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Get answers to<http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=13oq95o2r/M=493064.12016262.12445669.8674578/D=groups/S=1705043917:NC/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1213719235/L=/B=ynBdCNFJq2w-/J=1213712035214396/A=5028928/R=0/SIG=11e3tma2a/*http://new.groups.yahoo.com/moderatorcentral> your questions about running Y! Groups. 10 Day Club on Yahoo! Groups<http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=13okkq3c4/M=493064.12016283.12445687.8674578/D=groups/S=1705043917:NC/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1213719235/L=/B=y3BdCNFJq2w-/J=1213712035214396/A=5202316/R=0/SIG=11aijbghb/*http://new.groups.yahoo.com/allbrangroup> Share the benefits of a high fiber diet. Dog Groups on Yahoo! Groups<http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=13o2tbqa1/M=493064.12016263.12445670.8674578/D=groups/S=1705043917:NC/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1213719235/L=/B=zHBdCNFJq2w-/J=1213712035214396/A=4836043/R=0/SIG=11o19ppl5/*http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/dogzone/index.html> Share pictures & stories about dogs. . __,_._,___ http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=eb19fbf8-7c87-4be4-9a03-dec9e5ed1064 NATIONAL POST (CANADA) Prosecutors dismiss Canadian-Serb's defence as 'absurd' Canwest News Service Published: Monday, June 16, 2008 Toronto - Legal arguments that a Canadian man should not be held accountable for using United Nations observers as human shields during the war in Bosnia because he considered the UN-sanctioned air strikes to be wrong are absurd, government lawyers said Monday in a controversial case being heard by the Ontario Court of Appeal. Nicholas Ribic, originally from Edmonton but now living on parole in British Colombia's Lower Mainland, went to fight on the side of Bosnian Serb forces in 1995 during the ethnic strife following the dissolution of Yugoslavia. The bloodshed prompted UN and NATO intervention. Ribic became a wanted man after he and other Serb fighters took UN observers, including Canadian Forces Captain Patrick Rechner, as hostages. Rechner was handcuffed outside a bunker during NATO's aerial bombardment in a bid to stop the attack. Video images of the shackled soldier, broadcast around the world, became an iconic image of the conflict. Ribic was convicted of hostage-taking and threatening death in 2005. Lawyers for Ribic are now appealing the conviction on a wide range of issues, including suggestions that the NATO bombing was illegal and that Ribic was justified in using hostages in self-defence. In the Ontario Court of Appeal Monday, government lawyers attacked his case. "It was Ribic that was on trial, not the Bosnian Serbs, not the UN and not NATO," said Robin Parker, counsel with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada. "(Ribic's) contention that he committed this crime in self defence is not just wholly unsupported by the evidence," she argued, "it is patently unreasonable." The courts have wrestled with Ribic's case for years. Although he is charged under Canada's Criminal Code, the events took place on a foreign battlefield. He was also the first person charged under untried anti-terrorism legislation and his case raised sensitive national and international security considerations. "He was a guinea pig," Darcy DePoe, Ribic's Edmonton lawyer, told the panel of three Court of Appeal justices. DePoe said Ribic was also the first case where a defendant has put forward evidence that needed to be vetted in secret by the Federal Court under rules in the Canada Evidence Act regarding national security material. Typically, sensitive material comes from government, Canada's spy agency or the RCMP. In Ribic's case, two members of the Canadian Forces who were stationed in Bosnia came forward to Ribic's defence team with evidence on the matter. "They both came forward because, as the case commenced, they felt that the true story of what was going on over there was not being heard," said DePoe. They spoke anonymously at first. "I had to give them an undertaking not to subpoena them in order to get them to talk to me." The soldiers, whose identities are protected and called "Witness A" and "Witness B," were not allowed to testify in court but a redacted transcript of some of their evidence was read to jurors at Ribic's 2005 trial. DePoe and co-counsel Heather Perkins-McVey argue this was an unacceptable restriction on Ribic's ability to mount a defence. They also argued that their client faced an unacceptable delay in the proceedings against him. Arguments continue Tuesday. __._,_.___
