News Thread

[Shroom Man 777]

Human Torpedoes Blamed For Korea Ship Strike

An elite North Korean suicide squad of human torpedoes has been blamed for the sinking of a South Korean ship in mysterious circumstances.

Korea's Defence Intelligence Command had alerted the navy weeks ahead of the sinking that North Korean suicide squads were being deployed, according to reports in Seoul.

These "human torpedo" squads were said to involve small submarines.

They are navigated so close to the target that their torpedoes or explosives blow up both target and the attackers.

They can also be timed to explode while the attackers escape from the vessel, the mass-circulation South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported.

The attack by North Korea was in retaliation for an earlier defeat, the report added.

"It is the military intelligence's assessment that the North attacked with a heavy torpedo," a military source was quoted as saying by the news agency Yonhap.

"The military intelligence has made the report to the Blue House - the Presidential residence - and to the Defence Ministry immediately after the sinking of the Cheonan that it is clearly the work of North Korea's military," the source added.

South Korea now plans to raise the front half of the 1,200-tonne Cheonan, which went down near a disputed sea border with North Korea.

It will issue its verdict on the cause of the explosion that sank the warship after that.

The sinking last month claimed the lives of more than 40 South Korean sailors.

If Pyongyang did carry out the attack it would be the deadliest confrontation between the two countries since the Korean War ended in 1953.

The North has denied it had anything to do with the sinking.

[Invictus]

R.I.P. Frank Frazetta.

[Shroom Man 777]

If he dies, he dies

Freed Somali pirates 'probably died' - Russian source

Ten suspected Somali pirates captured by the Russian navy last week may have perished after their release, a defence source in Moscow has told reporters.

Marines seized them during a dramatic operation to free a hijacked Russian oil tanker far from shore, killing an 11th suspect in the gun battle.

They were released in an inflatable boat without navigational equipment.

Within an hour, contact was lost with the boat's radio beacon, the defence source said.

"It seems that they all died," the unnamed source was quoted as saying by Russia's Interfax news agency.

Russia initially said the 10 pirates would be taken to Moscow to face criminal charges over the hijacking, but they were released instead because there were not sufficient legal grounds to detain them, the defence ministry in Moscow said.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which Russia is a signatory, gives sovereign nations the right to seize and prosecute pirates.

Western officials were very surprised when the Russian authorities dropped plans to put the pirates on trial in Moscow, the BBC's Richard Galpin reports from Moscow.

Now there is even more surprise the pirates were set adrift in the Indian Ocean to make their own way home, he adds.

Unknown factors

The tanker, the Moscow University, was seized on 5 May some 350km (190 nautical miles) off the Yemeni island of Socotra as it sailed for China, carrying crude oil worth $50m (£33m).

Marines from the Russian warship Marshal Shaposhnikov stormed the ship the following day, freeing the 23 Russian crew members who had locked themselves in a safe room after disabling their ship.

Cdr John Harbour, spokesman for the EU naval force in Somalia, Navfor, said the Russian navy had been within its rights to release the suspects.

It was, he told the BBC News website, impossible to judge their situation without knowing the details of the boat - described as an inflatable by Russian sources - and the radio beacon they had been given.

It was quite likely the Russian ship lost radar contact with the boat after an hour, Cdr Harbour said, while the signal from the beacon would depend on the strength of its battery and whether or not it could be detected by satellite.

The Navfor spokesman suggested the loss of navigational equipment would not necessarily be critical if there was an experienced mariner among the 10 men on the boat.

Stressing that nothing could be said for sure without knowledge of the boat, the weather and other factors, he noted that pirates had been known to operate up to 1,200 nautical miles (2,200km) from the Somali coast.

[Siege]

Russians. Terrible, but... Rusisians.

[Artemis]

Ditto, Invictus.

Also: What the fuck, Britain? What were you possibly thinking? Margaret Thatcher ain't yet in the grave, and yet you've somehow managed to completely forget the 1980s and the madness inherent therein.

[Magister Militum]

"It seems that they all died," the unnamed source was quoted as saying by Russia's Interfax news agency.

Well, at least you can't claim that the Russian's aren't lairs.

[Siege]

Also: What the fuck, Britain? What were you possibly thinking? Margaret Thatcher ain't yet in the grave, and yet you've somehow managed to completely forget the 1980s and the madness inherent therein.

As long as fuckin' punk doesn't make a comeback I just don't care what Clegg and Cameron make of it. Not overly much anyway.

[Mobius 1]

Also: What the fuck, Britain? What were you possibly thinking? Margaret Thatcher ain't yet in the grave, and yet you've somehow managed to completely forget the 1980s and the madness inherent therein.

As long as fuckin' punk doesn't make a comeback I just don't care what Clegg and Cameron make of it. Not overly much anyway.

noooooo siege how could you do this me. we were such bros.

I have to wonder, on a more serious note, if there's going to be any change in US-UK relations.

[Booted Vulture]

Possibly, I've heard some talk of changing this in regards to extradition. Basically because our policy at the moment is 'bend over and take it' as far as that goes. Which is pretty much the perception of the so called 'special relationship' here.

[Magister Militum]

Possibly, I've heard some talk of changing this in regards to extradition. Basically because our policy at the moment is 'bend over and take it' as far as that goes. Which is pretty much the perception of the so called 'special relationship' here.

That might be a possibility. I honestly don't expect a massive 180 in regards to diplomatic status, but some things might change. Of course, considering the U.S. has had a general policy of reducing Britain's power, unintentionally or otherwise, since the end of WWII, things might get a pick prickly, though Obama might be more receptive to a more equal partnership.

[Siege]

Basically because our policy at the moment is 'bend over and take it' as far as that goes. Which is pretty much the perception of the so called 'special relationship' here.

And it's a pretty accurate perception as well. They say jump, and all that. From what I heard there's talk at least of 'renegotiating' the rendition agreement between the UK and USA. Of course, 'renegotiating' is a diplomatic way of saying 'you can take the current agreement and stuff it--offer something better'. It's a start; the sooner the Blair-era sycophantic love affair with the USA ends the better it will be for the UK, and for Europe as well.

[Shroom Man 777]

In response to a flood of Facebook and YouTube videos that depict police abuse, a new trend in law enforcement is gaining popularity. In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer.

Even if the encounter involves you and may be necessary to your defense, and even if the recording is on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists.

The legal justification for arresting the "shooter" rests on existing wiretapping or eavesdropping laws, with statutes against obstructing law enforcement sometimes cited. Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland are among the 12 states in which all parties must consent for a recording to be legal unless, as with TV news crews, it is obvious to all that recording is underway. Since the police do not consent, the camera-wielder can be arrested. Most all-party-consent states also include an exception for recording in public places where "no expectation of privacy exists" (Illinois does not) but in practice this exception is not being recognized.

Massachusetts attorney June Jensen represented Simon Glik who was arrested for such a recording. She explained, "[T]he statute has been misconstrued by Boston police. You could go to the Boston Common and snap pictures and record if you want." Legal scholar and professor Jonathan Turley agrees, "The police are basing this claim on a ridiculous reading of the two-party consent surveillance law - requiring all parties to consent to being taped. I have written in the area of surveillance law and can say that this is utter nonsense."

The courts, however, disagree. A few weeks ago, an Illinois judge rejected a motion to dismiss an eavesdropping charge against Christopher Drew, who recorded his own arrest for selling one-dollar artwork on the streets of Chicago. Although the misdemeanor charges of not having a peddler's license and peddling in a prohibited area were dropped, Drew is being prosecuted for illegal recording, a Class I felony punishable by 4 to 15 years in prison.

In 2001, when Michael Hyde was arrested for criminally violating the state's electronic surveillance law - aka recording a police encounter - the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld his conviction 4-2. In dissent, Chief Justice Margaret Marshall stated, "Citizens have a particularly important role to play when the official conduct at issue is that of the police. Their role cannot be performed if citizens must fear criminal reprisals…." (Note: In some states it is the audio alone that makes the recording illegal.)

The selection of "shooters" targeted for prosecution do, indeed, suggest a pattern of either reprisal or an attempt to intimidate.

Glik captured a police action on his cellphone to document what he considered to be excessive force. He was not only arrested, his phone was also seized.

On his website Drew wrote, "Myself and three other artists who documented my actions tried for two months to get the police to arrest me for selling art downtown so we could test the Chicago peddlers license law. The police hesitated for two months because they knew it would mean a federal court case. With this felony charge they are trying to avoid this test and ruin me financially and stain my credibility."

Hyde used his recording to file a harassment complaint against the police. After doing so, he was criminally charged.

In short, recordings that are flattering to the police - an officer kissing a baby or rescuing a dog - will almost certainly not result in prosecution even if they are done without all-party consent. The only people who seem prone to prosecution are those who embarrass or confront the police, or who somehow challenge the law. If true, then the prosecutions are a form of social control to discourage criticism of the police or simple dissent.

A recent arrest in Maryland is both typical and disturbing.

On March 5, 24-year-old Anthony John Graber III's motorcycle was pulled over for speeding. He is currently facing criminal charges for a video he recorded on his helmet-mounted camera during the traffic stop.

The case is disturbing because:

1) Graber was not arrested immediately. Ten days after the encounter, he posted some of he material to YouTube, and it embarrassed Trooper J. D. Uhler. The trooper, who was in plainclothes and an unmarked car, jumped out waving a gun and screaming. Only later did Uhler identify himself as a police officer. When the YouTube video was discovered the police got a warrant against Graber, searched his parents' house (where he presumably lives), seized equipment, and charged him with a violation of wiretapping law.

2) Baltimore criminal defense attorney Steven D. Silverman said he had never heard of the Maryland wiretap law being used in this manner. In other words, Maryland has joined the expanding trend of criminalizing the act of recording police abuse. Silverman surmises, "It's more [about] ‘contempt of cop' than the violation of the wiretapping law."

3) Police spokesman Gregory M. Shipley is defending the pursuit of charges against Graber, denying that it is "some capricious retribution" and citing as justification the particularly egregious nature of Graber's traffic offenses. Oddly, however, the offenses were not so egregious as to cause his arrest before the video appeared.

Almost without exception, police officials have staunchly supported the arresting officers. This argues strongly against the idea that some rogue officers are overreacting or that a few cops have something to hide. "Arrest those who record the police" appears to be official policy, and it's backed by the courts.

Carlos Miller at the Photography Is Not A Crime website offers an explanation: "For the second time in less than a month, a police officer was convicted from evidence obtained from a videotape. The first officer to be convicted was New York City Police Officer Patrick Pogan, who would never have stood trial had it not been for a video posted on Youtube showing him body slamming a bicyclist before charging him with assault on an officer. The second officer to be convicted was Ottawa Hills (Ohio) Police Officer Thomas White, who shot a motorcyclist in the back after a traffic stop, permanently paralyzing the 24-year-old man."

When the police act as though cameras were the equivalent of guns pointed at them, there is a sense in which they are correct. Cameras have become the most effective weapon that ordinary people have to protect against and to expose police abuse. And the police want it to stop.

Happily, even as the practice of arresting "shooters" expands, there are signs of effective backlash. At least one Pennsylvania jurisdiction has reaffirmed the right to video in public places. As part of a settlement with ACLU attorneys who represented an arrested "shooter," the police in Spring City and East Vincent Township adopted a written policy allowing the recording of on-duty policemen.

As journalist Radley Balko declares, "State legislatures should consider passing laws explicitly making it legal to record on-duty law enforcement officials."

God, I love it when reality finds a new way to shit me around by making stuff up that's even worse than the things I think of! Imagine, Reaganite Civil Protection overwatch goons stick-beating the shit out of some peace-loving dirty liberal hippie for taking a picture with his polaroid camera!

[Soban]

Gotta love it; ever since the Rodney King incident, brave citizens have been capturing the ever-increasing acts of police brutality in this country. And now, faced with the fact that the people actually have some ability to oppose tyranny and expose them, the bastards we call a "government" start trying to ban the photography of cops. And people act like we're "batshit insane conspiracy nuts" when we talk about how the government is abusing power and trying to take away our human rights.

Sorry for the rant, but seriously. Fuck the pigs. It's not a crime to beat a defenseless citizen or tase a senior citizen to death; it's a crime for us to catch them doing it.

[Invictus]

Joe Lieberman proposes Internet kill switch, declares Internet 'US national asset'

US President Barack Obama would be granted powers to seize control of and even shut down the internet under a new bill that describes the global internet as a US "national asset".

Local lobby groups and academics have rounded on the plan, saying that, rather than combat terrorists, it would actually do them "the biggest favour ever" by terrorising the rest of the world, which is now heavily reliant on cyberspace.

The proposed legislation, introduced into the US Senate by independent senator Joe Lieberman, who is chairman of the US Homeland Security committee, seeks to grant the President broad emergency powers over the internet in times of national emergency.

Titled "Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act", the bill stipulates any internet firms and providers must "immediately comply with any emergency measure or action developed" by a new section of the US Department of Homeland Security, dubbed the "National Centre for Cybersecurity and Communications".

Lobby group TechAmerica told ZDNet it worried that the bill would give the US "absolute power" over the internet and create "unintended consequences".

One of Australia's top communications experts, University of Sydney associate professor Bjorn Landfeldt, railed against the idea, saying shutting down the internet would "inflict an enormous damage on the entire world".

He said it would be like giving a single country "the right to poison the atmosphere, or poison the ocean".

"All our financial systems, all our security systems ... we're so reliant on the internet that if you shut it down there's a question of whether society will continue to operate normally anywhere in the Western world," Landfeldt said in a phone interview.

"By doing this they would do the terrorists the biggest favour ever because they would terrorise the rest of the world".

Landfeldt said the US would be the only country in the world with the ability to shut down the internet. He said such a move would be extremely difficult for the US to justify to other nations.

"Unfortunately, too much of the core of the internet resides in the US - let's put it this way, they cannot shut down machines in Australia, but they can completely isolate us and shut down certain core functions like the DNS ... they can render the internet fairly useless for the rest of the world," he said.

Senator Susan Collins, co-sponsor of the bill, has said: "We cannot afford to wait for a cyber-9/11."

Lieberman argued the bill was necessary to "preserve those networks and assets and our country and protect our people".

He said that, for all its allure, the internet could also be a "dangerous place with electronic pipelines that run directly into everything from our personal bank accounts to key infrastructure to government and industrial secrets".

US economic security, national security and public safety were now all at risk from new kinds of enemies, including "cyber warriors, cyber spies, cyber terrorists and cyber criminals".

And in other news...

German student attacks Hell's Angels with puppy

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German student created a major traffic jam in Bavaria after making a rude gesture at a group of Hell's Angels motorcycle gang members, hurling a puppy at them and then escaping on a stolen bulldozer.

German police said on Monday that after making his getaway from the Hell's Angels club, the 26-year-old dumped the bulldozer, causing a 5 km (3 miles) traffic jam near the southern town of Allershausen, local police said. He then fled to his home nearby where he was apprehended by the police.

"What motivated him to throw a puppy at the Hell's Angels is currently unclear," said a spokesman for local police, adding that the student had lately been suffering from depression.

The puppy was now in safe hands, the spokesman added.

[Invictus]

Ecuadorean Police Seize Secret Smuggler Submarine

Police in Ecuador seized a 100-foot submarine being built by suspected drug traffickers capable of carrying a crew of six and 10 tons of cocaine on underwater voyages lasting up to 10 days — a "game changer" for U.S. anti-drug and border security efforts, officials said Monday.

A raid Friday by 120 police officers and soldiers netted the fiberglass sub as it was nearing completion in a clandestine "industrial complex" hidden in mangrove swamps near San Lorenzo, a town just south of the Colombian border.

The craft was outfitted with a conning tower, a periscope, air conditioning and "scrubbers" to purify the air, and bunks for a maximum crew of six. But what set the craft apart from semi-submersible craft that drug traffickers have used for years was a complex ballast system that would have enabled it to dive as deep as 65 feet before surfacing.

Previously, drug traffickers were known to use ships that resembled submarines but that actually cruised just below the ocean surface to avoid visual detection.

Since 2006, when the first semi-submersible craft was detected, 47 have been captured at sea and on land, including 17 last year. But so far this year, only three such craft have been captured. The number of voyages has probably dropped, officials said, because of the success in detecting the vessels with a variety of methods, including aircraft that can identify their wakes in the water.

The sub that Ecuadorean police seized on their Pacific coast is much more technologically advanced and will require the U.S. and its allies in the drug war to deploy "every resource" in anti-submarine warfare technology, said Jay Bergman, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Andean director.

"This is a game changer for us and will prompt an array of countermeasures," Bergman said in a telephone interview. "This has the national security community concerned as much as the drug interdiction community."

U.S. military officials have long expressed the fear that narco-submarines could, in addition to carrying illicit drugs, be used to smuggle terrorists to U.S. shores or nearby.

One Ecuadorean national was captured by police and soldiers, some of whom swooped in by helicopter. The suspect is cooperating with authorities. The shipyard included a camp that was big enough to accommodate 50 workers, officials said.

Ecuadorean authorities said in a statement Monday they believe the ship had a maximum speed of 8 knots and could have made underwater voyages lasting up to 10 days, long enough to reach the Pacific coast of Mexico. The cost of the ship, which had twin diesel engines, was estimated at $4 million.

[Shroom Man 777]

I wonder if Jack Ridley only found that sub after a running gun battle with islamofascist terrorists and WRAITH operatives, which the sub-smugglers ended up getting caught in the middle of.

[Czernobog]

Climate scientists in the US say police inaction has left them defenceless in the face of a torrent of death threats and hate mail, leaving them fearing for their lives and one to contemplate arming himself with a handgun.

The scientists say the threats have increased since the furore over leaked emails from the University of East Anglia began last November, and a sample of the hate mail sent in recent months and seen by the Guardian reveals the scale and vitriolic tone of the abuse.

The scientists revealed they have been told to "go gargle razor blades" and have been described as "Nazi climate murderers". Some emails have been sent to them without any attempt by the sender to disguise their identity. Even though the scientists have received advice from the FBI, the local police say they are not able to act due to the near-total tolerance of "freedom of speech" in the US.

The problem appears less severe in the UK but, Professor Phil Jones, the UEA scientist at the centre of the hacked email controversy, revealed in February he had been receiving two death threats a week and had contemplated suicide. "People said I should go and kill myself," he said. "They said that they knew where I lived. They were coming from all over the world." The third and final independent review into the issues raised by the hacked UEA emails is due to be published on Wednesday when Sir Muir Russell presents his panel's conclusions.

Professor Stephen Schneider, a climatologist based at Stanford University in California, whose name features in the UEA emails, says he has received "hundreds" of violently abusive emails since last November. The peak came in December during the Copenhagen climate change summit, he said, but the number has picked up again in recent days since he co-authored a scientific paper last month which showed that 97%-98% of climate scientists agree that mankind's carbon emissions are causing global temperatures to increase.

Schneider described his attackers as "cowards" and said he had observed an "immediate, noticeable rise" in emails whenever climate scientists were attacked by prominent right-wing US commentators, such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.

"[The senders] are not courageous people," said Schneider. "Where are they getting their information from? They just listen to assertions made on blogs and rightwing talkshows. It's pathetic."

Schneider said the FBI had taken an interest earlier this year when his name appeared on a "death list" on a neo-Nazi website alongside other climate scientists with apparent Jewish ancestry. But, to date, no action has been taken.

"The effect on me has been tremendous," said Schneider. "Some of these people are mentally imbalanced. They are invariably gun-toting rightwingers. What do I do? Learn to shoot a Magnum? Wear a bullet-proof jacket? I have now had extra alarms fitted at my home and my address is unlisted. I get scared that we're now in a new Weimar republic where people are prepared to listen to what amounts to Hitlerian lies about climate scientists."

Dr Kevin Trenberth, head of the climate analysis section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, said he has also been receiving similar emails since last November when a private email of his was released into the public domain in which he had said: "The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't." Trenberth has gone on to repeatedly defend his email and explain its context, but says he has now sent a file of abusive emails totalling "19 pages of text at about 10pt font" to his university's security officials. He said the response of the US police had been "pathetic", but also blamed it on freedom-of-speech legislation.

Professor Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University and leading proponent of the "Hockey Stick graph", said his experiences of hate mail were "eerily similar" to those described by Schneider. "I'm not comfortable talking about the details, especially as some of these matters remain under police investigation," he said. "What I can say is that the emails come in bursts, and do seem to be timed with high-profile attack pieces on talk radio and other fringe media outlets."

Last month, Mann told ABC News in the US that the following message was typical of the emails he has been receiving: "Six feet under with the roots is where you should be. I was hoping I would see the news that you'd committed suicide. Do it, freak." Another climate scientist, who wished to remain anonymous, said he had had a dead animal dumped on his doorstep and now travels with bodyguards.

Dr Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and co-author of the RealClimate website, said he had chosen to adopt a different strategy and now largely ignores the abusive emails he receives. "I learned a while ago that there is no way to prevent people who have no idea who you are, or what you think, or what you do, using your name to project their problems onto," he said. "Should I be offended and get annoyed, or should I just look upon my interlocutor with bemusement and pity?"

UK-based climatologists working outside of UEA report they have received far fewer abusive emails compared to their US counterparts. Dr Myles Allen, head of the climate dynamics group at University of Oxford's Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics Department, said he only tends to get such emails when he writes an article in the press and that they "tend to start off 'Dear Communists, know that you will fail.'"

"I suspect part of the reason people feel they have to attack climate scientists is that politicians and environmentalists have a tendency to hide behind the science," he said. "In the run-up to Copenhagen, we often heard the phrase 'the science dictates' - that we need a 40% cut in rich-country emissions by 2020, for example - when in fact only a very specific, and politically loaded, interpretation of the science implied any such thing. If people who claim to be on the side of the science use scientists as human shields, it is hardly surprising that the scientists end up getting shot at."

Dr Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring and attribution at the Met Office's Hadley Centre, said he had had "mercifully few" abusive emails or letters compared to scientists in the US. "I do get letters and emails accusing me of being wrong and stupid, but I have received few really abusive ones. I got one accusing me of being a communist, but so far at the Met Office at least we haven't been on the receiving end of the types of hate mail the US scientists have apparently been getting. Also in Australia, I hear."

Posted without comment.

[Shroom Man 777]

I wonder what makes America so full of violent idiots who send death threats, or come into protests while carrying weapons, at sane people proposing sane non-idiotic things? Then again, I guess it's no different from a whole lot of other horrible places, though you'd expect America to do these things civilly.

Man, America. God's most beautiful country!

[Invictus]

This happened quite close to here.

Last evening at around 8pm, a 38-year-old man named Xie robbed a man south of the train station in Guangzhou city. The victim resisted and Xie used his scissors to stab him. The police set off after Xie once they received reports.

At 8:30pm, Xie got to the intersection of Liuhua Road and started waving his scissors. The police ordered him to put down the scissors. But Xie ran towards the train station.

When Xie got to the bus stop, he grabbed a young woman who was waiting for a bus. With his right hand holding the scissors and his left hand around the young woman's neck, Xie entered a ATM office.

A large number of police officers sealed off the scene for the negotiators to work. At 8:50pm, the police specialists arrived at the scene. It was reported that snipers were posted at the scene.

At 9pm, our reporter arrived at the scene and observed a man with a crew-cut hairdo wrapping his left arm around the neck of a young woman while holding a knife aimed at her throat. She looked no older than 20 and in a lot of distress.

The man then started speaking to a policeman 20 meters away. The policeman "invited" the man to talk to him, trying to calm him down and persuade him to put down his weapon. Several other policemen tried to edge near Xie.

At 9:10pm, Xie was clearly getting agitated. He yelled loudly and stabbed the young woman in the hands and legs to make his point. The woman looked dazed while blood covered the right half of her body. She was unable to say anything.

The police moved the police line backwards to give more room. By now the spectators were watching what the policeman in front was doing. They said to themselves, "The police are going to use force."

At 9:25, a short woman with a pony tail and white t-shirt came up to offer a beverage bottle. She threw the bottle on the ground in front of Xie. When Xie bent down to pick the bottle, the pony-tailed woman reached for a pistol on her hip and fired a shot at Xie. When Xie fell backwards into the ATM office on impact, the pony-tailed woman went up and fired three more shots. The whole action took only three seconds.

Police officer rushed to retrieve the hostage and sent her off to the hospital in an ambulance.

At 9:50pm, the deceased robber was taken away. Five minutes later, traffic was re-opened in the Liuhua district.

(Warning! NSFW! People getting shot on video!)


(Local footage with English subs)

[Shroom Man 777]

Man. I like how it ends with them just patting each other in the back and laughing.

[Invictus]

And this week in the animal kingdom...

Parachuting donkey terrifies children

Beachgoers got a shock when they saw a donkey soaring in the blue skies over the balmy beaches on the Sea of Azov in southern Russia last week.

Attached to a parachute, the animal screamed in fear as it circled over holidaymakers who were sunbathing on a beach in the Cossack village of Golubitskaya in the Krasnodar region.

A regional police spokeswoman says the donkey ended up in the skies as a result of an impromptu advertising campaign by several Russian entrepreneurs to attract beachgoers to their private beach.

Instead they attracted the attention of regional police who learned of the flying donkey earlier this week and launched a probe.

"The donkey screamed and children cried," regional police spokeswoman Larisa Tuchkova said.

"No-one had the brains to call police."

Instead people reached for their cameras and bombarded a local newspaper with phone calls.

"It was put up so high into the sky that the children on the beach cried and asked their parents: 'Why did they tie a doggy to a parachute?'" the newspaper Taman wrote this week.

"The donkey landed in an atrocious manner: it was dragged several metres along the water, after which the animal was pulled out half-alive onto the shore."

Spider-infested ship turned back from Guam landing

HAGATNA, Guam—Authorities in the U.S. territory of Guam have turned away a ship after thousands of spiders overflowed from its cargo.

The Guam Department of Agriculture said hundreds of large spiders and thousands of smaller ones were seen when stevedores began offloading insulation and beams for housing units from the ship, the M.V. Altavia.

The cargo was returned to the ship, and the Agriculture Department on Friday ordered that the ship not be allowed to dock. It was last ported in South Korea.

"When you get this many from this many various sizes, it's definitely an infestation," said Department of Agriculture Director Joseph Torres.

Agriculture officials said they didn't know what type of spiders were on the ship. But they said it's a type that is not normally found on Guam and there was concern the spiders could damage the island's environment.

"It's not on Guam," Torres said. "We don't want it here."

The ship was carrying housing units and accessories that were to be used at a work force village expected to house up to 18,000 temporary workers.

Before the ship initially docked, officers with the Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency boarded the ship and gave clearance for cargo to be unlocked for offloading, said Bernadette Meno, marking administrator for the Port Authority of Guam.

But when port workers saw the spiders, the containers were ordered back on the ship and it was anchored in the harbor. The decision was later made not to let the ship return.

Marianas Steamship Agencies Inc. arranged for the ship's arrival and departure. Its vice president, Richard P. Sablan, said he will follow orders of customs, agriculture and U.S. Coast Guard officials.

[Siege]

"No-one had the brains to call police."

I nominate you for this week's best sentence.

[Shroom Man 777]

From talking about how they just left pirates to die in the ocean, to donkeys falling from the sky and nearly drowning, Russian authorities make the best press statements ever.

"It seems that they all died,"

"No-one had the brains to call police."

[Shroom Man 777]

Philippines to get U.S. precision missiles-document

MANILA, July 29 - Washington has pledged to provide the Philippines with $18.4 million worth of precision-guided missiles this year to use in its fight against Islamist militants in the south, according to a military document seen by Reuters.

The missiles are being funded under a U.S. Congress Act that allows the Defense Deparment to train and equip foreign armies allied with Washington to fight Islamist militants across the world since 2006.

Philippine defence and military officials could not say what type of guided missile equipment would be provided. Troops in the south have said they need unmanned drones to help hunt down Islamist militants on small remote islands.

"Fiscal year 2010 assistance for the Philippines provides a precision guided missile capability to assist Philippine armed forces's counter-terrorism efforts in southern regions to combat the activities of the Jemaah Islamiah and Abu Sayyaf Group," said the document, which was shown to Reuters by a defence department official on condition of anonymity.

A U.S. embassy spokeswoman confirmed there were funds available to the Philippines under the program, but did not comment on what they would be used for.

The Philippines has no missile capability. Most of its ships and aircraft are Vietnam War vintage. It spends about 1 percent of GDP for defence and security, but 70 percent of the budget goes to paying salaries and allowances of 130,000-member army.

Since 2006, the U.S. has allocated about $1.2 billion under the National Defense Authorization Act to help boost counter-terrorism capability of about 35 allies across the world.

Including the funds for the missiles, the Philippines has received more than $73 million under the programme. Indonesia and Malaysia have received smaller amounts to improve maritime border control.

Remote southern islands in the Philippines have become training bases and a sanctuary for Southeast Asian Islamist militants. Intelligence reports say about 50 Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean militants have been hiding on mainland Mindanao and nearby islands of Basilan and Jolo since early 2000.

Since 2000, Washington, through the State Department, has also provided about $500 million for military and development aid to help win over the Muslim minority in the mainly Roman Catholic Philippines.

So, man. The bolded bits show just how shitty the Philippines is, militaristically. Imagine, from the 70s we were like the most formidable fighting force in all East Asia (not saying much ), and now we're poop!

Anyway, what kind of PGMs would fall within the $18.4 million budget according to the news? The Philippines doesn't have any platform for launching PGMs, unless tossing it out a C-130, dropping it from a Huey or launching it from a Bronco would count. Is this going to be a man-portable system, then? What could fall within the dozen million dollar budget?

[Malchus]

Now if only the budget for the Air Force modernization that would've gotten us some F-16s to replace our now-decommissioned F-5s hadn't been swiped by various politicians and military officials because they needed pocket change mysteriously disappeared, those missiles may actually mean something.