In the NEWS: News Digest

26 June 2009

UK: Man jailed for 23 years over murder of ex-boyfriend

A man who killed his former boyfriend by setting him alight has been jailed for 23 years.
Nadim Kurrimbukus, 25, poured petrol over the head of Charlie Davies and set him alight outside his home in Templedene Avenue, Staines two months after their relationship ended.
He was today jailed for a minimum of 23 years at Kingston Crown Court.
Passing sentence, Judge Charles Tilling told him: "The various aggravating features included the degree of planning and the particularly horrific method you chose to attack Charlie Davies.
"It was the culmination of a vendetta and because of your continued denial there seems to be a total lack of remorse."
Davies, 23, died in hospital 12 days after the attack, which happened on June 14th last year.
Kurrimbukus' co-defendant Yusuf Dulloo, 27, walked free from court after being found not guilty of murder and arson.
Kurrimbukus was also convicted for a separate charge of arson.


World: Google discreetly celebrates Pride month

Internet users searching Google this month may notice an addition to their usual search screen. Instead of a plain blue 'dividing bar' along the top of the search page, certain searches will bring up a rainbow bar graphic.
This discreet rainbow bar, Google explains, is a way of celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans Pride month, as proclaimed by US President Barack Obama earlier this month.
Instead of being a universal Google graphic, the rainbow bar only appears when the user searches specific terms such as 'gay', 'lesbian' and 'transgender'.
A Google spokesman told PinkNews.co.uk: "During the month of June, Google is celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Pride. For some Pride-related search queries, we are showing a rainbow divider that separates the search query on the top of the page from the organic search results and AdWords advertisements below."

Across internet forums, users have tried to find which searches bring up the graphic, with one user on webmasterworld.com reporting that they had even tried searching Broadway musicals.


US: Gay CNN presenter Richard Quest on his comeback after that embarrassing park incident

Richard Quest is described by CNN as “one of the most instantly recognisable members of the CNN team”. Quest describes himself as gay and Jewish. Gawker, on the other hand, describes him as a “park-cruising meth-head”.
The reason for this slightly unexpected description was a story involving Quest that broke last April.
He was found in Central Park at 3.40 am with drugs in his pocket, a rope around his neck that was tied to his genitals, and a sex toy in his car boot.
“What can one say?” the former Leeds University student told the Guardian in an interview published today. “It was what it was."
Quest, who worked for 16 years at the BBC before starting an eight-year career at the American news network CNN, may have been expected to disappear after news broke that he'd been found in possession of methamphetamine in such questionable circumstances.
However, he is in fact in the process of publicising his new show – Quest Means Business, which CNN describe as “the definitive word on how we earn and spend our money”. Quite a turnaround.
The British business and finance journalist told the newspaper: “Everyone wants to know the inside story of the event last year and I'm saying quite clearly that those that will know the inside story will be my close family and no one else. That's not because I'm hiding anything. I'm just not about to reveal or discuss my innermost thoughts. All I would say on the subject, besides the standard line that it was a highly regrettable incident, is that nothing is as it seems - and certainly not the way it was reported at the time."
This “regrettable incident” was defended by Quest's lawyer, Alan Abramson, as being much less controversial than the facts may suggest. "Mr Quest didn't realise that the park had a curfew," he argued. The lawyer went on to claim that Quest was merely "returning to his hotel with friends".
At the trial, Quest was ordered by State Court Judge Anthony Ferrara to go in to rehab and to undergo drug counselling for six months.
“It was a fairly awful and dreadful time," Quest said. "I got myself into a very nasty situation. I don't blame anyone else for what took place. But I got back from that position because of other people. That I've yanked myself back is not so much a testimony to what I can do, but more a testimony to what other people can do when supporting people. And that's what I take from it."
Quest Means Business, is shows on CNN at 7pm from Monday to Friday.


News source: Pink-News UK