Celebrate Evildoers Unintended Contribution to ANCAP Values

Last edited by on Wed Jan 02, 2008 4:58 pm; edited 5 times in total

:cheers: ...... :drunken: ...... :bounce: ...... Twisted Evil

...... :bounce: ...... :drunken: ...... :cheers:

Thursday, 27 December 2007, 21:19 GMT

Benazir Bhutto killed in attack

Suicide Bomb at Baghdad Funeral Kills 32

BAGHDAD - A suicide attacker killed at least 32 men gathered in eastern Baghdad Tuesday to mourn the death of a retired Iraqi army officer, a Shiite who was slain last week in a car bombing blamed on al-Qaida in Iraq.

The attack was a reminder of the dangers that persist despite Baghdad's recent decline in violence and of the peril for any mass gathering in a country where the bereaved often find themselves targets.

In Tuesday's bombing the east Baghdad neighborhood of Zayouna, a mixed Shiite and Sunni district, a man loaded with explosives walked into a funeral tent outside the home of Nabil Hussein Jassim, a retired army officer killed along with another 13 people in a car bombing in downtown Baghdad's Tayaran Square on Friday.

All 32 people killed by the suicide bomber were men, police

and ambulance officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release details of the bombing. The attack resembled those carried out by al-Qaida in past years, when men in suicide vests targeted funeral tents or processions. Tents are usually erected outside the homes of those whose died or outside mosques and are usually filled with male friends and relatives of the deceased.

It was the fourth large bombing to target Iraqi civilians or members of the predominantly Sunni tribal movement known as Awakening Councils in the past 10 days. A suicide bomber targeting members of the U.S.-funded movement killed 12 people on Monday in Tarmiyah, just north of Baghdad.

Link

Moral of the story: Do not mourn for statists.

Subject: Female suicide bomber kills 10 in Iraq Wed Jan 02, 2008 5:42 am

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A female suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest struck a checkpoint of neighborhood patrol volunteers in Baquba, capital of Iraq's restive Diyala province, killing 10 people and wounding eight on Wednesday, police said.

It was the latest in a wave of suicide bomb attacks that has appeared to intensify in recent days and weeks, even as overall levels of violence in Iraq have fallen.

Two policemen and four patrol volunteers were among the dead, police said. Among those killed was Abdul-Rafaa al-Nidawi, whom police described as the coordinator between U.S. forces and the volunteer patrols in the city.

The mainly Sunni Arab neighborhood patrols, paid by U.S. forces to oppose Sunni al Qaeda militants, have frequently been targeted by suicide bombers in recent months.

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who is not believed to have direct control over the Iraqi militants that use his organization's name, threatened attacks against the patrol members in an audio tape released last week.

Strikes by female suicide bombers are comparatively rare but there have been several in recent weeks in Diyala, including one which killed 16 people on December 7 and another which wounded seven people at a police station in Baquba on New Year's Eve.

Overall violence in Iraq declined dramatically over the second half of 2007. But U.S. military figures released over the weekend show suicide bombings increased after falling to a low in October.

The past week has seen major suicide bomb attacks most days.

Link

ALGIERS (Reuters) - A suicide bomber rammed a car into a police station in Naciria, about 120 km (75 miles) east of Algiers, on Wednesday, witnesses said, and the Interior Ministry said three people had been killed.

"There has been an attack with explosives near a police station in Naciria. The attack left three dead and seven wounded," the ministry said in a statement. It gave no further details.

It was the first major attack in Algeria since a twin bombing in the capital Algiers killed at least 37 people on December 11, including 17 United Nations staff.

Al Qaeda's North African wing claimed responsibility for that attack, which hit U.N. offices and a court building, saying it had targeted "the slaves of America and France".

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL029817520080102

Subject: Sri Lanka rebels bomb army bus: officials Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:02 am

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Tamil Tiger rebels bombed an army bus in the Sri Lankan capital on Wednesday killing four people and wounding 21, military and hospital officials said, the latest in a series of attacks as renewed civil war deepens.

The rebels set off a roadside bomb outside a modest hotel in area of Colombo where the army and air force headquarters are both located, the military said. Two of the dead were soldiers and two were civilians.

"There was a Claymore (mine) attack targeting an army bus carrying troops," a military official at the scene told Reuters, asking not to be named in line with policy.

"It's definitely an LTTE Claymore," he added, referring to the type of explosive device military analysts say are a hallmark of attacks by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

He said there were "about 11 soldiers" on board the bus at the time. Police cordoned off the area.

The Tigers, who are seeking to carve out an independent state in north and east Sri Lanka, denied involvement in the attack with a routine disclaimer.

"We have nothing to do with that," rebel military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said by telephone from the Tigers' northern stronghold of Kilinochchi. "It is up to the government to find out who did it."

Ilanthiraiyan said the Tigers had noted a military build up on the government side of heavily-defended forward defense lines that separate state from rebel-held territory in the north.

"What can I say? We can see more clashes in the future," he said.

The blast is the latest in a series of attacks on military installations and buses carrying troops blamed on the rebels in recent months, and comes as the state and Tigers fight near daily land and sea clashes mainly in the north of the island.

The attack came a day after a prominent opposition Tamil parliamentarian was shot dead at a Hindu temple in the capital, a killing the opposition blamed on the government for failing to ensure his security.

Well over 5,000 people have been killed in fighting between the foes since early 2006, taking the death toll since the war erupted in 1983 to around 70,000.

While the military has captured vast swathes of territory from the rebel in the island's east, analysts say there is no clear winner on the horizon and fear the war could grind on for years.

Link

ACCRA (Reuters) - Two U.S. Navy sailors were found dead on Tuesday in their hotel room while on shore leave in the West African country of Ghana, the U.S. Navy said.

The cause of death was unknown and was being investigated by Ghanaian authorities in cooperation with U.S. Navy officials, the Navy said in a statement.

"Currently there is no suggestion of foul play," Lieutenant Patrick Foughty, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy Sixth Fleet, told Reuters by telephone from Naples, Italy.

The sailors, who were not identified, were stationed aboard the Fort McHenry, a 600-foot (185-metre) dock landing ship based in Little Creek, Virginia.

The vessel was docked in the Ghanaian port of Tema, some 18 miles east of the capital Accra, as part of a U.S. naval partnership program in West Africa.

During a six-month mission, the Fort McHenry will train West African navies to fight drug smuggling and maritime security threats in a region which supplies nearly a fifth of U.S. oil imports.

Foughty said the sailor's deaths would not prevent the training mission from going ahead.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL0170248220080101

MENLO PARK, Calif. — Master Sgt. Cindy Rathbun knew something was wrong three weeks after she arrived in Iraq in September 2006. Her blond hair began "coming out in clumps," she says.

The Air Force personnel specialist, in the military for 25 years, had volunteered for her first combat zone job at Baghdad's Camp Victory. She lived behind barbed wire and blast walls, but the war was never far.

"There were firefights all the time," Rathbun says slowly, her voice flat. "There were car bombs. Boom! You see the smoke. The ground would shake."

As the mother of three grown children prepared to fly home last February, she took a medic aside. Holding a zip-lock bag of hair, she asked whether this was normal. "He said it sometimes happens," she says. "It's the body's way of displaying stress when we can't express it emotionally."

Numb, angry, verging on paranoia, Rathbun checked herself into a residential treatment center for female servicemembers suffering the mental wounds of war. Last month, she and seven others became the first all-Iraq-war-veteran class of the Women's Trauma Recovery Program here. The oldest of 12 residential centers run by the Department of Veterans Affairs, it is part of a rapidly growing network of 60- to 90-day programs for female warriors who, until the Iraq insurgency, had mostly been shielded from the horrors of war.

Many who seek help are haunted by another demon that can exacerbate their battlefield stress: military sexual trauma, or MT. For Rathbun, 43, of Yuba City, Calif., the war brought back to the surface a long-buried secret: She says she was raped by a military superior when she was a young airman.

Shell shock. Battle fatigue. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The military's mental toll of war has historically hit men. But more women are joining these ranks.

PHOTO GALLERY: Healing the mental wounds of war

More than 182,000 women have served in Iraq, Afghanistan and the surrounding region — about 11% of U.S. troops deployed, the Pentagon says.

That dwarfs the 7,500 who served mostly as nurses in Vietnam and the nearly 41,000 women deployed during the brief Gulf War.

Although some of those women suffered PTSD, few saw actual fighting or were subjected to the stress of multiple deployments.

In Iraq, "there are no lines, so anybody that deploys is in a war zone," Rathbun says. "Females are combat veterans as well as guys."

Darrah Westrup has treated hundreds of women since she founded the Menlo Park program in 1992. Only during the past year, though, have large numbers with war-zone trauma sought help. Many learned only recently that there are specialized VA mental-health programs for women.

Those who come, Westrup says, often have seen the most gruesome aspects of war. "Women are talking about dismembered bodies, seeing their buddies blown up in front of them," she says. "They are trying to reconcile, 'I have killed people.' "

The 'equal opportunity war'

Women are barred from ground jobs in infantry, armor and artillery units and are technically confined to support roles. But those jobs include some of the most dangerous: driving supply convoys, guarding checkpoints and searching women as part of neighborhood patrols.

Iraq is "an equal opportunity war" in which attacks come not only from enemy fighters, but also from roadside bombs and mortars, says Patricia Resick, director of the Women's Health Sciences Division of the VA's National Center for PTSD in Boston.

More than 100 female servicemembers have died and nearly 570 have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon. More than 4,200 men have died and nearly 30,000 have been wounded.

MORE: Total U.S. casualties in Iraq

The ranks of psychologically wounded from this war are far larger. In 2006, nearly 3,800 women diagnosed with PTSD were treated by the VA. They accounted for 14% of a total 27,000 recent veterans treated for PTSD last year.

In June, the Defense Department's Mental Health Task Force reported that the number of women suffering from combat trauma might be higher than reported. It cited "a potential barrier" for women needing mental-health treatment as "their need to show the emotional strength expected of military members."

The report also said that after leaving the military, "many women no longer see themselves as veterans" and might not associate psychological symptoms with their time in the war zone.

Yet Rachel Kimerling, a psychologist here, sees the signs: "Driving is so treacherous with the (roadside bombs) in Iraq, they come back and report seeing a paper cup in the mall parking lot and swerving around as if it were life or death."

Many women become overly protective. Even the innocent pop of a biscuit tube on a kitchen counter can speed the heart, Rathbun says. When young soldiers left Camp Victory and didn't return, she thought of her 21-year-old son. "Women are protective, nurturing. I couldn't do either," she says. "I couldn't prevent them from dying."

For some, combat trauma is complicated and intensified by rape or other sexual abuse, often by comrades they've trained and fought beside. The VA says 20% of women seeking its care since 2002 showed symptoms of military sexual trauma, compared with 1.1% of male veterans.

Like Rathbun, many say they were preyed upon by men higher in the chain of command, crimes military women call "rape by rank." Rathbun says some women in Iraq risked dehydration by refusing to drink liquids late in the day for fear of being raped while walking to latrines after dark.

Recent allegations that civilian female employees of contractor KBR were raped in Iraq have renewed attention on war-zone sexual assaults. VA research on Gulf War veterans found higher rates of sexual assault and harassment than in the peacetime military.

The Defense Department's 2-year-old Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office says there were 201 sexual assaults in 2006 within the U.S. Central Command, which includes Iraq and Afghanistan. That's up from 167 in 2005, when the Pentagon began a policy that allows victims to get medical help without launching a criminal investigation.

Kay Whitley, who heads the office, says "restricted reporting" is expected to boost the numbers of cases as more women grow bolder in stepping forward. There is no way to know whether sexual-assault rates are higher in combat areas because "women back-burner assaults," she says. "There may be more (assaults) over there, and they may be waiting to report it until they get home."

For military women, abuse by fellow soldiers is "an unnecessary betrayal," Westrup says, noting that women often are more scarred by sexual violence than combat. "Most go over understanding the nature of war."

PTSD and MT "will exacerbate the other," Kimerling says. "It erodes the social support you have to cope with the ongoing stress of serving in a war zone."

Natara Garavoy, another psychologist here, says there can be added stress for those who are the only woman in a unit. "They don't want to stand out," she says, adding that some try to appear unattractive to ward off male soldiers who might not see another American woman for months.

Whatever their trauma, military women often hesitate to report problems. That's partly because of the military's ingrained emphasis on unit cohesion and the unspoken taboo against telling on a fellow soldier. It also stems from the fear of reinforcing stereotypes that theirs is the weaker sex.

"Women do have to prove themselves more," says VA spokeswoman Kerri Childress, a Vietnam-era Navy veteran. "They have to work really, really hard to look tough."

All that pressure must go somewhere, Resick says. Men with PTSD often are angry and act out aggressively. Women often turn inward and become depressed, she says. Both men and women "try not to deal with it" and often take years to seek counseling, Resick says.

Even so, men started applying to the 41-bed program for males here soon after the war began. Applications for its 10-bed women's program picked up recently, Westrup says.

Seventeen percent of female veterans use VA health services, compared with 11% of men. "We may be seeing the tip of the iceberg," Kimerling says, adding that more women are likely to seek help as they return home with unresolved trauma.

Facing the need to get help

Lauren Bess was a model sailor who rose fast to master helmsman. Driving a Navy fast-combat-support ship in round-the-clock replenishment operations in the Persian Gulf before and during the Iraq war, she was "constantly stressed" by frequent "general quarters" calls to battle and going days without sleep, she says.

As her ship sailed home to Bremerton, Wash., in August 2003, she says, she began getting in trouble for shirking her duties. She constantly felt anxious.

"I was breaking down," she says.

Bess, now 26, began drinking and stayed away from friends. Her downward spiral cratered the night she overdosed on prescription drugs and woke up in a hospital.

Feeling "like I was failing life," Bess was put on limited duty and sent to a base in Florida for treatment. During a hurricane, she says, she was raped by a fellow sailor in a deserted barracks.

She says she feared her career would be ruined if she reported the attack, so she said nothing and never filed a criminal complaint.

In April 2005, she was given an administrative discharge under honorable conditions.

"In the military, they train you that your brother is there always for you," says Bess, her head down, her hands shaking. "The person who hurt me was someone who was there for me."

Bess moved home to Lodi, Calif., and tried to work through her problems, but it was "rough, really hard." She finally entered the 90-day residential program here.

"Coming here was the first hope for me to get back to a new life," she says. Bess hopes that by speaking out, she'll encourage other women to get help.

Tucked in a corner of a VA campus here, the red-tile-roofed center is reached through a vine-covered walkway. Patients sleep two to a room in hospital beds brightened by stuffed animals and patchwork quilts donated by volunteers.

In a day room down the hall hang other quilts left by women who've passed through the program. One is appliquéd with military service patches. A Native American dream catcher is stitched to a quilt hanging next to it, a memento to snare the nightmares of war. In another corner hangs a pink quilt that reads, "Powder Puff Girls — Go Girls Go."

"They make me feel that I'm not alone," Rathbun says.

Starting with a military-style wake-up at 6 a.m., the women spend most of their time in group therapy. They learn communication skills, stress management and ways to short-circuit self-defeating behavior.

The most grueling moments come during "exposure therapy," when the women recount the details of their trauma. The idea: to face fears head-on so they can become desensitized to the pain.

Easier was a trust-building exercise Rathbun and Bess performed. Melissa Puckett, a recreational therapist, asked the women to stand on a wooden board and, while grasping attached ropes, move across a room to pick up objects on the floor.

The two blushed as they fumbled to reach and grab a toy rubber crab. The exercise forced them to work as a team, or else fall off the board.

"You have to trust," Bess says after finishing.

"How long since you trusted somebody?" Puckett asks.

"Ages," Bess replies.

After more than two decades, Rathbun says she's finally coming to terms with the rape that she never officially reported.

Last month, she told her husband, Larry, the Air Force veteran she married two years ago.

Nearly a year after being "sucked out of a vortex" in Iraq, Rathbun is on the mend. She knows there are thousands of other women who need help.

"We went over there and did a job, but it affects you," she says. "There's going to be a flood when we drawdown in Iraq."

Link

Subject: Military deaths Wed Jan 02, 2008 7:51 am

December 30, 2007

The Defense Department last week identified the following U.S. military personnel killed in Afghanistan and Iraq:

Nicholas D. Eischen, 24, of Sanger, Calif.; senior airman, Air Force. Eischen died Monday at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, in a noncombat-related incident. He was assigned to the 60th Medical Operations Squadron at Travis Air Force Base, Calif.

George J. Howell, 24, of Salinas, Calif.; private first class, Army. Howell died Dec. 21 in Riyadh, Iraq, of wounds suffered in a roadside bomb blast that hit his convoy. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Infantry Division (Light Infantry) at Ft. Drum, New York.

Rowdy J. Inman, 38, of Panorama Village, Texas; captain, Army. Inman was one of two soldiers killed Wednesday in Mosul, Iraq, by small-arms fire during dismounted combat operations. He was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Corps at Ft. Hood, Texas.

Peter C. Neesley, 28, of Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.; sergeant, Army. Neesley died Tuesday in Baghdad, Iraq, of an undetermined cause in a noncombat environment. He was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Ft. Stewart, Ga.

Benjamin B. Portell, 27, of Bakersfield; sergeant, Army. Portell was one of two soldiers killed Wednesday in Mosul, Iraq, by small-arms fire during dismounted combat operations. He was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Corps at Ft. Hood, Texas.

Bryan J. Tutten, 33, of St. Augustine, Fla.; sergeant, Army. Tutten died Tuesday in Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his position during combat operations. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at Ft. Bragg, N.C.

Sources: Department of Defense, Associated Press

-------------------------------

WOO-HOO!
Keep 'em coming boys...
:D

Malaysia MP quits over sex DVDs

Malaysian Health Minister Chua Soi Lek has announced his resignation after admitting being filmed in a sex video.

The widely circulated recording showed the married father of three having sex with a female friend in a hotel room.

On Tuesday, amid mounting speculation, he shocked the nation by admitting to being the man featured in the DVD.

This is the latest in a series of problems for PM Abdullah Badawi, who is expected to call an election in the coming weeks.

Apology

According to Malaysia's Star newspaper, the DVDs are believed to be CCTV recordings made in a hotel suite. The hotel and the date are unknown.

Copies were reportedly left at various locations in Mr Chua's home state of Johor, on Saturday, "for people to pick up".

Mr Chua made his admission on Tuesday, hours after the Star reported that the DVDs were being widely distributed.

"I am the man in the tape," Mr Chua, 60, told reporters. "The girl is a personal friend."

"I would like to emphasise I did not make the tape myself," he added.

"Who [did] this is not important. What is most important is that my family, wife and children have accepted my apology."

As health minister, Mr Chua has advocated giving out free condoms to reduce the spread of HIV, in the face of religious opposition.

Link.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Rep. Tom Lantos, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has been diagnosed with cancer and will not seek a new term this year, his office announced Wednesday.

Lantos, a California Democrat, is serving his 14th term in the House of Representatives. In a statement released by his office, the 79-year-old lawmaker said routine medical tests showed he has esophageal cancer.

"In view of this development and the treatment it will require, I will not seek re-election," he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/02/lantos.retirement/

====================

Esophageal cancer is malignancy of the esophagus. There are various subtypes. Esophageal tumors usually lead to dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), pain and other symptoms, and are diagnosed with biopsy. Small and localized tumors are treated with surgery, and advanced tumors are treated with chemotherapy, radiotherapy or combinations. Prognosis depends on the extent of the disease and other medical problems, but is fairly poor

Good!
Hope you choke on it!

:cheers:

Anti-smoking chief breaks ban on day one

The head of the Portuguese agency responsible for enforcing a new ban on smoking in public was seen lighting up at a New Year party, breaking the law on the first day it came into effect.

Antonio Nunes, president of Portugal's food standards agency, was photographed by the daily Diario de Noticias smoking a cigar at a casino on the outskirts of Lisbon.

Nunes told the daily he was not aware the anti-smoking law, which applies to cafes, restaurants and bars, also included casinos. But a spokesman for the Ministry of Health said it did.

"We will have to look into what is in the law," Nunes said.

Link.

:lol:

HAHAHA!!!

Love it when a plan falls together...

2007 A Deadly Year for Police

:cheers:

Surge In Traffic Fatalities And Shooting Deaths Plague U.S. Law Enforcement

(AP) A record number of fatal traffic incidents and a double-digit spike in shooting deaths led to one of the deadliest years for law enforcement officers in more than a decade.

With the exception of 2001, which saw a dramatic increase in deaths because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, 2007 was the deadliest year for law enforcement since 1989, according to preliminary data released jointly by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund and Concerns of Police Survivors.

The report counted the deaths of 186 officers as of Dec. 26, up from 145 last year. Eighty-one died in traffic incidents, which the report said surpassed their record of 78 set in 2000. Shooting deaths increased from 52 to 69, a rise of about 33 percent.

Nine states had no officer fatalities in 2007, according to the report: Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Vermont.

"Most of us don't realize that an officer is being killed in America on average every other day," said Craig W. Floyd, chairman of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Officer fatalities have generally declined since peaking at 277 in 1974, the report said. Historically, officers have been more likely to be killed in an attack than to die accidentally and shootings outnumbered car crashes. But those trends began to reverse in the late 1990s. This year, about six of every 10 deaths were accidental.

Floyd credited technology improvements with helping reverse the trend. Safety vests save lives and non-lethal devices such as electric stun guns prevent some fatal encounters, he said. He attributed the spike in shooting deaths to the increase in violent crime nationwide.

"Law enforcement is the front line against violent criminals," he said.

Of the 81 traffic deaths this year, 60 officers died in car crashes, 15 were hit by cars and six died in motorcycle crashes.

Police departments have worked to limit high-speed chases and only seven of the car crashes were attributed to such pursuits, Floyd said. Crashes involving a single police cruiser responding to a call were far more common, he said.

After traffic crashes and shootings, physical causes such as heart attacks were the leading cause of death, contributing to 18 fatalities.

Texas led the nation with 22 fatalities followed by Florida (16), New York (12), and California (11). The report includes the death of 17 federal law enforcement officers, including five Air Force Office of Special Investigations agents killed in two bombings in Iraq.

The report counted six times in which multiple officers were shot and killed in the same incident, such as the September shooting in Odessa, Texas that left three officers dead while responding to a domestic violence call. Domestic violence and traffic stops were the circumstances that most commonly led to fatal police shootings this year, the report found.

The average age of officers who died in 2007 was 39. Most were men and had served an average of about 11 years in law enforcement.

Link
-----------------------------------

Keep 'em coming boys...

Ecstasy safer than aspirin: Top UK cop

A senior British police chief has come under attack for claiming the illicit drug ecstasy is safer to take than aspirin.

North Wales police chief constable Richard Brunstrom has sparked outrage by making the controversial claim and calling for the legalisation of all drugs, including heroin and cocaine, within a decade.

Brunstrom says he believes ecstasy is a "remarkably safe substance" and that people who raise concerns about the dangers of taking it were "scaremongering".

"It's far safer than aspirin," he told BBC radio.

"It's far less dangerous than tobacco or alcohol which are freely available.

"There is a lot of scaremongering, rumour-mongering around ecstasy in particular. It isn't borne out by the evidence."

Brunstrom's comments have sparked calls from anti-drugs campaigners for his resignation.

Ecstasy has been blamed for causing more than 200 deaths in Britain since 1996.

Link.

Last edited by on Wed Jan 02, 2008 7:44 pm; edited 1 time in total

Brunstrom's comments have sparked calls from anti-drugs campaigners for his resignation.

Oh yeah?
Well the anti-drugs campaigners comments have sparked calls from Ancap pro drug campaigners for their resignations too! Maggots!

Israeli and US embassies evacuated

Police are launching a criminal investigation after the embassies of Israel, the United States and Britain in Canberra were sent packages containing white powder.

Staff from the U.S. and Israeli embassies were evacuated after the anonymous packages were received in the mail. Police later said the powder at the Israeli mission was harmless, but tests were still underway on the other two samples.

"We are treating all three as linked until we can prove otherwise, given they were received on the same day, and a crime scene has been declared,'' a police spokesman said.

The heavily protected Israeli mission, in the city's leafy diplomatic quarter, was the first to receive a powder package, followed by the U.S. embassy nearby. The British mission was not evacuated after powder was received there, a spokesman said.

Several foreign embassies, including the U.S., Japanese and South Korean missions, have been targeted in powder scares in recent years, as well as Australia's Parliament House. All turned out to be harmless.

In 2005, a full-scale emergency was triggered after powder was sent to the Indonesian embassy in Canberra during a controversy over the drug trial and jailing of an Australian woman in Bali.

An envelope containing white powder was also sent to former Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer at Parliament House.

Link.

Prison Guard Implicated In New Jersey Jailbreak Commits Suicide

Elizabeth, NJ (AHN) -- A prison guard under investigation for the Hollywood-style jailbreak of two inmates in December, has committed suicide. Corrections Officer Rudolph Zurick, 40, was found dead at his home in Sayreville, according to his lawyer, Michael Mitzner. Zurick was scheduled to have his first interview with Union County police on the same day.

The cause of death has not been confirmed, but several news stories have reported Zurick's death as a suicide. County officials in Union and Middlesex have not provided any information about his death.

Mitzer is quoted by Fox News as saying that Zurick has not been criminally charged for the December 15 jailbreak, and has submitted a report to police. He maintained that Zurick had not assisted the inmates in any way.

The prison guard was named in a note left by the two escaped inmates. The note, released by investigators without Zurick's name, said:"Thank You Officer ... for the tools needed. You're a real Pal! Happy Holidays."

Otis Blunt, 32, and Jose Espinosa, 20, broke out of the Union County jail through holes in the walls of their adjacent prison cells. They had removed cement blocks from the walls using a 10-pound shut-off wheel and a metal wire, according to the county prosecutor's office. They covered up the holes with magazine photos of women in bikinis and arranged pillows in their beds to keep prison guards from searching for them.

The inmates were able to scale the jail's 25-foot-high fence. Both had been held in a special area that was supposed to be the most secure section in the 15-floor jail.

Blunt was awaiting trial on robbery and weapons charges in connection with the shooting of a convenience store manager in 2005. Espinosa, a Bloods gang member, was scheduled to be sentenced for the 2005 drive-by shooting of Hassan Jackson in Elizabeth city. He faces up to 17 years in prison after pleading guilty this year to manslaughter.

The prison break, the first since the jail opened in 1986, caused authorities to review security in the Union County jail. Officials have prohibited inmates from putting up pictures on the walls of their cells. They plan to implement other security measures such as adding patrols, surveillance cameras and razor wire.
[url]
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7009597727[/url]

Good stuff!

PASSINGS
2nd January 2008
Galyani Vadhana, 84 Elder sister of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej

Link

Bob Burgreen, 69; was San Diego's police chief from 1988 to 1993

8:11 AM PST, December 29, 2007
Bob Burgreen, San Diego police chief from 1988 to 1993, died Thursday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, a week after receiving a lung transplant. He was 69.

Despite his folksy, informal manner, Burgreen was exceedingly adept at managing a large police department, dealing with community groups and pleasing the various political interests on the City Council during an era when crime was a major issue.

...and got high marks from politicians, the media...

He was given to straight talk, once decrying rowdiness in the stands at San Diego Padres baseball games by saying that his wife could whip the scrawny security guards hired by the team.

As chief, he was enmeshed in controversy over police shootings. He led the department to adopt non-lethal means to subdue suspects, but still backed officers who used deadly force. The number of officer-involved shootings in the city dropped by half during his tenure.

Burgreen was a police chief in the San Diego model. Unlike Los Angeles, where the chief has a contract and occasionally clashes with elected officials, the police chief in Burgreen's era worked for the city manager, with only a handshake for security.

After 32 years with the department...

He retired from the Longview job in 2004. He and his wife, Kathy, moved to Palm Desert, Calif., but a lung infection sapped his energy.

Link

-------------------------

Burn in hell, motherfucker!

Twisted Evil

Must be registered to use your link.
More excerpts from another link:

“Bob was a decent, honest and caring friend.”

“He was a guy that treated everybody the way they should be treated,” Smith said. “He was a person of great integrity.”
Vomit

Within two years, he had so many volunteer commitments – Boys & GirlsClub, church, bank board, development board – he was rising at 6 a.m. andworking 45 hours a week.

“He was very good at keeping people going in the right direction.”

How They Were Hurt

Celebrate Evildoers Unintended Contribution to ANCAP Values 22719782yu5

Celebrate Evildoers Unintended Contribution to ANCAP Values 22719623lu1

Celebrate Evildoers Unintended Contribution to ANCAP Values 22719700kl4

Good stuff!

Eight killed in Hamas-Fatah fighting in Gaza

January 2, 2008

GAZA CITY -- The Gaza Strip's ruling Hamas militant group cracked down on the rival Fatah movement early Tuesday, arresting activists and barring public gatherings after Fatah anniversary celebrations sparked deadly violence.

A total of eight people had been killed and 60 wounded as the fighting stretched into a second day despite a conciliatory speech toward Hamas by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.

The deaths were the first in Palestinian infighting in nearly two months.

Hamas has ruled Gaza with a tight grip since routing pro-Fatah forces there in June. Last week, it said it would ban large celebrations marking Fatah's 43rd anniversary.

Fireworks illuminated Gaza on Monday night, a day before the anniversary, and Fatah backers fired rifles in the air, defying the ban and setting off clashes.

Five Palestinians died in fighting across Gaza on Monday, and a sixth died of his wounds Tuesday, medical officials said. Two others -- a Hamas policeman and a Fatah supporter -- were killed in Gaza City early Tuesday in a gun battle between Hamas security men and a family affiliated with Fatah.

The eight dead included three Hamas and three Fatah combatants, officials said. The others were an elderly man caught in a cross-fire in northern Gaza and a 14-year-old Hamas supporter shot in the southern town of Khan Yunis after he left a mosque, relatives said.

The deaths were the first in Palestinian infighting since Hamas forces opened fire on a huge Fatah rally Nov. 11, killing eight and wounding 85. That gathering was the first sign of Fatah resurgence since the Hamas takeover.

Fatah said dozens of activists had been arrested during the last two days of clashes. Islam Shahwan, a spokesman for Hamas security forces, confirmed some arrests.

At the Rafah border crossing, meanwhile, 121 Palestinians who were among a larger group stranded in Egypt for about four months were allowed to head home to Gaza via Israel, Egyptian security sources said.

They said the Palestinians were taken by bus to the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom border crossing.

Link

Five killed in Turkish bomb attack

At least five people have been killed after an explosion struck a military vehicle in the southeast Turkish city of Diyarbakir, Turkish media reported today.

Police said at least 68 people had been injured in the blast in Diyarbakir, home to large numbers of troops currently fighting PKK Kurdish rebels both in Turkey and in nearby northern Iraq.

"A bomb left in a car ... was set off with a remote control. It was a very strong one. It was targeting a military service bus," governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu, said.

Link

Priest stabbed after Sunday mass in Turkey

A Catholic priest was stabbed in the stomach after Sunday mass yesterday in the latest in a series of attacks on Turkey's tiny Christian minority.

The victim, Adriano Franchini, was taken to hospital in Izmir in western Turkey. His injuries were reportedly not life threatening. Turkish police said they had detained the suspected attacker.

Franchini is responsible for the Capuchin order in Turkey and heads the Church of the Virgin Mary in Ephesus, the Italian embassy said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,,2228711,00.html

Subject: Somali interim leader collapses!! Fri Jan 04, 2008 7:36 pm

Somalia's interim President Abdullahi Yusuf has fallen ill and been flown to neighbouring Ethiopia for treatment. :(

A BBC correspondent says Mr Yusuf, 72, collapsed on Friday morning in the seat of government, Baidoa.

Prime Minister Nur Hussein Hassan said his condition was not serious, but close aides have suggested otherwise.

In his absence, the prime minister, who took office in November, has appointed 15 members of a cabinet to replace those he dismissed last month.

"I've appointed 15 ministers and the rest of the ministers will be appointed soon. The new ministers will be sworn in tomorrow," Reuters news agency quotes the prime minister as saying.

The president, who had a liver transplant 14 years ago, was last month admitted to a Kenyan hospital, suffering from bronchitis.

Ethiopia helped Somalia's transitional government end the Union of Islamic Courts' (UIC) six-month rule over large parts of southern Somalia a year ago.

Since then the government has been battling insurgents in the capital, Mogadishu.

The UN says 60% of the residents of the capital, Mogadishu, have fled their homes because of fighting in recent months.

Somalia has not had a functioning national government since 1991.

Hassan Barise of the BBC's Somali Service says it had been feared the president's collapse would delay the cabinet appointments.

He says despite the setback to his health no-one is expecting President Yusuf to step down.

Link.

Celebrate Evildoers Unintended Contribution to ANCAP Values

Celebrate Evildoers Unintended Contribution to ANCAP Values

Anarcho-Capitalist Non-Miscellaneous

Celebrate Evildoers' Inadvertent Contributions to AnCaps' Values!