Ousted Egyptian officials fined $90M

An Egyptian court fined former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his top officials more than $90 million.First court ruling against Mubarak since he was ousted in FebruaryThe fines will be taken from the frozen accounts of the former president and two others They are accused of hurting mobile phone and Internet industries during January protestsMubarak faces more serious charges

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- A Cairo court has ordered the first ruling against Hosni Mubarak since he was ousted on February 11, fining him and his top officials more than $90 million for their role in cutting the mobile phone network and Internet service for five days.

Adel Saeed, spokesman for the general prosecutor, said Mubarak himself was fined $34 million, former Interior Minister Habib El-Adly $50 million, and former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif $6 million.

"They were charged with cutting the communication to hinder the efforts of the January 25 revolutionaries," he said. The blocks began January 28 as demonstrations against Mubarak's rule heightened in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

The court order stated that they will have to immediately pay these fines from their personal accounts and that the money will be allocated to the national treasury.

Aly Hassan, a judicial analyst affiliated with the justice ministry, said an appeal filed at the Cairo Administrative Court does not mean that the payment will be delayed or stopped.

"The court ordered an immediate payment and the fine may be increased by the state if the damages increase during the year as compensation for lost revenue." he said, adding that the fines would be deducted from their accounts, which have already been frozen.

Mubarak will face the Cairo Criminal Court for more serious charges, including using his political position to acquire funds illegally and potentially capital charges of killing protesters.

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Egypt's Mubarak fined for communications cut (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) – An Egyptian administrative court fined ousted President Hosni Mubarak and two former officials 540 million Egyptian pounds ($91 million) on Saturday for cutting mobile and Internet services during protests in January.

It was the first court ruling to be made against Mubarak since he was ousted on February 11. Mubarak faces more serious charges, including ordering the killing of protesters, a charge which could carry the death penalty.

A judicial source said the administrative court fined Mubarak 200 million Egyptian pounds, former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif 40 million pounds, and former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli 300 million pounds.

The court ruled that Mubarak, Nazif and Adli were guilty of "causing damage to the national economy" and the fines would be paid to the country's treasury.

Political analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah called the ruling "extremely important," saying it would change the way the Egyptian government deals with the communication revolution.

"This ruling will be a turning point for the standing and decisions of some Egyptian entities still living in an authoritarian culture regarding how to deal with communication services and the freedoms they offer," Abdel Fattah said.

The 18-day uprising that toppled Mubarak was largely Web-based, and was organized by groups on Facebook.

MOBILE OPERATORS HAD TO COMPLY

At least 800 people were killed during 18 days of protests that toppled Mubarak, and more than 6,000 were wounded by live ammunition, rubber bullets, water cannon and batons.

Telecoms operator Vodafone said in January it and other mobile operators had no option but to comply with an order from the authorities to suspend services in selected areas of the country during the peak of the anti-government demonstrations.

In February, Vodafone also accused the authorities of using its network to send pro-government text messages to subscribers.

Communications and Information Technology Minister Maged Othman said his ministry planned to pay compensation estimated at around 100 million pounds to mobile telecoms operators for losses caused by the service disruption, the state news agency MENA said. It said the figure was reached by independent bodies.

Adli was sentenced earlier this month to 12 years in jail on separate charges of money laundering and profiteering.

Mubarak, who is detained in a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, was ordered on Tuesday to stand trial for the killing of protesters.

Mubarak, who is also accused of abuse of power and wasting public funds, was officially notified on Saturday of his referral to a Cairo criminal court, a judicial source said.

His two sons Alaa and Gamal, who have been held in a Cairo prison on charges of abusing public funds, have also been officially notified of their referral to the criminal court, the source said.

In a separate case, Egyptian prosecutors charged former Information Minister Anas el-Fekky on Saturday with "deliberately harming" funds of the state-run Radio and Television Union (RTU).

The prosecutor said that Fekky was referred to a criminal court for depriving the RTU, which he ran, from earning about $1.9 million in profits by exempting private television stations from the fees for live broadcast of the 2009-2010 football season and the start of the 2010-2011 season.

(Reporting by Shaimaa Fayed; Editing by Sami Aboudi and Louise Ireland)

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Kobe Bryant fined $100,000 over anti-gay slur

"The words expressed do not reflect my feelings towards the gay and lesbian communities," Kobe Bryant said Wednesday. STORY HIGHLIGHTSNEW: In pregame phone call, Bryant apologizes to Human Rights Campaign presidentBryant used an expletive and an anti-gay slur about a refereeThe NBA says, "Such a distasteful term should never be tolerated" (CNN) -- The National Basketball Association fined Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers $100,000 on Wednesday for "offensive and inexcusable" comments he made during Tuesday night's game, the league said in a statement.

Bryant used an expletive and an anti-gay slur directed at a referee after receiving a technical foul in a game against the San Antonio Spurs.

In a pregame phone call Wednesday night to Joe Solomonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, Bryant apologized for using the slur, the commission said in a statement.

"We had a very sincere conversation in which he expressed his heartfelt regret for the hurt that his words caused," Solomonese said. "He told me that it's never OK to degrade or tease, and that he understands how his words could unfortunately give the wrong impression that this is appropriate conduct. At the end of a difficult day, I applaud Kobe for coming forward and taking responsibility for his actions."

Earlier, Bryant issued a statement saying his remarks should not be taken literally. "My actions were out of frustration during the heat of the game, period," he said. "The words expressed do not reflect my feelings towards the gay and lesbian communities and were not meant to offend anyone."

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Virginia Tech fined $55,000 in shootings

File photo by Alan Kim, The Roanoke Times, via AP

Injured individuals are carried out of Norris Hall at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. Seung Hui Cho killed 32 people and himself.

EnlargeCloseFile photo by Alan Kim, The Roanoke Times, via AP

Injured individuals are carried out of Norris Hall at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. Seung Hui Cho killed 32 people and himself.

The failure warrants a fine "far in excess" of that, a letter notifying the university said, but $27,500 per violation was the most allowed by law. The university also was cited for failing to follow its own security policy, required by law, on crime warnings.

The department cited the school for violations of the Clery Act, which requires schools that receive federal aid to issue a "timely warning" when a serious crime is committed on campus. The law is named for Jeanne Clery, a Lehigh University freshman murdered in her dorm room in 1986.

Virginia Tech said in a written statement it will appeal. "Neither the Department of Education nor the Clery Act defines 'timely,' " the statement said. "The university actions on April 16 were well within the standards and practices in effect at that time."

A survivor of the shootings, Virginia Tech graduate Colin Goddard, applauded the fine.

"I think what's important is it was the maximum they could fine," said Goddard, 25, who was shot four times by Virginia Tech student Seung Hui Cho. He is assistant director of federal legislation with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "It's not a surprise. I knew that the school had acted too slowly four years ago."

At about 7:15 a.m. on the day of the rampage, Cho fatally shot two students in a residence hall. At 9:26 a.m., school administrators e-mailed students and staff to say there had been a shooting; the e-mail did not say the killer had not been identified.

Between 9:40 a.m. and 9:51 a.m., Cho shot 47 more people in Norris Hall, then fatally shot himself.

The Education Department letter says students and staff continued to move freely around campus, unaware of the danger.

"The facts that the assailant had not been identified, a weapon had not been found at the scene and that bloody footprints led away from the bodies strongly indicated that the shooter was still at large, and posed an ongoing threat," Education official Mary Gust wrote.

After the first shooting and before the warning, she said, two senior administrators e-mailed their families, bank deposit pickups and campus trash pickup were canceled, and Blacksburg public schools were locked down.

Virginia Tech said that its own guidelines at the time of the shootings said 48 hours would be an acceptable time frame in which to inform a campus of a serious crime. The school complained it is being held accountable for a standard adopted after its own tragedy.

A representative of Security on Campus, an organization launched by the Clery family, disputed that.

"All the provisions that they were found to have violated had been part of the original statute enacted in 1990," S. Daniel Carter said.

He said the case has broader national policy implications.

"It sends a very important message to other colleges and universities that their timely warning policies have to be taken seriously," he said.

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