MUMBAI  ( 2008-04-01 11:15:39 ) : 

Film and Television Producers' Guild of India (FTPGI) honoured veteran Bollywood filmmaker Yash Chopra with its top award for ‘outstanding contribution to Indian Cinema’.
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan received the best actor award for his performance in the Yash Raj Films’ super hit film "Chak De! India".
Kareena Kapoor walked away with the best actress trophy for her comic portrayal of a young Sikh girl in "Jab We Met" at a glittering presentation ceremony at the MMRDA Ground in the Bandra-Kurla Complex in northwest Mumbai Sunday.
FTPGI hosts its own award ceremony to honour Indian artistes as well as creative and technical personalities from the film industry every year.
The trophies are known as "Apsara" awards.
While "Chak De! India" was chosen the best movie of 2007, its director Shimit Amin bagged the trophy for the best director.
A Pakistani television channel, ARY Gold, also honoured actor Hrithik Roshan as the Best Male Style Icon of the year at the ceremony.
The star, however, could not make it to the ceremony. His father, filmmaker Rakesh Roshan, received the trophy on his behalf. Katrina Kaif bagged the Best Female Style Icon ARY Gold trophy.
Akshay Kumar, who churned out the maximum number of hits last year, was adjudged the "Entertainer of the Year" by the FTPGI jury.
NDTV Imagine honoured Deepika Pudokone and Ranbir Kapoor as the year’s best new faces, respectively.
Salman Khan and Govinda received the hit pair NDTV Imagine trophy for their breezy performances in producer Sohail Khan’s hit movie last year, "Partner".
Salman Khan, Bipasha Basu, Kareena and Riteish Deshmukh performed on the stage and livened up the well-attended awards presentation ceremony put together by Wizcraft.

KIEV  ( 2008-04-01 15:52:28 ) : 

US President George W. Bush said on Tuesday he was hopeful of an agreement with Russia on US missile defence plans in Europe but admitted the United States still had work to do to persuade Russia.
"We're dealing with a lot of history and a lot of suspicion I'm hopeful we'll have some breakthroughs we'll see," Bush said at a press conference with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko during a visit to Kiev.
Bush was in Kiev at the start of a week-long European tour that will end with a meeting in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi with President Vladimir Putin.
"Obviously we've got work to do to persuade the president and the people around him that the missile defence system is not aimed at Russia," he said, insisting that the missile system was not "an anti-Russian device."
The United States has outlined plans to place interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic to counter potential threats from "rogue" states such as Iran or North Korea.
Russia has objected to the plans, saying there is no immediate threat and that the system is aimed at Russia. Talks on missile defence between the United States and Russia are ongoing but have so far not yielded any agreement.

CAIRO  ( 2008-03-27 18:29:12 ) : 

US President George W. Bush telephoned Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday to express 'deep regret' over the killing of an Egyptian by a US-navy chartered vessel near the Suez Canal.
Bush told Mubarak he hoped that the tragic incident would not affect the friendly relations between the two countries and that he had asked the Pentagon to probe Monday's shooting, Egypt's official Mena news agency reported.
Mohammed Moqtar Afifi died and two Egyptians were wounded when the Global Patriot fired warning shots at a small boat trying to sell merchandise in the Gulf of Suez as the US ship waited to cross the canal to the Mediterranean.
US officials initially said there were no casualties from the incident, insisting that all warning shots were accounted for as having hit the water.
On Wednesday, they admitted that one man had been killed and agreed to pay compensation.
The commander of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, the US State Department and the US ambassador to Cairo have expressed regret over the incident.

WINDSOR  ( 2008-03-26 19:58:51 ) : 

A beaming French President Nicolas Sarkozy, flanked by his model wife Carla Bruni, was greeted with pomp by Queen Elizabeth on Wednesday for the first French state visit in more than a decade.
Thousands of people gathered on the streets of Windsor to welcome France's glamorous first couple, whose visit comes weeks after they married following a high-profile, whirlwind romance.
Many well-wishers said they had come to see not only the Queen but also Bruni, a former fashion model born in Italy who has also enjoyed a successful career as a singer and songwriter. Dressed in a demure grey coat and wearing a small, stylish hat, Bruni smiled politely and curtsied as she shook hands with the Queen and then chatted animatedly with the monarch's 86-year-old husband, Prince Philip.
As a band played and flags were waved, the French couple and the Queen and Prince Philip were taken into the grounds of Windsor Castle in horse-drawn carriages, where they inspected a parade of marching royal guardsmen.
The couple will spend the night at the castle, just outside of London.
The visit comes at a crucial time for Sarkozy, who is battling accusations at home that he is a "bling bling" president more concerned with a flashy lifestyle than getting a grip on the French economy and other weighty issues.
Before his arrival, 53-year-old Sarkozy told British media he hoped the visit would emphasise what the two countries have in common while also tightening business and other ties.
The Queen, who speaks fluent French, and Sarkozy, who speaks little English, chatted politely as they walked in the courtyard of Windsor Castle, while multi-lingual Bruni and Prince Philip were more animated in their discussions.

ISLAMABAD  ( 2008-03-25 19:44:23 ) : 

The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has congratulated Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani on assuming the charge of Prime Minister of Pakistan.
In a statement on Tuesday, the British Prime Minister also assured his government full support to Yousaf Raza Gilani.
Gordon Brown expressed the hope that both Britain and Pakistan would work on a jointly.
He said there are problems ahead of new government and the British Government will work in support of democracy in Pakistan.
He said restoration of democracy in Pakistan was the result of February 18th election.

VIENNA: Russia and China on Tuesday scuttled a Western attempt to introduce a resolution on Iran's nuclear defiance at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, diplomats said.

The decision appeared to be the result of lingering unhappiness by the two world powers about not being informed earlier of plans for such a resolution.

It came a day after the U.N. Security Council imposed another round of sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. Iran defiantly vowed to continue its nuclear program, which it insists is aimed only at generating power.

Moscow on Monday had threatened not to back the new U.N. sanctions against Iran unless the West gave up its IAEA resolution plans.

Then on Tuesday it signaled that it was ready to back such a document if it was given substantial input in drafting it before deciding later in the day that it was against it after all, said the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was confidential.

Asked why Russia and China were opposed, one of diplomats said Moscow decided to withdraw its support "on principle" and Beijing, which often takes a cue from Russia on the Iran nuclear dispute, followed suit.

A senior Western diplomat said the decision to scrap plans for a resolution was jointly taken by the six powers taking the lead on engaging Iran on its nuclear program — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

He said the six felt that new U.N. Security Council sanctions passed Monday to punish Iran had sent enough of a message.

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Bernanke: Fed ready to act to boost economy - Stocks & economy- msnbc.com
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WASHINGTON (Feb. 13) - The checks aren't in the mail, but they will be soon. President Bush signed legislation Wednesday to rush rebates ranging from $300 to $1,200 to millions of people, the centerpiece of government efforts to brace the wobbly economy. First, though, you must file your 2007 tax return.

With his signature, President Bush makes the $168 billion economic stimulus bill official. The package may not prevent a recession, but analysts generally believe it could help suppress an economic crisis.

He said there would be "no secret trials" and that they would be "as completely open as possible".

"Relatively little amounts of evidence will be classified," Gen Hartmann said.

The other five defendants are Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni, Walid bin Attash, also from Yemen, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, who was born in Balochistan, Pakistan, and raised in Kuwait, Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, a Saudi, and Mohammed al-Qahtani.

Gen Hartmann said the charges included conspiracy, murder in violation of the laws of war, attacking civilians, destruction of property and terrorism.

All but Mr Qahtani and Mr Hawsawi are also charged with hijacking or hazarding an aircraft.

The charges listed "169 overt acts allegedly committed by the defendants in furtherance of the September 11 events".

Gen Thomas Hartmann said: "The accused will have his opportunity to have his day in court.

The US has about 275 prisoners left in the detention centre

"It's our obligation to move the process forward, to give these people their rights."

In listing more details of the charges against the defendants, Gen Hartmann alleged that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had proposed the attacks to al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in 1996, had obtained funding and overseen the operation and the training of hijackers in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a Kuwaiti of Pakistani extraction, was said to have been al-Qaeda's third in command when he was captured in Pakistan in March 2003.

He has reportedly admitted to decapitating kidnapped US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 but these charges do not relate to that.

The BBC's Vincent Dowd in Washington says Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has said he planned every part of the 9/11 attacks but that his confession may prove problematic as the CIA admitted using controversial "waterboarding" techniques.

Human rights groups regard the procedure as torture.

Legal challenge

The charges will now be sent to Susan Crawford, the convening authority for the military commissions, to determine whether they will be referred to trial.

Any trials would be held by military tribunal under the terms of the Military Commissions Act, passed by the US Congress in 2006.

The Act set up tribunals to try terror suspects who were not US citizens.

The law is being challenged by two prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, who say they are being deprived of their rights to have their cases heard by a US civilian court.

Nineteen men hijacked four planes in the 9/11 attacks. Two planes hit the World Trade Center in New York, another the Pentagon in Washington and the fourth crashed in Pennsylvania.

The Pentagon has announced charges against six Guantanamo Bay prisoners over their alleged involvement in the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the six, who include alleged plot mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

The charges, the first for Guantanamo inmates directly related to 9/11, are expected to be heard by a controversial military tribunal system.

About 3,000 people died in the hijacked plane attacks.

The Guantanamo Bay detention centre, in south-east Cuba, began to receive US military prisoners in January 2002. Hundreds have been released without charge but about 275 remain and the US hopes to try about 80.

Tribunal process

Brig Gen Thomas Hartmann, a legal adviser to the head of the Pentagon's Office of Military Commissions, said the charges alleged a "long-term, highly sophisticated plan by al-Qaeda to attack the US".

New Delhi: On Friday, CNN-IBN broke the story on the threat to Jama Masjid from builders.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi's plans to dig dangerously close to the monument to build a four-storey basement mall and parking area will damage the very foundations of the historic mosque.

The MCD's redevelopment plan has people enraged.

A day after CNN-IBN broke the story on the threat to Jama Masjid from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's re-development plan for the area, strong reactions poured in from religious leaders to even politicians.

"We are grateful to CNN-IBN for exposing this plan. We are dead against the project and have registered our complaints with the authorities. We will do everything required to stop this," said Vidhan Sabha's Deputy Speaker, Shoaib Iqbal.

The Rs 1,200 crores re-development plan includes digging a 60-feet deep basement just 30 meters away from the historic Jama Masjid.

Experts believe that vibrations from the digging could damage the Jama Masjid foundations permanently.

The basement, a four-storey structure will have 600 shops at the top level and a three tier parking area to accommodate 9000 vehicles.

The idea has appalled most.

"It is an atrocious plan. We srongly oppose it," stated Jamait-e-Islami member Mujtaba Farooq.

The MCD has not done the compulsory structural and heritage impact assessment done for the project. The plan besides damaging the mosque will also destroy five other mazhaars in the 25-acre area between Red fort and Jama Masjid.

"It is an insult to Islam," said Muslim Personal Law Board member, S Q R Ilyas.

"This is the Jama Masjid, this is no ordinary masjid," protested activist and writer, Sadia Dehlvi.

For now, the MCD would want to stay out of the controversy after having conceived the project as would the Imam. But it may be difficult for them to turn a blind eye to such mounting protests for long.

Lawmakers across the political spectrum condemned Williams' statement, and Britain's tabloid newspapers reacted with fury, publishing pictures of people being beheaded under Shariah law and showing the carnage after Islamic suicide bombers attacked London's transport system in 2005.

In an editorial, The Sun newspaper called Williams "a dangerous threat to our nation" and said Muslim terrorists would "see his foolish ramblings as a sign that our resolve against extremism is weakening."

Williams acknowledged the "strong reaction in the media and elsewhere" but said in a message posted to his Web site he never intended to propose the creation of a parallel Muslim legal system.

Williams: He used Shariah to set example
Williams said his aim was "to tease out some of the broader issues around the rights of religious groups within a secular state" and was using Shariah law as an example.

He explained that Christians could not be expected to claim religious exceptions to secular rules — for example, by refusing to carry out abortions — unless they were willing to accommodate other religious traditions.

The heated reaction prompted some British Muslim groups to soften their initial support for Williams' plans and to complain about "Islamophobia" making British Muslims feel unwelcome in their homeland.

"The reaction has escalated into hysteria," said Catherine Heseltine, a spokeswoman with the Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK. "People hear the word Shariah and have an emotive conjuring of Taliban beheadings. It's seen as threatening Muslim outsiders coming in and imposing something on Britain."

In reality, she said, the changes Williams is advocating are not a high priority to British Muslims. For most Muslims here, she said, Shariah law deals primarily with questions of how Halal meat should be prepared and how marriages should be conducted.

Shariah is a wide-ranging Islamic code that has evolved over the centuries and is subject to differing interpretations in various countries. It deals with many aspects of daily life, including dress and dietary restrictions, and also codifies how to punish serious offenses.

The code imposes some restrictions on banking practices and in fact some British banks have introduced Shariah-compliant programs for certain types of transactions.

There are already some Shariah councils operating in Britain for Muslims who agree to abide by their rulings, but these are unofficial bodies not recognized by British law.

LONDON - The archbishop of Canterbury said Friday he never proposed the creation of a parallel Islamic legal system in Britain, as anger continued to simmer over statements he made seen as backing Islamic law.

Rowan Williams told the British Broadcasting Corp. in an interview aired Thursday that some aspects of Shariah law, a venerable Islamic code of conduct, already fit easily within the existing British legal system, and he agreed when asked if its implementation was inevitable.

Britain's media took the statement as broadly backing Shariah law, which delighted some British Muslims — and outraged almost everyone else.

Polaroid Corp., which introduced its first instant camera in 1948, is officially getting out of the instant film business, announcing today that once it produced enough film to last through 2009 it would shutter its last facility that makes the iconic develop-as-you-watch prints.
Like other companies long successful and entrenched in the film-making business, Polaroid has had its ups and downs in the digital age. It filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2001 as it tried to pursue a digital imaging future and was acquired by a private investment firm called the Petters Group in 2005. They stopped making instant film cameras for consumers a year ago.
As a result of this latest decision, the company is closing two production facilities in Massachusetts and laying off about 150 workers.
Now the company's name and famous logo appears on digital cameras, photo printers, and even LCD TVs. Its inkless digital photo printer introduced at CES has captured some early praise, although the market for home photo printers is uncertain.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Yahoo Inc.'s board will reject Microsoft Corp.'s $44.6 billion takeover bid after concluding the unsolicited offer undervalues the slumping Internet pioneer, a person familiar with the situation said Saturday.
The decision could provoke a showdown between two of the world's most prominent technology companies with Internet search leader Google Inc. looming in the background. Leery of Microsoft expanding its turf on the Internet, Google already has offered to help Yahoo avert a takeover and urged antitrust regulators to take a hard look at the proposed deal.
If the world's largest software maker wants Yahoo badly enough, Microsoft could try to override Yahoo's board by taking its offer - originally valued at $31 per share - directly to the shareholders. Pursuing that risky route probably will require Microsoft to attempt to oust Yahoo's current 10-member board.
Alternatively, Microsoft could sweeten its bid. Many analysts believe Microsoft is prepared to offer as much as $35 per share for Yahoo, which still boasts one of the Internet's largest audiences and most powerful advertising vehicles despite a prolonged slump that has hammered its stock.
Yahoo's board reached the decision after exploring a wide variety of alternatives during the past week, according to the person who spoke to The Associated Press. The person didn't want to be identified because the reasons for Yahoo's rebuff won't be officially spelled out until Monday morning.
Microsoft and Yahoo declined to comment Saturday on the decision, first reported by The Wall Street Journal on its Web site.
Yahoo's board concluded Microsoft's offer is inadequate even though the company couldn't find any other potential bidders willing to offer a higher price.
Without other suitors on the horizon, Yahoo has had little choice but to turn a cold shoulder toward Microsoft if the board hopes to fulfill its responsibility to fetch the highest price possible for the company, said technology investment banker Ken Marlin.
"You would expect Yahoo's board to reject Microsoft at first," Marlin said. "If they didn't, they would be accused of malfeasance."
But by spurning Microsoft, Yahoo risks further alienating shareholders already upset about management missteps that have led to five consecutive quarters of declining profits.
The downturn caused Yahoo's stock price to plummet by more than 40 percent, erasing about $20 billion in shareholder wealth, in the three months leading up to Microsoft's bid.
Seizing on an opportunity to expand its clout on the Internet, Microsoft dangled a takeover offer that was 62 percent above Yahoo's stock price of just $19.18 when the bid was announced Feb. 1. Yahoo shares ended the past week at $29.20.
Led by company co-founder and board member Jerry Yang, Yahoo now will be under intense pressure to lay out a strategy that will prevent its stock price from collapsing again. What's more, Yang and the rest of the management team must convince Wall Street that they can boost Yahoo's market value beyond Microsoft's offer.
Yahoo's shares traded at $31 as recently as November, but have eroded steadily amid concerns about the slowing economy and frustration with the slow pace of a turnaround that Yang promised last June when he replaced former movie studio mogul Terry Semel as Yahoo's chief executive officer.
This isn't the first time that Yahoo has spurned Microsoft. The Redmond, Wash.-based company offered $40 per share to buy Yahoo a year ago only to be shooed away by Semel, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person didn't want to be identified because that bid was never made public.
Yahoo now may want that Microsoft to raise its price to at least $40 per share again. That would force Microsoft to raise its current offer by about $12 billion - a high price that might alarm its own shareholders.
Microsoft's stock price already has slid 12 percent since the company announced its Yahoo bid, reflecting concerns about the deal bogging down amid potential management distractions, sagging employee morale and other headaches that frequently arise when two big companies are combined.
Although it isn't involved directly in the deal, Google is the main reason Yahoo is being pursued by Microsoft.
Yahoo has struggled largely because it hasn't been able to target online ads as effectively as Google.
Microsoft believes Yahoo's brand, engineers, audience and services will provide the company with valuable weapons in its so far unsuccessful attempt to narrow Google's huge lead in the lucrative Internet search and advertising markets.
As it examined ways to thwart Microsoft, Yahoo considered an advertising partnership with Google - an alliance long favored by analysts who believe it would boost the profits of both companies. It was unclear Saturday if Yahoo's plans for boosting its stock price include a Google partnership, which would probably face antitrust issues.
A Microsoft takeover of Yahoo would also be scrutinized by antitrust regulators in the United States and Europe. The antitrust uncertainties could be cited as one of the reasons that Yahoo's board decided to spurn Microsoft.

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior Senator Muhammad Talha Mehmood on Friday underlined he need for a specialized training and a comprehensive strategy o check the incidents of human trafficking which he said was posing threat to the image of the country.
In a statement issued here, he said that there is need for enhanced coordination among the law enforcement agencies at the national as well as international level.
Talha called for creating more employment opportunities for the youth as most of the people who fall prey to such an evilbusiness are young.
The Senator said that the whole system needs to be overhauled and the obstacles need to be removed to achieve the desired results.

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Scientists at Harvard University and MIT, undaunted by the vast scope of the project, have undertaken to map the circuitry of the human brain. They're working in a field called connectomics, whose new knowledge will help researchers understand the neural mechanisms behind mental illness, cognitive development, among other medical questions.

Without power
About 97,000 homes and businesses in Northern California and the Central Valley were still without power Monday, down from more than 215,000 earlier Sunday.

National Weather Service meteorologist Angus Barkhuff said some parts of Northern California would get a reprieve from the rain and snow on Monday. But in the mountains, "there's a chance of snow and snow showers all the way through Thursday," he said.

The death toll included eight passengers of charter bus that rolled off an icy road in far southeastern Utah on Sunday, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Utility officials warned against using gas-powered portable heating sources inside, saying it was extremely dangerous. A house fire Saturday in Sacramento was thought to be caused by candles being used to light the home during the power outage.

Canal failure
Meantime, residents who fled nearly 300 homes flooded when a canal's earthen bank collapsed in Fernley, Nev., hoped to return Monday, but they faced the damage left by the wave of frigid water that surged through the town.

The irrigation canal failure released a wave of frigid water into the town early Saturday. The canal was temporarily repaired by late in the day, but as much as a square mile  of the town was still under water at least 2 feet deep Sunday as ice impeded drainage.

"We don't know what we're going to do next," said Silvia Cansdales, a 32-year-old mother of three whose family — like most in town — did not have flood insurance. "I don't even want to think about what we're going to return to."

No injuries were reported in the town of 20,000 people about 30 miles

CONEJOS, Colo. - Six snowmobilers missing in the snowy Colorado mountains called for help Monday and reported they were hungry but alive, authorities said.

Crews were on their way to meet the six, who are all from New Mexico, said Barbara Smith, a spokeswoman for the Conejos County Sheriff's Department.

The snowmobilers called 911 from an isolated and snowbound train station and said they were cold but otherwise all right, Smith said. 
The snowmobilers, two couples and two teenagers, had been listed as missing since Friday when a fierce storm hit the western United States. At least 11 deaths were blamed on the bad weather.

east of Reno.

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Victims of Omaha shootings mourned


Dec. 7: Mourners remember those killed when a troubled teen opened fire in a mall in Omaha, Neb. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.

Two months after burying her husband, Kristin Rathjen summoned the courage to go through the boxes.

Seven identical black footlockers, sent from Kirkuk, Iraq, held the accumulations of Cpl. Josh Harmon's year at Forward Operating Base Warrior. A sheaf of papers, 24 pages long, painstakingly catalogued the Army medic's possessions.

"2 ea., packages, food, blue in color, inscribed Starkist Tuna."

"75 ea., photos, personal."

"Paper, document, inscribed Certificate of Marriage."

Harmon, an Ohio native, was one of 14 soldiers killed in a Blackhawk helicopter that crashed in northern Iraq on Aug. 22. Hours later, in Norfolk, Army officers informed Rathjen that she was a widow.

The 22-year-old Rathjen, a 2003 graduate of Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School in Virginia Beach, never enjoyed a honeymoon, or even a wedding kiss. Harmon proposed in January, when he was home on leave. They married, by proxy, in May, with two strangers standing in for them.

"It was completely crazy and it was uncharacteristic and it was something that I will never regret," Rathjen said of the arrangement.

She had planned to move to Hawaii, where Harmon was based, and where they had met in 2006. The couple wanted a proper wedding later.

Instead, Rathjen has been grieving, and traveling. To Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, where she met a recovering soldier whose life Harmon helped save. To Mentor-on-the-Lake, Ohio, where she accompanied Harmon's brothers-in-arms from 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry, to his grave. To his parents' house, where she returned the guitar Harmon loved to play and some of his uniforms, still smelling of the desert.

Then, on Thanksgiving night, preparing for another visit with Harmon's family, Rathjen noticed something strange when she opened one of the footlockers in the drafty garage. In the bottom were Harmon's boots and his plastic shower shoes, but missing were two sets of camouflage uniforms that she had kept for herself.

Another box, which had held more than 100 CDs and DVDs, was missing entirely. It included a video she had sent of her May graduation from the University of Tampa and songs she had put onto a disc called, "Miss you baby! Thinking of you!"

She found the plastic footlocker, empty, in the backyard.

Rathjen reported the burglary to the police. She doesn't know who is responsible, but thinks the stuff was stolen Nov. 17, when her 18-year-old brother threw a party while the rest of the family was out of town.

Some things, such as her husband's copy of the marriage certificate, would have no value to anyone but her. Other items could have been pawned for a few bucks. That included Harmon's computer hard drive, a KA-BAR knife, DVDs of the Dave Chappelle Show, Gray's Anatomy, Blue Collar Comedy; Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Mayer and Tim McGraw CDs.

She hopes the thieves didn't know they were taking the possessions of a slain soldier.

"For me to not completely lose all faith in the goodness of people, I have to think they didn't know," Rathjen said.

She will take it all back, no questions asked.

Rathjen acknowledges that police are busy with bigger crimes but is bothered that no one from the Norfolk Police Department has followed up on the case.

Officer Chris Amos, a spokesman for the Norfolk Police Department, said Friday that Rathjen's case has been assigned to a detective.

"I don't have my husband here," Rathjen said. "All I have are the tangible things, and those things were taken away from me. All I want is the stuff back. I don't care about pressing charges.

"To me, it's not just stuff. It's him. It's Josh."

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