Since the hostage situation at Monpellier turned out to be unrelated to the others in the news, let's make this an open thread for all topics.

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There is a hostage situation at a jewelry store in Montpellier, FR. Two hostages are believed to have been taken. Police are on scene. (Use google translate.)

Update: It may not be related to the other two incidents, but a robbery gone bad.

The two suspected killers of the 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris are dead. Their hostage is safe. The brothers were killed when they came out of the hiding place shooting at security forces. Looks like they decided to go out in what they perceived to be a "blaze of glory."

Here are the suspects believed to have killed the policewoman and taken hostages at the Kosher market. They are Hayat Boumeddiene (L) and Amedy Coulibaly(R.) Coulibaly was killed by police.

Boumeddiene got away. (Added: It's unlikely she was ever there.) The FBI and French police are searching for her. Some of his hostages are safe. Here's a photo of some hostages being taken from the market. AFP reported 4 besides the gunman were killed in the market incident. They since revised that to four are critically wounded. It's also not clear whether the four are hostages or police or a combination.

Indonesia has a new president, Joko Widodo. In December, he pledged to get tough on the drug traffickers sentenced to death, including the foreign prisoners who have languished for years in Bali's hellhole Kerobokan prison.

The inmates will be taken to the prison at Nusa Kambangan, an island off the coast of Java, where they will be executed by a 10-person firing squad from the Central Java Police’s Mobile Brigade Unit (Brimob). Basically, they are tied to a wooden cross and shot.

Last week he rejected clemency for Bali 9 inmate Myuran Sukumaran, convicted in 2005 of attempting to smuggle 8.3 kilograms of heroin from Bali to Australia. Myuran gives his reaction to the news here. [More...]

As of this morning Paris police got all geared up to conduct an attack operation near Paris where they believe the two suspects in the Charlie Hebdo murders are staked out in a small printing company. Evidently, the brothers are believed to be holed up inside the business with a hostage.

While others say they heard shots and that two people were killed and more injured, the Paris prosecutor's office denies this part.

Stay tuned, it should happen pretty fast now, but I've got to get some sleep. (3:17 a.m. here.)

This thread is open to aspects of the Charlie Hebdo killings.

For those of you missing Big Tent Democrat's political coverage (and that includes me) I have some good news. He will resume blogging at TalkLeft very soon, most likely over or right after the weekend, and says he will be posting regularly.

I've been gone all day, so I haven't seen any news yet and now I'm making chicken soup, even though it's been almost 70 degrees all day. 'Tis a privilege to live in Colorado.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

What a sad day in Paris with 12 dead in a terror attack at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper. The BBC has good ongoing coverage.

French police published the photos above of two of the three suspects, Said and Cherif Kouachi, 32 and 34, French brothers reportedly of Algerian descent who were born and raised in Paris.

It looks like police named the wrong guy for the third and youngest suspect. Hamyd Mourad, 18, has surrendered to police. His classmates tweeted he was in class at the time of the attack. There are other reports he has a credible alibi and has been released. If so, It's a good thing he surrendered. He probably would have been shot if police found him first. [More...]

I thought I was done with this topic for a few days but there's news: Lawyers for Jane Doe #3 (aka Virginia Roberts), Paul Cassell (pictured above right) and Bradley Edwards (not pictured) have sued Alan Dershowitz for defamation per se in state court in Broward County (Fort Lauderdale.) The complaint is here.

(Dershowitz' Motion to Intervene in the Florida federal case filed yesterday is here. His affidavit claiming Virginia Roberts is a "serial liar" and her lawyers conspired with her to make false accusations against him is here.)

Some quick thoughts on the new defamation suit: [More...]

Former Va. Gov. Bob McDonnell was sentenced to two years in prison today. Probation recommended, and prosecutors sought a 10 to 12 year sentence, in accordance with the guidelines.

Good lawyering by the defense team. The sentencing guidelines are not mandatory and there is not even a presumption that they represent the correct sentence. They are only the starting point in the judge's consideration, and the judge here appropriately exercised his discretion.

I'm done here for the day, having used all my blogging time to write about the Dershowitz/Virginia Roberts story.

If I had more time, I'd also write about Celebrity Apprentice. It's very entertaining this season. I hope Geraldo and Leeza Gibbons are the final two. I was a guest on both their talk shows many times in the 90's. In the six degrees of separation department, one of the Leeza shows I did was with Alan Dershowitz. Leeza not only flew us out to LA, she flew our sons out. The topic was representing the hated defendant and part of that was how it affected our families. (Our sons were also interviewed on air.) She is such a warm and genuine person, and a consummate professional. As for Geraldo, none of today's cable news shows come close to being as good as CNBC's "Rivera Live" in the 90's. Geraldo was my friend back then, and while I haven't seen him in years, I still like him.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Alan Dershowitz says Virginia Roberts, aka Jane Doe #3 and 102 in the Jeffrey Epstein civil suits) is a "serial liar." (For background, see here). Yesterday, Roberts told the Daily Mail she is writing her memoirs and will name all the powerful people Epstein directed her to have sex with while she was employed by him.

Since she has publicly accused Dershowitz and Prince Andrew of engaging in criminal acts in a court pleading (available here), and threatens to make similar accusations against other prominent persons, I think she has put her credibility in issue. What has she said in her various interviews over the years and are there discrepancies? What was her life like before she met Epstein? Was she an average teen, or did she have severe problems? Her lawyers' statements should also be examined. Are their statements consistent with hers, and if not, why not? Is it just sloppiness? [More...]

Update: Jane Doe #3's lawyers fight back. They have filed a defamation lawsuit against Alan Dershowitz. The complaint is here.

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Alan Dershowitz filed a motion to intervene in the victims rights lawsuit of Jane Does 1, 2 and 3 today. I have uploaded it here.

He also filed an affidavit emphatically denying the allegations and explaining why they could not be true. In it, he calls Virginia Roberts (aka Jane Doe #3 and 102) a "serial liar" and says her lawyers knew she was a serial liar but put her false allegations in the pleading anyway, for the purpose of having the media pick up on them. You can read the affidavit here. [More...]

Prospective jurors arrived at the federal courthouse in Boston this morning to fill out lengthy juror questionnaires for the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

In December, the Government and defense agreed on the explanatory remarks the judge should make when explaining the process to them. While the judge may have made some modifications, you can can read them here to get a general idea of what they were told.

Here is a good primer from the ABA on jury questionnaires.[More...]