| Cockfighting supporters seek justice's recusal |
| New Supreme
Court Justice James E. Edmondson is being asked to disqualify himself from
deciding whether Oklahoma's cockfighting ban is
constitutional. Tulsa attorney Larry Oliver has filed a petition in the Supreme Court to recuse Edmondson from the cockfighting case. Oliver says Edmondson should be disqualified because his brother, Attorney General Drew Edmondson, is involved in the case. James Edmondson couldn't be reached for comment yesterday. According to the law, a judge must disqualify himself, except in certain circumstances, if he or she is related to an attorney involved in a case before the court. The law also indicates that a judge or justice can remain on a case if both sides of the issue agree. |
Largely for shock value, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) likes to make outrageous comparisons between the worth of humans and animals. Their sickening "Holocaust on Your Plate" exhibit is perhaps the best known example, but there's also their complaints about the chickens used in the Iraq war to detect chemical weapons, their insulting statement that Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh's late vegetarian conversion "groups him with some of the world's greatest visionaries," and on and on. Trying to fit in at this week's World Social Forum (a kind of counter-meeting to the World Economic Forum in Davos), PETA's Bruce Friedrich complained that allowing restaurants to serve meat at the event is "like letting the World Bank or the Ku Klux Klan open up a booth here."
Thailand has deployed hundreds of troops to help contain the outbreak of bird flu.
The move came as officials confirmed the virus had reached a second province of the country.
More than 600 soldiers and a contingent of 100 prisoners have been put to work bagging and burying alive all chickens in central suphan Buri province.
Officials put the region under strict quarantine and ordered the slaughter of the entire poultry flock to try and stop the spread of bird flu.
But tests now show the virus has arrived in neighbouring Kanchanaburi province bordering Burma.
The Government says the mass cull will intensify this week and tests will be made on chickens in every province of the country.
The deepening crisis will see Thailand host emergency talks with all nations affected by the outbreak on Wednesday.
Source http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1031412.htm