SamSal News Blog

Reporting from Baghdad - The case began with a news conference and ended with one too. But this time no footwear flew.

Instead, Muntather Zaidi, an Iraqi television correspondent who gained notoriety when he hurled his loafers at then-President George W. Bush, took the occasion of being released from jail Tuesday to accuse Iraqi security and government personnel of torturing him in custody.

Zaidi, who was tackled by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's bodyguards after cursing Bush and lobbing his shoes at the American president in December at a Baghdad news conference, was welcomed by a triumphant homecoming at his television station. He told reporters at the Baghdadiya satellite channel offices that during his first days of incarceration he had been beaten, whipped and shocked. More Detail >>

Muntather Zaidi, the Iraqi television reporter jailed for throwing his shoes at former U.S. President George W. Bush, hugs his sister following his release after a nine-month stint in prison. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP / Getty Images / September 15)

By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, AP Music Writer

NEW YORK – It looks like Kanye West has finally given a personal apology to Taylor Swift. Representatives from "The View" say West called the country sensation after her appearance on Tuesday's show. During the broadcast, the 19-year-old singer said West had yet to contact her to apologize for hijacking her acceptance speech on the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday.
"He has not personally reached out or anything but if he wanted to say hi (I would)," said Swift.
After Swift's comments, West called her and the two spoke, according to a statement from "The View."
"After the show he spoke personally to the country music superstar via telephone and has apologized to the 19-year-old singer. She has accepted Mr. West's apology. The contents of the phone call are to remain private," it read.
Afterward, Swift told ABC News Radio: "He was very sincere in his apology and I accepted that apology."
It's the latest in the saga that has caused a national uproar. The drama began after Swift beat out Beyonce and other acts to win best female video at the VMAs for her hit "You Belong With Me."
Swift, the first country act to win at the VMAs, was exuberant after her win, but that moment didn't last long as West — known for his awards-show meltdowns — grabbed the microphone and declared that Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" was one of the "best videos of all time."
A shaken Swift did not finish her speech at that moment, but when Beyonce later won for video of the year, she brought Swift out so that she could have her moment.
When asked about the incident during her appearance on "The View," Swift said: "I'm not gonna say that I wasn't rattled by it. I had to perform live five minutes later so I had to get myself back to the place where I could perform."
However, she said she was gratified by the outpouring of support not only from fans, but also from celebrities and others who offered support immediately after the incident occurred.
"There were a lot of people around me backstage that were saying wonderful, incredible things and just having my back," she said. "I just never imagined that there were that many people looking out for me."
West has taken a drubbing since then. While he issued two apologies on his blog after the incident, he gave another, emotional one on Monday's premiere of "The Jay Leno Show."
"It was rude, period," West said. " ... I need to, after this, take some time off and just analyze how I'm going to make it through the rest of this life, how I'm going to improve."
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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.

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On the Net:
http://theview.abc.go.com/

By RAY HENRY, Associated Press Writer

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Police say the killing of a 24-year-old Yale University graduate student whose body was found stuffed in a wall on the day she was to be married was not a random act.
New Haven police officer Joe Avery, the department's spokesman, said police believe no other student is involved in the death, but would not respond to questions about the alleged involvement of others.
"We're not believing it's a random act, that's all I'm giving you right now," said Avery, who also denied reports Monday that police had a suspect in custody.
Investigators appear to be closer to determining who killed 24-year-old Annie Le in a heavily secured building accessible only to students and university employees.
Several news organizations reported that police were interviewing a possible suspect who failed a polygraph test and has defensive wounds on his body. Avery denied those reports.
ABC News, WNBC-TV, The New Haven Register and the New Haven Independent cited anonymous sources in their reports. The Register and WNBC-TV also identify the possible suspect as a lab technician.
The state's chief medical examiner ruled Le's death a homicide Monday but declined to say how she died, citing the pending police investigation. His office said he expects to have more information Tuesday afternoon, however.
Police are also analyzing what they call "a large amount" of physical evidence, but have not gone into detail.
Le's death, the first killing at Yale in a decade, has shaken some on the Ivy League campus. Hundreds attended a Monday night prayer vigil and some students say Le's death is still troubling.
"I'm not walking at nights by myself anymore," said student Natoya Peart, 21, of Jamaica. "It could happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere."
Twenty-year-old Muneeb Sultan said he's shocked that a killing could take place in a secure Yale building.
"It's a frightening idea that there's a murderer walking around on campus," said Sultan, a chemistry student.
Police found Le's body about 5 p.m. Sunday, the day she was to marry Columbia University graduate student Jonathan Widawsky, lovingly referred to on her Facebook page as "my best friend." The couple met as undergraduates at the University of Rochester and were eagerly awaiting their planned wedding on Long Island.
Police have said Widawsky is not a suspect and helped detectives in their investigation.
The building where the body was found is part of the university medical school complex about a mile from Yale's main campus. It is accessible to Yale personnel with identification cards. Some 75 video surveillance cameras monitor all doorways.
Her body was found in the basement in the wall chase — a deep recess where utilities and cables run between floors. The basement houses rodents, mostly mice, used for scientific testing by multiple Yale researchers, said Robert Alpern, dean of the Yale University School of Medicine.
Le was part of a research team headed by her faculty adviser, Anton Bennett. According to its Web site, the Bennett Laboratory was involved in enzyme research that could have implications in cancer, diabetes and muscular dystrophy. Bennett declined to comment Monday on the lab or Le's involvement with it.
Le's office was on the third floor of the five-story building, where authorities found her wallet, keys, money and purse.
Yale closed the building Monday so police could complete their investigation, according to a message sent to Yale students and staff. Scientists are being allowed in only to conduct essential research projects, and only under the supervision of a police officer.
They said the building would reopen as early as Tuesday under increased security.
Police activity continued at the crime scene early Monday evening, as uniformed officers with police dogs and workers wearing white suits to protect them from hazardous materials went in and out of the building.
In the Sierra foothills community east of Sacramento where she was named "Most likely to be the next Einstein" in high school, Le was remembered as a high achiever who knew early on that she wanted a career in medicine.
In a Union Mine High School yearbook from 2003, Le said her long-term goal was to become a laboratory pathologist and said it would require about 12 years of higher education.
"I just hope that all that hard work is going to pay off and I'm really going to enjoy my job," she said.
No one answered the door Monday at the Widawskys' gray, ranch-style home in Huntington, N.Y.
"He is a very nice young man," next-door neighbor George Mayer said of Jonathan Widawsky, a 24-year-old seeking his doctorate in physics. "His family, they're all just wonderful people — very, very nice people."
The death is the first killing at Yale since the unsolved December 1998 death of Yale student Suzanne Jovin. The popular 21-year-old senior was stabbed 17 times in New Haven's East Rock neighborhood, about 2 miles from campus.

For many fans and friends of the actor news of his death was a shock. About a month ago Patrick Swayze celebrated his birthday, and shortly before the world's tabloids spread through sensational news that the actor won his terrible illness (pancreatic cancer) with the latest medical treatments, they write "RIA Novosti".

It is possible that all these messages have appeared on the initiative of the actor who has grown tired of the paparazzi pursuit, hunting for photographs dramatically aging star. Title "Patrick Swayze is dying" has appeared on the covers of tabloids a record number of times, but in the last months of life the star of the true situation was known only to his family.

(Sept. 14) — Clues increasingly pointed to an inside job Monday in the slaying of a Yale graduate student whose body was found stuffed inside a wall five days after she vanished from a heavily secured lab building accessible only to university employees.
Police on Monday sought to calm fears on the Ivy League campus, saying the death of 24-year-old Annie Le was a targeted act but would not say why anyone would want to kill the young woman just days before she was to be married.
"We're not believing it's a random act," said officer Joe Avery, a police spokesman. No one else is in danger, he said, though he would not provide details other than to say that police believe no other students were involved. He also denied broadcast reports that police had a suspect in custody.
Earlier, ABC News reported that authorities investigating Le's killing have focused their efforts on a suspect who failed a lie detector test and who has what appear to be defensive wounds on his body. Sources also told ABC News that bloody clothing removed from the lab contained evidence that links her killer the to the crime.
Meanwhile, Yale officials said the building where Le worked would reopen under increased security. Still, some students worried about their safety.
"I'm not walking at nights by myself anymore," said student Natoya Peart, 21, of Jamaica. "It could happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere."
Michael Vishnevetsky, 21, of New York, said he did not feel safe when he made a late trip to his lab Sunday in a different building. "It felt very different than how I usually felt," he said.
Twenty-year-old Muneeb Sultan said he's shocked that a killing could take place in a secure Yale building.

Autopsy results revealed Monday that a body found hidden behind a wall at a Yale University lab is that of graduate student Annie Le. Meanwhile, ABC News reported that police are focusing on a suspect who failed a lie detector test. But a police official later denied this. Above, a surveillance photo, left, shows Le entering the lab on Sept. 8, the day she was last seen alive.


Le, a 24-year-old pharmacology student, vanished just five days before she was due to get married. Police found her body Sunday in a wall chase -- a recess where utilities and cables are run. More than 100 investigators had been searching for her. "We're not believing it's a random act," said Officer Joe Avery, a police spokesman.


Considering the heavily secured lab building was accessible only to university employees, Le's murder appeared to be an inside job. Here, Yale students and faculty participate in a candlelight vigil for Le on campus Monday night.


A high school photo shows Le was one of two students selected as "Most Likely To Be The Next Einstein." Meanwhile, Yale students worried about their safety. "I'm not walking at nights by myself anymore," said one student. "It could happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere."


Authorities said Le used her identification card to enter the lab where her body was found. There was no record of her leaving. Her ID, money, credit cards and purse were found in her office. Above, an undated photo shows Le, front row, center, with other members of her high school in El Dorado, Calif.


Family members on Friday canceled her wedding, which had been scheduled for Sunday. Police have said that her fiance, Jonathan Widawsky, a Columbia University graduate student, is not a suspect and is assisting with the investigation. Here, a billboard showing Le appears alongside Interstate 91 in New Haven, Conn.


A sign posted by Yale graduate students hangs outside the laboratory Sunday, before it was announced that Le's body had been found.


"It's a frightening idea that there's a murderer walking around on campus," said 20-year-old Muneeb Sultan, a chemistry student. "I'm shocked that it happened in a Yale building that had key-card access. It's really sad." Here, Connecticut police stand outside the lab Sunday. (Sources: AP, New Haven Register)

Video:

U.S. actor Patrick Swayze, who went from being a Broadway dancer to a Hollywood star with films like "Dirty Dancing" and "Ghost," has died after a two-year battle against cancer. The artist, 57, died at his home.

"Patrick Swayze died peacefully today, with his family at his side, after meeting the challenges of his illness during the past 20 months," his publicist Annett Wolf said in a statement.

Born in Texas, Swayze started his career as a dancer and made dozens of appearances on stage, screen and television over four decades. His immortality on the big screen came in 1987 with "Dirty Dancing", which exceeded expectations to become one of the most watched films of all time.

In that tape, Swayze starred as Johnny Castle, an arrogant young man who falls in love with the shy teenager Frances "Baby" Houseman, played by Jennifer Gray, at a New York vacation during the decade of the 60s.

Swayze was diagnosed at stage 4 pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest forms of the disease in January 2008. At that point he said that evil had already spread to her liver. But the actor and former dancer promised to fight cancer and was treated with an experimental drug, surprising to shoot a new TV detective series called "The Beast", where

"Dirty Dancing", made on a shoestring budget and almost was thrown out by his studio, became a huge box office success, receiving nominations for Golden Globes for actors and giving rise to the single winner of an Oscar "( I've Had) The Time of My Life ".

Swayze co-wrote and sang "She's Like the Wind" for the soundtrack of the film, Which Came into third place in the pop charts. The popularity of the tape has spanned over two decades and recently caused a stage musical.

The producers did not have many expectations about the movie but got $ 64 million in U.S. box office and $ 214 million worldwide.


In 1990, "Ghost" was more successful than "Dirty Dancing" with a local collection of over 217 million U.S. dollars and 505 million worldwide. Swayze plays the deceased's love Demi Moore, Sam, in the emotional film, candidate for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Whoopi Goldberg won an Oscar for her supporting role as a spiritual medium who helps Sam to communicate with his girlfriend from beyond. Goldberg said he was Swayze who convinced the director Jerry Zucker to hire her.

His role as Danny Zuko in "Grease" on Broadway called the attention of Hollywood and moved to the West Coast in the late 1970s, where he appeared in small roles in film and television. The papers were brought him to stardom teen drama "The Outsiders" 1983 and "Red Dawn" in 1984, in which he and his co-star of "Dirty Dancing", Jennifer Gray, interpret adolescents struggling against an invasion Russian. After Dirty Dancing and Ghost, Swayze experienced several setbacks in his career, including a struggle with alcohol.

Attributing part of their problem drinking to his sudden fame and the Hollywood lifestyle, he returned to Texas with his wife Lisa Niemi, but worked on the tapes "The Green Dragon" and "Donnie Darko", both in 2001.


Swayze was born in Houston and entered the world of acting from a young age. His father was a rodeo champion and her mother had a dance studio. She trained in dance at an early age and played for ballet companies in New York before moving to Broadway.