Staff at Pederzani’s, one of the city’s exclusive jewellers, thought nothing amiss when a window cleaner went to work on the plate glass display.

Dressed in regulation overalls, he propped his ladder against the window.

But then, instead of using the bucket and squeegee to clean it, he calmly unscrewed it before scooping an estimated $1m-worth of jewels into his bucket and walking off into the Friday shopping crowd.

Security forces were on alert Thursday on the prison island of Nusakambangan off southern Java where the Islamist extremists—Amrozi, 47, his brother Mukhlas, 48, and Imam Samudra, 38—are being held.

“All preparations are ready. Security forces have been boosted. The execution can be anytime between November 1 and November 20,” Deputy Attorney-General Abdul Hakim Ritonga told AFP. ...

... The members of the Jemaah Islamiyah regional militant group were sentenced to death in 2003 for the attacks on packed nightspots on the resort island of Bali which killed 202 people, mainly foreign tourists.

The study found that ABC, NBC and CBS ran a total of 69 stories on Palin. Two were deemed positive, 37 negative and 30 neutral. None of the evening news shows ran a positive story about Palin.

Twenty-one stories portrayed Palin as unintelligent and unqualified, 14 characterized her as John McCain’s attack dog and nine emphasized attacks on Palin by conservatives.

Cellini, 73, of Springfield, the state’s capital, was charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and extortion, attempted extortion and soliciting a bribe, according to a statement today by Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

Cellini is accused of plotting with Rezko and Chicago-area businessman Stuart Levine to extort money from the Capri Capital investment firm and its then-principal, Thomas Rosenberg. If convicted on either extortion count, Cellini could receive a federal prison sentence of as long as 20 years, Fitzgerald said.

Referring to the US army’s attacks in Pakistan and Syria, Larijani said they would not be answered with diplomatic protests.

“The US method and conduct, expressed by this aggression, will only be stopped by a clear-cut and unexpected response, whose grounds were set by the martyr Hussein Fahmida,” Larijani said during a parliamentary session on Wednesday.

Fahmida was 13 when he detonated an explosive device he carried on him, destroying an Iraqi tank during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.

“America should be aware not to put its huge body on top of the suicide bombers’ explosive devices,” Larijani said.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Douglas Rutherford ruled that Khawaja, 29, played a significant role as financier, engineer and technical adviser to British terrorists.

The evidence shows Khawaja agreed to build 30 bomb detonators for violent jihadists, although it’s not clear whether he knew how those detonators would be used, the judge concluded.

Obama, by contrast, promises to give the U.N. a bigger role in U.S. foreign policy and many more American tax dollars than the $5 billion or more per year that currently accounts for roughly one-quarter of the total U.N. budget—already the biggest share by far among the U.N.‘s 192 member states.

A disturbing caveat here is that the total annual U.N. budget is something of a mystery even to the U.N., which produced an estimate two years ago of $20 billion. That has since grown, but the U.N. either won’t or can’t say by how much.

Miami jurors said they could not agree on a verdict Wednesday after nearly four days of deliberating whether Venezuelan Franklin Durán came to South Florida last year to silence a business associate about a cash-filled suitcase intended for an Argentine politician.

‘‘We cannot reach a unanimous verdict,’’ the 12-member jury said in a note read by U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard. No other explanation was given.

Lenard told the prosecution and defense that she will instruct jurors to continue deliberations on Thursday, noting the trial lasted almost two months and deliberations just four days.

Lithuanian side calls fulfillment of all the commitments of the cease-fire truce by Russian side. France Press reports regarding this based on the statement made by the representative of the Lithuanian Government. The agency does not name the surname of the official. ...

... ‘We are absolutely shocked over the idea.’ – As the agency reports the representative of the Lithuanian Government remarked.

A bill to make available 417 million hryvnias ($76 million) for the election, the third in as many years, won the support of only 222 lawmakers, four short of a majority.

Ukraine plunged into its latest bout of political turmoil when Yushchenko dissolved parliament after the collapse of coalition linked to the 2004 “Orange Revolution” and called a December election.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, his former ally, opposes the election as “criminal” amid the world financial crisis.

There was no claim of responsibility, but officials quickly pointed the finger at the militant Basque group ETA. Spanish police had arrested three suspected members of ETA Tuesday in Pamplona and another in Valencia.

“ETA has once again displayed its vileness,” said Jose Antonio Alonso, spokesman in Parliament for Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapaptero’s Socialist party.