The spokesperson for Cote d'Ivoire's Republican Forces (FRCI, pro-Ouattara) Madam Affoussy Bamba revealed on Wednesday in Abidjan that FRCI who on Monday attacked the residence of Laurent Gbagbo, want to capture him when he is still alive. In this regard, an order was given not to kill him. "When we shall arrest Gbagbo, gucci outlet we will take him to president Alassane Ouattara who will decide his fate," she said. She indicated that Gbagbo could be charged for various crimes especially that of orchestrating a coup d'etat and massacre of innocent civilians. On Wednesday morning, pro-Ouattara forces launched the final assault on Gbagbo's residence where he has been hiding with members of his family and close confidants. Although besieged, Gbagbo has refused to come out and sign a surrender document that recognizes his rival Alassane Ouattara as the winner of the November 28 presidential elections. Given this refusal, pro-Ouattara forces who had initially surrounded his residence, decided to launch an offensive and fish him out from wherever he is hiding. Cote d'Ivoire has been embroiled in a political crisis following a disputed presidential election which was contested by the outgoing president Laurent Gbagbo and ex-prime minister Alassane Ouattara who is the internationally recognized president. The UN estimates that about 1,000 people have been killed in the post-election violence that broke out in mid-December.

Jersey Shore star Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi is once again raising eyebrows. This time, not because of the controversy surrounding her hit MTV reality series, but because of the enormous $32,000 check Rutgers University will be giving the reality star for her one-night appearance while taking part in two question-and-answers sessions by students at the University. PHOTOS: Snooki appears and is booed at WWE’s WrestleMania 27 press conference, stands in the middle of WWE’s top names – The Rock and John Cena Rutgers University recently responded to the criticism from many that are saying that her pay is outrageous. “The show was promoted as a comedy act, air yeezy not an academic program,” a statement released by Rutgers stated. They added, “As with any comedy show, the value of the content is subjective and students choose to attend based on their interests.” However, it is not just Rutgers University that is causing eyebrows to be raised. Snooki, who will be making her professional wrestling debut tomorrow night at World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) WrestleMania 27 from Atlanta, Georgia is also receiving criticism from many within the WWE locker room. The company prides itself on WrestleMania being its version of Super Bowl each year, in that it is the one pay-per-view event every year that receives major mainstream attention. Therefore, they always attach themselves with one major mainstream name — whether it has been Donald Trump, Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson, Freddie Prinze Jr. or Pamela Anderson — to get mainstream audiences out of the professional wrestling circuit to draw pay-per-view buys. This year, that was Snooki. PHOTOS: Hilarious shots of Snooki getting physically involved in a WWE ring late last month However, the problem is that wrestlers that wrestle on the 4-hour event receive a major check bonus for appearing at the event, and due to Snooki appearing and wrestling at the show, many wrestlers were left out of the show due to her taking place on the card. Recently, a wrestler reached out to Etidbits.com and noted, “We bust our a**es 250 days a year on the road [...] Snooki will cut right into everyone’s WrestleMania paydays.” By the way, if you have yet to see the hilarious photos of Snooki getting physically involved in a wrestling ring and kicking some (scripted) behind, check out these photos of her WWE appearance from late last month.

Hundreds of thousands of website URLs have been compromised in a massive malware attack that tries to trick people into buying fake anti-virus software to remove bogus infections, security experts said. Dubbed LizaMoon, unidentified perpetrators of the scareware campaign inject script into legitimate URLs, so when people try to access the website, they get redirected to a page warning them that their PCs are infected with malware that can be removed by downloading a free AV application called Windows Stability Center. The software eventually will find bogus threats that will require victims to buy a more robust product, using theirsupra credit cards. Security firm Websense says a Google search shows more than 1.5 million URLs with the nasty script. Because Google counts unique URLs and not domains or websites, the number is likely inflated. "It's safe to say it's in the hundreds of thousands," Websense said Thursday in a blog post. The attack is worldwide, with U.S. PC users making up roughly half those getting redirected to the bogus warning page. LizaMoon, named after the first domain Websense discovered with the malicious script March 29, is believed to be a SQL injection, which is when hackers get their script into a Microsoft SQL Server database that then adds it to a site's URL. SQL injections is one of the most common forms of attacking Web sites and back end databases. LizaMoon code has been found in SQL Server 2003 and 2005. Websense does not believe hackers are exploiting a vulnerability in the database. They are more likely penetrating Web systems used by the sites, such as outdated content management and blog systems. Security experts are still trying to determine exactly how the SQL injection occurs. Fortunately, people heading to a hijacked URL are only redirected once. If the bogus warning page is ignored, then people can go on their way without being continuously sent to the same page. Websense said the first domain may have been infected with the LizaMoon script as early as Oct. 21, 2010, but the evidence is inconclusive. The first confirmed case that Websense knows of was in December 2010. That infection was identified as LizaMoon until Thursday.

Mahar said she paused before deciding to call her supervisor at work Kristin Baldwin, who was a fellow winner. "It was late. What if it wasn't real? I didn't know what to do." "I called my boss and said I hope you were in the pool this week because I think we won," Mahar said. When asked if she was married, Mahar said with a laugh, "Not yet." Leon Peck, one of the oldest winners, is known as the office prankster. He thought the late night call telling him they had won was payback for air yeezy the jokes he always played on the others. Mahar said the group hasn't made any decision yet on whether they will share with their friends who opted out of the pool. The new millionaires aren't going crazy with their bonanza. On the top Mahar's wish list is a new dishwasher. Barth is getting new tires and will put away money for his son to go to college. "I just want to fly somewhere in first class," said Hilton. Kutey had the most extravagant plans. "My wife and I are going to every Disney park there is," he said. “Having spent more than a decade wearing the shoe on the other foot with the European Commission, the filing of a formal antitrust complaint is not something we take lightly,” he wrote. He added, “This is the first time Microsoft Corporation has ever taken this step. More so than most, we recognize the importance of ensuring that competition laws remain balanced and that technology innovation moves forward.” This year could be pivotal for Google as antitrust officials increase their scrutiny and a new chief executive, co-founder Larry Page, takes the helm later this month. The Justice Department is on the verge of deciding whether to greenlight an acquisition proposed by Google to buy a travel search technology firm — a deal that has sparked complaints from companies, including Expedia and Travelocity, who worry that Google will wipe them out once it enters the airline flight search business. Microsoft has also pushed the Justice Department to block the deal since its Bing search engine offers a travel search function. Critics of Google’s attempt to digitize all books won a major victory last week when a federal judge blocked the company’s class-action settlement with publishers and authors over the fate of out-of-print books that Google wants to put online and commercialize. As part of the decision, the judge cited concerns that the settlement would leave too much power in the hands of Google. The tech firm also faces concern on Capitol Hill, where some lawmakers have called for hearings on whether Google is abusing its dominance. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), chair of the Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee, said in March that examining Google’s position in the search market would be one of his priorities in the new congressional session.

John Wall of the Washington Wizards has been suspended one game without pay, and Juwan Howard of the Miami Heat has been fined $35,000 for their roles in an incident during a game on Wednesday, March 30. Additionally, Miami's Zydrunas Ilgauskas has been fined $25,000. The penalties were announced today by Stu Jackson, NBA Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations. Wall has been suspended for his Flagrant Foul, gucci outlet Penalty Two, which included throwing a closed-fist and forearm into the midsection of Ilgauskas, and Howard has been fined for escalating the altercation. The incident occurred with 8:48 remaining in the second quarter of the Heat's 123-107 victory at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. Ilgauskas, who received a Flagrant Foul, Penalty Two, for an elbow to the face of Wall, has been fined for making an obscene gesture following his ejection. Wall will serve his suspension on Friday, April 1 when the Wizards host the Cleveland Cavaliers.Duncan Jones: For me, science-fiction movies are divided into two camps: hard sci-fi and soft sci-fi. With hard sci-fi, when you can see how the world can evolve into the science-fiction setting, sometimes it's useful to find ways to explain and put in that exposition, so the audience can really see how the world might change. But when you're into soft sci-fi, or in a gray area in between ... and I think time travel and those kinds of stories do fit in that gray area ... it's much more important that you ask the audience to take a leap of faith. You say, "Here are the rules we're going to set up. We'll play fair by those," and you just kind of leap on board. In "Source Code," we manage to inject humor into the script and keep the tone light, and I think that allows the audience to feel OK about just accepting the rules and going along with it.

Though “Mad Men” fans are feverishly waiting for 2012 — or better, news that executive producer and series creator Matthew Weiner will be happily on board for the show’s delayed fifth season after lengthy negotiations with its network, AMC — at least we can hear the man’s soundtrack. He stopped by KCRW on Wednesday for the radio station’s Guest DJ Project and spun five tracks: Bing Crosby’s “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”, Jim Croce’s “New York’s Not My Home,” Big Star’s supra “The Ballad of El Goodo,” “Joni Mitchell’s “Rainy Night House” and the Decemberists’ “Los Angeles, I’m Yours.” We knew Weiner was a Decemberists fan — the pirate-lovin’ indie-folk act’s “The Infanta” played during a much-discussed 2008 montage — but fingers crossed we see Sally Draper softly weeping to Big Star’s “Thirteen” during a future episode. Stream and download the session, which also includes an interview, on KCRW’s site. What do you think of his picks, Brand Xers?France and the US say they are sending envoys to Benghazi to meet the interim administration. And an international conference on Libya in London has agreed to set up a contact group involving Arab governments to co-ordinate help for a post-Gaddafi Libya. The US and Britain have suggested the UN resolution authorising international action in Libya could also permit the supply of weapons. This message was reinforced by British Prime Minister David Cameron in Parliament on Wednesday. "UN [Security Council Resolution] 1973 allows all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas, and our view is this would not necessarily rule out the provision of assistance to those protecting civilians in certain circumstances," he said. "We do not rule it out, but we have not taken the decision to do so." Meanwhile, US media reports say President Barack Obama has authorised covert support for the Libyan rebels. The CIA and White House have both declined to comment on the reports. Several thousand people have been killed and thousands wounded since the uprising against Col Gaddafi's rule began more than six weeks ago.

A BP laptop computer containing the private information of about 13,000 individuals who filed oil-related claims after last year's oil spill has been lost, according to the oil giant. The laptop contained names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and Social Security numbers for those who filed claims related to last year's Deepwater Horizon spill. "There is no evidence that the laptop or data was targeted or that anyone's personal gucci outlet data has in fact been compromised or accessed in any way," BP spokesman Tom Mueller said in a written statement. "We have sent written notice to individuals impacted by this event to inform them about the loss of their personal data and to offer them free credit monitoring services to help protect their personal information." The loss of the laptop, which can be remotely disabled, was reported to law enforcement authorities and BP security. Its loss came during business-related travel. BP says they cannot release any information on where or when, the laptop computer was lost to prevent the investigation from being jeopardized. Mueller told CNN that he could not comment on the employee involved in the loss of the laptop. On April 20, 2010, an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Louisiana coast, killed 11 workers and spilled an estimated 205 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It took 85 days to stop the oil from pouring into the sea.The affiliate, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, is the current incarnation of an Algerian branch of the terrorist organization that has long sought to turn North Africa into an al Qaeda theater of operations. But its militancy has largely been confined to Algeria. The group's latest propaganda dispatch detailing militant activity made no mention of operations inside Libya.The reimbursements go back to at least 2002, the report concluded. The political donations, mostly to Republican candidates and causes, were not required but strongly suggested, several employees told the investigators. According to the report, when the initial investigation was made following The Republic's story, lobbyist Gary Husk helped guide Woods away from those who had actually been given reimbursements and groomed others who were interviewed on what to say. The Husk Brothers lobbying firm was paid $286,000 by the Fiesta Bowl in 2009, according reports filed by the IRS. The board announced a series of steps to reform its operations and operate transparently to prevent any repeat of such problems. That includes hiring a chief financial officer and a general counsel/compliance officer. The bowl has three years left on its four-year contract BCS contract. That could give it enough time to clean up its problems in the face of a possible challenge from the Cotton Bowl, which long has coveted a return to elite bowl status and now has a big, new stadium to bolster its case. Cotton Bowl President Rick Baker declined comment through a bowl spokesman. Among the many expenditures questioned by the report was the 50th birthday celebration for Junker paid for by the Fiesta Bowl at a cost of $33,0000 at Pebble Beach, Calif.;, his car allowance and paid membership in four elite private golf clubs. There also was a $1,200 trip for Junker and two others to a Phoenix strip club. Dichter said Junker was not asked about the birthday party by the panel. He said he had nothing to do with paying for it, that it was done by another employee at the time. Junker's attorney provided The Associated Press with the transcripts of the now-ousted CEO's interview with the investigators. The Fiesta, which also operates the Insight Bowl and many other smaller events, staged the highly anticipated matchup between Auburn and Oregon for the national championship this year. The seven-member BCS task force investigating the matter will be headed by Spanier and includes Northern Illinois president John Peters, Big East commissioner John Marinatto, Sun Belt commissioner Wright Waters, and athletic directors Jeremy Foley of Florida, Bob Bowlsby of Stanford and Richard Giannani of Southern Mississippi.

The Syrian government resigned Tuesday in what might have been a prelude to other concessions in a speech President Bashar al-Assad is expected to give to the nation on Wednesday, part of an expanding effort to address protests against his authoritarian rule. The resignation was seen as a significant — if primarily symbolic — gesture air yeezy in a nation where the leadership rarely responds to public pressure and where decisions are made not by the cabinet but by the president and his inner circle, including multiple security services. “It is not about the government, it is about the policies of the state,” said Abdel Majid Manjouni, the head of the Socialist Democratic Arab Union Party in Aleppo. “The ministers are not the ones who decide these things. That is the president. He makes the policies.” Mr. Assad’s speech on Wednesday was scheduled to try to calm tensions after government forces repeatedly opened fire on demonstrators, killing dozens of people. According to officials, the speech, originally expected on Monday, will offer significant political concessions, including the lifting of laws that restrict civil and political freedoms. The promises, however, were greeted skeptically by a public accustomed to a leadership that has talked of reform for years without results. “Now it’s all about evaluating Assad’s words and how to judge his actions,” said Andrew J. Tabler, a Syria expert in Washington. “He doesn’t have a good track record on following through and I can’t imagine he can now, given the regime’s structure.” Mr. Assad initially boasted that his nation was immune to the popular unrest that has swept the region. But events in Syria have played out much as they have in other nations — moving from denial to a bloody crackdown to efforts at appeasement. Now the Syrian president has little room to maneuver in terms of offering concessions without actually undermining his leadership and that of his allies. If he lifts the emergency laws and allows free speech, the streets are likely to swell with demonstrators. If he dismantles the feared secret police services, he is liable to lose control amid widespread calls for freedom, the rule of law and an end to systemic corruption. If he ends the Baath Party monopoly on power, it would likely lose at the polls. “The emergency law is a cornerstone of Baathist rule, and once it goes everything else might go with it,” said Karim émile Bitar, a researcher at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations in Paris. “Things could collapse for them if they’re serious about lifting it: liberation of political prisoners, multiple parties, no more harassing activists. People are going to use this to air more and more grievances.” The resignation of the cabinet came as the government worked hard to restore its credibility after thousands marched against it around the country and the military took up positions in cities in the north and south. Tens of thousands of government supporters rallied in Damascus, the capital, on Tuesday, waving flags and pictures of Mr. Assad. The government apparently bused many of the demonstrators in and pressured others to attend the rally. Government supporters poured into the Square of the Seven Seas in Damascus, with thousands standing under a 45-foot-long portrait of the president on the Syrian national bank building. They chanted, “Only God, Syria and Bashar!” and “With our soul, with our blood, we will redeem you, Bashar.” As the crowds dispersed early in the afternoon a sense of carnival prevailed, with smiling children and couples holding hands and eating ice cream. Cars around the city honked their horns in support of Mr. Assad and stern young men sat atop microbuses, clutching pictures of the president. Similar rallies were held in major cities, with the noticeable exception of Latakia — a northwestern coastal town where a sit-in by hundreds of protesters continued Tuesday — and Dara’a in the south. The military’s presence has been heavily felt in both cities after recent violence. “Today, it was staging maneuvers before tomorrow’s big announcement,” Mr. Bitar said. “The idea is to prepare tomorrow’s speech, and ahead of it you have these demos, which show that Assad still benefits from a certain amount of popular support.” The protests began more than a week ago in Dara’a, after the police arrested a group of young people for scrawling antigovernment graffiti. The ripples were felt nationwide after government forces fired on demonstrators. Protesters set fire to party offices in several towns, toppled a statue of the former president, Hafez al-Assad, and tore down billboards of the current president, his son, actions that have been unheard of in the repressive police state.

Please respect FT.com's ts&cs and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited extracts. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights or use this link to reference the article air yeezy Walmart, the US discount retailer, is to defend itself at the Supreme Court in the world’s largest sex discrimination case, which has the potential to transform the future course of legal disputes between big business and workers in the US. In a class-action lawsuit that has taken a decade to reach the court, the retailer is accused of paying women in the US less than men for the same work and of passing them over for promotions. Please respect FT.com's ts&cs and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited extracts. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights or use this link to reference the article - The court on Tuesday will hear arguments on whether the case can go forward as a class-action lawsuit, in which a small number of women want to represent a larger group of current and former employees estimated to number up to 1.5m. The Supreme Court will rule on Walmart’s claim that the class action is too broadly constituted to be meaningful rather than on the merits of the case. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that a victory for them on this technical point would help to give US workers better legal protection against discrimination. Walmart and its allies say that if it loses, corporate America will be hobbled by a wave of new class-action lawsuits. Walmart’s opponents say the experiences of the plaintiffs, led by a 61-year-old store “greeter” named Betty Dukes who still works for the company in California, reflect a wider culture of discrimination. Walmart, the world’s biggest company by sales, tends to attract admiration and scorn in equal measure. The case is a stark example of how its size has thrust it into the centre of highly politicised disputes in the US and beyond. Following 30 minutes of arguments from both sides on Tuesday, the Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling by July. David Tovar, a Walmart spokesman, said Ms Dukes and her fellow plaintiffs could not be representative of more than a million women and stressed that Walmart has had anti-discrimination policies in place for many years. “We think there are thousands of women who have had tremendously positive experiences working at Walmart,” he said. Joseph Sellers, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said: “Walmart has repeatedly argued that this case is too big to be adjudicated properly. I worry that they are seeking a standard that would make companies too big to be accountable.” His team has supplemented the evidence of the original six plaintiffs with testimony from other Walmart employees and statistical analysis that it says shows women are not paid as well or promoted as often as men. Walmart says the extra evidence is flawed. Several big companies have rallied to Walmart’s side, including Intel and Microsoft, the technology groups, and Altria, the tobacco company. In a legal brief filed in support of Walmart, the US Chamber of Commerce said last year that if the case is allowed to go ahead, it would “likely provoke an avalanche of new class-action litigation” that would engulf all companies in the US. “Anyone with a claim that is ‘reasonably coextensive’ with those of other potential plaintiffs – be it a personal-injury, consumer-fraud, or medical-monitoring claim – would now have a viable class action,” it said. Walmart’s opponents reject the suggestion that a defeat for the retailer would dramatically shift the balance of power between big business and potential litigants. Instead, they say, it is a Walmart victory that would upend established legal tradition. Marcia Greenberger, who is supporting the plaintiffs as co-president of the National Women’s Law Center, said: “If the plaintiffs did not prevail and the court adopted a new principle, it could end up shielding discrimination and allowing it remain unchecked and unremedied.” .Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.

Barry Bonds' head grew while he was a San Francisco Giant, but the home run champ's testicles shrunk, his mistress said on the stand Monday in federal court. Kimberly Bell, who spent the day testifying in Bonds' perjury trial, said Bonds developed acne, went bald, experienced sexual dysfunction, became bloated, and turned aggressive and abusive during their nine-year romantic relationship -- air yeezy signs of steroid use, some claim. Later in the testimony, held in San Francisco, Bell claimed Bonds admitted to using steroids. Bell, who posed for Playboy in 2007, said the slugger threatened to cut off her head as well as cut out her breast implants that he paid for because she wouldn't return her phone calls as quickly as he had wanted. Earlier in the day, longtime Giants equipment manager Mike Murphy testified that Bonds' hat size increased from 7 1/4 to 7 3/8. Upon cross examination Murphy revealed that similar growth happened to other veteran stars such as Willie McCovey and Bonds' godfather Willie Mays. Commentors of The Times were mixed in their feelings about the Giant and his mistress. "Granted Bonds is no angel, but this woman is an idiot. She's the mistress during marriage #1, then he goes onto marry someone else, and she's still the mistress! She did this for 9 years... even after being mistreated/threatened she still stuck around...hmmmm," KA wrote. "Saw this guy at a minor league game refuse to sign an autograph for a little kid (like 6 or 7) who walked up near his seat and asked politely - nice, you could say klassy even," quipped baseball fan. A commentor going by the name chach, however won't let go of the legacy Bonds created over his successful career, "Regardless of all this jazz. dude is an amazing player. still got his hologram dennys baseball card," chach wrote.