingencies if schools in their areas do temporarily shut down, figuring out and planning what their child care situation would be," Obama advised.
He advised people to take their own precautions — washing hands, staying home if they are sick, and keeping sick kids home.
Obama said the federal government is "prepared to do whatever is necessary to control the impact of this virus." He noted his request for $1.5 billion in emergency funding to ensure adequate supplies of vaccines.
CDC for days has said people with flulike symptoms should stay home — but now also is stressing that other family members should consider staying home or at least limiting how much they go out until they're sure they didn't catch it.
Besser, the acting CDC director, called it "an abundance of caution," but stressed that it's voluntary and that the government hasn't urged actual quarantine, which isn't really effective with flu.
___
Associated Press writers Lara Jakes in Washington, Mike Stobbe in Atlanta, Patrick McGroarty in Berlin and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.
While under quarantine on their honeymoon in Mexico, Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt are masking their love ... and all it took was a worldwide influenza outbreak.
Symptoms of swine flu include head and body aches, cough, sore throat, chills, trouble breathing, vomiting and/or diarrhea, which were also the side effects of witnessing Speidi's wedding this weekend.
There is no known cure for watching "The Hills."
TMZ has obtained photographic evidence that Tupac Shakur is alive and well and drinking Hand Grenades in New Orleans -- unless we're terribly mistaken. 
13 years after he was shot and "killed" in Las Vegas ... a man appearing to be 2pac was spotted in a bar on Bourbon Street last weekend.
We were unable to get any sort of DNA evidence -- but this photo is good enough for us.
Thug life, bitches.
A prankster featured on the Howard Stern show is in Montgomery County prison, accused of deceiving area bar owners out of money.
North Wales resident Thomas Cipriano, the Howard Stern show's popular prank phone caller whose moniker is Captain Janks, is in jail for taking money from bar owners in Bucks and Montgomery counties to perform and then never showing up for the comedy gigs.
Cipriano, of North Third Street, is accused of pocketing $350 advances from the Indian Rock Inn in Nockamixon and the Old Mansion House Bar & Grill in Plymouth and then disappearing.
The 43-year-old also reportedly ripped off the Edge Hill Tavern in Cheltenham and the Landslide Restaurant & Saloon in Bethlehem Township, N.J.
Court records say Cipriano, who has billed himself as "The Howard Stern Show's King of Phoney Phone Calls," was committed to Montgomery County Prison on Thursday on $2,500 bail. He remained there Tuesday.
A message on Cipriano's Web site, captainjanks.tk, says he canceled his planned 2009 tour because of medical and personal issues.
The message says he has been to rehab.
Cipriano also apologized to fans and nightclubs in the Web site note, saying he plans to reschedule shows or refund deposit money.
Documents state that Cipriano took a $350 advance in October from the owner of the Indian Rock Inn as part of a contract for him to perform on Nov. 28.
One hour before his scheduled 9 p.m. show, Cipriano called the inn and requested the show be postponed until Dec. 6.
The North Wales man claimed he had not had time to promote the event properly.
The inn obliged. But the following week Cipriano never showed, and the inn has not heard from Cipriano since, according to records. The $350 check was cashed in October.
Cipriano did essentially the same thing to the Old Mansion House, police said.
After taking a $350 check that was supposed to help pay for promotional fees in December, Cipriano never turned up at the scheduled March 13 gig at the Plymouth bar, documents state.
He also never called to cancel.
Cipriano got the show, in part, by telling the Old Mansion's owner that he would promote the bar on Howard Stern's satellite radio show, said records.
Charges against Cipriano include theft by deception and receiving stolen property.
He has a preliminary hearing scheduled Thursday in Conshohocken district court and faces a May 4 appearance in Ottsville district court.
This is either really, really noble -- or really, really stupid. Or both.
Some gangly dude in a spandex outfit who calls himself the "Shadow Hare" is roaming the streets of Cincinnati -- dedicated to ridding the city of evil-doers. Seriously.
Here's the catch -- he's 21-years-old, he's built like amath tutor, and he has no known super powers.
But Shadow Hare -- who refuses to reveal his true identity -- still bravely/stupidly patrols the streets, carrying legal items like handcuffs, tasers and pepperspray.
The guy even busted his shoulder trying to stop a guy from beating up a woman. And he hands out food to the homeless.
But he's not alone -- Shadow claims he's part of the "Allegiance of Heroes" which includes Aclyptico in Pennsylvania, Wall Creeper in Colorado and Master Legend in Florida.
Shadow Hare recently told WLWT that he's even teamed up with Mr. Extreme in California to "track down a rapist."
So the big question -- is he noble for standing up for good and trying to protect his community ... or is he just some delusional moron who's gonna hurt himself?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Supreme Court upheld a U.S. government crackdown on profanity on television, a policy that subjects broadcasters to fines for airing a single expletive blurted out on a live show.
In its first ruling on broadcast indecency standards in more than 30 years, the high court handed a victory on Tuesday to the Federal Communications Commission, which adopted the crackdown against the one-time use of profanity on live television when children are likely to be watching.
The case stemmed from an FCC decision in 2006 that found News Corp's Fox television network violated decency rules when singer Cherblurted out an expletive during the 2002 Billboard Music Awardsbroadcast and actress Nicole Richie used two expletives during the 2003 awards.
No fines were imposed, but Fox challenged the decision. A U.S. appeals court in New York struck down the new policy as "arbitrary and capricious" and sent the case back to the FCC for a more reasoned explanation of its policy.
The FCC, under the administration of President George W. Bush, had embarked on a crackdown of indecent content on broadcast TV and radio after pop star Janet Jackson briefly exposed her bare breast during the 2004 broadcast of the Super Bowl halftime show.
Before 2004, the FCC did not usually enforce prohibitions against indecency unless there were repeated occurrences.
By a 5-4 vote and splitting along conservative-liberal lines, the justices upheld the FCC's new policy under theAdministrative Procedure Act.
The high court did not rule on Fox's constitutional challenge to the policy on free-speech grounds. TheSupreme Court sent that issue back to the appeals court.
"While we would have preferred a victory on Administrative Procedure Act grounds, more important to Fox is the fundamental constitutional issues at the heart of this case," Fox said in a statement.
The network said it was optimistic that it would ultimately prevail on the free-speech issue. If Fox wins before the appeals court, it would be up to the FCC and the Obama administration to decide whether to take the matter back to the Supreme Court, legal sources said.
Justice Antonin Scalia, in summarizing the court's majority ruling from the bench, upheld the new policy as rational.
'F-WORD'S POWER'
"Even when used as an expletive, the F-word's power to insult and offend derives from its sexual meaning," Scalia said.
Government lawyers in the case have said the policy covered so-called "fleeting expletives," such as the "F-word" and the "S-word" that denote "sexual or excretory activities," respectively.
Critics said the FCC has been inconsistent in enforcing its new policy. It allowed the television broadcast of the movie "Saving Private Ryan" even though it contained the same expletives.
The policy applies only to broadcasts. Neither cable nor satellite channels are subject to FCC content regulation.
Scalia said the fact that technological advances have made it easier for broadcasters to bleep out offending words further supported the FCC's stepped-up enforcement policy.
Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer dissented.
"The FCC's shifting and impermissibly vague indecency policy only imperils these broadcasters and muddles the regulatory landscape," Stevens wrote, adding that the networks face the threat of crippling financial penalties.
Stevens said it is ironic that the FCC patrols the airwaves for words that have a tenuous link with sex and excrement while commercials during prime-time hours ask viewers if they "are battling erectile dysfunction or are having trouble going to the bathroom."
Critics of the policy, like Andrew Jay Schwartzman of the Media Access Project, said the impact would be especially severe on smaller independent and public broadcasters.
"Writers, artists and directors on the front lines of the First Amendment face continuing pressure to err on the side of the blandness," he said.
(additional reporting by Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles)
(Editing by Dave Zimmerman, Lisa Von Ahn, Leslie Gevirtz)
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