Fakhra Younis Commits Suicide

She couldn't make it. She'd been a teenage dancer, working the red light district in Karachi, Pakistan, when she met her husband. He was in his mid-30s, and his name was Bilal Khar: the rich and powerful son of a governor. The pair were married.

Things didn't go well. He beat her, she said, and she left him. Afterward, as Fakhra Younis slept on her mother's couch a few feet from her five-year-old son, Khar stole into the house and poured acid on her face and body.

He was acquitted of the crime; she could not escape her new face. Despite a move to Rome and more than three dozen reconstructive surgeries over the last decade, she was destroyed. She jumped to her death from a height of six stories on March 17th.

From Emirates News:

Tehmina Durrani, Ghulam Mustafa Khar's ex-wife and [Bilal Khar's] stepmother, became an advocate for Younus after the attack, drawing international attention to the case. She said that Younus' injuries were the worst she had ever seen on an acid attack victim.

"So many times we thought she would die in the night because her nose was melted and she couldn't breathe,'' said Durrani, who wrote a book about her own allegedly abusive relationship with the elder Khar. "We used to put a straw in the little bit of her mouth that was left because the rest was all melted together.''

"Her life was a parched stretch of hard rock on which nothing bloomed,'' Durrani wrote in a column in The News after Younus' suicide.

Younus' ex-husband grew up in starkly different circumstances, amid the wealth and power of the country's feudal elite, and counts Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar as a cousin.

Bilal Khar once again denied carrying out the acid attack in a TV interview following her suicide, suggesting a different man with the same name committed the crime. He claimed Younus killed herself because she didn't have enough money, not because of her horrific injuries, and criticized the media for hounding him about the issue.

"You people should be a little considerate,'' said Khar. "I have three daughters and when they go to school people tease them.''

NEWS: George Michael Improves, Pakistan Rages, Black Friday Brawls, And The Russian Bird

Apparently, this Russian newswoman wasn't really giving Barack Obama the finger. She thought she was only broadcasting audio, and the intended audience of her bird-flip was somebody in the studio. She was fired anyway.

 George Michael is improving, says his lover.

Joseph Epstein explains how gossip, trivia, and stupidity took over the news.

Also: Chord Overstreet can't keep his shirt on.

 Botched NATO raid leaves 24 dead, may have cost Alliance its most important supply route, and further strains US/Pakistan relations:

Gen Jacobson said a combined force of Afghan and Nato troops were in the area when "a tactical situation developed on the ground", though he gave no more details.

He said close air support was called in, and "we're aware it's highly likely this caused casualties".

Military sources told the BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Paktika province in Afghanistan that a US-Afghan special forces mission had been in the area, where they believed a Taliban training camp was operating.

They said the mission came under fire from a position within Pakistan, and they received permission from the headquarters of Nato's Isaf mission to fire back.

In a statement, Isaf commander Gen John R Allen said the incident "has my highest personal attention and my commitment to thoroughly investigate it to determine the facts".

"My most sincere and personal heartfelt condolences go out to the families and loved ones of any members of Pakistan Security Forces who may have been killed or injured."

 Who are America's biggest religious lobbyists, and how much do they spend?

A Pew study released this week shows that the growing number of religious advocacy groups in Washington spent nearly $400 million last year to influence public policy.

The groups are ideologically diverse, but data collected by Pew shows that conservative groups tend to have the biggest budgets ...

 Nice profile of Zach Huston, the gay high school freshman whose savage beating at the hands of a classmate became a flashpoint in the world's struggle against bullying. (Though his mum said something on the second page that s might strike some readers as impolitic. Thoughts?)

 Rick Perry to campaign with noted authoritarian and publicity hog Joe Arpaio, the Arizona lawman famous for preferring men in pink underwear.

Really, there should have been a Human Planet segment devoted to Black Friday.

Muppet fever rages around the world. Here's a musical retrospective.

What makes Glenn Beck fans laugh on Thanksgiving? Pilgrin jokes! See a whole mess of "Pilgrim Funnies" produced for Glenn Beck's subscription comedy show, BS of A, AFTER THE JUMP. (HT: Little Green Footballs.)

Pakistan Conservatives Slam U.S. Embassy's Pride Event

The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, last week hosted a gay pride party for its employees and the nation's LGBT community, a community that's typically shrouded in shadows.

And, not surprisingly, conservatives there are furious: the powerful and influential Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami released a statement calling the event "cultural terrorism."

"Such people [homosexuals] are the curse of society and social garbage," the group said. "They don't deserve to be Muslim or Pakistani, and the support and protection announced by the US administration for them is the worst social and cultural terrorism against Pakistan.”

Thankfully, the U.S. government appears to be sticking to their gay-support, and released their own statement: “This gathering demonstrated continued US Embassy support for human rights, including LGBT rights, in Pakistan at a time when those rights are increasingly under attack from extremist elements throughout Pakistani society.”

News: Illinois Civil Unions, Syria, Trevor Donovan, Chaz Bono

Illinois governor Pat Quinn to be one of the witnesses to the first 30 same-sex civil unions in that state.

Trevor Donovan on the lack of gay acceptance from some: “I think that’s why the bullying does happen, and the teasing. People bully and tease about things they don’t understand, that they’re scared of. So this is enlightening people and bringing it into the mainstream… I think it’s important to educate people, and I’m proud to be part of it.”

A lesbian Syrian blogger is getting attention for bravely writing a blog in her country where homosexuality is illegal.

Madonna is a single lady once again.

The US government has released five videos of Osama Bin Laden found in his Pakistani compound.

Lady Gaga is a foot taller in Mexico City.

Not that a large "birther"-like movement had grown asking for it, but possible presidential candidate Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has released his birth certificate.

  Chaz Bono speaks about his acceptance of being transgender: “Until I really accepted this about myself and got over any of my own transphobia that I had, I really felt like I wouldn’t be accepted. I thought I would ruin my life. I thought it was, ‘Be yourself but become a pariah and put your family through hell,’ or, ‘Don’t be yourself and live a horribly uncomfortable existence where everybody relates to you in a way that’s not you.’"

Since the the Navy SEALS who captured Bin Laden didn't bring a tape measure with them, they were forced to come up with a creative way: "According to reports, a Navy SEAL of about 6-feet laid out next to bin Laden's corpse to gauge the Al Qaeda leader's height. The corpse was several inches taller."

Mark Salling steps out in Hollywood.

Take the elevator to the Jersey Floor.

Adele on Rihanna: "If Rihanna wanted me, I'd do it with her. She's hot."

Nightline Video: How the Bin Laden Operation Went Down

Nightline offers a dramatized timetable of the Bin Laden operation.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Video: Inside the Compound Where Bin Laden was Killed

 

ABC News finds chaos, blood stains inside the ransacked compound where bin Laden was killed.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Previous reports...
Bin Laden Buried at Sea; Hoax Death Photos Emerge [tr]
Video: Fire at Bin Laden Compound During Raid [tr]
Breaking: President Announces Osama Bin Laden Is Dead [tr]